BRAZOS AREA RECREATIONAL FLYERS BRAGGING AND GOSSIP EAA Chapter 983 Newsletter November 2002 Mailing Address: EAA Chapter 983, P.O. Box 903, Granbury, TX. 76049 Website http://www.eaa983.org

Chapter 983 meets on the second Saturday of each month at 10:00 AM. in Ken
houseman's hangar. N.E. corner of Pecan Plantation Airport. No meeting in October

December 14th, EAA Chapter 983 Christmas Party! Call Monica Capps, Debbie
Scanlin, or Karen Jensen for tickets. Details can be found within this Newsletter!

• Fall Fly-In cancelled! Was it the Abilene weather curse? Nobody knows, but the only heavy rain in weeks shut down the Fall EAA 983 Fly-In. On Thursday evening our Chapter leadership decided to postpone the purchase of food, but continue with plans to set up and host the fly-in. On Friday and Saturday morning it continued to rain, resulting in a cancellation decision early on Saturday morning…Bummer. Fortunately, food was not purchase, and therefore not wasted. Time to start planning for the Spring Fly-In.

• At press time, Barbara Staples is recovering from successful lung transplant surgery. This is great news, but she has a long and difficult recovery ahead. Keep the Staples in your prayers.
• President, Gary Bricker, continues a speedy recovery from his recent bypass surgery. While there were initial concerns involving a mix-up with a sex change operation in an adjacent room, it has been confirmed that Gary's plumbing is A'OK. Although, he is dressing more fashionably.
• Copperstate Dash Results: Dick Keyt and Don Saint have done it again at this year's Copperstate Dash on October 11^th. Flying the Polen Special, Dick completed the 305 NM course first, averaging 258.23 knots. Even more spectacular was Don's second place performance in his Glasair IISFT, averaging 229.61 knots and beating a Lancair 360! The starting line for the course was at Apple Valley Airport in Victorville, California, and the finish line in Coolidge, Arizona. Great job guys!

Lee Clements

It's July. Many of us have made plans for the big Oshkosh airshow that happens at the end of the month. Lodging plans completed months, even a year in advance, flight plans (personal aircraft or commercial aluminum tubes) complete, packed, agendas reviewed, etc. My wife, Donna, and I were no different. We had our e-tickets in hand, hotel and rental car reservations complete but only a few weeks ahead. No, we weren't going to Oshkosh to enjoy aviation's biggest show with a gazillion of our closest friends and enthusiasts. No, we weren't packed for the hot, humid atmosphere of Wisconsin. Where were we going to enjoy an EAA airshow in July if not Oshkosh?

Let me tell you about one of the greatest secrets of July airshows. A week or so before Oshkosh (I still have a hard time referring to AirVenture), the EAA puts on quite a show in the Northwest. I know you have heard about it, read about it, and seen references to it in all of the bigger general aviation publications. I'm talking about EAA's Northwest Fly-in held at Arlington Municipal Airport in Arlington, Washington. Our recent experience found this to be one very pleasant and relaxing vacation.

We flew commercial to SETAC airport, rented a car, and drove the 70 or so miles north of Seattle to Arlington. Our lodging was actually located a couple miles south in Tulalip. The Best Western was expecting the airshow crowd and provided a good buffet breakfast each morning. There are several hotels/motels in the area of Arlington; lodging does not appear to be a problem. This one was one of the hotels recommended on the airshow's web site (www.nweaa.org.). We were in good company with Lancair, and other vendor contingents also staying there.

I hate sitting in traffic and as we all know, driving to the show at Oshkosh and Sun-N-Fun means you're going to sit in some traffic. The eight-mile drive to the parking lot at Arlington Airport didn't take the 45 minutes I had figured. There was no traffic beyond what I perceived to be the usual workday commute. We were from the hotel to putting on sunscreen in the parking lot in about 15 minutes! It's starting to be a good day. There's got to be a long line to get our tickets, right? Wrong again. The ticket line for the familiar wristband was all of five minutes. It was an enjoyable few minutes as we struck up a conversation with the couple in front of us. It turns out they live at Propwash Airport north of the Metroplex. They fly an RV and had been coming to this airshow for the past several years to escape the Texas heat. They gave us a couple of tips on the layout and we went our separate ways.

