Electronic Hawk

Meeting: Monday August 25 Madison Public Library

REFLECTIONS Ed Chenevey

No problems to, from, or at Oshkosh. The weather was like the rest of the East, afternoon showers mixed with sun and cool evenings and nights. Good sleeping. Sweatshirts were needed by the end of the evening programs.

This year I took a bicycle which made getting around much easier. Peddling hurts a different set of leg muscles than walking does, but when you are tired, everything hurts. So does your butt after about 10 seconds of sitting on the seat. Still on Sunday we could bicycle on the flight line. After that, things were restricted,still we could get to the ultralite area, the fly market, or the museum. Buy the way, the museum had a Lindbergh Exhibition on loan for a few months from the Missouri Historical Society which contained a lot of coverage of his later life as well as the Atlantic crossing.

The stories from Air Venture Today and pictures are on the web at airventure.org/2003/avtoday_index.html. There is a EAA Air Venture Oshkosh 2003 video or DVD with bonuses available for $20 or $25 respectively. Dave Yeoman's Oshkosh Forums list from 1997 - 2003 is on the web at forums4.us. $8 plus $1 shipping. There is a picture on the web of Oshkosh taken from the Space Station at 5:06:26 on Sat Aug 2 with sufficent definition to show the smoke from an airshow performer; later identified as Matt Chapman's CAP232.

I'm sure that there was a lot of new stuff that I didn't see, recognize, or care about. But I saw the RV-10, the 4 place Glastar Sportsman 2+2, The Sonex Y tail called Waiex, and their Xenos motorglider.

Enginewise, DeltaHawk is still working on their diesel. They expect to demonstrate their Velocity test bed at Copperstate in October and Kitty Hawk in Dec. Hexadyne, Pivotal, and the Rotec R-2800 are still in business as is the French SMA diesel (to be available in a Maule) and the German Theilert. New engines include examples from Continental - Honda, Nagel, Ilmore, Modina Avio, and Bombardier which flew in a Murphy Moose. All were liquid cooled. All but the Honda were geared.

Honda O-4 , 225 HP, 370 c in, direct drive
Nagel O-12 , 450 HP, 444 c in, 2:1 reduction, simultaneous firing
Bombardier V-6 , 220 or 300 HP, 189 c in, 3:1 reduction
Modina Avio R-3, 130 HP, 137 c in, 1.9:1 reduction
Ilmore I-3, 100 HP, 2.4:1 reduction

Another Wright 03 engine and aircraft was built by Packer Engineering for the Wright Redux Association and will be donated to the Chicago Musenm of Science and Industry. It was signed off by the FAA in March and flown in April.

Rare airplanes included a Fairey Firefly, a Polikarpov I-16 Rata, a reproduction 1913 Morane Type H monoplane as flown by Roland Garros across the Mediterranen in 1913 (472 miles in 7 hr, 53 min), and a similar reproduction Demoiselle with a water cooled 2 cyl opposed original 25 hp engine. These French museum pieces were broght over on the Airbus Beluga. The Boeing 307 Statoliner was all repaired from the ditching in Seattle. The L-4 with the Brodie device was back with drawings and articles showing how it worked.

Jim Wright's Hughes racer was magnificent; polished metal and flawless woodwork. It used a Twin Wasp Jr engine which is 2 in smaller than a Wasp Jr which made it the smallest diameter for the horsepower. The racer was built around the engine.Unfortunately, on the way home on Monday Aug 4, he crashed in Yellowstone Park and was killed, thus ending the dream of new records.

The recreation of the Ford National Air Tour will occur Sept8-24 with some 4000 miles through 21 states. Some of the aircraft were there including a Sikorsky S-29 flying boat, a Travelair 6000, Ford, Stinson, and Bushmaster trimotors, a Stearman, Buhl Airsedan, etc. See NationalAirtour.org.

Castrol is entering the aircraft oil business but somehow don't have a multigrade oil. Strange. They have an innovative bottle but..... Phillips is now selling grease. We bought Phillips 20-50 for $21 a case; way below what Shell or Exxon got.

Finally, FAA administrator Marion Blakey signed off on Sport Pilot and passed it to the DOT. There are no leaks as to what it contains and of course it is anyones guess how much longer it will take.

The East Coast Fly-In has been cancelled but Chapter 240 will still have a Fly-In at New Garden on Sept 6-7. Discovery Wings will broadcast Oshkosh 2003 on Sept 17 and 18. Discovery will broadcast The Wright Brothers on Sept 19, 21,25,27. Also on Dec 17 they will have footage of the Count Down to Kitty Hawk Celebration.

_ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _

Here are some conversations that airline passengers normally will never hear. The following are accounts of actual exchanges between airline pilots and control towers from around the world.

