201611 Sport-Aviation-201611

The Spirit of Aviation ®  | www.eaa.org 

Vol.65 No.11 | November 2016 

Honor Rare

EAA’s P-64 flies again

+

Dreams Realized EAA’s inaugural Sport Pilot Academy 

Mars Attacks Fighting fires from the sky

Warbirds Oshkosh 2016 photo essay 

Meet SkyView HDX - the new

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DynonAvionics.com

[email protected]

(425) 402-0433

 JACK J. PELTON PELTON COMMENTARY / OPEN COCKPIT 

We Need Flight Teachers Creating new pilots is our most urgent task BY JACK J. PELTON

They carry strong emotions, especially when used to describe a profession or activity. activity. And I think it’s time for those of us who love to fly to start thinking of flight teachers instead of flight instructors. What’s the difference? Not a lot if you look in the dictionary. But if you think back, wasn’t it a teacher who made a crucial difference in your school years?  You  You learn to ski ski from an instructor. But you learn learn to play golf from a teaching pro. To To me, that makes sense. Skiing is a muscle and balance skill. Golf is that, but it’s also a hugely cerebral activity. The golf teacher instructs you how to swing the club, but the best ones also teach how to think about your game and plan how to post t he lowest score. Flying an airplane is a mechanical skill in the same way as driving a car or riding a bicycle. But b eing a good pilot also demands using all of our mental abilities, too. Being a “good stick” is not enough. Good pilots are thinking their way through the air as well as simply moving controls. What comes next in flight is absolutely as important as what is happening right now. That’s why the best CFIs are truly flying teachers. The barriers that keep the best flying teachers on the ground are well-known, and have been chewed over for decades. Low pay, low prestige, poor working conditions, and even worse job security have always been at the top of the list of problems facing those who would teach flying. For those reasons and more flight instruction is often the necessary drudgery that must be endured by those who want to be somewhere else in their flying career. Building time, in other words. And that has become an even bigger issue now that ATP experience levels are required for entry-level airline copilot flying. Figuring out how to transform teaching people to fly into a rewarding career instead of a way station for a young pilot on the way up is complicated. Elevating the prestige and status of the flying teacher is an essential step. Many programs are in place by the FAA and flight instructor organizations to recognize and honor those who devote themselves to teaching flying. Those are important, but we can do more. Most important is to be sure we personally acknowledge and thank the teachers we fly with or come in contact with. It’s a hard job, there are frustrations, but knowing you are valued by fellow pilots confirms to CFIs that what they do is important, and appreciated. WORDS HAVE POWER.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY   JASON  JASON TONEY 

To make teaching flying a true career we must also find ways to make it financially viable. Much has been reported and written about the low wages paid to new airline pilots, particularly by the regional carriers. And market forces are beginning to work there with some airlines simply coming up short on qualified pilot applicants at the current pay rate, so all airlines are now examining and adjusting entry level pay. The same thing needs to happen for CFIs. Flight schools must pay teachers a living wage and reasonable benefits. Yes, those costs are passed on to student pilots, but the cost of teachers is not the driving force in the price of learning to fly. Nobody wants to scrimp on any component of flight training and certainly not in the skill and experience of the teachers. Teaching at any level is tough. But is there any profession more important to the health and advancement of society? And in airplanes we are teaching matters of life and death in the most absolute terms. Attracting and keeping the best teachers is essential, and we all can and must do our part to honor our airborne faculty and pay a little more to make teaching flying a viable vi able and rewarding career.

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It’s what we’re made of that sets us apart.

Vol.65 No.11 | November 2016 

EAA PUBLICATIONS

Founder: Paul H. Poberezny Publisher: Jack J. Pelton, EAA Chairman of the Board  Vice President President of Communities Communities and Member Programs: Rick Larsen Director of Publications/Editor in Chief:  Jim Busha Executive Editor:  Kelly Nelson Senior Editor: Hal Bryan Senior Copy Editor:  Colleen Walsh  Assistant Editor: Katie Holliday Staff Writer: Megan Esau Graphic Designer: Brandon Jacobs Photographer:  Erin Brueggen Print/Mail Manager: Randy Halberg Contributing Writers: Steven Ells, Steve Krog, Dave Matheny, J. Mac McClellan, Lauran Paine Jr., Charlie Precourt, Robert Rossier, Jeff Skiles, Beth E. Stanton

ADVERTISING

 Vice President President of Marketing Marketing and Business Business Development: Development: Dave Chaimson / [email protected]

 Advertising  Advertising Manager: Manager: Sue Anderson / [email protected]

Mailing Address: P.O. Box 3086, Oshkosh, WI 54903-3086 Phone:  920-426-4800 • Fax: 920-426-4828 E-mail: E-mail : [email protected]  • Website: Website: www.EAA.org 

Need to change your address or have other membership questions, call 800-564-6322 (800-JOIN EAA) or email [email protected]. EAA® and SPORT AVIATION®, the EAA Logo® and AERONAUTICA™ are registered trademarks, trademarks, and service marks of the Experimental Aircraft Association, Inc. The use of these trademarks and service marks without the permission of the Experimental Aircraft Association, Association, Inc. is strictly prohibited.

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CONTENTS

FEATURES

44 Tradition Restored The return of EAA’s prized P-64

By Megan Esau 

50 Martian Invasion The Martin Mars comes to Oshkosh

By Hal Bryan

58 4 Pilots in 3 Weeks EAA’s inaugural Sport Pilot Academy takes o ff

By Megan Esau

64 Living History  Warbirds at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2016

72 EAA Annual Report

ON THE COVER

EAA’s P-64 flown by Rick Siegfried.

Photo by Erin Brueggen ON THIS PAGE

The Tri-State Warbird Museum’s P-40M was

awarded the Warbirds World War II Grand Champion during EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2016. Photo by Scott Slocum

For more on many of the topics in this issue, visit visit www.EAA.org/sportaviation. To view and submit aviation events, visit visi t www.EAA.org/calendar.

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November 2016

Vol.65 No.11 | November 2016 

A PUBLICATION OF THE EXPERIMENTAL AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATION

DEPARTMENTS COMMENTARY 

p.01 | Open Cockpit

...........................Jack ......................... ..Jack J. Pelton

p.06 | Letters to the Editor p.18 | The Classic Instructor

................................Stev ...................... ..........Stevee Krog 

p.22 | Left Seat

.......................J. Mac McClellan

p.26 | The Workbench

.............................. ......................... ..... Steven Ells 

p.30 | Light Flight

..........................Dave ......................... .Dave Matheny 

p.34 | Flight Test

........................Charlie Precourt 

p.36 | Plane Talk

........................Lauran Paine Jr.

p.40 | Stick & Rudder

...................... Robert N. Rossier 

p.42 | Contrails

................................Jeff ......................... .......Jeff Skiles 

NEWS & INFO

p.10 | Advoca cy & Safety Governmental Issues 

p.12 | Flightline Industry News 

p.14 | Innovation Cutting Edge Developments 

p.16 | Flyby MEMBER CENTRAL 

p.79 |  Member Central  p.80 | News From HQ  p.84 | What Our Members Are Building/Restoring 

p.89 |  Gone West  p.90 | Members and Chapters In Action

www.eaa.org

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LETTERS LET TERS TO THE EDITOR

is very good except for his statement about the fuel selector on the Cherokee Six. I agree it was a lousy system for a variety of reasons. The fuel selector is not mounted on the spar. It’s a fuel drain on the spar. The selector is located on a console between the pilot’s and copilot’s knees. In 1968 I owned serial number 32-2, which was the very first production Cherokee Six. First time I have read anything Mac wrote that Mac was wrong! MAC’S FUEL SYSTEM DISSERTATION

_ 46 SportAviation

September2016

PHOTOGRAPHYBY CHRISTOPHER CRAM

Charles Melot, EAA 188809 Punta Gorda, Florida

CUBCRAFTERS’ XCUB (“XCub Exposed”) on CubCrafters reminded me of my first sighting of t hat bird at the Johnson Creek grass strip in Idaho last year. year. I was there with my Kitfox IV when a CubCrafters Cub landed. It was almost shocking to watch its performance. The engine was very, very, very quiet and peaceful. The descent, flare, and touchdown, and very short rollout was smooth — even beautiful to watch. The pilot was good! He had landed that plane at all the most difficult backcountry airstrips in Idaho including Mile Hi, which is one of the most challenging anywhere. When he departed Johnson Creek, the climb-out was the most impressive I had ever seen while engine noise was remarkably quiet, making me think it might almost even be electrically powered. I was wowed. I can see why that airplane can justly sell for $300,000. $300,000.

 THE SEPTEMBER SEPTEMBER ARTICLE

_ Paul Phillips, EAA 438071 Scottsbluff, Neb raska raska

Mac Talks Fuel Systems see that Mac McClellan’s column (Left Seat, September) didn’t mention the low fuel pressure issues that are endemic to Rotax-powered low-wing airplanes. Rotax called for replacing the engine-driven fuel pump, but I know from experience that is not a fix. Van’s wires the aux pump directly to the master switch in the th e RV-12, RV-12, but that’s that ’s a Band-Aid that leaves you without a backup. Possibly if the low fuel pressure problem were given wider Aviation, some reader might exposure, like to the readership of Sport Aviation share some insight as to a safe, workable solution. I can tell you that having the low fuel pressure light come on while climbing out, or flying over the Grand Canyon, or anytime, for that matter, is unnerving. I WAS DISAPPOINTED TO

6 Sport Aviation

management by J. Mac McClellan in the September issue was interesting to read, but contains a glaring error right up front. Mac states that mismanaging fuel is so common that accident investigators have a term for it: fuel starvation. The problem with this is that fuel starvation and fuel mismanagement are not the same thing. Fuel starvation happens anytime the fuel supply to the engine dries up. While this can result from mismanagement, it can also result from a filter getting clogged, a fuel line failing, a fuel pump failure, or other mechanical event that does not qualify as “mismanagement.” Similarly, “fuel mismanagement” does not always result in fuel starvation of the engine. On airplanes where CG is affected by fuel load in one or more tanks (particularly aft aux tanks), fuel mismanagement can result in instability and loss of control, without ever starving the engine. While I concur with Mac on the importance of fuel management and the insanity of some of the “approved” fuel system designs, this particular statement at the beginning of the article is not correct. Fuel mismanagement and fuel starvation are not the same thing.

 THE ARTICLE ON FUEL

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_

Barrie Strachan, EAA 1019917

Daniel Winkelman, EAA 1051735

Cedar City, Utah

Centerville, Washington

November 2016

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LETTERS LET TERS TO THE EDITOR

Words Matter Sport Aviation every month. Lately I’ve noticed a trend in aviation writing which bothers me: the use of the word melt for dissolve. To To melt something is to apply heat until the material changes from the solid to the liquid state. I know, you can probably find some dictionary on the internet that gives an alternate definition of melt as dissolve. But that ’s only because so many people are mistaken about the definition to begin with. But stick to the standard dictionaries. If a plastic part is dipped in a solvent, that doesn’t melt it; it merely dissolves some of the plastic material on the surface. Then when it ’s removed and the solvent allowed to evaporate, evaporate, the surface texture will be changed, probably for the better. Inexact terminology could potentially be destructive when building an airplane. I ENJOY READING

FOUNDER’S INNOVATION INNOVATION PRIZE advertised as looking for a solution to inflight loss of control. Somewhere along the way it became a search for another instrument to indicate angle of attack. I’m sure over 130 of the entries were trying to tell of ways to manage flight control. Exceeding [critical] angle-of-attack can lead to stall, which if continued can lead to loss of control. Inadvertent IMC, loss of visibility on a dark night, upset, and other causes lead to loss of control. What happened? Some early model Cessna 150 and 172 pilot operating handbooks have an emergency procedure for loss of control which states, “Turn loose of the control wheel and steer with rudder and reference the turn and bank indicator.” I have questioned more than 150 flight instructors and examiners who fly these specific airplanes about this. None were aware of the emergency procedure! Do you feel another gadget on the instrument panel will really do anything to solve loss of control?

 THIS CONTEST WAS INITIALLY INITIALLY

_ Gerald McKibben, EAA 251558 Starkville, Mississippi

_ Robert Reser, EAA 1194482 Tempe, Arizona

 A Warni Warning ng for for Laura Lauran n Paine Paine is don’t let your wife write any more articles (Plane Talk, September). As a matter of fact, I was about to s uggest that you Talk,  just might want to step aside and and — oh yes, yes, of course, you are the pilot in the family so that wouldn’t work. But if she ever gets a pilot’s license, man, your goose is cooked. MY ADVICE TO YOU

_ Bill McElwee, EAA 376289 Cherry Hill, New Jersey

Sweater in the Attic article that you ran in the September 2016 edition of Sport Aviation (EAA’s Attic) about wartime fashion. I too have been passed down one of these very cool wartime sweaters, and I found your article very interesting and was happy to learn a little more about these. I have attached a photo of my grandfather’s P-38 sweater from the World War II era that has been passed down three generations to me. Also if you are wondering, yes it is draped over a set of P-38 wings I am helping restore. Great article! I RECENTLY READ AN

SUBMISSIONS

[email protected] or addressed to EAA/Letter LETTERS INTENDED for publication should be e-mailed to [email protected] or to the Editor, Editor, P.O. Box 3086, Oshkosh, WI, 54903. Please include your EAA number, city, and state. All

_

letters are subject to editing. Unpublished letters will not be returned.

Richard Reece

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November 2016

 ADVOCACY  ADVOCACY AND SAFETY  GOVERNMENTAL ISSUES

PHOTOGRAPHY BY TOM CHARPENTIER

EAA Announces TruTrak STC Project EAA STC LLC are working with TruTrak autopilots to bring its Vizion autopilot system to type-certificated aircraft. EAA STC has submitted an application to initially certify the system in Cessna 172 series aircraft, with a goal to expand the list of eligible aircraft. We are already well into the process of making low-cost autopilots available for EAA members with type-certificated aircraft. A certification plan for the TruTrak technology is being drafted, and we will be hard at work on this project over the next few months. EAA’s EAA’s Accessible Safety STC, which allows the installation of Dynon EFIS-D10A and EFIS -D100 systems in certain aircraft was awarded in April of this year. At press time, the list of eligible aircraft is being expanded based on enthusiastic feedback from members, and EAA expects to pursue the Dynon autopilot system for certification following TruTrak. TruTrak. For years we have heard from our members with standard category aircraft that they want the ability to install the affordable, safe, and powerful equipment that has served the amateur-built community for decades. EAA, with the willingness of the FAA to pursue alternative paths to certification, is making it happen. EAA AND ITS SUBSIDIARY

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November 2016

During AirVenture 2016, EAA CEO and Chairman Jack J. Pelton talked about the coming expansion of the EAA/Dynon STC to more aircraft types and additional avionics companies.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY  DAN LUFT 

NEW PATHWAYS FOR CERTIFIED EQUIPMENT    for aircraft parts certification with its EAA BLAZED A NEW PATHWAY  PATHWAY  for development of the Accessible Safety STC earlier this year. Being able to have the capabilities of a Dynon D10A in a standard category aircraft is a major breakthrough given the cost when compared with a traditional TSO’d product. This, combined with the method of certification that EAA, Dynon, and the FAA threaded together is a true game changer for future avionics and safety enhancements. enhancements. This pathway is based on a little-known definition within the FAA terminology called commercial parts. Developed initially for aftermarket installations of things like sound systems in corporate  jets and cabin amenities amenities that are not manufactured through through a traditraditional parts manufacturer approval (PMA) route, route, it has been part of the FAA certification process for some time. EAA paired commercial parts with several other existing FAA policies in a way that opens up a simpler method of compliance. This is a significant boost to the industry and has attracted many manufacturers that have significant safety-enhancing products that can benefit GA aircraft. The key is that most, if not all, of these manufacturers would not have

considered the other existing certification pathways due to the costs and complexity associated with doing so. The STC pathway is bringing them to the “standard category table” when nothing else would have. It helps maximize the opportunity for safety-enhancing equipment and at a significantly lower dollar amount. There are limitations to this new path. Except in certain circumstances clearly defined in FAA policy (such as attitude indicators), aircraft owners will not be able to replace primary instrumentation. In addition, the component cannot have any detrimental effect to safety in any of its possible failure modes. However, However, these are both understandable requirements and actually further the safety case for what is possible with commercial parts. Leveraging the terrific talent that already exists in the experimental world has long been a gateway to in novations for all of GA. These new emerging pathways are critical to the future of the GA legacy fleet. For the experimental community, community, traditional certification is not a possibility for most if they are to retain the price point at a level that makes sense. Commercial parts and other simplified approaches are the future for GA and its legacy fleet.

GENERAL AVIATION TO NTSB: HELP MEDIA REPORT GA CORRECTLY  EAA JOINED �� OTHER GA organizations in a letter to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) urging the government panel to correctly express general aviation’s safety record and help media show an accurate portrayal of flying. The letter came about because of NTSB data sourced for an  NBC  Nightly News story in September involving a midair collision in Georgia that killed three people. That data gave a distorted picture of fatal aviation accidents, which have been dropping at a steady rate over the past 30 years. “We respectfully request the board to publicly convey that general aviation is one of the safest modes of transportation in the United States,” States,” the letter stated. It also noted that aviation accidents receive high media attention because they are infrequent. “We believe the NTSB has an inherent responsibility to help provide media outlets with a comprehensive view of safety trends and

outline the improvements in general aviation safety over the years,” years,” the letter continued. AOPA authored the letter circulated among the GA organizations and contacted NBC regarding its coverage of the accident at West Georgia Regional Airport. The on-air report made several erroneous assumptions regarding overall aviation safety and accident causes without input from on-site NTSB investigators and using fragments of NTSB data chosen to fit the narrative. EAA and other organizations have worked with the NTSB to implement a number of the board’s recommendations recommendations over the past decade, as well as developing safety programs that earned praise from NTSB for enhancing aviation safety. “We must not let media reports like these discredit the hard work and gains we have all made together, and we encourage the NTSB to help set the record straight,” the letter concluded.

EQUIP ���� MEETING FOR ADS�B COMPLIANCE HELD IN D.C. BY BY SEAN ELLIOTT,  EAA VICE PRESIDENT OF ADVOCACY AND SAFETY  THE LATEST INDUSTRY/FAA INDUSTRY/FAA UPDATE on

ADS-B equipage for aviation was held September 29 in Washington, D.C. Representatives from the airlines, avionics manufacturers, universities, and aviation associations filled the room for the daylong meeting. FAA Deputy Associate Administrator John Hickey addressed the group and reviewed the latest statistics on equipage and the new $500 rebate program that is now in effect, reinforcing

that the deadline of January 1, 2020, will not change. EAA shared our ongoing concern with S -LSA aircraft that do not have a supportive manufacturer having no feasible path for equipage. EAA has submitted a recommendation that would allow the Chicago Aircraft Certification Office to act as a clearing house for S-LSA needing an approval path for ADS-B equipment. The FAA is studying that recommendation as well as other solutions. It was agreed to place the issue on the next meeting agenda in December with a report from the FAA as to next steps.

www.eaa.org 11  11

FLIGHTLINE INDUSTRY AND COMMUNITY NEWS

Maiden Flight of Rimowa Replica Junkers Junkers F13 BY MARINO BORIC

took off for its first flight on September 15 from the Dübendorf airport in Switzerland. The official first flight of the replica Junkers F13, F13, named Annelise 2, took place almost 100 years after the launch of the “mother of all commercial aircraft” in 1919. 1919. Ju-Air, Ju-Air, the Association of Friends of Historical Aircraft (VFL), and the Rimowa team were all present that afternoon. The flight was made by test pilot Oliver Bachmann and Rimowa President and CEO Dieter Morszeck. After taxiing down the grass runway, the F13 began a 600-foot takeoff run, raising the tail and then lifting gently from the runway  just seconds later. later. The F13 flew flew two traffic patterns at approximately approximately 100 knots before a smooth landing. Seven years of research, planning, and approvals were spent between the project’s genesis and the aircraft’s maiden flight. Ju-Air, Ju-Air,  VFL, and luggage manufacturer Rimowa Rimowa  joined forces to remake the F13 and embark on a journey into bygone aviation. The original F13 was designed by German entrepreneur, engineer, and visionary Hugo Junkers in 1919. It was the first cantilever all-metal aircraft made of duralumin and was manufactured at the Junkers plants in Dessau, Germany, until 1933. Morszeck, Morszeck, whose father first developed Rimowa suitcases using the same material more than 60 years ago, felt a sense of RIMOWA’S JUNKERS F�� REPLICA

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November 2016

affiliation with Hugo Junkers’ project and therefore therefore sponsored the construction of the first airworthy F13 replica. “Hugo Junkers was the first person to use duralumin in aircraft construction,” Morszeck said. “Around the world, grooved sheet metal became the hallmark of Junkers aircraft and Rimowa suitcases … I wanted to give back the world an important cultural asset — not in a museum, but where it belongs: in the skies.” The F13 team performed research in numerous archives spread across multiple countries to develop the construction plans. A Junkers JL6 at the Museum of Air and Space at Le Bourget in Paris proved to be especially valuable. It was scanned by lasers, and the data was fed into 3-D construction software and used to complement the original blueprints. The historical replica is powered by a 450-hp Pratt & Whitney Wasp Junior R-985 nine-cylinder radial engine. The airplane and its luxurious interior were built with materials and skills used in far gone times. The F13’s Swiss certification is scheduled for the end of 2016.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARINO BORIC

INNOVATION CUTTING�EDGE DEVELOPMENTS

The Sceptor X-57 Demonstrator NASA + small business = rapid pace, reduced cost BY BETH E. STANTON

This is not NASA working with Boeing or Lockheed. This is NASA  working  working with essen essentially tially the experimental experimental aircraft aircraft community community.. — Mark Moore the first NASA X-plane, broke broke the sound barrier in 1947. Currently, three NASA research centers (Langley, Armstrong, and Glenn) are partnered with small business to break another barrier: integrating distributed electric propulsion (DEP) technology into the first manned X-plane built in more than 25 years. DEP technology uses multiple electric motors distributed about the airframe, allowing unique aerodynamic/propulsion interaction. The NASA Sceptor (Scalable Convergent Electric Propulsion Technology and Operations Research) X-57 flight demonstrator uses two types of DEP: small high-lift propellers along the leading edge of the wing that accelerate the air over the wing, increasing lift and allowing low speeds for takeoff and landing, and larger propellers located at each wingtip for cruise. The X-57 flight demonstrator is a modified light twin-engine Tecnam P2006T. Mark Moore, Sceptor principal investigator at NASA Langley, and Sean Clark, co -principal investigator at NASA Armstrong, are leading teams partnered with small business. “NASA has incredible depth and thousands of researchers who are the best in the world,” Mark said. “However, “However, we’re the government and relatively slow moving. By merging with industry we are able to get the best of both worlds. These small companies are rapid in executing their portion of the work. This project is moving incredibly fast.” Empirical Systems Aerospace, the primary contractor, contractor, has a long history of contracts with NASA. Joby Aviation is designing and building new

 THE BELL X��, X��,

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November 2016

electric motors and motor controllers. Electric Power Systems Systems is designing the lithium-ion battery system. Xperimental is building the new DEP carbon composite wing. The project uses MT propellers as well as NASA-designed propellers. Scaled Composites is installing the battery system and integrating the new electric motors onto the existing Tecnam aircraft. SCALE�FREE SYNERGY 

It’s one thing to draw a picture of an airplane that has 14 motors on it; it’s another thing to try to install 14 motors and have them all run when they’re supposed to. — Sean Clark  DEP is not merely about propulsion; it’s about being able to apply a scale-free technology to fundamentally change how aircraft are designed. Batteries constrain how much energy you have to work with to fly. fly. “Instead of having one big efficient engine, we can

ILLUSTRATION COURTESY OF NASA 

have a whole bunch of small efficient engines that can be put anywhere on the aircraft to achieve a synergistic integration,” Mark said. Part of their innovation is putting the propellers close to the wing so the flow field of the propeller interacts with the flow field of the wing in a highly high ly coupled way. Installing the cruise propellers at the wingtips and turning them in the opposite direction of the wingtip vortex will recover some of the power that goes under the wingtip vortex of the aircraft and increase aircraft performance. “We’re “We’re putting these components together in a way that ’s never been done before,” Sean said. GROUND TESTING

Other companies have utilized pickup truck testing. We’re just the first ones to do it on steroids. People called us the Mad Max of aeronautics. — Mark Moore  The first stage of the project was ground testing to validate the aerodynamics of the high-lift, low-speed portion of the demonstrator. strator. In 2015, the Leading Edge Asynchronous Propeller Technology Technology (LEAPTech) (LEAPTech) program tested a first generation 31-foot carbon composite wing with 18 small electric motors. Pickup truck testing, a tried and true wind tun nel alternative, can yield less-than-optimal results due to turbulence and vibration. NASA developed a system with a steel truss floating on four airbags that held the test wing. A 30,000-pound tractor-trailer tractor-trailer rig served as a stable platform that flew the wing 22 feet aloft in clean air at 70 mph. The experiment exceeded all predictions. By increasing dynamic pressure across the wing, the DEP system on the leading edge produced 2.5 times more lift by increasing the velocity over the entire span of the wing.

INCREMENTS

The only new things we are developing are where we need to push the cutting edge. That’s intentional since we do not want to introduce unnecessary risk. We want to use tried and true technology. — Sean Clark  Stock parts were used for the project whenever possible, serving to both reduce costs and eliminate needless variables. Each new component will be separately flight-qualified to build trust and adhere to stringent NASA safety standards. The newly designed Joby wingtip cruise motors have stock MT propellers. The smaller leading edge propellers require high-induced velocity, yet must also fold up for cruise flight. The “funky shaped” NASA-designed propeller will be fitted onto off-the-shelf Joby motors. The high-lift propeller system allows a much smaller wing with a 2.5 times reduction in wing area. “We are making no changes to the fuselage, horizontal and vertical tail, or landing gear,” gear,” Mark said. “With this experiment, we can show how much more efficient a DEP wing is. It will b e absolutely obvious when we fly this what DEP is doing, because nothing else on the vehicle will have changed.” NASA’s primary objective is for the Sceptor to use five times less energy than the original P2006T when cruising at 175 mph. Four phases have been established for Sceptor incremental demonstrations over the next two years: �.

Ground validation of the DEP high-lift system, test-pilot training, and base line flight testing in the Tecnam P2006T.

�. Replacement of Tecnam Rotax internal

combustion engines with electric Joby cruise motors and installation of the battery system and instrumentation. �. DEP wing development and fabrication.

Removal of original Tecnam wing and installation of the DEP wing with electric motors relocated to wingtips (to include the nacelles, but not the high-lift motors, controllers, or folding props).

NEW AVIATION HORIZONS

We were a foot in the door with this little X-Plane for additional, more capable X-Planes to follow. — Mark Moore  The Sceptor team’s execution of the X-57 has inspired NASA to build more X-Planes. NASA’s recently announced New Aviation Horizons initiative dedicates 10 years and $4 billion to develop a variety of flight demonstrators. “You “You need brand new technologies that fundamentally change things,” Mark said. “If you look at the history of aviation, propulsion technology has always led the way for transformational change. DEP is a game-changer technology that justifies building these demonstrators.” demonstrators.” Currently 50 percent of commercial flights, excluding GA and commuter flights, are less than 500 nm, with a significant number less than 250 nm. “We can design electric aircraft now that can fly 250 nm with the batteries we have,” have,” Mark said. “Hybrid electric solutions can fly 500 nm now that are ultra-efficient. We can transform aviation within 10 years with this electric technology.” To encourage and incentivize U.S. U.S. industry to be a leader and not a distant follower, NASA and the FAA have teamed with industry to conduct emerging technology workshops. “We’re not moving at the snail’s pace that aerospace has been working at for the past 30 years. It’s happening fast and furious. We want to help shepherd this technology to move as quickly as possible,” Mark said. Beth E. Stanton, EAA 1076326, is a competition aerobatic

pilot in her fourth season flying in the Intermediate category in a Lazer 210. She is president of Northern California Chapter

�. Flight test with integrated high-lift motors

and folding props.

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF NASA 

38 of the International International Aerobatic Club. She can be reached at [email protected] .

www.eaa.org 15  15

FLYBY  FEATURED PHOTO

16 Sport Aviation

November 2016

WHAT:

1947 Douglas AD -1 Skyraider WHERE:

Oshkosh, Wisconsin

PHOTOGRAPHER:  Scott

Slocum

www.eaa.org

17

STEVE KROG COMMENTARY / THE / THE CLASSIC INSTRUCTOR

The crosswind is from left to right. Left or windward wing is down and opposite or right rudder is applied to keep the airplane aligned with the runway centerline.

So You Want to Fly a Taildragger Part four: Crosswind landings BY STEVE KROG

CROSSWINDS, WHETHER LIGHT, MODERATE, or strong, keep many pilots on the ground on an otherwise beautiful pleasure-flying day. day. Mention a developing crosswind to a pancake breakfast attendee, and their stomach becomes a roaring rage of indigestion. The fear of having to make a crosswind landing back at home base often causes sweaty palms and nervous tics that wouldn’t normally be experienced by a confident and practiced pleasure pilot. A crosswind landing, like any other maneuver done in a tailwheel airplane, is not to be feared if studied and practiced from time to time. If one only performs a crosswind landing infrequently when caught in the wind after a fly-in, the crosswind landing will always create a pit in your stomach. I recently spent nearly an entire day teaching crosswind landings to two experienced tailwheel pilots both skeptical of performing these landings. The winds were fairly light, initially: an approximate 30-degree crosswind from the right at 10 mph. Prior to as well as upon entering the traffic pattern, it is important to visualize the wind’s effect on each leg of the pattern. In this case we were landing on Runway 18 so the wind was blowing us away from the runway on the left downwind, requiring a slight crab angle to the left to compensate. When turning left onto the base leg a combination headwind and crosswind were encountered, slowing our groundspeed. This caused us to lose a bit more altitude than when flying a normal approach. Finally, Finally, as we turned left onto the final approach, the wind was trying to push us leftward requiring us to establish a crosswind landing configuration to make a safe landing on the runway centerline. There are two safe, well-established methods for flying the final approach in a crosswind. The first is flying with one wing down into the wind with opposite rudder and the second, crab angle. Ask six pilots which method they prefer and you’ll get three of each. It all comes down to what you become comfortable with. I teach both methods and let the student decide. I am also a strong proponent of tight traffic patterns, but I make an exception when initially teaching the crosswind approach and landing.

