Recently there was an article in Vintage Airman concerning tiedowns where it was stated that corkscrew pet tiedowns were no good. Good points were raised but in the end, I think he blew it. First it is stated that the swiveling ring around the shaft won't take a load. Of course; anyone with half a brain would tie to the top handle. The writer claims to have pulled with sufficient force to straighten that out and when the end of the top triangle was welded closed, pulling up unscrewed it from the ground. I'm sure that this is true but any tiedown will pull out of the ground if you pull upward on it, that is how you take them out. He completely failed to point out that tiedowns MUST BE LOADED AT AN ANGLE so the load drags them through the ground rather than pulling them up.

Normally we go someplace and don't really think of tying the plane down, do we? Ernie and I took the T'cft to the Sussex Fly-In on the Saturday. We were parked next to the taxiway and next to a paved access to the taxiway on which was parked a dark blue T-28. There was a Kitfox behind us, a Champ in front to the right, a Hyperlite and a Kolb like ultralite on the other side of the T-28. None of us were tied down . When the Warbirds were getting ready to fly, I retrieved a book from the cockpit at the time that he was starting the T-28. I remember that it sounded like a bad Harley for a long time but then settled down as I walked back behind the spectator ropes. I was talking and the next thing I knew this idiot had taxied a few feet to the taxiway, turned about 30 degrees and began his runup, blasting directly at our airplane. By the time that I turned around there were four guys holding the Kitfox down and two holding the T'cft. I ran to the plane and grabbed the left strut and held on while his big prop and engine actually lifted our left wheel off the ground. Someone ran up and tried to get the pilots attention but failed. After another run up the pilot finally noticed the frantically waving arms and numerous guys helped push the T-28 straight on the taxiway. I was told that our right wing hit the rudder post of the Champ but I could find no damage. Yes, if we were tied down this might have been adverted and we probably shouldn't have parked next to a big aircraft but that pilot simply didn't use his head. Luckily his insurance company didn't have to buy any airplanes that day and hopefully he has learned his lesson. Actually I should send a copy of this to his insurance company; that would get his attention.

There is a letter in the last Vintage Airman commenting on whether in an emergency you should land in a bean field or a corn field. Obviously a mowed field is best but here in the east there aren't that many choices. Anyway a previous writer had said take the bean field but the latest writer said no, that most landings in a bean field result in turnovers while most in corn do not. This is because a bean field is a tangled mess a foot and a half or two feet deep and our aircraft wheels are only a foot and a half in diameter so they are caught and over you go while in corn you just break off the cornstalks. I asked my farmer friends last weekend and they agreed. When the beans are brown the vines become brittle and you have a better chance.

This reminds me of my shortest landing. I had taken off from the field with some snow perfectly fine but when I flared to land the snow was a little deeper than I had expected. It felt that I stopped in 10 feet, actually it was more like 30 feet, but I was unable to taxi and had to pick up the tail, turn the plane around and taxi back in my tracks. It doesn't take much to make a wheel chock.

The latest issue of Popular Science has an article on the powered Schweizer sailplanes used for recon in Vietnam. They say that the prototype was powered with an O-200 and that may be true but what I remember is that they had O-470's, which I think they needed that so that the engine could run slowly and not require such a large belt reduction since a large slow turning propeller and large mufflers were the key to it's non-observability.

Our third annual pilgrimage to Colorado Springs turned out well. Aside from spending time figuring out where to eat next, we actually saw some interesting things. Steve took us to the Aeronautics Laboratory after classes on Friday. The plain looking building housed some really fun things. The trisonic wind tunnel was awesome! It has a cross section of 1’ x 1’, and gets up to mach 4.38. This is an open loop machine with the air coming from many compressed air storage tanks. It will run from 1 to 7 minutes depending on configuration. (see pix on website)

Aside from many wind tunnels and a water tunnel , many engines (recip, turbine etal.) were in test cells with lots of instrumentation. Having a job in that building would be as good as it gets for me.

Saturday opened cold and windy, normal for a football game. I was in charge of tickets and a tailgate b’kfast for the NJ parents assn. All went well except for the outcome of the game which will never be mentioned again.

Timing and weather got together on Sunday to allow us a visit to Pikes Peak. When we started up the 19 mile road, the last 1000’ was closed due to ice, which melted and allowed us to the summit. The view gives us a definition of unrestricted visibility, just awesome. What was also impressive was how well our rented Camry ran going from the base at 7000’ to 14,110’. The power was lacking, but engine management was perfect. EFI is probably the way to go with our antique engines. I read a story of how well Molt Taylor’s Lycoming ran in his flying car with the timing properly retarded sans propellor.

I will definitely look into some of the experimental electronic ignition systems on my next project. (neat segway)

This weekend I should be picking up my latest project, a Hatz biplane. Was supposed to do it last weekend, but weather was predicted to be bad. I usually like to start things from the beginning, but this one was hard to resist. The fuselage and tailfeathers are welded and painted and both lower wings and ailerons are built, and ribs for top wings are made. That only leaves 95% to go. There is a Lyc 150 with the package (unknown version), all fittings and materials for the upper wings, wheels and brakes, nosebowl, pants, tank, engine mount.....I hope it all fits into a 18’ truck. I will report about it at our upcoming meeting. It is going to be fun getting current on all the goodies that are available today. I guess I have to get my name on the waiting list for a hangar, this one won’t like it outside.

Speaking of learning, I guess there is going to be a lot of that going on since my only exposure to a biplane was a hop in Stan Segalla’s Tiger moth long ago. The ride he gave me in my Citabria was much more memorable. He found me at Stormville airport after seeing my plane on the ramp. At the time he was doing a flying farmer act in a 85 hp Cub, and was looking to fly something with more power. I can’t imaging doing any better flying with practice. It was an enlightening flight. The Tiger Moth opened my eyes to the fact that small planes didn’t always have positive stability. After rolling into a turn, you had to keep the tail behind you and use top aileron to keep from screwing into the ground. The pilots taught in planes that flew like that had enough to cope with without avionics and other distractions. I am certain that their stick and rudder skills were superior to what we do today (they had to be).

Went to the fly-in at Easton a couple of weeks back. I didn’t have much time to spend, but saw an interesting candidate for the LSA category, the KP-5. This all metal low wing plane from the Czech Republic looked like it was landing at 30 mph. Actually it was (stall 30). It was hard to believe that this substantial plane had an empty weight under 700#. The 32’ wing has fowler flaps, and the Rotax 912 gives it a cruise of 132-149 mph depending on version. (some are retractable)

Comes both ready to fly and as quick build kit (whatever that means).

Check it out on the web at www.flykp5.com.

On the TC stomp, John Sheridan’s Ragwing has gotten out of ground effect! I arrived at the airport just in time to witness one of the early flights. The last hurdle is to cool the engine properly. His 503 is not fan cooled, he is relying on a shroud to direct cooling air across the heads. The first iteration left room for the air to bypass some of the head fins. He is working on a tighter fitting model. I found a fiberglass shroud available for that engine online. Plane looks good, kind of a 50mph Pitts. The low speed may also make cooling harder without the fan.