Post on 07-Aug-2018
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AUGUST 2010
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Stay tuned for more coverage
on EAA Oshkosh AirVenture
2010 in the October Vintage
Airplane magazine.
Heads up everyone: EAA is asking
the membership to stand down on
reacting to the FCC’s controversial
announcement on June 15. As many
of you are already aware, the FCC has
a planned change to 47 CFR Part 87to prohibit the certification, manu-
facture, importation, sale, or use of
any 121.5 ELT (emergency locator
transmitter) devices. (With the excep-
tion of the Breitling Emergency watch
with ELT).
This of course is in direct conflict
with FAA Rule 14 CFR Part 91.207,which requires you to have an op-
erational ELT on board your U.S.-
registered civil aircraft regardless of
the operating frequency of 121.5 or
the updated 406 MHz. Although this
new FCC ruling was written to take
effect 60 days after publication, EAA
is busy working with other aviationassociations to remedy these conflict-
ing rules. As of July 13, the proposed
regulation had not been published in
the Federal Register , so the 60-day clock
had not begun. Because of the atten-
tion brought to bear on this proposed
that the EPA continues to push hard
on the fuel industry for a resolution
to the formulation of a non-leaded
fuel that will perform satisfactorily
with our piston-powered aircraft. In
addition, aviation is soon to be the
only user of the lead additive, thus
making aviation subject to financial
and supply interruptions. There is
only one producer of the additive leftin the world. All it would take is one
industrial accident at that plant and
there would be no 100LL available.
While most of our lower- and mid-
dle-horsepower vintage aircraft would
actually be better off with one of the
currently available specifications for
unleaded aviation fuels, our friendswith high-horsepower engines would
be put in a difficult position, with de-
rated engines or worse.
It appears that the struggle con-
tinues. Along the way I have become
aware of a number of relevant factors
that I was totally ignorant of that you
may find interesting. We are all awareof the issues surrounding the need to
find an alternative fuel for our vin-
tage flying machines, but I was to-
tally rolled back on my heels when
I learned that 100LL makes up only
1/10 of 1 percent of all the refined fu-
and complicated issues at hand. The
goal is to find a common standard
fuel that will service the entire fleet
without any compromise to perfor-
mance or engine life. That’s a huge
goal, and it’s not likely to be devel-
oped overnight, or any time soon for
that matter.
The industry has never had to
reverse engineer a safe alternativefuel for the existing fleet, and it has
indeed proven to be an elusive task.
Then, mix in the fact that there
remains only one manufacturer of
tetraethyl lead fuel additive left in
the world, serving only 1/10 of 1
percent of all blended fuels in this
country, and you begin to realizethe need to move forward with this
initiative. Let’s all hope for the best.
I like to think that we have not yet
found that chemical engineer with
the talent to see this issue resolved.
Industry leaders are now lament-
ing the fact that “leadership by the
FAA is vital at this juncture in or-der to remove any unnecessary or
outdated hurdles,” and “Such hur-
dles could delay the development
and delivery of new products and
should be removed if they provide
no safety benefit.”
GEOFF ROBISON
PRESIDENT, VINTAGE AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATION
STRAIGHT & LEVEL
Keeping abreast of issues
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IFC Straight & Level Keeping abreast of issues
by Geoff Robison
2 News
4 Aeromail
6 The Sensuously Svelte Ryan SCW The Larson family’s flying legacy
by Sparky Barnes Sargent
15 How to Tie the Seine Knot! Don’t let that pesky little knot drive you insane
by Bob Whittier
18 Life and the Zen of the Stinson How an airplane weaves its way into many lives
by Budd Davisson
26 Light Plane Heritage The Allen A-4 Lightplane by Jack McRae
29
The Vintage Mechanic Structural alignment by Robert G. Lock
34 The Vintage Instructor The lost art of slips by Steve Krog, CFI
36 Mystery Plane by H.G. Frautschy
39 Classified Ads
40 A Different Perspective The right seat by S. Michelle Souder
A I R P L A N E A U G U S TC O N T E N T S
S T A F FEAA Publisher Tom PobereznyDirector of EAA Publications Mary Jones
Executive Director/Editor H.G. Frautschy
Vol. 38, No. 7 2010
18
6
BONNIE KRATZ
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VAA NEWS
Vintage Aircraft Online Last year we launched the online
publication Vintage Aircraft Online,
and it immediately became popular
with thousands of our members and
enthusiasts. Like Vintage Airplanemagazine, there’s always a need for
interesting material to share with the
membership. If you have something
you’d like to contribute, please drop
us a line via e-mail at vintageaircraft@
eaa.org . Perhaps you have a batch of
10-15 photos of a fly-in, a project or
how-to that would be great to share
in a slideshow, or a few pictures and
a write-up about your local vintage
aircraft–oriented event. If you think
it would be of interest, send it along!
Honoring EAA’s 2010
Arlington Fly-InVisitors to the Arlington Fly-In got a real treat Thursday, July 8, as a Boeing
787 Dreamliner made a fly-by to provide an exciting opening to the afternoon airshow. The airplane, still undergoing test flights, made two low passes before the
cheering crowd.
The fly-in started Wednesday, July 7, and unlike some past years, Mother
Nature was extremely cooperative. “We’re having a wonderful run of incredible
weather,” said fly-in Executive Director Barbara Tolbert. The fly-in, which ran
through Sunday, July 11, featured everything from hot-air balloons and radio-
controlled aircraft to the most modern naval jets.
One of the newest attractions on the Arlington landscape is the Antique
Airplane Barnstormers Barn in the Vintage Aircraft area. EAA Manager of FieldRelations Ron Wagner described the project as one highlighting the ingenuity
of EAAers through and through. “One person cut down the trees from his land,
and a por table milling machine was brought in to cut the boards. Then they were
dried with fans. Volunteers put it together in four different sections. Since it’s
located on airport property, the sections make it easier to move before and after
the event. It’s really neat—all built by volunteers at little cost to the fly-in.”
The Barnstormers Barn Red Barn is a part of the newly renovated Vintage Air-
craft area, which by all accounts was ver y well received. Vintage Day was Friday,
July 9, where in addition to historic aircraft, there were vintage cars and living-history re-enactors in period costume. Featured inside the barn were items from
the Skagit Aero Education Museum of Concrete, Washington.
For more information on the fly-in and the Barnstormer’s Red Barn project,
visit the Arlington Fly-In’s website at www.ArlingtonFlyIn.org.
JAY TOLBERT
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Club, Jimmy Franklin; Warbirds
of America, Ha rold D. “Hal”
Weekley; and Homebuilders,
Dean Wilson. These inductees
capture the spirit of EAA and itscommunity.
VAA’s inductee is Morton Les-
ter (VAA 14) of
Martinsville,
Virginia. Mor-
ton l e a rne d
t o f l y f r o m
h i s f a t h e r ,
t h e o w n e r
of his home-
tow n’ s f i r s t
airport. Over
the years, he
owned many
aircraft, ranging from modern
Bonanzas to vintage Wacos. Mor-
ton also restored many prototypesand one-of-a-kind racing aircraft
that he later donated to museums,
including the Crosby CR-4 and
the Keith Rider Jackrabbit.
Instrumental in the creation
of the Virginia Aviation Museum,
Morton was an early member of
EAA/VAA Chapter 3 and has servedas its president several times. He
also served on the board of direc-
tors for what is now the Vintage
Aircraft Association, as well as the
board of directors of the EAA Avia-
tion Foundation.
Enroll in an EAA Webinar!
Join the thousands of people
who have participated in free EAA
webinars (web-based seminars).
All you need is a computer and a
broadband Internet connection to
receive live streaming interactive
To nominate someone is easy. It just takes a little time and a little reminiscing on your part.
Mail nominating materials to:
Remember, your “contemporary” may be a candidate; nominate someone today!
www.VintageAircraft.org
CALL FOR VINTAGE AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATION
Nominations
Morton Lester
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Douglas DC-2I was reading through the April
issue of Vintage Airplane (another
excellent issue), and the insert on
page 3 regarding the Douglas DC-2
joining the Oshkosh DC-3 celebra-
tion caught my eye. It has alsoprompted this letter.
