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Restoration Blog - G-BGVE

G-BGVE is not part of the Eastern Taildraggers syndicate. It is owned outright by one of the group members, and shares the same hangarage under a separate agreement with the hangar owners. Some synergy of ownership exists; -VE has lent to BIJU some parts from time to time during this restoration . . .

I guess everyone wants to know a few key facts at this stage. Like, for example, how long did it take, how much did it cost and how many Full English Breakfasts at the Stapleford Canteen were consumed in the course of this project. Well, follow the link HERE to get the mere facts of the restoration process and result. However, you'll miss out on a few relatively priceless anecdotes and semi-horror stories. Fortunately with happy endings.

First Views And purchase - March to May 2006

I had noticed an advertisement for a Super Emeraude on the Emerauders web site, and since I had been looking for a Super Em for some time, jumped at the chance to get my hands on one. The Super Emeraude is a much more capable aircraft than a straight CP301 series model Emeraude, and they rarely come up in the magazines. Gold dust, I thought as I arranged a meeting time to view the aircraft.

First inspections were reasonably positive. I am no expert on aeroplanes but have had some experience in repairing and maintaining wooden gliders, and have a reasonable knowledge of the paperwork involved in keeping aircraft. Duly armed with this knowledge and a torch, I gave -VE an inspection on the ground.

Basically in sound structural condition as far as could be determined without stripping off fabric, -VE needed some attention to the finish in order to bring her up to (admittedly my own exacting) standards befitting the type. Minor corrosion is expected on many 45 year old aeroplanes, and there was a little evident on some components. Nevertheless, I was happy at the condition and the potential work that was needed. As with all things, a degree of rose tint in the spectacles is always present when buying something close to the heart, and I was aware that there could be some "gotchas" in the airframe. However, it had a Permit to Fly and there was evidence in the paperwork of routine maintenance and inspection in accordance with the requirements of the PFA.

There was one piece of paperwork missing; a weight and balance form. I was a) surprised, b) becoming more suspicious about the rest of the paperwork, c) not wanting to fly the aircraft until this piece of vital paper was in place. I had no worries about the payload; the Super Em has a 700kg MTOW compared to 610kg for a CP301; there would be ample load. Laurie Woodage came to weigh -VE before I flew her out.

The result was a little surprising. After a bad calculation led me to believe the max fuel capacity was only 20 litres, the final paperwork showed a whopping 516 lbs payload, no rear CG problem unless full rear tanks and full baggage was simultaneously loaded. A good result, and indicating that there would be a further 50lbs or so to remove once I had dealt with the surplus instruments such as manifold pressure gauge and accelerometer.

Pick-up - 11^th May 2006

I went down to pick up the aeroplane on an untypically hot and sultry windless day in May 2006. This, the long grass and a short strip (300 metres) gave cause for concern. We had drained the fuel at the weigh-in, so modestly filled the tank with MOGAS (approved in -VE) and drove the runway a few times. The vendor must have thought I was mad; clearly he had flown many times from the strip with no problems. I however had flown mainly from 600 metres plus. Needless to say I pumped the tyres up and cleaned the prop and wings.

In the event, the take-off presented no problems. a thermal wind assisted the take-off run and the rule of "2/3 the climbing speed achieved halfway down the runway" was easily met. Waving goodbye to the obviously relieved vendor below, I set off for Shoreham for fuel.

After a coke, chocolate cake and AVGAS top-up, I flew back to Stapleford where I had a hangar space ready for -VE. I spent a little time on the return flight to assess exactly what I had purchased.

Initial impressions were very favourable, however there were some niggles that I had to fix. The RPM indicator had a bit of a wobble as the cable needed lubrication. The perspex canopies were very badly crazed; this was noted at the last permit. The aircraft flew one wing slightly low, but so does BIJU; no problem there. Trim tab to be fitted to an aileron, I mused. The rudder yielded a surprise; when I took my feet off the pedals to stretch (6'4" tall!), a yawing oscillation built up very quickly to around 10 degrees amplitude, at a 1 Hz frequency. That clearly had to be fixed.

