Composite-ARF Pitts S12
We used hard silver solder and flux with a very small gas blowtorch, but you could even use
lo-temp silver solder, such as the excellent ‘STAY-BRITE’ brand available in the USA in most
hardware stores. Just remember to clean off the joints very thoroughly after soldering with
Acetone or equivalent to remove all traces of flux that would, otherwise, corrode the parts over
time.
Cut 8 pieces of the braided wire approx. to length and clean one end of each very well with
Scotchbrite and acetone. Solder on an M3 threaded extender. Clean off all traces of flux with
Acetone. Fit an M3 nut and an M3 aluminium clevise and attach pairs of wires to the inner
connections on the top rear of the cabane struts and the aluminium plate in the fuselage by the
landing gear, using m3 x 25mm bolts, locknuts and a little Loctite. Adjust the length of each
wire at the outer end, and solder on another M3 extender and clevise in the same manner.
Tension of all the wires the same, but do not overtighten or you could permanently deform the
wings.
Make up the spreaders from the 8mm aluminium tube supplied, with a short piece of 6mm
wood dowel glued into the ends, and then cut a slot to capture the pairs of flying wires. An M2
bolt and nut thru’ the ends of the spreader tubes secures them.
11
Jason Shulman put our 2nd
prototype Pitts (shown here)
though it’s paces at the
C-ARF factory early in 2005.