While Clay Lacy is an aviation
luminary and has made significant
contributions to the aviation in-
dustry over the years, I wish to take
exception to the statement that
he “was the driving force behind
the airplane’s restoration.” I’ve en-closed an article that appeared in
the AAHS Journal, Vol. 52, No. 4,
Winter 2007, detailing the history
of this aircraft.
The real credit for the rescue and
restoration of this aircraft should
go to the volunteers of the Douglas
Historical Foundation and many
retired McDonnell Douglas em-
ployees that brought a derelict air-
frame back to airworthy condition.
Mr. Lacy was never a member of
the Douglas Historical Foundation,
nor a contributor to that group to
attention to those unnamed and un-sung volunteers of the Douglas His-torical Foundation that restored thisaircraft. Without their efforts, Mr.Lacy would not have the opportunityof bringing the last airworthy DC-2
to Oshkosh this summer.Keep up the great work on Vin-
tage Airplane.
Regards,
Hayden Hamilton
AAHS Managing Editor,
VAA 714656
We appreciate Hayden taking thetime to set the record straight on Cap-
tain Lacy’s level of involvement in the
DC-2; we look forward to publishing
more on this remarkable restoration
in a future issue of Vintage Airplane.
—H.G. Frautschy
Horsa, Not a Waco
Regards,
Jim Gorman
Mansfield, Ohio
Jim’s right; I misidentified it whenwriting the caption—the fault is entirely
my own, not author Henry Holden’s. Jim
Gorman flew the C-47 during his mili-
tary service during World War II, and
later he became very active in the pres-
ervation of the Beech Staggerwing se-
ries of aircraft. He and his wife, Marge,
have been active pilots for more than
65 years, and they were recently pre-
sented with Wright Brothers Master Pi-
lot awards by the FAA.—H.G. Frautschy
Emma Browning Mrs. Emma Browning, former
owner and operator of Browning
Aerial Service on Robert Mueller
Airport in Austin, Texas, passedaway at the age of 99-1/2.
Born on October 26, 1910,
in Eastland, Texas, she took her
first plane ride in 1929. In 1930,
she met and later married Robert
M. Browning, an original barn-
stormer. She obtained her pilot’s
certificate in 1939. Together theymoved to Austin and opened
a school to train military pilots.
An original founding member of
NATA (National Air Transportation
Association), she operated an FBO
business for over 60 years, serving
airline, business, and private air-
craft. Mrs. Browning was inducted
into the Texas Aviation
Hall of Fame in 2005.
Emma met and knew
Charles Lindbergh and
Amelia Earhart. Amelia
spent the night in the
AEROMAILSend your comments and questions to:
VAA, Letters to the EditorP.O. Box 3086
Oshkosh, WI 54903-3086Or you can e-mail them to: vintageaircraft@eaa.org
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Finnish DC-3
Much has been written about
the DC-3, and the series article of
Mr. Holden in your magazine was
very welcome.The June issue arrived only yes-
terday in this corner of the world,
but already the two first parts led
me into temptation to brag about
the plane we are flying here in
Finland. It must be—it is—the
most beautiful example flying in
Europe! Picture proof enclosed!Our ship is s/n 6346 of a batch
of 17 ordered by Pan Am. It went,
however, straight to military ser-
vices as a C-52C and served eventu-
ally in the European theater of op-
erations. After the war it was bought
by AERO Oy—later Finnair—and
flew there until 1966. It then flew
for 16 years in the Finnish air force
before being purchased by Airvet-
eran Oy in 1986.
Being a retired airline pilot,
I have flown it since then as a
hobby. We operate it on club ba-
sis, i.e., membership in the club
being a requisite to board the
plane. Our purpose is to keep the
plane in airworthy condition as
a piece of Finland’s aviation his-
tory and to honor those who have
flown and maintained it since its
birth in 1942.
Sincerely,
Kari I. Heikkala
VAA 20948
P.S. It is our plane on the stamp!
The stamp and two photos by LassiTolvanen of the former Finnish Air-
lines DC-3/C-47.
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the Snsuously
Ryan
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Svelte
The
L a r s o n
family’s
f l y i n g
l e g a c y
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Ryan Aeronautical Company The Sport Coupe, or SC, was con-
ceived by T. Claude Ryan, founder
of Ryan Aeronautical Company
per Scarab was installed. Thus the
prototype became an SC-W145
(NC17372) under ATC No. 658 on
October 31, 1937. (This airplane is
Hailed this New Era Cabin Plane!
. . . Ryan S-C was a whole show in
itself. The air-wise flocked to the
only new design in production that
NC18912 was originally equipped with a wooden
Hartzell propeller and a 145-hp Warner. It now has a
165-hp Warner and an Ole Fahlin propeller.
CHRIS MILLER
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bines the advantages of low wing
design and metal construction. …
Its maneuverability is amazing; its
response to the controls uncanny.
Professional and amateur pilots
alike pronounce it the easiest ship
heat and ventilation ducts. If addi-
tional fresh air was desired, the can-
opy could be opened during flight.
Yet only 12 Ryan SC-Ws were
produced before World War II be-
gan in 1941. The company abruptly
and heavy aluminum sheet. The
distinctive cantilever wings span 37
feet 6 inches. Aircraft historian and
author Joseph Juptner describes the
wing construction as being “… atype of monospar wing wherein the
single hollow spar beam formed
the first third of the wing’s front
edge as a monocoque all-metal box;
the wing ribs cantilevered from the
spar’s rear face to the trailing edge.
The forward third of the wing was
covered with “Alclad” (24ST) metal
sheet, and the rear 2/3 portion was
covered in fabric.” (U.S. Civil Air-
craft, Volume 7 )
The chord at the wing root mea-
sures 99 inches, which dramatically
tapers down to only 26 inches at the
wingtip. The detachable, rounded
wingtips are also made of alumi-
num. The fabric-covered aileronshave a static and dynamic counter
balance, and the rudder, elevators,
vertical stabilizer, and strut-braced
horizontal stabilizers are also fab-
ric-covered. The airframe measures
25 feet 5 inches from nose to tail,
and stands 7 feet tall on its widely
spaced main gear (97-inch tread).As powered by the 145-hp War-
ner, its empty weight is 1,345
pounds, and its gross weight is
2,150 pounds. With a fuel burn of
9.5 gph and a capacity of 37 gal-
lons, the Ryan SC-W145 offers a
range of around 450 miles, while
cruising in the neighborhood of 135
to 140 mph. Its maximum speed is
150 mph. One particularly unusual
feature of the SC-W is its perforated
center-section belly flap (air brake)
with a total area of about 5 square
feet. The air brake can be extended
Brad Larson (left) and David Russell Williams stand in front of Brad’s
Ryan when the two SCW owners visited the Grass Roots Fly-In in 2008.
Brad Larson and his son, Glenn, with Brad’s favorite airplane.
H . G .
F R A U T S C H Y
C H R I S M I L
L E R
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(designed and built by Etienne Dor-
moy, who also built the 1924 Dor-
moy Bathtub). Brad recalls that the
1925 model was an improved ver-
sion with fabric covering, and it hadplaced second and third in the 1925
National Air Races. Naturally, Brad
was excited to have the opportunity
to restore the airplane, and after
covering the fuselage and wings, he
installed a low-powered Indian mo-
torcycle engine on it, instead of the
costlier 20-hp Henderson engine. It
was perhaps his first practical lesson
about horsepower and airplanes; the
small Indian simply didn’t generate
enough power to even lift the ship
off the ground.
In 1932-1933, Brad learned to fly
in a 1931 tandem-seat, open-cockpit,
pusher airplane that few today have
seen aloft. “Three of us bought aCurtiss Junior, and I learned to fly
in that,” Brad recalls. “I flew an
Aeronca C-3 quite a bit, and had a
couple of Cubs.” Although he has
logged numerous hours in several
aircraft logbooks, he has never to-
Glenn shows how to
activate…
…the perforated drag flap
mounted below the cockpit.
PHOTOS CHRIS MILLER
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taled his hours of lightplane flying. couple of Bonanzas, and another
P H O T O S C H R I S M I L L E R
The cockpit of the Ryan is best described as “well-loved” and careworn.While not a showplane, its worn instrument panel paint highlights the
fact the Ryan has never been a hangar queen. Over the decades Brad Lar-
son has flown the aircraft from coast-to-coast on numerous occasions.
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make stick forces on the heavy side.
But the airplane is nimble.” (The en-
tire pilot report is available at www.