18 Sport Aviation

November 2016

The left wing is held down and right rudder is applied during the flare before touching down.

When making a strong crosswind wheel landing, the windward main wheel will touch down first, then the other main wheel.

While rolling out after a wheel landing touch down, left aileron and right rudder inputs are continued to maintain a straight ground track.

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF STEVE KROG

STEVE KROG

WING DOWN OR CROSS�CONTROL APPROACH

Using the wing down with opposite rudder approach, I have the student extend the downwind leg so that our final approach will be about 3/4 mile long. This gives the student time to better visualize the approach and make the inputs necessary to keep the aircraft aligned with the runway centerline. After turning final, lower the wing into the wind 2-3 degrees, offsetting the wind pushing the airplane sideways. Adjust the wing degree as needed to prevent drift. The nose of the airplane will now want to turn the opposite direction by a few degrees. Apply just enough opposite rudder to realign the nose of the airplane with the centerline. If the wind is fairly steady, continue holding these inputs for the duration of the approach. However, if the wind is somewhat gusty and it is midday with thermal activity, slight but near constant corrections will need to be made to keep the airplane aligned with the runway centerline and on the desired glide path. Before I ever have a student land in a crosswind, we’ll first fly the full pattern and approach, then level off 10 feet above the runway runway,, adding enough power to maintain altitude, then fly the length of the runway maintaining or adjusting inputs as needed for the crosswind. Then we go around and try it again. Two Two or three crosswind setups followed by go-arounds will generally teach the student to visualize what is happening and, by doing so, begin to relax. The fourth crosswind approach will lead to a landing. Continue with the wing down, opposite rudder approach. At approximately 10 feet above the runway, reduce power for landing if still carrying power, power, and level the nose of the aircraft as you would for a normal three-point landing, but continue holding the wing down with opposite rudder application. Flare and touch down. Depending on the wind velocity you may touch down on one main wheel and the tail wheel. As the aircraft slows the other main wheel will also touch down. Keep the stick or yoke all the way back unt il coming to a stop. During the rollout continue applying opposite aileron and rudder. The aircraft aircraft is on t he ground and done flying, but the wind will still want to have its way with you should you relax. As the aircraft slows continue applying more aileron until you reach the aileron stop. Hold the stick or yoke in this position until the aircraft stops. With a light to moderate crosswind from the right, for example, continued left rudder tapping is needed to keep the aircraft from weathervaning and turning to the right when you least expect it. Do not push on and hold steady pressure on the left rudder during the rollout as this will generally cause an overcorrection, creating a situation leading to runway S-turns. Once the aircraft has stopped, practice the normal aileron and rudder positioning for t axiing with a wind. CRAB ANGLE APPROACH

The second type of crosswind approach is the crab angle method. Pattern corrections for the wind are the same. Where this approach differs is on final. Again, using the extended final approach for training purposes, turn final, then establish a crab angle to keep the aircraft aligned with the runway centerline. Depending on the wind velocity, velocity, it may only require a 3- to 5-degree crab angle. Maintain this crab angle while descending along the glide path to landing.

20 Sport Aviation

November 2016

If the wind is gusting and there is thermal activity, minor adjustments may need to be made to maintain your ground track or runway centerline alignment as well as compensating for altitude changes. At approximately 10 feet above the runway, level off and add enough power to maintain altitude but keep the crab angle in place. Fly the length of the runway in this configuration, then make a go-around and try it again. Two Two or three practice approaches will help get the feel for the correct amount of input needed. On the third or fourth approach, a landing will be executed. Upon turning final, establish the crab angle as needed and adjust power as required to maintain your glide path and desired approach speed. At approximately 20-30 feet above the ground, transition from the crab angle to a wing down into the wind with opposite rudder application. Then follow through with the level-off, flare, and landing as described above. As mentioned previously, every pilot who flies in crosswinds will have an opinion as to which of the two approaches are best. It still comes down to whatever you become the most comfortable with. If winds are steady, I like to fly the wing down, opposite rudder approach. However, However, if the winds are variable and gusting, I much prefer the crab angle approach. The wing down, opposite rudder approach is nothing more than the first stage of a slip to land. In gusty conditions the wind velocity can be quite variable. One second you have the perfect setup, and the next a wind gust pushes you away from the runway centerline, requiring more aileron win g down and opposite rudder inputs, creating a slip. Now you’re not only trying to control the crosswind but also dealing with an unstable glide path created by the wind and the slip. Chasing both horizontal and vertical direction can be quite stressful. The more things you can stabilize on the approach, the better, easier, and safer your landing will be. I’ve recommended to a number of students that they ease into the crosswind landings after I’ve signed them off. By that I mean pick a runway that has a light steady crosswind and do at least six to eight crosswind takeoffs and landings to build skill and confidence. Then on another day when there is a bit more crosswind, do the same. Sure, you’ll be anxious, but that is to be expected. Practice leads to proficiency and confidence. NOTE

The full stall and wheel landings were discussed in detail in previous articles. Either landing can be used in crosswinds depending upon the aircraft you are flying and the strength and direction of the crosswind. My personal preference when dealing with a strong, gusty crosswind is to use the crab angle approach followed by a wheel landing. Many may disagree with me, but that is what I’m comfortable with when flying in crosswinds gusting well over 20 mph. Steve Krog, EAA 173799, has been flying for more than four decades and giving tailwheel instruction for nearly as long. In 2006 he launched Cub Air Flight, a flight training training school using tailwheel aircraft for all primary training.

 J. MAC MCCLELLAN MCCLELLAN COMMENTARY / LEFT / LEFT SEAT 

The Future Arrives After decades of talk and planning the new nav system is here — almost BY J. MAC MCCLELLAN

ago my good friend and noted general aviation writer Richard Collins and I visited FAA headquarters in Washington for a detailed briefing on the future of navigation. We were told by FAA top management that by the year 2016, VORs and instrument landing systems (ILS) and other conventional navigation aids would be gone. In their place would be a system based on s atellite navigation. Richard and I listened to the plan, which sounded great. Pilots would be able to navigate long distances on direct courses. No more airways. Even small, little used runways would be served by instrument approach guidance equal to or better than an ILS. We reported the FAA’s plans in  Flying   magazine, but we didn’t add  Flying  magazine, our personal opinion, which was, “This isn’t going to happen.”  You  You could say we were cynical, but I prefer prefer to think of us as expeexperienced. We had listened to, test-flown, and written about a host of futuristic FAA projects over the years, and essentially none of the plans came true. At least not in the expected form, and certainly not on the predicted schedule. And don’t even mention the budget. That prediction of transition from a navigation system built on hundreds of radio aids on the ground to a space-based system didn’t come true either. But two recent encounters I had with pilots made me stop and think. The transition to a new nav system actually is happening. It’s here now. now. It’s not complete, and it kind of snuck up on us, but I now believe I will actually live long enough to fly into the future. My first reality check came in a recent conversation with a CFI. I was killing time at a Cleveland area airport FBO and chatted with a CFI who was there just finish ing with a lesson. He told me he was very busy, much more so than in many years, and most of his students were working on instrument ratings and commercial certificates. But this CFI — who was by no means a graybeard — had a major complaint. He was having a very difficult time finding VOR approaches for his instrument students to practice. The VOR approaches to his home field were gone. They had simply disappeared from the chart book. In their place were area navigation (RNAV) (RNAV) approaches based on GPS to each of the four runway approach ends at the airport. All of t hese approaches were straight in, all had vertical guidance, and one, to t he longest runway, runway, was a localizer performance with vertical guidance (LPV) type of approach that offers the same precision and potentially low approach minimums as an ILS. MORE THAN �� YEARS

22 Sport Aviation

November 2016

I thought, wow, this is the future most of us dreamed of, and the FAA promised, all those years ago. Straight-in approaches with precise vertical guidance at a rather small and not very busy airport. Instead of tuning, timing, turning and descending, and looking for the runway off to one side of the nose, pilots could now fly the approach right down the extended centerline. Now we always have exact exact distance to go to each fix, and to the runway threshold so timing doesn’t matter. The course reversal procedure turn that is necessary on most VOR approaches is history. For me this is a dream come true. But this CFI didn’t share my enthusiasm. His worry is that his instrument students will at some point need to fly a  VOR approach and won’t know how. He, like many pilots, including me for many years, just couldn’t believe the future has finally arrived. VOR approaches are going away and soon so will most of the VOR transmitters themselves. The other encounter that jolted my view of the future was with, of all people, the crew of a U.S. Customs and Border Protection Black Hawk helicopter flying to Oshkosh to display their aircraft during AirVenture. AirVenture. It was a stormy morning, and the customs guys had dropped into our airport to wait out the weather. We chatted about the weather, the big show at Oshkosh, and the capabilities of the Black Hawk, which are impressive. But when I asked them if they regularly flew IFR I was surprised to learn how out of date their helicopter really is. It turns out their Black Hawk was equipped with only conventional VOR/DME receivers. No flight management system or GPS of any kind.

  s   m    l    i    F   e   n   r   o    b   r    i    A   o    t   o    h    P   -

J. MAC MCCLELLAN

That may not sound like a significant limitation, but in this case it was crucial. The nearby MKG VOR has some kind of problem, and many radials have been NOTAMed out of service for a long time. And there is no mention in the NOTAM that the radials will ever be fixed and usable again. The issue for the Black Hawk crew is that the only VOR airway headed westbound across Lake Michigan is based on an unusable radial from MKG. Without GPS they were stuck because they had no airway to file and fly under IFR. Why does this mean the future is here? Because the FAA is focusi i ff d i l i b d h b d

24 Sport Aviation

November 2016

The VOR broadcast equipment is old technology. And it’s an analog system, not digital. The station broadcasts a composite signal that includes a steady reference frequency and a variable frequency that allows the airborne receiver to determine the radial from the station. Anything analog requires adjustment and calibration, unlike digital equipment that either works or doesn’t. That’s why if you use  VOR for IFR navigation you need to check your equipment equipment for accuracy every 30 days because things can go out of calibration without warning. We don’t check GPS for accuracy because the system does h i h f h i

ILLUSTRATION BY BRANDON JACOBS

On a regular schedule the airway-checking airplanes must fly every instrument approach and make sure the signal received in flight is within the required tolerance. Because the VOR signal is analog, and in the VHF frequency band, all kinds of things can affect accuracy. For For example, if a new building buildi ng or tower is constructed, the VOR signal can reflect off it and “bend” the radial. Even changes in season with leaves on the trees, and then winter without leaves, can reflect the VOR signal introducing errors. That’s why the FAA is taking VOR approaches out of the chart book. When the approach is gone so is the need and expense of regularly flight checking it. The RNAV-GPS RNAV-GPS approaches that replace the  VOR  VOR proced procedure uress are are also also fligh flightt chec checked ked,, but but the expense expense is not dupliduplicated when the VOR approach is decommissioned.

The dream of always knowing exactly where you are, where you’re going, and how long it will

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take to get there is finally a reality. There are some in general aviation who think the move to satellite-based navigation leaves them behind and creates a new expense for airplane owners. That’s true, but is the cost or inconvenience that great? For the VFR pilot I can’t see any real benefit to the VOR system. Under VFR you can use anything you want as a navigation aid because it’s what you see out the window that is the fundamental source of position. So any portable, affordable GPS can guide you anywhere, knows where all the airports are, and can keep track of regulated airspace is better than VOR. There is no need or cost to in stall portable equipment in the airplane. Even the GPS receiver that is in many tablet computers when teamed with one of the many excellent chart apps works great and costs little. Who would trade that for a box that can only find a VOR station instead of every airport anywhere? If you fly IFR the time has come to install an approved GPS to fully use the system. Just ask that Black Hawk crew. It doesn’t need to be a more costly wide-area augmentation system (WAAS) because any IFR-approved GPS navigator can be used en route and for basic GPS instrument approaches. And GPS replaces the function of DME and always shows distance to the fix or runway. ADS-B has consumed most of the conversation about NextGen and the new navigation system because there is a deadline and it will be required for flight in regulated airspace by the end of 2019. ADS-B is essential to advance to a more precise and reliable and, eventually, eventually, a higher capacity airspace system. But ADS-B doesn’t really change the way we fly. The change to satellite-based navigation delivers huge changes, all of them good as far as I’m concerned. The dream of always knowing exactly where you are, where you’re going, and how long it will take to get there is finally a reality. I am now convinced we actually have made it to the future.  J. Mac Mac McClellan McClellan, EAA 747337, has been a pilot for more than 40 years, holds an ATP

certificate, and owns a Beechcraft Baron.

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25

STEVE ELLS COMMENTARY / THE / THE WORKBENCH

 Acr  Acron onym ym Alley  Alley  Or “How is it approved?” BY STEVE ELLS

digital instrument age when I replaced my  A new new age for avi avion onics ics vacuum-driven artificial horizon (AH) instrument with a Sandia SAI 340 Quattro instrument. It fits nicely into the same 3-1/8-inch stancertification and safety dard instrument hole as the AH. The SAI 340 Quattro displays attitude, airspeed, altitude, and slip equipment equipme nt installations is on a bright, internally lit 2-7/8 by 2-1/8 inch screen. All four of those peeking over the horizon. functions meet or exceed the requirements requirements of the appropriate technical standard order (TSO) for that instrument. A new age for avionics certification and safety equipment installations is peeking over the horizon. First let’s take a look at some of the Advisory Circular 23.1311-1C 23.1311-1C describes the old rules for adding or changing equipment on FAA certified airplanes. regulatory basis for these installations. Certified airplanes are built in accordance with a type certificate The “acceptable compliance methods” (TC). The details of all TCs are listed in a type certificate data sheet described in the policy statement provide (TCDS). A part or component can be installed if it’s produced by the owners with a simple path to install what TC holder or a part production holder; if it’s an owner-produced owner-produced are known as electronic flight instrument part or a part produced by the holder of an appropriate certificate systems (EFIS) in place of failure-prone vacsuch as an FAA-approved repair station; or if it’s a standard part uum-driven attitude indicators. such as nuts, bolts, etc. During AirVenture 2016 I spoke with Ric Historically, Historically, parts and components can also be approved for Peri, vice president of government and industry installation installation through a supplemental type certificate (STC) or the affairs for the Aircraft Electronics Association, parts manufacturer approval (PMA) process. about the alphabet soup of component certificaMy Sandia Quattro is approved for installation under a new policy. tions and installation approvals. I RECENTLY ENTERED THE

FAA POLICY STATEMENTS

 Above : Dyon D10A and

Garmin G5 

26 Sport Aviation

The Quattro is installed under the provisions of FAA Policy Statement PS-ACE-23-08, PS-ACE-23-08, titled Repla titled Replacement cement of Vacuum Vacuum Driven Attitude Attitude  Indicator  Indicatorss in CFR 14, Part 23/CAR 3 Airplanes Airplanes.. This PS “describes acceptable compliance methods for replacing vacuum-driven attitude indicators with electronically-driven replacement indicators.”

November 2016

 TSO

According to Ric, if a manufacturer manufacturer designs a widget that it wants to sell for installation on everything from the biggest airplane to the smallest, its widget is built to comply with standards in TSOs.

According to the FAA webpage, “A “A Technical Standard Order (TSO) is a minimum performance standard issued by the Administrator for specified materials, parts, processes, and appliances  Administrator ator means the Federal used on civil aircraft.” aircraft.” In this case, “ Administr Aviation Administrator or any person to whom he has d elegated his authority in the matter concerned.” For instance, the TSO for the vacuum-powered AH I removed is TSO-C4c, dated April 1, 1959. The TSO lists conditions that the producers of attitude instruments must meet or exceed for the manufacturer to gain a TSO A, or authorization. The TSO permits owners to replace an AH or other component or part built by one company with one built by a different company without additional approval. Since Sandia wanted to market the SAI 340 Quattro to a wide range of aircraft users, it elected to build the Quattro to meet or exceed the TSO conditions for an attitude indicator, for an airspeed indicator, for an altimeter, and for a slip indictor. Even though the Quattro is TSO’d TSO’d for airspeed and altitude indications, since it was installed under the provisions of the policy letter, I can’t remove those analog AHTSO  gauges. Yet.

PMA

If an individual or manufacturer produces a widget that is built to fulfill a specific need on a particular model or make of aircraft, he or she applies for approval to build that widget through what’s known as a parts manufacturer manufacturer approval or PMA. PMA holders such as McFarlane Aviation and Wag-Aero now produce a wide range of replacement parts for Cessna and Piper airplanes. PMA parts usually cost less — in some cases markedly less — than the original manufacturer’s part. STC

Garmin International recently introduced the G5, its EFIS to replace the existing AH or turn coordinator. The G5 is approved for installation in a wide range of GA aircraft through the STC process. The G5, in addition to connections to aircraft power, electrical ground, pitot and static systems, also contains a WAAS GPS and an internal air data computer. An external antenna is optional. The high integrity (WAAS) GPS feed provides positional reference data for certain autopilots. The G5 fits in a standard 3-1/8-inch instrument cutout and comes equipped with a backup battery capable of powering the G5 for up to four hours. In 2016 EAA announced a partnership with the FAA and Dynon Avionics that resulted in an STC that approves the installation of a Dynon D10A — and subsequently the D100 — EFIS in most small GA aircraft. The STC is approval to install the D10A and the D100.

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Unlike the Sandia Quattro and the G5, neither the D10A nor the D100 are TSO’d or PMA’d. The Dynon EFIS units are an example of what’s known as a commercial parts approval. In 2010 the FAA revised Part 21 titled Certification  Procedures  Procedures for Products Products and Articles Articles.. Article is  Article is defined as a material, part, component, process, or appliance. According to the FAA, a commercial part means part means an article that is listed on an FAA-approved commercial parts list included in a design approval holder’s instructions for continued airworthiness (ICA) required by Sec. 21.50. An article by David A. Lombardo in AINonlin in AINonlinee published in 2010 cites, “For “For a part to be classified as commercial under the new standards, a design approval holder (DAH) must create a list of such parts and apply to the FAA for approval. It must demonstrate in the application that each part on the list has no effect on safety.” Matt Thurber at AIN  at AIN  also  also wrote, “According to the EAA, ‘Dynon’s product is also verified against the recently developed ASTM 3153-15, Standard Specification for Verification of Avionics Systems.’” Systems .’” This commercial part rule and the new ASTM standard are the basis used by Dynon to produce the D10A and D100. The STC is the approval to install these Dynon EFIS units. The STC in this case is owned and administered by EAA. Cost for the STC is $100. Changes in Part 21 and the introduction of programs such as the Non-Required Safety Enhancing Equipment (NORSEE) Policy Statement (PS-AIR-21.8-1602), titled Approval titled Approval of Non Non  Required Safety Enhancing Enhancing Equipment Equipment,, are a few of the tools that are designed to ease the installation of safety equipment in older certified airplanes. This safety equipment includes much more than simple systems; it also includes traffic advisory systems, terrain advisory systems, and control systems such as autopilots and stability control systems. Last year these changes eased the pathway to install angle of attack (AOA) instruments in older aircraft. This year it’s replacing vacuum-powered attitude indicators with battery-powered EFIS units. My personal wish list includes approval for the installation of an inexpensive wing leveler or autopilot in my 1960 Comanche. Will these new certification and installation paths lower the accident rates of the GA fleet? Time will answer that question, but I can testify that replacing my old AH with the Quattro provided me with a very visible easy-to-read display when, a few miles north of my home airport two weeks ago, I flew into very thick smoke from a wildfire. Steven Ells, EAA

883967 883967, is an A&P mechanic, commercial pilot, and freelance writer.

He flies a Piper Comanche and lives in Paso Robles, California.

28 Sport Aviation

November 2016

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DAVE MATHENY  COMMENTARY / LIGHT / LIGHT FLIGHT 

The Buzz Monster The thing that makes us do amateur stunts when flying BY DAVE MATHENY 

beautiful, sunny day, and there was that most tempting of all situations, a small crowd of spectators gathered at my field to look at all the amazing aircraft on the ground and in flight. I was a mile south of the field, coming back from an hourlong flight in my Quicksilver MX Sprint, when I first saw them. They were just beyond the northern end of our huge, barnlike hangar. What happened next I blame on the Buzz Monster, who said, “I’ve got it,” and took the controls. The Buzz Monster brought the Quick down low, south of the field, where it was shielded from the crowd’s view by the hangar. Whistling in fast at reduced throttle, just 10 feet above the peak of the roof — then, a moment before appearing, he firewalled it, knowing that most of the spectators would not have heard him coming until he thundered overhead. overhead. A climbing left turn and a glance back showed that the buzz job had been perfect. Startled looks, arms raised protectively, mouths agape. The Buzz Monster was beside himself with delight. “You did it! You are the greatest!” he shouted. I couldn’t help but grin. “Naw, it was you,” I said. IT WAS AN ABSOLUTELY

OLD, MEET NEW

That was the old me, the one who used to buzz everything buzzable, fly under bridges, that sort of thing. I stopped doing that stuff quite a few years ago when I realized that you can’t write and illustrate articles about the knuckleheadedness of amateur stunt flying while also performing amateur stunt flying. The dishonesty alone in preaching one thing while doing the opposite would have been reason enough. But there was more — all those accident summaries that began with some pilot making a low pass, followed by a sudden, unintended display of just how badly things can turn out. Sadly, I don’t think that just saying that buzzing is dangerous is going to make even a small dent in the number of buzz jobs performed. Buzzing has always been with us, at least partly because it’s pleasurable to see the ground and the buildings and the spectators go by so fast, but also because we like to show the world how cool we are. And we think it’s dangerous for other pilots, not for us, because we are so amazingly good.

30 Sport Aviation

November 2016

The fatality rate resulting from buzzing is unknown. That’s because the NTSB includes those fatalities under “maneuvering flight,” which is their collective term for everything outside of sedate banks and mild pitch angles, no matter what the pilot intended, nor how legitimate it might have been. AOPA’s Air Safety Institute explains that the term i ncludes “aerobatics, low passes, buzzing, pull-ups, aerial application maneuvers, a turn to reverse direction (as in a box canyon-type maneuver), or engine failure after takeoff when the pil ot tries to return to the runway.” Lumping all these together results in about four out of 10 aviation fatalities resulting from “maneuvering flight.” So hardworking crop-duster pilots who inadvertently get outside of the fli ght envelope and enter a stall-spin get included with yokels like me who (used to) fly under power lines just for grins. That hardly seems fair, but it’s the way these things are counted. Many of us who have been flying for some years know pilots who have blundered into something that they could have avoided, and in many cases did not live to say just where they went wrong. Often you just have to assume. And it’s not exclusively a North American phenomenon. phenomenon. An e-mail to me from a Sport Aviation reader in Israel mentioned the loss of a pilot and passenger in his area. “We have a good reason to believe that the tragic event took place while the pilot

ILLUSTRATION BY DAVE MATHENY 

was circling over his home waving to his wife,” wife,” he wrote. The pilot seems to have fallen victim to the classic buzz with high- g  pull-up,  pull-up, followed by stall/spin and the all-too-predictable impact with the ground. Both pilot and passenger died. Was he buzzing? Only the pilot would know. NOT�SO�MYTHICAL BEINGS

It might help if we examined what it is that makes us do this s ort of thing. And that is how I discovered the Buzz Monster. Monster. He may not be real; in fact, he’s less real than, for example, the Loch Ness monster or Bigfoot. But that only says that he is real enough t o cause trouble, but not so real that anybody has ever claimed to have taken a photograph of him. This is his first appearance in print. But there he sits, or looms, just behind the pilot’s seat, urging the pilot to make that low pass — really low, low, C’mon, get it close to the roof , let’s put the awe back in onlookers, get ’em to to hold their breath to see if the airplane will actually hit something . The Buzz Monster has a little in common with the gremlin, a notorious troublemaker accused of causing aircraft malfunctions by sabotage. Gremlins first came to wide public attention during World War II, when writer Roald Dahl, an RAF Hurricane pilot, devoted a children’s book to the idea. (Their best-known appearance was in a Twilight Zone episode, where an airline passenger, played by William Shatner, is the only one aboard who can see what the dreadful little

critter is doing out on the wing. The story has been remade for movies and TV several times.) But gremlins were always external beings. They sabotaged the aircraft from the outside. The Buzz Monster causes no mechanical malfunctions. He insinuates himself inside the pilot’s brain, a provocateur urging the pilot to do things that he or she would normally never do. The warning sign is a warm, tingly feeling at the base of the skull as you advance the throttle and lower the nose, aiming at the target. (Yes, at the target. The pull-up can be delayed until the aircraft gets really close.) With Buzz Monster secretions flowing through the pilot’s bloodstream, their thoughts commingle. I’m reminded of the lines from an old country song about the lure of mining: “Like a fiend with his dope and drunkard his wine, a man will have lust for the lure of the mine.” Only cockpits are a lot cheerier places than coal mines. I spent years under the Buzz Monster’s spell. His ways were my ways. His lusts were my lusts. I know well his favorite lines, but I’ve long since sobered up and learned how to counter them: “It looks dangerous, but it’s actually safe.” Uh, well, no, it’s not actually safe. That’s kind of the whole point, being unsafe. If it looks dangerous, it is. When qualified professional stunt pilots fly inverted over the runway, that’s dangerous, but they know what they are doing. “Do you have what it takes to do it?” Have what it takes? All it takes is flying an aircraft while being really close to the ground. No real skill required.

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I still have to key the mic and tell him to shut up. “Gotta get nice and low, otherwise we’re just a dot in the sky. sky.  You  You do this from from a safe height, and nobody will even notice you’re there.” there.” Yes, it is a s ad commentary on our times that most people don’t even look up when an aircraft passes overhead. But most people are also not impressed by the fact they routinely travel at 500 mph to places thousands of miles away in an airliner. But we don’t try to get them t o have a proper respect for that fact by having them sit in lawn chairs on the roof of the airliner. Some ways of making a point are not practical. “We can safely look over our shoulder just after we make the pass. Dude! Looking backward while flying forward — how cool is that?” Not very. Looking backward while flying forward takes our attention off the critically important things — horizon and instrument references, including airspeed and attitude indications. Also, noticing little things up ahead, like towers and trees and wires. “Now, just after the pass, we’ll go for the radical pull-up. Hey, this airplane is certificated for 3.8 g , so it can pull two easy.” Well, Well, when it was new, it could. But this is the way to induce a stall. In fact, experts enter a snap roll with a maneuver a lot like this, but, again, they know what they’re doing. WHEN IS IT NOT REALLY A BUZZ JOB?

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I was among a handful of people getting a press ride in a B -17G, -17G, Sentimental Journey, when the pilot made a low pass at maybe 100 feet down the runway at St. Paul Downtown airport (KSTP) (KSTP) at what seemed to be full throttle, then pulled up in what felt like a 2 g  climbing  climbing left turn, although it was probably a lot less than that. Everybody aboard laughed and cheered. I did wonder  just how strong those old wings were, were, but they undoubtedly got frequent inspections by dedicated experts. The pilot was a senior Boeing 747 captain with numerous warbird qualifications, but the central safety factor was that the low pass was being made over a runway, runway, which is obviously clear of obstructions, with tower clearance. He never looked back, instead concentrating on his flying. I would feel okay making a low pass like that, over a runway with ATC approval, in any aircraft I’m legal to fly. But no high- g  pull-up,  pull-up, and I’ll save the look back at the crowd for when I turn back downwind. I’ve managed to put the Buzz Monster in his proper place back where he belongs, all belted in and with a gag in his mouth. But every so often I still have to key the mic and tell him to shut up. instructor. He has Dave Matheny , EAA 184186, is a private pilot a nd an FAA ground instructor. been flying light aircraft, including ultralights, for 34 years. He can be reached at [email protected].

