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Future Events

May 2nd 2018 - Wednesday 7:00 PM
Board meeting

Where: Las Margaritas

Board Meeting Join us at Las Margaritas Mexican & Italian Restaurant at 541 W Dimond Blvd (on the north side of Dimond between Arctic and C Streets). When you walk in, turn left into the front room that is separated from the main dining area and we'll be on the right. So come, get your margarita and nachos and we will talk about aviation and maybe do some Chapter business. As always, all Chapter 42 members are invited and encouraged to attend.

Sunset at 22:09

May 12th 2018 - Saturday 9:30 AM
Chapter Breakfast Get-Together

Where: Kava’s Pancake House on Muldoon Rd.

Breakfast Our monthly Saturday breakfast get-togethers will now be at the new Kava’s Pancake House on Muldoon Rd. New place, more room, same great food. See you there!

Sunset at 22:35

May 22nd 2018 - Tuesday 7:00 PM
Chapter Meeting

Where: TBD

TBD

Sunset at 23:00
News

Mar 15th, 2018 - Gift certificates to be given away at Chapter meetings

Now in addition to our long-time sponsor Northern Lights Avionics, our friends at Airframes Alaska / Reeve Air Motive have given us four $50 gift certificates to give away to a member in attendance at future Chapter meetings.
The drawing winner at the monthly Chapter meeting can choose which sponsor's certificate they would like.
Be sure to thank these companies for supporting our Chapter!
Gift Certificate

Mar 3rd, 2018 - Airframes Alaska

Airframes Alaska
Airframes Alaska

Airframes Alaska
On Tuesday, February 27, 2018 our monthly meeting was hosted by Airframes Alaska which is located at the Birchwood airport. Airframes Alaska graciously opened up their shop to us and had three of their employees show us around and tell us what they’re doing.

Airframes Alaska
Abe is an engineer and is the guy dressed in Carhart’s. He started out by telling us about the double slotted flaps for Piper Super cubs.

Airframes Alaska
As things are going nowadays Airframes Alaska is an LLC that owns other companies. Airframes Alaska bought Alaskan Bushwheels in 2014. It is located a hangar away at Birchwood. In 2015 they bought Reeve Air Motive on Merrill Field and just recently purchased the Performance STOL double slotted flap system, also known as Keller flaps.

Airframes Alaska
They had one of the certified PMA double slotted flaps on a stand for us to look at. The certified flaps are built in Birchwood and the experimental flaps are built in Oregon. One of the questions that came up was: why would you want slotted flaps as opposed to a slotted leading-edge?
Leading-edge slats and flaps occupy opposite ends of the performance envelope. You probably don’t want both at the same time. If you have a slotted leading-edge you can land slower but you’re coming in at a steeper nose up angle. With slotted flaps you’re coming in a few miles an hour slower but you have a flatter deck angle and better visibility of where you’re going to be landing.

Airframes Alaska
Abe mentioned that the shape of the leading-edge was created by putting the sheet aluminum into their CNC brake and making 23 separate bends to get that curved shape. If they were making hundreds at a time, forming the leading edge around a form would be easier, but for now the CNC brake is working. They have one dedicated employee that just makes flaps.

Airframes Alaska
These beautiful anodized brackets were CNC milled in-house.

Airframes Alaska
In the background you see a large steel structure made out of square steel tubing. This is the testing jig for the new three place super cub fuselage that Airframes Alaska is developing.

Airframes Alaska
They will mount a fuselage in the center of the structure and attach wing stubs to the overhead portions. Then add some load cells and hydraulic rams to put the structural loads on the fuselage.

Airframes Alaska
After that, it’s just paperwork and FAA approval. Easy! Right? The giant testing rig is why there are no airplanes inside the hangar.

Airframes Alaska
This is a CNC waterjet. It uses water under high pressure to transport garnet dust to the stock that is being cut.

Airframes Alaska
The stock is clamped to the table underneath a layer of water, and all the action happens underwater.

Airframes Alaska
As an example of what they can do here is a custom instrument panel. If you’d like, they can make one for you.