I tested the VOR and King radio; the radio gave excellent reception of Stapleford from abeam Gatwick, and they could hear me strength 5. The VOR worked, the engine was smooth and quieter than BIJU, and I really enjoyed the flight. Greasing into a wheeler on 04 at Stapleford was the icing on the cake. -VE, or "Rainbow" as she was then known, was at her new home.

Initial Inspection and dismantling - May and June 2006

I had a 30 second decision to make; clean and fly -VE for a season and then set to work, or work like a dog for the rest of the season to get her up to my rather exacting standards. I chose the latter.

Immediately on arrival I stripped off all the panels that could be removed with a screwdriver; most were in good condition but some of the spat and undercarriage leg covers were beyond redemption, having been mangled by protruding hardware. Evidence here of rather lax upkeep; although the main functioning parts had been lubricated and adjusted, there were a number of things that caused raised eyebrows during dismantling. The airframe wood was in good condition, especially the wing. I didn't want to keep the comprehensive avionics fit, so out would go the DI, AH, manifold pressure sensor, VOR, King radio (it caused conflict with my knee and weighed 7 lbs). In would go a clock and a voltmeter.

I removed the control surfaces for sanding and repainting. I deemed the wing and empennage in good enough condition for a rub down and respray. However rubbing down would be a long job; a square foot averaged at 30 minutes to abrade back to the desired level. Removing the red sunbursts went on forever, and I questioned the wisdom of a re-spray rather than a re-cover several times during the coming months. I also removed the tailskid (no apparent damage), cowlings (ditto) and the seat backs. I discovered the brakes underneath 20 years of grime and flaking paint.

The key to restoring things, I have discovered, is documenting what you take off. Using a digital camera is a great way of documenting the sequence of parts and ensuring the vital assembly history is maintained. Often, after repainting and refinishing an item, witness marks of installation are lost forever. That grease imprint can be vital in getting the assembly the correct way round. A lot of restoration rather than cleaning was needed, as when I peeled off the layers of panels and bits and bobs, I found more things that were showing their age.

Inevitably this job was going to "exceed the starting remit", and a deeper level of strip and restoration was needed. I am a finicketty (sp?) person and would not put back a damaged or cosmetically corroded part, however clean it is. Therefore many of the panels and metal parts needed re-manufacture. Corrosion had taken its toll of many parts, particularly the fairings over the aileron hinges, horns and pushrods.

Another example of the level of work required was the spats. They felt really heavy and on inspection, appeared to be about 10mm thick. After scraping the surface away with an angle grinder, the damage history came evident from the aircraft's French past. The original painted surface (metallic blue paint) had been patched with up to 10mm of filler and paint. I could have chosen to leave the surface as was, but there was some dimpling on the top surface caused by outgassing, so I drew a deep breath and reached for the angle grinder.

Stripping the Fuselage - June 2006

It took around 3 minutes to strip the fuselage covering off. As thick as lino in places, it had been filled with plastic padding, paint, filler and all sorts of verdegris in places. Definitely not to be kept. There didn't appear to be any ultra-violet protection on the old paint scheme either.

I found a couple of failed fuselage spacer joints - typical Emeraude stuff really. The main stress areas on the fuselage are the the biscuits either side of the canopy rollover bar (Rollover bar? I wouldn't want to put that to the test) where the rear spar loads are transferred to the top longeron. The spacers had delaminated from the fuselage ply, and needed re-gluing and reinforcing. I ground away the surface biscuits, added blocks to reinforce the spacers and added new Birch ply biscuits. That will now be the last part of the aeroplane to break.

Also needing attention was the rear skeg plate. A large hole appeared after the covering had been removed, caused by the leaf spring flexing between the two fixing points. I was going to splice in a new portion of ply, but having discovered this area had been repaired previously, I ground away the whole plate to reveal a clean and undamaged lower longeron set. New 3mm 7-ply birch added, job done.