32 Sport Aviation

November 2016

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CHARLIE PRECOURT  COMMENTARY / FLIGHT / FLIGHT TEST 

No Folklore! Flying practices we want to believe are true — but are they? BY CHARLIE PRECOURT 

I wrote about the normalization of deviance and how it can creep into our flying practices. A corollary to that concept is what I call “folklore” — a description for the practices or beliefs we accumulate in our flying that ultimately prove incorrect. When we hear about these practices, particularly if they come from a credible source or if they fill a void in our knowledge, we want to believe. Folklore Folklore is particularly rampant in explanations about our aircraft systems, procedures, and operating limitations, which creates a recipe for real trouble, and there’s folklore out there being practiced in nearly every type I’ve flown. Even some of the most professional flying operations I’ve been part of have been subject to folklore. One example came up when I was in Bitburg, Germany, flying the Air Force F-15 air superiority fighter. fighter. Among the impressive handling qualities of the F-15 is its ability to aerobrake on landing, nose in the air, for an extended period. After touchdown we’d raise the nose to about 13 degrees attitude, and if you raised the flaps (not in the procedure!), it would do a wheelie for a couple thousand feet of the landing roll. In fact, if you also bumped the power up just above idle the airplane would A COUPLE MONTHS BACK

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November 2016

wheelie until you ran out of runway. Aerobraking was intended, with flaps-down drag, to slow the aircraft from touchdown speeds that were too high for effective wheel braking. Since energy varies with the square of velocity, velocity, any energy dissipation the wing could deliver would save a lot on brakes and tires. But the shortest stopping distance was still in a three-point stance, flaps up to get all the weight on the wheels, and maximum brake application. This is where the folklore crept in. Many of our pilots got into the habit of extended aerobraking with flaps up and nose in the air far below the speed where wheel brakes were more appropriate. appropriate. One of the most useless things in aviation is t he runway behind you, and this flaps-up aerobraking technique was leaving lots of it. The impression the F-15 would give when you were aerobraking was that big wing was really helping you slow down. So a folklore procedure was born: “Aerobrake as long as possible, and flaps up helps!” Mind you, this “procedure” didn’t make it into the books, but pilots were adopting it all around the base. Finally, when I heard it in a flight debrief as the best way to stop, s top, I started a debate. We argued for several hours at the squadron bar and finally debunked the myth that extended aerobraking was better than the normal braking called for in the operating handbook. Thankfully everyone returned to using the basic landing procedures before we had someone run off the t he runway. I came across more folklore in the U.S. Air Force T-38 jet trainer. We used the T-38 at NASA for proficiency training and often oft en operated out of White Sands, near El Paso, Texas. Texas. Summertime takeoffs there were quite the deal. Field elevation at El Paso is 4,000 feet, and temperatures were often above 95 degrees Fahrenheit, giving a density altitude

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF CHARLIE PRECOURT 

of almost 7,500 feet. In the T-38, normal takeoff speed is 155 knots, but in the event of an engine failure in these conditions single engine takeoff speed (SETOS) was nearly 195 knots. We would always carefully calculate, using the actual takeoff weight and temperature, that we would be able to either stop or take off before running out of runway ru nway,, if we experienced an engine failure. If the numbers didn’t verify this, we didn’t fly. The folklore that emerged here was “keep the landing gear down until SETOS (195 knots) just in case you have an engine failure.” However, doing this with two engines operating was nowhere in the takeoff chart calculations, and the drag of the gear hanging at those speeds is really significant. Normal takeoff distances on two engines were predicated on liftoff at 155 knots, and landing gear retracted in a stable climb by roughly 165 knots. But a lot of our pilots were leaving their gear hanging until 195 knots. This folklore procedure resulted in a high drag, 30-knot performance gap out to 195 knots, again putting lots of useless runway behind us. Computer modeling later proved that had an engine failed at, for example, 185 knots, the aircraft would have run off the runway either trying to stop or get to 195 knots to takeoff. Anyone doing a normal gear retraction would be flying away with good climb rate by the time the engine quit at 185 knots. It took lots of computer modeling of these scenarios to convince folks that delaying gear retraction was not a great idea. Perhaps the most unfortunate example of folklore I’ve come across was in the Schleicher ASK 21 glider when erroneous information about its spin characteristics contributed to a stall-spin fatality. fatality. The ASK 21 is a high-performance, two-place, tandem glider used as an advanced trainer. It is an excellent spin trainer, but with heavier pilots the nose falls too steeply post-stall to achieve a spin (it spirals into a high-speed dive). The manufacturer provides varying tail weights to allow heavier pilots to set a proper center of gravity (CG) for spin training, but the weights also have the effect of increasing the mass moments of inertia on the longitudinal axis. The resulting spin with heavy pilots

and tail weights is very oscillatory, oscillatory, with the nose falling up to 60 degrees nose low in one turn but then rising to only 10 degrees nose low in the next turn. It would continue this oscillation until you applied opposite rudder and forward elevator. vator. When this was first encountered at one flight school, the instructors thought they were entering a flat spin as the nose cycled upward. Since flat spin can imply unrecoverable spin, they chose to discontinue spin training altogether. They also erroneously believed they couldn’t spin the aircraft unless they were using the tail weights, so they thought that discontinuing use of the weights would keep them out of spin trouble altogether. The operating handbook never pointed to a requirement for tail weights to spin, but it failed to provide sufficient detail about this oscillatory spin characteristic, which only contributed to the instructors’ confusion. With proper information, they would have learned the difference between a recoverable, oscillatory spin and a true flat spin. After the accident, I was part of a test program to re-examine the ASK-21 stall-spin characteristics, which resulted in a rewrite of the operating handbook used by the flight school. In fact, the aircraft was fully capable of spinning without tail weights provided the front seat occupant was small in stature. The fatality was a stall-spin encountered during normal ridge soaring by an instructor who was flying with a very lightweight person in the front seat. The idea he could encounter a spin turning away from the ridgeline very near stall speed was the furthest thing from his mind. In fact, his uncoordinated aileron input provided enough adverse yaw to do just that, with insufficient altitude over the ridgeline to affect recovery. So if you’re ever curious about a procedure or system description you can’t find in your POH, you ought to stay curious until you sort out t he facts. Remember, Remember, no folklore! Fly safe! 150237, is a former NASA chief Charlie Precourt , EAA 150237, astronaut, space shuttle commander, and Air Force test pilot. He built a VariEze, owns a Piper JetPROP, and is a member of the EAA board of directors.

www.eaa.org 35  35

LAURAN PAINE JR. COMMENTARY / PLANE TALK

My hangar park bench.

EAA Magic The goodness within the EAA family BY LAURAN PAINE JR.

me from the park bench in my hangar. hangar. Come to think of it, a lot of my stories come from that park bench. Nice people come to visit, they sit, and we talk. I’m continually impressed with the goodness that resides within the EAA family. Lowell and Gaylia Farrand, from Ligonier, Indiana, were in Oregon visiting their son, Jim, for t heir granddaughter’s wedding. Lowell and Gaylia Farrand Lowell, EAA 35370, called and asked if we might meet, saying, “I really like your stuff.” So, yup, schedules meshed nicely, and we were able to meet in my hangar, at the aforementioned park bench. My standard instructions for meeting at the hangar for the first any money, but we always broke even. Then time are, “Pull into the Flight Deck restaurant parking lot and face 9/11 happened. We couldn’t do as much as south. I’ll spot you and come over and let you in through the security before, and the museum closed.” gate.” gate.” At the appointed time I spotted them and drove my ’53 Ford Lowell’s Lowell’s first airplane was a Luscombe tractor with the tote on the back to the gate and picked them up. I he bought right after high school. He flew think they got a kick out of that. The old tractor is the genesis of that for several years, then got married and many a good conversation. sold it. Then he found another Luscombe We toured the hangar a bit, and then Lowell that needed a rebuild. and Gaylia sat on the park bench. As is usually “We “We did most of that in the case, EAA stories flow easily. Lowell is a our living room,” he  All the wor workin kingg whil while, e, member of Chapters 132 (Elkhart, Indiana) and said. He sold that one Lowell was flying his 938 (Nappanee, Indiana). He’s also involved when the kids started with Chapter 865 (Niles, Michigan) and coming. Then he found Luscombe (number three) Chapter 104 (Valparaiso, (Valparaiso, Indiana). All these another rebuild project chapters are each a little different but share the and got it flying in 1959. 1959. and helping EAA chapter bond of flight, and being not too far apart, they Along the way he do a lot of things together. They are an interestworked in the electronmembers with their ing and sustainable mix. ics field repairing TVs, Lowell has been an active EAA member for a stereos, and such, projects, inspections (more long time. He’s an amateur-built designated airadjusting for all the worthiness representative, technical counselor, than 600 of them!), flights, new technologies as and flight advisor. He received the Wright they came. To make Brothers Master Pilot Award in 2013 (as did ends meet he worked and such. And he never Gaylia for supporting Lowell all of those 50 two eight-hour jobs. charged a dime. years) and the Tony Bingelis Award, also in His work car was a 2013. In 2014 he was inducted into the EAA 1964 VW Beetle. “I’d Ultralights Hall of Fame. He’s flown several difdrive to one job, work ferent types of light airplanes, Luscombes being his favorite, favorite, and eight hours, then I had an hour to get to my several warbirds for a nearby museum. “We “We did that at t he museum other eight-hour job. Did that for years. I for years, went to air shows, gave rides,” he said. “We never made drove the heck out of that VW. Put a lot of

 THIS STORY CAME TO

36 Sport Aviation

November 2016

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF LAURAN PAINE JR.

Lowell’s mangled Luscombe after its crash.

The new, old Luscombe that never would have happened without the generosity of Chapters 132 and 938.

miles and parts on it but never had to do any major engine work. Amazing car. I sold it, and last I heard, it ’s still going,” he said. All the working while, Lowell was flying his Luscombe (number three) and helping EAA chapter members with their projects, inspections (more than 600 of them!), flights, and such. And he never charged a dime. They’d try to give him money and he’d say, “Spend it on your family.” He added, “There are no moneyed people in our chapters. They’re all just family people like me.” Then this: Lowell was giving a ride to a friend in the Luscombe, flying off t he local strip, Zollinger Strip Airport (II21). It was a windy day, with weather around, but nothing really untoward. But on landing, shortly after touchdown, with a little power still on for the wind, a huge and sudden gust hit the airplane and picked it up and flipped it upside down. Lowell remembers seeing the airspeed needle go to zero and then to max. The airplane came to rest, upside down, in some tall corn off to the side of the runway.

The corn served to cushion the blow somewhat. Still, Lowell’s seat belt snapped, and he was thrown out the front windshield. His passenger’s seat belt held, but when the passenger unfastened it he fell to the roof and hurt his neck. Wind shear? That’s what I’m thinking. The big airports have wind sensors all over the place, and when wind direction and speeds get squirrelly all manner of warnings go off. You don’t have that luxury at the home airstrips, and wind shear is sneaky stuff. In the airline business we practiced all manner of wind shear scenarios in simulators. At first indication — wobbly airspeed, whatever — it was max power, pitch up to a predetermined value, and fly through it (if you can). Of note, if you suspect it’s coming, you react much quicker than if it catches you totally by surprise. Also of note, max power in a 737 is more effective than 85 hp in a Luscombe. I still remember a sim session where we had practiced wind shear scenarios. Then we moved to single-engine approaches.

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Thing is, the instructor forgot to delete the wind shear. We hit it on a single-engine approach. One engine was no match for it. We crashed. Lowell said he was walking three days after the incident but complete healing took a lot longer. “I didn’t know it, I guess, but I was despondent,” he said. “I’d go look at the pile of wrecked airplane parts, and it was heartbreaking.” heartbreaking.” And now, some EAA magic. A chapter member knew of a Luscombe for sale and told Lowell about it. Lowell asked how much and, upon hearing the price, said, “I can’t afford that.” Then an idea was born. Bill Weaver Weaver (Chapter 132) and Bernie Yoder Yoder (Chapter 938) hatched the idea, asking other chapters and members, “What if all the chapters went together to raise enough money to buy Lowell the Luscombe?” It happens that the Valparaiso Valparaiso chapter has a member, Louie Bakrevski, who buys damaged Luscombes from insurance companies and then uses them for parts or restores them, whatever works best. He’s kinda the Luscombe guy in that part of the country. And, of course, he knows Lowell and of his years of giving to chapters and members. He sold the Luscombe for the cause, at a third of its original asking price. But not just outright — there is yet more goodness to come. The chapters held their annual Christmas get-together. At the party they called Gaylia to the front and handed her a Christmas card but told her not to open it until they got home. The Farrands complied. At home they opened it. Inside were a card and a

deposit slip in the amount needed to purchase the Luscombe. “They knew I’d never accept the money so they got my account number from the check I used to pay for the Christmas dinner and then went ahead and put the money in my account,” Lowell said.  Lowell is flying that Luscombe to this day. It was built in 1941 and used for some military training. It had some damage history, history, but Lowell has worked all that out. That’s what he does! “It’s 75 years old so I call it my new, new, old Luscombe,” he said. He went on with, “The first time I flew it I cried, filled all my hankies with tears, thinking how I could hardly believe what all t hose people had done for me. I flew it just the other day, and I still tear up sometimes thinking about it.” Back to the park bench: Sitt ing there, I noticed Gaylia’s lightweight jacket had an unusual pattern to it. I mentioned it, and she stood up and showed me — it was a sectional chart. And down by her lower left front pocket, Zollinger field was circled lightly in ink. You gotta like that!  You  You already know it, but it bears repeating sometimes: sometimes: Aviation Aviation is  just a pretty darn big loving family. family. Lauran Paine Jr. , EAA 582274, is a retired military pilot and retired airline pilot. He built

and flies an RV-8 and has owned a Stearman and a Champ. Learn more about Lauran at his website, website, www.ThunderBumper.com.

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ROBERT N. ROSSIER COMMENTARY / STICK / STICK AND RUDDER

 An Inter Interest esting ing Flight Flight Thinking through electrical problems BY ROBERT N. ROSSIER

a friend of mine was flying a light twin when she discovered an electrical problem. You would think that with all the redundancy provided by a twin, it wouldn’t be a problem, but in fact the result was the loss of both alternators, and the battery was dying a quic k death. Fortunately, she was close to her home airport, and despite the onset of darkness, she made it back without incident. What’s troubling is to consider what the sad story might have been had she not been close to an airport, if it had been a bit later, if the weather had been deteriorating, or if any one of a hundred other variables had conspired against her. But thinking through such scenarios can be a great exercise in preparedness and help us hone our preflight planning and in-flight decision-making skills. A FEW MONTHS AGO

IMAGINING THE WORST 

When an electrical system loses its charging capability, capability, the situation can turn ugly fairly quickly. It’s nice to think that we don’t really need that electrical system — that we can fly without all that electrical equipment and electronic wizardry. wizardry. In reality, losing it might put us in a pretty tight bind. Let’s take the case where our destination is a nontowered field with pilot-controlled lighting, it’s night, and we’ve lost all electrical power. Since we don’t have the power to operate a radio, we might have to make a landing without the aid of runway lights — or VASI or PAPI for that matter. Maybe we can make a low pass and rouse someone who will see what’s going on and turn the lights on for us, but that could be wishful thinking. Maybe someone else will be in

40 Sport Aviation

November 2016

the pattern to turn on the lights — not a viable plan. Maybe we could call someone for assistance on our cellphone. In reality, we might decide to divert to another airport, preferably one with an operating control tower where the runway lights will be on. A few prayers might come in handy, handy, too. The diversion itself might be a challenge. On a beautiful VFR night over lighted terrain where we can easily navigate by pilotage, and have a good horizon as a reference, we migh t not have much trouble. But if we need to look at a chart to navigate, we’ll need a light. With any luck, we have one on us. If not, we’ll be digging through our flight bag or seat pockets in the darkness. This is a little harder. Using the autopilot of course would ease the workload, but oops, we don’t have power to run the autopilot. And if the weather isn’t clear and beautiful, the challenges mount. We might need a flashlight to see the instruments so we can keep the wings level, our nose on course, and our attitude, altitude, and airspeed in check. Maybe if we don’t have a flashlight, our cellphone could add the needed illumination. Can’t you just feel the hairs rising up on the back of your neck?

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So now let’s say we make it to an alternate airport, the lights are on, and we get the steady green light from the control tower clearing us to land. We need to complete our pre-landing checklist, reconfigure the airplane for the approach, and land. Not having any electrical power could again add a few challenges. If the aircraft has electric flaps, as many do, then we’ll be making a no-flap landing. When’s the last time we did that? If the aircraft has electrically actuated landing gear, gear, we might find ourselves flying around trying to manually extend the landing gear, and then wondering if it really is down and locked. I suspect we’d be sweating until we shut down on the ramp. ELECTRICAL SYSTEM BASICS

To avoid avoid the ugly situ ation we just described, we need to have a little understanding of the electrical system — at least enough to monitor its health and know when things start to go awry. If our first sign of trouble is the radio got weak and died, and then the lights all dimmed to darkness, we might well be in deep yogurt. Usually we have other indications — a warning light indicating low voltage or inoperative alternator. At the very least, we might expect to see a voltmeter or ammeter reading that’s amiss, letting us know we’re now getting our electrical power from the battery alone. But if we don’t know what those indicators are really telling us, we might be in the dark, so to speak. And if we simply don’t include these indicators in our visual scan, well then shame on us. LOAD SHEDDING

If we do see the signs of trouble, we can take action, first by load shedding. This means reducing the number of items drawing electrical current so our battery will last longer. And how long will it last? If we know the amp-hour rating of the battery, battery, and its condition (it might not have full capacity), we’ll at least be able to take a crack at it by dividing t he amphours by the load in amps. If we haven’t been through the exercise, this is a heck of a time to learn. So how do we go about our load-shedding process? What do we turn off and leave on? The idea is to reduce our

electrical power use as much as possible to make it last as long as possible. We want to be frugal and save some battery power for the end of the flight so we can activate pilot-controlled lighting, lower the flaps, and put the landing gear down. One way to gauge the power draw of items is to look at the fuses or breakers serving them. The numbers listed on these are the maximum amperage of the circuit, so the higher the number, the higher the potential draw. The items that draw the most power are typically those that generate a lot of heat or motion. Landing lights are a big draw, draw, as is pitot heat. Flap and gear motors use a lot of power, power, and that ’s why we’re trying to save some for later. Leave fuel pumps and cockpit lights off until they are needed. Think twice about whether or not we really need strobes, beacons, or nav lights. Radios don’t use much power when receiving, but represent a much greater draw when transmitting.

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A BACKUP PLAN

If you’re still reading, you’ve probably already decided to come up with a backup plan to deal with in-flight electrical system malfunctions. To start, get out the pilot’s operating handbook and read up on the system. If anything is confusing, ask a flight instructor or mechanic. Things to consider for our flight bag include a flashlight or two (or t hree). Those that have LEDs rather than incandescent or halogen bulbs will operate longer. longer. Maybe a headlamp would be a good choice for hands-free operation, but something with a red light to help retain night vision is important, too. A backup transceiver for communication (and turning on pilot-controlled lighting) would be a godsend, as would one that has some built-in navigation capability. capability. Electrical system failures don’t happen very frequently, frequently, but when they do, they can be a serious threat t o safety. safety. Just a little bit of forethought and planning can make the difference between an interesting flight and a sad story. story. Robert N. Rossier, EAA 472091, has been flying for more than 30 years and has worked as a flight instructor, commercial pilot, chief pilot, and FAA flight check airman.

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www.eaa.org 41

 CONTRAILS

The Four Course Range An all but forgotten means of navigating the country BY JEFF SKILES

even heard of GPS, and even before the existence of the VOR, pilots flew from coast to coast and even accomplished low approaches to their destinations using an all but forgotten radio system called the four course range. The earliest of aviators had no recourse but to navigate using the crudest of aeronautical methods — pilotage or, even worse, dead reckoning. Automobile road maps were the only form of assistance to help guide the way. In the 1920s the lighted airway system and associated ground markings began to crisscross the land, but such aids to navigation were only of help when the weather was good enough to see them. Navigating in or above the clouds was still an impossibility with the methods of t he time. LONG BEFORE ANYONE HAD

RADIO TECHNOLOGY 

In the late 1920s radio technology had improved enough to pose a solution to the problem of long- distance navigation. Early efforts harbored little more than what we today call a nondirectional beacon (NDB), a station that merely radiates a signal in all directions. Aircraft with radio direction finding (RDF) equipment could home in on this beacon, but RDF was not the automatic direction finder

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(ADF) we know today. An RDF radio employed an overly large directional loop antenna, think of those 1-foot diameter hoop antennas you may have seen on a DC-3. These loop antennas would have to be hand cranked to change their azimuth while the operator listened intently on the frequency for either a crescendo of noise from the Morse code station identifier or the absence of same — called a null. Either could be used to determine the bearing of the station off the aircraft’s nose or tail. Two, Two, or bett er yet three, such bearings could be plotted on a chart to fix an aircraft’s position, kind of like celestial navigation, but it wasn’t much good for on-course navigation since it could only show you where you had been but not where you were going. Certainly such imprecise plotting was of no use for an instrument approach.

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF JEFF SKILES

Note: This image is from a 1945 sectional chart;

notice the lighted airway beacon symbols co-located along the Red 6/Green 3 airway (Contrails, July 2016, “The Lighted Airway System”). Also, I have some charts of the western states that depict the east and west legs of four course ranges using the Morse code symbols for B and Y rather than A and N. I can find no reference for this in my researc research. h. Should anyone have an explanation for this and for how four Morse code signals might be propagated, please feel  free to to contact me.

 THE FOUR FOUR COURSE COURSE RANGE RANGE

Then the four course range revolutionized instrument flying. The four course range was also called a low frequency range, Adcock, or AN range. It consisted of two crossed loop directional antennas that would emit a signal in a figure-eight pattern. This signal would be either the Morse code signal for the letter N (dash dot) or the Morse code signal for the letter A (dot dash). Both were broadcast on the same frequency and could be listened to intently by a pilot in the cockpit. Where the two figure-eight directional signals overlapped the pilot would hear only a steady hum as the dash dot and dot dash merged into a continuous tone. With this the pilot knew he was on one of the four courses of the station, and this was often called “flying the beam” or “on the beam.” The course created by the overlapping signals was commonly 3 degrees wide yielding a 5.2-mile-wide airway 100 miles distant from the station. It was common practice to fly on the right side of the beam, in “twilight” where the faint A or N signal could be heard through the steady tone, for the purpose of traffic separation. Every 30 seconds or so the signal would be interrupted to broadcast the three-letter Morse code identifier for the station in question. Later designs employed four 134-foot tall ground-based vertical directional antennas at the corners of a square to transmit the signal. These four antennas would often be augmented by a fifth antenna mast in the center of the square that would broadcast weather information on a recurring schedule, or act as a homing signal (NDB). As you can see in the picture, the Grand Island range had four quadrants. Two N quadrants and two A quadrants. If you weren’t on the beam and were only hearing an N, you could only determine that you were

either northeast or southwest of the station, and conversely for the A identifier you’d only know you were southeast or northwest. Therefore, the four course range was great for on-course navigation but somewhat less useful for determining your position if unknown. Extensive and time-consuming procedures were developed to allow pilots to bracket the range signal and orient themselves. The best way to determine whether you were flying to or from the station was simply by listening for the increasing or diminishing volume of the signal. The four courses themselves did not have to be symmetrical. Ranges with significantly asymmetrical courses were known as “crow foot” ranges, although practical considerations required the four courses to be at least 20 degrees apart. HATS AND HEADPHONES

Relatively rudimentary onboard equipment could open up the world of navigation for aviators with only a simple AM radio receiver required to capture the signal. Pilots heard their navigation signal rather than seeing it on a gauge as we are u used sed to today. This must be why you always see those cockpit photos of early airline pilots with headphones clamped over their hats. It explains the headphones anyway if not the hats. NOT PERFECT, BUT …

The four course range suffered from all the maladies affecting low frequency radio transmissions, like static disruption due to thunderstorms, “night effect” in which radio signals would “skip” off the ionosphere resulting in receiving signals from two different locations sharing a common frequency, frequency, and the bending of the beam due to shore effect or mountainous terrain. Still, it was a vast improvement over what aviators had before, and quickly more than 400 stations were constructed throughout the United States. Some of these radio ranges defined transcontinental airways. East/west airways were labeled either green or red. North/south were blue or amber. The depicted airway shows where Green 3 and Red 6 merge over Grand Island, Nebraska.  THE FIRST FIRST INSTRUMEN INSTRUMENT T APPROA APPROACHES CHES

Radio ranges were often located next to or on major airports so they could be used for

an instrument approach as well. The pilots would orient themselves by flying to the station and then passing through the cone of silence directly over the top of the station. This cone of silence was t he only way to positively identify your position anywhere on a four course range much as we look for the flip-flop of a VOR needle today. At this point the pilot would fly outbound on a leg of the range, accomplish a procedure turn, and intercept the same leg inbound while descending to the published minimum descent altitude. If no airport was in sight when he would return through the cone of silence, a missed approach was warranted. However, the range could also be quite some distance from an airport. In this case the pilot would fly inbound to the range station on initial approach until passing through the cone of silence, at this point the pilot would turn to a magnetic heading toward the airport, start the clock to time the final approach leg, and descend to minimum descent altitude. Keep in mind that all of this was done with no gyro instruments in the early years, only a turn and bank and magnetic compass. Amazingly crude by today’s standards. Minimum descent altitudes for four course range approaches were often as low as 300 feet, and most were circling approaches. A shockingly low altitude for something that seems even less defined than a non-precision approach today. today.  TIME MARCHES MARCHES ON

The four course range was the pre-eminent means of navigation from the 1930s to the 1950s. The advent of the much more capable  VOR, however however,, shrunk the number of four course ranges in half by the early 1960s. Sometime around 1980 I recall a flight instructor and instrument student at the flight school where I worked making a long cross-country to British Columbia. It was their understanding that the last four course range in North America was still active there. They made this pilgrimage to shoot an approach and experience the trials of early aviators. That range was decommissioned shortly thereafter, ending an era that stretched for half a century. century.  Jeff Skiles Skiles, EAA Lifetime 336120, has been a pilot for 40

years. He currently flies a Cessna 185. Jeff can be reached at Jeff[email protected] .

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n    o  n  t  i i o  d  i i t  ad  T r a  RESTORED 

THE RETURN OF EAA’S PRIZED P���

BY MEGAN ESAU

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November 2016

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ERIN BRUEGGEN

CLICK THIS VIDEO  TO SEE MORE ABOUT THE P���

www.eaa.org 4  45 5

 A

nyone who attended an EAA fly-in the 1960s or ’70s likely remembers one remarkable airplane — the truly unique North American P-64. EAA Founder Paul Poberezny performed an unforgettable aerobatic routine in this uncommon airplane and flew it across the country visiting chapters and spreading the word of sport aviation. The P-64 was, and still is, inextricably linked with Paul and the Rockford and early-Oshkosh days of the EAA convention. Painted in deep blue and yellow with red and white stripes and a classic Air Corps meatball, the paint scheme may not be 100 percent warbird, but the airplane’s early history most certainly is. As impressive as it was as an air show performer, performer, the P-64 was originally built for the serious business of air combat. Long before the air show smoke system was installed, this airplane was to be fitted with two .30-caliber machine guns in the nose and two 20 mm cannons, and was expected to be able to carry up to 400 pounds of bombs. But not for the United United States States milita military ry

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quickly as the military learned what worked and what didn’t, and the NA-68’s characteristics were now obsolete next to foreign fighters like the t he Japanese Zero. However, However, the airplanes were an excellent option for training. They spent a short stint doing just that in Arizona under their new military designation as P-64 pursuit aircraft before being sold for personal use. At the end of the war the P-64 that would one day belong to EAA was flown to Albuquerque, New Mexico, for disposal. “Ours is the only one that survived the melting pot,” Sean said. “Our serial n umber was literally at Albuquerque, New Mexico, in line for the chopper to be cut up for scrap when a former North American employee there there doing doing some some resear research ch saw saw the airpla airplane ne

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ERIN BRUEGGEN

 Powerful  Powe rful Performance  Performance 

Freshly restored, EAA’s new P-64 made its first public appearance at the 1965 convention in Rockford. In the following years Paul would form a partnership with the P-64, taking it to air shows and EAA events across the country to perform his aerobatic routine and meet aviation enthusiasts. “He flew a very fluid, ballet-style routine with the airplane that showcased its power and its grace,” Sean said. The gracefulness of Paul’s Paul’s routine was juxtaposed with incredible power from the airplane’s engine. North American engineers had validated that the P-64’s fuselage could be stressed up to 2,000 hp, so EAA replaced the original 875-hp Wright 1820 with one of its much more powerful 1,200-hp Wright 1820 counterparts. “With that much power to weight, the airplane had tremendous performance,” Sean said. “Paul would demonstrate how quickly it would get into the air, how aggressively it would climb. He would do a dirty roll on takeoff where right after takeoff, with all that power, he literally could pitch the nose up and do a roll with the gear still hanging down and have power to spare. Most airplanes you’d never do that with because you’d stall. This aircraft just has that kind of power-to-weight. He did loops and rolls and Cuban-eights — just a really elegant routine that was very pretty to watch.” watch.” Paul last flew the P-64 in 1988 when it was officially taken out of flight service and pickled to join a number of warbirds in the museum’s new Eagle Hangar, which opened the following year.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRET STEFFEN AND ERIN BRUEGGEN

CLICK TO VISIT OUR FLICKR GALLERY 

First Flights 

Although the airplane sat on static display for nearly 30 years, EAA’s core values as a flying organization never changed. When plans to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Pearl Harbor at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2016 began, thoughts began to float about bringing the P-64 out of retirement to be part of the special occasion. The P-64 moved from the museum to the EAA Kermit Weeks Flight Operations Center in January 2016 to prepare for a return to the sky. As it was undergoing testing and maintenance, maintenance, Sean contacted director emeritus of EAA and Warbirds of America and former Warbirds president Bill Harrison, who flew the P-64 in 1988 at Paul’s invitation. Bill was the only surviving pilot who had flown the P-64 and could speak to some of its characteristics and what to expect. “It’s a rare airplane, and I’ve had rare airplanes, but they have a tendency to bite you if you’re not careful and lucky,” Bill said. “You have to be both.” He recalled his flight in the P-64 as a delightful experience. “It has a big engine, so you expect a lot of torque on takeoff, and I was all ready for it,” Bill said. “I was so focused on keeping it going down the centerline that as I was taking off I realized it was 50 feet in the t he air. It just jumps into the air.” air.” Despite the need for good directional control, Bill noted that the P-64 is still very maneuverable and light on the controls.

“When you’ve flown a lot, you know when an airplane feels right,” he said. “And it feels right.” Sean and Bill wanted volunteers involved in this project who are b oth excellent aviators and who respect the legacy of what Paul did for EAA. They put their heads together to bring Reno pilot and aircraft examiner Stu Dawson on board as the project’s test pilot and invited Rick Siegfried, Warbirds Warbirds volunteer and former Warbirds of America president, to fly the airplane during AirVenture’s Pearl Harbor commemoration. Aside from flying Grumman F8F Bearcat  Rare Bear at the Reno National Championship Air Races, Stu has flown a large number of other high horsepower World War II airplanes. “Stu, for me, was the really obvious choice to do the initial flights, familiarize himself with the flying characteristics of the airplane, and sit down with Rick and I to develop the plan for how we would go about training in and testing the airplane,” airplane,” Sean said. “So what can we expect? How does the airplane stall? How does it perform? We had to relearn all t hat.” The maintenance and testing needed to get the P-64 flying went relatively smooth, in part because some of it had already begun three years ago in 2013. EAA Manager of Aircraft Maintenance John Hopkins, who has been performing maintenance on the P-64 since he was in his 20s and Paul was still flying the airplane, said work had begun just for the airplane to perform a run-up.

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“

W 

not not righ rightt to put put the the P-64 -64 backin backin the the sky sky, so preparation began to return it to the museum for static display. display. “We “We didn’t know if we’d get it out again or not so we just pickled everything again

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engi engine ne loos loosen en itse itself lf back back up befo before re the the team team was comfortable enough with the oil analyses to move forward. “You just have to give everything a really good looking over and determine what’s old

climbs climbs really really fast. fast. It’s It’s not necess necessari arily ly a fast airplane, but at the slow cruise we’re doing it’s about 210 mph. It certainly doesn’t keep up with a Mustang, but it’s moving along.”