The airshow grounds are well laid out in typical EAA fashion. All of the usual stuff was there, the vendors, the trams, the motor home campers, food court with the usual fair, forum tents, and, thanks in part to beautiful flying weather, gobs of airplanes. My interest was the GlaStar of which there were about 15 examples. Hope mine is one of them someday. All kinds of Rutan aircraft and classic and antiques were parked in their respective areas. I think most impressive was the area marked off for RVs. I have never seen so many RVs and Rockets parked together in one place at one time. Even Donna commented on that. The warbirds were also represented although the warbird count didn't seem as high as what I would have thought (I suspect they, too, have to decide between Arlington and Oshkosh). The taxi route brings all of the airplanes close by the pedestrians, so it's easy to keep track of what's coming and going. Many of the visiting airplanes sported Canadian registration. The grounds even have a 'theater in the woods' of sorts for nighttime entertainment for those camping on the grounds.

New Glasair/Glastar is on the airport on the opposite side from the airshow. Like other type clubs and groups, they treated Glasair/Glastar builders/pilots/enthusiasts to a hamburger cookout one evening. Mostly the Glasair crowd attended this. They have a novel incentive to encourage one to get their projects flying. If you drove in, you got to buy a hamburger. If you flew your Glasair in, they treated you to a steak! The next evening was the Glastar gathering sponsored by the Glastar Association

International and hosted by New Glastar. The specialty at this event was smoked salmon that was prepared on the spot with all the fixings. It was a treat! Several of the Glastars from the fly in side taxied over for personal showings of their aircraft. The centerpiece was a beautiful amphibian GlaStar from Canada. NSI, the Subaru engine converter, is a few buildings down from New Glasair/Glastar.

Tired of the airshow? Here are a couple of other pluses for this venue. Arlington holds a nice street fair during the airshow. It's a few miles away, but the city provides a shuttle service. We drove, no traffic, remember? Anyway, it's no Fort Worth Mainstreet, but it's still a nice diversion. We picked up a couple of yard art pieces form one of the local artists. Another attraction for us was the ability to get a decent lunch in one of the many local restaurants.

This area is not just about the airshow. The other pluses for this venue include the touristy activities available. We spent one day touring around all the familiar sites in Seattle. Another day was spent on San Juan Island. The San Juan Islands are worth a vacation destination alone. Then back to Texas summer time heat.

That's a quick summary of our venture to this year's EAA Northwest Airshow and area. We recommend it highly and will probably go back again. Hope to see you there! The dates for 2003 are July 9 – 13.

