Smith Miniplane
April 2019
Here's my Smith Miniplane sitting on the ramp at Eagle Creek Airport in Indianapolis. I stopped here for fuel on my way home from Springfield, IL on Easter Sunday, 2019.
There is quite a story here, but I'll try to be brief. I bought the airplane in Sep 2018 to give me something fun to fly and keep my tail wheel skills sharp while working on the Thorp and Midget Mustang. On the way home from Kansas, the prop bolts worked loose and I had to leave the airplane in Illinois where an IA friend (Jim Templeton) trailered it back to his shop in Springfield, IL. He checked everything out and I had to buy a new prop for it. The Smith has an old (1944) Franklin 4ACG-199-H3 geared engine with an old prop hub. I like Cato, so I called them and asked if they could help me out. They really came through and built a beautiful 76 x 60 inch prop with a nickle LE. Since winter was in full force, I had to wait until Easter for the weather to improve to fly her home.
There is quite a story here, but I'll try to be brief. I bought the airplane in Sep 2018 to give me something fun to fly and keep my tail wheel skills sharp while working on the Thorp and Midget Mustang. On the way home from Kansas, the prop bolts worked loose and I had to leave the airplane in Illinois where an IA friend (Jim Templeton) trailered it back to his shop in Springfield, IL. He checked everything out and I had to buy a new prop for it. The Smith has an old (1944) Franklin 4ACG-199-H3 geared engine with an old prop hub. I like Cato, so I called them and asked if they could help me out. They really came through and built a beautiful 76 x 60 inch prop with a nickle LE. Since winter was in full force, I had to wait until Easter for the weather to improve to fly her home.
When I got home, I discovered that one of the engine mount tubes was broken. In addition, I had a little trouble getting out of Springfield without a radio. My hand held didn't work well at all with the little rubber antenna and un-shielded ignition wires. The Franklin engine had the old Eismann mags with automotive plugs.
May 2019
So, I had to remove the remove the engine and send the mount in for repair. The first place I sent it to was hesitant to repair it (it was a certified repair shop). The mount is a one-of-a-kind, so it wasn't going to be easy to replace it. I called another guy, and he was willing to help me out by welding doublers and adding new gussets to the mount. Since I didn't need a certified mount for the experimental Smith, it worked out fine. It just took a little longer to ship the mount around the country a few times.
Jun - Aug 2019
While waiting for the reply from the engine mount shop, I thought it was a good time to install a belly antenna on the fuselage so I could use my hand held radio.
It took 6 weeks to hear back from the certified mount repair shop to call me and say that they didn't want to repair the mount, but wanted to make a new one for ~$4000.00. I took several measurements of the 5 mount points on the firewall, but ultimately decided that it would be way to difficult to get the measurements accurate enough to have them make a new one. I called them back to talk about it, and they told me that I should find someone else to fix it. They had already sandblasted and inspected it, so they sent it back to me in late July.
I shipped the mount to another shop for repair. When I told him how much I was quoted for a new one, he laughed and said "I can weld tube doublers and add new gussets for about $300.00." I liked that option a lot better.
Sep 2019
I received the repaired mount.
Did some scotch brite work and painted it with high temperature epoxy.
Put it back on the air frame.
Oct 2019
I hired a local IA to help me re-install the engine and get the airplane ready to fly.
Got the engine installed and had to do some work on the exhaust. There were some corrosion damage that needed attention, so I found a good local welder to help out. Those automotive spark plugs and old mags were an issue. The old left mag wasn't working, so I found a pair of rebuilt Bendix mags from a great guy in Oklahoma City. I sent him my old mags and he was able to remove the old drive gears and put them on the new mags. I was very lucky that this worked.
Unfortunately, the new wiring harnesses were too short. We went back and forth a little bit, but finally got things worked out.
Taxi tests and flight went well except for a minor oil leak at the oil pressure gauge hard line on the engine and a little oil leaking from the rocker box gaskets. I replaced the line fitting and ran some new 1/8 in. copper line and that leak was fixed. I also had a little trouble with the starter solenoid and replaced the started switch, solenoid, battery, and some of the starter cables (just to be sure that everything was up to snuff).
I flew it over to a nearby grass strip to show it off to some people I know there. :-)
Nov - Dec 2019
I flew it as often as possible over the colder months, but we've had a fairly mild winter.