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ERIN BRUEGGEN

He said being able to fly such a historic airplane, and one that is so synonymous with Paul and his legacy, legacy, was an incredible honor. “Besides Stu, the first time I flew the airplane or even really sat in it, the last person who had really flown this airplane was Paul,” Rick said. “How cool is it to be the second person after Paul ever to fly this historic airplane in EAA history? When we got back on the ground he signed the paperwork, and I was one of three P-64 pilots in the world.” One of a few bumps in the road occurred when Sean was taxiing out for one of his practice flights on a Sunday afternoon and one of the tires on the airplane popped, stranding it in the middle of the airport. John said for whatever reason the tube let go and the tire went flat, and by the time Sean got the airplane stopped the tire was destroyed. “We couldn’t move it because we’d destroy the aluminum wheel clunking around on the concrete out there,” John said. “I’m racking my brain trying to figure out what in the museum has got that size wheel on it, then it dawned on me we’ve got the B-25 sitting in the back of the shop , and sure enough, it’s got the exact same wheel size … So we jacked up the B-25 … took the nose wheel off and took it out to the P-64, and slid it on the rim.” They didn’t want to fly the P-64 with the B-25’s tire because it has the wrong kind of rim, but with it they were at least able to limp it back to the hangar. hangar. New tires with the original shaved smooth material were ordered from Desser. Once the tires were replaced and Sean was able to get back in the airplane, the rest of the flights continued surprise-free, at least from a technical perspective. There was one thing in particular about the P-64 that Sean said he never before thought possible: “It does make you almost feel as though a T-6 is underpowered.” Although the P-64 and the T-6 share the same lineage, with a similar structure and systems, Sean noted a few other differences in their handling. “It’s lighter on the controls than a T-6, and it’s more responsive than a T-6 because it’s got a shorter wing,” he said. “You’ve “You’ve got almost 6 feet less wingspan, a higher loading, so it’s more rock solid. … It definitely is a true vintage fighter warbird in that the visibility is a little limited on takeoff and landing — a little more so than the T-6

because of the bigger cowling. And it’s got more mass because of the bigger engine and a bigger prop, so you’ve got to be mindful of really keeping the airplane going the direction you want it to go.”

 Bringing People People Together  Together 

Check out the digital edition  of EAA Sport Aviation for a photo gallery of the P-64.

There’s no question that airplanes belong in the sky. Although it is a treat to stand beneath the wings of airplanes in a museum and absorb the history that emanates from them, an airplane in a museum is not an airplane in its element. Even still, part of bringing an airplane such as the P-64 out of retirement is making sure it is for the right reasons and mitigating any risk. “EAA is about flying aircraft,” aircraft,” Sean said. “We’re “We’re a flying organization, and with the right approach and the right modern technology to ensure that the safety is there, the airplane can be brought back. And it’s good for the airplane. It’s much better than letting it sit and just decay.” EAA was also lucky enough to have team members surrounding the P-64 that were familiar with the airplane and with each other. Whether with the B-17, the Ford TriMotor, Motor, any of the airplanes at Pioneer Airport, or the P-64, EAA has had the wonderful opportunity to work hand in hand with volunteers, growing an eye-to-eye level of respect and mutual understanding. It’s part of what has made EAA’s work with these airplanes so successful. “It’s a wonderful example of EAA walking the walk and bringing an airplane back to life that is truly unique and one of a kind,” Sean said. “It was an ‘only in Oshkosh’ experience. And for those that were here at AirVenture AirVenture and got to see the P-64 fly, fly, it’s something that they’ll be able to treasure for a very long time.” Paul’s Paul’s memory was not lost in the process of bringing the P-64 back to life. Sean said bringing the P-64 from the museum back t o the Weeks hangar brought back vivid memories of Paul’s connection with the airplane. He particularly thought of the run-up Paul made in the airplane during its potential brush with flight three years ago. “When that engine fired to life, he lost 20 years,” Sean said. “He was 20 years younger. He stood up straight, had a look in his eye; his hands knew exactly where to go. He couldn’t

NORTH AMERICAN P���

Wingspan:

37 feet, 3 inches

Length:

26 feet, 11 inches

Wing Area:

236.09 square feet

Empty Weight:

4,470 pounds

Loaded Weight:

5,700 pounds

Maximum Speed:

295 mph at 9,500 feet

Cruising speed:

255 mph at 16,500 feet

Climb to 10,000 feet: 3 minutes Service ceiling:

32,000 feet

Range:

645 miles

Powerplant:

Wright 1820-202A

remember the checklist to save his life, because it had been 30 years, but when he was starting the airplane you could see his hands doing exactly what needed to happen just out of muscle memory. He wore that airplane.” But, Sean said, Paul didn’t just fly the airplane because he liked flying it. “Paul also flew it because he knew it gave him a connection with the members. He took it all over the country visiting chapters, visiting various EAA functions and events — that’s what made it magical for Paul. It wasn’t just the technical aspects of the airplane; it was the connection with the people. That’s always what Paul was about. And that ’s why we do this, too.” Bill said he saw that same sentiment in Paul’s Paul’s character, and shared that his flight 28 years ago came about because of that type of connection Paul liked to make with people. “Paul was a good friend of mine and I was up here for a board meeting in the spring,” he said. “We were riding around in his Volkswagen, Red One, and the P-64 was sitting out, and he said, ‘Do you want to fly it?’ and I said sure.” Bill said Paul was a very good friend, but more importantly he was the founder of this organization and did unbelievable things that people said couldn’t be done, and he did it for the members. “He always said these airplanes bring us here, but it’s the people who bring us back.” Megan Esau, EAA 1171719, is EAA’s staff writer, regularly contributing to both print and digital publications. She’s an aspiring pilot, a passionate aviation enthusiast, and an avid learner of just about everything. E-mail Megan at [email protected].

www.eaa.org

49

MARTIAN 

INVA  CLICK THIS VIDEO  TO SEE MORE ABOUT THE M ARTIN MARS

50 Sport Aviation

November 2016

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JIM KOEPNICK 

ION  THE MARTIN MARS COMES TO OSHKOSH BY HAL BRYAN

www.eaa.org 5  511

MARTIAN INVASION 

At 117 feet long with a wingspan of 200 feet, the Martin Mars is a huge airplane, airplane, to say the least. Among other achievements over the last several decades, it has challenged people to find ways to describe it without running out of adjectives.

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November 2016

A United newsreel from the early 1940s said that it was “the size of a 15-room house.” Another report proclaimed it “a forerunner of things to come,” and borrowed a line from Superman when describing the engines, each boasting “more power than a locomotive.” Other contemporary reports used terms like “gigantic,” “flying battleship,” and “aerial juggernaut,” while British Pathé news showed its typical wit when it quipped, “Well, it won’t be long now before they build some really big really big ones.” The Glenn L. Martin Company advertised the airplane heavily during World War II, looking ahead to its predicted — but never realized — postwar role as an airliner. The company oneupped United newsreels when it said the airplane was as big as a “16-room mansion,” and in one particularly vibrant ad, it touted the plane as a “flying hotel”

promising “luxury aloft” thanks to air-conditioned cabins, a dining room, and two bars. Martin promised that “commercial versions … will offer every comfort to tomorrow’s trans-ocean travelers” as “when victory is finally won, you’ll be taking that trip of your dreams.” No matter how you try — and likely fail — to adequately describe it, the massive Haw massive Hawaii aii Mars Mars was a star attraction at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh this summer, forever making 2016 the year the Mars came to Oshkosh. Displaying at the world’s largest aviation event was just the latest feather in a cap full of them for the world’s largest operational flying boat. DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT  Originally designed with twin tails that were slightly canted like its predecessor, the Martin Mariner, the prototype XPB2M-1 Mars was launched on November 5, 1941. Conceived as

a “flying dreadnought,” the aircraft was built as a long-range patrol bomber, Martin having won the contract against stiff competition from firms like Boeing and Sikorsky. One month after the launch, an engine caught fire during testing, two days before the attack at Pearl Harbor. The fire delayed development, but not for long, inevitably spurred by the intensity of unexpected wartime production. By January 1942, the engine had been replaced, the airplane repaired, and testing continued, leading up to the first flight in June. The engines were replaced with Wright R-3350-18s each providing 2,200 hp and turning three-bladed metal props, upgraded from the original wood. Flight tests continued until November, November, when Martin delivered the airplane to the U.S. Navy. The Navy immediately gave it back.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANNIE LUFT 

BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD  By this time, the concept of a massive, long-range patrol bomber was considered obsolete because of perceived vulnerability. The Navy liked the design, however, and tasked Martin with redesigning the Mars as a transport. Martin engineers removed gun turrets and armor plating in favor of big doors and cargo loading equipment, and the airplane, now designated XPB2M-1R, XPB2M-1R, was returned to the Navy in November of 1943. Unusually for a prototype, it served admirably, transporting more than 3 million pounds of cargo and troops until it was retired in March of 1945. The Navy was impressed and ordered 20 upgraded versions of the Mars, now designated JRM-1. The new airplane incorporated a number of changes, including a more streamlined nose and hull, a single vertical stabilizer replacing the twin tails, and R-3350-8 engines, each putting out 2,400 hp. The JRM-1 could carry 135 combat troops, more than 80 medevac litters, or as much as 35,000 pounds of cargo, with a range of nearly 5,000 miles. By comparison, today’s Boeing C-17 can carry 134 combat troops, albeit with greater range given mid-air refueling, at speeds more than two-and-a-half times faster than the Mars’ 190 mph cruise. IN UNIFORM  The first JRM-1 was christened  Hawaii  Hawaii Mars Mars,, beginning a tradition of naming each airplane after Pacific islands. This, however, was not the airplane that came to Oshkosh. The first  Hawaii  Hawaii Mars Mars was  was destroyed in a crash in August of 1945, the day before the bombing of Hiroshima. With the end of the war looming, the Navy downgraded its order to just six airplanes, and after the loss of the

JRM WHAT?

original Hawa original Hawaii ii Mars Mars,, five more were built: Philip built: Philippine pine Mars Mars,,  Marianas  Marianas Mars Mars,, Marshall  Marshall Mars Mars,, a single JRM-2 with 3,000-hp engines named Caroline Mars, Mars , and in April of 1946, sserial erial No. 9267, 9267, christened christ ened Hawa  Hawaii ii Mars Mars as a replacement for the original. This Hawaii This Hawaii Mars set records immediately after it went into operation. In 48 hours, the airplane transported a record payload of 35,000 pounds to Honolulu, then on the return trip, configured as an air ambulance, it carried record numbers of litter patients and passengers. All five Mars saw active service as Navy transports, flying huge amounts of cargo over a combined distance of nearly 11 million miles. While the  Marshal l Mars was lost to a fire and sank in 1950, the remaining airplanes, known as the “Big Four” — the Philip the  Philip pine, pine ,  Marianas , Caroline, Caroline, and Hawaii and Hawaii  Mars — served accident-free until their retirement in 1956, by which time they’d all been designated JRM-3s after engine and propeller upgrades. In 1959, with ignominious practicality, the airplanes were sold for sc rap. About that same time, a man named Dan McIvor, the senior pilot for Canada’s largest lumber company, was looking for a large flying boat that could fight the forest fires that had been disastrous for the timber industry. Dan got wind of the Navy’s plans for the Mars and called immediately, only to find that the sale had just been completed. The winning bid came from the perhaps presciently named Hugo Forrester, who’d spent a total of $23,650 to buy the “Big Four” at a time when the average home (with considerably fewer than 16 rooms) was around $12,000. Adjusted

Check out the digital edition  of EAA Sport Aviation for a video about the Martin Mars.

for inflation, that’s slightly less than $200,000 today, which still seems like a bargain. Undeterred, Dan, on behalf of a Canadian forestry consortium, Forest Industries Flying Tankers (FIFT), reached out to Forrester, who eventually agreed to sell all four airplanes for $100,000. $100,000. The airplanes came with some spare parts, but had neither engines nor propellers. Dan scrounged up a staggering 35 engines from auctions and scrap dealers, paying between $135 and $600 apiece. His big win came when he was able to buy the Navy’s entire remaining Mars spare parts inventory, inventory, 40,000 cubic feet of equipment, for $3,200. MARS ATTACKS  The four Mars were ferried to British Columbia to begin their conversion to fire bombers by Fairey Aviation Aviation of Canada in the summer of 1959. In addition to removing the cargo loading equipment, the airplanes were fitted with a 7,200-gallon 7,200-gallon water

U.S. Navy aircraft designations followed a strict designation system from the early 1920s through the early 1960s. The system used letter and number codes to describe a particular aircraft’s mission and define its manufacturer. Some of the codes are intuitive: F for fighter, B for bomber, A for attack, etc. The letter U for utility is clear, as is T for transport, but a combined utility/ transport aircraft was given the non-obvious designation designation JR. In the case of the Mars, then, it was JR for utility transport, M for Martin, and the -1 indicated the subtype to acknowledge the changes in the production version.

tank and scoops that can fill those tanks at a rate of 250 gallons per second. Water can be mixed with foam concentrate or a solution called Thermo-Gel as required, and is released through a series of 22 doors along the bottom of the Hawaii the Hawaii  Mars’  Mars’ hull.

The Marshall Mars was consumed by a fire that started in one of the engines on April of 1950. The crew made an emergency landing, and all aboard were evacuated safely.

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“I honestly thought we were going to lose the whole mountain, mountain,”” Wayne said.

“And “A nd then we could hear the rumble … the Mars would come in and just punish the fire with two drops, 14,000 gallons, and the fire was just done. It went from being a disaster … to something that was controlled.” controlled.” As the conversions progressed, so did the development of tactics and training, including the use of a smaller aircraft, initially a Grumman Goose, to fly ahead of the massive bombers as a spotter and guide them on their runs. In 1960, the Marianas  Mars was destroyed when it flew into a mountainside, killing all four crew members. The Caroline Mars was the next in service, and the first to truly prove the concept when, in 1962, it was used to attack a hillside fire, extinguishing it in six drops that took less than an hour. The Caroline’s new career was cut short when it was destroyed by Typhoon Freda that winter. The two surviving Mars,  Philippine  Philippine and Hawaii, had their conversions finished and entered service in early 1963. In their subsequent 50-year

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history, history, these two airplanes would go on to fly more than 4,000 missions, extinguishing fires in less than two days 80 percent of the time, and less than one day 60 percent of the time. Over the years, the airplanes were owned and operated by FIFT, then by Flying Tankers Inc., followed by TimberWest Forest Corporation who sold them in 2007. ENTER COULSON  The Coulson Group began as Coulson Forest Products Ltd. in 1960, named for its founder, Cliff Coulson. Cliff’s youngest son, Wayne, Wayne, has served as president and CEO since 1984. Wayne’s interest in the Mars began at a young age. Working his way through school in the family business, he recalls being just 16 when a large fire broke out

among some of the company’s vast tracts of timberland. “I honestly thought we were going to lose the whole mountain,” Wayne said. “And then we could hear the rumble … the Mars would come in and just punish the fire with two drops, 14,000 gallons, and the fire was just done. It went from being a disaster … to something that was controlled.” Clearly, Clearly, the airplanes made an impression because, in 2007, after two previous attempts, the Coulson Group purchased both the Hawaii and Philippine  Philippine Mars and continued their operation under the auspices of its aviation subsidiary, subsidiary, which was formed in the early 1980s. Once Coulson stepped in, it made a big change in the Hawaii Mars’ operations. While it had a renewable contract for the 90-day fire season in British Columbia, the

company knew the airplane would need to work more than  just three months a year to earn earn its keep, so Coulson set its sights on southern California. “The airplane had lived on an island at the time for roughly 47 years,” Wayne Wayne said. “We’re going to take it on the road, take it to California, Washington, and Oregon.” This meant rethinking the whole business and creating a mobile support team for the Mars that would make it a complete self-contained firefighting system. Coulson bought and outfitted a 53-foot NASCAR trailer that includes a spare engine, parts, and a full welding workshop, rounding out the mobile support team with an 8,000-gallon fuel tanker, a Thermo-Gel tanker, four personal vehicles, two boats, and a 45-foot bus that serves as crew quarters and a command center. This strategy was a win for Coulson, as it was quickly awarded a series of contracts by the U.S. Forest Forest Service and other U.S.-based U.S.-based entities, and, selfishly, it was a win for us because it demonstrated that the airplane could be operated away from its home base, indirectly paving the way for its visit to Oshkosh. Those contracts meant that the airplane was placed under intense scrutiny. Coulson engineers worked with NASA as part of a continued airworthiness program, providing years of -load and other structural data  g -load to establish that the airplane was still operating well within the initial limitations established by Martin decades earlier. earlier.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JIM KOEPNICK 

HEADING UPSTAIRS  In the winter of 2008-2009,  Hawaii Mars was fitted with a number of high-tech additions, including a satellite-based data collection and management system to more precisely target drops. One part of the flight deck that still appears very true to the airplane’s roots, however, is the flight engineers’ station. A role that’s all but extinct in aviation, the Mars carries not one but two flight engineers whose job it is to establish power settings, monitor systems, and effectively keep the engines running through all regimes of flight. The flight engineers sit perpendicular to the flight path in two seats in front of a massive instrument panel that greets you as you make your way up the — yes — spiral staircase from the lower deck. In addition to something like 60 gauges and nearly 100 individual switches, the flight engineers also have monitors that display the view from two tail-mounted video cameras. Moving forward from there, you pass by a passenger seating area and then two gigantic desks, either of which would look more at home in a CEO’s office, before you finally get to the pilot and copilot’s seats. As you’d expect, everything is oversized; the yokes, the pedals, the throttle quadrants, even the visibility through the large glass greenhouse windows is somehow better than expected. The panel itself is simple and spartan, with multiple gauges having given way to Garmin G600 glass as part of the updates in 2009. FLYING THE MARS  Coulson Capt. Dev Salkeld, who started flying commercially more than 40 years ago, is one of the lucky few who serves as PIC for the Mars. Dev’s résumé reads in part like a timeline of

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JIM KOEPNICK 

 As you you’’d expe expect, ct, ev everyth erythin ing g is is ove oversi rsized zed;  ;  the yokes, the pedals pedals,, the throttle quadrants, even the visibi visibility lity through t hrough the large glass greenhouse windows windows is somehow better than expected. Canadian aviation history, given his time in Norsemans, Beavers, and Otters and Twin Otters on both floats and skis. Dev also flew airliners, retiring from Cathay Pacific on the 747-400 before coming to Coulson to fly the Mars and its newly acquired C-130s in 2009. When he’s not flying the Mars, he flies a Nanchang CJ-6 that he owns with his son or a 1940 Stinson 10 that he owns with his daughter. According to Dev, a typical Mars mission begins with the flight engineers conducting a preflight inspection that takes an hour to complete. Then the pilots board, and the four-person crew will start the engines to warm up the 100-plus gallons of oil in each engine and perform a mag check. At this point, they’ve already burned 120 gallons of 100LL. Once these steps are complete, the aircraft is moored and stands at fire readiness with about five hours of gas on board. When the fire call comes, the crew is given a briefing that includes the local ocation, along with radio frequencies, and the call signs of other working aircraft.

“If the fire is nearby the Mars might scoop a load of water on takeoff. Otherwise it will fly to the fire and scoop a load from a nearby lake,” Dev said. As you’d expect, this affects their takeoff planning. While the takeoff speeds don’t vary that drastically — 83 knots with a load of water compared to 75 knots without — the distances do. Without a load of water, the Mars will take off in about 6,000 feet. When fully loaded, however, that distance is measured in miles, as many as four of them. On takeoff, the power is set at 54 inches and 2800 rpm, then brought back to 45 inches and 2400 rpm for the climb. These settings will deliver 1,000 fpm without water, and 250-300 fpm with a full tank.  As Dev points out, the additional weight of 7,200 gallons of water also has a big impact on fuel burn. “Loaded and working at lower elevations the Mars will consume over 800 U.S. gallons per hour, while at altitude in cruise you can get it back to less than 400 U.S. gallons per hour,” he said.

When the Mars is about five minutes out from the fire, the crew is given an altimeter setting, an assigned altitude, and a sequence to enter the fire area. Once the Mars is number one in the sequence, an air attack officer will tell the crew where to drop, the target elevation, exit instructions, and any known hazards. Water drops are typically made at an altitude of 150 feet above the trees at a speed of 115 knots with 12 degrees of flaps. Once over the target, the captain will trigger the drop using a button on the yoke, releasing enough water to cover 3.5 acres, maintaining altitude precisely while the airplane gets 60,000 pounds lighter over the space of just a few seconds. Once the drop is complete, the first officer raises the flaps and the flight engineers select climb power unless otherwise briefed. If another drop is needed, the Mars will head to a nearby lake (it’s capable of using saltwater as well) and set up for a normal landing at 90 knots with 40 degrees of flaps. On touchdown, the flaps are raised and

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the airplane is slowed to 70 knots, and the throttles turned over to the flight engineers. The captain lowers the probes and the first officer starts a timer as the water is scooped aboard at 2,000 pounds per second. Thirty seconds later, the tank is full, the probes are retracted, and the flaps are set to 20 degrees. At 83 knots, the Mars lifts off, then, once at 90 knots, the captain calls for climb power and instructs the first officer to retract the flaps, slowly. “If the water source is close to the fire, he will then contact the air attack officer that the Mars is ‘Off, with a load,’ and the sequence will begin again,” Dev said. COMING TO OSHKOSH  So why did the Coulson Group decide to bring Hawaii bring Hawaii Mars to Oshkosh? In a word: opportunity. As of this writing, both the red and white Hawaii white Hawaii Mars and Mars and its Navy-blue sister ship,  Philippine Mars, Mars , are for sale. (A tentative deal to transfer the  Philippine Mars, Mars , which was retired in 2012 and repainted in original U.S. Navy colors, to the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida, hasn’t panned out, but the situation remains fluid.) The Coulson Group is looking for stewards for the Mars, and there was no better place for it to show off the airplane. But coming to Oshkosh wasn’t strictly about finding a buyer. Wayne showed his sentimental side when he said, “The airplane deserved it. This thing has worked 57 years in firefighting, and another decade plus for the U.S. Navy … it just deserved that sort of recognition in the world because it’s a piece of aviation art.” Just as it was for the airplane, it was the first Oshkosh visit for the crew. Dev

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“Before I retire them t hem into a museum, I wanted … the chance to have people enjoy it, but also see what it’s done its it s whole life. It’s very, very special.” special.” described it as “an honor to be asked to come to the show,” and said they all “enjoyed performing before the crowd and talking to spectators when we had free t ime.” Getting the airplane to Oshkosh wasn’t without its challenges, however. In addition to the general complexities involved in bringing the airplane, ground equipment, and two dozen people to Oshkosh, there were additional challenges such as where to park or, in this case, moor an airplane of this size. Coulson sent an advance team to Oshkosh in midwinter for detailed operational discussions. One upshot of that was, after extensive charting and depthreading efforts by volunteers at the EAA Seaplane Base, two mooring points were established and marked with buoys. Radtke Contractors of nearby Winneconne, Wisconsin, was chosen to sink two 10,000-pound concrete blocks in Lake Winnebago’s Willow Bay. Other unusual scenarios involved hiring a certified captain to

transport more than 300 people to the airplane for VIP tours during the week and working with the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary to help provide a safe perimeter around the airplane, especially during takeoffs and landings. Another person who was instrumental in the Mars mission to Oshkosh was EAA Director Emeritus Kermit Weeks, EAA Lifetime 52310. Kermit, an avid aircraft collector and founder of Florida’s Fantasy of Flight, is a longtime and generous EAA supporter, and he saw the Mars’ trip as a chance to do some fun flying of his own. Kermit flew out to the airplane’s home base in Sproat Lake, British Columbia, and spent two weeks training in the airplane before joining the crew on the flight to Oshkosh. Kermit described it as like flying “the Death Star from Star Wars. Wars. Of course that’s why they call it the Mars, because it flies like a planet,” he joked. He went on to say it “flies like it should, and it’s a grand old lady,” and he’d “love it to have it at Fantasy

of Flight, but you never know.” There are rumors of other affluent collectors showing serious interest in one or both of the airplanes as well. In an era where everything is disposable and so many warbirds are static artifacts, it’s wonderful, yet almost incomprehensible that the Mars still flies. As Wayne said, “Before I retire them into a museum, I wanted … the chance to have people enjoy it, but also see what it’s done its whole life. It’s very, very special.” Whatever the future holds for these two remarkable airplanes, here’s hoping that AirVenture 2016 is remembered as the first time the Mars came to Oshkosh, but not the only time. Hal Bryan, EAA Lifetime 638979, is senior editor for EAA digital and print content and publications as well as a lifelong pilot and aviation geek. He’s logged time in a variety of types, most of them old and weird, and he wouldn’t have it any other way. Find him on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at at [email protected] . halbryan or e-mail him at

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JIM

KOEPNICK 

 IT  I T T O O K Y E A R S O F PASS PA SSII O N A N D I N N O VAT VA T I O N T O B U I L D T H I S C A R .  I ITT T O O K 24 H O U R S AT L E M A N S T O P R OV E I T. Whether on the road or on the track, every single element o the Ford GT was designed to deliver the extraordinary  speed, exceptional handling and pure perormance ound only in purpose-built racing cars. Its carbon-fiber carbon-fiber body and  its 600-plus horsepower 3.5L 3.5L EcoBoost® V6 engine are the ultimate expressions o technological innovation.  Fify years afer its original original victory, the innovative innovative balance o power and efficiency in Ford’s EcoBoost EcoBoost engine delivered  an incredible class win at the 24 Hours Hours o Le Mans.  And the same EcoBoost technology that propels propels our supercar can be ound ound in over 5 million engines that power many o our vehicles worldwide. That’s just one o the ways we help drivers go urther every day.

The Privilege of Partnership  EAA members are eligible or special pricing on eligible Ford Motor Company vehicles through Ford’s Partner  Recognition Program. To l earn more about this exclusive opportunity or EAA members to save on a new Ford or  Lincoln vehicle, please visi t www.eaa.org/ford  . . (Ford GT not eligible or Partner Recognition Program pricing)

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY ERIN BRUEGGEN

EAA’S INAUGURAL SPORT PILOT ACADEMY TAKES OFF

BY MEGAN ESAU

EAA’S MISSION IS TO GROW PARTICIPATION IN AVIATION.

At a time when the pilot population is dwindling, this aim becomes ever more important. With the resources EAA has close at hand, including a fleet of Cessna 162 Skycatchers, the Air Academy Lodge, and an ideal gene ral aviation friendly airport, there was a special opportunity to fulfill and further our organization’s mission. The Sport Pilot Academy was designed so that participants eat, sleep, and breathe aviation throughout the entire three weeks they are in Oshkosh. The day begins at 8 a.m. with two hours of ground school or a flight lesson. At 10 a.m. participants switch gears so those who were in a flight lesson sit down for ground school and vice versa. After a short lunch break, they do it all over again. Dinner time provides a brief respite from the constant mental stimulation of this type of flight training. “Then there’s homework,” said Scott Allman, one of the four students who attended EAA’s first Sport Pilot Academy. “Just like school. If you’ve got flight planning to do, you have to work that in. And you have to get sleep.” There’s no doubt that this type of schedule, repeated daily for three weeks, is a challenge. But it is also part of what makes the Sport Pilot Academy curriculum so successful.

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he idea for the academy was proposed by EAA CEO and Chairman of the Board Jack J. Pelton as a condensed sport pilot training program that would solve some of the challenges student pilots face when trying to schedule time with instructors and airplanes that have limited availability. availability. John Cecilia, EAA 1121144, had been having difficulty scheduling lessons at his flight school prior to attending the academy. After he was told by an instructor that at the rate he was going it would take two more years to earn his certificate, he began to look into other options. “I had looked at some other ways of doing completion training, and this was by far the best deal,” Cecilia said. “It was close to home, it was EAA, and it was a chance to see Oshkosh and the airport without half a million other people on it.” He compared the Sport Pilot Academy’s curriculum to a shortfield takeoff, when the airplane climbs a lot faster than it normally would. “It’s concentrated flying,” he said. “I’ve done more flying in the last three weeks than I’ve done in the last year and a half in terms of hours, so for retention and understanding, you really couldn’t beat it.” Students were required to take the FAA written test b efore arriving in Oshkosh, and from the very beginning of the course they were expected to cover the same amount of material in a single day that most student pilots learn in one week. Kevin Loppnow, Loppnow, EAA’s EAA’s chief pilot, who designed the Academy’s curriculum and managed the program’s program’s three flight instructors, said this structure, though intense, really works to the students’ benefit. “People could say that it’s rote memory where the students learn it, they take the test, and they’re going to forget it, but because they’re applying all that knowledge to what they’re actually doing day in and day out, I think it’ll stick with them,” he said.

The students overwhelmingly agreed that the fast-paced nature of the program enhanced their ability to develop an indepth knowledge of why the airplane reacts the way it does during different inflight situations. “It’s the consistency and doing it frequently and doing it back to back that really helps,” said John Ridley, EAA 1114912, who enrolled in the program without having any prior flying experience. “If you had to stretch it out over a long period of time, that would be very difficult.” But that does not mean the Sport Pilot Academy program was easy. Ridley, who arrived to the program two days late due to illness and still managed to pass his checkride in the three-week time frame, said the curriculum really pushed the students to challenge themselves. “One of the instructors I had said I wore him out,” Ridley said. “He said usually his students are the ones who wear out first in terms of stamina, but I would just keep going. I was determined. I was going to perfect the thing eventually, and it was just a matter of practice. It’s like learning a musical instrument. You have to practice.”

EAA’S FIRST SPORT PILOT  ACADEM  ACA DEMY Y BY BY THE THE NUM NUMBER BERS S

O

4 students became sport pilot certificated

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3 Cessna 162 Skycatchers in EAA’s fleet

O

845 gallons of fuel used

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15 average hours until solo

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3 weeks until checkride

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2 warbird flight experiences

O

3 cockpit climbs in a P-51, Mosquito, and P-38

EAA Chief Pilot Kevin Loppnow walks through a preflight inspection with Sport Pilot Academy student John Ridley.

