Firefly Slide Show




































Angle of Attack Meter


Built an angle of attack meter so that I could determine wing position at cruise speed and then set my engine so that it pushes in the optimum direction. It is built from small aluminum tubing purchased from a hobby shop. The scale segment is house aluminum flashing. The vane is material taken from an aluminum soda pop can. The mounting tube is 5/16 inch diameter aluminum tubing left over from the construction of the FireFly. A nail was placed inside the leading tube for a counter balance. It is all held together with aluminum pop rivets, clear packaging tape, and JBWeld.


The meter is attached to the lower surface of the left wing. Two additional pieces of tubing were bundled with safety wire to the first tube to act as stiffeners so that the meter can withstand gusty cross winds. I hope to use the meter to help fill out some of the climb and glide data on the first page of this site.

To mount the meter three aluminum one half inch "U" channels were pop riveted to the rib located just inside the struts. The middle bottom of the channels were filed away so they would not touch the fabric as were the upper edges. This area was used to pass safety wire around the top and bottom of the meter tube and to hold it in place. To fill the gap between the tube and inside the channel a piece of 1/4 inch ID tygon tubing was cut to channel length. This piece of tubing was slipped on to a quarter inch drill shank and rotated against a sanding belt until it would almost slip into the channel. The tubing was removed from the drill shank and slit from end to end. Then the slit tubing was placed over the 5/16 inch OD tubing holding the meter and the whole works pressed into the channel. Safety wire was passed around the channel through the slot next to the rib, over the outside of the channel and over the split tubing with two wraps. Then the ends were twisted together to hold the meter tube in the channels and to keep the tube from rotating.