Pres.: Don Saint		817-579-0941
		Vice Pres.: Dave Boldenow		817-579-0946
		Secretary: Ken Morgan		817-578-3646
		Treasurer: Dick Keyt		817-279-7590
		Newsletter Editor: Gene Keyt		817-578-3163
		Young Eagles & Flying Start Coord.: Dave Moore		817-573-4642
		Tech Counselor: Gary Green		817-579-1995
		Tech Counselor: Jerry Althouse		817-579-0737
		Tech Counselor: Ken Morgan		817-578-3646
		Flight Advisor: Don Saint		817-579-0941
		Advertising Manager: Ed. Brown		817-573-7768
		Historian/photos: Jonathan Ragle		817-596-7370
		Web-site Editor: Rick Chapman		817-578-3869

Mailing Address: EAA Chapter 983, P.O. Box 903, Granbury, TX. 76049
Website http://www.eaa983.org

Jim Younkin is well known to EAA’ers and proved to us that his fame is well deserved with the talk he gave to us in January.

Jim graduated as an Electrical engineer from the Univ. of Ark. (He remembers the Aviation cadets that were at Univ. of Ark during WW-l l and that included me. The native sons were not too fond of us cadets since we siphoned off all the girls we could!) Jim went to Mineral Wells and did some early work on the Century autopilots. He retired 20 years ago to build and rebuild, airplanes. He rebuilt a number of Stagger wings before building; a Travel Air 4000, then a Travel Air mystery ship (Pancho Barnes) and then a "Mister Mulligan" and a "Mullicoupe".

Both of these high wing airplanes zip along at 230. In building these aircraft he became quite adept at making fairings and moldings. He uses brute force in making these, banging away with slaps and shot bags to get the shape he wants, then uses the English wheel to get the final finish. He emphasized that it is most important to anneal the areas you are working and you have to keep at it. The pieces age harden even overnight!

The second half of Jim’s talk was most interesting as he discussed the attributes of Autopilots and what to expect. Jim has sold over 100 autopilots. He has not yet broken into the commercial market, but it should only be a matter of time. Jim did not have many good things to say about the present generation of autopilots, even including the S-Tec. They all use the turn coordinator for roll signals and this works fairly well in smooth air, but not so well in turbulence. Any autopilot which must be switched off in turbulence (just when you need it most) is no autopilot at all! The turn coordinator is a "spring restrained" single gimbal gyro. Turn coordinators are usually heavily damped. (Check it out on the ground. Initiate a turn, stop, and then see how long it takes the turn coordinator to go to "zero". The old needle, ball and airspeed were not damped and you may recall how much they swung around. In rough air you had to average the swings back and forth.-Ed) This is why the rate based gyro auto pilots swing so much. As Jim pointed out, they incline the axis of the turn coordinator to pick up not only roll rate but azimuth rate (heading) as well. This is a cheap way of sensing two axes with a single sensor.(The Bonanza is especially sensitive since the "V" tail has a pronounced Dutch roll anyway.)

At any rate, Jim’s autopilot uses a displacement gyro with a "rate network" to provide damping. This is a much better approach.

Younkins autopilot uses digital processing and digital stepping motors. He also uses a magnetometer to provide heading hold and a separate magnetometer to sense the vertical component to cancel out the Northerly-Southerly turning errors and the acceleration errors on East-West headings. (Remember them?) He uses a solid state gyro in both pitch and roll (a vibrating reed).

Jim’s autopilot is not cheap, but it provides superior performance. I, and others, have price lists. Roll control only with heading hold GPS/VOR/ILS tracking is $3000. Adding pitch with altitude hold/select and vertical speed control runs some $6000. Very competitive with S-tec. Jim gave us installation diagrams for the Glasair and RV-6. I have these available for anyone that wants them. They are very simple, and Jim said that you can take the servos out in just a few minutes.

