The Plane Newsletter

We will have a special speaker at our March Meeting from Angel Flight which is a non profit agency that utilizes pilots and planes to provide help to people in need.  Come hear how they are using experimental planes in their program. 

We will also hear from our building committee how the first “official” walk-through of our chapter clubhouse ,“A-7”, went (good news!). 

Charlie Rosenzweig Chapter President.

EAA CHAPTER 1111 CHAPTER MEETING

February 2, 2006

The regular monthly meeting was held at the Kelso Flight Service FBO at 7 p.m.

Welcome:

President Charlie Rosenzweig gave a welcome to visitors and guest speakers.

Visitors included former resident and chapter member, Leon Smith. Another visitor was Stephen Canfield and Bob Taylor’s’ son, Rob. Bob also invited Doug Dickie, a co-worker who once worked ATC. Another guest was Jean Ramey, who along with her husband, are taking lessons at Kelso, and have an interest in a kit plane.  Denny Wise, a potential applicant for airport manager, was also visiting us to talk briefly to us about his interest in being the future FBO operator /manager.

Our guest speakers  were Doug Maas & Art Smith from The Powered Parachute Coalition, http://poweredparachuters.com/.  They've a thriving business out of the Brush Prairie Area and use the Sutton airport out past Amboy. They sell and provide instruction in the powered chutes and have formed EAA chapter 127. 

Old Business

A-7 Clubhouse: Dwight Irby is putting together a “tree” for calling out the work party when the time comes.

Web site Update. Bob Taylor asked that everyone provide him with the latest phone numbers, e mail and address so our web site is correct. Jim McClellan asked that the work party dates be posted on the web site.

Financial: checking: $2,357.83  Savings: $14,176.23

Insurance: Jerry Sorrell reported that we have all the minimum EAA insurance required. We do not have hangar keepers insurance as we have not budgeted for it.

Programs: At least two more programs are on the agenda. One is a kit plane being built in Scappoose and the other is about Ham radio operators assisting in ELT signal source triangulation to help find the downed aircraft. (Or the false alarm ELT). Steve Steinhoff asked that every member become involved in helping present a program.

New Business

FBO discussion

Charlie Rosenzweig presented the chapter with an opportunity to consider some type of action on the recommendation of an FBO for Kelso Longview airport. There two applicants who came to our meeting were Denny Wise and Dwight Irby. Each applicant spoke for about 5 minutes on what their vision, as an FBO/ manager for the airport was.

Following the applicants discussion, the voting members of the chapter took a action by closed ballot. The ballot provided for: support Dwight Irby, support Denny Wise, and support both as either would make a good FBO, or remain neutral. Of the thirteen ballots turned in the majority of the votes were in support of either, if selected as FBO. 9 Note, if all other ballot options were added together, the ‘support both” vote was still a majority of ballots cast.   The secretary will prepare a letter of support, addressed to the Public Works director, for the president to sign.

Following the business, we had our excellent program provided by Doug Maas & Art Smith from The Powered Parachute Coalition.

And Late February Developments:

CITY DELAYS DECISION ON FUTURE FBO
Kelso City Council met on Tuesday, Feb. 21 to act on the recommendation of the airport advisory committee to enter into a contract with Dwight Irby for the future FBO / manager position. The mayor moved to delay the decision due to public concern about the criteria used in the  selection process.  The next Council meeting is March 7th, when the decision will tentatively be made.
 
BUILDING REMODEL UPDATE
Jerry Sorrell reports that a  "demo" permit to remove paneling, flooring, and insulation upstairs should be processed by Monday, March 27th. The existing construction upstairs appears to have been installed without consideration to building codes. Once we know  what is under the floor and behind the insulation, we can then prepare the actual remodel plans.  Before any construction takes place, the remodel plans and cost estimate  will be brought to the chapter for approval.  The remodel committee will propose that the first priority will be to remodel the floor level kitchen area and improve access to the bathroom.
 

March 2006 Tech Report

Bad Vibrations

Bad Vibrations: We don’t need them in our airplanes. Most all the vibrations experienced in an airplane are related to the engine and or the balance of the propeller/ spinner. Some of the vibrations can be very subtle, but very harmful and some are just plain obvious by the way the engine and airframe may shake.

Shedding Filters:  I recently read an article that helped me understand why the proposed aircraft diesels are not yet found on the market. Some diesels have been advertised as “delivery soon” but that story has been told for 10 years or more. One particular engine was run on the test bench for many hours and appeared to have much promise. Once mounted on an airframe, within 3 hours it started to shed its oil filter adopter due to the vibrational characteristics. Back to the drawing board, or the test stand, with a sign that reads “delivery soon.”