Airbum.com.)
Bombs Away!This particular Ryan has some
interesting history. “During World
War II, our plane was used as an anti-
submarine dive bomber from the
eastern United States’ coastal waters
down to the Florida coast. The doc-
tor who owned the SC-W at that
time had named it Honey Child, and
he loaned it to the Civil Air Patrol,”
shares Glenn. More detail about this
facet of the Ryan’s history is revealed
by the aircraft records, which include
the Supplement to Aircraft Operation
Record (Form 309), dated Septem-
ber 12, 1941. This form states that
Ryan SC-W-145 (s/n 206), with CivilAeronautics Administration (CAA)
identification mark NC18912, was
authorized for the following addi-
tional operation: “May carry speci-
fied bomb load, only under direct
orders of the proper military au-
thorities. Operation Limitation – No
persons other than bona fide mem-bers of the crew may be carried with
bomb installed.” The new weight
schedule of the airplane accounted
for the bomb shackle and installa-
tion weight of 8 pounds and the
100-pound weight of the bomb. This
confidential paperwork was signed
by G.G. McElravy, senior aircraft in-
spector, and dated May 28, 1942.
The following year, a CAA Repair and
Alteration Form showed that then-
current owner Robert Silverman of
Pennsylvania had the bomb shackle
and release removed from the air-
Photo of NC18912, with its bomb attached during its anti-submarine
patrol days.
P H O T O S
C O U R T E S Y
B R A D L
A R S O N
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Chain of OwnershipRyan Aeronautical Company’s
chief engineer, Millard C. Boyd,
signed the Manufacturer’s Affida-
vit of Conformity for s/n 206, SC-W145 on April 12, 1938. Two days
later, the airplane was sold to its
first owner—Warner Aircraft Cor-
poration of Detroit, Michigan. In
September 1940, Richard Booth
Wallace of Bloomfield Hills, Michi-
gan, sold it for $2,500 to Herman
Neuweiler of Allentown, Pennsyl-
vania. Neuweiler sold it for $3,500in January 1942, and Robert Sil-
verman of Philadelphia became
the new owner. Other owners in-
cluded William Cherney and Du-
pree Wooten of Chicago, Rex Short
of Michigan, and Gordon Haase of
Appleton, Wisconsin. Haase sold it
to Fliteways in September 1948, andit sold it the following month to
Paper Cities Flying Service, also of
Wisconsin. In April 1949, Northern
School of Aviation of Marquette,
Michigan, bought NC18912. It sold
it in October 1951 to the Marsh-
field Aero Club of Wisconsin.
The following July, the RyanSC-W changed hands yet again—
this time, it went to Brad Larson of
Minnesota. The SC-W hadn’t been
advertised; in fact, it had been dis-
assembled and was collecting dust
in storage. “I found it back in a
hangar,” recounts Brad, “when I
was trying to sell my civilian How-
ard—NC22424, the Shell Oil How-
ard—to a fellow for around $2,300.
I saw this airplane all in parts in the
back, and said, ‘What’s that?’ He
told me, ‘That’s a little Ryan Sport
Coupe model.’ I said, ‘Throw all
The following is an en-
lightening firsthand account
of the manufacturing tech-
niques used for the Ryan SC
models, as published in the
December 15, 1937, issue
of The Sportsman Pilot :
The appearance of the new metal
Ryan Warner- and Menasco-poweredcabin planes (SC-145W and SC-150
respectively) has created added
interest in the pioneering metal-
working practices developed by T.
Claude Ryan in the interests of mass produc-
tion of aircraft.Describing the processes worked out, William Wagner, of Ryan Aeronautical Company,
reports that in making … “The new S-C cabin plane, a full-scale plaster model was con-
structed in great detail following completion of the wooden ‘mock-up.’ After designers and
engineers were satisfied that desired results would be obtained, individual plaster of Paris
molds of the contours were taken from the original mock-up.
“These were developed into zinc dies which were poured into sand molds whose shapeswere reproductions of the various sections of the mock-up. These dies are carefully cast
and require but litt le polishing and grinding to give the precision contour required. The
punch, or upper portion of the die, was then cast in lead on top of the zinc die. With the die
in place and hammer working , it has been possible to stamp into the desired forms uniform
metal sheets with precision on a quantity basis.
“Before assembly, all sheets are finished and all holes drilled for rivets by the use of Ryan
‘nesting’ type steel templates. These master templates eliminate all layout work on individual
parts, several hundred being used with one for practically every part in the plane.
“When all parts are thus stamped by precision metal dies and completely finished to
h d f ll i fi h d bl b d
-
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time, and he remembers watching
the Ryan take shape under his fa-
ther’s skillful hands. “It was like a
playground to me, and I used to sitinside it. I was the only kid in town
with a real airplane in the base-
ment,” Glenn says, laughing. “Later
on, I did all the riveting in the back
of the tail, because I was the smallest
and could get back in there. My dad
restored the Ryan to enjoy and fly
anywhere; not to put in a museum.”
After the aircraft had been stripped
of its wing and tail fabric, and all the
metal parts were cleaned, Brad in-
spected the components and found
them to be in good condition and
ready for covering and assembly. He
lation had been previously accom-
plished for Ryan s/n 208, and that
paperwork facilitated the required
field approval for Brad’s installation.He overhauled the engine himself,
and reflects that “all kinds of parts
were available at that time.” He
doesn’t recall encountering any ma-
jor challenges along the way and
completed the restoration in 1962.
A couple of years later, he modified
the instrument panel to accommo-
date a new radio installation and
converted the tail wheel to make it
full-swiveling and steerable. Since
NC18912’s restoration was completed,
the airplane has been flown fairly reg-
ularly and has always been hangared.
my older brother, Paul, also enjoys
flying it with my dad. All three of
us fly—or have flown—for North-
west Airlines. My dad went from
the Gullwing Stinson to the 747,and I haven’t retired yet. We’d all
fly the Ryan to Rockford or Osh-
kosh, and to the Antique Airplane
Association fly-in in Ottumwa,
Iowa. My dad used to live in Santa
Paula, California—where he rebuilt
the Cessna Airmaster—and we’ve
flown all over the country.”
Glenn chuckles and shares thathis most memorable—but not his
most pleasant—flight in the Ryan
took place in December 2009. “I
left Flying Cloud Airport in Minne-
apolis when it was 5 degrees below
zero, to bring it to Florida. They
had a big snowstorm up there,
and I pushed it out of the hangarand immediately all the windows
frosted up. I took a credit card and
a rag and cleaned the windows—
I had no heat in the airplane and
didn’t warm up until I got down as
far as Nashville!”
Brad patiently and painstakingly
hand polished the Ryan before heand Glenn flew it over to Sun ’n
Fun from Sarasota. While the Lar-
sons have attended the fly-in nu-
merous times, this was their first
time being there with an older res-
toration. “People still like to look at
it,” says Glenn, smiling. “And we
don’t judge the plane by whether
it has the correct head on the screw
or the right nut; we look at the grass
that’s trampled down around the
airplane, from where people have
walked all around it, looking at it!”
Brad chimes in, “That’s the way to
Sixteen-year-old Brad Larson (right) and his best friend, Karl Jessup, with
the Dormoy prior to restoration.
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You may have heard an exasper-
ated military man exclaim, “There
are three ways to do a thing—theright way, the wrong way, and the
Army way!”
And there must be truth in it, if
the seine knot is any example.
For as long as there have been
civil aviation regulations, the seine
knot has been specified by the gov-
ernment for securing the loops ofcord that lace wing fabric to the
ribs and keep it from fluttering and
lifting from the ribs. The FAA speci-
fied it, and before it the CAA speci-
fied it, and long before it, the early
Bureau of Air Commerce specified
it. The seine knot goes way back.
Refer now to Figure 1, which is
taken from a government manual.
Looks pretty simple, does it not?
That’s what everyone thinks. Well,
make up a small dummy wing or
take a control surface. Give this,
along with a rib-stitching needle
confused. I even tried it on an FAA
man, and he could not follow it!
So for the sake of EAA membersworking on their projects in places
from Medford, Massachusetts, to
Medford, Oregon, I wished to se-
cure for publication a set of step-
by-step pictures showing exactly
how to do this knot. A letter to the
maintenance branch of the FAA
in Washington brought the replythat no, it had nothing like this
available; it had never had anyone
complain that the standard seine
knot drawing was hard to follow.