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O

1 tour of the Oshkosh Tower

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$9,999 sticker price of the Sport Pilot Academy

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ERIN BRUEGGEN

 WHAT’S NEX T? SPORT SPOR T PILOT ACADEMIES ���� EAA’s inaugural Sport Pilot Academy accomplished

exactly what it set out to do, which was to get students a sport pilot certificate in three weeks. “I think it exceeded all of our expectations,” said Jack J. Pelton, EAA CEO and chairman of the board, who initiated the program. But there is plenty EAA can do in terms of expanding the academy and giving more depth to its aviation immersion. Pelton said some of his goals for 2017 are to host multiple Sport Pilot Academies and expand the number of students to 12 per course. This will help meet demand — more than 30 people have already contacted EAA expressing interest in enrolling — and allow more high school- and college-aged students to attend. Further, Pelton said his intent is for EAA to help fund the attendance and participation of this younger group. “We raised money during AirVenture at our Gathering of Eagles dinner —  just ove overr $300, $300,000 000 — specifi specificall callyy to be able able to create scholarships for former Young Eagles to go through the academy,” he said. It is also expected that 2017’s Sport Pilot Academies will incorporate more educational modules to help carry students’ flying interests beyond the three-week classroom. “We call the experience a total immersion in aviation,” Pelton said. “How do we do some educational seminars on everything from renting an aircraft to aircraft ownership to EAA’s chapters to flying clubs, so they’re better equipped to continue flying?” He said he even hopes to go as far as pinpointing where students are from to help them find flying resources in their home communities. Watch for the dates of EAA’s 2017 Sport Pilot Academies to be announced in the coming months.

Front:  Gary  Gary Schlender  Back:  L-R:  L-R: John Cecilia, Greg Allman, John Ridley 

 A TAILORED TAILORED EXPERIENCE

The Sport Pilot Academy had no prerequisite for flight training prior to arriving in Oshkosh. Two Two students entered the course with zero flight time, while the other two had already soloed. Rather than feeling as though they were ready to pick up where they left off, the students with more experience looked at the course with open eyes as an opportunity for a fresh start. “There were a lot of things the two oldtimers already knew so that helped simplify some things,” said Allman, who came in with more than 60 hours of logged time. “But it also means we brought some bad habits from flying or trying to fly that we needed to resolve. A newbie starts with a fresh skill set, but he’s got a lot of knowledge to acquire in a short period of time.” time.” Just as each student came in with a different level of experience, nobody’s skills progressed at exactly the same pace. Although everyone was learning about the same things in roughly the same time frame, everyone had subjects on which they needed to spend more or less time than the other students. “As we started along it was clear that people were going to have to take different paths and learn different things, and they’ve done a pretty good job of managing that,” said Cecilia, who had soloed at roughly 20 hours prior to signing up for the Sport Pilot Academy. Although this sort of diversity proved to be beneficial for the students, it did not

come without challenges. The difference in paces meant schedules needed constant tweaking to both keep students in a consistently forward-moving direction and make sure nobody fell behind. Part of Loppnow’s role in managing the Sport Pilot Academy was to work on these adjustments. “I had a schedule set forth in the beginning, and a week and a half into the program, especially getting close to two weeks, everybody everybody made fun of me and said, ‘Are you on revision number 37 or is this 42?’” he joked. “It was a lot of work just redoing schedules over and over because of where people were at.” The Sport Pilot Academy is also different from more traditional training in that the curriculum was designed to intentionally rotate the instructor students work with on each lesson. Loppnow said under traditional training circumstances, he would never suggest that type of structure, but for the Academy it seemed like a viable option. “Another instructor may not know how well you did at this maneuver or that maneuver so you’re going to be repeating a lot,” he said. “The Sport Pilot Academy was day one you’re doing this lesson, so any instructor could pick up the piece of paper with that lesson plan and say this is what we’re going through.” Loppnow only proposed the rotation of instructors on a trial basis and said he initially wasn’t sure whether the idea would work, but the students gave nothing but positive feedback for this type of training. “If you had one instructor telling you how to do something the same way every day for three weeks, it would get a litt le monotonous,” monotonous,” said Gary Schlender, EAA 1122889. 1122889. “I thin k every single instructor brought something a little bit different to the program. … When you fly a plane, from my three weeks of experience, there is definitely a variety to the situations that you face, and there’s probably a variety of ways that you can attack the control problems relative to flying the plane. Every one of my instructors taught me something a little bit different — a little more conservative approach, a more aggressive approach, and a stress-free approach. All three of those come together to make your own approach happen.” Loppnow said he selected CFIs for the program largely based on level of experience, both related to number of hours logged and how many students they have taught.

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TOTAL TOT AL IMMERSION IMMERS ION

ONLY IN OSHKOSH Perhaps one of the most exception exceptional al aspects of learning to fly in Oshkosh is that Wittman and Pioneer airports are a hub for aviation yearround, not just for one week out of the summer. That means anyone who flies here might just end up sharing the sky with some remarkable aircraft doing remarkable things. “My solo here was on a holiday taking off of Runway 18 in the sunset with a formation of Stearmans overhead,” said Gary Schlender, one of the Sport Pilot Academy’s first participants. “I was in the pattern with the formation of the Stearmans when I did my three loops around the track, and the sunset couldn’t have been prettier. It was just a gorgeous night. I got back to the lodge that evening and the Stearmans were all there in a meeting session, and the meeting stopped and I got a big cheer. That was a very memorable moment. That I will never forget.”

“Out of the instructors, we picked ones that had good flight time and dual experience,” he said. “We also wanted to make sure they’ve been teaching lately — it’s not been 20 years or something like that — and that they have a good record of students actually passing.” Beyond those qualifications, Loppnow said it boiled down to one factor: passion. “For the students this is a lot of work, but for the instructors it ’s just as much,” he said. “If they aren’t really in it for these students to get their certificates, it wouldn’t have worked. I had to see that t hey were really passionate and they really followed the same thinking EAA does.” does.” This formula turned out to be a success. The students were in consensus that EAA provided a standout lineup of people to learn from. “They were paying attention to us, what our individual needs are. … It’s like these guys really care, and they’re really trying to get us t o succeed,” Cecilia said. “And they haven’t said that they’re guaranteeing it, but they’re trying as hard as t hey can to make sure that everybody gets what they came for. for. Just to see people that are that dedicated and that focused to flight training for me has been probably the most significant thing that I’ll remember.”

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The Sport Pilot Academy wasn’t all work and no play. Being located in a place like Oshkosh and hosted by an organization like EAA, from the moment thoughts began forming about the academy there was never any question that it was going to offer a unique experience. The academy provided behind-the-scenes tours of EAA’s EAA’s facilities and a number of flight experiences, including in EAA’s B-17, a T-6, and other light-sport aircraft including the Zenith CH 750. Although flying in World World War II warbirds is a rare treat, an even more memorable experience was provided for Allman and Cecilia. Upon learning that both their fathers flew P-38s during the war, Loppnow worked with the museum to allow the pair to do a cockpit climb in EAA’s P-38. “Both of our fathers flew P-38s in the war so they let us climb in it, sit in it, be in it,” Cecilia said. “I was quite emotional for quite a period of time after that. There’s something about maybe understanding who my father was and what he was about that I’ve never really known.” Allman also said he was blown away by the experience. “It’s a big airplane,” he said. “I’m flying a little bitty bird, and I’m 68 years old. Dad was 19, and he flew it across the country in combat.” Loppnow also arranged for Neal Willford, EAA 169108, who designed the Cessna 162 Skycatcher, to come give a t alk about airplane and his engineering choices. “It was the airplane that [the students] were flying and training in, and they could ask really detailed questions about ‘Why did you do this to the airplane?’ and ‘I don’t like that this is here, why did you do that?’” Loppnow said. “Which is cool because those airplanes kind of became their airplanes during the three weeks th ey were here.”

The students also got the opportunity to attend an EAA Chapter 252 corn roast and, after everyone soloed, had the truly unique opportunity of getting their photograph taken on Wittman Regional Airport’s Runway 27 green dot. Even with all these experiences, the mission of EAA’s EAA’s Sport Pilot Academy and the passion that brought the first round of students here was never lost. Every one of them said their favorite and most memorable moments were in the air. “My reason for being here was to experience the freedom of flight,” Schlender said. “In control of my own plane, going where I wanted to go. As great as three loops around the track are, for me, it didn’t quite compare to the opportunity to take the keys to a plane, fly to my hometown, visit my mother and father, and have the freedom of my own plane with my own keys in a cross-count ry Wisconsin trip.” In the end, all of the students passed their private checkrides, strengthening the pilot population by four. The number may not be significant now, now, but it’s a starting point, and the hope is to grow that number in the coming years through the expansion of the academy. This year being somewhat of a trial run, there were hurdles that had to be overcome, from the scheduling process to a student not passing his checkride the first time. Loppnow said EAA got lucky in that everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong. EAA still has plenty of learning and planning ahead to smooth out the program’s wrinkles, but, for now, we can celebrate by welcoming these four new pilots into our community. Megan Esau, EAA 1171719, is EAA’s staff writer, regularly contributing to both print and digital publications. She’s an aspiring pilot, a passionate aviation enthusiast, and an avid learner of just about everything. E-mail Megan at [email protected].

PHOTOGRAPHY BY

ERIN BRUEGGEN

GREAT GIFTS FOR THE AVIATOR ON YOUR LIST!

SHARE YOUR AVIATION SPIRIT THIS HOLIDAY SEASON Look for the new 2016 EAA EA A Merchandise Merchandise Catalog in your mailbox or shop online today.

EAA.ORG/SHOP • 800.564.6322

EA A HERITAGE EAA HERITAGE TERVIS TUMBLER MUG $18.99

Your EAA merchandise purchase supports EA A programs that grow participation in aviation. aviation.

© 2016 2016 EAA

64 Sport Aviation

November 2016

PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAVID K. WITTY 

LIVING  HISTORY 

www.eaa.org

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY  CRAIG VANDERKOLK 

R 

ound engines stood proud, whether parked in rows on the grass or flying amidst fiery pyrotechnics in tribute to the battles of the past. Rarities like the shiny silver T-35 Buckaroo, shark-mouthed P-40, and luminaries like Bob Hoover, EAA 21285, brought people to the Warbirds area of AirVenture, and kept them coming back. PHOTOGRAPHY BY  DAVID K. WITTY 

PHOTOGRAPHY BY  ERIN BRUEGGEN

66 Sport Aviation

November 2016

PHOTOGRAPHY BY  MOOSE PETERSON

PHOTOGRAPHY BY  MICHAEL KELLY 

PHOTOGRAPHY BY  ERIN BRUEGGEN

www.eaa.org

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 JIM LABRE  JIM PHOTOGRAPHY BY 

PHOTOGRAPHY BY  DAVID K. WITTY 

s impressive as it is to see such uncommon sights as a Curtiss C-46 and a Stinson L-1, not to mention a gaggle of Skyraiders, the Warbirds area is really about the people. The airplanes wouldn’t mean anything without heroes like Dawn Seymour (pictured here with Desiree Czaplinski), a WASP who logged more than 700 hours as a B-17 training pilot.

 A 

68 Sport Aviation

November 2016

PHOTOGRAPHY BY  SCOTT SLOCUM

PHOTOGRAPHY BY  DAVID K. WITTY 

PHOTOGRAPHY BY  JIM  JIM KOEPNICK 

PHOTOGRAPHY BY  SCOTT SLOCUM

PHOTOGRAPHY BY  BEN MILLER

O

ne of a handful of flying P-39s joined a score or more of P-51 Mustangs, among other fighters, to showcase what air combat looked like more than 70 years ago. Doug Ward, EAA 285865, of Mondovi, Wisconsin, flew 37 missions as a ball turret gunner during World War II — and his flight  jacket still fits.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY  ROB MILLER

www.eaa.org

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY  MOOSE PETERSON

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istory may not be made by warbirds at Oshkosh, but it is most definitely remembered by visitors of all ages, whether they’re taking a look inside a cockpit or watching as  frontline fighters of two distant generations  fly by in tight formation. PHOTOGRAPHY BY  MICHAEL S. KELLY 

“Keep ‘em Flying.” That’s the motto — and the mission — of EAA Warbirds of America, the EAA division that provides programs and services to those interested specifically in former military aircraft. Whether you fly, restore, or simply enjoy warbirds and their place in history, we invite you to consider adding Warbirds of America to your EAA membership. For more information, visit www.EAA.org/warbirds .

PHOTOGRAPHY BY  CRAIG VANDERKOLK 

70 Sport Aviation

November 2016

PHOTOGRAPHY BY  JIM  JIM KOEPNICK 

SHARE YOUR PASSION FOR AVIATION

THROUGH EAA EA A EAG EAGLE LE FLIGHTS FLIGHTS™ EAA’s Eagle Flights program is your opportunity to help adults discover the joy, freedom, and accessibility of general aviation through a one-on-one flight experience and informal mentorship. Visit EAA.org/EagleFlights to learn more and to become an Eagle Flights mentor today!

Eagle Flights

™

Annual Report

Covering period March 1, 2015 - February 28, 2016

Stability Brings New Strength Stability Brings It was a great year for EAA. We are a traditional association, not one  to often pat ourselves ourselves on the back, but there’s there’s no denying we’ve had incredible successes this year that built upon our already solid foundation. The numbers you see in the following pages show EAA is strong by every measure and has established stability at all levels of our organization that will carry our mission forward for years to come. Our growth can be directly attributed to you and the thousands of EAAers who have made our success possible through donations of time and money. In an organization built by people who build and restore their own airplanes, it goes without saying that involvement and a can-do attitude is the backbone of EAA. What I find most encouraging about the state of this association is our stability. The world of personal aviation faces more challenges than ever before. The number of pilots, and the size of the personal airplane fleet, has been gradually declining, but in skies filled with t urbulent air, EAA remains a stable institution in the world of personal aviation. And even though the pilot population may not be increasing as fast as it once had, EAA remains a vibrant, active, and growing community. While  the aviation industry industry consolidates and and faces challenges on many fronts, our annual fly-in and convention here in Oshkosh shows consistent growth in attendance across all levels of member and industry participation. Additionally, our government advocacy programs continue  to rack up a multitude of successes successes that protect your freedom to fly. fly. One other important key to maintaining stability has been the completion this past year of the leadership transition at EAA. For several years, I had served as volunteer president of the association in addition to my elected role as chairman of the board of directors. I am honored that after months of discussions, the board has now selected me as CEO and chairman of your association to provide consistent and stable leadership for years to come. Our energetic and experienced board of directors also provides the stability we’ll need as we take on new initiatives that will grow your association. Our mission — to protect and promote all forms of personal aviation — is clear, and the board’ board’ss prudent investment decisions and innovative program emphasis make EAA the definitive force in aviation. In fact, one of our most important programs, Young Eagles, continues  to be the successful successful effort ever created to introduce young people people to the world of aviation. When it was f ounded more than 20 years ago, Young Eagles was a way to celebrate the centennial of the Wright brothers’ first flight in 1903. The program was intended to last a decade leading to that anniversary.. But through the thousands of flight and ground hours anniversary donated by our members, Young Eagles not only lives on, but also gains in critical importance with each passing year. In our fiscal year 2016, the  total number of Young Young Eagles flights neared the 2 million million mark. An An unimaginable number when the program began in 1992, and now approaches its 25th anniversary and what’s sure to be a fantastic celebration at AirVenture in 2017.

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November 2016

EAA AirVenture Oshkosh is a critical component of our financial performance every year,, and 2015 was no exception. The weeklong year fly-in convention was better by all measures compared to 2014, and the best in many years. We won’t stop ensuring that it retains its legacy as the World’ World’ss Greatest Aviation Celebration. AirVenture Oshkosh has become a very important part of EAA. Our annual convention and fly-in is the premier showcase for personal aviation around the world and is both the barometer of success and the growth engine for all of personal aviation. Oshkosh, as it is most commonly known, is the most prominent and shining example of how you, our members, make EAA the global force it has become  through your countless hours of volunteer work. Our success in 2015 clearly demonstrates  that our flight plan is solid, and we are on the right course. But this is no time to throttle back. We have made great progress in defeating  threats to our freedom to fly, but it’s it’s impossible  to predict what new challenges will emerge without warning. That’s why your continued support, through donations of time and money, are essential to maintain the positive stability EAA has achieved. Thank you for making 2015 another solid and stable success for EAA. And if I could ask one more thing, please consider becoming a Lifetime member of EAA. It’s important to our association, and a fantastic value for you personally.. As always, we’re very appreciative personally of you helping us grow the spirit of aviation.

JACK J. PELTON,

EAA CEO and Chairman of the Board

Financial Performance The information presented here is from EAA’ EAA’s audited financial statements for the fiscal year ended February 28, 28, 2016 (or fiscal 2016). Copies Copies of these financial financial statements are available at www.EAA.org/whoarewe. EAA generated total income of $36.9 million in fiscal 2016, a decrease of $1.8 million or 4.7 percent from the prior year. The primary driver for this decrease in year over year income was a $2.2 million decline in the value of EAA’s investments that occurred late in the fiscal year. Investment markets have since recovered, and EAA’s investments have returned to their approximate value prior to the market decline. This recovery in value will become part of income results for the current fiscal year 2017. Our underlying operations are healthy and continue to grow year over year. Excluding investment income (or losses), EAA generated income of $39.1 million in fiscal 2016, an increase of $1.7 million or 4.6 percent over fiscal year 2015. AirVenture continues to be EAA’s largest source of income, generating $16.9 million or 46 percent of total income in 2016. This result was $1 million higher than the prior year. Increased Increased support from our commercial partners and strong attendance driven by attractive programming, features and attractions, and great weather were all factors contributing to this favorable result. EAA’s membership increased by roughly 3 percent last year to nearly 198,000 members driven by significant increases in student and Lifetime member categories. Dues income, which represents nearly $6 million or 15 percent of EAA’s revenue, was roughly on par with the prior year. Donations represent 16 percent of EAA’s EAA’s income and are a critical source of support for activities that advance our mission of growing participation in aviation. In fiscal 2016, donations of cash, property, and services were approximately $6.1 million, up 6 percent from the prior year. On the expense side, EAA incurred $38.8 million of operating expenses in fiscal 2016, an increase of $3.2 million or 9 percent over the prior year. As expected, AirVenture drives our largest category of operating expenses, coming in at $14 million or 36 percent of EAA’s total expenses in the past fiscal year. The cost of putting on AirVenture 2015 increased by $900,000 or 6 percent over the prior year due to our decision to increase investments in programs, features and attractions, facilities, and visitor amenities. EAA management and your board believe that these investments played no small part in driving the highest AirVenture visitor visitor satisfaction rating on record during 2015. Beyond AirVenture, EAA has programs that run throughout the year in areas that include education; information resources; advocacy initiatives; and a range of services that support builders, restorers, aircraft owners, and aviation enthusiasts of all kinds. Program expenses in fiscal 2016 were $10.5 million, up $1.1 million or 11 percent over the prior year. These program expenses repres represent ented ed 27 percen percentt of EAA’ EAA’s total total expens expenses. es. Member Membershi shipp servic services es expens expenses, es, which which includ includee our member member call call center center and mber mber acquis acquisiti ition on and retent retention ion progra programs, ms, were were $6.2 $6.2 millio million, n, up $164,0 $164,000 00 3 perc percen entt from from the the prio priorr year year.. ement ement and genera generall expens expenses es totale totaledd $4.6 $4.6 milli million, on, an increa increase se of om the the prio priorr year year.. Most Most of this this incr increa ease se rela relate tess to deve develo lopm pmen entt of ation technology technology resources resources and capabili capabilities ties including including the website, website, ations ations,, social social media media presen presence, ce, and core core syste systems. ms. Manage Managemen mentt e expend expenditu itures res were were necess necessary ary to meet meet rising rising expect expectati ations ons of ery, ery, and efficie efficiency ncy from from the organi organizat zation ion.. rall rall resu result lt for for fisca fiscall 2016 2016 was was a decr decrea ease se in net net asse assets ts of $1.9 $1.9 ding ding the invest investmen mentt loss loss descri described bed earli earlier er,, EAA would would have have modest modest increa increase se in net assets assets from from its operat operating ing activ activiti ities. es.

EAA’s management and the board believe that the organization is on very solid financial ground. At fiscal year-end, EAA had total assets of $85.4 million, nearly half of which is available to cover our debt repayment, operating reserve requirements and, over time, investment in furthering the organization’s mission. EAA had total liabilities of $21.7 million, an increase of $758,000 or nearly 4 percent. This includes increases in prepayments from AirVenture exhibitors and obligations relating to Lifetime and multi-year memberships, offset by a $600,000 decrease in long-term debt related to required repayment of principal on our industrial revenue bond (IRB). EAA’s net assets at fiscal year-end were $63.7 million, $1.9 million below the prior year as previously discussed. discussed. Of this amount, $47.6 million (75 percent) is unrestricted as to use, and $16.1 million (25 percent) is subject to temporary or permanent use restrictions. EAA management and your board of directors believe that EAA’ EAA’s financial results in fiscal 2016 were consistent with the long-term plan to continue to improve the financial strength of the organization while increasing investment in programs and activities that bring value to our membership and drive measurable results consistent with its mission.

Consolidated Statement of Financial

Position February 29, 2016

February 28, 2015

Assets Current assets Pledges receivable less current portion Investments Property and equipment Less accumulated depreciation Net property and equipment

$16,904,777 5,203 24,173,410 68,023,389 (40,770,757) 27,252,632

$15,679,492 5,879 26,358,475 65,734,591 (38,709,070) 27,025,521

3,311,511 10,514,041 3,264,599 85,426,173

3,311,511 10,516,841 3,688,747 86,586,466

Current liabilities 10,726,745 Gift annuity liability, less current portion 159,220 Deferred compensation, less current portion 283,981 Long-term debt, less current maturities 7,000,000 Unearned income, less current portion 3,546,115

9,754,302 163,580 320,252 7,608,649 3,111,117

Land Display aircraft Other assets Total assets

Liabilities and net assets

Net assets Unrestricted Temporarily restricted Permanently restricted

Total liabilities and net assets

47,564,067 2,839,059 13,306,986 63,710,112

48,874,998 3,200,287 13,553,281 65,628,566

85,426,173

86,586,466 www.eaa.org

73

Consolidated Statement of Activities February 28, 2016

Unrestricted

Temporarily restricted

Permanently restricted

Consolidated

February 28, 2015

 $11,463,090 5,781,108 4,367,086 (2,185,613)  2,436,691 2,745,101 2,483,935 5,049,208 1,660,509 1,695,882 1,402,675 -

$11,000,859 5,777,040 4,055,564 1,360,020 2,295,234 2,913,846 2,130,969 5,028,408 1,543,208 1,392,931 1,220,688 -

36,899,672

38,718,767

10,543,634 13,953,748 6,249,603 4,735,144 2,106,499 1,229,498

9,461,907 13,037,435 6,085,506 3,880,811 1,899,183 1,199,786

Revenues, gains, and other support Admissions and registrations Membership dues and subscriptions Donations Investment income (loss) Merchandise Merchandi se sales Advertising Sponsorship Rental income Commissions and royalties Donated services and property Other Assets released from restriction

 $11,463,090 5,781,108 1,226,892 (901,806)  2,436,691 2,745,101 2,483,935 5,049,208 1,660,509 1,695,882 1,402,675 2,463,910

 (2,463,910)

37,507,195

 (361,228)

Total revenues, gains, and other support Expenses Program expenses AirVenture expenses Membership services Management and general Cost of merchandi merchandise se Fundraising

 3,077,364 (974,682)

 62,830 (309,125)

 (246,295)

10,543,634 13,953,748 6,249,603 4,735,144 2,106,499 1,229,498

Total expenses

38,818,126

 -

 -

38,818,126

35,564,628

Change in net assets

(1,310,931)

(361,228)

(246,295)

(1,918,454)

3,154,139

Beginning of year

 48,874,998

 3,200,287

 13,553,281

 65,628,566

62,474,427

47,564,067

2,839,059

13,306,986

63,710,112

65,628,566

End of year

This report was compiled from the audit of Experimenta l Aircraft Association, Inc. and the EAA Aviation Foundation, Inc. recently completed by Grant Thornton LLP. Copies of the complete audit report, including footnotes, are availa ble a

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t www.EAA.org.

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Revenues, Revenues, gains, and other other support................ $36.9 mi llion 1. Admissions and registrations ................................... ................................... 31.1% 31.1% 2. Membership dues and and subscriptions....................... 15.7% 3. Donations......................................  Donations..................................................................16. ............................16.4% 4% 4. Investment income (loss) .......................................... .......................................... (5.9)% 5. Merchandise sales..................................................... sales....................................................... 6.6% 6. Advertising.............................................. Advertisin g...................................................................7 .....................7.4% .4% 7. Sponsorship ..................................................... ................................................................ ........... 6.7% 8. Rentals............................  Rentals ........................................................ .......................................... .............. 13.7% 9. Commissions and royalties ........................................ ........................................ 4.5% 10. Other ....................................................... ........................................................................... .................... 3.8% 74 Sport Aviation

November 2016

2

Expenses.....................................................$38.8 million 1. Program expenses .............................................27.2% 2. AirVenture expenses ......................................... ......................................... 35.9% 3. Membership services.........................................16.1% 4. Management and general ..................................12.2% ..................................12.2% 5. Cost of merchandise ............................................5.4% ............................................5.4% 6. Fundraising........................................ Fundraising............................................................3.2% ....................3.2%

Thank you to all of our donors and business partners across EAA and its foundation for your support. Whether Whether you’ve you’ve provided financial contributions, contributions, in-kind in-kind donations, or simply the gift of time, we couldn’t have grown The Spirit of Aviation without you. $250,000+ Aircraft Spruce & Specialty Co.* Anonymous Ford Motor Company* Hank Menke Redbird Flight Simulations* RIMOWA GmbH* Textron Aviation*

$100,000 $1 00,000 - $249,999 Aspen Avionics Aviall BendixKing by Honeywell Boeing Company (The)* Joseph Brown* Joe Clark Daher Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University* Evolution Aircraft Company Garmin Ltd. GoPro* James Hagedorn Robert Hagedorn Hamilton Watch Company* Honda Aircraft Company Icom America* Jeppesen* Kenyon and Mary Francis Follett Charitable Remainder Unitrust Lincoln Electric* Lycoming Engines M&M’S* Nikon Inc.* Phillips 66 Aviation Piper Aircraft Inc. Poly-Fiber Aircraft Coatings* Rockwell Collins Myrt Rose* Sporty’s Pilot Shop*

$50,000 - $99,999 Chuck Aaron* AeroShell* AKG by Harman* AOPA Aviat Aircraft Inc. Avidyne Corporation Bose Corporation Cessna Aircraft Company* Cirrus Aircraft CubCrafters Inc.

Embraer Executive Jets Epic Aircraft ForeFlight* Stuart Fred* FreeFlight Systems GE Aviation Global Aerospace Goodyear Store (The)* HAI Hartzell Propeller Inc* Honda Generators ICON Aircraft John Deere* Adam and April Jones JP Instruments Keith Kocourek Lightspeed Aviation* Mahindra Aerospace John and Adrienne Mars John and Kay McCann Mooney International Corporation Motorola Solutions* Multicopter Warehouse NATCA ONE Aviation* Quest Aircraft Company Robert A. and Susan C. Wilson Foundation Sennheiser Aviation* Sky-Tec Flyweight Starters Superior Air Parts Tempest* Walton Family Foundation Inc. Williams International Zenith Aircraft Company*

$20,000 - $49,999 Advanced Radiant Systems/ COOL-SPACE* Aircraft Specialties Services American Airlines Inc.* Austin E. Knowlton Foundation B&C Specialty Products Inc. Buehler Aviation Research Foundation William Buerschinger James Cavanaugh Joanne Chaudoin* Cleveland Wheels & Brakes/ Stratoflex/Parker Aerospace*

Eastern Aviation Fuels Alan Eustace Roland and Diane Fagen Tracy Forrest Randy Foutch Generac Power Systems* Glasair Aviation Gogo Business Aviation* Jelly Belly Candy Company jetAVIVA Doug Kelly Joel Kleinman Norman Moyer Oshkosh Corporation* Jack and Rose Pelton* Pepsi Priceless Aviation Products* John and Elizabeth Seibold* Hal and Sandy Shevers Sonex Aircraft LLC* Starr Aviation Ted and Grace Bachhuber Foundation Inc. Tinker Murdock Family Fund TruTrak TruTrak Flight Systems Sean D. Tucker* Joe and Carol Tumminaro John Turgyan Tom and Carol Turner Charlie Underbrink USSIC Aviation Joe and Connie Whisenhunt Todd Winter Wipaire Inc.

$10,000 - $19,999 Air Journey* Stuart Auerbach and Marilyn O’Reagan Avfuel Corporation Aviation Education Foundation Tom and Hetty Ball BBA Aviation Better Aircraft Fabric Colleen Blume* Beau and Debra Bradley Jerry Brown R. Ernie Butcher Central Carolina Community Foundation ConocoPhillips

*Level of gift includes in kind donation (i.e. stock, services, tangible property, auction lot, etc.) 

Norm DeWitt* DeWitt* Scott Donnelly DTG Pyrotechnics* Margaret Eskridge E-Z-GO* Fagen Fighters WWII Museum Falcon Insurance FedEx Express Express FltPlan.com Flying High Coffee LLC* Frasca International Inc. Estate of Dodie Gann GAMA Klein and Karen Gilhousen Terry Golden* William and Gerry Griffith* Greg and Suzanne Herrick Michael and Maria Herman* Ken Hoffman Hubbard Broadcasting Foundation (The) Ideal Crane Rental* David Kaplan Clay Keath William and Beth Knighton* Monte Koch David Lau Myron Marsh* McDermott & Bull Executive Search

Andrew McKenna Norbert McLuckie Bradley Mottier Ed and Pat Noel Northrop Grumman Corporation James Phillips Plexus Corp. Charles and Lynne Precourt Clay and Carol Presley Richard R. and Gretchen E. Harper Fund David Robertson Jeannie Rose* Herman Rowland S. Salman Dan and Keena Schwinn Scott Seibold SS Pro Safari* Richard and Susan Sugden Richard Swenson Ronald Tarrson* Frederick and Barbara Telling

James and Angela Thompson Unlimited Aerobatics USA Inc. Dick VanGrunsven Vesely Family Foundation Steuart Walton Wheels Up* Brad Worsham

$5,000 - $9,999 4imprint* AeroLEDs AIG Aerospace Insurance Services Inc. AirFleet Capital Inc. Allianz Mark Aloe* Arena Americas* Steve and Cindy Aughinbaugh* Richard and Adrienne Beattie Brent Blue Belinda Bryce Tim Callahan Citation Jet Pilots Classic Jet Aircraft Association Wyche and Rhonda Coleman James and Ann Cooling Steve Durdin Bruce Fine Fullgraf Foundation GES* Robert and Diane Gingell Gregg Guider James Harker James Hefelfinger Doreen Hillard John “Jack” Hyland* International Society of Transport Aircraft Trading Foundation Jackson Walker LLP Jim and Cindy Janes Donald and Nieves Jones Herb and Carol Jorgensen* Richard and Karen Kimberly* David and Florence Kleine* Thomas Marotta Linda Mars Marsh USA Inc. Steve McKibbon NBAA Northeast Ohio Ford Dealers Advertising Association Inc. www.eaa.org

75

WILL YOU  BE  BE OUR NEXT 

WINNER?  The 2017 EAA Sweepstakes is now underway. This year’s Grand Prize is a brand-new br and-new,, custom built Van’s RV-12. RV-12. This Experimental E xperimental Light Sport Aircraft (E-LSA) features a classic paint scheme and includes a Rotax engine and Dynon panel. Van’s RV aircraft are a sport pilot’s dream–you’ll want to jump at the chance to win this t his beautiful plane. Head to EAA.org/Sweepstakes  for details and official rules.