Those items were the only two bits of woodwork on the whole aircraft that needed attention. A couple of other cosmetic bits such as stringers coming adrift also needed attention, but on the whole the aircraft really was in good structural condition. At least, that was true for the timber...

Keith Pogmore had suggested installing either a hatch or a zip in the belly of the fuselage, to allow access during service life. G-BIJU had a zipped hatch; I decided to make a spruce frame with blind nuts as a more permanent installation. Measuring my shoulder width and adding an inch, the resulting hatch allows access to the whole of the rear fuselage, should the need arise to shoo out those illegal immigrants.

Wing Removal - July 2006

The wings had to be removed in order to do a thorough job of the fuselage re-covering. This was a daunting task, and I asked for help on the Emeraude forum on t'internet. Thanks to all who offered the somewhat inexplicable advice of removing the front main pins first before taking out the rear pins, and vice-versa for re-fitting. Bizarre, but it worked well.

I prepared a "wheelbarrow" device to cradle the wings prior to separation, and with the helpf of friends, supported the fuselage on home made trestles. Then came the moment of truth - actually, 30 moments of truth with blue language and a lot of banging about - trying to remove the split pins from the main castellated nuts. In truth, the actual wing separation event lasted a mere 2 1/2 minutes; it was that easy. A bonus feature of the cradle allowed the wings to be stored vertically for work on the undersides.

The Sanding Begins in earnest - June and July 2006

During the first part of June I started the sanding in earnest. The red paint became a bete-noir, taking absolutely ages to remove. I went up the sandpaper scales rapidly, eventually settling for Hungarian 60 grit W & D for the sanding. This worked very well, even on the fabric areas, but I had to be very very careful not to cut through to the fabric. It was a measure of how much paint was layered up that it still took an estimated 200 hours to strip the paint from the wing.

While deciding on the level of strip and re-furbish, I worked on a suitable colour scheme. Initially musing around a period 60's blue / white scheme, the feeling amongst those we canvassed ranged from "boring", "uninspiring", to the unprintable. Second idea - Silver and black with gold trim, but after looking at -BIJU's original colour silver which was fading and patching badly, I wanted to avoid silver. So out came the Boston Maroon and Randolph White, edged with black. That was the winner. The scheme I chose came from a Piel drawing and so is broadly contemporary, and also matches BIJU.

Component Restoration - June to September 2006, and then some...

-VE had been stored in a relatively damp environment for quite a while, and that had taken its toll of the metal bits and bobs. Restoring these was always going to be a tricky job, as some were definitely past their sell-by date. However, it is the little things that make an aircraft a special one, and so I drew a deep breath and reached for the tin snips, while calling for Walter, an enthusiastic helper and a dab hand at restoring metalwork.

The brakes needed some attention; as I removed the wheels, a rivet fell out of the port brake drum assembly (!!). Although the brake pads were in good condition, the housings and hardware was a little tired. Emeraude brake hubs are retained on the axles with circular nuts that have a flat spot to engage the axle. This flat spot was not adequate to hold the removal torque on the bolt, so vice-like grip was needed on the two mole grips and socket set to remove the hubs. Walter enthusiastically took away the brake hubs, muttering something about giving them a clean. The resultant hubs were returned like new; then painted in zinc chromate. The axle bottom snd scissor links needed the same attention.

The remaining metal parts took a very long time to clean, remove the surface corrosion, dip in Alodine and then zinc chromate. "Well, that's the last of the metal parts" I was heard on many occasions to exclaim at the end of the day. Acetone and thinners is not nice stuff to get on you, and Walter and I got through several boxes of nitrile gloves. The quality of the metal fittings in some cases was poor - the aluminium had little factory corrosion protection and in some cases was past its best. The main structural elements were sound; the tailplane brackets, control hardware and major panels were good enough.

The rollover bar over the cockpit was an exception. Water drips down this and causes the bottom of the bar to rust. The lower portion was condemned by both me and inspector, so the bottom portions were ground away and replaced with new 4130 plate by Chris Baglin at the Yak place. A great job of welding it all up.