Of course any grassroots mechanic
could have told the FAA that the
reason was most mechanics learned
to tie the knot from other mechan-
ics, and anyway, a lot of them have
their own pet knots.
So, I went to the library and
looked into every book I could find
on knots, seamanship, and fishing.
Not one of them mentioned the
How to
Tie the Seine Knot!Don’t let that pesky little knot drive you insane
BY BOB WHITTIERpublished in EAA Sport Aviation August 1966
J I M K
O E P N I C K
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diagram as in Figure 1! Obviously,
each author had merely taken it for
granted that the knot was easy to
tie as sketched and reprinted the
old drawing perfunctorily. I suspectnow that this evasive seine knot
might have originated among the
fishermen of the French coast; then
some early aviation pioneer found
it was ideal for lacing fabric to the
ribs of Bleriots and Voisins, and it
came to the United States prior to
World War I along with the linen
then used for aircraft covering. TheArmy then may have adopted it as
standard and started it on its way.
This is only conjecture of course,
but it’s a logical theory.
At any rate, the time-honored
drawing in Figure 1 contains two
things that are most confusing
and omits one thing that is vital,
which is why persons who havenever been shown how to tie the
seine knot can find it frustrating.
First, this diagram shows the knot
being tied from the top down,
Figure 2. After being pushed down
through the covering on one side of
the rib and pulled up on the other
side, the needle is passed under thesection of cord lying along the rib.
Figure 4: The needle is run under the cord that lies along the rib
between the two knots, then over and under again.
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Second, there is a vital
pulling motion about
two-thirds of the way
through that is not
shown at all. Third, thesketch shows how the
cord goes, which really
isn’t so easy to interpret
when you are trying to
figure out how the nee-
dle goes to make the
cord go that way!
Therefore I made
up a dummy wing andfor the sake of photo-
graphic clarity, made an
oversized needle from
a dowel and threaded
heavy black cord into
its drilled eye. Begin-
ning with Figure 2, the
captions explain how todo it. Good luck!
Figure 6: Begin to tighten the knot.
It closes down into a layout resem-
bling a figure-eight.
Figure 9: The seine knot is snugged tight, and theneedle is going down to the next knot. The reason
for using the seine knot is that it holds tension
(Figure 7) around the rib, while your free hand
is used to lock the knot tight. Also, each knot is
locked, so if vibration breaks one loop around the
rib, the other loops will not loosen up.
Figure 7: Again, one picture’s
worth 1,000 words. The part of theloop that goes around the rib as
shown here is pulled tight, quite
firmly and smartly. Put your thumb
on the snugged knot as shown by
dotted lines in Figure 1 to hold the
loop tight.
OK, we’re not saying that really
happened or that it would havechanged history... but it makesyou wonder. On the other hand,you never have to wonderwhether you’ll get a beautifullong-lasting covering job usingPoly-Fiber We’ve made the
that is, working from the top. But
a right-handed person doing rib
stitching in the normal way would
find it more natural to work “up.”
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of the Stinson How an airplane
weaves its wayinto many lives
BY BUDD DAVISSON
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Life has a way of chang-
ing, both as fate smiles
and frowns upon us and
as we progress through
the various stations of
the birth-to-death jour-
ney. For most of us, however, onething remains constant: the air-
plane. It was there at the beginning
and is usually there at the end. It
often, however, isn’t the same air-
plane, if nothing else because our
tastes and situations change. Some-
times, however, the same airplane
affects many lives. Such is thecase with 108-3 Stinson N6865M.
It is an example of an airplane that
drifted through several lives, en-
hancing both along the way and
forging a relationship between peo-
ple, in this case the restorers, father
and son Tom and Bill Scott, and the
current owner, Jim Gibson.
“I first heard about the airplane
from someone at work,” remem-
bers Bill Scott, who now lives in
Spring Hill, Florida, with his wife
of 26 years, Michelle. “At the time I
was working for Piedmont twisting
store for my older brother. From
that point on, we always had an
airplane of some kind in the shop.”
Since he was brought up with his
hands constantly working on air-
craft, it was a natural path for him
to follow.“My high school had a voca-
tional program where I could spend
half-days attending George T. Baker
Aviation School. By the time I was
graduated, I had my airframe ticket.
I earned my powerplant ticket by
attending night school.”
The yen for Stinsons struck earlyin Bill’s life and had a unique kind
of luck attached to it.
“I was still in high school, and
one weekend my flight instructor
and I were driving around look-
ing at various airplane projects
that others were working on. One
was in a transmission shop, and I
spied a Stinson 10A in the rafters.
Now bear in mind, I was only 16
years old at the time. Still, when
the owner saw me doing my best to
look at the airplane, he said, ‘If you
boys put this airplane together and
airplane down and took it home.”
Airplanes in the Scott household
are family affairs, so young Bill had
plenty of knowledgeable hands to
help him.
Bill says, “The airplane had some
ground loop damage and a worn-
out 90 Franklin, but Dad and my
older brother helped me out all
along the way.”
That was the first in a long line
J I M K
O E P N I C K
Jim Gibson, the owner of Stinson
N6865M, restored by the father/
son team of Tom and Bill Scott.
“When the owner saw me doing my best to look at
the airplane, he said, ‘If you boys put this airplane
together and get it flying, I’ll give it to you.’”
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an airplane the sensible thing to
do. That’s exactly what happened
to the 108-3. I didn’t build it to sell.
It just worked out that way.”When Bill heard about the old
108, it was described as being disas-
sembled and in storage at a private
airfield. It was an airplane-in-a-barn
story that proved to be true.
“When we first saw the airplane,”
Bill says, “the initial impression was
that it was pretty complete and not
in bad shape at all. Someone had
started to restore it, which turned
out not to be a good thing because
they were just trying to get it flying,
not truly restoring it.
At the time Bill looked at the air-
“First of all, when we did an in-
ventory, we found some parts miss-
ing, including the spinner, but lots
of other parts were there, but weweren’t willing to put them back on
the airplane, even though it looked
as if the previous owner was going
to. Although the bottom cowl was
good, which isn’t usually the case,
most of the rest of the cowl, includ-
ing the nose bowl, was either miss-
ing or in need of severe restoration.
“The instrument panel had been
heavily modified, and the entire
airplane was loaded with old wiring
that had to go. The fuselage tub-
ing hadn’t been sand blasted and
repainted, so it looked pretty sorry,
amount of wood in the interior that
gave the Stinson Station Wagon its
name, this alone involved some
rather unusual work.“The rear interior side panels and
bulkhead were there, but barely.
They had started rotting from the
back where, among other things,
insulation had held moisture
against them. These panels were
steam formed and fitted in a specific
way to make sure they give plenty
of shoulder room and curve around
the seats right. These looked okay
from the front, but if you touched
them, they would crumble. They
weren’t even strong enough to
make patterns from. So, we first fi-
JIM KOEPNICK
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Tidy needlework is evident in the zipper installation
in the headliner’s access hole for the elevator trim
mechanism.
A completely custom panel was created for Jim’s
J I M K
O E P N I C K P H
O T O S
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work to get all the Bondo off as
it did to hammer the pants back
straight, but the trim strips were
missing; however, I had anotherpair of pants that were essentially
junk, but the trim strips could be
cleaned up and re-used.”
A lot of airplanes like Stin-
sons have been subjected to a lot
of what we’d term “butchery” as
generations of radios required in-
creasingly obtrusive holes. So, the
panels are always a challenge, and
some decisions have to be made.
“First of all, we were building
this airplane to use, not to show,
so although we like original pan-
els and interiors, the truth was that
airplanes are subjected to over their
lives are beyond understanding,
and one of them often has to do
with the control wheels.“Someone had cut the tops off of
the wheels. I guess they were trying
to make them look more modern
or something, sort of a ‘ram’s horn’
look, but we couldn’t leave them that
way. So, we kept our eyes open un-
til a pair of restorable ones surfaced,
and we made them look original.”
Once the basics were done, Bill
went through the airplane and
brought everything up to their stan-
dards, which include new windows,
pulleys, cables, and practically all
the hardware in the airframe.
color, including the family Dodge,
which was passed down through
each of my older siblings until it
eventually got handed down to me.However, we used the last on this
airplane, so I guess our next airplane
will be blue or something!”