No purchase or contribution necessary to enter or enter  or win. Complete Official Rules, Official  Rules, by which all entrants are bound, are available a t a t EAA.org/Sweepstakes. EAA.org/Sweepstakes. Copyright ©2016 Experimental Aircraft Association

p.80 News From HQ • p.84 What Our Members Are Building/Re Building/Restoring storing • p.89 Gone West • p.90 Members/Chap Members/Chapters ters in Action

QUESTIONS ABOUT  YOUR MEMBERSHIP? Want to change your address or need other assistance? EAA’s Membership Services staff is available to assist you Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. (Central time). Call 800-564-6322 (800-JOIN-EAA), (800-JOIN-EAA), e-mail [email protected] g, or visit www.EAA.org/membership. To see the benefits EAA members enjoy, visit visit www.EAA.org/memberbenefits.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY

KELSEY KAISER

 

www.eaa.org 7  79 9

MEMBERCENTRAL  NEWS FROM HQ

EAA Surpasses 200,000 Members Continuing to grow and engage flying enthusiasts

Name: Rob Molash, EAA 633253 Position: Audio/Visual Support Coordinator

 WHO’S WHO AT HQ EAA HAS REACHED A MAJOR MILESTONE, as our association has s ur-

passed 200,000 members! “We “We reached this milestone by building on the legacy established by our founder, Paul Poberezny, more than 60 years ago when he stated that all who wish to participate are welcome,” said Jack J. Pelton, EAA CEO and chairman of the board. “Paul understood the basic desire for the freedom of flight, and the dedication from EAA’s EAA’s members, chapters, and staff have made it possible to grow the organization to new levels. I thank every EAA member who has contributed through the years to EAA’s EAA’s achievements. We celebrate this milestone together.” Pelton added that EAA’s value and growth are especially notable as a counter to a decreasing number of active pilots in the United States. Fewer than 600,000 active pilot certificates are now held by U.S. residents, a number that EAA and its members have sought to reverse with programs to meet the organization’s organization’s mission, which focuses on “growing participation in aviation by sharing The Spirit of Aviation.” Aviation.” Among EAA’s EAA’s popular outreach initiatives is the Young Eagles program that introduces youth ages 8-17 to aviation by offering free demonstration flights hosted by members and chapters. In July, July, EAA member and actor Harrison Ford flew the 2 millionth  Young  Young Eagle during EAA AirVenture AirVenture Oshkosh, the association’s annual fly-in convention in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. EAA continues to expand its programs for members involved in homebuilding and restoration of aircraft. We’ve also created partnerships with other aviation-minded organizations, such as the Soaring Society of America, IMC Club, and the Academy of Model Aeronautics. These cooperative ventures are discovering ways to work together to inspire interest in all forms of flight, including emerging unmanned aerial technology or “drones,” “drones,” as well as creating pathways for people to engage in and en joy aviation in various ways in their own hometowns, whether it is directly through flight or other educational activities. “EAA’s success is based on a basic principle of sharing the knowledge, information, and passion for aviation,” Pelton said. “Our organization is also dedicated to getting it done — breaking down barriers that keep people from pursuing their own dreams, and encouraging innovation to take us over the next horizon of flight.”

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What do you enjoy most about your job? Working Working in such an amazing setting, filled with so much history is probably the biggest factor in what makes my job so cool. I am privileged to meet so many incredible people and help support a tremendous variety of events. Most memorable/unique EAA experience? EAA AirVenture 2010 was a very memorable year. We had torrential rainfall in the week leading up to AirVenture. AirVenture. Seeing how the staff, volunteers, and vendors all came together to ensure that Oshkosh would take place was inspiring. Most memorable person you met through EAA: I’ve been fortunate to meet so many amazing people over the years — Scott Crossfield, Harrison Ford, Bud Anderson, Sir Richard Branson, Sean D. Tucker, Tucker, Hoot Gibson — it’s quite a list. But, the most memorable would be Cliff Robertson. He was always so sweet, down to earth, and fun to talk to. Probably my favorite narrator for some of the videos created here at EAA many years ago. What are you building right now, now, what have you built, what do you want/plan to build? Right now, I enjoy building scale model aircraft with my 11-year-old daughter, Lily. Other information you’d like to include? I have always looked to our founder, Paul Poberezny, Poberezny, as my in spiration on how to treat those I come into contact with through my job at EAA. Like Paul, I always remind myself of how important the people are in this organization. Each one of us here can have an amazing impact on someone else’s life by going out of our way to help them and do our best work for them.

MEMBERCENTRAL   TOM POBERE POBEREZNY ZNY INDUCT INDUCTED ED INTO INTO NAT NATION IONAL AL AVIAT AVIATION ION HALL HALL OF FAME REFLECTING ON A LIFETIME involvement and a nearly 50-year career in aviation, Tom Poberezny had an opportunity to discover one of those funny things about time. “You “You spend so much time looking ahead, that it’s a situation like this that causes you to look back,” Poberezny said. The “situation” was his induction into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in Dayton, Ohio, October 1 as part of this year’s class of four inductees. Joining him were two NASA personalities — Christopher Kraft, known as the father of NASA’s Mission Control Center, and Robert Crippen, the first space shuttle pilot and former Kennedy Space Center director. The fourth member of the class was the late Col. George “Bud” Day, a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient and Vietnam prisoner of war. Poberezny is being honored for his diverse aviation achievements, perhaps the best-known of which is serving as EAA president for more than 20 years (19892010). His achievements also include his

notable accomplishments as an aerobatic competitor and air show performer. “Sharon and I are truly humbled by this wonderful honor,” Poberezny said. “Moments like this cause me to look back and reflect on a lot of things, especially how far we’ve come in five decades.” Poberezny’s EAA accomplishments began in the 1970s when he assumed the chairmanship of the annual EAA fly-in convention now known as EAA AirVenture Oshkosh. He also led the “Wings on Dreams” fundraising campaign in support of building the EAA Aviation Center in Oshkosh, which opened in 1983. Poberezny also introduced the Young Eagles program, which has now flown more than 2 million young people over 24 years, and led the drive to the sport pilot/  light-sport aircraft category that opened new possibilities in recreational flying. Poberezny’s Poberezny’s induction also creates the first father-son tandem in the National Aviation Hall of Fame, as EAA’s late founder Paul Poberezny was inducted in 1999.

 AND  AND THE THE GRASSH GRASSHOPP OPPER ER GOES GOES TO TO

KELLY JAMESON, EAA ������, ������, of Chappell Hill, Texas, Texas, has been selected as t he winner of the 2016 EAA Sweepstakes. Jameson’s name was drawn on September 30 from more than 740,000 740,000 entries. “I was very, very surprised,” he said. “You see those things, these big ticket items, and you never expect that you’re the winner.” winner.” This year’s prize is particularly special as it is the first time the winner will receive a warbird: a 1945 Piper L -4J, the military version of the J-3 Cub affectionately called the Grasshopper. Grasshopper. The L -4J was restored to original factory form by a former Rolls-Royce trophy winner and has flown less than 100 hours since its restoration. “I appreciate the stewardship of this airplane. Taking care of the history representing

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MEMBERCENTRAL  NEWS FROM HQ

the people who fought for this country,” country,” Jameson said. “It is a special plane that not everyone would appreciate.”  This Grasshopper will most definitely be appreciated appreciated by its new owners as Jameson isn’t the only aviation aviation enthusiast in the family. His oldest son Joseph, 19, is also a pilot and regularly flies their Cessna 172. While the family already owns a GA aircraft, having two will come in handy with more than one pilot in the bunch. Jameson’s grand prizewinning entry was a coupon from Sport Aviation sent in by mail, but entries can also be made online or in person at the Sweepstakes Building during AirVenture. Although entry is free, donations are welcome and benefit ben efit EAA’s EAA’s education programs.

LONGTIME EAA LIBRARIAN RETIRES

staff member October 7 as librarian Sue Lurvey retired. Lurvey joined the EAA staff part time in 1985 when she was hired on by library director Dennis Parks. Parks Parks was a professor at Purdue who helped set up the library at EAA’s EAA’s new headquarters in Oshkosh and eventually returned to his post there, leaving Lurvey to take over. On her first day flying solo, Lurvey got a somewhat haphazard introduction to the Poberezny family. “I got a phone call from Paul [Poberezny’s] secretary, and she said Paul would like you to bring up such and such an issue of Sport Aviation. And I went, ‘Ok!’” Lurvey said with a laugh. “I found the magazine and took it upstairs; she showed me into his office. There was another man sitting there at the time, and he didn’t say anything. I gave Paul the magazine, and he introduced himself and I introduced myself, and we exchanged pleasantries. … A little later on that afternoon that very man who was sitting in Paul’s office came down and said, ‘Hi, I’m Paul’s son Tom.’ And that was my introduction to the Poberezny family.” family.” EAA LOST A DEDICATED

EAA’s EAA’s library receives calls, e-mails, and letters from people all over the world asking for information on all kinds of airplanes. But Lurvey said a lot of what she’s done is archiving and filing drawings, photographs, and slides that were used in EAA’s various publications, which is what she said she’ll miss the most. “Finding homes for all these wayward photographs that have been stored here, it’s just a Sherlock Homes kind of thing and I’ve learned to enjoy it,” she said.

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November 2016

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WHAT OUR MEMBERS ARE BUIL DING/RESTORING

Retro Radial Runabout Pennsylvania Spacewalker 

MY AIRCRAFT STARTED as a Spacewalker, designed in the late ’70s by

Jessie Anglin. A classic tandem two-place with conventional landing gear, gear, powered by a horizontally opposed four-cylinder engine. Marty Hone from Australia decided to give this design a more retro look by using a Rotec R3600 radial engine. When my retirement drew near I searched for a project to keep busy. When I discovered the Yahoo Spacewalker group and photos of Marty’s airplane it was love at first sight. I’ve always been involved with aviation, having earned my A&P and IA in the early ’70s, so building an airplane did not seem that big of a deal. The wings are fabricated from spruce and plywood with 4130 steel compression struts. I had little precision woodworking experience but, with help, learned the necessary skills. The main spar is a built-up box design whose internal I-beam is constructed from laminated plywood. Using T-88 wood epoxy, small pieces of wood progressed into the spar. The ribs were routed from 1/4-inch, fiveply Baltic birch using templates fabricated on a milling machine. Because of the shape of the wing, only three templates were required. Routing the ribs proved quite easy using t he template pinned to a section of oversized stock. The wings are made in three pieces, a center section and two outer wing panels, which make them ideal for garage or basement work, but a good vacuum cleaner is required. The steel tube compression struts required a welding fixture that I fabricated from heavy duty steel channel.

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As a member of Chapter 240, I was invited to start construction of the fuselage in the chapter’s hangar. hangar. There, I also found many experts and helpful advisers to assist with the build. The pattern for the fuselage frame was drawn, tubes cut and shaped, and welding began. At the start, my welding required lots of practice but soon improved. Paul Chernikeeff and his Rotec team made arrangements for me to take ownership of my new 110-hp R2800 during EAA AirVenture AirVenture Oshkosh 2012. The purchase included most of t he firewall-forward items, such as the propeller, engine mount, oil tank, throttle body injector (TBI), slide carburetor, and the exhaust ring instead of the standard short stacks. Rounded bulkheads were fabricated to accommodate the sheet metal and fabric covering, while the tail feathers were built with 4130 steel tubin g and fitted to the fuselage. The 9-inch longer main landing gear legs complemented the large diameter (76-by-52 inch) propeller. propeller. Covering of the wings, tail surfaces, and

MEMBERCENTRAL 

fuselage was completed with Ceconite and Randolph dope, painted similarly to a PT-22. PT-22. I thought all was ready in spring of 2015 for engine runs and taxi tests, until I did a weight and balance check. To my surprise, the airplane was so tail heavy, heavy, I would run out of aft CG within the first 30 minutes of flight with full fuel. The b attery was already mounted on the firewall, so the best solution was to move the engine forward. Using 3-, 6-, 9-, and finally 12-inch spacers between the firewall and the engine mount, reweighing the airplane and calculating after each movement proved that 12 inches forward should do the trick. I fabricated a welding fixture, patterned after the first engine mount from Rotec. I also increased the tube diameter and wall thickness to provide more strength for the longer mount. The new mount created lots of space between the firewall and the rear of the engine. Hence, a sheet metal boot cowling and ring were fabricated. Thanks to Dick Hartzler for coming to the rescue with a formed cowl ring. Engine ground runs showed that idle mixture and rpm needed adjustments easily accomplished on the Rotec TBI. Taxi tests at walking speeds were successful as the plane tracked straight with excellent rudder and tailwheel authority. June 20, 2016, was a beautiful, clear day with little crosswind. I was only planning on additional taxi tests down the runway to get the sight picture fixed, but on the third test, a little faster than previous attempts,

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOHN

SHIPMAN

I had enough speed to move the stick forward and the tail wheel started to get light. Well, on a whim, the throttle went full forward, the tail came up, I could see the other end of the runway, and a couple of seconds later I was airborne. Control checks were conducted at 3,000 feet, and except for some right wing heaviness, everything was in the green. My first flight plan was to circle the airport for 30 minutes and land. My first attempt was a bounce-and-go as I had not anticipated the high sink rate with reduced power. Three more passes to the runway were made, adjusting to a higher rpm each time. The fourth and final approach appear appeared ed to be right, and a near perfect three-point landing was accomplished. After almost seven years of effort, it was one of the defining experiences of my life. All the issues, frustration, make-over parts, and concerns disappeared in an instant. My wife, Carol, was my biggest supporter, providing the encouragement to stay focused during the frustrating periods. Roger Lehnert, my good friend and local A&P and IA, was always be available for advice and the oddball part that wasn’t ordered. John Leslie, EAA Chapter 240 technical counselor, provided extra hands during the assembly of many parts, and thanks to Tim Kline, the creative solution thinker, for his endless and tireless assistance during this project. Chuck Shipman, EAA 851171; West Chester, Pennsylvania

 AIRCRA  AIR CRAFT FT SUBM SUBMISS ISSION IONS S Share your craftsmanship with EAA Sport Aviation  readers worldwide!  Send us a photo and description of your project and we’ll consider using it in “What Our Members Are Building/Restoring.” Please include your name, address, and EAA number. We reserve the right to edit descriptions. For guidelines on how to get the best photo photo of aircraft, visit www.EAA.org/sportaviation. Mail: EAA Publications, Aircraft Projects, P.O. Box 3086, Oshkosh, WI 54903-3086 E-mail:: [email protected]  E-mail

E-mail: E-mail: [email protected] 

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MEMBERCENTRAL  WHAT OUR MEMBERS ARE BUIL DING/RESTORING

COLORADO TITAN

T��� 

in late 2009 — I say kits because we bought two. A good military friend of mine and I had seen the Titan T-51 three-quarter scale P-51 for a few years at Oshkosh and finally decided, since we weren’t getting any younger, younger, to take on the project of building one each for ourselves. We picked picked the kits up at the factory in January of 2010, and I started the project in my friend’s hangar in Iowa because I didn’t have a hangar of my own at the time. In 2011, t he project moved to Colorado where I had completed my hangar.

 THE KITS WERE PURCHASED PURCHASED

ILLINOIS ACEY

Our agreement, since we were both retired, was to work on the planes for at least 10 days a month. In the end it didn’t work out quite that way. So, four and a half years later my airplane was completed. The second airplane was signed off a few months later. later. We had decided the instrumentation should be steam gauges so as to look somewhat like the cockpit of a real P-51 and added an autopilot along with making the airplane IFR capable. Since I couldn’t decide on a paint scheme I polished it; what a job that was. My airplane is powered by a 3.5liter Honda V-6 engine with a supercharger

DEUCY 

of a rebuild started approximately three years ago. The aircraft is the original Acey Deucy, built in 1970 by retired Navy Cmdr. Cmdr. John Powell. Over the years, he modified it from being an open-cockpit, high-wing parasol type to a biplane with a sliding canopy, opy, distantly reminiscent of the early Navy Navy fighters. I made slight additions, including a GRT EFIS, a comm radio, transponder, wheel and ski attachment fittings, nav and strobe lights, etc. I was greatly assisted by my local EAA Chapter 1414 members along with some other wonderful friends in the re-covering, re-covering, painting, and reassembling processes. The project would have never finished without the generous help of these very giving individuals. I am forever grateful!

 THIS IS THE THE RESULT RESULT

Matthew Poleski, EAA Lifetime 39244; Belvidere, Belvidere, Illinois E-mail: E-mail: [email protected]

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November 2016

and a four-blade propeller. propeller. After completing the required test-flight profiles and 40 hours of flight time we continued gaining experience with the engine, computer, computer, and supercharger set up. I am approaching 200 hours on the airframe now with confidence to fly the aircraft anywhere in the United States. The aircraft is not only a real kick to fly, fly, but also very responsive and light on the controls. Colorado  Jim Winders, Winders, EAA 1030772; Brighton, Colorado E-mail: E-mail: jwinders  jwinders@gma @gmail.c il.com om

MEMBERCENTRAL 

MASSACHUSETTS RANS S��S  S-7S in August 2015, and the first flight was on September 16, 2015, after about five years of casual building. It flew hands-off and didn’t need any adjustments. RANS produces an extraordinary, very complete kit, and I was constantly amazed at the fit and finish of the parts. Everything went I FINISHED MY RANS

together easily and without issues. Power Power is a Rotax 912 ULS, and it has a Dynon EFIS-D6, Garmin 327 transponder, and an MGL V6 radio, as well as a complement of analog gauges. Covering is by Superflite with Stewart Systems paint. I’d like to thank my wife for her constant encouragement, EAA Technical Counselor

Mike Kuehlmuss, and Walter Swartz, who did the first test flights and, upon completion of its first flight, paid it the ultimate compliment: “It flies just like an airplane.” Pete Ouellette, EAA

630738; Easthampton, Massachusetts

E-mail: E-mail: [email protected]

 ARIZONA  ZENITH  ZENITH CH ���B  began at a barber shop in Tempe, Arizona, in the fall of 1997. I affectionately call that day “The Haircut That Changed My Life.” While waiting for my barber I was rummaging through a stack of magazines to kill time. A few t itles down from the top I ran across an issue of  Popular “You  Mechanics  Mechanics with a cover story titled, “You Build It, You Fly It.” Prior to reading that article I had never heard of EAA, and I had no idea a guy like me could build an airplane. Within a week I had taken an introductory flight at Sawyer Aviation and ordered a starter tail kit from Zenith. Shortly after that I joined EAA and my local chapter. A few months after that I was building in earnest and had achieved my private pilot certificate. I never finished my first attempt at building a Zenith CH 601 HDS. In 2005 I ran into a money storm and was forced to sell my 90 percent complete airplane. It hurt, but I MY JOURNEY WITH N���AL

never lost the dream. By summer 2010 the financial wheels were back on the bus, and I was ready to build again, this time a Zenith CH 650B. N902AL was started in August of 2010 and signed off airworthy in August 2014. However, up until July of 2016 my plane remained unpainted, and I wasn’t ready to show it. It is powered by a throaty Lycoming O-235-N2C. Engine monitoring, communications, and guidance are provided by an MGL Avionics instrument panel. The first flight in October 2014 was the single most satisfying moment in my life. My newly minted plane was painted by Straube’s Aircraft Services in Kingman, Arizona. The rudder art is a vinyl wrap inspired by the art of Bill Watterson and crafted by InkWrap in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. The box Calvin and Hobbes are flying in represents the spirit of aviation that has remained in me since I was a child, and

the crate my kit was delivered in. My plane’s name, Transmogrifier represents how the crate helped transform me from a landbased person to not only a pilot, but the pilot of an airplane I built myself with the help of friends. Special shoutout to Don H., Charlie B., Mike R., EAA, and my very supportive and patient wife. Steve Freeman, EAA 1139296; Phoenix, Arizona

E-mail: E-mail: [email protected]

www.eaa.org 87  87

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MEMBERCENTRAL 

Gone West  Not alone into the sunset but into into the company of friends who have have gone before them. ALASKA

KENTUCKY 

OKLAHOMA

Terry Belincky  (EAA  (EAA 1 187427), Anchorage Anchorage Steven Gilbert (EAA 333212), Anchorage H. “Ike” Leighty  (EAA  (EAA 252061), Juneau

Robert Dalzell (EAA 319535), Owensboro

William Hanks (EAA 220008), Tulsa

MARYLAND

OREGON

Jeary Vogt (EAA 262834), Galena

Robert Boring (EAA 406946), Beaver

MASSACHUSETTS

PENNSYLVANIA

Robert Lawrence (EAA 1100608), Deerfield

Ivan Stefanik (EAA 450516), Indiana

Carl Whitt (EAA 494551), Harrisburg

MICHIGAN

SOUTH DAKOTA

Richard Hofweber  (EAA 132341), Port Huron David Richardson  (EAA 1028436), White Lake

Allen Bucholz (EAA 567986), Tea

CALIFORNIA

ARIZONA

Hubert Myers (EAA 1 062993), Taylor Taylor ARKANSAS

Cmdr. James Alexander  (EAA 714165), Rossmoor Dan Christiansen (EAA 44842), Oceanside Onace Long (EAA 1027923), Trona Leigh Robinson (EAA 191407), El Cerrito William Seltzer (EAA 620168), Burbank

 TENNESSEE MINNESOTA

Peter Kloskowski  (EAA 41083), St. Cloud Richard Meyer  (EAA 219940), St. Paul Park  Vernon Solum (EAA 118808), La Crescent Harley Sutton (EAA 28654), Lakeville

William Zalenski (EAA 533406), Hermitage  TEXAS

Elizabeth Garza de Gerard  (EAA 799811), Bonham Billy Tollett (EAA 812181), Allen

FLORIDA

Leon Adelstone (EAA 659646), Sebring Joseph Jingle (EAA 104570), Merritt Island Kenneth Klebs (EAA 351552), Palm Bay Kenneth Nolde (EAA 604884), Pensacola Ellis O’Neal (EAA 1161850), Gainesville James Pavlicin (EAA 178811), Gulfport Charles Weinreich (EAA 466), Ellenton

MISSISSIPPI

UTAH

Lauren English-Hamilton (EAA 1032701), Purvis

Peter Stevens (EAA 488018), Salt Lake City

MISSOURI

Ron Vestal (EAA 207617), St. Joseph

 VIRGINIA

Robert Blosser (EAA 560854), Farmville

NEVADA

WASHINGTON

William Halverson (EAA 56992), Henderson

Richard Pearson  (EAA 881738), La Center

GEORGIA

Jessie Browder  (EAA 628136), Elberton Dolorese Ann “Dee” Dozier  (EAA 675435), Sylvester

NEW YORK 

WISCONSIN

ILLINOIS

J. Edward Manuel (EAA 633342), Ballston Lake Paul “Dan” Roth (EAA 2864), Webster Jeffrey Thew (EAA 1141875), Lewis

Austin Gibbons (EAA 23587), Elgin Robert Koran (EAA 1088986), Hickory Hills   (EAA 313894), Park Forest Richard Schilf  (EAA ( )

 (EAA 365533), Kannapolis Glenn Bickerstaff  (EAA ( )

Lothar Fritz (EAA 451287), Oshkosh Ralph Mosling (EAA 192429), Oshkosh Pat O’Connor (EAA 844677), Milton Kenneth Olson (EAA 43924), Grafton Thomas Perillo (EAA 1009308), Hudson William Schneider (EAA 63040), Oshkosh ( )

NORTH CAROLINA

INDIANA OHIO WYOMING

KANSAS

CANADA

www.eaa.org 8  89 9

MEMBERCENTRAL  MEMBERS/CHAPTERS IN ACTION

Homebuilders Major Achievement Award Presented to William Wynne Wynne EAA PRESENTED ITS HOMEBUILDERS Major

Achievement Award to William Wynne, “The Corvair Authority,” at the 25th Annual Zenith Open Hangar Days banquet on September 23. Wynne has been educating EAA members on how to successfully convert Corvair engines into affordable and reliable aircraft engines since 1989. He has held more than 38 Corvair Colleges, which are intense two-day events where builders bring their own engine to PHOTOGRAPHY BY NOTLEY HAWKINS convert under Wynne’s

watchful eye. He has held these Corvair Colleges all around the country. “William was so surprised he was actually at a loss for words,” said Charlie Becker, EAA director of chapters and communities and homebuilt community manager. “William has dedicated his life to supporting the grassroots homebuilder so the award is well-deserved.” Becker himself has attended a Corvair College. “I’ve seen for myself more than 20 EAA members working on their engines together,” together,” he said. “The camaraderie c amaraderie and knowledge sharing is exactly why EAA was formed. It is so rewarding to see the joy builders experience when they run their engine for the first time.”

EAA CHAPTER ��� RESTORES PHANTOM GATE GUARD BY PAUL ADAMS, EAA ������ EAA CHAPTER ��� of

Marshalltown, Iowa, was approached by the Marshalltown American Legion Post 46 with a request for our assistance in cleaning and painting the Legion’s F-4 Phantom. As caretaker of the F-4, the U.S. Air Force requires the Legion to keep the aircraft

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November 2016

in good visible shape. The Marshalltown F-4 was in definite need of a cleanup and new paint. The American Legion sought out Chapter 675 to help thinking that we had aircraft experience, which was of course t rue. We gladly volunteered our time and helped with s ome financial assistance. The project turned out to be fun, although much of the work was performed on hot muggy days. On the first day, day, the five volunteers were all veterans and, I might add, all over the age of 70. The first day consisted primarily of scraping, sanding, and washing. A professional painter was hired by the Legion with materials supplied by local merchants, thus we were needed only as assistants on the second and third days. Our work consisted of moving ladders, mixing paint, taping, moving the hoses,

hydrating the painter, and other various work-related work-related jobs. In our chapter food is always important, thus we provided lunch and drinks. Each day we worked on the F-4, pictures with articles were placed in the local paper showing the progress. Marshalltown is a small town, and the articles were front page stories. With this exposure the word got out, and as we worked many townspeople gave us a honk as they drove by. One day the veterans’ bus drove by, and we snapped them a salute. Fun was had by all, and we gave service to our community. community. Also, it is our deep desire that this aircraft will be a continuing reminder of all the veterans, past and present, who have supported our way of life, ideals, and the liberties and freedoms that we enjoy as Americans.

MEMBERCENTRAL  CHAPTER FLIES YOUNG EAGLES AT GIRLS IN AVIATION DAY BY CHUCK FISHER, EAA �������

35 brought smiles to dozens of young women as t hey integrated a Young Eagles activity with a Girls in Aviation Day camp held at Stinson Municipal Airport. This event, hosted by the Alamo City Chapter of Women in Aviation International (WAI), involved more than a dozen other agencies. These groups worked together to provide a structured aviation learning event for more than 50 young ladies and their families, culminating in a Young Eagles flight provided by chapter volunteers under the leadership of Phil Vaneau. The event was held at Stinson Municipal Airport (KSSF), the second oldest continuously operating airport in the United States, as it celebrates 100 years in operation. The location was emblematic as the airport was founded by aviation pioneers Katherine and Marjorie Stinson as their flight school before World War I. The day camp was a structured educational event. Teams of young ladies rotated among eight teaching stations of about 30 minutes each. These included basic aircraft fundamentals and a safety briefing by EAA Chapter 35; hands-on displays of military, military, AirLIFE helicopter, helicopter, and civilian aircraft; preflight planning; fundamentals of navigation; a control tower visit; Hallmark University academics; USAF remotely piloted aircraft demonstrations; introduction to the Civil Air Patrol; and demonstrations by San Antonio’s Boeing aircraft maintenance facility. facility. The academic day ended with a career presentation and women’s question and answer session. Chapter 35 pre-coordinated and integrated seamlessly with the general aviation centric air traffic controllers and ground staff to provide a sterile ramp and SAN ANTONIO’S EAA CHAPTER

routes for nearly two dozen sorties. The chapter’s seven pilots and dozen ground volunteers provided a professional, safe aviation experience for 40 young ladies, and each participant left with an armload of materials and an enormous smile. The event was covered by television news and extensively on social media. Our chapter is grateful for the superb volunteerism of our pilots and ground team, and wants to specifically also thank the Stinson Brown Bag Touch ‘n’ Go Restaurant who supplied breakfast and lunch for the girls and volunteers, the Stinson airport staff who provided us with fantastic support with ramp operations, maintenance, security security,, facilities, and the most general aviation friendly air traffic control anywhere. Through cooperative efforts like this, Chapter 35 is proud to highlight the extraordinary accomplishments of our aviators, builders, and restorers while helping to inspire a new generation of aviation professionals.

CHAPTER ���� HOSTS SUCCESSFUL CAMPING FLY�IN EAA CHAPTER ���� out of the University of North Dakota had a tremendous turnout at its annual fly-in and hog roast September 18-19, with 20 airplanes and a helicopter gathering to camp beneath the stars on a private grass strip in Manvel, North Dakota. The weekend was full of

PHOTOGRAPHY BY PEGGY FISHER

hangar flying, live music, food, and even some loose formation flying. Chapter 1342 has nearly 120 members and is one of the youngest and most active EAA chapters. To watch a video of the event, see the link under This Month’s Mont h’s Extras at www.EAA.org/sportaviation.

