Bob & Ron's vintage Link Trainer (aka Blue Box) restoration adventures
Our C-3 is ready for its first show. It looks sharp and is flying good; all instruments in the cockpit and on the desk are working (on most days). Rick is getting a kick out of being our instructor as he puts the pilot through grueling flight patterns. His radio commands direct the pilot around Cincinnati, Ohio as he plots out the trainer’s course with the crab.
Rick and Rodney fix and align the trainer. Maintaining our C-3 in tip-top operating condition keeps ’em hustling.
Our friend Barry hemmed our skirt; Rick added the snaps. Our C-3’s new skirt is installed.
We got our C-3 cockpit lights working this week. There are two 4” blue, fluorescent lamps each with adjustable ultraviolet filter; they are intended to improve instrument clarity. We were amazed that the two fluorescent lamps and their associated starters still worked after all these years. There are also two white “moonbeam” cockpit lights for general cockpit lighting. The brightness of the moonbeam lights is adjusted with a pot located on the fuselage control panel. Power for the 12 to 15 VAC left moonbeam light is routed through the top and bottom door hinge. We were also lucky to find vintage GE #94 lamps for the moonbeam lights on ebay.
We installed the canopy on our C-3. It gives it a whole different feeling when flying the trainer.
Check out our new video “Recovering a Link Trainer with Fabric” (Under “Videos” heading in right column ).
We had help installing the wings from Rick’s grandsons, Ian and Tanner. It was hard to find the original location of the aileron hinge screw holes since they were buried under the new fabric. Diligent pork-stick probing did the job. Next time we’ll mark the holes when installing fabric. Both wings on; one aileron moves.