They finished the airplane in
2000, and Jim Gibson saw it at the
Wings and Things Fly-In that year
in Lakeland. At the time he was
looking for a four-place airplane,
but the airplane wasn’t for sale. Jim came into aviation as a young
man, but the career path that took
him toward his Stinson was such
that it was anything but predictable.
“I got a degree in geology, but
JIM KOEPNICK
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Joe piloted his beautiful Lockheed 12A in filming the movie
Amelia in 2009. Director Mira Nair and actress Hilary Swank
both left their signatures on the door – what a perfect souvenir.
AUA has been very helpful meeting my Lockheed 12A’sinsurance needs. The entire staff has been friendly and prompt
with all of my requests.
— Joe Shepherd
Joe ShepherdFayetteville, Georgia
Owner of a 1936Lockheed 12A anda Cessna 195
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when they ran out, I was laid off,
and a friend suggested I sell in-
surance. I started doing that and
slowly that mutated into financialplanning, and before long I had
my own office and that’s what I did
most of my working life.”
Although he had learned to fly
in the mid ’50s, he stopped flying
when he got married in ’63 (he and
Kathy have been married 44 years).
“Although I wasn’t always fly-
ing, I had always wanted my ownrunway, and that was what was in
the back of my mind when I found
a farm outside of Terre Haute, In-
diana, and bought it along with a
friend, Dr. Deward ‘Pete’ Peterson.”
2,400-foot strip of land by moving
a lot of dirt, bulldozing off humps,
and filling low areas. We also had
to bridge a small creek with a 3-by 300-foot sewer pipe. The whole
runway was shaped with a slight
crown in the center, which allows
water to drain quickly. Finally, we
planted tall fescue grass, which is
well suited to Indiana weather and
forms a dense turf. The airstrip ap-
pears on the St. Louis sectional as
‘Aero Plaines-PVT.’ We did that inthe early ’80s, and we still have it.
It’ll go to the grandkids.”
You can’t have a runway without
an airplane, so Jim and his partner
bought a restored L-16 Aeronca,
was for sale, and he said it was.”
At that point the little red air-
plane went to live with Jim Gibson,
but as is often the case, situationschange and little airplanes move
on to enhance others’ lives.
Jim explains, “I’ve enjoyed the
airplane for nearly four years, but
because of my age I’m giving the
whole LSA thing serious consider-
ation. Although I believe I can still
pass the upcoming physical, the
FAA has made noises about requir-ing additional tests the next time
around because of a comment my
AME made in my paperwork. So,
rather than failing an exam, I may
just skip it. I hate to sell the Stin-
JIM KOEPNICK
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Light Plane Heritage
published in EAA Experimenter March 1990
THE ALLEN A-4 LIGHTPLANEBY JACK MCRAE
T
he Allen A-4 lightplane
was designed and built
for the purpose of com-
peting in the lightplaneevents at the 1924 National Air
Races to be held in Dayton, Ohio, in
October. Its designer was Edmund T.
(Eddie) Allen, 28, an MIT engineer-
ing graduate who had learned to
flying activities in the United States
and Europe, during the summer of
1924 he gave a detailed description
of the design and construction ofhis A-4 lightplane.
Allen explained that the basic
design features decided upon were
(1) fuel economy, (2) ease of han-
dling in the air and on landing, (3)
hp and 3200 rpm. The engine was
modified considerably and was to
prove to be the biggest obstacle to
the success of the airplane.Allen put much effort into pick-
ing what he considered the most
efficient design configuration. He
decided on a shoulder-wing mono-
plane with a high-aspect-ratio ta-
The Allen A-4 lightplane. The ju-
nior aviator is unidentified.
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lowed for a minimum rate of climb
of 200 feet/minute.
The fuselage was of wood construc-
tion, had a rectangular cross section,
and was unusually long to give good
control with small tail surfaces. The
four spruce longerons tapered from
3/4 inch square at the firewall to
1/2 inch square at the tail. Diagonal
members of the Warren truss were 3/4
inch square, glued and nailed with
plywood gussets of 1/16-inch mahog-
any. Torsional stiffness was increased
by using a 3/4-inch-square diagonalacross each station. The structural
weight of the fuselage was
stated to be 25 pounds.
The cockpit f loor was
1/4-inch fir plywood with
the pilot seated directly
on the floorboard, with his
feet raised to the rudder bar,which was slightly higher
than his hips.
The wing was of all-wood
construction, fabric-covered.
Two parallel spars per panel
were used with upper and
lower cap strips providing
equal strength for a positiveor negative load factor of
8.0. A box section spar re-
sulted with a small interior
bulkhead at each rib station.
The weight of four spars was
21 pounds. One-half of the
ribs were plywood with extra
compression members at the
top and bottom of the sparsin addition to rib cap strips.
Alternate ribs were of a
novel construction to save
weight. They were made with
a paper web “of a tough ma-
provide torsional strength and con-
sisted on 1-inch by 3/32-inch spruce
diagonals crossing alternate ribs at
both upper and lower surfaces of
the spars. All joints were glued and
nailed, thus eliminating all fittings
except those for the strut attach-
ments and spar roots.
The leading edge was a large
strip of spruce intended to allow
for rough handling on the ground.
The wingtips were of oak bent in
the form of an ellipse. The wings
and fuselage were covered withsinge-ply balloon cloth weighing
2 ounces per square yard. The lift
struts were of 3/4-inch-diameter
steel tubing and sloped from the
spars to a single fitting at the lower
longeron, forming a vee.
The landing gear axle consisted
of 1.125-inch-diameter by 18-gauge
steel tube, heat-treated to 140,000
psi tensile strength. The axle was
attached to three smaller tubes, of
which the upper one passed through
the fuselage above the lower longe-
rons and was fastened to the longe-
rons with a shock cord. A drag struton each side was attached to the
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fuselage at the lift strut fitting. The
wheels were the same 20x2-inch size
used on the Smith Motor Wheel.
The tail surfaces were single-piece,
all-movable rudder and elevator of
wood construction, fabric-covered.
The conversion of the Harley-Da-
vidson motorcycle engine for aircraft
use required many changes and pro-
vided the most problems. In order
to increase the propeller efficiency
Allen decide to attach the propeller
shaft to an idler gear that ran at a
ratio of 26 to 58 with the crankshaftand thus reduced the propeller rpm.
A set of bearings was added to take
thrust and lateral load. The gear case
part of the crankcase was removed,
saving 18 pounds, and this was
closed by welding a piece of alumi-
num over the opening. The cast iron
intake and exhaust manifold that
weighed 12 pounds was replaced
with a steel tube manifold. The
carburetor was moved from above
the engine to a location below the
crankcase to reduce the chance of
fire and to improve the gravity feed
for the fueled system. Ground tests
on the engine in this condition
showed that it developed 11.2 hp at
3680 rpm or 1650 propeller rpm. A
new Zenith carburetor replaced the
motorcycle unit, new valve guides
and springs were installed, and thetiming was modified for the higher
engine speed.
The airplane was taken to the Na-
val Air Station at Anacostia for its
first test flights and apparently cre-
ated somewhat of a sensation be-
cause of its small size. The first flight
was made September 14, 1924, and
showed that the little ship was stable
and controllable. After a series of suc-
cessful flights it was decided to try a
new propeller with higher pitch and
narrower blade sections to increase
the efficiency and improve the rate
of climb. However, continuous prob-
lems with the engine prevented Al-
len from competing in the lightplane
events at the National Air Races. In
his column in Aviation magazine for
October 13, reporting on the races,
he lamented, “The A-4 sits in Wash-ington waiting for new pistons after
but 58 minutes in the air.” He com-
plained that he and other lightplane
builders using motorcycle engines
could get no cooperation from the
engine manufacturers.
In 1925 Allen became an air mail
pilot for the U.S. Post Office Depart-ment and was stationed in Chey-
enne, Wyoming. Apparently he did
not take the A-4 with him, because
in an advertisement in Aviation for
October 12, 1925, he offered it for
sale, “No reasonable offer rejected,
can be examined at Washington.”
It was stated that 46 flights hadbeen made and that it had climbed
2,000 feet. Evidently there were no
takers, and it was advertised again
in the September 6, 1926, issue for
$50 FOB Washington, D.C. It was
mentioned that 48 flights had been
made at Bolling Field, and it was
described as “A real light plane.”
Eddie Allen stayed with the AirMail Service until 1929, and during
the 1929-39 period he became one
of the best-known engineering test
pilots in the United States, doing
test flying for nearly every major
Allen A-4 Specifications
Engine Harley-Davidson 2 cylinders, 37
cubic inches
Wingspan 27 feet
Length 18 feet, 9 inches
Wing area 76 square feet
Maximum speed 68 mph (calculated)
Rate of climb 200 fpm minimum
Design gross weight 380 pounds
Estimated Weight Distribution
Fuselage, including seat and
controls
33 pounds
Engine 65 pounds
Propeller 5 pounds
Gas tank and lines 10 pounds
Wing 64 pounds
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This issue will discuss struc-
tural alignment of fixed-wing air-
craft and slant it toward the older
biplanes where one can do much
in the way of rigging for stability.
However, it won’t discuss assemblyand rigging; that’s for another col-
umn or two. Here I would like to
discuss some basics of alignment
checks that are made at the begin-
ning and during restoration. Good
flight characteristics begin with
good structural alignment of sub-
assemblies: wing, empennage, en-gine, and landing gear alignment,
also a symmetry check.
WING ALIGNMENT (Figure 1):
This begins when the wings are as-
sembled or, if the wings have not
been disassembled, before apply-
ing the fabric covering. Here you
will need a set of trammel pointsin order to assure the bays of each
wing are square. On the lower sur-
face of the wings there should be
a small center point marked in
the spars. These center points are
the centerline of the compression
member and the centerline of the
spars. Wings are separated into
bays, which is a Pratt truss con-sisting of the front and rear spar,
two compression members, and
two drag wires (actually a drag and
anti-drag wire).
Start at the root of the wing,
place the trammel points diago-
nally across the spars and adjust
wires until the distance betweenpoints is identical. Snug the wires
by tightening each wire the same
amount. Go to the next bay and
repeat the process until you have
trammed all bays. Then go back
and recheck the tram of each bay;
you may have to make some mi-
nor adjustments.
Be sure to loosen and tightenthe brace wires the same num-
ber of turns. Repeat the process at
each bay. Return to the root bay
and recheck for a third time. You
probably won’t need to make any
adjustments.
Now it’s time to tension the
wires. I always like to tram with
the wire tension snug but nottight. It’s easier that way. You can
tension the wires by tightening
each wire the same amount; the
tram won’t change but the tension
will increase.
The wires need to be tight, but
not too tight. It depends on how
structurally sound the wing designis. Not much was recorded for the
old airplanes, so I use the chart for
the Boeing Stearman biplane. They
set the wire tension for a 3/16-
inch diameter tie rod from 200
pounds minimum to 400 pounds
maximum. If you have a wire ten-
siometer, use it. If not, strum the
wires and listen for a low to me-dium bass sound. If the wires
touch where they cross at the mid-
bay point, provide an anti-chafe
means, such as Teflon rings; then
tie the wires together with rib lac-
BY ROBERT G. LOCK
Structural alignment
THE VintageMechanic
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the chord line of the wing and the
longitudinal axis of the airplane.
Depending on the airplane, it will
be from 0 to +3 degrees.
Decalage is the difference be-tween angles of incidence of the
wings of a biplane. If the upper
wings have more incidence than
the lower wings, then the decalage
is positive. If the lower wings have
more incidence than the upper
wings, then the decalage is negative.
Figure 2 shows the angle of in-cidence of the wings of a biplane.
When the ailerons are on the up-
per wing only, then the upper wing
will have less angle of incidence
than the lower wings, so the lower
wings will commence to stall before
the upper wings. If the ailerons are
on the lower wings, then the op-posite is true. On most of the older
airfoils the angle of incidence can
be measured by placing a straight
edge from leading edge to trailing
edge on the bottom surface of the
wing. And with the fuselage leveled
longitudinally, you can read the an-
gle with a protractor.
Read the same angle for boththe left and right wings. I also mea-
sured the angle of incidence (on
my Command-Aire) before the
wings were covered by placing a
straight piece of wood between the
spars and reading the angle with
a protractor. If you don’t read thesame angle, fix it before covering
or you will have a lousy-flying air-
plane when you’re finished.
Check the angles of incidence
for both upper and lower wings
at the root. (Figure 3.) The angles
should be exactly the same for both
left and right wing roots. If they arenot the same, fix the problem be-
fore proceeding with the restora-
tion process.
I installed a set of newly fabri-
cated 4412 high-lift wings on an
ag Stearman biplane many years
ago. I could not rig the airplane
for level flight; the airplane always
wanted to roll to the right and was
airspeed sensitive. After much frus-
trating time spent trying to rem-
edy the problem, I looked closely
at the center section. Someone had
repaired the center section by re-
placing the front spar; however,
the attach fittings were not prop-
erly located on the spar. The resultwas that one upper wing had more
angle of incidence than the other
wing. There was absolutely no way
to rig the airplane to fly properly,
so I had to replace the entire cen-
ter section.
EMPENNAGE ALIGNMENT: An-
gle of incidence setting of hori-
zontal stabilizer. The horizontal
stabilizer provides longitudinal sta-
bility for the aircraft during flight,
so again the setting is critical. Some
horizontal stabs are fixed and some
are adjustable.
Many fixed horizontal stabiliz-ers have a negative angle of inci-
dence; that is, the leading edge is
lower than the trailing edge. This
is to provide for positive longitu-
dinal stability, as the lifting force
on most all horizontal stabilizers
is down. With the fuselage leveled
longitudinally, place a str aightedge across the stabilizer and read
the setting with a protractor. If
the stabilizer is adjustable, check
the incidence at both extremes us-
ing a straight edge and protractor.
Hopefully there is manufacturer’s
data to tell you what the setting
should be and where the neutral
setting is located.
Many aircraft with propellers
that turn to the right (as viewed
from the pilot’s seat) have the ver-
tical stabilizer offset to the left
slightly to counteract effects of en-
gine torque. If the vertical stabi-
lizer is not adjustable, don’t worry
about it. You’ll need to rig the air-plane for yaw problems with a tab
on the rudder.
ENGINE ALIGNMENT (F ig-
ure 4): An important factor when
FIGURE 2
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line would be described as a con-
tinuation of the engine crank-
shaft centerline. It may or may
not be the fuselage longitudinal
axis. Some engines have a smallamount of right side thrust to
counteract torque effect. And a
few aircraft were designed with
a small amount of down thrust.
Again, check the drawings.
FUSELAGE FRAME (Figure 4). Tie
rods in a Pratt-type frame should be
adjusted carefully to assure proper
alignment of attaching surfaces.
Here, trammel points are punchedinto the fuselage longerons at each
station (cluster). The fuselage is
aligned by loosening and tighten-
ing the wires in each bay until the
fuselage is straight.
LANDING GEAR ALIGNMENT
(Figures 5, 6 and 7): Two factors
are important in correct landing
gear alignment. They are toe-in
and camber . Illustrations below
show how to place the aircraft
on grease plates to allow the gear
to walk out to its position when
loaded. Gear alignment checks
should be made with the aircraft
at gross weight and in the three-
point attitude.
I set my landing gears with
no toe-in or toe-out; however, asmall amount of toe-in, maybe up
to 1/8 inch, can be used. A small
amount of toe-in will relax ten-
sion on shock cords when the air-
craft taxies. Toe-out would cause
the landing gear to walk out, thus
further loading the shock cords. I
also like to set a small amount of posi tive camber . On many ships,
once the landing gear is welded
in place it is impossible to change
the toe-in/toe-out condition.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 5
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Illustrations used here are re-
moved from a Cessna L-19 main-
tenance manual and are typical for
aircraft with a spring steel gear. If
no data on landing gear alignment
for a particular model aircraft can
be located, I use the above data as a
guide to setting landing gear align-ment. Typical toe-in for the L-19
is from 0 to 1/16 inch (0.06 inch).
Typical camber setting is from 0 to
1 degree (1/8 inch or 0.125 inch).
These dimensions would be sim-
ilar to most aircraft. I do not set
my landing gears with toe-out or
negative camber. I am aware that
some folks like a small amount
of toe-out in their landing gears.
However, with a rubber shock
cord gear, the tow-out will make
the gear spread out, thus stressing
shock cords when the ship is in
motion on the ground.
