Vintage Airplane - Aug 2008

8/20/2019 Vintage Airplane - Aug 2008

1/44


2/44

POSITION R ORT

Tom

Poberezny

President

EAA

Direction

of

EAA

hen d now

e n t l y I received a letter from

an

EAA member

(his EAA

umber is below 4,000) who

has

attended

51 conventions He

shared his thoughts regarding his

EAA

membership and said something that

generated the reason for this column.

He knew of EAA members who were

displeased with

EAA s direction.

He

stated, "Tom, they do not understand

what EAA means

to

me and many

thousands of others. They never will,

as they are non-participants in events

or never

enjoyed the

family atmo

sphere we have enjoyed camping all

those years starting in Rockford."

I want to share my thoughts about

EAA s direction and the results we

have achieved

to date.

I

have

cho

sen five areas of importance,

among

many, that highlight our initial vi

sion and current accomplishments:

Building your own

airplane-EAA

was

founded

on the principle

that

people should have the privilege

to

build their own airplane. Over the

past five decades, the homebuilt air

within the aviation industry.

Some members have said

we

have

lost our homebuilding focus. In reality,

we have expanded our focus and en

gaged more people than ever before.

E

AirVenture Oshkosh-Your an

nual convention started in Milwau

kee in 1953. Afew dozen aircraft from

short

distances away

attended.

To

day,

EAA

AirVenture Oshkosh

is the

world's premier aviation event. Some

say it's

grown too big or too

com

mercial, but

whom

do you tell

not

to

come? The

impact

of "Oshkosh"

is

felt worldwide. The event's results

and

stature speak for themselves.

The EAA Aviation

Ce nt

er-EAA s

first permanent headquarters was a

small building

in

a Milwaukee suburb.

In the early 1980s, I led the team that

developed the EAA Aviation Center,

which includes the EAA AirVenture

Museum,

EAA

headquarters, Leader

ship Center, Pioneer Airport,

and the

Air Academy Lodge.

Our

vision was

to

make Oshkosh

the home

for sport

and

general aviation year-round,

not

million youth by 2003, the 100th an

niversary of

powered flight. Today,

almost 1.4

million young people

have experienced flight,

and

thou

sands more have participated in EAA

programs

such

as

the

Air Academy,

AeroScholars, KidVenture, and EAA

AirVenture Museum educational ini

tiatives. This has contributed signifi

cantly

to

building aviation's future

through the next generation of pi

lots, builders,

and

leaders.

Sport Pilot/Light Sport

Aircrafr-

The

vision of this initiative, which began

more than a dozen years ago, was to

lower the economic and time barriers

to becoming a pilot and to encourage

the development of more affordable

aircraft. The

sport pilot/light-sport

aircraft regulation accomplishes

that

by reducing the investment of time

and money needed to learn to fly and

creating

a

new category

of aircraft.

I t may take another five

to

10 years

for the aviation community to see a

significant benefit,

but

already more

young people are

becoming

pilots,


3/44

..

;.aG

N E

UGUST

VOL

36, NO.8

2 8

CONTENTS

I

Fe Position Report:

Direction of

EAA

Then and now

by Tom Poberezny

2

News

6 Aeromail

8 East Meets West

Herb Clark

and

Wacovia

UPFski

by Budd Davisson

5 The Evening Display

A wide variety of aeroplanes of

the

Shuttleworth Trust

by David Macready

Light Plane Heritage

Remember the Klemm

Part

II

by

Bob

Whittier

8 The Vintage Mechanic

Troubleshooting

techniques-

Learning

the

system

by Robert

G.

Lock

34

What

Our Members Are Restoring

36 Mystery Plane

by H.G. Frautschy

STAFF

EAA

Publisher

Tom Poberezny

Director of

EAA Publications David Hipschman

Executive Director

/Edi

tor

H.G.

Frautschy

EAA Art

Director

Olivia

P Trabbold


4/44

Call for V Hall of Fame

Nominations

Nominate your favorite aviator for

the E Vintage Aircraft Association

Hall of Fame. A huge honor could be

bestowed upon that man or woman

working next to you on your air-

plane, sitting next to you in the chap

ter meeting, or walking next to you

at

E

AirVenture Oshkosh. Think

about the people in your circle of

aviation friends: the mechanic, pho

tographer, or pilot who has shared

innumerable tips with you and with

many others. They could be the next

V

Hall

of Fame

inductees-but

only

if

they are nominated.