• Nathan Capps is busy back to work on his Seawind. Most of the structure is completed and assembled. Nathan has been busy working on the gear retraction system. However, he's not spending all of his spare time on the Seawind…….Monica's pregnant! How did that happen? Now he has two projects cookin' at one time. Which one is going to be completed first? Congrats to the Capps'!
• Bill Steppling is methodically painting his Ran's S-7 Courier fuselage. He is perfecting the art of applying paint, and sanding it off. It's all going to pay off, however. Lookin' good Bill. Both Bill and Gary Green recently installed the new TruTrak, Digitrak wing leveler from Jim Younkin's company ( www.trutrakflightsystems.com ). If you are considering a wing leveler, be sure to talk to one of these guys before you write a check.
• Gary Green continues to work on his second Thorp, and the construction of his new house in Arkansas!? Are we going to let Green sneak out of here? By the way, that's Clinton country, so he's gonna have to replace the bumper stickers on his golf cart (maybe we should donate a few). The T-18 fuselage is done for the most part except for the fitting of the canopy. He is currently building the horizontal tail, which will be followed by the flaps. After that, it's firewall forward and instruments followed by a first flight.
• Steve Mottin recently received his RV-9 tail kit. RV builders unite, and go get Steve motivated!
• Bill Eslick continues to tweak his Mazda powered RV-6. He is now working to maximize the horsepower output from that rotary by redesigning the intake manifold. He says by making a longer run for the air before it enters the engine he hopes to get more power. Easier said than done, as one change typically results in many others. For example, he will have to redesign the plumbing for the radiator. More power to you Bill!
• Tom Woodward's progress on his Safari helicopter took a hit. While performing an engine test, the rotor contacted the ground and wrapped the helicopter and Tom up into a ball. Fortunately, there were no serious injuries.
• Bill Scanlin is making steady progress on his RV-7 under the watchful eye of Martin Sutter. Now that the messy job of sealing the wing tanks is completed, (Yeh!!, it's time to wash your hands) he is now happily moving on to the quick-built fuselage.
• John Bunn's RV-8 (flown by Damon Berry) is the March picture for Van's 2003 calendar. It can be seen flying in formation with the Polen Special (flown by Dick Keyt). But that's not all. Jim Erskine and his RV-6 is the November picture in Vans 2003 calendar.
• Tom and Bonnie Lewis are back from traveling and vacationing most of the summer. Tom is getting back to work on their RV-6a project. He is working on the installation of the main gear leg mounts in the fuselage.
• Gary and Susan Brandon have been busy building a new hanger at Nassau Bay. He looks forward to getting back to his firewall forward installation on his RV-6 project.
• Jim Kucholtz is the proud new owner of his long awaited hanger. It's a 50x60 hanger with a nice big ramp to match. He has plans for an awesome air-conditioned workshop, on which he will be working shortly. When's the party?
• Ron Schuster's Mustang II project is one impressive undertaking. Imagine a Mustang II with a composite shell on top of the fuselage going all the way back to the empennage. Then, imagine fiberglass gull wing doors that rise up like those found only on European sportscars. He is also installing both wing root and wing tip tanks to allow the extra fuel required to compete in the Airventure Race to Oshkosh. A man with a plan, I like it! Good luck Ron.
• Jimmy Cash has just about finished a huge amount of fiberglass work to allow his T-18 to use Van's airbox. Less drag, more power! He will start work on the wing this month. Once the T-18 is flying again, he has a high-powered RV-6 that he will finish. Also, in his hangar is a WAR FW-190, which is about 80% complete. It's for sale if anyone is interested.

Jimmy Cash

I had a great opportunity, during the long cross country trip to Oshkosh, to compare performance numbers between two airplanes which have like airframes with vastly different engine/prop combinations. Flying together, I was interested to see if the IO-540/CS Prop, 300HP, F-1 Rocket would provide the same kind of economy as the 160HP/Fixed Prop, O-320, RV-6a. We were both loaded about the same, with two adults. I had hoped we would fly about the same speed, but the F-1 wanted to go faster, so we went. The entire trip was 890 statute miles (one fuel stop), cruising at 11,500', and reduced power.

MP RPM MPH FF Time Fuel MPG

RV-6a 21" 2550 147 8.0 313 min 44.46gal 20.0

F-1 20" 2100 185 10.4 267 min 51.62 gal 17.2

It's hard to compare the data since we were traveling at different speeds. But, for a 25% increase in speed and a 15% reduction in time, it only cost the F-1 about 15% in total fuel burn. I've heard people say that they couldn't afford to put the gas in an IO-540. But, I think if you fly the RV airframe with a 6 cylinder at 4 cylinder cruise speeds, you'll find about the same total fuel burn. Maybe next time we'll be able to compare data at the same speed.

Editor Notes: Soon to be retired Newsletter guy: Jimmy Cash! Do to popular demand and an extensive letter writing campaign (mainly from me), Damon Berry will be returning as your newsletter editor in December………Whew! It is an emotional farewell to all my dedicated readers. But, it's time to move on, and buy a new diktionery. Please direct any new business back to Damon.