Ugly Duckling to Mallard

The ferry pilot that flew N139RG in had to stop at his home in Atlanta overnight. He said the plane was so ugly he was glad he landed at night. The Ugly Duckling name stuck.

Well, UDuck is becoming Mallard. First it was stripped of all the old elements having anything to do with the AI-25 motor, original avionics, APU, RAT or tip tank fuel system. This is what it looked like just removing everything. Every unused bracket and brace for the removed systems is also being removed.

The only original wiring will be that in the wings and nose gear bay supporting the gear. All else is replaced with bespoke Tefzel wiring. All the original flap controls, gear relays and diode functionality is replaced with modern aircraft relays, surface mount diodes and a dedicated microcontroller based flap control board. Full flap auto elevator trim is programmable so auto trim can be matched to the CoG. Pitch and Roll trim functions are now integrated with the Garmin G3X autopilot for full coupled autopilot with trim. My goal is to beat the previous development mule's 6000 lb empty weight by at least 200 lbs.

The plane's paint has been stripped and we are now doing all the sheet metal work along with moving the hydraulic reservoirs to the nose to be closer to the improved higher volume electric hydraulic pump pack. Having all elements in the nose bay in place of the old O2 bottles allows easy preflight of hydraulic fluid level and both primary and emergency accumulator charge. All of this and there is still all the room in the nose bay for baggage.

I've added some pictures of the hydraulic system component re-positioning. It is amazing just how much that emergency accumulator weighs. Dirk swears it is made from old tank main gun barrel material. We used everything we learned from our first electro-hydraulic pump pack to improve the second generation unit. I anticipate a significant increase in performance and repositioning the unit to the left side of the nose (made possible by improvements in the electric start support circuitry) makes inspection and breeze.

Gear and inlets are painted and give me great hope for the cockpit and the remainder of the airframe. The pitot/static system is finishing installation. We used Challenger components to ensure they would stand up to the punishment to come. The original L39 pitot tubes mounts are being flush patched...... Installation is complete awaiting overall paint.

Progress on the forward bay accumulator mounting. This brings heavy components forward reducing the need for ballast in the nose and thus decreasing overall weight. The front mounted electro-hydraulic pump pack mount work is complete. We will soon be testing a significantly upgraded pump pack. Development has started on the Generator Control Board and the Flap Control Board. The FCB will have added features like Auto Retract and Extend Blocking as the board will receive air speed information from the Garmin G3X system. It will also have programmable landing flap trim quantity so the airframe can be set up trim neutral with full flaps.

Most of the completely new wiring system has been tested. The avionics are up and running and primary systems like trim, air brake, gear, ACM and the like have been verified. The engine bay sheet metal work is done and it is being prepped for paint (pictures below). Once painted, the motor can go in and all related sensor and starter/generator functionality can be tested.

Stay tuned.......