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Hi Hatzers,
We had the pleasure to attend the great, famous Hahnweide fly-in this year (it's closer than Brodhead and Osh....). It was great pleasure and we have been accepted like having a vintage aeroplane (most people beleave it's an anitque!). Attached are some pics from the fly-in as well as the profilic photographs shot by professional photographer Reinhold Kiefhaber.
Enjoy!
Kind regards
Hans & Sam, H.C. #78, Switzerland
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We hope you had a good time at Brodhead and Oshkosh - too bad we could not be part of the party!
We received a nice clip of our Hatz parting at Hahnweide vintage aircraft gathering last year:
Your airplane continues to inspire me with its beauty! Thanks for sharing the pictures.
If you have time, I would enjoy knowing the techniques you used to finish your cockpit cowling.
Yours really looks really great, and seems to be holding up very well.
Some specific questions are:
1. what thickness and what alloy of aluminum did you use for the cockpit cowling?
2. did you reinforce the cockpit opening in any way?
3. what did you put over the cut edge of the aluminum and how is it attached?
4. what did you use for padding beneath the leather?
5. any tricks for cutting and forming the leather? Did you curve the pattern, or just form it from straight material?
6. what did you use for lacing?
7. how did you attach your headrest? I don't see any fasteners...
8. anything else we should keep in mind?
Nice to hear from you and thank you for your comments! I am pleased to answer your questions as far as I recall. Sam is in holydays right now, but I will tell him to answer the leather coaming technics when he is back:
1. what thickness and what alloy of aluminum did you use for the cockpit cowling? --> 1/32" is used on all top of longeron cowings. It think it's T1 quality
2. did you reinforce the cockpit opening in any way? --> although the deck has been raised, we made a tubing reinforcemnt on both side of the cockpits typically as per Classic plans except whre is the door. The website should show this.
3. what did you put over the cut edge of the aluminum and how is it attached? --> It's a rel. hard polyurethane foam rim used as a sanitary insulation for water lines. It is cut lenghtwise an just put over.
4. what did you use for padding beneath the leather? --> Sam bett knows as he did it!
5. any tricks for cutting and forming the leather? Did you curve the pattern, or just form it from straight material? --> It think it's from straigth leather, but Sam better knows
6. what did you use for lacing? --> real leather lacing
7. how did you attach your headrest? I don't see any fasteners... --> the headreast is the only part, that is made from fiberglass covered 60 kg/m3 PVC foam (today we would it rather form from aluminum). The foam was shaped to follow the rear cockpit covering (this is a 2 ply 1/32" plywood lamination formed over a styrofoam block as a pattern). Then, we inserted a few plywood pieces into the foam' underside with metal inserts, marked their position on the plywood decking. Then attached a plastic over the decking as a separation device and layed fiberglass with epoxy over it and the the foam core. After cure, we shaped the headrest to it's final form with a sharp edge along the plywood decking. After that we covered the headrest with two layers of fiberglass and so on. Then comes the final sanding ....
8. anything else we should keep in mind? --> there are numerous things, just ask and we try to answer as well as we can!
Good luck! How do you come along with your project?
Thank you Hans. I am making slow but steady progress. It is a fun time because you can see actual progress Working on a lot of those areas now, so I really appreciate your replies! Paul
Working on a lot of those areas now, so I really appreciate your replies! Paul