Skycraft Scout Mk.IV ZK-JJN

[Deleted]

Hi all,
As mentioned in another thread Jonathan Mauchline has acquired another Scout to rebuild to fly, this time a yellow-fabric Mk.IV that has been stored for several years.

Jonny and I drove to Waipukurau on Thursday January 5 to meet up with WONZ member Ron "chbessexboy" Day. This example has never been registered in New Zealand but made several flights, the last taking place on a particularly gusty day and ending with a snapped wing and crunched nose. By all accounts the pilot was okay.
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr

And yes, that is a Venturi! This Mk.IV was fitted with a suction-driven airspeed indicator and a very optimistic altimeter.
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr

Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr

Secured, we then returned to Whanganui and the Scout went the fastest it'll probably ever go!
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr

A while back Ron and I spread a photo of the distinctive tail art on social media in the hopes it would help ID the airframe. No luck so far but one hopes this little devil would spark some memories...
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr

The next day we set about preliminary reassembly to see what was missing and what needed repairs or outright replacement. But first the airframe underwent a Cat 1 inspection:
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr

Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr

One of the wing spars was, as mentioned earlier, broken in half and one elevator was beyond salvation:
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr

Fortunately Jonny already had another (orange) Mk.III for spares that came with ZK-RWW, so it was a quick job for us to swap out the parts and put the Mk.IV fabric back on.
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr

After a solid few hours of work in which we also replaced some hardware as we went (Jonny taking copious notes)...
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr

After some admiration she was dismantled (wings and empennage off). And with the latest here's Jonny today in the Skycraft Scout Facebook group (link):

Scout MK4 update:
Engine; a Rotax 377 has been taken apart and inspected. Cylinders are off and everything is in good shape. Engine clearly has not done all that many hours. Cylinders and heads have had a good scotchbrite now the final job is to bead blast and zinc both the cylinder head studs and exhaust manifold. Then all back together.

Airframe; now completely disassembled. Obtaining some materials to make a fix of the fibreglass pod and the bottom of the fuel tank. Looking for a fabric person to make a small repair to the wing. I now have some rubbers on the way for the engine mount as well as some new clevis pins. Throttle lever is soon to be ordered too. Next job is to go over the airframe giving all parts a clean and recording all the bolts/nuts for an order to aircraft spruce.

Very impressed by the design changes made for the MK4. Definitely a superior airframe to the MK3.

20220109 Jonathan Mauchline 01 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
20220109 Jonathan Mauchline 02 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
20220109 Jonathan Mauchline 03 by Zac Yates, on Flickr

[Antonio]

Cat 1 inspection:

Purrrfect 

[johnnyfalcon]

That's what you get with a kit-set aircraft...

[Antonio]

Jan 9, 2023 14:52:36 GMT 12 johnnyfalcon said:

That's what you get with a kit-set aircraft...

touché 

[Deleted]

There won't be any progress updates for a wee while...we went and got another one on Friday.
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr

[Antonio]

Watch out Zac, it might be contagious

[Dave Homewood]

Wait, so there are now three of them there?

[Antonio]

Gonna need a bigger hammer hangar 

[FlyingKiwi]

Are you going to do a three ship formation?

[Deleted]

Jan 16, 2023 17:18:42 GMT 12 Dave Homewood said:

Wait, so there are now three of them there?

Yes - the airowrthy ZK-RWW, the soon-to-be airworthy Mk.I (III conv.) which was acquired last week, and the Mk.IV.

Jan 16, 2023 19:11:57 GMT 12 FlyingKiwi said:

Are you going to do a three ship formation?

I suggested they could be the Canvas Falcons

[Brett]

As they are Scouts, wouldn't "Canvas Tents" be more appropriate?

[l29]

You could trade in your Fletcher in on one..

[errolmartyn]

They look more like undernourished sparrows than falcons!

Errol

[Antonio]

What about the Budgie Smugglers 

[Deleted]

Work is underway. We broke down, cleaned, inspected and reassembled the "cockpit" area over the weekend and Jonny's ordered replacement hardware. The next task is sanding the pod for repairs.
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr

[Deleted]

CAA has assigned the previously-unused ZK-JJN to the Mk.IV - she finally has an identity!

Yesterday we began work on the pod, which had a nasty crunch during its career-ending crash at Waipukurau on Monday 7th January 2019 (thanks to chbessexboy for this information). First task was to sand off the poorly-applied blue spray paint to get it back to white and identify the areas needing repair, and then focus on sanding back to glass on the affected areas. What else does one do when a cyclone's whipping the airfield?!

Rest assured we did wear masks and hearing protection. A few hours of messy, tedious work but it needs to be done.
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr

[chbessexboy]

For the record, this Scout came to grief on the afternoon of Monday 7th January 2019.

[Deleted]

Thank you Ron, I'll update the post and my info accordingly.

[chbessexboy]

Feb 15, 2023 11:24:24 GMT 12 @zacyates said:

Thank you Ron, I'll update the post and my info accordingly.

I should also point out that I never operated the machine and acquired it in its damaged condition.

[Deleted]

Thank you Ron, that's what I remembered you saying.

Man...you go away for a couple of days and all sorts gets done! (FB link here)

Mk4 progress. Pod repair is well underway; after sanding, the first fibreglass job was securing a tape up the middle along the original delaminated join as well as a couple patches over some of the major cracks and seperate pieces. Second was applying a large double thickness 45 bias fibreglass cloth over the nose of the pod to cover all the damaged areas.

Next I’ll be giving it a good sand down, will be applying either bog or mill-fibres to fill in the big gaps and try sand the surface down to as round and regular as I can. I’ve decided I’ll be running with a white, two pack epoxy paint.

I’m trying to look at old photos to see if there’s any kind of decals or markings on the pod which I could include.

ZK-JJN 20230218 Jonathan Mauchline 01 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
ZK-JJN 20230218 Jonathan Mauchline 02 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
ZK-JJN 20230218 Jonathan Mauchline 03 by Zac Yates, on Flickr