Tipsy Nipper

Hi all,
I am a Tipsy Nipper owner and have just joined this form. I live in a town called
Vryheid(means freedom in english) in the province of Kwazulu Natal which is in South Africa.
I work for a Telecoms Company for the last 25 years. Now that the boring bits are over, down to the interesting stuff
I bought my Nipper from a chap who had attempted to rebuild the craft but run into health problems.On stripping the frame, i found the air frame was bent , no problem, built heavy jigs and bolted them to the floor in my workshop. I cut the frame in one or two spots under the supervision of my inspector and the frame "jumped" back into position. My inspector was a certified a/c welded so he rewelded the frame.
Unfortunately i got no logs with this nipper, so it possibly was in an accident at sometime.
The rest of the rebuild was much the same as any old and tired aeroplanes go through.
I built a 1835cc engine as i doubted that the original 40 horses would drag me into the sky,
remember i'm at 3800ft asl and in summer with temps in the 30's .
My engine ran well until 158 hours and suddenly started leaking oil, after a long seach, found the case had a hairline crack at the rear of no3 barrel .
I then started looking for a nice condition case and drove 100's of km and gave up, all were junk. One day someone told me, a shop in Johannesburg were importing new cases. Placed an order and now have a new case, barrels & pistons,cam,heads etc.
This unfortunately was put on the back burner as i had started rebuilding a 1930 Ford Model A
Phaeton 35b.One cannot have two major projects running side by side and still have to slave all day in the salt mines for one's bread crust
Any way the car is now licienced and running, SO back to the important things... getting the nipper out the workshop roof and start with recovering the wings and the tail feathers

A little info about my aeroplane:
Is a 1959 Belgium built version with serial number 10
Present reg is ZS-UAD
If you go to Williem's site, history is there.

Please feel free to contact me, will be happy to "chat" to other nipper/aeroplane owners that live over the other side of the big pond

Regards
Glen

Glen,
welcome to the forum. always good to get new members on board
Regards,
Pat
G-ASXI (curently undergoing a recover and new engine installation)

Thank Pat for the welcome,
Sounds like we are in the same boat with recovering and engines etc.
If i may ask, what engine are installing, will be keen to see pic's if possible.
My next purchase will have to be a decent digital camera(SLR) which are very expensive
here, might have to import one!.i Then i can post decent pic's of work on my nipper as i progress with the rebuild.
Here is scanned pic's taken of my nipper many moons ago

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The last pic is my 1930 Ford Model A i have just completed a 6 year total (down to DNA level ) rebuild

Regards
Glen

Glen,
Nice pics ,thanks for those. I am replacing my engine with a Jabiru item (It previously had a Jabiru engine being the first nipper to have one installed) I managed to get 740 hrs out of the engine berfore I had a catastropic valve rocker shaft support in no2 cyl. This reulted in a drop of 500 rpm and a horrendous vibration. Quick treetop recvery to the airfeild and safe landing.Later we took the wing off and transorted her to the workshop where I restore vintage and classic a/c full time.
Since the wing was off and the engine was out It seemed like a good time to recover and a little renovation work. (Last recvered in 1990) Progress is quite good . I have covered the fuz and preped the wing ready for recovering this week end !
I have obtaned a zero timed Jabiru engine and that is installed.I will try to get some pics this w/e and show one and all the work in progress. The airframe and wing are in superb condition and needed hardly any work prior to covering.
All the best
Pat
ASXI

Hi Pat,
Glad to hear you made it back to airfield unscathed. In my test flight period(40hrs) after rebuild , the pipe to the mechanicial oil pressure gauge snapped off at the engine.Luckly the pipe was of the capillary type so the oil did not escape like a tsunami.But the oil ran up the fuel tank,up over the canopy and ran in the gap between the fuel tank and the canopy.
Well, i was on downwind at 1000ft and the only forcelob spot was a road 20 degrees to the right, glided down, overtook a van going in the same direction and landed safely, no damage.
I replaced the broken pipe with a pipe strong enought to be at home in a Boeings hydrolic system, overkill yes but peace of mind lots!

Please, if possible(pics), i'm very interested in what mods you have to do to the engine mount on the fuse side to accomidate the Jab motor.Unfortunately Jab 2nd hand or rebuilt Jab motor are scarce items here, even when there is a large Jaburi (complete aircraft) factory here in SA!

If things go belly up here in South Africa , can i come across and sweep your floor, wash aeroplane, make coffee (joke). I know a job is a job but working on aircraft was my calling but it's to late for me to change job's now.

Have a lovely weekend
Regards
Glen