National Aeronca Association Bulletin Board

Any chance one of you L16 owners out there could take several pictures of the green house set up for me. Mostly I need the top both front and rear. I now have the covering installed and tightened but don't want to go too much further with the taping unless I can see how everything fits together. Most of the installation pieces that I do have are in poor shape.
The nearest L16 that I know of around here is about 100 miles away. I have some pictures from Oshkosh but more would be better.

Can be emailed to mikejudyberg@centurytel.net (or can be posted on this site if easier).

Thanks

Mike Berg

mikeberg/wi wrote:Any chance one of you L16 owners out there could take several pictures of the green house set up for me.
Thanks

Mike Berg

I will take some Thursday and send them, do not own one but that will not stop me.

Mike K

Thanks Mike ,
Mostly I need pictures of the metal pieces going across the green house and the wing fairings, etc. This was a true basket case and someone had taken the rear part of the green house out and put a aluminum panel over it (instead of glass). Anything you can send me will help.

I have a friend who's rebuilding another L16 but his actually has Citibria windows installed with a headliner. Apparently, it must have been faily common to mutilate the L16's (if you didn't like the green house).

Mike Berg

Mike,
Make sure you share the gathered pictures..... My L-16 project is moving. Slowly at best but moving. Here are a few pictures of my progress. I could move faster if I had more tools and more know-how. The bad thing about these planes is that they have been, "re-done" many times over. I now have in my possession many years of mistakes and I'm and trying to figure out what is correct and what is not. One of the latest problems I have encountered is the fact that someone used a Goodyear spacer on Cleveland wheels. I was scracthing my head as to where the felt washer was and what would hold it in place.......

Jeff,
Looks like you're moving along pretty well to me. At least yours was mostly together at the start. Mine was completely disassembled with a lot of 'prior work' started that I had to redo over along with a many little parts missing, etc. Some of the big parts like the lift struts I knew were missing but didn't catch that the jury struts were also gone. I suppose they 'disappeared' at the same time. I've come to the conclusion that it will probably not be an Oshkosh award winner but only want to make it safe and dependable. If possible, I try to put some time in on it every day and winters coming on in NW Wisconsin, what else would I do?

At my age, this will probably be my last big project ( says the wife).

Mike Berg

From the stash....



























nkh

Thanks Guys,
I now have plenty of pictures to go on. Really appreciate the support!
I ordered some of the attaching parts from Wag Aero as mine were in less than perfect shape .

Time to head to the shop and do some more taping . Life is good!

Mike Berg

Nate,
You are a man of many pictures!!!
Thanks.....

Mike,
The last two pictures are from the plane I bought last year. If you haven't noticed the greenhouse was not done, "by the book". I guess it was functional but some items were deleted (the wooded upside down L shaped piece of wood just behind the door and window frame) along with the correct,'W" shaped brackets used on the glass trim to name a couple.

You may move faster than me on this but I will send pictures of my progress.

Talking with Old Fart Lloyd at Middletown this year, he said something I never realized. From the factory, the glass never had a screw through it, they were only held in place by the metal strips clamping down. Seems the army wanted to be able to egress from any of the windows, so the glass needed to be removable quickly and easily.

nkh

Nate,
Lloyd has told me the same thing. My windows were all bolted to the metal. David J. said that you could easily pop a window out if you let it slide off the top of a wing over or some similar manuver.

With that said, would it be better to drill and bolt the glass in? I know with every hole that you drill there is a chance to crack the glass.

What do you think?
Jeff

P.S. The L-16 looked much better on the V- Day poster!!

I have mixed opinions. Quick egress is really nice with all the glass as an exit, and keeping it close to original is a bonus. But like David said; having a window pop-out uncommanded could ruin your day. Not that it would be hard to fly, but the chances it could ding something while it departs is a drawback. Personally, I would probably pin the 4 corners to keep things in place, but it's still easy enough to break through.

I need a good L-16 formation shot for next year!

nkh

Gentlemen, remember, the back windows on a Citabria only fit in the channels around the window. No screws go thru them either. I think the original greenhouse glass on a Citabria also had very little holding them in! The incident Dr. Jeff speaks of was turning a hammerhead into an almost tail slide. Sat there fat, dumb, and happy too long. Realized the energy was leaving real fast, booted rudder, and fell out on the airplanes left side. Dropped a bit and then got the thing pointed at the ground again. The windows did not like the side load, all of them were rattling. Won't do that again. Other than that, windows have not been a big deal. David J.

Good Morning All,
I hope 'you'all' don't get tired of greenhouse and window questions but I'm at the point where I need to make some decisions regarding the green house. I can buy the complete upper green house from Great Lakes Aero for around $325 or I can choose to try to make it myself for probably less than $150 from lexan. I actually don't mind spending the extra funds for the 'ready made' from Great Lakes but I'm concerned about the fit as it seems nothing 'fits' on this old bird. I didn't make the woodwork so I don't know if it's made correctly or not. It does look good if that means anything but I don't want to take a chance on cracking a $200 piece of plastic trying to fit it either (you can tell I've run into problems here and there trying to put this thing together).

If I choose to make it myself: how far does the greenhouse go out on the upper structure and what holds it in? The manual is pretty sketchy and the closest one (L16 with a green house) to look at is about 100 miles away as far as I know. I'm assuming using lexan it's more 'bendable' without breaking. I've been looking at previous postings on this site but there isn't much other than completed projects where the installation is covered up.

This is one area of concern


This is the other area for the skylight. How far does the skylight project out and what holds it in especially on the sides?



Thanks for any info:

Mike

Duhh! I went back and looked at some of the pictures that Nathan posted and see that the greenhouse and sky light apparently go to the edge of the wood framing. But I'll still take suggestions!!

Mike