Even the throttle linkages got a strip down and re-paint. All the visible metal parts were completely re-done in Randolph Enamel paint. I don't regret that decision for a second.

Time then to turn my attention to the firewall. I had already removed several non-connected wires and black boxes, but the cabin heat box and other firewall items were looking rather tired, and/or silted up with debris. Out came the rudder pedals, yaw damper, heat box innards and finally the heat box itself. The SCAT tubing was attached by a very insecure tube adapter to take the diameter from the desired 2 inches to the actual 1.5 inches. As I removed it, the cause of the insecurity emerged - a rivet almost chewed through by vibration and loose parts. All these were disassembled, corrosion proofed ready for re-installation later. I was rapidly building a kit of finished parts.

The battery was originally installed in the rear fuselage, connected by some wires that the National Grid would be proud of. I decided to relocate the battery to the firewall, and move a couple of other components around to fit. I removed the battery, fixings and wires from the beautifully crafted wooden conduit, and cleaned out the battery box. This was just as well, as the floor had rotten through in places, and the battery was almost falling through. That compartment would become a luggage locker.

I had contacted the PFA to ensure that moving the battery would not need a modification. There was no problem with this, but I needed a battery case. I had ordered one with Aircraft Spruce, but needed to make a set of inner stiffeners to stop it bending the firewall (thin stainless steel). Box was fastened with AN3 bolts into blind nuts.

I had another shock on removing the spinner plate, which was made from two bits of 4130 plate welded at the edges. There was a visible, and stop drilled, crack on the front face that extended around 90 degrees of the spinner. That wasn't the scary bit, as the back plate had a crack that extended 320 degrees around the spinner. The crack had caused a dent in the propeller backplate, which clearly needed inspecting. I thanked my lucky stars I had arrived safely. If that had let go, there would have been a right old bang. A call to Brinkley Aero Services confirmed they would gladly lighten my wallet and inspect the propeller, repaint it and deliver it as an airworthy item. Oh, this needed to be done every 6 years, apparently. The last propeller service was in 1991 . . .

The brake master cylinder frame was built like the Forth Rail Bridge, and needed stripping and repainting. the master cylinders were a little jaded with bent pushrods, and I bought replacements. The pedals were shot blasted and corrosion proofed.

Re-covering the airframe - Sept 2006 to March 2007

My original schedule had gone to pot. I had wanted to get the aircraft flyable again by September, but given the huge waste of time I had put into sanding the wing and empennage, and rapidly running out of spraying weather, a mid 2007 target was more likely. Or not, as the case proved.

If there is ever a melancholy place to be it must be a large and draughty hangar in the middle of winter, with rain pelting the roof, the doors creaking mournfully, and condensation everywhere. Just despairing. And then the Genny packs up and the lights go out... Not the most conducive place to restore a classic aeroplane, but it was all I had. I enlisted the help of Rick and Walter and set to it.

Covering -VE was just like covering a big model, except there was much more of it to reach over. Ceconite and Poly-fiber fabrics and Randolph solvents used throughout, and once I had the knack of the sequence of laying on the fabric, bottom surfaces first, it was relatively easy. Another wheeze - for dressing the edges of panels where fabric has to overlap, paint the back of the uncut free edge with Super-Seam cement, thinned 3:1. Then fold the fabric gently where it needs cutting, finally follow the fold line with pinking shears. This stops the fabric from fraying, and provides a great stable edge for making sharp defined edges with no tapes. Then the edge can be glued down with more super-seam cement.

I used super-seam for the ribs and nitrate dope for the ply surfaces on the wing, which worked well. It was difficult to get the ceconite baggy enough to avoid shrinking the structure; it can't be stretched on otherwise it will deform the structure when heated and shrunk.

Taking our best notes from covering models, and "Covering 101 for Dummies", we used G-BIJU as a reference for quality. I also taped the biscuits during applying the super-seam cement, to avoid that scalloped look along the longerons. All went well until I MEK'd the fabric in place. The MEK reactivated the 42 year old dope and provided perfect scallops. Not to be outdone by 42 year old dope, I pulled the fabric away from the biscuits by using masking tape and pushing on the inside.