Shedding Magnetos:  Some Volkswagen engine conversions used a magneto that dropped into the distributor shaft. Two drop-in magnetos I know of were the Vertex and the Wico. My personal experience flying behind a Volkswagen conversion was with the Wico mag. The narrow shaft at the base succumbed to the imperceptible bending forces created by the power pulses. It took 7 years and 360 flight hours on the aircraft for this to happen to the 2^nd owner on his flight from Oshkosh to California. The mag conveniently snapped off the engine in the early stages of take off at Elko NV and he had plenty of runway to dead stick safely.

Shedding Exhaust Pipes: In the early days of Van’s aircraft, there were few suppliers of exhaust systems for the RV series (RV-3 and RV-4 at the time). A popular sytem then available was the “Tolle” crossover exhaust pipes.  This system was designed for a rigid mount on the engine. No springs, or socket flex joints and no attachments were to be made to the motor mount or airframe. Support brackets from the exhaust pipe to the engine had to be sturdy such as chrome moly tube. Even through I had designed a rigid system with “triangular bracing”, something was amiss. After about 80 hours of engine time, the exhaust snapped off at the flange on cylinder #1.  This was a very loud and frightening experience.  A safe landing was made at the airport and no burn damage had occurred.  The exhaust bracing was intact, yet the pipe had broken. I took it to a vendor who made other parts for Van and when he repaired the pipe, he told me, “If it broke once it will break again”.  Sure as he said it, within 20 hours the system broke again, but in another area where the pipes joint at the “Y”. Back to him again, and you know what he told me. Within 20 hours, the pipe broke again just below the earlier flange repair on cylinder #1 pipe.   I gave up and bought another system that had come onto the market. It was designed to flex, and have had no trouble for the past 10 years.  The “Tolle” system that I abandon does work, as member Jim McClellan has flown his RV-4 in excess of 1000 hours with no exhaust pipe breaks.

Shedding Props: Back in the 60’s, the Thorp T-18 and Mustang II builders used the O-290 G or O-320 engines. These particular planes were very fast, and the use of cut down and steeply pitched metal props were not unusual. Metal prop manufactures such as Sensenich did not intend to have their metal props trimmed 4 to 6 inches and steeply pitched. The engine power pulses, in company with the shorter blade length and steep pitch, put the prop “outside the envelope” and the props experienced high frequency vibrations that quickly fatigued the metal to failure.  On some occasions, a piece of the blade would snap off in flight. The out of balance condition was so severe, that engines could be ripped from the mounts. Where do you suppose the center of gravity goes when the engine leaves? 

 So, don’t tolerate any vibration you can eliminate or reduce   through careful balancing or good design practices.  

And...Bonanza Bumbles:

ALMOST AN EMERGENCY ( Reported by Jerry Sorrell)
This is a true event that happened approximately 10 a.m. Saturday morning, Feb 25th, Kelso Airport. While I was flying about 10 miles north of Kelso Airport, I overheard this on 122.8 Unicom. I can not quote everything exactly, but you will get the idea.
 
Bonanza: "Kelso Unicom, this is Beech Bonanza, about 6 miles south of the airport. I am having control problems and I want to land."
Unicom: " What is your control problem?"
Bonanza: "I am holding full left aileron and I am barely able to keep the plane level. I can't turn left."
Unicom: "Take either 30 or 12, the winds are calm. Don't forget your gear"
Bonanza: " I'm going to use 30."
Unicom: " But 30 is a left pattern. Use  right pattern for 12 and you won't have to turn left, which you say you can not do. Don't forget your gear."
Bonanza: " I am going to make a straight in on 30. I have three green lights."
Unicom: "Good Luck"
( The Bonanza is now rolling out on the ground.)
Bonanza: " I found the problem. It was the idiot switch. I forgot to uncouple the autopilot when I wanted to make a turn towards the airport. After not flying for two months, I see I was a bit rusty on my procedures."
Unicom: " That can happen to the best of us. Glad it was not a real control problem."
( The Bonanza climbed out from runway 30 and was proceeding north by the time I was west of the field.)
 

NEXT EXEC AND BUILDING REMODEL MEETING March 1st at Our New Clubhouse!@ 6 P.M.

NEXT CHAPTER MEETING KELSO FBO March 2nd @ 7 P.M.