L-16A 7BCM-73 USAF 47-859

[David Johnson]

Mike, the military Technical Orders showed there was a problem with fine debris going thru the pump and causing problems. Tiny stuff ususally goes right thru a carb. Don't know who could overhaul pumps and other parts after this long. David J.

[clipperfixer]

I don't have any info on how that system works in an Aeronca (reliability wise), but I fly a Culver with a buddy of mine that has that FI installed. It runs just fine. I think the reason they get removed is when there is a problem with the aircraft the FI system gets blamed. Also, you have to look really hard to find someone that overhauls the pumps, but there is a guy (I believe he is in Oklahoma) that rebuilds them. They are stupid simple. The system is a bit of a pain to set up right, but once we got the Culver up and running after its restoration and got the FI set up correctly we have not had anymore trouble with it. Just a side note the guy that overhauls the pumps claims the graph showing the pressures it should have a various rpms is wrong. We did have to play around with the settings to get to run just right. We are working on a second Culver V with the same injection system and hopefully we will get that one running good too. It will be back together once we find a hangar for it.

[Paul Agaliotis]

David,
I didn't find anything specific on the color. I painted mine silver on the exposed tubes and an Epoxy Chromate on the reat, ASKO paint if I remember right.

We don't see too many flying Culver V's out West. Lot's of projects.
Paul

[clipperfixer]

Yeah Paul, I always tease my buddy, I tell him he should be the type certificate holder for the Culver. He has 5 airframes and tons of parts for them and tons of prints. He has had hell trying to sell the restored one. For some reason everyone seems to be afraid of the skyblade propeller. They are fun to fly though. I can fit in one, that's a plus, they fly really nice and have a soft ride. For a c85 relatively fast. The second one just needs the fuselage put back on the wing and rigged. Just no place indoors to do it right now.

[Paul Agaliotis]

I did some work on one years ago. My cousin ferried one from the east coast. Made it all the way to Yuma before it sucked a valve. After we got it going we flew formation with it across the high desert. It flew at a 30 degree angle just to hold altitude, it was fast when it was in thick air.
Paul

[David Johnson]

New question. Here is the original data plate for my L-16. Note the mfg date is not stamped and the plate used says Lunken on the bottom not Middletown. Could you L-16 owners look at your plates and tell me what you find? David J./Jasper GA

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[MikeB]

David,
I posted on the FB page under "whatever it's worth". I had a conversation with Paul regarding the Lunken and Middletown plate. Having said that, the fact your date is not stamped I suppose puts it open to question. You can write to Maxwell AFB and get the historical records although I believe you need the AF serial number. I'm away from it right now but I believe mine is 47-1180 (for example) and I used that number to get the AF records. I'd think there should be some transfer information from AF to civil use on the FAA CD. Hope this is of some help. I'm quite sure there are a lot of these oldtimers around with restamped plates simply because Aeronca didn't attach any kind of a number to the air frame other than a screwed on plate that often gets removed and lost.

Mike

[williamc]

David,
I have a copy of a data plate from two L-16As I recently sold. send me an e-mail, william.nc41@gmail.com

Bill

[williamc]

David,
Your L-16A USAF s/n 47-859 was delivered to the Army at Columbia SC on 8-26-1947
Bill

[David Johnson]

Mike and Bill, Thanks for the help. I have the military records from Maxwell. There is not much in there. First look at the plate with Lunken on it I thought it was a restamp. The more I look at it I am not so sure. Now I start collecting photos of other plates to help document them before they are all lost. Bill, will send an email, I appreciate the photo. Updates to follow...David J./Jasper, GA

[David Johnson]

Moving some info from FB to here to preserve:

OK here is Bill Pancake's reply. Aeronca moved from Lunken to Middletown after the big floods in Cincinnati in 1936 and 1937. They made the move to Middletown in the spring of 1940. 1-562 was the new data plate. They started using the 1-562 data plate on the Pre-War 1 June 1940. On October 1945 the first new data plate was installed on serial number 9 and up on the 7AC and 11AC. The one David Johnson has was an after market data plate sold by some part vendors. From 1943 to 1945 they used manufacturer's data plate 1-395 so there was actually two different ones. The CAA required the manufacturer to have on the data plate the current manufacturer's location and name. So every aircraft that was made in Middletown had to have Middletown on the data plate to comply with the CAA regulations.

(all the below plates appear original to me. Note the 7AC plate, an early one, has different font than the L-16 plates. DJ)

[David Johnson]

Moved from FB:

OK, Aeroncateers. Question about the front spar 4130 carry thru. Blueprint 1-2625c. How did Aeronca build the tube with a neck down on the ID a little over an inch down each tube? And why go to all the trouble? Was it to make the square tube easier to weld thin tubing on to? I have an original L-16A fuselage and it is made exactly like this. Have another 7AC fuselage that is made of 1" (corr by Bill P. to 7/8")square necked down to 3/4" for the wing fitting to fit over. Any ideas??? Bill P., are you out there? Thanks, David J.
PS checking a Citabria frame too.



Many Thanks to the Pancakes. From Bill: This tube was made for Aeronca by an outside vendor. It was formed hot(of course) this way. May of '46 they started using this tube. Before they used a 7/8" tube (with an insert) that was split then necked down to 3/4". He worked on a '49 7EC that was .120 all the way thru. The Citabria's and new tubes from American Champion are all .120 all the way. So, we go with .120 and quit fretting the small stuff.

Photos of early tube: