REFLECTIONS Ed Chenevey

I never thought that avgas would be cheaper than auto but with Sky Manor having $2.99 gas, it was. I've also known that Connecticut had the most expensive gas east of the Mississippi but two weeks ago when I went to New Hampshire, there was $2.99 gas on Rt 95 and I got $2.98 in NH for the return trip. I'm probably the only person who hasn't paid over $3 for gas. Burning auto gas in the plane does make for clean cylinders. When I looked at ours last month the piston tops were clean as were the plugs. While the STC's tell you to burn avgas periodically that will happen naturally when you go somewhere and buy airport gas, other wise you are better off using auto gas. Back in the 50's we never gave it a second thought. Picked up 10 gallons of gas at the gas station, drove out the plane, put it in, and flew.

Anyway, on the way to NH, I spent the afternoon at the New England Air Museum. They have a large display of Sikorsky stuff including a single engine S-39 and his four engine S-44 flying boat. While there are pictures of his Russian aircraft, and there is a replica S-16 WWI fighter with a 110 LeRhone which looks like a Nieuport, I wish there were more data on his large aircraft. Yet it takes a long time to read all the captions etc.

They also have a display dedicated the Percival Spenser. It seems that he started the airport there as well. There is a lovely Seebee on display along with pictures, plaques, etc. Their engine display is good; they have the only J-1 engine around which has three carbs for the nine cylinders, and they have the B-29 in their newest building. Visit if you haven't. It's a three hour drive from here without traffic but Hartford can be a parking lot. Check out their web site @ neam.org.

In NH I saw a boat trailer with the modern equivalent of the old Goodyear air wheels. They were a smoothtread polyurethane tire with 2.5 lb of air pressure mounted on a fiberglass wheel. Very soft and forgiving. They were marked Roleez and if you go to Roleez.com you will find them in three sizes. The largest is only rated for a 264 lb load but they show them on a wheelbarrow and trailers to go over sand without sinking in. The middle size one which is 16.5 x 8 is the size of a J-3 Cub wheel and cost $100.

In case you didn't notice, Bob Kroll wrote a poem which is on page 72 of the last Sport Aviation. Read it.

There is a Fly-In at the museum at Grimes airport this weekend. They have the Rumpler up and flying. Ernie sold his Sopwith Pup to one of the guys and they've found a Warner engine for it. Chapter 7 also donated their Heath Parasol to the Museum. We assumed that it would only be a display but they are now considering using it as the basis of a flyable aircraft. They have three Heath-Henderson engines; what they would need is an 80 lb pilot.

Well, if you didn’t make last month’s meeting you missed out. Our discussion with Michael on rocket power at a reasonable cost was great. Ed’s video from Airventure was also worth staying up for. It was good to see Mike up and around, hope the progress continues.

Now we need a team to build a proof of concept vehicle for Michael’s engine. I have visions of my Hatz doing what Jim Franklin did with the CJ610 (not really). I will probably have trouble staying behind the O-320 for a while after 14 years of following the mighty VW. Fuel tank taking up my spare time, then completing the center section. Fuselage will be decorating my garage soon!

Happy Flying, Al