 

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MEMBERCENTRAL  MEMBERS/CHAPTERS IN ACTION

EAA MEMBER TO RE�CREATE RODGERS’ HISTORIC ���� FLIGHT  DAVID GRABOWSKI, EAA 1171910,

departed from California California at the end of September in a weight-shift weight-shift trike to trace the route (in reverse) of Cal Rodgers’ historic Vin Fiz  trans transcontinental flight in 1911. Rodgers flew a Wright EX from Sheepshead Bay, New York, to Pasadena, California, with 70 stops over 84 days to become the first person to fly an airplane across the United States. Grabowski had been preparing for this flight for the past three years and, at the time of this writing, planned to conclude the trip by landing in Montauk, New York, on or around

November 1. You can ou can find out more about his flight by going to www.EAA.org/sportaviation and clicking on This Month’s Extras.

 ANOTHER WORLD FLI GHT FOR GOR DILLO EAA 370596, who in 1998 gained fame when he overcame challenges to fly his Kitfox east from his native Spain to Oshkosh, and then completed an around-theworld flight, is embarking on another world flight early next year — this time as part of a scientific endeavor. Gordillo will fly an RV-8 MICHEL GORDILLO,

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Young Eagles Flight

over Antarctica and then to the North Pole to measure black carbon particles over the poles and possible effects on the atmosphere. More information about the flight, as well as the story of Gordillo’s Gordil lo’s epic 1998 flig ht ht to Oshkosh, is available is available at www.EAA.org/  sportaviation under This Month’s Extras.

3

EAA Student Membership

4

Sporty’s Learn to Fly Course

5

First Flight Lesson

EAA EA A Scholarships

The Young Eagles Flight Plan Your route from Young Eagle to licensed pilot For more information visit YoungEagles.org/fl YoungEagles.org/flightplan ightplan

Find us on Facebook at Facebook.com/EAAYoungEagles 92 Sport Aviation

November 2016

LIVE THE OSHKOSH SPIRIT, ALL YEAR LONG.

Visit your local EAA chapter. EAA Chapters are all about experienced aviators sharing their knowledge, skill, and expertise with a whole new generation of enthusiasts in your community. We live the aviation lifestyle! Join us for hangar coffee on Sunday mornings, take a youngster up for his or her first flight, and share a neighborly spirit that nods back to simpler times.

Visit EAA.org/Chapters to learn more.

Master the Art

EAA.org/IMC

www.eaa.org 93  93

TUBE�CUTTING TEMPLATES MAKING ACCURACY EASY 

 AN OSHK OSHKOSH OSH FIR FIRST  ST  FLYING FLYIN G A FOOT�LAUNC FOOT�LAUNCHED HED PPG TO AIRVENTURE

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As It Gets

DAN HELSPER’S AWARD�WINNING PIETENPOL

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WES C HU HUM M LEY 803.726.8884 • inf  info o @stemme.c o m stemme.com

FEATURE

�� Doing It Bernard’s Way  Dan Helsper and his award-winning Pietenpol clone BY BUDD DAVISSON

DEPARTMENTS COMMENTARY 

2

Technically Speaking—

22

Carol and Brian Carpenter 6

Ultralight World—Dan World—Dan Grunloh

TAILWINDS

18

Shop Talk—The Talk—The Rest of the Story 

ON THE COVER:  Young

Hints for Homebuilders— Portable Preheater, Simple Magneto Timer

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FlyMart

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Classified Ads

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EAA’s Attic

William William Naiva Naiva gets gets his first first airplane airplane ride in Dan Helsper’s sper’s Pietenpol. Pietenpol. Helmet, Helmet, goggles, goggles, Model Model A engine engine — who who could could ask for more? more?

Photo by Bill Origer

www.eaa.org

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 TUBE  TU BE�C �CUT UT TI TING NG  TEMP  TE MPLATE LATES S The easy way to be consistently accurate BY CAROL AND BRIAN CARPENTER

steel welded structure has always been one of the most common building mediums to work with on experimental aircraft. This type of construction lends itself to a multitude of different applications and renders one of the highest strength-toweight ratio manufacturing techniques, especially when it comes to fuselage assemblies. The welding of steel tube assemblies is a process that can be readily learned by just about anyone. And with current welding technologies like the TIG welder now coming down in price and becoming readily available to the average builder, precision-welded aircraft subassemblies are no longer limited to the professionals. Although this article is not a treatise on welding techniques, it is the primary answer to “How do I become a good welder?” Becoming a good welder requires that you learn the principles of welding. Our recommendation, especially if you’re brand new to welding, is that you simply engage in a training program. Often a community college class is your most cost-effective method of learning the skills you need. And then, of course, practice is the key to becoming proficient. As you begin the process of welding, one of the first things that you will identify is that it becomes very easy to make beautiful-looking welds if everything is set up properly — good equipment, good environment, clean materials, and, equally as important, a proper fit of the pieces of material that you’re welding together. together. This has always been one of the most frustrating parts of making a 4130 chromoly steel fuselage assembly. Typically, when we are working from a set of plans, we are taking a piece of 4130 tubing, cutting it to length, and then grinding each end to precisely interface with the adjacent tube. We refer to this as “coping.” “coping.” This is usually a lengthy process of trial and error. We place the tube in position, mark it, and then grind the end of the tube, refit the tube in place, check it, mark it, and duplicate the process until we have a proper fit. It can be tedious, but if you have patience and a

 THE CLASSIC ���� CHROMOLY CHROMOLY

 Above:

Tube marking template

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EXPERIMENT ER

November 2016

good eye for spatial orientation, with a litt le bit of practice, you can become pretty good at the process. All this bein g said, we’ve never met anyone who has welded a steel fuselage frame who has not come across the issue of fitting the tube and ending up with a fairly large gap by accident. If you’ve ever tried to close up that 1/4-inch gap by welding, you know that the end result isn’t going to be all that pretty. Those really pretty welds that we all admire are primarily a result of having two pieces of metal properly prepped and with a very nice clean, cons istent fit against each other. The welding bead flows seamlessly and consistently because of this close contact. Producing a beautiful weld with these conditions is a no-brainer. So the question is, if the difference between a good and a mediocre weld is the fit, how do we produce a consistently reliable good fit? The importance of a good fit is so critical that the industry in general has gone to great lengths to try to and solve this age-old problem. There have been hun dreds of CNC machines manufactured to be able to deal with exactly this problem. However, However, for the average homebuilder a $150,000 CNC tube-cutting machine isn’t exactly a good fit. And even the cheap CNC machines at $40,000 $40,000 are still a ridiculous option. Those who have purchased the CNC tube-cutting machines typically offer their services to

ILLUSTRATION COURTESY OF CAROL

AND BRIAN CARPENTER

LEADING EDGE AIR FOILS SOLIDWORKS EAA MAKER EDITION

5(   9  9 

This summer EAA announced a new benefit to members with the SolidWorks Student Design Kit — EAA Maker Edition. The computeraided drafting software is available to EAA members for personal and educational purposes and provides the ability to create fully detailed parts, assemblies, and drawings; the ability to generate complex surfaces, sheet metal flat patterns, and structural welded assemblies; and wizards to automate designs, check for interference, and perform simple stress and flow analysis. EAA members also receive guest membership to MySolidWorks, which provides introductory lessons, access to the SolidWorks manufacturing network, and millions of components. For more information on o n how to get started visit www.EAA.org/solidworks.

pre-cut your tubing. And although an aircraft manufacturer who is building a multitude of the same frames over and over can make use of these services, the price for this service to the average average homebuilder is still not cost-effective. There are also many types of tube coping machines using a drill press and a fixture to hold the tubing in place while cutting the profile with a hole saw. We, personally, own three of these. Today, oday, they all sit in the bottom of a toolbox somewhere. The problem with all of these methods has to do with the special nature of the 4130 chromoly steel fuselage frames used in aircraft. Most of the tubing that we’re using is thin wall tubing with a thickness of, typically, 0.035 inch. Unless you are buying hole saws with about 48 teeth per inch, it is just a brutal process cutting through this thin wall steel tube. Even when working with thicker wall tubing, the cutting process can work okay, but the downside is the setup time can be quite frustrating when moving from one size tube to the next. After years of dealing with these problems, and having built many steel fuselage assemblies, we finally created a better mousetrap: tube-cutting templates.

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EXPERIMENTER

TECHNICALLY SPEAKING

Many years ago, we started doing most of our design work using SolidWorks SolidWorks 3-D modeling software. Within the software, there is the ability to generate automatic tube profiles using basic line geometry. geometry. The process is very similar to how a lot of drawings were created in the earlier days of aircraft design simply using the basic geometry as a centerline for each piece of tubing. In the SolidWorks SolidWorks environment, we take each one of the lines and assign it a tub ing profile called a weldment. We have created a weldment profile database for each of the tube sizes we use and can now simply select a line and assign a tube size. Building a 3-D model of the frame now becomes a breeze. When you assign a weldment profile to a line it creates a tube the exact length of that line. This creates a tube longer than necessary that extends to the intersection of the lines. The next built-in feature, which is really helpful, is the trim tool. It allows us to cope the end of each tube to perfectly match the profile of any adjacent tubes. There are a multitude of different trim combinations that can be selected and even a selection for the gap size b etween the tubes. We usually work with a 0.005-inch gap when working with thin wall tubing. Each one of the tubes within a frame will require a different end treatment depending on the sequence of the build and other structural requirements. In addition to being able to cope the ends of each tube, we can also create intersections within the mid span of the tube. On ce we have created all of the interactions with the other tubes, we can simply take the individual tube out of the frame and create its own separate part. We can then manipulate that part as its own entity. And now is where the magic really comes into in to play. We We can take the tube profile and cut a slit down the entire length of that tube. This now becomes, rather than a tube, a curved selection that we can treat as a piece of sheet metal. SolidWorks allows us to now flatten out that curved piece of sheet metal and turn it into a flat template. We can then take this template and create a drawing at 100 percent scale that we can print out on a home computer. Once printed on a piece of paper, we have built in testing dimensions to ensure that our printer is printing truly at 100 percent scale. We can then cut out the template with scissors or an X-ACTO knife and have a paper template that can wrap around the perimeter of a piece of tubing. We start with a tubing blank. A blank is simply a specific-sized tube diameter, wall thickness, and overall length. These dimensions are labeled on the tube template. To To mark tubes that are longer than what will fit on a standard 8.5-by-11 sheet of paper, we have created templates with breaks along the length of the drawing. This allows us to have all of the critical information on one single piece of paper. paper. When dealing with a longer piece of tube, we start off by drawing a line down the length of the tube that we use as a reference mark to align the edge of the template. This is easily accomplished by using a piece of angle, or channel, placed directly onto the tube creating a self-aligning straight edge. We We can then slide the template to predetermined dimensions specified on the template for making additional marks that can be used for identifying additional cutouts or other tube intersections. And the final tube end coping layout can be obtained by simply sliding the template to the other end of the pre-cut tube, and marking with a sharpie or magic marker. Because the tube template is slid right to the end of each end of the pre- cut tube the amount of material necessary to grind is minimal. We have

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EXPERIMENT ER

November 2016

Top Left: 4130 Chromoly steel frame Top Right: Wire frame Middle: Trim tool Right: Marking a tube centerline

several CNC machines that we have set up in the past to cut steel tube profiles. Even in a mass-production environment, where we are making 20 of the same tubes at a time, we still find the tube template process more efficient. It’s great when you develop a system in which the most efficient process is also the least costly. All you need to take advantage of this system is a magic marker and a small bench grinder. Probably the most amazing part of the tube template system is the consistent precision fit of each one of the tubes. It’s so fun to weld when everything lines up perfectly. This process is so consistently accurate it makes even the newest of welders capable of making professional-looking welds. On more than one occasion, we’ve had individuals tell us that we should be doing this system as a business plan to make templates for other aircraft manufacturers. And although our interests lie elsewhere, we believe that this could very easily become the new norm for plans- or kitbuilt planes. If you’re interested in seeing more of this system, all of the plans including the tube-marking templates for the EMG-6 electric motorglider as well as some generic templates that you may be able to use on your aircraft are available free on the Adventure Aircraft website. More importantly, with EAA’s new program to make SolidWorks available available for free to its membership, you now have the opportunity to create your own tube-marking templates for the aircraft that you’re working on. Carol and Brian Carpenter , EAA 678959 and 299858, owners of Rainbow Aviation Services, have co-authored two aviation books and team teach the Light Sport Repairman Workshops. Brian is a CFII, DAR, A&P/IA, and the designer of the EMG-6 (an electric motorglider). Carol is an SPI, PP, LSRM, and FAAST representative.

ILLUSTRATIONS/PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF CAROL AND BRIAN CARPENTER

Stop St op Dreami Dreaming. ng. Star Startt Building. Building. “EAA SportAir Work Workshops shops were critical and priceless steps in building my RV-7 and One Design aircraft. The courses took each overwhelming stage of the build and broke it down into manageable, capable c apable steps. I would say that these workshops are the best investment one can make in their aircraft build.”  Jeff Seaborn

EAA 793688  Calgary, Alberta, Canada Workshops Attended: Sheet Metal Basics Fabric Covering Electric Wiring & Avionics What’s Involved in Kit K it Building Composite Construction RV Assembly Gas Welding TIG Welding

Take the first step toward fulfilling your dream of homebuilt flight with EAA SportAir Workshops. Visit EAA.org/SportAir to learn more about the various courses available and to register for an upcoming workshop near you.

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EXPERIMENTER

ULTRALIGHT WORLD

David flying the beautiful RAMA Flex Butterfly wing.

 AN  AN OSHKOSH FIR FIRST  Foot-launched PPG flies into AirVenture BY DAN GRUNLOH

the first person to do something has always been one of aviation’s appeals. There is the adventure of not knowing for sure if you will succeed. According to the flightline crew in the Fun Fly Zone at AirVenture, David David Huebner, a Larsen, Wisconsin, powered paraglider paraglider (PPG) pilot, became the first person to fly a PPG into the EAA convention from a remote site on Saturday, Saturday, July 23, 2016. 2016. He did it on the 40th anniversary of John Moody’s first foot-launched flight of the Easy Riser at EAA in 1976. John Moody and a few other pioneers made long cross-country flights in foot-launched ultralights in the late 1970s, but ultralights quickly acquired landing gear, and as far as can be determined, no one flew any of those early foot-launched fixed-wings to the convention. They came in on trailers. David and his friends began to wonder if they could pull off the first foot-launched arrival using the official convention arrival NOTAM. David flew control-line models as a kid, but aviation was always too expensive and out of reach. Some years ago he met a pilot flying

 THE OPPORTUNITY OPPORTUNITY TO BE

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EXPERIMENT ER

November 2016

a fixed-wing ultralight out of Lee Fischer’s unmarked private airstrip (called Skonkwerks) near Winchester, Wisconsin, and he caught the flying bug once again. Before that meeting, David hadn’t considered himself a fan of EAA. As a local resident with little connection to the aviation world, he found the convention inconvenient due to the crowds, congestion, and traffic. After David’s interest in aviation was reignited, a neighbor took him to a powered parachute (PPC) and PPG fly-in at New London, Wisconsin. The PPGs caught his attention because they didn’t need a trailer. When he found out the cost was similar to the off-road vehicle he rarely took out — about $10,000 — he was sold on the idea.

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF DAN GRUNLOH

FIRST TIME IN THE SKY 

David bought a new BlackHawk 125 paramotor with a Velocity EDGE wing from a dealer in California and hooked up with instructor Bill Stoll from Wisconsin Powered Paraglider of Greenleaf, Wisconsin. He later upgraded the wing to the AirDesign RAMA Flex Butterfly he flew to AirVenture. He began training that fall, learning how to kite the wing on the ground with the instructor communicating verbally or over a radio. Then winter came and instruction stopped. During that time he read all the usual books and manuals, becoming more ready and anxious to fly than ever. After additional kiting in the spring David was ready to go, but he was still missing one experience most other powered-paragliders-in-training have had. David had never been off the ground in an airplane. His instructor urged him to get a ride so he would have some

preview of the experience, but it never happened. Instead, on the day of his first flight and with his instructor on the radio, he launched the paraglider, gave it full power, and lifted off to fly the pattern. David said he never saw the ground on that first flight. It was sensory overload. It was a blur. The sense of disorientation and acrophobia was intense at low altitude, but he said at 1,000 feet he became more comfortable because everything seemed unreal. The instructor talked to him the whole time, and he came back and made a perfect stand-up landing. It would take another 30 landings before he could consistently repeat that first one. In the three years since then, David has logged about 120 hours in around 200 flights and made numerous cross-country flights, including flying into a small air show with other PPG pilots. And to this day, day, he still has never flown in an airplane.

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www.eaa.org

7

EXPERIMENTER

ULTRALIGHT WORLD

 THE FLIGHT TO AIRVENTURE

Despite having flown into Skonkwerks before, David didn’t meet Lee Fischer and fellow Demoiselle builder Mark Solper until recently. They soon began discussing how fun it would be to fly a PPG into AirVenture. The plan was for Lee to lead the way in his newest Demoiselle replica he calls the 24’s. It is similar to the 23bis Demoiselle he flew last year except it has full span ailerons. They phoned into ultralight flight operations as required in the NOTAM at at 6 a.m. the Saturday before AirVenture with a planned arrival at 7 a.m. Ultralight arrivals enter from south of Highway Z along Highway 26, so they would fly south from Winchester and cross under the Fisk VFR arrival traffic. Lee’s airstrip is 13 miles northwest from Oshkosh, but the flight would require about 25 air miles to comply with the NOTAM. David laid out the wing for takeoff at 6 a.m., but the air was heavy with moisture and the wing became wet — so wet it didn’t want to take off. He ran about 200 feet to get airborne and circled several times to get enough altitude to clear the trees. Once he got out, it was smooth sailing with a helpful tailwind. He took pictures with a cellphone during the flight and sent them to friends saying, “Look I’m really doing this! I’m going to Oshkosh.” Lee’s Demoiselle was slow, slow, but it ’s still faster than a PPG. The radio communications Lee and David had planned didn’t work out, and Lee lost sight of David a couple times and had to circle so he could catch up. Imagine a replica of a 100-year-old antique airplane flying formation with a modern PPG with a wing decorated like a colorful monarch butterfly cruising past the flight controllers at Fisk at about 25 mph. They don’t see that every day. David said arriving at the ultralight pattern looked  just l ike th e video s he wat ched i n prepa ration , but with everyone watching he really wanted to make a good stand-up landing. He managed to pull it off after a total flight time of 70 minutes. Though originally worried about fuel, he found after landing he could have flown for another hour. Although this wasn’t David’s first time at AirVenture, having walked through the Fun Fly Zon e last year, it was his first time flying in, and he spent the entire week at AirVenture 2016. David once thought he didn’t like EAA’s convention, but now he thinks it’s the greatest thing ever. He said he now realizes how much work goes on in the background to support AirVenture, and he and Lee both want to thank all the volunteers who make it happen.

Lee Fischer landing in his new Demoiselle 24’s.

The one small step for David that made history.

Dan Grunloh has been an EAA member and volunteer since 1981, and he

has logged 1,600 hours in ultralights and light-sport aircraft. He can be reached at at [email protected].

8

EXPERIMENT ER

November 2016

David Huebner and his wife, Susan, after his landing at AirVenture.

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF DAN GRUNLOH

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Bernard’s Way  DOING IT

DAN HELSPER AND HIS AWARD�WINNING PIETENPOL CLONE BY BUDD DAVISSON

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November 2016

PHOTOGRAPHY BY  BILL ORIGER

1929 meets the new millennium:

Dan Helsper’s Pietenpol is technically a homebuilt, but it embodies so much period-correct technology that it could almost be seen as a reproduction or replica.

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EXPERIMENTER

DOING IT BERNARD’S WAY 

I wanted to stay as close as I could to the the original design.

“I wanted to stay as close as I could to the original design,” said Dan Helsper, Helsper, EAA 137466, of Puryear, Tennessee. “I was building a 1929 airplane, and I wanted it to stay a 1929 airplane, and not make too many improvements. If I wanted it to be modern or go fast, I would have chosen an RV.” And so, in only two sentences, Dan explains the motivation, the processes, and the goals behind building NX929DH, a Pietenpol that is about as old school as old school ever gets. Plus, hidden within his words is a code that is seldom totally factual, “I was building …” with the emphasis on the “I” because, with only a few exceptions (engine and radiator, etc.), almost every part of the airplane, from the propeller to the t ail wheel, was hand built by Dan making it a true homebuilt. Bernard Pietenpol came up with his design, known as the Air Camper, in 1928-29

Dan Helsper is the builder’s builder in that he tried to make every part of the airplane himself.

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November 2016

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANDREW

ZABACK 

as a way to allow the average man to get into the air with an absolute minimum of expense. A visit to the junkyard for an old car engine, a trip to the lumber yard and to the hardware store for nuts and bolts, and a builder was on his way. The background story of how he did that is worthy of an entire book. For nearly 60 years Bernard (he hated to be called Bernie) continued to be hands-on, ever trying to keep up with the times while still maintaining the grassroots appeal and everyman affordability of his creation. The  Last Original Original that was built by Bernard in 1970 used a Chevy Corvair engine, which is still popular today. However, when Dan decided to build a Pietenpol, he wanted to go back to the beginning and build an Air Camper that looked, sounded, smelled, and flew exactly like Bernard’s did. Considering the huge advances in the 88 years since the Air Camper first flew, it is actually hard not to unintentionally introduce a bit of modernity here and there, but Dan tried. And everyone who has seen the airplane since its first flight in 2010 agrees that he has succeeded in creating a piece of anachronistic aerial artwork.

The 21-inch wheels give the airplane a stance that hearkens back to the 1920s when the Pietenpol Air Camper was born.

At age 13 Dan joined the local CAP he built a career and had a family. Dan squadron, and later attended its glider bought a Champ right out of college, but training operation in Huntley, Illinois. He then sold it and divorced himself from aviaearned his private pilot certificate on tion for a time to get his business going. In October 6, 1971, when he was a senior in 1996 he bought an Aeronca Sedan 15AC that high school. he still owns. DAN IN THE BEGINNING Learning to fly is one thing, but getting The decision of what airplane to build As with most young people, the first few years hooked on an airplane like the Pietenpol is usually haunts most wannabe builders and of “adulthood” involve finding themselves. something entirely different. confuses many. many. It’s right up there with Finding who and what they want to be in life. “While taking flight lessons at age 17, I choosing a mate or naming a baby. Dan’s “Initially, “Initially, I went to work in my uncle’s was leaving to drive home and happened to decision, however, however, had been made decades industrial sewing factory,” factory,” he said. “It was glance down a row of airplanes,” Dan said. earlier. earlier. And it was made without ever taking mass-production heavy-duty sewing, to sew “I saw the most stunning, eye-catching a flight in an Air Camper. Camper. items to the customers’ specifications, such beauty of an airplane as harnesses, strap assemblies, carrying bags, I had ever seen. I beanbag chairs. Then for a few years I was a immediately pulled union carpenter, then back to the industrial over. While drooling, I saw the most stunning, eyesewing business, then in ’84 I started my I looked down inside own sewing business. We expanded and the cockpit at the catching beauty of an airplane I had moved several times. After the ‘crash’ in data plate and read 2008, we sold our factory in Rockford and P-I-E-T-E-N-P-O-L. ever seen. I immediately immed iately pulled over. moved our home and business down here to From that moment I While drooling, I looked down inside Loensloe Airfield, Puryear, Tennessee. We was smitten and found this airstrip for sale and bought the vowed that I should the cockpit at the data plate and surrounding 53 acres. We have 35 acres of build one someday. someday. I soybeans, chickens, runner ducks, etc.” think it was the read P-I-E-T P-I-E-T-E-N-P-O-L. From that Airplanes have always been part of his parasol wing that life. “As a kid at home we had a set of World got me.” moment I was smitten and vowed Book Encyclopedias,” Dan said. “One day, at He may have about age 10, I was looking for something in been severely smitthat I should build one someday. the ‘A’ ‘A’ book. I came across a pretty extensive ten, but the article entitled ‘How an Airplane Flies.’ I Pietenpol was going was fascinated, and that was the beginnin g.” g.” to have to wait while

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANDREW ZABACK 

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EXPERIMENTER

DOING IT BERNARD’S WAY 

“My first flight experience in an Air Camper was in my own, on the initial flight on June 25, 2010, at Steve and Tina Thomas’ Poplar Grove Airport [Illinois], where we lived at the time. I bought the plans in 1996 from Don Pietenpol [Bernard’s [Bernard’s son] and started construction in 2000. So it took me 10 years to build,” Dan said. When it came time to start building airplanes Dan had to decide on a fuselage material. In later years, the Pietenpol fuselage, which was essentially a wooden box, was offered with a steel tube option. Dan, however, however, elected to stay with the wood. “I went with the wood because I am a bit of a purist and the very first Bernard Pietenpol-built airplanes were wood, and I wanted to build as closely as possible to the original plans,” he said. “The first plans were published in the 1932 Modern Mechanics  Flying and Glider Manual Glider Manual. I followed many of the features found there, including the wire wheels (covered), wood, straight-axle landing gear, gear, and the [offset] ‘flop’ wing panel that makes it easier for the pilot to get in and out.” Full plans are still available available from Andrew Pietenpol, Bernard’s grandson, through the link under This Month’s Mo nth’s Extras at www.EAA.org/sportaviation. Sticking to the original plans often doesn’t work today because aviation is no longer one big grass field after another, and

Dan had to come to grips with the fact that total originality may not work in today’s world.

It was just a joy to  build because I had to learn so many new skills along the way

“In order to function in this modern world of concrete and asphalt, I had t o make a few compromises from the original design, such as tail wheel versus skid — the original plans call for the skid to be ‘the fourth leaf of a Ford “T” front spring’ — and incorporate some kind of brakes,” brakes,” Dan said. “Those big wheels roll almost too easily. easily. Then one year at Brodhead I saw somebody had designed some really old-looking, 1-inch wide bandtype brakes, actuated via 1/16-inch cable from brake pedals inside. They look very period correct, so I studied those and used

Besides sharpening his welding skills, Dan says the tailwheel took some head scratching to make truly functional.

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November 2016

them in my airplane too. (See Shop Talk Talk on Page 18 for more details on the brakes.) Dan made the wheel hubs himself, with his Grizzly Industrial lathe. “They are 6 inches wide so the spoke angle is such that they take the side loads of landing better,” better,” he said. “After “After I fabricated the hubs, I sent them to California to Buchannan’s Spoke & Rim Inc. They cater to the motorcycle crowd, but they also welcome any airplane work from the Piet crowd. Many dollars later I got them back all laced up to the wheels. I bought 3-by-21 3-by-21 aluminum wheels from them also.” A local Harley dealer installed the tires/tubes (Avon Speedmaster motorcycle tires) on the wheels. “The tail wheel design is my own, and it has gone through some evolutionary changes,” changes,” Dan said. “The first couple of years went well with the original design, but whenever I wanted to push it back into a parking spot, I had to go back to the tail and lift/pull because the steerable tail wheel could not swivel backwards. So I came up with a design whereby I can unlock/unhook the wheel direction from the rudder by means of a spring-loaded pin that slaves it to the rudder. Once I pull back on that little spring-loaded pin, the wheel is free to swivel anywhere it wants to go, then when the airplane pulls forward again, the little pin finds its place back in the locking hole, and it is linked to the rudder once again.” EAA believes in education through aviation, and Dan’s approach to building his Air Camper exemplifies that. “It was just a joy to build because I had to learn so many new skills along the way,” way,” he said. “For example, example, I had to buy a TIG welder and learn how to use it to weld the aluminum fuel tank.” But that was all part of the fun. He used his carpenter background for the wood (spruce), and had previously done some small steel fabrication for jigs and done layout/cutting/welding/tapping layout/cutting/welding/tapping for his sewing factory work — but all of those skills were fine-tuned on this airplane. “A great deal of the joy came from learning new skills along the way,” way,” Dan said. “Some of the Piet builders are constantly looking, searching for sources of alreadymade stuff, such as wing rib sets, control surface hinges, go-kart brakes, etc. Not me. I

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANDREW ZABACK 

was building an airplane — and really wanted to build an airplane. As much of it as possible by myself.” He started with the wing ribs because, in his mind, the wing was the most important part. He built a one-piece win g, complete through structure, not cover. cover. “Of course, moving it or turning it over was tough,” Dan Dan said. “I managed to do it by myself most of the time. It was difficult, but I never wanted to wait on somebody else to show up to help Dan said it’s wise to wait to glue the 1/8me.” me.” The real fun with t he wing came when inch plywood onto the fuselage sides to it had to be painted. “Imagine in your mind, facilitate placement and fixing of compohow one manages to handle a one-piece nents inside the fuselage. wing slab like that, and keep it in all kinds of “I said it was wise — I wish I had waited,” positions to paint it,” Dan said. “I ended up he said. “I glued on all the plywood, and designing/fabricating a very elaborate wing many times I had to ‘dive’ into the front of stand, capable of 360-degree revolving the fuselage to put in bolts, nuts, drill holes, motion. Picture two plywood doughnuts construct rudder pedals, etc.” about 7 feet in diameter with the wing slab Dan haunted eBay for a couple of years to going through the center of these. The find the right vintage instruments. He’s quick doughnuts are just sitting on some rollers so to point out that instruments, like a non-senI can turn it anywhere. But how is the wing sitive Tycos altimeter and 4-inch attached to the doughnuts? I could only Johns-Manville tachometer, are far from ‘grab’ the wing via the strut fittings — four cheap. If you can find them, that t hat is. “For cabane strut fittings, and four main wing example, I have a 2-inch diameter ‘Elgin’ strut fittings. So I had to make short struts, period aviation clock,” he said. “Well, after connecting the doughnuts to the existing we got married we lived in Elgin, Illinois, for wing strut fittin gs.” gs.” 17 years (home of the old Elgin National And then there was the design issue of Watch Company that was started in the the top elevator cable rubbing on the leading 1860s). So I wanted one of those old Elgin edge of the horizontal stabilizer. “Some call clocks. I finally found one on eBay and that a ‘mistake’ and want to re-design and shelled-out big bucks for it. It still works fine.” re-position the bellcrank in order to ‘fix’ it,”  AND THEN THERE WAS THE ENGINE Dan said. “Well, I have to tell you that I waited years for the day, when I had the It is certain that Henry Ford never imagprivilege of fabricating and gluing that little ined his super-common, 201 cubic inch, leather patch onto the leading edge of the 240 pound, four-cylinder, four-cylinder, flathead 1928stabilizer, stabilizer, so I would be able to finally chris31 Model A engine on the front of an ten her a real Pietenpol!” airplane, but Bernard Pietenpol The fuselage was built to plans, using thought otherwise. spruce longerons (1 inch by 1 inch). All wood Dan said, “I debated in my mind about was spruce and birch plywood, when called engines, but always came back to ask for. “Per Bernard’s Bernard’s direction, both fuselage myself, ‘What kind of airplane are you sides are built flat on a bench — Bernard building?’ The answer was always the same actually used the floor of the church he was — a 1929 job, which had the Ford in it. I using as an airplane factory, factory, in Cherry Grove, know some of the guys have had their probMinnesota — then stand them up and insert/  lems with the Ford, but mine is very glue the connecting spruce pieces and gusreliable, and that is the most important sets,” Dan said. “Pull the two fuselage sides/  thing.” halves together in the tail end, taper the tail An A-65 would be easier and more troupost, and glue. The 1/4-inch plywood floor ble-free, “but the ‘cool and original factor’ can be glued on now.” would be missing,” Dan said. “As I have

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANDREW ZABACK 

Clockwise:

Dan’s rotisserie for the huge wing is brilliant! The Ford Model A was fitted with a high-compression head, insert bearings, and WICO magneto. The curvaceous scimitar prop was carved by Dan — his first time doing such a project.

stated, my particular engine has been extremely reliable under the hottest conditions, high ambient summer temps. The Pietenpol, in my opinion, just doesn’t look right without the Ford. It goes with the 1929 airplane.” NOT EVERYONE CARVES THEIR OWN PROP

One of the more unusual DIY projects on Dan’s funky little bird is the prop that he carved himself, which is a story in itself. (See Shop Talk on Page 18 for more details on the engine and propeller.) propeller.) After watching a prop-carving demonstration at EAA AirVenture AirVenture in 2008, Dan was fascinated and vowed to one day try it himself, and he did. When covering the airplane, Dan used the Stewart water-based system. He said, “I would use it again simply because of the water cleanup feature. No nasty MEK to worry about. The finish paint is a true two-part chemical bond, but water cleanup. It’s like some kind of magic that I don’t understand.” Dan said his airplane’s empty weight is 717 pounds, where Bernard’s was 625. “I guess all those doodads add up,” he said.

