September, 2004 Edition          

Chapter # 407                       www.eaa407.org

          South East Idaho

 

 

Officers and Contacts:

          Hal Johansen, President                            522-7297              haledie@ida.net

        Jerry Phillips, Vice President                    523-3981              phillipsjh@asme.org

          Harold Turvey, Secretary                         785-2552              happyharold@cableone.net

          Harold Mothersill, Treasurer/Website     524-6204              lmothersil@aol.com

          Austin Moses, Newsletter                          684-3922              mosescpa@srv.net

NEXT MEETING:   Pocatello at the ISU Aircraft Maintenence Hangar.   Saturday,   September 18@ 10:00 A.M.  FAA folks from Salt Lake Aviation Education will be on hand with a Power Point presentation covering a most important subject, namely air traffic control.  The folks who will be here are from SLC Center so you can expect the presentation will have that focus but also a wider ranging perspective.  I suggest you start thinking about questions that will improve your understanding and use of the fine air traffic control system we are blessed with in the USA.  I personally find the use of Center & Approach to be very helpful and comforting when flying cross country through high traffic and SUA’s.

 

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 Welcome New Members:

 

Eldon/LaJune Hall:  Eldon says his family were pioneers in this area, circa the late 1800's.  He soloed in 1944 and has owned a multitude of airplanes including Piper, Maule, Stinson, Bellanca & Cessna, used for pleasure and in business.  Former owner of Hallway Construction, designing and manufacturing potato harvesting equipment, he now does custom manufacturing as Hall Machine & Fabrication in Rigby.  If you have not seen his fairly recently completed and flown beautiful Glasair, RG you better have a look.  I understand some of the work was even done on his CNC machine, Wow!

Welcome to Chapter 407 Eldon & LaJune !!!!

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Thanks to Dale Cresap for his on the spot willingness to be our Minutes of the Meeting reporter in the absence of Harold Turvey.

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Thanks to Harold Mothersill for his continuing work on our website.  Looking great and more User Friendly.

Reflections  and  Musings

           To-day (August 14, 2004) I flew to Alpine, WY and attended the Memorial  Service for recently departed chapter member Mac Asher.  Also in attendance were Paul and Ophelia Tremblay and Don and Kathy Knauts from our Chapter.  It was held in the Baptist Community Church, the only church in town I am told,  and perhaps the only place in Alpine which had the capacity for a Memorial Service for a citizen as well known and liked as Mac. We who attended all agreed it was a most impressive, organized and fitting memorial service.  It was truly a family and friends affair which focused on Mac’s family as well as  his great interest in aviation throughout his life.  It was replete with prayer, life sketch both verbal and photo/slide show with Mac’s favorite music, superb vocal renditions including “Grandpa” and  “Wind Beneath My Wings” sung by RaNell Shumway and Don Wooden, respectively.  Everyone left the Church to “When The Saints Go Marching In” impressionably played on trumpet by Dick Williams (he flew over in his Piper Cub from the Boise area and he and my Lancair shared the rocky tie down area) of The Quiet Birdmen, of which Mac was a member.  The American Legion team closed with a twenty one gun salute,  flag presentation and taps..  A beautiful day, fitting memorial but sad to lose such a good friend and member.

          In reading (August Newsletter) the experience of Austin Moses on his try at Oshkosh really struck close to home as I (and wingman Chuck Werner) flew directly over Pipestone, MN the day before Austin’s misfortune.  As it happens I was born and raised just twenty miles north east of Pipestone in a small town by the name of Tyler.  Chuck knew this and as we passed over PQN he suggested we do a Tyler (63Y) buzz job, as we did two years before.  No sooner said than done down their grass strip and then, a right sweeping turn over the golf course, followed by a couple of tree top level  passes over the home where my niece and her husband now live.  This 5 acre property was  once the site of my brothers Mink Ranch during which he had the foresight and ingenuity to develop his own pond/lake so he could observe/enjoy wildlife including Canada Geese and Mallards nesting and living in close proximity.

          First airplane I owned was a partnership with three local Tyler area  farmers (circa mid to late 1940's) in a C-120.  Based in Tyler we used the Pipestone FBO/A&P for maintenance including the proper installation and rigging of skis for winter flying.  I remember the trials of single handedly starting a C-120 on skis, hand propping since no electrical system, in the middle of Winter in MN.  You gotta  like to fly !!!

          Pipestone also has memories of being home on leave (I was in the Air Corps  flying B-17's ) and taking my sister-in law for a ride in a rented J-3 Cub and on landing overshooting at least twice before getting it on the ground.  Hot Pilot ???

Long gone is the B-17 that once sat at the entrance to the Pipestone airport,  for many years, after WWII.   And so it goes!!