Gear alignment is most impor-
tant if the aircraft is to display good
ground-handling qualities. When I
fabricated the landing gear for myCommand-Aire, I spent much time
aligning the landing gear. My land-
ing gear had too much camber, so I
eliminated the problem by cutting
two shims from heavy-wall PVC
pipe, splitting one side and sliding
it in place above the shock portion
of the gear. A hose clamp assured
the shim would stay in place.
After the shock cords were cov-
ered with a leather boot, the shims
and clamps were invisible. Another
check that should be made is tail
wheel alignment. With the rudder
pedals in neutral, lift the aft fuse-
lage up so the tail wheel no longer
touches the ground. Note the posi-
tion of the tail wheel. It should be
in the neutral position. Then movethe rudder pedals and note if tail
wheel steering is positive. The tail
wheel should move to correspond
with rudder deflection.
Finally, hold the rudder in the
neutral position and try to move
the tail wheel left and right. There
should be movement resistance. If
the tail wheel moves without rud-
der movement, investigate why
this is happening and fix the prob-
FIGURE 7
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Not only do these tires set your vintage plane apart fromthe rest, but also look exceptional on all General Aviationaircraft. Deep 8/32nd tread depth offers above averagetread life and UV treated rubber resists aging.
lem. Positive tail wheel steering is an important factor
to control the airplane on the ground. Some aircraft
are designed with a locking tail wheel; the New Stan-
dard D-25 I fly is that way.
On this aircraft, a symmetry check of the tail wheel
is made to assure the tail wheel tracks straight when
locked for takeoff and landing. I’ve only flown a cou-
ple airplanes that had no steering and no locking
device on the tail wheel. The Precissi Travel Air and
Kermit Week’s Ford Tri-Motor are two examples. Here
you must rely totally on good brakes to keep the air-
craft tracking straight down the runway.
Too much toe-in will cause excessive tire wear, par-
ticularly if the aircraft is operated from hard-surfacerunways. Excessive positive camber will cause heavy
wear on the tires on the outer half of tread. If the
aircraft is equipped with a shock cord—type landing
gear, as the cords wear, the wheel camber will go to
the negative, and the top of the wheels will move to-
ward the fuselage. We don’t want this as it decreases
prop-to-ground clearance. If this happens, tighten or
replace the shock cords.Landing gear alignment is always done with the air-
plane at gross weight and in the normal taxi position. I
used to adjust the wheel alignment every 100 hours on
Cessna L-19 airplanes when I was in the Army. I always
put two people in the airplane to get it as close to gross
weight as possible. So one should use this same tech-
nique when setting gear alignment on old aircraft.
SYMMETRY CHECK: The sketch in Figure 8 shows a
symmetry check on an Aeronca L-16. You can accom-
plish this on any airplane—simply use a measuring tape
and compare dimensions of hard points of the airplane.
Compare a dimension on the right side of the airplane to
the same measurement on left side of airplane. Dimen-
sions should be close to the same, perhaps within 1/4
to 1/2 inch of each other, again depending on the type
of airplane. If the airplane does strange things on theground and is a handful to control, perhaps the problem
is in landing gear alignment. Measure from a fixed point
on the landing gear, say the axle to a fixed point on the
tail post. The farther apart the measurements are, the
worse the ground handling of the airplane.
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While recently attend-
ing the 25th Annual
Sentimental Journey
Fly-In held at Piper
Memorial Airport in Lock Haven,
Pennsylvania, my friend Mark Stew-
art and I were watching airplanesand their pilots hopping rides and
demonstrating their piloting tech-
niques doing takeoffs, landings, and
flybys. Most every airplane, when
on the approach to land, employed
a forward slip to achieve a touch-
down on the numbers and make the
first turn-off comfortably and safely.
Mark turned to me and commented,
“The slip really is a lost art and a ma-
neuver many pilots really don’t un-
derstand or use today.” I agreed.
The slip, when implemented cor-
rectly, is a useful and safe tool for
pilots young and old, provided it is
practiced with some regularity. But
with the introduction of flaps it hasbecome a lost art, even though pi-
lots flying flap-equipped airplanes
should understand the slip and be
able to perform it when needed.
Ask yourself these questions:
a crosswind landing, you’re execut-
ing a side slip.”
There are two types of slips: the
forward slip and the side slip. In the
simplest of definitions, the forward
slip is used to lose altitude, while the
side slip is used for runway align-ment. Let’s take a look at their re-
spective similarities and differences.
The forward slip is often em-
ployed when a pilot has set up for
the final approach to land and hasexcess altitude, when making ob-
stacle landings (especially at short
fields), or when making a spot land-
ing. A forward slip allows for the
aircraft to maintain a straight-line
How to Practice Forward SlipsThe next time you make a plea-
sure flight, climb to an altitude
of about 2,500 feet above ground
level (AGL). Level off and align
your airplane with a straight road
that is also aligned with the surfacewind. If the wind is generally from
the south, fly south over a north/
south road. Reduce the power to
the setting used on final approach
to land and establish the final ap-
proach glide speed. Apply left aile-
ron, lowering the left wing about
10-15 degrees (similar to a shallow
bank turn). The airplane will want
to turn left. Now apply opposite,
or right, rudder using just enough
rudder that the airplane continues
to track in a straight line over the
road. The airspeed will give you
erratic readings whenever doing
slips, so it is more important to
focus on maintaining the correctdescent or glide attitude. You may
need to apply very slight forward
pressure on the stick or yoke to do
so. Continue the descent and track
for 1,000 feet of descent; then re-
BY Steve Krog, CFI
The lost art of slips
THE Vintage
Instructor
“When was the last
time I performed aslip, and how often
have I practiced slips?
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applying left rudder. Hold your de-
scent attitude and track over the
road for 1,000 feet and then return
to level-cruise flight. A forward slip
to the right will often feel more
awkward than the forward slip to
the left.
Try practicing the forward slip
from a safe altitude a few more
times, increasing the wing-down
angle a little more each time.
You’ll soon find that you will reach
a point where you run out of rud-
der and cannot hold the straightline track. Now you know
how far you can go with the
slip in your airplane and still
have full directional control.
Congratulations! You’ve just
acted as a “test pilot” and
found the limits of your air-
plane in a slip.If your aircraft is equipped
with a vertical speed indi-
cator (VSI), note the rate of
descent while holding the
plane in the forward slip.
Compare it to the normal
rate of descent used when
flying your final approach.
Once comfortable enter-
ing and exiting the forward slip,
you’re ready to give it a try in the
traffic pattern. Fly a normal pat-
tern, but intentionally maintain
some excess altitude. If you nor-
mally turn final at approximately
500 feet above the ground, main-
tain altitude and turn final at 800feet above the ground. Once es-
tablished on final approach with
power reduced and normal glide
attitude established, enter into a
forward slip to eliminate the ex-
been making crosswind landings
for a long time, you may want to
practice the side slip.
Again, climb to an altitude
about 2,500 feet above the ground.
Level off and align your airplane
with a straight road that is perpen-
dicular to the surface wind. If the
wind is generally from the south,
fly over an east/west road. Reduce
the power to the power setting
used on final approach to land. Es-
tablish final-approach glide speed.
If the wind is from the left, apply
left aileron, lowering the left wing
about 10-15 degrees (similar to a
shallow bank turn). The airplane
will want to turn left. Now apply
just enough opposite, or right,
rudder so that the nose of the air-
plane—or longitudinal axis—re-
mains aligned with the road. Adda little power, perhaps 100 rpm.
The airspeed will give you erratic
readings whenever doing slips, so
focus on maintaining the correct
descent or glide attitude. You may
rudder to maintain alignment with
the road. Add 100 rpm and continue
with the side slip for 1,000 feet of
descent. Then level off and resume
cruise flight. If you’ve allowed the
airplane to drift away due to the
wind, add a bit more wing-down ai-
leron, causing the airplane to move
back to the road. Once over and
aligned with the road, adjust the
amount of aileron and rudder to
remain over the road.
After trying the side slip both
left and right several times andre a c h i ng y ou r c omf or t
level, it’s time to give it a
try in the traffic pattern. If
you are truly landing with
a crosswind, some level of
the side slip will need to
be maintained throughout
the approach and landing.In a tailwheel airplane the
main gear wheel most into
the wind will touch down
first, followed by the other
main gear. This is necessary
to maintain airplane align-
ment with the runway cen-
terline. Then the tail wheel
will touch down. From this
point forward, follow through
with the normal crosswind land-
ing inputs.
