Vol 26 No. 7
July 2003
REFLECTIONS
Ed Chenevey
Well, Oshkosh is upon us and I plan to be there rather than at the meeting,
camping at the intersection of Schuhart and Stitts roads along the McDonalds
playground fence as I have for the last two years. Check out the Air Venture
website for al!l sorts of information. This year they have pictures on the web
site showing waypoints on the routes for the various approaches; i.e, there is
an aerial picture of Fisk and the railroad track etc. This adds a lot to the
diagrams and NOTAMS.
We have 21 members this year which is pretty good. Usually, I send a note in
June to those who didn't pay but that didn't happen this year. The following
people have paid. Chenevey, DeFranco, Folger, Harman, Harteveld, Josenhans,
Massengill, Palmer, Perkins, Petry, Richter, Sager, Shelby, Silva, Stoddard,
Storm, Thompson, Valand, Wertz. In addition we received cheques from Kroll and
Starr which haven't been cashed because we don't have a bank account. So please
make any cheques payable to me; the address is on the back. IF YOUR NAME ISN'T
ON THE LIST ABOVE, THIS WILL BE YOUR LAST NEWSLETTER!
With the 100th anniversary of flight, everyone is jumping on the bandwagon. The
July 21 issue of U S News & World Report has an! article on 100 years of flight
with a DC-3 picture on the cover. Then I looked closer and read the markings
which say that it is a C-39 from 1938, aircraft number 499. It appears new with
a shiny skin and crisp stencilling. But there are some dull panels on the
bottom. Could they be not Alclad or were they just not polished? Strange. The
caps on the front of the propeller domes look different and the port one is
askew. I'm sure that I have books which will tell me about this but with a quick
look I could find nothing about pre war military DC-3's.
It turns out that C-39 number 38-499 was the first plane of an order for 35 and
was delivered in Dec 1938. The AF Museum has one in storage and there are
pictures of both the one that they have and 38-499 on their web site. While the
C-33 was a DC-2, the C-39 was a hybrid, unofficially called the DC-2 1/2. The
forward and center fuselage and outboard wings were from a DC-2, while the aft
fuselage, tail, and center section we!re from a DC-3. The gear was from a B-18.
The Ballon Festival at Solberg is July 25-27. Of course, you can see ballons in
western Somerset or Hunterdon Counties most any calm evening; there were 6 over
Clinton last Saturday.
The organizer of the January Cabin Fever Model Engineering Show at the York Pa.
Fairgrounds is planning a summer show and exibition on Aug 9 and 10. See
cabinfeverexpo.com for details. Likewise if you or your kids have never seen a
steam shovel, steam roller , or know why when I was a kid we called a cement
mixer a putt-putt, the big summer steam and gas engine show at Kinzers Pa. is
Aug 13-16. There are zillions of pictures on their web site at
roughandtumble.org.
Finally, this week, Strauss Auto has an ad for Fuelon. Back when Bill Tuchler
was still alive, we used it in the Taylorcraft. When burning av gas the exhaust
stacks had a white or grey deposit inside them!. When burning auto gas, the
deposits became brown-black. Adding Fuelon to the auto gas changed the deposits
back to a light grey. So it does something, at a cost of 5-10 cents a gallon.
From COMPOSITES MAGAZINE, JULY 2003, PAGE 10
In late May, Scaled Composites LLC (Mojave, Calif., U.S.A) took another step
in its efforts to launch the first private manned space flight, sending its
composites-intensive Space Ship One rocket-propelled glider aloft, attached to
the underbelly of a custom-built, twin jet-engined "mother ship" called the White
Knight.
The nearly two-hour flight confirmed that the two aircraft could reach the
anticipated 50,000-ft "drop" altitude and launch speed. But further tests will be
necessary to determine that the pair can do so when loaded with the additional
weight of the rocket's propellant and three crew members. Following the flight,
Scal!ed Composites' president, legendary aircraft designer Burt Rutan plans
a second paired flight, again without a "drop," with a pilot aboard to test the
glider's avionics and other control systems.
Powered by a hybrid rocket motor that combines features from both solid and
liquid motor types, the carbon fiber/epoxy glider has short wings (16.4 ft span)
and twin vertical tails. About one quarter of the glider's surface is covered with a
proprietary O.O35-inch thick ablative material to protect the outer layers of the
honeycomb-cored sandwich structure, and the craft has 16 9-inch round,
double-pane windows (plexiglass outer/polycarbonate inner), designed to allow
occupant viewing yet maximize safety during re-entry. Its launch system
resembles that once used by the US Air Force for its X-15 rocket plane. which
was carried aloft by a B-52 bomber.
