Amorphous M7/M6 Rebuild Project

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andy
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Re: Amorphous M7/M6 Rebuild Project

Post by andy »

I get what you are saying about not reinstalling a yoke on the copilot side. I was always concerned about a passenger inadvertently blocking or grabbing the copilot yoke when I did Part 91.147 air tours in my Maule. But I fly with other pilots in the right seat often enough that I would want them to be able to control the airplane if something happened to me. I've also had the PTT switch on my pilot side yoke fail during single pilot IFR in solid IMC which caused me to plug my headset into the copilot side and use the copilot yoke PTT switch. It's easier to switch sides with a headset than to use the hand mic with its PTT switch since I keep forgetting to put the mic near my mouth and it picks up a lot more noise.
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Re: Amorphous M7/M6 Rebuild Project

Post by asa »

andy wrote:
Sun Aug 22, 2021 6:14 am
I get what you are saying about not reinstalling a yoke on the copilot side. I was always concerned about a passenger inadvertently blocking or grabbing the copilot yoke when I did Part 91.147 air tours in my Maule. But I fly with other pilots in the right seat often enough that I would want them to be able to control the airplane if something happened to me. I've also had the PTT switch on my pilot side yoke fail during single pilot IFR in solid IMC which caused me to plug my headset into the copilot side and use the copilot yoke PTT switch. It's easier to switch sides with a headset than to use the hand mic with its PTT switch since I keep forgetting to put the mic near my mouth and it picks up a lot more noise.
On the work planes with yoke removed, there is a copilot PTT switch mounted on the panel. Works great, something to think about if you do end up pulling a yoke in the future.

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Re: Amorphous M7/M6 Rebuild Project

Post by Dale Smith »

I put Aux push to talk switches on the panel for both the pilot and co-pilot side of my 172 that is leased to a flight school. We seemed to be changing the push to talk switches all the time. Now that there are Aux switches, we have not had to change the ones in the yokes.... It is nice to know that you have a back up.

As far as the co-pilots yoke, is there a way to make one that is easy removable? I have always thought it would be nice to remove it when you didn't need it.
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Re: Amorphous M7/M6 Rebuild Project

Post by asa »

Dale Smith wrote:
Mon Aug 23, 2021 7:16 am
I put Aux push to talk switches on the panel for both the pilot and co-pilot side of my 172 that is leased to a flight school. We seemed to be changing the push to talk switches all the time. Now that there are Aux switches, we have not had to change the ones in the yokes.... It is nice to know that you have a back up.

As far as the co-pilots yoke, is there a way to make one that is easy removable? I have always thought it would be nice to remove it when you didn't need it.
The normal Maule ones are easy, just a single bolt in the universal joint. There's actually a Maule drawing for it:

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Re: Amorphous M7/M6 Rebuild Project

Post by asa »

After a 5 month absence to fly 600 hours on floats in Alaska which was the peak of my flying career and possibly my life, I return to the Maule.

Finishing up the Oratex was top priority when I returned earlier in October. I had a friend who was supposed to work on the fabric while I was gone but that didn't happen. I'm actually glad as I've really enjoyed learning the new skills.

Currently all 3 large pieces are on the fuselage, all that is remaining is to heat shrink the belly fabric tomorrow and do the finish tapes. I don't think it's possible for Oratex to compete with the show quality cover jobs done by the old timers with shiny smooth perfect paint, but I love the simplicity of the system. Your mistakes show in the final product since there's no paint to cover everything up, so attention to detail every single step is key. I have about 40 hours total into this cover job, expect another 15 or so to finish up. I really like the look of the inside of the fuselage - black with the white tubes.

Here's some random pics from along the way. I'm leaving for a week tomorrow so it's nice to have the big pieces done.

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Re: Amorphous M7/M6 Rebuild Project

Post by Hale-Yes »

ASA, Great pic's, your attention to detail is obvious.
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Re: Amorphous M7/M6 Rebuild Project

Post by crbnunit »

I'm going to call you when mine needs recovering! Nice work!
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Re: Amorphous M7/M6 Rebuild Project

Post by asa »

Belly fabric has been shrunk, started covering the horiztonal stabs. After those are done, will be a little rib stitching to do and finish tapes.

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While waiting for that glue to fully cure (overnight), I decided to start on the interior and was able to make more progress than expected. I've mostly decided not to do a headliner to give more cabin room. The inside of the oratex and the clean white powdercoated frame are aesthetically pleasing enough not to need a headliner, and I have a super skylight above the front seats so it's really not much headliner anyway.

I had a bunch of 0.028" Kydex sheets so I made up kydex panels. For the Jenny Craigs in the audience, 0.028" Kydex weighs the same per sq ft as 0.014" aluminum - half the density. Maule makes this very easy - all side panels are flat. Without a headliner, my plan is to put rubber channel along the top edges of the kydex which will simply rest on the upper longerons. They will fastened in the numerous places Maule convieniently puts tabs, as well as being held by the trim pieces (planning white painted aluminum) surrounding the left side patrol window as well as the right side door frame. Hard to even tell there is kydex in some of the below pics because it's the same black color as the oratex inside, so go back to my last post to see what it was before interior.