The slip is one of the basic ma-
neuvers that, when understood
and practiced, will give the pilot
an added tool for safely putting the
airplane exactly where he or shewants on the approach to land. A
slip can be put in, taken out, or ad-
justed as needed to modify the rate
of descent or runway alignment
(when landing with a crosswind).
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Send your answer to EAA,
Vintage Airplane, P.O. Box 3086,
Oshkosh, WI 54903-3086. Your
answer needs to be in no later
than September 20 for inclusion
in the November 2010 issue
o f V i n t a g e Airplane.
You can also send your re-
sponse via e-mail. Send your
answer to mysteryplane@eaa.org .
Be sure to include your name
plus your city and state in the
body of your note and put“(Month) Mystery Plane” in the
subject line.
by H.G. FRAUTSCHY
MYSTERY PLANE
This month’s Mystery Plane comes from the EAA archives
M A Y ’S M Y S T E RY A N S W E R
The May Mystery Plane came to The May 2010 Mystery Plane seems his characteristic octagonal wooden
8/20/2019 Vintage Airplane - Aug 2010
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completed in early 1929 with a 220-hp
Wright J-5 (R-790) and received Group
2 Approval as No. 2-15 on March 1,
1929. It is, apparently, this specific
aircraft because your photo seems to
have been taken at the same time, butfrom a different angle and without the
tripod at the tail, as it is in the photo
in Juptner’s U.S. Civil Aircraft, Vol. 9
for Group 2-15. Aerofiles.com aided
me greatly as well.
The International Aircraft Corp. of
Ancor, Ohio, built this aircraft as a
follow-on to their open-front-cockpit(for two) F-17W (same Wright engine)
under ATC 154 in 5/29 and the open-
front-cockpit F-17H (Hispano-Suiza
liquid-cooled V-8 of 150-180 hp)
under ATC 155 in 5/29. All F-17 and
F-18 aircraft had open rear cockpits.
International was founded in about
1927 in Long Beach, California, and
by 1930 was in Jackson, Michigan,
where it went out of business.
Jack Er ickson, State Col lege ,
Pennsylvania
Other correct answers were
received from Sharon Rajnus,
Malin, Oregon; Wayne Muxlow,
Minneapolis, Minnesota; WesSmith, Springfield, Illinois; and
Doug Rounds, Zebulon, Georgia,
who points out that information on
the F-18 can be found in numerous
places including T-Hangar Tales
by Joe Juptner and Juptner’s U.S.
Civil Aircraft, Vol. 2, ATC 154, and
it’s described in the 1928 editionof Jane ’s Al l the World ’s Ai rc ra ft .
Thomas Lymburn of Princeton,
Minnesota, pointed out that the
earlier three-seat F-17 Sportsman
was built in quantity (at least
f h d)
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EAAMembership in the Experimental Aircraft
Association, Inc. is $40 for one year, includ-ing 12 issues of SPORT AVIATION . Familymembership is an additional $10 annually. Allmajor credit cards accepted for membership.(Add $16 for International Postage.)
FOREIGN MEMBERSHIPSPlease submit your remittance with a
check or draft drawn on a United Statesbank payable in United States dollars. Addrequired Foreign Postage amount for eachmembership.
VINTAGE AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATIONCurrent EAA members may join the
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WARBIRDSCurrent EAA members may join the EAA
Warbirds of America Division and receiveWARBIRDS magazine for an additional$45 per year.
EAA Membership, WARBIRDS mag-azine and one year membership in theWarbirds Division is available for $55 per
year (SPORT OficAVIATION magazinenot included). (Add $7 for InternationalPostage.)
IACCurrent EAA members may join the
International Aerobatic Club, Inc. Divi-sion and receive SPORT AEROBATICS magazine for an additional $45 per year.
MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION
VINTAGE
AIRCRAFT
ASSOCIATION
OFFICERS
DIRECTORS
DIRECTORS
EMERITUS
PresidentGeoff Robison
1521 E. MacGregor Dr.New Haven, IN 46774
260-493-4724chief7025@aol.com
Vice-PresidentGeorge Daubner
N57W34837 Pondview LnOconomowoc, WI 53066
262-560-1949 gdaubner@eaa.org
Steve Bender85 Brush Hill Road
Sherborn, MA 01770508-653-7557
sst10@comcast.net
David Bennett375 Killdeer Ct
Lincoln, CA 95648916-645-8370
antiquer@inreach.com
Jerry Brown4605 Hickory Wood Row
Greenwood, IN 46143317-422-9366
lbrown4906@aol.com
Dave Clark635 Vestal Lane
Plainfield, IN 46168317-839-4500davecpd@att.net
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Northborough, MA 01532508-393-4775
copeland1@juno.com
Phil Coulson28415 Springbrook Dr.
Lawton, MI 49065269-624-6490
rcoulson516@cs.com
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Indianapolis, IN 46278317-293-4430
dalefaye@msn.com
Jeannie HillP.O. Box 328
Harvard, IL 60033-0328815-943-7205
Espie “Butch” Joyce704 N. Regional Rd.
Greensboro, NC 27409336-668-3650
windsock@aol.com
Steve Krog1002 Heather Ln.
Hartford, WI 53027262-966-7627sskrog@aol.com
Robert D. “Bob” Lumley1265 South 124th St.Brookfield, WI 53005
262-782-2633lumper@execpc.com
S.H. “Wes” Schmid2359 Lefeber AvenueWauwatosa, WI 53213
414-771-1545shschmid@gmail.com
Robert C. Brauer9345 S. Hoyne
Chicago, IL 60643773-779-2105
photopilot@aol.com
Gene Chase2159 Carlton Rd.
Oshkosh, WI 54904920-231-5002
GRCHA@charter.net
Ronald C. Fritz15401 Sparta Ave.
Kent City, MI 49330616-678-5012
rFritz@pathwaynet.com
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918-622-8400cwh@hvsu.com
E.E. “Buck” Hilbert8102 Leech Rd.Union, IL 60180
815-923-4591buck7ac@gmail.com
Gene Morris5936 Steve Court
Roanoke, TX 76262817-491-9110
genemorr is@char ter.net
Membership Services DirectoryEnjoy the many benefits of EAA and
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EAA Aviation Center, PO Box 3086, Oshkosh WI 54903-3086Phone (920) 426-4800 Fax (920) 426-4873Web Sites: www.vintageaircraft.org, www.airventure.org, www.eaa.org/memberbenefits E-Mail: vintageaircraft@eaa.org
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Use this toll-free number for: information about AirVenture Oshkosh; aeromedical and technical aviation questions;
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MISCELLANEOUS
Flying wires available. 1994 pricing. Visitwww.flyingwires.com or call 800-517-9278.
AIRPLANE T-SHIRTS 150 different airplanesavailable. WE PROBABLY HAVE YOUR
AIRPLANE! www.airplanetshirts.com or call1-800-645-7739. We also do Custom T-shirtsand Caps for Clubs.
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Looking for Stinson L-5, Lycoming O-435, orother aircraft parts? Check www.StinsonL-
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EAA’s online Calendar of Events is the “go-to” spot on the Web to list and find avia-tion events in your area. The user-friendly, searchable format makes it the perfect web-
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In EAA’s online Calendar of Events, you can search for events at any given time within
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Which seat in an aircraft
is the right seat? There’s
the nonstandard pilot
in command (PIC) seat,
which can be on the right side, thefront, or back, depending on the air-
frame. There’s also the “right” seat
where “right” denotes correct, ap-
propriate, or good.
Sometimes the right seat can be
the wrong seat. Ask any instruc-
tor, and she will tell you there have
been times when the right seat was
ple refuse to get back into a little air-
plane because their first experiences
had them scared out of their wits?
Doesn’t that defeat the purpose of
introducing someone to flight?Of course the right seat can be
the “right” seat for business or travel
purposes; a good flight in the right
seat could add another aviator to
the field. One of my favorite spots is
in the right seat beside my airplane’s
former owner. In the “right” seat
I can completely relax and let my
being the “right” seat, there would
be no first flights or Young Eagles
flights. Sometimes the left seat is
the “right” seat to spend time with
nonpilot friends or family for tripsor sig