Pictures            Home

 

 

                                                   

Brakes
I purchased Comet brake calipers at a local lawnmower/ go-kart shop   
https://www.hoffcocomet.com/comet/aftermarket-brakes.asp  (scroll down
when
you get there) and traded aerial photos of a machinist friend's home for
him to turn some rotors that fit my wheel hubs.  My wheels are 19" and
my rotors are 6" in diameter and the Comet DC Series caliper just hold
me for run-up and no more---which works out fine.  As you've seen my
plane at Brodhead, I made up heel
brakes ala Cub/Champ and actuate the calipers with 1/16" cable.  Lots of
ATV brakes out there too now which I'm sure would be worth looking into
depending
on what suites you.   
Mike C.

 

Smoke System

Don & Group,
Yes, the smoke setup I have is still as per original idea and is about
as simple and reliable as you can get.  I use a 2 quart
poly pump-up bug sprayer from the Wal Mart garden department, hacksaw
off the plastic handle, remove the spray wand and
discard and adapt 1/4" plastic airspeed tubing to the sprayer nozzle
with rubber hose and either tye-wraps and or hose clamps.
The 1/4" poly line is connected to a 1/4" copper, stainless, or aluminum
tube which connects to a fitting (mine is a Swaglok fitting)
that you weld into one of your aft exhaust pipes (they run hotter than
the fronts on 65 Continentals) about 1-2" down from the flange. 
On the ID of the fitting that is welded to the exhaust pipe you drill
two No. 60 drill bit holes in your exhaust pipe wall and whala, you
have a smoke system.    (I suppose you could drill one hole with the
same equivalent area but have not tried that) 
Might want to put a vibration loop or two in your metal tubing from the
firewall to your exhaust stack to dampen the stresses and
strain on the tube so your metal doesn't fatigue.  
The smoke oil I use is Texaco Canopus No. 13 which is basically a
mineral oil.  They used to call it Corvus oil.    
Every other year the Thunderbirds park at our NASA hangar when they are
in town and I salivate beyond measure when I go up there
and see beyond the cyclone fence about a dozen 55 gallon drums of the
smoke oil ready for the Thunderbirds to use in our airshow. 
Mike C.