1. Sid & Karen Tucker have joined the Pecan troops. They have a hangar home at 9612 Taxiway. Sid was formerly with Flight Safety and had a 25 year Air Force career before that. (You should see their Aeronautical museum on the 2^nd floor!) They fly a Cessna 150, a Cardinal, and two Dehavillands, a chipmunk and a Tiger Moth (being restored).
2. Karen is also a pilot and a member of 99's.
   Bob Winegar will be moving into Don Saint’s "old" house. Bob is a 6 year veteran of the Air Force having flown F-4C’s & D’s. He owns and flies an ‘81 Super Viking.
3. A newly formatted membership directory will be coming out next year. It is in need of updating. In some cases we know about changes, but in other cases only you can clue us in to changes. Tell us if you have changed address, telephone, aircraft, spouse(!) so we can make the change.  We still have some old directories. If you do not have one, or have misplaced it, let me know. The old ones are still useful. ~ Gene
4. Dave Moore has custody of the Chapter special equipment. We will be issuing a list of this equipment and intend to update it periodically.
5. Bud Judy has donated his bound collection of Sport Aviation magazines for any who wish to research past articles. Mike Bridges is the custodian and librarian for this and other material.
6. John Holt has been appointed the new full-time Airport manager at Granbury (C.W. Smith is retiring), effective February 1st. He was previously the city parks and recreation director for Granbury. Although not an aviator, John has been a key player in almost all the airport developments and improvements during recent years. He brings a lot of talent and experience to the job, and will be working hard to promote activities at the airport. When you get a chance, stop by and welcome him. If you wish to schedule an event at the airport, contact him at (817) 279-8533.
7. Bill Mainord will be teaching a new course on navigating the metro-plex VFR. 3 Hours, $15
8. Conference Room at Granbury Airport:
   There is a very nice conference room located in the new Granbury Airport terminal building. It will accommodate up to 50 people for meetings, conferences, etc. Some audio visual equipment is available. Contact John Holt, airport manager, concerning use and scheduling of the room.
9. Office Space at Granbury Airport: There are two vacant offices for lease in the new Granbury Airport terminal building. These are great locations for aviation oriented businesses. If you know of any potential tenants, contact airport manager John Holt.
10. Applicants Sought for EAA Air Academy:
    Chapter 983 is seeking applicants for the summer of 2001 EAA Youth Air Academy to be held in Oshkosh WI. The Chapter will sponsor and financially help at least one kid to attend. This is a great opportunity for kids interested in aviation to enhance their knowledge and motivation. Options include:
    • Primary Aviation Fun Camp for 12 and 13 year olds. Three camps are scheduled for June 9-14, 15-20, and 21-26.
    • Intermediate Experience Camp for 14 and 15 year olds. Three camps are scheduled for June 27-July 3, July 4-10 and 11-17.
    • Advanced Leadership Camp for 16 to 18 year olds. Two camps are scheduled for July 18-27 and July 28-Aug 6.

    Additional details about these programs are available on the EAA website under "Aviation Education" If you would like to recommend anyone for any of these camps, contact Chapter 983 project officer Bill Mainord at (817)279-1969, (817) 821-1039 or wmainord@att.net. Applicants must be identified not later than our February 10th meeting, in order to process the applications and apply to EAA for the slot(s) before they are all filled.

11. Results of the 2001 member survey will be available at the next Chapter meeting on 10 Feb. Also look for the results on the Chapter website: www.eaa983.org. These result will be updated as applications are received. Conclusions will be drawn once a majority are in. See you there 10 Feb!

Here is a cautionary tale from one of our Technical counselor’s, Gary Green; let him tell it like it was: I had built a stock T-18 with an O-360 180 HP Lyc. and a fixed pitch Sesenich metal EM 76" prop cut to 68" and twisted to 80" pitch. I first flew it in 1980. (I’m still flying it, but with an Aymar Demuth wood prop. Now it is 20 years later with 2000 hours on it.) I had spun it, rolled it, looped it, and fully explored it’s envelope for many years. Back in the early 80's, I was an Air Force pilot current in the T-37 and instructing spins and their aberrations to student pilots on a daily basis. I had flown a Cassutt 111M, had a combat tour in O2-A’s (and spun one at night), flown OV-10's, C-141's, C-5A’s and been a T-38 instructor, Etc, ad nauseum.