                                                                   Hal    

First Flight in Tom Piper’s Murphy Rebel:

A Murphy Rebel Ser Number 113 purchased and worked on continuous since April of 1992.  The wings were close to the first items the construction manual lead me to assemble.  The gas tanks were polyethelene and 4 were inserted in between the inmost ribs in each wing.  Not more than 3 months after closure, an earlier builder was on his way to Oshkosh and didn't  make because the plastic tanks were not "cross-linked" and began to leak.   Murphy came out with a "wet wing" solution that clearly wasn't part of the original wing designed.  I went into hold on taking the wings down from the ceiling for actually I think 3 years.  One  year I worked on assembling the fuselage and thinking about the problem.  Before I had even purchased the kit, I had complained about the inward thrust of the struts dead ending at the root end of the main spar and having to be transferred to the front wing attach through 0.02 thick wing skin.  And during the year, I decided full length flaperons are stupid because of severe adverse aileron if they are actually used.  So after the year of fuselage assembly, my fixes had gelled.

         1)    Weld 8 light weight gas tanks shaped similarly to the  plastic ones of 0.024 thick 304 stainless
         2)    Connect the main spars together through the fuselage with a  2.5" dia, 0.05 wall aluminum tube with suitable solid Al ends and pivot fastening to 18' long 3/4" dia Al rods  secured to the inner ends of the spars.
         3)    Replace the inner flaperons with stepper motor driven  Fowler flaps.

 

My next year went into building hole flaring tools for putting 5/16, 3/8 and 1" dia holes in the stainless to weld tees, elbows and tubes into the .024 stainless.  Fabricating things to shape the sides and 11.25 wide
rolls of the tank "shape". And then actually assembling, welding and leak checking the tanks.

The following year was spent designing, fabricating parts and assembling the Fowler flaps and the "through-the fuselage" main spar connect.

The next year the wings were removed from the ceiling one after the other, opened, parts installed and then re-closed.

While the fuselage was sitting there on it’s bungee landing gear all this time, the bungees had already begun to sag.  Thus, spring gear were ordered as well Cleveland brakes.

Other things different about the plane are it uses a Subaru EJ-22 engine, NSI M-40 2 to 1 output unit, a 74" NSI CAP 200 variable pitch propeller and is dual turbo charged each with its inner-cooler.  A 24 engine water temperature and turbo various variable digital computer display was started about 11 years ago and finished in time for installation.

The First Flight
The Murphy Rebel is a high wing, tail dragger of all aluminum basically mono-frame construction.  Certification was OK’ed on July 14th I believe but delayed in fact until the 29th to clear up a registration problem.  I had been intermittently practicing taxiing during this break, in the tie down area by the Red Baron.  My first venture onto the long runway for just tail up taxi practice ended up a bit humiliating in that the right foot brake unit gradually tightened up and ultimately led me harmlessly off the right side of the runway and also showed my water hoses were too close to the extensive exhaust plumbing of the turbo chargers.  A week later the hoses were moved, radiation shields were placed on some exhaust lines and
the bottom cowling plate was discarded as useless since it held the extensive exhaust heat too well.

My next trip of tail-up taxiing went much better in that the full length of the runway was very nearly finished before the left Matco unit repeated what the right one had done but not as badly.  I gave it the same rebuild I had given the first one.  All along I had known my 0.25 dia vent line from the fuel injector sump[mounted on the inside side of the firewall] was inadequate because non-leaded auto gas gives off some bubbles circulating continuously past the injectors and back to the sump.  It also gets warmer each pass.  These matters of course had to be addressed before venturing into the air.  A 3/8 OD transparent nylon tube was installed and brought up through the instrument panel just behind the altimeter so that it was vertical enough for bubbles to readily rise thru the fuel sitting in this line.  The fuel coming out of the back pressure valve at the end of the injector line was brought up to a 22 inch long 3/8 dia stainless steel copper finned tube that I mounted on the small portion of the instrument panel extending in front of the windscreen so it gets the prop blast.  The copper fins are 7/8” OD and spiral with about a 1/8 inch pitch and was quickly provided by Cain Industries in Wisconsin within a week after I ordered it.  The fuel then goes back down to the sump after being cooled each pass through the system.

