REFLECTIONS
Ed CheneveyI joined the EAA in Jan 1958. I was in the USAF, had an L-2 which I flew from a farmers field and thought the idea of building airplanes was neat. A few weeks after attending Rockford in 1959, I was discharged and returned to Cleveland to attend graduate school. EAA Chapter 5 was on my side of town and I joined them for the rest of my stay in Cleveland. From them I got my knowledge of antiques (Chuck Woerner had OX-5 biplanes and was building a Fokker triplane), homebuilts (John Grega was selling Pientenpol plans and his son still is), design (several people had designed and built from scratch), and even air racing (after all, the last Cleveland Air Race was only 10 years earlier). After graduation, I got married, went to Rockford, got a job, and moved to NJ in 1963.
Naturally I called EAA and found Chapter 73 in Bloomfield and Chapter 176 in Trenton. I attended a few meetings but Bloomfield was a ways from N. Plainfield and a major amount of their meetings seemed to be spent arguing about utilization of the Chapter workshop. But I did meet Danny, Don, and Eddie who were building an EAA biplane in Dan Bardolf’s shop in Scotch Plains. This was close; they were great guys and I hung out there. They also linked me up with Somerset Hills Airport in Basking Ridge. Although I did rent a Champ a few times at Hadley, I hung out at Basking Ridge.
I believe it was in the spring of 1964 that the Basking Ridge group decided to form Chapter 238. I called EAA and they couldn’t tell me when the Chapter was formed; they only had records to 1966 at which time Lyle Hegstead was President. I remember the name but nothing else. By 1969 I was Sec-Treas. Anyway, I joined Chapter 238 during the first few months; meetings were held in the airport lounge. This is were the Bell Labs guys flew and where I met Art Storm, our only other long time member. We have had other long time members such as George Devlin who attended meetings for only a few years but continued to send in his dues until the 1990’s. Only Art and I even know who he is but I thank him for his long term support. Carl DeFranco never joined national but religiously attended our meetings for decades. Dave Richter is another old timer who served as President, built his Varieze, and still occasionally comes around.
The Chapter has met at various places over the years from Fanwood to Morristown, always on the 4th Monday. We’ve managed to keep a Newsletter going although many times I sent out a "we will have a meeting next Monday at …" but I felt that without a Newsletter the Chapter would fall apart. I printed and mailed all of the Newsletters and printed those of Chapter 7 until I retired. I wrote most of ours as
well. Since then Alvin Sager has taken over the task. We’ve had a Chapter project (now my Champ), fly-ins with Chapter 73 and later 891 and VAA 7, had a Chapter trailer at Sussex for the Fly-Ins, and with Chapter 73 started the Sussex Fly-In. I even paid Harry Shepard and his buddy to perform aerobatics in their Waco Meteors. Leo Loudenslager performed for free as practice before he became famous. After a few years, Paul Styger realized that he could make money with an air show and we didn’t want the liability of running one so he took over with pro performances and great success. But the Sussex Air Show originated from the Chapter 73-238 Fly-Ins.Now 40 years have passed, the old members have moved on, moved out, or passed on and when new people come they are not inspired and drift away after a few years. For the last few years at renewal time I have left people on the list even if they had not paid and padded it with my son and Ernie as I said last month. The Chapter needs new blood and encouragement and I’m not sure that we have it in us right now. As I said last month, I favor letting the Chapter become inactive until such time as other people come to its rescue. No matter what, I will step down. I’ve cut back on a lot of things this year and this is another.
For a while I have been looking for an affordable folding hand truck to carry stuff as I get older. Remember the Roleez.com web site from the other month? They have one for $39 which works great, the wheels fold or unfold automatically when you move the toeboard. The bolts have self locking nuts. If you want to pay more, Garrettwade.com has one for $78 on sale and Leevalley.com has one for $99. I was waiting for Harbor Freight but Roleez came along and I am very satisfied.
Cygnet Chatter Alvin Sager
A somewhat busy month. On the 5th, a group of about 30 including Matt and Imyself attended an engine workshop presented by Mattituck Engine Services. It was worthwhile enough that the drive there and back was tolerable. When we arrived there was a long table covered with all the parts of a TMX 360. At the end of the day, a complete engine was sitting on the engine stand. During the course of the day we learned how to assemble the engine as well as the practices that Mattituck uses to insure that what goes out their door won’t be back for a long while. The checks and rechecks of what seem like simple tasks appeared overdone to me since I am used to doing things solo, but it can’t hurt, and an extra set of eyes and ears can only help.
We were given a tour of their shop and the auto museum nearby. They were wonderful hosts. they served breakfast and lunch as well, and all for free!! Anyone interested in attending a future seminar can get in touch with Mahlon Russell at Mattituck. I believe they have two or three a year. I found out about it on the Lycoming group at yahoo. Lots of good chatter there, and answers from some very experienced people. I recommend visiting it for anyone that flys behind a Lycoming.
I was expecting to see fancy machinery dedicated to rework of engine components, but was surprised that they were absent. Major components (crankshafts, crankcases, etc.) are sent to specialists for repair and reconditioning. What they do is really the important part, inspection, measuring, assembly and signing the log. By measuring many parts, they are able to match parts for best fit and balance. This would be impossible to do without handling a large volume of parts.
Their Red-Gold engines see variations in part weights that are a small fraction of what Lycoming permits. Mattituck also has found the most desirable clearances that fall within Lycoming’s range of values.
One happy customer from Seattle was there and saw his engine ran in one of their test cells. Noisy!
Since my O-320 was a total unknown, being assembled 25+ years ago by unknown parties, I tore it down before going to the seminar so that I could get any questions I had answered. Their people were very accommodating answered all of my questions. I am confident that my "free" engine will do the job reliably.
One of the Lycoming AD’s involves pitting of the crankshaft I.D. just behind the constant speed plug in the hub. I popped the cover from mine, and found that the otherwise clean engine hadn’t had this plug removed for "some" time. After scraping about 1/8" of stiff crud from the first two inches of the crank, the dreaded pits were evident. I was able to do the prescribed remedy by boring out the affected area without exceeding a maximum size. I did this all without removing the connecting rods (if I did, I would have to replace their bolts and nuts at $ 30+ per).
I was able to see the latest modifications to the crankcases to prevent oil leaks at the split and supply oil to the thrust bearing and spray oil on the camshaft and lifters. The latter is done with nozzles normally used for piston cooling on the larger engines. I haven’t decided whether I am going to do that.
On my Hatz, a few steps forward and a few back. My center section is mostly finished, and the fuel tank was coming along well until I started to weld. Welding the tub to the top skin was not going well, and some distortion was bothering me. I figured that if I annealed the welded area, the lip that the tank was going to be mounted by would be easier to straighten-NOT. The entire top surface puckered up and is unusable. I found out too late that a couple of capacitors in my welder were no longer working, and consequently the high frequency ac used for welding aluminum wasn’t there. I have started to get the materials together to do a composite fuel tank. Art Bianconi is helping, since vacuum bagging and large layups are new to me.
Steve finished his 25 hours in a Katana in the Academy’s IFS (introductory flight screening) program. They used to give 40 hours after which only a check ride was needed for a private license. Now x-country work is needed. For a change, the program was grounded after he finished because of several mysterious engine stoppages. Sounds like the Slingsby all over.
We all owe a debt of gratitude to Ed for his long devotion to our chapter. Yes, it can continue, but without the required number of members I guess it will have to wait till there is renewed interest. Too bad.
