EAA Chapter 983 Newsletter March 2001Mailing Address: EAA Chapter 983, P.O. Box 903, Granbury, TX. 76049 |
Chapter 983 meets on the second Saturday of each month at 10:00 AM. in Ken housemans hangar. N.E. corner of Pecan Plantation Airport.
Business Meeting highlights:
The Board meeting on the 8th of March discussed some items of interest to the General membership.
Chapter Meeting Highlights 10th March:
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Ed Kolano
told us of the idiosyncracies of some experimental aircraft and showed us some astonishing videos of a Longeze and 3/4 scale Mustang. The Longeze got into trouble on the first flight when the pilot could not get the engine to develop full power and got into a roll-yaw coupled oscillation. He crashed off the runway with no injury. The 3/4 scale Mustang had a rudder mounting that bent with strong inputs and made directional control difficult.NOTAMS:
1. Kevin Ross is adding to his aircraft "fleet". He has taken delivery on a fast build RV-6 and already has clecos in place. The fast build is indeed fast-build with the fuselage almost ready to go. Since he and Karla could not be without wings he bought a Pietenpol. |
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2. Dick Keyt and Bill Scanlon went up to Ardmore OK to investigate a new ultralight. It was said to weigh zero Lbs. and cost $275000. Interested? Well the cost was right, but the weight was only partially correct. It is a blimp! Its designer is Bill Meadows of United States Airships Internl. It seats two and is 80 Ft. long and 20-25 Ft. in diameter. It has 3 engines, two are gimballed around the pitch axis so that you can go up~down, or fore and aft. The third engine is gimballed to provide pitch and yaw control. The blimp envelope is made of 10 mil heat sealable plastic. When inflated it has a pressure of only ½ inch of water or about 1/50th PSI! Since helium is so valuable, they pump the helium in to another equal volume bag so they can work on the envelope. Ed; Makes for a VERY big hangar! Cruise speed is said to be 40 MPH. Any buyers out there? Goodyear must be quaking in their boots! | |
3. Bruce and Gloria Wilson have a new hangar to house their 172 and Citabria. They are located way back in the hinterlands on the East side of Pecan at 5518 Equestrian. |
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Safety Tip: Doug and Sheryl Crumrine have a ground safety tip for all of you. Install a fire detection system in your garage and hangar. It should have a LOUD alarm system with an alarm bell, preferably outside (to annoy the neighbors) and make them aware that WE HAVE A FIRE! Most of us have alarms in the house that catch all the kitchen fires and smoke alarms. They are mostly for folks inside the house to awaken them and get them safely outside. In many cases, folks are away and fires can go undetected until the fire is "well involved" as a fireman would say.
The reason the Crumrines are "sounding the alarm" is that they almost lost their home at 5420 Equestrian in Pecan. The fire started in the garage and got really going before it was detected. Actual fire damage was mostly confined to the garage with much smoke damage. In addition to fire detectors in garage and hangar, it would be a good idea to have an automatic dialer, or the number for our local Pecan fire station posted prominently; 573-5111. The Crumrines will be living temporarily at 9703 Argyl Ct. until their home is renovated
Speed and Conventional Wisdom:
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It was frustrating as all get out. I had 160 HP, They had 160 HP. I weigh 1000 Lbs. So do they. Im a two place, low wing all metal airplane. Yup, them too. Then doggone it! Why are those two nosewheelin RV-6's 25 MPH faster than my Thorp? I hate having them pull away from me. It peeves me no end to ask them to slow down so I can get back in formation. So I got to cogitatin and cipherin.
My Thorp has always been nose heavy due to its constant speed prop. Now "conventional wisdom" says: "Speed increases as the CG moves aft" until it gets about a third of the way back on the wing. Get aft of that and the airplane starts to do the Hurtey Gurtey. Well with some lead weight in the tail, I could move my CG aft a good bit and pick up some MPHs.
So I got to designin. Did a number of weight and balance calcs for the ballast additions. Some showed the airplane being unable to leave the ground and others insisted that it would do a loop as soon as it left it. I interpolated and figured that I was right in the middle. Perfect. Built a beautiful platform in the fuselage near the tail wheel. Melted down some lead weights from the Goodyear store and poured some pretty ballast bars,8# each. Got some good advice from the tech guys on the installation and I was ready for the speed trials. The flights began at 8AM. Didnt wear a chute, I figure God gives us free will so we can ignore common sense. We started with baseline runs with no ballast. Four runs, opposite directions, two altitudes. Landed, topped the fuel, added the first 8#, replayed the runs. Landed, fueled, added the second 8#. Noted IAS and GPS ground speed on each run. Now I was hoping for 15 MPH, but being the realistic guy I am, I was really expecting 7-8. Know what I got?
BUPKIS! Actually negative Bupkis. Both the 8# & 16# runs were 2 MPH slower than baseline. Temperature hadnt changed much and I redid the "no ballast" runs to make sure of the baseline. I studied the results and after applying scientific techniques came up with a possible reason. I got bad Mojo. Yup, there was a Bad Moon Arisin, that day and as everyone knows, there is no good reason for airplanes stayin in the air anyway.
But, Im not giving up. "Conventional Wisdom" says : "Drag reduces in direct proportion to a reduction in frontal area". Now if I chop two feet off each wing...
It was a long time ago when "ye editor" was an Aero Eng. Student at Univ. of Minn, but I can still recall some words of a little ditty from K.D. Woods, "Airplane Design":
Design a plane, the head men say,
It must be built in such a way,
that the dumbest cluck can fly hands off,
make the hardest landings still feel soft.
It must be strong and in the main,
able to withstand a hurricane.
It must be super-fast, and another point too,
It must have a cruising range to Timbuktu
It must be designed to go straight up,
and land straight down,
and still scarcely feel the ground.
Even Dick Rutan could not fulfill all these requirements!
Oh yes, and one thing more,
It must be designed to sell at the 10 cent store.