It was finally time to try going in the air.  Sunday 8/29 was the day calm and cool.  I taxied out to runway 20 with tower approval and got lined up with prop pitch set were I had been tail-up taxiing.  My plan was to
quickly get in the air and then land before I got to the south end.  I applied more throttle than I had been tail-up taxiing.  Things seemed a bit slow so I simultaneously added a bit more throttle and prop pitch.  Before
I hardly realized it I had left the ground and was at about 100 feet.  I eased back on the throttle immediately getting into a gentle glide.  Before I had time to look at even one flight instrument, it was time to be
concerned more about landing than that.  It was my plan to do a wheel landing since that is quite similar to taxiing my Lancair with its freely pivoting front wheel.  I did not feel any ground contact so thought maybe
I'd better to change it into a 3 pointer.  But, as I started letting back on the stick, it was clear I must be on the ground since I felt the plane thinking about going upward.  I moved the stick back forward and completed the wheel landing and back to the hangar.

Still to Do
Its clear my radiator is not large enough for warm weather flying.  So now its time to add a second one down underneath.  I believe I have one selected that will work along with a bit of air scoop to gather some air for it.

Tom Piper

EAA 407 Invades Dell MT for Breakfast 8-21-4

The annual EAA breakfast at Dell was well-attended and a resounding success. Jerry suggests that I may be able to ride with him, but I would be the fourth man in a 172, so I suspect weight will be an issue, and that falls through. But Jerry arranges for me to ride with Eldon Hall from Rigby in his new Glasair. Thanks, Jerry.

Eldon has flown since 1944 and owned 7 other planes. This is his first build project, and it looks perfect. Glasair N24127 was completed a year ago. It holds 60 gallons in 5 tanks, giving it a range of 1600 miles. I would run into some human factor issues before then. We take off from Rigby and I notice 180 mph groundspeed during climb. We hear a lot of radio traffic on 122.75 and everyone reports relative to Dubois as a waypoint. I look for traffic according to the position reports and see Hal at our 8 o’clock low. We are on the ground at Dell 30 minutes after leaving Rigby.

There are already several planes there, and Austin shows off his curled prop tips. A close examination shows that this is due to an intentional design, rather than a close encounter with the ground. Austin says it gives him an additional 10 mph in cruise. He takes the cowl off his Pulsar and shows us where the cooling jacket had been damaged, leading to an exciting unscheduled but successful forced landing and an aborted trip to Oshkosh. It’s great to have him back flying again.

Jerry arrived early with Tim Kaser and Dave McKinney in an Av Center 172. Allan Brug brought his Long EZ from St Anthony, and Larry Boam flew his Rans S-6 from Rigby with his son-in-law Chuck Sharp. Harold Mothersill rode with Hal in his Lancair, and Pete and Andrew Stewart came in a Piper Pacer. Austin was solo in his Pulsar, and Ken and Louise Linsenmann came in their new RV-7. Roger & Dana Johnston in their C-175 decided flying to breakfast, this day, outprioritized fishing. Ken Holden (from Fresno, CA, a friend of Hal's son-in-law) and his son Matt were dual in their C-172 along with Randy Mays from IF. Mike Nitzel flew his 182 and attended as my guest. Carl Yrene and Frank Prickett arrived in Carl’s Piper Cherokee 140. In all there were 12 planes flown in, and 23 persons attending.

The large turnout taxed the abilities of the Calf A in Dell, but they were eventually up to the challenge, and served a great breakfast as expected. There was no formal business meeting, and Hal announced that it was every man for himself, but these builders and pilots needed little encouragement to engage in hangar flying. It seemed that everyone knew something that someone else wants to know. Hal led us in singing happy birthday to Louise Linsenmann, and Jerry won the manly aviator image award for wearing a leather flight jacket even though it was 80 degrees and 80% relative humidity.

Eldon and I are the last to leave, after we give some assistance with the throttle and mag switches to Allan Brug who is hand-propping his (flooded) Long EZ. Clearing a flooded engine by turning it over by hand could be quite a chore, but Allan knows a special trick. Turn it over in reverse direction to clear it. Have the throttle open and be SURE the mag switches are off. Don’t try this at home.

Eldon gives me the stick on the way home. It is bumpier than this morning, and the Glasair is so responsive that it takes some time to find straight and level. Eldon suggests a higher altitude to get above the bumps, and the Glasair is eager to comply. The slender, graceful wings do not obscure much of the downward view, but visibility is severely reduced due to haze. Fortunately the GPS knows where Rigby is, and I do too after I get some coaching on the display, and it is not far away. Eldon points out that we have altitude to lose.
“Should we throttle back?”
“We already are”.
The highest ground speed I see is 235 mph. zoom-zoom.

Larry Boam keeps his Rans S-6 in the same hangar as Eldon’s Glasair. He left Dell a few minutes ahead of us, but is not in Rigby when we get there. How could that be?

A good time was had by all, especially me. The next time I go to Rigby to fly a Cessna 150 I might end up at the wrong hangar by “mistake”.

 

Dale Cresap, Honorary Scribe