Nov - Dec 2021
I had some engine trouble in 2020 and took the engine to Southern Aero in North Carolina for tear down inspection and repair. They found several issues and had to have the crank re-worked and replace the cam gear. Also a new cylinder was needed. I had replaced them in 2019, but it looks like #2 overheated and left a gouge in the cylinder wall. In any case, it took about a year from them to complete the work and test run the engine. I picked it up on Nov 5th and am now working to reinstall the engine and rework the cooling system a bit.
Jan - May 2022
Finished the engine installation and completed the annual condition inspection (Jasson Czaika). Flew a few hours and noticed an oil leak that became worse with each flight. It appears to be coming from the gear box area, but has been difficult to track down. I've tried several things. The last attempt was to replace two bolts on the lower area of the gear box, replace the external star lock washer with an internal star washer (not shown), and use blue locktite. The front seal area also looked wet, but it's hard to tell whether it is the problem or may be another contributing issue.
May 2022
I had an "incident" on May 24th after a short flight to check out the oil leak situation. I was taxiing back and didn't see Martha Lunken's C-180 sitting in the run up area. I must have been preoccupied with the oil leak problem and her airplane tends to blend in to the pavement color. However, no excuse - I should have been paying better attention and keeping up my s-turns. I saw her tail just as I was making a turn to my hangar. I jammed on the right rudder to avoid hitting her with my prop. That worked out but my left wing clipped her vertical stabilizer and did significant damage. The FAA got involved since Martha was already on their "sh#t list" after her flight under the I-73 bridge. That was quite an ordeal with the FAA, but all of my paperwork was in order. Amazingly, my insurance actually went down when it came up for renewal.
I checked the wing structure and it was not damaged at all. Just had to work out the damage to the leading edge. A guy at the airport told me that I should get a C-180 sticker to mark my "kill" on the fuselage. I found one that matched the paint colors and it looks great. I think it's hilarious, and even Martha got a real kick out of it. :-)
I checked the wing structure and it was not damaged at all. Just had to work out the damage to the leading edge. A guy at the airport told me that I should get a C-180 sticker to mark my "kill" on the fuselage. I found one that matched the paint colors and it looks great. I think it's hilarious, and even Martha got a real kick out of it. :-)
Jun 2022 - May 2023
A lot happened with Smitty over the year. The big event was the failure of one of the oiling tubes to the front right cylinder. After trying again and again to find the leak, I checked everything I could see and went for a check out flight. I could smell burning oil as I was climbing out, but assumed it was just residual oil on the exhaust. It got stronger, so I turned back to the airport. As soon as I turned, I could see smoke coming out of the cowling. I declared an emergency to land as soon as possible and watched the smoke getting worse and worse. The oil pressure was dropping quickly so I put him down and shut off the engine (reading zero pressure at shut down).
I wasn't planning on an oil change, but ...
Anyway, I finally found the problem since the tube was completely severed at the fitting. It doesn't take long to pump all of the oil out of the engine through the little 3/16 tube. So, I replaced the tubes and fittings on the right side. The left had been converted to stainless before I bought the airplane. I would have considered doing the same on the right, but that would have required me to remove the engine. I went with a copper alloy since they were copper originally. I just wish the engine shop would have replaced them when they had it torn down.
Once that was finished and the condition inspection was complete, I was very careful to stay near the airport while checking everything out. The engine was still running warm (~420 degrees on #3). I tried several things to improve the cooling, but nothing made much difference. I'm using ring thermocouples at the spark plugs, so they will tend to show a little high.
Anyway, I finally found the problem since the tube was completely severed at the fitting. It doesn't take long to pump all of the oil out of the engine through the little 3/16 tube. So, I replaced the tubes and fittings on the right side. The left had been converted to stainless before I bought the airplane. I would have considered doing the same on the right, but that would have required me to remove the engine. I went with a copper alloy since they were copper originally. I just wish the engine shop would have replaced them when they had it torn down.
Once that was finished and the condition inspection was complete, I was very careful to stay near the airport while checking everything out. The engine was still running warm (~420 degrees on #3). I tried several things to improve the cooling, but nothing made much difference. I'm using ring thermocouples at the spark plugs, so they will tend to show a little high.
June 2023
I started venturing out from the airport since the airplane was running well. However, I started seeing more oil. It seemed to be getting progressively worse until it was dripping on the ground after shut down. Back to the drawing board to figure out what's going on. This time, I think it's the front seal on the gear box hub.