While taxiing at London Gatwick Airport, the crew of a US Air flight departing for Ft. Lauderdale made a wrong turn and came nose to nose with a United 727. An irate female ground controller lashed out at the US Air crew, screaming: "US Air
2771, where the hell are you going? I told you to turn right onto Charlie taxiway! You turned right on Delta! Stop right there. I know it's difficult for you to tell the difference between C and D, but get it right!" Continuing her rage to the embarrassed crew, she was now shouting hysterically: "God! Now you've screwed everything up! It'll take forever to sort this out! You stay right there and don't move till I tell you to! You can expect progressive taxi instructions in about half an hour and I want you to go exactly where I tell you, when I tell you, and how I tell you! You got that, US Air 2771?"

"Yes ma'am," the humbled crew responded.

Naturally, the ground control communications frequency fell terribly silent after the verbal bashing of US Air 2771. Nobody wanted to chance engaging the irate ground controller in her current state of mind. Tension in every cockpit out in Gatwick was definitely running high. Just then an unknown pilot broke the silence and keyed his microphone, asking: "Wasn't I married to you once?"

========================================

A DC-10 had come in a little hot and thus had an exceedingly long roll out after touching down. San Jose Tower Noted: "American 751, make a hard right turn at the end of the runway, if you are able. If you are not able, take the Guadalupe exit off Highway 101, make a right at the lights and return to the airport."

=========================================

From an unknown aircraft waiting in a very long takeoff queue: "I'm f...ing bored!"

Ground Traffic Control: "Last aircraft transmitting, identify yourself immediately!"

Unknown aircraft: "I said I was f...ing bored, not f...ing stupid!"

=========================================

Tower: "Eastern 702, cleared for takeoff, contact Departure on frequency 124.7"

Eastern 702: "Tower, Eastern 702 switching to Departure. By the way, after we lifted off we saw some kind of dead animal on the far end of the runway."

Tower: "Continental 635, cleared for takeoff behind Eastern 702, contact Departure on frequency 124.7. Did you copy that report from Eastern 702?"

Continental 635: "Continental 635, cleared for takeoff, roger; and yes, we copied Eastern... we've already notified our caterers"

=========================================

The German air controllers at Frankfurt Airport are renowned as a short-tempered lot. They not only expect one to know one's gate parking location, but how to get there without any assistance from them. So it was with some amusement that we (a Pan Am 747) listened to the following exchange between Frankfurt ground control and a British Airways 747, call sign "Speedbird
206".

Speedbird 206: "Frankfurt, Speedbird 206 clear of active runway."

Ground: "Speedbird 206. Taxi to gate Alpha One-Seven."

The BA 747 pulled onto the main taxiway and slowed to a stop. Ground: "Speedbird, do you not know where you are going?"

Speedbird 206: "Stand by, Ground, I'm looking up our gate location now." Ground (with quite arrogant impatience): "Speedbird 206, have you not been to Frankfurt before?"

Speedbird 206 (coolly): "Yes, twice in 1944 -- but I didn't land."

=========================================

O'Hare Approach Control to a 747: "United 329 heavy, your traffic is a Fokker, one o'clock, three miles, Eastbound."

United 239: "Approach, I've always wanted to say this... I've got the little Fokker in sight."

=========================================

A Pan Am 727 flight waiting for start clearance in Munich overheard the following:

Lufthansa (in German): "Ground, what is our start clearance time?"

Ground (in English): "If you want an answer you must speak in English."

Lufthansa (in English): "I am a German, flying a German airplane, in Germany. Why must I speak English?"

Unknown voice from another plane (in a beautiful British accent): "Because you lost the bloody war."

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Cygnet Chatter by Alvin Sager

A New Project

I Got a call from a cousin asking me to once again get involved with an ongoing project of his. Although not an airplane, it should be pretty close. It is a pursuit boat, fast, but with a twist, that it can turn tightly.

I worked on the first prototype, a 6’ fiberglass deep V hull with a two cylinder 2 stroke water cooled engine. What is special about this boat is that the hull rides above the surface at high speed, and the props stay below the surface. "lift" is vectored with "secret" devices that must be controlled much like flight controls.

Since water is a bit harder than air, I expect some teething problems to arise. Since I am getting into the project in midstream, I will probably follow the original plan, and let the weaknesses reveal themselves then fix what has to be fixed. There are a lot of details I would have done much differently, but since this is another 6’ rpv, no one will get hurt. With the engine that is presently installed, I doubt if the effectiveness can be demonstrated. They have a 4 stroke Royobi string trimmer engine. I heard that the engine used on the first one I worked on was far too much power (it probably would fly a hang glider). I will keep you posted.

Sussex airshow this weekend 8/22-8/24

I am planning on being there Sunday. If you check their website sussexairportinc.com you can see what acts will be performing. Looks like a couple I haven’t seen before will be there.

We will be heading out to Colorado Springs for parents weekend at the Air Force Academy. That has turned into our vacation trip for the year. This year I want to get to the airfield and drive to Pikes Peak. I know the Cygnet will not go that high (I doubt if I could get off the ground at Colorado springs) We will see how my rented car does. Years ago I did Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain Park (12000") in a 66 Volvo. The constant velocity carbs kept the mixture right, but first gear felt like third.

If I run 3000 rpm near sea level for cruise (fixed pitch) and turbocharge the VW, how fast will it turn at altitude?