After a turbulent and busy winter, I emerged from hibernation fresh and raring to go. So did Walter which was a good sign, fresh from climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro. Lucky sod...

Cockpit - Spring 2007

The cockpit by now looked in a right Harry Tate, with most of everything missing. I had tried to fathom the wiring but since some of it used automotive wiring and fittings, I decided to rip it all out and start again with the help of the ubiquitous Bingelis books. Great decision. I found some retro style switches, and re-used all instruments with chrome or ali bezels.

Instruments next - I had stripped the inside completely, and couldn't face putting back the original panels or even the original instruments. At least not all of them... The 7 1/2 pound Artificial Horizon, built in Canada in 1955, had to go. Cheap A/H anyone?? So I was then left with an electric turn and slip, no DI (portable GPS instead), no vacuum system, a proper clock, Smiths and Jaeger chrome bezelled engine instruments, and an MP3 player built into the glove compartment. The Intercom has a very handy music in / sound out function so for the purpose of flight tests I can record cockpit voice, instead of having to write down all the required test information.

The panel was built by Pete Malyan, and finished by myself. Randolph enamel finish, which I applied three times to get an acceptable finish, and the instruments were installed. I also had to make a new lower panel as my legs wouldn't fit with the original lower panel. The transponder would later be fitted in a fuselage sidewall mount, with panel space for a 57mm dia Mode S transponder when the law requires it, and not a moment before...

There were some other cockpit things that needed attention; the console between the occupants looked like a panel from a well worn Lancaster or something. Black painted, chipped, repaired, riveted, just totally crap. So I made a new one from thick tin, it taking about three goes to anneal the material enough to bend. Boy that was hot work! A professional letterbox seal from Screwfix finished the job; hopefully there would be fewer draughts than on BIJU. Mental note to self - put foam draught excluders along the inside of the fuselage before installing the seats...

Upholstery matched the outside colours - red and cream. The cushions etc would wait until after the main restoration, but the parcel shelf and other parts to the inside I upholstered during the main restoration.

The remaining jobs just stacked up. It is a truism of a restoration that you can never have too many photographs, measurements, exploded diagrams of the components removed. Next time I muttered, I would have a photo library of all removed items. Nothing major was lost though, a tribute to the slightly haphazard storage of components over the restoration. At one point the back bedroom resembled Light Aero Spares Stores.

Painting - Spring 2007

Major jobs now loomed. I had two large pieces of aeroplane in the hangar, numerous other smaller bits hidden away, and they all needed several layers of dope and paint applying. I started to build a plastic tent outside the hangar; one visiting helicopter later and it was in nearby Middlesex. A chance walk up to the Supercub hangar provided the solution.

The Cub was having its wings recovered, a lengthy process due to an apparent go-slow by the recoverer who shall remain nameless. So I jumped at the chance of having a well ventilated hangar, with no other aeroplanes around, for the purpose of re-painting the monster. Two weeks of hard graft and the major components emerged from the gloom. Impressive if I may say so myself.

The secret to spraying, I have discovered (the hard way), is consistency. Consistency of the paint, and also consistency of the spraying technique. same distance from the workpiece, same traversing speed, same same same. The result was really worth the 14 coats of nitrate, butyrate, silver, white and top coats. One regret - the paint on the fin is a little thin; that will be the first to get re-sprayed in the future.

A small matter of putting the wings on again, the tailplane and control surfaces, and the aircraft was substantially bac in one piece. I discovered that the main pins had been put in the wrong way round, with the threaded portion bearing on the thinner fuselage former instead of in the wing tunnel. When I tried to put them in correctly I found out why they had been installed incorrectly; they were sods to put in and get split pinned up.

