Month: November 2019

Builders,

As we get closer to the conclusion of the year, let me give you an advanced look at the source of my 2020 flying season theme.  50 years ago, A first order social philosopher, who constantly reminded people he was a working Longshoreman in San Francisco, wrote a highly influential thesis called “The Triumph of the Squares” the subject of which was the Apollo Space Program, but he held that it was the perfect example of achievement done by men of action and determination, in spite of the politically turbulent times around them. This man was Eric Hoffer.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Hoffer

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Hoffer was the ultimate blue collar man, with a titanic spirit, and a passionate love for his country. He was an unrelenting and insightful critic of all totalitarian movements, and for his writing on the topic, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. His specific expertise was the mindset of individuals. A sample quote:

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” People who bite the hand that feeds them, usually lick the boot that kicks them”

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These videos are samples from a long interview done by CBS News in 1967.  I selected the video above not because I like the commentary of the guy who posted it, but because it has Hoffer’s words in subtitles. He has a very strong accent that many people find hard to decipher, but his passion is obvious.  Do not mistake him for anything but purely American, he was born in New York City, and few people loved our country and its people, as he did.

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“Special talent for maintenance” Is the first comment he is making here. He explained how critical this is, and that it’s not present in in many struggling cultures. …… Near the end, he speaks of the then current governor of his home state, whom he feels is not as impressive as the state he serves. The same man, still acknowledged Hoffer’s unmatched service to freedom by awarding him the Medal of Freedom in the White House 15 years later.

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Your 2020 Aviation Connection: 

Hoffer said it was the “Squares” the engineers, the builders, the men of action, that actually defined achievement in the 1960s, not the people obsessed with the politics and social movements of the day. He conceded that there were great things done in civil rights, but held that the people, on both sides of the political spectrum, who were absolutely consumed by daily events, had much smaller individual lives then the Americans, who acknowledged the social environment, but still stuck to their personal creative ambitions, and were determined to see them through. He thought they gave more to the country by far, than people who watched the protests and strife and let the anxiety of it own them.

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I uphold that Hoffer was right about this in 1969, and he is still right in 2019. We will enter the 2020 election year shortly. Each of us will decide every day if we will let the media drama rule our emotions, or if we will go to the shop and advance our personal ambitions in aviation. Social media and politics are controlled by vast corporations with armies of experts paid to make it addictive and irresistible to most people. The advertising revenue and ratings it generates pays for this. They have the ability to make an addictive product that would be the envy of the Medellin Drug Cartel.

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I get why it is hard to change, many things in our society deeply matter to me. In 2016 I wrote this: Thought for the Day: “My Dreams” the day Michael Bloomberg announced he was willing to buy a job at 1600 Pennsylvania ave. But this year, above all others, I am going to invest in myself, advance my own ambitions, and refuse to react on command of each day’s new narrative. If you have the will power to ignore all the emotional reactions the media and the parties and the corporations are commanding you to have, and replace this with the personal action to learn, understand and create, then you will own the year, and lead a life that Hoffer would have praised. 

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Builders:

Here is a short fun video, a glance at last week’s Corvair Operations College and the Finishing School held at my place where we Ran  two 3.3L’s and a 3.0L engine.

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Present in the video are many of the personalities who make my year possible, Ken Pavlou, Phil Maxson, Dan Sheradin, Ron the Drummer, Kitty Politi, Earl Brown, and others were here for a traditional year end gathering the same week. We had a few new people thrown in, and more than 30 people over for dinner Saturday night, a lot in a small house. It was a lot of fun, and a good way to close out my 30th year in experimental aviation. It’s mostly people pictures because as much as I love engines, people, are far more interesting, and I am blessed to have more good people in my life than I deserve.

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Looking forward to many good times with friends, both old and new, in 2020.

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We have now achieved the goal of 1,000 subscribers on Youtube, and we will shortly meet the 2nd criterion of having 4,000 hours of video viewing, which will allow direct hyperlinks in the videos and descriptions, which will allow us to bring all of our media formats into one fully coordinated machine. Something very good for 2020. 

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Builders,

When Ken Pavlou and Phil Maxson were here last week, we took a hour to shoot some interview footage on the topics above. This is the next video on my YouTube channel in the “Perceptions” series.

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Click on the picture above to see the video. It was shot in my front yard at dusk, no notes, one take, no editing to speak of. The “perceptions” videos are share ideas and perspectives in an unfiltered, unpolished, authentic presentation.

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Builders,

Here is the second letter from Cy Mao in Thailand, about his proposed lightweight Pietenpol.

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Above, Roger White’s Pietenpol. It has a steel tube fuselage and an A-75. It is still flying in the hands of a new owner, I’m pretty sure it is more than 25 years old. I saw it in person at Brodhead many years ago. Notice it has Vee cabane struts, yielding a two piece wing and no center section.  I believe this is far lighter than a center section, and it is also stronger. I do not know the finished weight of the plane, but it was visually a very good performer. Roger’s EAA # is 42, he built a number of planes.