A friend, Leroy Holt, had finished a wide body, folding wing T-18 (S-18). He lived in McAlester OK. And I lived in Enid. We became friends while he was building it, and I test flew it for him. It was pretty much a stock S-18 with an O-360 and a constant speed Hartzell prop. It’s C.G. was about where mine was. It flew nicely, stalled about like mine (sharp break, but predictable, nothing to be alarmed about). I had rolled it and felt very comfortable in it. It was well built and straight.

Well after several months of flying it, Leroy asked me to show him a spin. Now I had spun mine numerous times and it spun like all stock T-18's that I had ever heard about. You had to force it into a spin and hold it in, like a Cessna 150. It recovered as soon as you relaxed the pro-spin controls. I thought Leroy’s would do the same. Hell it’s C.G. was the same it stalled the same, why wouldn’t it spin the same? Fortunately, I told Leroy since I had not spun it yet, I had better go up and spin it solo before I took him up to demonstrate one.

Well it was a nice day at McAlester OK. as I climbed out. Just a few puffy clouds around 8000. I had about a third of a tank of fuel (29 Gal. stock T-18 tank) and that 180 HP with constant speed kept climbing so well that I went on up to 12500 Ft. Gawd! I’m glad I did! Now any good (or even mediocre) test pilot will sneak up on a spin test with caution (and a parachute). That day, I wasn’t good or smart and I didn’t have a ‘chute. I had a great deal of confidence that Leroy’s S-18 would spin just like my T-18 and there was not a bad bone in my T-18's body. So, instead of pulling the power to idle, stalling the plane, displacing the rudder to induce a spin and recovering at a quarter or half turn, I locked the rudder to the right and held the stick full aft to fully develop a right spin. Big mistake! Well, after a couple of turns, the nose came up to an attitude one would expect to see on a 3-4 degree glide slope(like flat man!). That damn thing spun like a flat frisbee! I was a little surprised initially and applied the standard T-37 spin recovery procedures. Then I was a whole lot surprised when that had absolutely no effect! About that time I recognized that the prop had come to attention. The engine had stopped. (We never did figure out why.) I had been through enough unsuccessful attempts by students to know the basics. Don’t rush it. Methodically repeat the steps. "Throttle idle, stick abruptly full aft and hold. Determine direction of spin, apply full opposite rudder and hold. One turn after applying full opposite rudder, apply full forward stick and hold until spinning stops, then neutralize rudder and recover from ensuing dive." Well that technique had absolutely no effect, it just continued to spin like a well flung coffee can lid! So I tried other techniques I had been taught. Opposite rudder only– no effect! Aileron into spin – no effect! Aileron opposite spin– no effect! OK, let go of everything and see what happens– no effect! Holy sh–-! this could get serious! I ain’t liking this a bit! I had just run through my entire bag of spin recovery techniques and nothing worked! Now this went on for a very long time. It was deathly silent. Only a slight whoosh of air. I think I could have slid the canopy open and lit a cigarette. I was as scared as I have ever been, including combat at night in Laos. I had been the investigation officer on a few Air Force crashes and I knew they could tell just what position hands and feet and controls had been in when the plane hit the ground. I determined they would find me with both hands locked on the stick, full forward and full left rudder. So I locked them in that position and determined to ride it out. After a long time in that position, I could see the nose very slowly start to come down. MAYBE! Now if I only had enough altitude left, this bitch might get into the recovery cone, and I might survive! It took an excruciatingly long time, but the nose kept coming down. I knew if it got to about 45 degrees nose down, it would recover. It finally got there, and it popped out of the spin at a fairly low altitude. I could not read the altimeter due to nastagmis (eyeballs twitching side to side). I didn’t have enough altitude to dive and get enough airspeed for a windmill start. I had to use the starter. Fortunately, it started right up. It took a few minutes to get my pulse rate down and composure in control for a landing. My wife, Maxine, had watched the whole thing and recognized that I was in deep doo-doo. Leroy and his wife figured I was just showing off. I never spun that beauty again. I’ve spun mine and other stock T-18's, but no wide body, folding wing models. There just might be something going on there that I don’t know about. I guess I’d do it again, but I’d have a gob of altitude, a parachute and I’d sneak up on it a quarter turn at a time. ~ Gary Green

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