Have you ever seen this on a t-craft? Please say yes/no and how many time Thanks!

[Guest]

Hi all,

I am trying to take a survey of ;
1) have you seen a drain hole like the one with the red arrow pointing to it?
2) how many planes have you seen with it in case you have seen it more than once?

I offer my thanks for your participation in advance.

I am not trying to gather speculation, opinion or debate about why its there or how it got there and so on so I would appreciate if you can refrain from that on this thread(it will take it off track and deep six my survey). Perhaps a second thread can address that if needed.

Thanks again, Dave.

[Robert Lees]

Re: Have you ever seen this on a t-craft? Please say yes/no and how many time Thanks!

Hi Dave, I've seen a hole there, only once, on my rebuild project. Here's a photo of me injecting vast quantities of tube seal with a vetinerary hypodermic through the hole on my fuselage.

After rotating the fuselage, this photo shows the stuff unexpectedly pouring out of an aperture at the "H" frame (control column) fitting, to prove that at least some of the tubes are connected internally. That's a long way forward, and not on the lower longerons. It took me months to stop the tube-seal from coming out of unexpected places.

This hole on my fuselage sternpost is now well and truly sealed up on purpose, with fabric, glue & paint.

By the way, I don't like the hole in the fuselage fabric to the upper-right of your red arrow...what on earth is that meant to do? Looks like it should be the vent hole mentioned as No (1) in Service Bulletin 78-001...in which case, they've put it too high. It should be in the belly fabric just forward of the tail leaf-springs, This photo, viewed from underside where the tail leaf springs go, shows where it should be (albeit when this photo was taken, I hadn't cut the hole, but you get the general idea).

I'm also not sure about the horizontal brace just beneath your red-arrowed hole, immediately above the leaf spring. On both my pre-war and post-war models, that "brace" is integral (welded) to the sternpost, and forms a continuous welded structure (example detail here.) Is the aircraft in your photo a very early model?

Hope this all helps.
Rob

[Guest]

Re: Have you ever seen this on a t-craft? Please say yes/no and how many time Thanks!

Hi Dave, I've seen a hole there, only once, on my rebuild project. Here's a photo of me injecting vast quantities of tube seal with a vetinerary hypodermic through the hole on my fuselage.

After rotating the fuselage, this photo shows the stuff unexpectedly pouring out of an aperture at the "H" frame (control column) fitting, to prove that at least some of the tubes are connected internally. That's a long way forward, and not on the lower longerons. It took me months to stop the tube-seal from coming out of unexpected places.

This hole on my fuselage sternpost is now well and truly sealed up on purpose, with fabric, glue & paint.

By the way, I don't like the hole in the fuselage fabric to the upper-right of your red arrow...what on earth is that meant to do? Looks like it should be the vent hole mentioned as No (1) in Service Bulletin 78-001...in which case, they've put it too high. It should be in the belly fabric just forward of the tail leaf-springs, This photo, viewed from underside where the tail leaf springs go, shows where it should be (albeit when this photo was taken, I hadn't cut the hole, but you get the general idea).

I'm also not sure about the horizontal brace just beneath your red-arrowed hole, immediately above the leaf spring. On both my pre-war and post-war models, that "brace" is integral (welded) to the sternpost, and forms a continuous welded structure (example detail here.) Is the aircraft in your photo a very early model?

Hope this all helps.
Rob

Hi Rob,
I added the hole you don't like about a year ago. It vents that "dirty triangle" that some folks don't cover at all and attempts to drain moisture accumulation between that vee between the tubing top outer surface and the verticle fabric surface. It is not in lieu of the bottom side vent that you describe. The bottom side vent is installed as you describe so its not an issue.

I added the horz. plate about ten years ago to move the tailspring farther away from the fuselage bottom, that's its only purpose - a spacer, I added it, there is a rubber pad between it and the spring. My tailpost bottom looks just like yours. I choose to weld the spacer on, overkill I know but that way you only have to position in once.

With the spacer I got more airspace between top of spring and bottom of plane - translates to debris blow out the bottom side vent more freely ie tail spring does not impede the debris from blowing out as much. It could be that my tailpost base fitting is located too high and does provide enough clearance. That could be, it was cut out once and then put back in. Maybe material was lost on the bottom side that would hold it away from the tubing's bottom??

I got the plane in 1982 with that hole open, prior owner had it for 20 years. I covered it in 1984 during recover (by mistake) and opened in sometime before 1991. Could have been 1985 all I can say is it was prior to 1991.

I am 100% sure this hole has been open for 25 years (minus the 7 year maximum I had it covered with fabric) and 98% sure it was open for the 20 years before that for a total of 38 to 45 years but don't know about the years before that 38 to 45 year period.

Thanks, Dave

[tawadc95]

Re: Have you ever seen this on a t-craft? Please say yes/no and how many time Thanks!

not on my L2 or my friends 1938 b-65
Chris

[Armstrong]

Re: Have you ever seen this on a t-craft? Please say yes/no and how many time Thanks!

Yes, I have it on my 46 BC12D, but it is smaller than yours.
It was coverd over with fabric, and I did not find it until someone else here mentioned it.

[N96337]

Re: Have you ever seen this on a t-craft? Please say yes/no and how many time Thanks!

Two of them sitting in here right now, and neither have it.
JH

[Mark Julicher]

Re: Have you ever seen this on a t-craft? Please say yes/no and how many time Thanks!

Four local T-craft 3 BC-12, 1 F-19
None of these have the hole.

[hangarb7]

Re: Have you ever seen this on a t-craft? Please say yes/no and how many time Thanks!

Should the hole be there on my '46 BC12D? I don't remember seeing any hole there as I would have probed it to make sure it is clear.

Jack D
N44057

[Forrest Barber]

Re: Have you ever seen this on a t-craft? Please say yes/no and how many time Thanks!

THAT hole is new one to me.....

[tabranch]

Re: Have you ever seen this on a t-craft? Please say yes/no and how many time Thanks!

No hole on our 2 F22's.

[Guest]

Re: Have you ever seen this on a t-craft? Please say yes/no and how many time Thanks!

I had an interesting phone call discussion with Robert Harer today. He had been ops manager at T-craft years ago and is very knowledgable.

I asked him about that tail drain. His answer was that it was there on purpose but not on all planes.

The hole was intended to be left uncovered.

Its purpose was to provide an oil drain.

He emphasized that leaving it uncovered was the intention.

Now these are my words (in blue) from here on not Robert's - since they built with and without this hole it seems ok to cover it or plug it either one.

[cpirrmann]

Re: Have you ever seen this on a t-craft? Please say yes/no and how many time Thanks!

I don't see one on mine. It's either not there ot covered with fabric. I didn't try to puncture it to see f it is there.

[mulwyk]

Re: Have you ever seen this on a t-craft? Please say yes/no and how many time Thanks!

Dave:
Not on my T.

[taylorcraftbc65]

Re: Have you ever seen this on a t-craft? Please say yes/no and how many time Thanks!

Not on my 1940 BC 65. Brie

[barnstmr]

Re: Have you ever seen this on a t-craft? Please say yes/no and how many time Thanks!

not on my '46 BC12D.