| jpallist |
12-30-2011 04:23 PM |
Flour bombing through photo port in RV-6
An interesting discussion. Seven years ago I constructed a camera port in the baggage floor behind the copilot's seat in my RV-6... it is a standard 4" Van's type inspection port hole in the skin with backing plate and aligned with an identical 4" hole in the baggage floor skin... both with cover plates which attach with screws and nutplates. (When in use, I made a clear lexan coverplate for the outer hole to shoot through). The camera port worked great: I built a mount to fit my digital SLR to the port, used a long cable shutter release and routed the video output to a PDA mounted near the panel so I could see what I was shooting.... but, that's a different story.
A few years later, the opportunity for four bombing presented itself... and I already had a port!! Some PVC pipe and plumbing adapters from the hardware store and I had a ready-made flour-bombing set up. Turns out that this location and my plumbing puts the port under slight vacuum so no problem with exhaust fumes (although a rubber sewer pipe cap was rigged to the top of the PVC pipe just to be safe and to cut down on the noise). I found a black plastic reducer fitting that nicely fits the hole in the skin and attaches with screws into the recessed nutplates. It sticks out slightly into the slipstream, which may help account for the vacuum (venturi effect). And with a bit of sanding, it mates nicely with a 3.25" OD X 28" long piece of PVC pipe that can be inserted from inside the airplane.. I found that I could load the bomb tube up with a dozen separately bagged flour bags and rigged a release consisting of a U-shaped wire with the ends extending through parallel holes near the base of the tube and with a piece of cord attached to the U-end as a release cord. To keep the flour (+ some sand for extra weight and accuracy) from working their way out, I use a circular piece of cardboard at the bottom of the load, immediately above the pins.
If someone could tell me how to post some photos, I will do so.
Cheers, John P.
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