Canopies - Summer 2007

The canopy moulds proved to take about 90% of the time of the restoration. So did the painting, the stripping, in fact everything seemed to take 90% of the time taken. But the moulds needed reverse-engineering from the original canopies. I poured (spatula'd?) plaster in thin layers into the upturned canopy, then once this had hardened, removed the canopy from the frame with plaster in situ. Then I taped around the edge of the perspex to give a greater size to the mould. More plaster was then added right to the edge of the tape, which then became part of the mould. After removing the perspex, the base was added, and the mound turned over to finish the final surface. Plastering skills to the fore, plus a lot of sanding gave a reasonable finish. At least it would be an actual reproduction of a Super Emeraude canopy, as some of the other canopies I had seen were very "bubbly" and made the Super-Em look like a Mustang....

A local company in Hitchin (local to me!) quoted good rates for moulding the shapes. However, the canopies are very 3-D in shape, and the first attempts broke the moulds and were of so-so quality. The canopies are on the aeroplane now but I will be re-visiting this technology in the future and re-doing the perspex.

Assembly - Autumn 2007 and early 2008

Sorry - I lied. the canopies are not 90% of the work needed. That belongs to the final assembly and testing of the aeroplane and systems. -VE sat in almost exactly the same visible state for many months, with little jobs being progressed bit by bit. Anyone who has done a similar thing with aeroplanes, houses or cars or boats will recognise the relentless de-snagging that needs to happen before the thing is ready for flight. And then there are more de-snags which are not necessary for the purpose of flight, but need to be done anyway. and then there are the final de-snags that are needed to improve the thing once flying. In short, an aeroplane is a continuous snag list needing attention.

And so it came to be that on a cold day in late February, -VE trundled down the taxiway at Stapleford, did power checks at the usual place, made a couple of radio calls and surged down runway 22L into the air. Smooth and powerful engine beating at 2,550 beats per minute, steady rate of climb at 800 fpm, T's and P's normal, gentle breeze flowing through the unsealed canopy edges, all well with the world. A really magic moment.

And finally... Thanks to....

All this restoration needed a lot of supplies, advice, bits, bobs and grit and determination. -VE is so much more than a tight formation of nuts, bolts and wood and fabric. The list of people who helped is long, distinguished and worth mentioning here:

Walter Baumann for wearing his fingers to the bone on metal corrosion removal, keeping the genny and me topped up with humour;

Richard Ambler for helping with the canopies;

John Harness for the spinner;

Trevor Horne for various bits;

Stapleford Flying Club for the occasional bolt;

Rick Morris for helping with the covering,

Ed Morris for polishing the spinner to a high gloss,

Mary Morris for putting up with the "It's all no good, I'll have to re-do that bit again";

Keith Pogmore for inspecting the project at various stages;

Alan Smith Oliver for supplying me with fine wine, motivation and helping at various stages;

Maurice for loaning me the Super Cub hangar for spraying;

Ian for providing critical comment on various bits;

The staff at SFC bar for providing me with full English breakfasts;

Pete Smoothy at Airworld for components;

Ray Howe at Light Aero Spares for components and advice on spraying;

Rich Shankland and others on the Emeraude Forums for advice and motivation;

Kirk Williams for topping up my sense of humour and helping out with various bits;

John Large and Jim Barber for putting the "God is Busy, Can I Help You?" sign on the aeroplane and generally enthusing about the project;

Peter Malyan for making the instrument panels first time in the right places;

Brinkley Aviation Services for doing a spot on job of restoring the prop;

Chris Baglin at YAK UK for doing a great job of welding the rollover bar;

Kirsty Alexander for screwing on the firewall retaining screws with great aplomb;

Clare for sanding, taking out the instruments and helping with the fabric stripping;

The Light Aircraft Association for turning round my Permit to Fly in a record time and providing a first class service on administering the project;

and finally Tiptoe for putting up with an ever changing array of aeroplane bits in her house...

So there you have it. One flyable Emeraude saved from a slow death by corrosion and damp. Now, which way to Australia....!

Last Updated Tuesday, 18 March 2008.

Errors and Omissions Excepted. The use of this information does not constitute a contract for goods or services. All information is used at the risk of the User. Always use official sources of information for flight planning and other important stuff, and ensure it is the latest version. Please report broken links to the webmaster, or drop me a line if you have a comment.