Meet Carl

Carl can fix it!

Carl is our ace simulator technician; he helps us out when we can’t figure out how to do something – you’ve seen him on blueboxdriver.com  ‘s banner.  He is an electronics technician by trade, but can make or fix most anything mechanical too.  He helps out on the Blue Boxes when he has spare time.  Carl has restored Telegon oscillators, made a new rudder pivot block identical to the original, and looks like a pro when repairing fabric skin.  He completely reworked the linkage in our ANT-18 yoke; it had been damaged and poorly repaired in a former life.  Carl doesn’t like to fly, but is looking forward to one day taking his first Blue Box flight. 

What is a Jiggley ?

Here is a Link Trainer “Jiggley” action trading card.  After the bubble gum is gone, you have this great toy.  Jiggleys were made by the Model Airplane Company, Brooklyn, NY in 1950 and 1951.  They made several series of trading cards; Military, Cowboys, Circus, Weapons, Guns, etc.  Ours is No 45 from the Military Series 6  “Jiggleys”. 

Front of Link Trainer “Jiggley” trading card.

The Blue Box and his instructor are die cut punch outs.  You remove the background stencil that you can use to trace more “Jiggleys”.  Once the stencil is removed, there are two narrow strips of card in the back that connect the Blue Box and instructor together, each with a staple.  See the rusted staple popping through the orange Blue Box base, and the instructor’s pants?  You hold the strips, and jiggle them left and right, to see the Blue Box fly and the instructor scold the cadet pilot with his finger.  Too much fun. 

Back of Link Trainer “Jiggley” trading card.

I thought it odd that the instructions said “Replace Stencil to Pitch, Trade, Collect.”  Why “Pitch”?  Then I remembered how, when we were kids, we used to “pitch” baseball cards at recess to see who could get closest to a line or land it to tilt against the side of the school building.  Winner takes loser’s card.  Wow — that was a long time ago. 

Vacuum to the ANT-18’s fuselage

We recently added the second wing to our ANT-18. That made it look a lot better. We fixed a few wiring problems in the main control box, and replaced external power wiring. We installed our restored Telegon oscillator, and cleaned, lubricated, and tested the turbine. Like our other turbines, the Toby Deutschmann suppression condenser had to be replaced.

Broken vacuum connection between turbine and spindle.

The vacuum hose that connected our turbine to the spindle was broken in a couple places. The connection was unlike models Esp and C-3 whose hose is short and at the same height. The ANT-18 has an additional separate set of commutators hanging below the standard 28 rings. This assembly causes the vacuum entrance to the spindle to be much lower than the turbine’s vacuum source. Our vacuum connector was obviously not an original part; it consisted of several short pieces of 1-½” PVC pipe poorly glued together. We still don’t know what the original connection looked like. We decided it would be better to have a slightly longer hose with a smooth bend rather than the additional two sharp 90-degree corners introduced by the broken connector pipe. We ordered a hose that was ultra-flexible; however, it only came in bright blue or green. After a bit of sanding, primer, and flat black paint, it now looks like an old rubber hose.

New vacuum connection hose.
New vacuum connection between turbine and spindle.

We had to try it out, by turning on the turbine. We had just completed restoration of the turning motor, so that was in good shape. The pitch and roll bellows looked and felt pretty good, but as soon as vacuum was applied to the fuselage, the pneumatic cloth on the pitch bellows ripped. That’s the next task – rebuild the pitch and roll bellows.

 

Door wire mystery

We were working on the fuselage door for our Model Esp. The power wire for the spotlight came out of the back of the light and went into the door. We looked everywhere for the wire to emerge from the door to obtain its power. Not even a hole for a lost wire anywhere.

Inside of Esp door

We removed the door panel to discover – one wire going to each metal hinge. Too funny! Clever way to power the light.

One wire to each hinge

The guy that made the cockpit door was proud of his workmanship and provided his autograph on the inside of the wood door panel. Does anyone recognize his signature?

Signature of the guy that built our Esp cockpit door.

He also numbered the door. We guess that there was some hand fitting involved with the doors. The #274 perhaps was intended to go with Esp S/N 274, but our trainer is S/N 374. That may be one little mystery that we never figure out.

Esp door number.