Builders,

The following letter came from Cy Mao in Thailand. It caught my eye because many years of my childhood were spent in Thailand, where my father led the US work on infrastructure projects like Airbases and Hospitals. They were golden years for my family. We had the utmost respect for the nation that welcomed us. 

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Hello

I hope this is the right place to ask this. I apologize if your “comments” are not where you want this. If you prefer an email address to be used just tell me.

I want to build a Pietenpol in Thailand where a two seat ultralight can weigh 550 pounds empty. “Real airplanes” are very restricted in flight, sort of like flying IFR in the USA. Not so much fun. Ultralights can fly without being in constant radio contact with “our ATC”.

I saw in the 1932 Flying and Glider manual that a Piet weighs 625 pounds with water with a Model A of 244 pounds and radiator of 21. Take away 265 and add back an A65 of about 170 and it weighs 530 pounds which is legal by 20 pounds. This is my plan. Then I research this plane on the forum and see that this plane usually weighs over 700 pounds and I think it is due to a lot of changes by builders since 1932 likes batteries and brakes and such.

So I ask if you can help me build the lightest Pietenpol and if you think it can weigh 550 pounds or less. Then of course we will talk about CG – I watched your video about this too.

I prefer build wood fuselage. Is the metal version lighter? I can build steel if necessary.
What is lightest gear? I think old wooden gear looks lighter.
My place to build is not 30′ so I must build 3 piece wing. But if this adds too much weight I can look for a bigger place to build if this is important.

I plan only Airspeed indicator and oil pressure gauge.
No brakes, no battery, no radio. No upholstery, Only seatbelts.
You say always best to build long fuselage. Is this true even if empty weight is critical?
I like to have steerable tailwheel but can change to skid when finished if I need to lose a pound or two (but skid vs tailwheel may affect where I should have put the axle a bit to handle on the ground, and will move CG a bit also.)

I read about Oratex fabric that needs no heavy paint. I can use this. Some people say paint of airplane can weigh 30 pounds.

Do you think 550 pounds is possible?

If you think this is not possible by the plans then I wonder more:

Looking at other airplane plans I always see ribs built from 1/4 x 1/4. Piet uses 1/4 x 1/2. Is this important or only overbuilt? 1/4 x 1/4 can save almost half the weight of ribs (gussets still weigh the same of course) Rib spacing is close as any other plane and wing loading is very light. Do ribs need to be 1/2″ for some other reason? I don’t see much compression struts in Piet wing and wonder if they also serve this function and best to leave at 1/4″ x 1/2″

Also I notice fuselage longerons are 1″ x 1″ but many plans I look at make 3/4″ x 3/4″ much more common. Is this an example of rough landing areas in 1932 and not important anymore or is this not a good idea to make these smaller? Of course I don’t want a plane that will break apart.

Thank you

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Lightest Ford powered plane I have weighed is 677.  The average is 720 or so. These guys put more effort into saving weight than Continental builders. The numbers in the Flying and Glider manuals are optimistic guesses, not data. There is no way you could look at the 677 pound plane I weighed and see 50 spare pounds just sitting on it.  Im reasonably sure the 625 pound number is a myth.

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There is a lot of talk about steel tubing being lighter, but after the floorboards, tabs and mounting points are on it, the weight advantage of the steel tube plane largely evaporates.  I would still build a long fuselage unless you are your passengers are less than 1.7 meters tall. The weight difference is small. Plan on building the fuselage out of 3/4 x 3/4, it is plenty strong and BHP built some of his later planes that way. Make sure you use Spruce, or some wood that is that light. Fir is significantly more dense.

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The wooden gear and straight axle are much heavier than later J-3 style gear. The 590 pound plane used spun aluminum go cart wheels and very light tires, no brakes, and lightly built J-3 gear. I can show you how to make very light bungeeing gear that uses  about 600 #8 rubber bands on each side. Don’t laugh, it flew on my Piet for 25 years before I got it.

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Oratech fabric is a very real weight savings, perhaps 20-25 pounds on a Piet. It is not as expensive as people make it sound.  1/4 x 1/4 for cap strips is fine, that is actually the size in a Pitts Special. The Spars in some of BHP’s later planes were only 3/4″ wide. Consider this is the same as many Cubs. There is talk that the British built up spars are lighter, but routed 3/4″ spars would likely beat them.  I can show you how to make a two piece wing with a very light joint in the middle. A one peice wing is clumsy to build and cover. There are steel fittings that could be replaced by aluminum in certain places. Aluminum lift struts are very light by comparison to other options.