Started making templates with poster board - worked great. Every Kydex panel fit first try because I took my time with the poster board. So much nicer than aluminum since you can cut it with scissors or score with an x-acto and snap it along the line.

Posterboard templates:
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Kydex (upper pieces held in place by blue tape for now):
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On that last pic, I was hoping to make the aft 2 pieces a single piece but my Kydex sheets were 2'x4' which was about 3" too short to make it happen. So now it splits horizontally like Maule intended, at the headliner attachment tab.

The rear wall will be aluminum since there is less bracing back there and also I'm out of large Kydex panels....

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Re: Amorphous M7/M6 Rebuild Project

Post by Smokyray »

ASA,
Wow, nicely done!
I'm having all sorts of childhood flashbacks of my Dad and I recovering our 46' T-Craft in our AF base housing carport! We too made more neighbor friends with the T-Craft than passing out Reese's at Halloween. :)
Love the Oratex, had a long chat with the reps at OSH when it first came out. Led to me helping my neighbor cover his BH-4 with yellow!

Makes me want to buy a project M5! Keep up the great, inspiring work!
V/R
Smokey

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Re: Amorphous M7/M6 Rebuild Project

Post by Gunnygoat »

I saw that you are selling this project on FB.

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Re: Amorphous M7/M6 Rebuild Project

Post by asa »

Gunnygoat wrote:
Tue Dec 07, 2021 2:09 pm
I saw that you are selling this project on FB.
Well I sold the M7 (got an offer I could not refuse), still have the fuselage and all other parts of the project. I am looking for an M6 to use for the project instead. In which case it will no longer be amorphous or androgenous. Just an M6 rebuild project.

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Re: Amorphous M7/M6 Rebuild Project

Post by asa »

Work continues. Finished what little rib stitching there is. My first time doing that but it went very well. At the end I went back and re-stitched my first rib because I had gotten a lot better by the time I was done and the first one was looser than I’d like.

Moved on to finish tapes. So far have just done the tapes over the stitching. When I get home from visiting family I’ll move on to the rest. So far so good.

Made a deal on an M6 which will start getting torn down for the fuselage swap and new panel/interior hopefully in February. It has rough fabric, paint, interior, and panel but a strong firewall forward, cowling, and wings so I think it’s a good match for my project. Switching from M7 to M6 donor plane means I don’t need to wait for approval of the mod kit, and save quite a bit since I don’t need to overhaul the engine right away. The result won’t be the unicorn M6 with M7 long wings, but ya win some and ya lose some.


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Re: Amorphous M7/M6 Rebuild Project

Post by asa »

Fabric is right at the end. Just need a friends help/expertise to get the finish tape along the top stringer. The curve in it makes it a 2 man job. The rest of the tapes are complete. I’m debating putting a line of tape down the upper longeron. Feels optional.

I mentioned earlier that oratex would never match the show quality of traditional fabric/paint systems but I’m starting to like the look of the silver and being able to see the tape lines a bit. Looks almost industrial. Or maybe this is a coping mechanism.

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Re: Amorphous M7/M6 Rebuild Project

Post by asa »

Moved onto skinning and final fitment of the doors - these were used doors off ebay from a different fuselage. I got the frames fit to the fuselage last spring and refurbed them but did nothing with the skins. Knocked out the skins for the rear doors today, right now they are cleco's in place but I still need to cut the upper/lower windows in the rear seat door. My plan is to skin the soild aluminum cargo door in oratex so it matches. The rear seat door I'm unsure if I'll paint or oratex. The pilot/copilot doors will be painted black. There's very little metal on the patroller style doors so it doesn't matter too much.

I didn't take pics doing the cargo door but here's my general process of the door for the rear seat...

Verify frames still fit after not being on fuselage for 8 months..
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Test out fit of old skin. Mark where dimensions need to change, interferences, etc etc
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Duplicated the old skin with new sheet, incorporate changes..
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badabing
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Also made a test piece of oratex on an aluminum sheet like I'm planning for the rear cargo door. MAde sure it would wrap the edges nicely and look good. Turned out to be super easy to do well.
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Re: Amorphous M7/M6 Rebuild Project

Post by AndrewK »

Looking good!
Looking through the pics I see the pilot side rear window has that back angle to it instead of matching the rear seat door window which is more or less rectangular. Can you see any reason why someone with a non-M7 fuselage could not square up the pilot side rear window as well during a recover/rebuild? I believe the M7 has an exposed support tube where that angle is on the M4, 5, 6 and MX7 but otherwise squares the window off on that side since they have the 3rd row of windows over the baggage area.
Anyway, just curious really. I think it would look nice if both rear windows matched the rectangular door window.

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