Concept design for the Rutan project began in 1996 but was kept s!ecret until
May, this year Development costs and the name of Rutan's reported single
source of project funds have not been revealed. Eventually, Scaled's three-seat
spaceship will ride under the belly of the White Knight to 50,000 ft (above 85
percent of the atmosphere), then drop into gliding flight, ignite its rocket motor,
climb steeply for more than a minute, reaching a speed of 2,500 mph (Mach 33)
When the ship reaches the 100 km/62-mile altitude, the craft's twin tails will
pitch up, rotating on booms attached to the wingtips -to increase drag during
deceleration. At 80,000 feet the tails will return to normal position for a 17 -
minute gliding descent to a run- way landing. Such a flight could take place
before year's end and earn Rutan the $10 million X Prize, pledged to the first
privately funded suborbital flight to take three people to an altitude of 100 km/62
miles and back safely, in the same ship, twi!ce within two weeks. Rutan's is one
of 24 teams from seven nations seeking the prize, geared toward jump-starting
space tourism.
Rutan, however, is looking past the prize. The current craft, expected to be
certified as an "experimental research and development glider ," could not see
commercial service, but Rutan considers it a "sub-scale proof-of-concept design
for a ten-person spacecraft" more suitable for a tourist venture. "Our goal is to
demonstrate that non-government manned space flight operations are not only
feasible, but can be done at very low costs," says Rutan.
The following was passed on to me by Mike
Dear 99's:
My name is Brenda Dickinson. I am an air traffic control specialist at
the Prescott Automated Flight Service Station, in Prescott, AZ. I was
formerly at Tucson FSS before it consolidated with Prescott AFSS.
As you may be aware, flight service stations nationwide are f!acing
possible extinction as we know it due to the possibility of privatization. The
Bush Administration is seeking to privatize 850,000 government jobs and they
are including the flight service station option in air traffic control as
part of that mandate. This administration has determined that flight service
is not "inherently governmental," and they would like to see us outsourced
to the lowest bidder. At this time, Congress is in session making a determination on the future of flight service stations nationwide. Within the past few months both the
House of Representatives and the Senate voted on and passed separate bills
that protect the towers, approach controls and centers from
privatization, however the verbage of these bills did not include the protection of
flight service stations from being privatized. Congress has now joined together in a committee to rework the contents of the FAA Reauthorization Bill to present to Presi!dent Bush for his signature before September 30th. The Congressional Staffs have been meeting in "preconference" but it is uncertain whether the joint conference will
complete its work before the August recess or not. If it doesn't, then
we won't know the results of the Bill or the fate of the Prescott AFSS until
after Labor Day.
Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey sponsored an Amendment 893 to the
S.824 FAA Reauthorization Bill which seeks to stop contracting out of FAA
ATC services "including FSS and airways facilities maintence functions."
Would you contact your members to contact their state representatives to
support the Lautenberg Amendment on our behalf before the conference bill
goes to the President?
I can say on behalf of the Prescott AFSS and the former TUS FSS, that
over
the years it has been a pleasure working with the 99's and your annual
treasure hunt.
Sincerely,
Brenda Dickin!son, PRC AFSS FPL
home: 4791 N. Miner Rd. Prescott Valley, AZ 86314
928-772-2835/work 778-7810
email: brendad@northlink.com
Thanks for sending this out. Unless Congress gets the House Bill and the Senate Bill to agree, and include flight service in the "inherently governmental" designation, the contract will go to the best bidder as soon as December, 2004. Those who live in Arizona and Texas need to contact McCain and Kay Bailey Hutchinson, as they are strong opponents to flight service remaining part of the government, and they are on this conference committee to reconcile the two bills.
Here are the rest of the members of the conference committee.
Members of the conference committee include Reps. Don Young (R-Alaska), John
Mica (R-Fla.), Vern Ehlers (R-Mich.), Robin Hayes (R-N.C.), Denny Rehberg
(R-Mont.), Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), James Oberstar (D-Minn.), Peter DeFazio
(D-Ore.), Leonard Boswell (D-Iowa), and Tim! Holden (D-Pa.) from the House,
and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), Sen. Conrad
Burns (R-Mont.), Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.), Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison
(R-Texas), Sen. Ernest "Fritz" Hollings (D-S.C.), Sen. Daniel Inouye
(D-Hawaii), Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), and Sen. John Breaux (D-La.)
from the Senate.
These senators and congress reps. hold the future of flight service in their hands. 99s who live in their districts can do the best thing for us by contacting these people now. They hope to finish up this work before their summer recess, which starts Aug. 4th. Even if they get the two bills to agree, OMB is urging the President to veto the bill if there is anything mentioned that limits the government's ability to contract out any section of the government, especially flight service, and the FAA maintenance technicians.
Thanks,
Andrea Chay
99 International Membership Chairman and
Seattle AFSS! air traffic control specialist