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With all this done, I still think you would have a very hard time getting into the 550 pound weight for sure. You could build the airframe and see if it could be Continental powered, but keep this as a back up: You could always use a Rotax 582 or  a UL-260 on a long mount for the lowest possible engine weight. People will say that they can’t power a Piet, but that you are speaking of building is several hundred pounds lighter than a typical Piet.  A 535 pound Piet with a 582 on the front would out climb almost any Pietenpol in the US.

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Send me your address and I will mail you a copy of my weight and Balance manual as a gift.  – this could be an interesting Project of International cooperation. ขอขอบคุณ.

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Builders:

Billy Kerchner, a Sonex plans builder from Philadelphia, was one of the other builders who came to my hangar for the finishing school.  He also elected to build an SPA 3.3L Corvair from an “Engine in a Box” kit.  We caught this short video after the run, when he was packing unto head home.  Not technical, just capturing the spirit of the moment. Word of caution to viewers under 13 and the easily offended, video does contain an accurate expression of happiness in the true Philly vernacular.

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We just reached 1,000 subscribers to my Youtube channel yesterday, but your participation is still important, if you have not yet subscribed, please take a moment to do so. Thank You,

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Builders:

Last week, several builders came to my hangar for a finishing school. Ken Killian, who is building a Zenith 650, Selected to build an SPA 3.3L Corvair from an “Engine in a Box” kit.  We caught this short video right after the run. Not technical, just capturing the spirit of the moment.

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We just reached 1,000 subscribers to my Youtube channel yesterday, but your participation is still important, if you have not yet subscribed, please take a moment to do so. Thank You,

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Builders;

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The sign above, is pictured Thursday night at our airport in Florida.  It is normally stored on my back porch, hopefully never to be used. It’s only purpose is to keep unethical TV reporters in search of ratings, out of our neighborhood after an accident.  On Thursday afternoon, one of our neighbors went for a short flight in his RV-4, and never returned. Our little community only has 119 people here, the man was known and liked, friend to both myself and the Weseman’s.  This was the second fatal accident this year. The circumstances are unknown, and not important. He was a highly skilled guy, flying a good plane, and we will not see him in this life again.

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2020 will make my 31st season in aviation. Plenty of people have been around longer, but I most have them have spent their seasons in far more benign parts of aviation. Experimentals, antiques and aerobatics and other riskier parts of general aviation are arguably more dangerous than flying in the military.

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Salesmen in our industry understand that any discussion of accidents and risk management makes people who might dabble in homebuilding nervous. Conversely, I’m not a salesman, and I’ve long said that homebuilding is the wrong place to dabble. If you are interested in devoting your attention and ambitions in homebuilding, then I have some perspectives and experience to share with you, to give you understanding and tools to effectively minimize and manage your risks.

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This approach is not always welcome. A week ago, a new second owner of an experimental openly said on a discussion group that he couldn’t wait to get his plane because he wanted to take his kids flying in it. If that attitude doesn’t unsettle you, maybe you don’t know this fact: The first flights of the second owner of an experimental are statistically proven by the FAA to be the highest risk events in general aviation, several times more likely to result in a fatality than even the original flights of the aircraft. This is solely because of the second owner, and his rush to use the plane without transition training, often without a Pilot’s Operating Handbook, and without studying issues like Weight and Balance, loading and systems configuration specific to that particular plane.  These issues are not new, read 20 year old NTSB reports on John Denver’s accident, the circumstances never change.

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When I suggested to the new second owner that he might look into training, a POH and alerted him that his plane might have a very limited useful load, his public response was to openly say he had flown the plane over gross, had done his flight training over gross weight, and he thought it was “No big deal”. He directly said he just wanted to ‘spread some joy’ and took my comments as being a know it all.

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His reaction isn’t unusual today; twenty years ago, the majority of people were willing to listen to experience, today, people, particularly second owners, are very quick to take offense to nearly any comment that doesn’t validate and endorse their conception of how things work, often based on the ‘its no big deal’ perspective.  This summer I pointed out a Pietenpol with a structural issue about to be flown. The owners response was to demand I remove from my website, a picture he himself had put on the internet. He took no action of the items I referenced, and 45 days later the plane crashed on rotation on its first flight, and was completely destroyed. By an absolute miracle, the pilot survived. He later told an observer that he might have listened to me, but I wasn’t nice enough to him in my comments. I’ll leave it to you to decide if you believe him.

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TO BE ABSOLUTELY CLEAR: This story is not making a comment in any way about my neighbor’s accident. The point is only that I have known and been fairly close friends with more than two dozen men and women killed in light planes.  They were good people, and the real tragedy is that more than half of accidents were easily preventable.  Each loss offered some wisdom, if you were willing to learn. I share the  stories like these: Risk Management reference page with people willing to gain some understanding to improve their own risk management. On the other hand, it can all be dismissed as me just being a kill joy.

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