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EXPERIMENTER

DOING IT BERNARD’S WAY 

FLYING IT 

Being a taildragger, one of the first things everyone wants to know is how it handles on the runway. “The airplane has a rudder bar, no pedals,” Dan said. “That takes a little gett ing used to. There is plenty of directional control during takeoff. However, However, with the radiator in your face, peripheral vision from side to side needs to be u sed. My strip is only 50 feet wide so I have to stay on top of i t for sure. Takeoff roll is about 300 to 400 feet, I guess, dependi ng on load.” Like all low-horsepower airplanes, the Air Camper is happiest when only the pilot is onboard. “When lightly loaded it climbs okay, okay, but on a hot day with a 180-pound passenger (my limit), rate of climb is anemic,” anemic,” Dan said. “At Brodhead I once took a 190pound guy up on a hot day. day. It flies fine, but getting off the ground took a while, and the rate of climb was pretty slow — maybe 200 to 300 feet per minute. No-load rate of climb is about 400 to 500 feet per minute.” The cruise speed, according to Dan, is “65-70 mph, if you’re pushing it, and you’re burning about 4.5 gph. Dan said the Model A engine is notorious for forming ice just above the venturi so he keeps the carb heat on at all times. “Even with this setup, most days it forms all kinds of condensation on the induction manifold, and on humid days the droplets come back to hit me in the face. But this is part of the charm,” charm,” he said.

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“When landing, the bungee-driven elevator trim goes up and the carb heat is already on, so the checklist is almost nonexistent,” Dan said. “As “As you might expect, there is a lot of drag with this airplane, the radiator and wires, etc. No flaps are needed to get down, that’s for sure. But it’s a joy to land, very docile and smooth, especially with those big wheels and bungee suspension.” Dan has only landed the Pietenpol once on a hard surface, because he had to. “The vast majority of airports will have some suitable patch of grass, usually next to the runway lights or in the middle between the runway/  taxiway,” he said. “But one must be vigilant and do some low-level scoping to find these places. It is hard to gauge slopes from the air. Or the actual length of the grass sections.” As for airspeed, it’s somewhat of a guessing game. “Stall is about 40 mph, so I’m probably using 50 mph on final,” Dan said. “I am relying on my very accurate, custommade ‘Loensloe Air Service’ Johnson airspeed indicator that is mounted out on the wing strut. I’m joking, of course. Basically, you guess at your airspeed.” OSHKOSH BOUND

Dan said bringing the Pietenpol to Oshkosh was an adventure. “I have done it twice from western Tennessee now,” he said. “I am loaded when I leave, leave, because I have all my camping stuff and clothes to last the Brodhead weekend and some of the OSH week. This year I made seven fuel stops, counting the Brodhead weekend. It is an arduous journey, journey, but just loads of fun. The no-dihedral wing means the airplane must

be flown 100 percent of the time, so no time to relax. But the scenery at 500 AGL is unmatched on the way up.” He usually plans for his legs to be no more than two hours. By then he is low on fuel and his legs are aching because he can’t move much or take his feet off the rudder bar. “Being in the industrial sewing business, I fabricated a custom gear bag that fits down into, and fills, the front cockpit. So all of my stuff is held securely during the flight,” Dan said. With the airplane finished and proven, Dan said, there’s a psychological aspect to building that very much affects the quality of the final product and requires a certain amount of discipline. “As I built, I took enough time at every stage so that I was completely satisfied before progressing to the next part,” he said. “I have learned not to be in a hurry, hurry, because if compromises are made and glossed over, I knew that the day I finished and stood back to look at the airplane, I would regret each and every part I rushed through.”

 As I built, built, I took took enough time at every stage so that I was completely satisfied  before  before progr progressing essing to the next part The net result of that kind of thought pattern is that he won an Outstanding Workmanship Award at AirVenture 2015 and a Bronze Lindy at AirVenture 2016. However, according to him, the real reward is “giving many, many rides to both kids and adults and watching how much they enjoy it.”  Yessir,  Yessir, that’s what EAA is all about! Budd Davisson  is an aeronautical engineer, has flown

more than 300 different types, and has published four books and more than 4,000 articles. He is editor-in-chief of Flight Journal  magazine  magazine and a flight instructor primarily in Pitts/ tailwheel aircraft. Visit him on www.AirBum.com.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY BILL ORIGER

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EXPERIMENTER

SHOP TALK

 THE  T HE REST REST OF THE STORY  ORY  Details on Dan Helsper’s Pietenpol clone BY BUDD DAVISSON

you’ll find a full article on Dan Helsper’s Pietenpol, which was one of my two favorite airplanes at Oshkosh this year. year. (Bill Bradford’s replica of the Model 10 Luscombe was the other.) One of the reasons I liked Dan’s Air Camper so much is that I love the oldschool feel it has. It’s loaded with a ton of really funky 1929 details. Even better, it’s a true homebuilt: Dan did practically all of it himself except for the engine and radiator. Unfortunately, the article would ON PAGE ��

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November 2016

need to be book length to include some of the background on the details that I personally found interesting. So, I gathered up what had to be cut from the article and am presenting it here. We just can’t let that kind of detail go unnoticed. Wherever possible, Dan’s going to tell us about the details in his own words.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANDREW ZABACK 

BRAKES THAT LOOK THE PART  One year at Brodhead I saw somebody had designed some really old-looking, 1-inch wide band-type brakes, actuated via 1/16-inch cable from brake pedals inside. They looked very “period correct” so I studied those and used a version of them in my airplane. I bought the brake pad material from the aviation department at McMasterCarr, and the first stuff I chose didn’t hold the airplane at all. Then I chose some kind of asbestos-like, semi-metallic woven strips that have a brass wire woven into the material to increase strength and improve heat dissipation. That stuff holds like a banshee! I can hold the airplane back in a full run-up! The brake discs are 8 inches in diameter, and the included band rubbing surface face is 1-inch wide. The brake discs are attached to the wheels via four small bolts. Due to having the brakes, there needs to be some means of preventing the axle from rotating. This is accomplished by welding a “finger” of heavy-walled tube onto the bottom of the axle itself. This finger is inserted down into a loose-fitting sheath that is welded onto the bottom strut fitting. So when the brakes are applied, the axle is kept from spinning due to the axle finger being held inside the sheath.

OLD SCHOOL FLIGHT DECK   You could almost describe my cockpit cockpit by saying “panel “panel by eBay” because almost almost all of the period instruments came from that source. Also, I wanted my panels to look unique, so I glued “book-matched” walnut veneer to the face and then added a strip of decorative inlay along the bottom edge. It really makes it pop. However, However, no one will ever know how many trial pieces I made trying to come up with a process that would let me make that fat, round coaming material. It’s a combination of patience, leather, leather, and plumber’s pipe insulation. With a cockpit as small as the Pietenpol’s, you’re always always looking for a place to put stuff, like gloves, etc., which isn’t always easy. That’s when I looked at the back of the wing center section and realized I had a ready-made place for cubby holes. They have come in handy many times. Budd Davisson  is an aeronautical engineer, has flown more than 300 different types, and has published four books and more than 4,000 articles. He is editor-inchief of Flight Journal magazine and a flight instructor primarily in Pitts/tailwheel aircraft. Visit him on www.AirBum.com.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANDREW ZABACK 

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EAA

EXPERIMENTER

HINTS FOR HOMEBUILDERS

PORTABLE PREHEATER BY CHUCK BURTCH, EAA LIFETIME �����; PHOENIX, NEW YORK

Portable preheater dimensional sketch.

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November 2016

WITH THE ARRIVAL OF fall and the cold of winter, it is time to start thinking about the need to preheat your aircraft engine. This can be troublesome if you have a hangar with no power. To solve this problem, I fabricated this handy method to use a simple, self-contained cart with a 12-volt heater hooked to an LP tank and power supplied by a 12-volt battery. I used 10-inch pneumatic tires from Harbor Freight because I have a gravel hangar floor. I have included a dimensional sketch if any member would like to make something similar. The basic frame is made up of aluminum angle and sheet. The steering pivot is for a Lazy Susan and a welded-up handle bar. The heater itself is a FireFly PH9 with a 4-inch pipe, powered by a 12-volt battery or a cigarette lighter connection to a car. The pipe has a flame deflector, but use a long enough aluminum flex hose and some common sense as to placement on an airplane. As with any aircraft preheater I would not leave it unattended.

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF CHUCK

BURTCH

SIMPLE MAGNETO TIMER USING YOUR IPHONE BY HARDY VAD,

EAA ������; ������; SUNDS, DENMARK

ago I was doing my annual/100-hour inspection on my homebuilt KZ-VIII registered OY-KZS. I borrowed a magneto timing box from my neighbor who is also an aircraft homebuilder and a licensed mechanic. When I got to the airport, I discovered that I had forgotten the box at home and was about to make the trip back, but came up with an idea as I saw a kid’s Walkman on the right seat! What the points in effect do to the timer is to cut the condenser in and out of the circuit. So using the Walkman, Walkman, the headphones, and a paperclip, I managed to rig it so that ground and P-lead were connected in parallel to the headphones, the logic being that when the Walkman had to drive the condenser as well as the MORE THAN �� YEARS

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF HARDY VAD

headphones, there would be an audible drop in music level. This worked surprisingly well, with the sound dropping to about half with contacts closed. After having completed the annual, I went home and found a piece of wire and took a 3.5 mm stereo jack from an extension cord and three crocodile clamps, and within an hour I had the pictured wire assembly. assembly. The splitter cable can be acquired at any electronics shop. This setup works really well (you can listen to your favorite tunes while tuning two mags). I haven’t used anything else since! At first I used the Walkman, later a small FM radio, but nowadays I jus t use my iPhone. It costs only an hour’s worth of work and a few bucks, and saves you a hundred!

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Account must be open and in good standing to earn and redeem rewards and benefits. Upon approval, please refer to your Rewards Program Rules for additional information.  Some me restrictions may apply. Visit Visit www.aircraftspruce.com/eaaDiscountGuide. 1. So html for for a list of discounts. 2. Subject to credit approval. To earn the Cash Rewards Bonus, purchase must be made within 90 days of account open date. Please allow 6-8 weeks after qualifying purchase is made for account to be credited.

Visitt EAA.org/SportAir t Visi  too register today or call 1-800-967-5746 1-800-96 7-5746 for details.

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25

EXPERIMENTER

FLYMART & CLASSIFIED ADS

BUILD YOUR OWN BOAT! Send $9.95 for catalog of over 300 boats

you can build, includes FREE Dingy plans. Glen-L, 9152 Rosecrans Ave/EAA, Bellflower, CA 90706, 888-700-5007. On line catalog: www.Glen-L.com/EAA

FLOATS BY ZENAIR 750# to 2500# straight & amphib kits www. zenairfloats.com

OSHKOSH/AIRVENTURE HOUSING

OSHKOSH BOUND? Visit Sleepy Hollow Farm - the closest private

RV campground to AirVenture. Call 1-877-438-6531 or o r www. sleepyhollowfarm.com

 AEROMEDICAL

Kawasaki package - save 50%, engine, reduction drive, carburetor

PARACHUTES

FAA Medical Problems? We specialize in helping pilots, ATC,

& exhaust. 0-time, 64 lbs, 40 HP Contact J-Bird 262-626-2611

Parachute s www. Pennsylvania Parachute Company-Pilot Emergency Parachutes

etc., when FAA Medical Certificate problems occur. Professional

 [email protected]  [email protected]

pennsylvaniaparachute.com,610-317-2536

and affordable. ARMA Research, LLC, 920-206-9000 www. Lycoming 0-290G, 25 hrs since major overhaul, also many misc. parts

ARMAResearch.Com

for sale call: 916-645-3185

PLANS/KITS

 Aircraft plans advertised advertised in EAA Sport Aviation must have satisfied  AIRCRAFT 

Starduster Too project for sale, LOTS of material, $5k OBO, 217-620-4350

Custom Lycoming & small Continental engines overhauled or outright.

the FAA minimum requirements of the Experimental Amateur-built

 540-473-3661 www.RandBAircraft.com 540-473-3661

Category and must have been operated a minimum of 25 hours when

Revmaster Engines for Sport Aircraft. Proven reliability since 1968.

and should have satisfactorily demonstrated demonstrated its advertised qualities.

using an FAA certified engine or 40 hours with a non-certified engine  AIRCRAFT INSTRUMENTS

New products, new website, website, www.riteangle.org  EM  EM Aviation

360-904-6091

Complete R-2300 85HP. 85HP. Die cast. RevFlow injector carb 30-42mm.

The FAA Operation Limitation must have been amended to permit flight

Revmaster Aviation 760-244-3074. 760-244-3074 . www.revmasteraviation.com

outside the test flight area. SONERAI PLANS - Sonerai I, Sonerai II Original & Sonerai II Stretch.

MISC BOOKS

 Authentic WW1 books books on LeRhone Rotary, Liberty engines. Popular

Aviation/Flying 1937 and later. See inventory and order a t www. nostalgicaero.awiggins.com

Composites & Supplies - 37+ years of excellent customer service,

designers, manufacturers, materials. Always in stock: epoxy, polyester,  Vinyleter resin, resin, carbon fiber, fiber, Kevlar, Kevlar, lightweight lightweight fairing & bonding compounds, Nida Core, PVC Foam Core, Vacuum bagging & vacuum resin infusion supplies. Order online www.lbifiberglass.com or call for

WORLD’S MOST POPULAR Aircraft Design Books @ www.

free catalog 800-231-6537, technical assistance

aircraftdesigns.com,831-621-8760

For Sale: 35 yrs. of EAA coffee mugs, two, LG EAA jackets FULL of

patches, pick-up pick-up only - Chilton WI 920-849-4965 920-849-4965

EMPLOYMENT 

 Aircraft Maintenance Techn ician , Flying Heritage the Flying

Heritage Collection, based in Everett, WA is hiring an Aircraft

Fairings-Etc. Fairings-Etc. Custom intersection fairings for most Van’s Aircraft

 623-536-0951 www.fairings-etc.com  623-536-0951

Maintenance Technician responsible for safe, on-time completion of maintenance procedures as necessary for all museum aircraft.

Landing Gear-Wittman type rod gear since 1969. Contact Harmon

Position is further responsible for overall daily aircraft groomer

Lange 503-397-1478, 503-397-1478, [email protected]

duties/activities. Ideal candidate must maintain a current A&P certificate, 5 yr maintaining vintage aircraft, must also have

Carbon fiber cowls for non-certified PA 18 aircraft. Selkirk Aviation,

experience working on Allison, Merlin and Rolls Royce V-12’s and

208-664-9589 . www.selkirk-aviation.com

radial engines For a complete job description and to apply to this position, please visit www.flyingheritage.com

Many pre-fab parts available. Contact SoneraiWorks LLC, Phone: 414581-1442, 581-1442, [email protected]  [email protected], www.sonerai.com Skybolt plans $165, Pitts S1-C plans $250, S1-SS updates $100, materials

& components. Knight Twister plans: single $250, two-place $285. Firebolt plans $275. Great Lakes plans $350. Pilot & aircraft accessories. Steen Aero Lab, (321) 725-4160. 725-4160 . www.steenaero.com CLASSIC HOMEBUILT AIRCRAFT PLANS - Cozy Mark IV $500 Christavia

MK-1 $375 Christavia MK-2 $289.95 Christavia MK-4 $275 Starduster One SA100 $115 Super Starduster SA101 $158.95 Starduster Too SA300 $250 Starlet SA500 $125 Acroduster Too SA750 $125 V-Star SA900 $195 Acrolite 1B $295 Wittman W10 Tailwind $195 Wittman V-Witt Racer $95 Baby Great Lakes $295 Super Baby Great Lakes $295 Buddy Baby Lakes $275 One Design $376, Skyote $595. Aircraft Spruce (951) 372-9555 , www. aircraftspruce.com

PROPELLERS

www.PerformancePropellersUSA.com  , Two & Three Blade Multi-

Windshields-Windows-Canopies Windshields-Windows-Canopies for experimental aircraft. Custom

Laminate Wood composite propellers for up through 300 HP. 713-417-2519

 jobs welcome. welcome. [email protected], 937-669-2677 MT & Hoffmann Propellers for aerobatic, homebuilt & production aircraft.

ENGINES

 Aircraft wires from from Bruntons of Scotland. Certified wires featuring

Engines starting @ $200 - guaranteed Kawasaki, Rotax, Hirth &

stronger rolled threads. AN665 stainless terminal assemblies. Call for

most other brands w/BEST reduc drive, carb, exhaust selection of

quote. Steen Aero Lab, (321) 725-4160. 725-4160. www.steenaero.com

access w/top-notch service from friendly staff J-Bird, 262-626-2611, 262-626-2611,

26

EXPERIMENT ER

REAL ESTATE

II , www.jamesaircraft.com, 850-342-9929 Holy Cowls - RV & Mustang II,

 [email protected]  [email protected]

November 2016

Call for quote. Steen Aero Lab, (321) 725-4160. 725-4160 . www.steenaero.com

airpark . www.azaviationproperties.com Live on a beautiful Arizona airpark.

AT YOUR SERVICE: ADVERTISERS IN THIS ISSUE

SPORT AVIAT ION

PAGE

WEBSIT E

PHONE

SPORT AVIATION

PAGE

 AD INDEX 

WEBSIT E

P HO N E

Aero Aviation Company

32

 

www.aeroinstock.com

800/362-3044

Sigtronics Corporation

41

 

www.sigtronics.com

909/305-9399

AeroShell

37

 

www.aeroshell.com

713/241-6161

Sky-Tec

35

 

www.skytecair.com

800/476-7896

OBC

 

www.aircraftspruce.com

877/477-7823

Sporty’s Pilot Shop

29

 

www.sportys.com/stratus 

800/SPORTYS

B & C Specialty Products

25

 

www.bandc.info/SAV 

316/283-8000

Stewart AC AC Finishing Systems

38

 

www.stewartsystems.aero 

888/356-7659

Bendix King

39

 

www.bendixking.com

855/250-7027

Superflite

81

 

www.superflite.com

800/323-0611

Boeing

9

 

www.buildsomethingbetter.com

206/655-1131

Superior Air Parts

27

 

www.superiorairparts.com

800/277-5168

California Power Systems

28

 

www.cps-parts.com

800/247-9653

Tempest

2

 

www.tempestplus.com

800/822-3200

CubCrafters, Inc.

31

 

www.carboncubex.com

509/248-9491

Trutrak Flight Systems/AFS

28

 

www.trutrakap.com

866/TRUTRAK

Daher

23

 

www.tbm850.com

954/993-8477

Zenith Aircraft Company

94

 

www.zenithair.com

573/581-9000

Dynon Avionics

IFC

 

www.dynonavionics.com

425/402-0433

EXPERIMENTER

WEBSIT E

P HO N E

EAA Airventure Oshkosh 2017

83

 

www.eaa.org/tickets 

920/426-4800

Aircraft Spruce & Specialty

EAA EAA Avi Aviat atio ion n Ins Insur uran ance ce/F /Fal alco con n

82, 82, 88 88   www.eaalowerrates.com

866/647-4322

PAGE

AeroConversions

3

 

www.AeroConversions.com

920/231-8297

AEROX

7

 

www.aerox.com

800/237-6902

17

 

www.b17.org 

800/359-6217

EAA Chapters

93

 

www.eaa.org/Chapters 

800/564-6322

EAA B-17

EAA Eagle Flights

71

 

www.eaa.org/eagleflights 

800/557-2376

EAA Donor/Appeal

EAA IMC Club

93

 

www.eaa.org/IMC 

800/564-6322

EAA Ford Tri-Motor

9

 

www.flytheford.org 

800/564-6322

800/564-6322

EAA Spor t Aviatio n Mo bi bil e App

9

 

www.eaa.org/SportApp 

866/647-4322

EAA Merchandise

38, 63   www.shopeaa.com

20, 21   www.eaa.org/support/giving 

800/236-1025

EAA Sweepstakes 2017

78

 

www.eaa.org/sweepstakes 

800/236-1025

EAA SportAir Workshops

EAA Young Eagles

92

 

www.youngeagles.org 

877/806-8902

EAA Visa

25

 

www.eaa.org/visa 

800/564-6322

Ford Motor Company

57

 

www.ford.com

800/392-3673

EAA Webinars

25

 

www.eaa.org/webinars 

800/967-5746

Garmin

7

 

www.garmin.com

800/800-1020

Leading Edge Air Foils, LLC

3

 

www.leadingedgeairfoils.com

800/532-3462

GRT Avionics

32

 

www.grtavionics.com

616/245-7700

MT-Propeller

3

 

www.mt-propeller.com

386/736-7762

Hamilton Watch

33

 

www.hamiltonwatch.com

800/234-TIME

Pygmy Boats

23

 

www.pygmyboats.com

360/385-6143

HTP America Inc

91

 

www.usaweld.com

800/872-9353

Randolph Aircraft Products

7

 

www.randolphaircraft.com

800/362-3490

John Deere

IBC

 

www.johndeere.com/gator 

309/765-8000

Sonex Aircraft, LLC

7

 

www.sonexaircraft.com

920/231-8297

J.P. Instruments

21

 

www.jpinstruments.com

800/345-4574

Stemme AG

IFC

 

www.stemme.info 

803/726-8884

Lockwood Aviation Supply/Rotax Service Cntr

81

 

www.lockwood-aviation.com

800/527-6829

Trade-A-Plane

23

 

www.trade-a-plane.com

800/337-5263

Lycoming

19

 

www.lycoming.com

800/258-3279

Wag-Aero

3

 

www.wagaero.com

800/558-6868

Poly-Fiber Aircraft Coatings

3

 

www.polyfiber.com

800/362-3490

Wome Women n in Avia Aviati tion on Int Inter erna nati tion onal al

17

 

www.wai.org 

937/839-4647

5, 25   www.sportair.com

800/967-5746

For more information from EAA Sport Aviation ’s ’s advertisers, please phone or visit them on the web, and mention that you saw their ad in EAA Sport Aviation  Visit  Visit www.EAA.org  f or or a listing of this month’s advertisers. .

Copyright © 2016 by the Experimental Aircraft Association, Inc. All rights reserved. EAA SPORT AVIATION (USPS 511-720; ISSN 0038-7835; 0038-7835; CPC#40612608) is owned exclusively by the Experimental Aircraft Assn., Inc. and is published monthly at the EAA Aviation Headquarters, 3000 Poberezny Rd., Oshkosh, WI 54902. Periodical Postage paid at Oshkosh, WI 54901 and other post offices. [U.S. membership rates are $40.00.] EAA STATEMENT STATEMENT OF POLICY – Material published in EAA SPORT AVIATION is contributed by EAA members and other interested persons. Opinions expressed in articles are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Experimental Aircraft Association, Association, Inc. Accuracy of the material is the sole responsibility of the contributor. ADVERTISING – EAA does not guarantee or endorse any product offered through our advertising. We invite constructive criticism and welcome any report of inferior merchandise obtained through our advertising so that corrective measures can be taken. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to EAA SPORT AVIATION, P.O. Box 3086, Oshkosh, WI 54903-3086. STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT, AND CIRCULATION (Required by 39 U.S.C. 3685). 1. Title of Publication: EAA Sport Aviation. 2. Publication No.: 0511-720. 3. Filing Date: 10/1/15. 4. Issue Frequency: Monthly. 5. No. of Issues Published Annually: 12. 6. Annual Subscription Price: $40.00 in U.S. 7. Known Office of Publication: EAA, 3000 Poberezny Road, P.O. Box 3086, Oshkosh, WI 54903-3086. Contact Person: Randy Halberg, Telephone: 920-426-6572. 920-426-6572. 8. Headquarters or General Business Office of the Publisher: Same address as above. 9. Publisher: Jack Pelton, EAA P.O. Box 3096, Oshkosh, WI 54903-3086. 54903-3086. Editor: Jim Busha, same address as above. Managing Editor: None 10. Owner: Experimental Aircraft Association, P.O. Box 3086, Oshkosh, WI 54903-3086. 54903-3086. 11. Known bondholders, mortgagees, and other security holders owning or holding 1 percent or more of total amounts of bonds, mortgages, or other securities: None. 12. Tax Status: Has Not Changed During Preceding 12 Months. 13. Publication Title: EAA Sport Aviation. 14. Issue date for circulation data below: October 2016. 15. Extent and Nature of Circulation (Average No. Copies Each Issue During Preceding 12 Months/ No. Copies of Single Issue Published Nearest to Filing Date): a. Total No. of Copies Printed (141982/140191) b. Paid Circulation (By Mail and Outside the Mail): 1. Mailed Outside-County Paid Subscriptions Stated on PS Form 3541 (Include paid distribution above nominal rate, advertiser’s proof copies, and exchange copies) (131106/130678). (131106/130678). 2. Mailed In-County Paid Subscriptions Stated on PS Form 3541 (Include paid distribution above nominal rate, advertiser’s proof copies, and exchange copies) (0/0/). 3. Paid Distribution Outside the Mails Including Sales Through Dealers and Carriers, Street Vendors, Counter Sales, and Other Paid Distribution Outside USPS (8609/8166). 4. Paid Distribution by Other Classes of Mail Through the USPS (e.g., First-Class Mail) (449/447). (449/447). c. Total Paid Distribution (Sum of 15b (1), (2), (3), and (4)) (140164/139291). d. Free or Nominal Rate Distribution (By Mail and Outside the Mail): 1. Free or Nominal Rate Outside-County Copies Included on PS Form 3541 (0/0). 2. Free or Nominal Rate In-County Copies Included on PS Form 3541 (0/0). 3. Free or Nominal Rate Copies Mailed at Other Classes Through the USPS (e.g. First-Class Mail) (0/0). 4. Free or Nominal Rate Distribution Outside the Mail (Carriers or other means) (0/0). e. Total Free or Nominal Rate Distribution (Sum of 15d (1), (2), (3), and (4) (0/0). f. Total Distribution (Sum of 15c and 15e) (140164/139291). (140164/139291). g. Copies Not Distributed (See Instructions to Publishers #4 (page 3)) (1818/900). h. Total (Sum of 15f and g) (141982/140191). (141982/140191). i. Percent Paid (15c divided by 15f times 100) (100/100). 16. Publication of Statement of Ownership: Publication required. Will be printed in the November 2016 issue of this publication. 17. 17. I certify that all information furnished furnished on this form is true and complete. I understand that anyone who furnishes false or misleading information on this form or who omits material or information requested on the form may be subject to criminal sanctions (including fines and imprisonment) and/or civil sanctions (including civil penalties). Editor, EAA Sport Aviation, Jim Busha, 10/1/15. PS Form 3526, July 2014.

www.eaa.org

27

EXPERIMENTER

EAA’S ATTIC

 TA  T ARGE GET T PRA RACT CTIICE produced the Rokuoh-Sha Type 89 machine gun camera as a way for the Japanese forces to save ammunition while training gunners during World War II. It was mounted on a wing and controlled remotely via wires or in a gunner’s position for hands-on target practice. Whenever the trigger on the camera was pulled, images were recorded on 35 mm film showing what the gun was “seeing.” The film would later be developed on the ground to

 THE KON KONISHI ISHIROKU ROKU CAME CAMERA RA COM COMPA PANY NY

28

EXPERIMENT ER

November 2016

assess the gunner’s accuracy. Originally the camera had a stopwatch in the clear yellowed section on top, which would put time stamps on the film so instructors could see how long the gunners’ bursts lasted. Gunners would move on to using bullets once they were proficient hitting the target with the camera.. camera..

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ERIN BRUEGGEN

What you do matters. Why you do it matters more. See the stories of Gator owners across the country. 2IƟFLDO 8WLOLW\ 9HKLFOH 3URYLGHU 3URYLGHU RI WKH ($ $

JohnDeere.com/Gator Before operating or riding, alw ays refer to the safet y and operating information on the vehicle and in the operator’s manual. John Deere’s gree n and yellow color scheme, the leaping deer sym bol and JOHN DEERE are trademarks of Deer e & Company. 15-64053

Aircraft Spruce carries everything a pilot could need, including parts, pilot supplies & avionics always at the lowest prices. Aircraft Spruce supplies components for a wide variety of homebuilt aircraft and factory built aircraft.  Visit  Visit www.aircraftspruce.com