CNC lathe
CNC lathe.

aluminum billets
Here’s a stack of over 30 aluminum billets that will be made into experimental category wheels. All they have to do is remove all the aluminum that doesn’t look like a wheel. Somehow these rounds of aluminum reminded me of all those cartoons about the caveman with a rock wheel and a chisel.

Airframes Alaska
Let’s talk about landing gear for a little bit, starting with the axle. You use the waterjet to cut out a mounting plate. You weld it to some round stock. Clean it up.

Airframes Alaska
Grab an axle, put it in a CNC lathe and cut threads in one end.

Airframes Alaska
Mount the piece in the CNC mill.

Airframes Alaska
Make sure you have the correct bit mounted in the in the mill.

Airframes Alaska
Close the doors. Go to the control panel. The big red button is the stop button. The start button is quite a bit smaller, and I don’t know which one it is. Press the start button and the mill starts working.

Airframes Alaska
Surprisingly it’s only slightly noisy we barely had to raise our voices to talk over the sound of the mill working. The axle was clamped vertically in the mill it was then flipped over horizontally and they went to cut the slots in the end.

Airframes Alaska
The top part is where the bit is mounted, and like the top end of a drill press, the cutting bit rotates, but otherwise remains stationary. It is the 2’ x 6’ table that the axle was mounted on that moved around. There were four jets shooting coolant at the working area.

Airframes Alaska
This is what the end of the axle looks like after the CNC mill is done. When you mount the wheel you screw on a castellated nut to adjust the tension on the wheel and a large cotter pin goes through the slots to prevent the nut from loosening.

Airframes Alaska
Here’s a set of axles that have been finished.

Airframes Alaska
Here are a couple of Alaskan Bushwheels ready to go.

Airframes Alaska
The big blue thing here is a test rig. On the left side, the aluminum frame is a small sled that they use to test the T3 Tailwheel Suspension that is mounted underneath. On the right is another sled. You can see the diagonal blue bar. Underneath the sled, a Bushwheel is mounted. On top of the sled there are 16 steel plates. Each plate weighs 380 pounds. That’s over 6000 pounds of weight in addition to the weight of the sled.

Airframes Alaska
A set of the landing gear in raw steel.

Airframes Alaska
Another set of landing gear, powder coated.

Airframes Alaska
This was an interesting visit.

I used to think that a jig was something that you used with or on a tool. I thought that pretty much any tool used with an aircraft could fit in the back of a full-size pickup truck. I thought that a jig would fit in the back of a pickup truck, if not in the cab of the truck. Every CNC machine took up at least 6 feet by 10 feet of floor space, and the mill was at least 10 feet high in the middle.

It was impressive to see the investment that Airframes Alaska put into their shop, from the equipment to people, training, floor space and dedication to quality.

A big thank you to Airframes Alaska.

Walter

Nov 4th, 2017 - John's Nealon's Highlander

John Nealon received the airworthiness certificate for his Highlander from Mark Barker! John's Nealon's Highlander

April 2018   
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Wed May 2
7 PM		 Board meeting
Las Margaritas
Sat May 12
9:30 AM		 Chapter Breakfast Get-Together
Kava’s Pancake House on Muldoon Rd.
Tue May 22
7 PM		 Chapter Meeting
TBD
    Anchorage, Alaska  
    2018-04-25  
  Nautical Twilight Begin: 03:47
    Civil Twilight Begin: 05:10
    Sunrise: 06:04
    Transit: 13:57
    Sunset: 21:50
    Civil Twilight End: 22:44
    Nautical Twilight End: 00:07
    Total Daylight: 15:46
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These businesses have paid to sponsor the activities of EAA Chapter 42.
Please remember our friends when you do your shopping.

Eagle Enterprises Safety Solutions
5849 Old Seward Hwy, Anchorage 907-562-2331
Northern Lights Avionics
Northern Lights Avionics
940 Merrill Field Dr, Anchorage 907-277-4811
EAA Chapter 42 — Anchorage, AK © 2018
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