The person you nominate can

be a citizen of any

country and

may

be living or deceased, and his

or her involvement in vintage avi

ation

must

have occurred between

1950

and the

present day. His or

her

contribution

could be in the

areas of flying, design, mechanical

or aerodynamic developments, ad

ministration, writing, some

other

vital and relevant field, or any

combination of fields that support

aviation. The person you

nominate

must be or have been a member of

the Vintage Aircraft Association,

and preference is given to those

whose

actions

have contributed

to the

V

in some way, perhaps

as a volunteer, a restorer who

shares his expertise

with

others, a

writer, a photographer, or a pilot

sharing stories, preserving aviation

history,

and

encouraging

new

pi

lots and enthusiasts.

To

nominate

someone

is

easy. It

just takes a little time and a little

reminiscing on your part.

- Think of a person;

think

of his

or her contributions.

- Write those contributions in the

various categories of

the

form.

- Write a simple letter highlight

ing these attributes and contribu

tions. Make copies of newspaper or

magazine articles that may substan

tiate your view.

f you can, have another person

complete a form or write a letter about

this person, confirming why the per

son is a good candidate for induction.

- Mail the form to:

V

Ha

ll of

Fame

Charles W. Harris, Chairman

7215 East 46

th

St.

Tulsa, OK 74147

Remember, your

contempo

rary" may be a candidate;

nominate

someone today

Call the V office for a form

(920-426-6110), find it

at www

VintageAircraft.org

or on your own

sheet of paper, simply include the

following information:

- Date submitted.

- Name of person nominated.

- Address and phone number of

nominee.

- Date of birth of nominee. If de

ceased, date of death.

- Name

and

relationship of

nominee' s closest living relative.

- Address

and

phone

of

nomi

nee's closest living relative.

- E-mail address of nominee.

- Time

span (dates)

of the

nominee's contributions to avia

tion. (Must be between 1950 to

present

day.)

- V

and E

number, if

known. (Nominee must have

been or is a V member.)

- Area(s) of contr ibutions to

aviation.

- Describe the event(s) or na

ture of activities the nominee

has undertaken

in

aviation to

be worthy of induction into the

V Hall of Fame.

- Describe achievements the

nominee

has made in

other

related

fields in aviation.

- Has

the

nominee already been

honored

for his or

her

involve

ment

in aviation

and/or the

con

tribution you are stating in this

petition?

I f

yes, please explain

the

nature of the honor and/or award

the

nominee

has received.

- Any additional supporting

information.

- Submitter's address

and

phone

number, plus e-mail address.

- Include any supporting mate

rial with your petition.

http:///reader/full/VintageAircraft.orghttp:///reader/full/VintageAircraft.org


5/44

Welcome

t

AirVenture

Wherever ou Are

It's August, and many EAAers

are reading

this

issue

at

EAA Air

Venture Oshkosh. Here's a quick

summary

of

important informa

tion to

help you make

the most

of

your visit

to

The World's Greatest

Aviation Celebration.

Not able

to

attend AirVenture?

Then

we invite you

to

follow along

at

www.AirVenture.org

where you'll

find news

and

feature stories, daily

videos,

photo

galleries,

and

more.

To access the complete AirVenture

videoplayer, visit

www.AirVenture.

org click on MultiMedia and Vid

eos to

launch

the player.

-The EAA Welcome Center

Learn about exclusive EAA pro

grams and services, join or renew

your

membership,

check

your

e

mail at

the

Internet Cafe, and more.

Located west of AeroShell Square.

-Homebuilders Headquarters

Stop

by

to see hundreds of home

built aircraft, learn

about EAA

programs

and services for home

builders,

and

register your new

homebuilt

(certificated th is year)

to

be the milestone

30,000th

home

built aircraft in the United States.

-Learn to

Fly Center-Looking

for information about pursuing

the dream

of flight? Ask

the

ex

perts staffing

the

Learn to Fly Cen

ter,

tryout simulated

flight on one

of

the

flight sims, or

attend

flight

seminar presentations

. EAA

mem

bers

may

also receive a free

sport

pilot

student

pilot

certificate, sav

ing

$50.

-Affordable Flying

Center-Dis

cover

ways EAA members are

achieving and maintaining the

dream

of flight

on

limited budgets.

Visitors are invited to

stop by

and

provide

their

own frugal flight tips.

Located

in

the NASA building.

-Theater in the

Woods-Enjoy

nightly entertaining and

informa

tive evening programs, beginning

July 27.

Theater

in the

Woods

is

supported

by M&M'S.

-EAA Fly-In Theater-Ford Mo

tor

Company and Eclipse Aviation

once again bring the Fly-In The

ater to AirVenture, with nightly

aviation

movies

introduced by

celebrity

presenters,

including

Harrison Ford, John Travolta, Os

car-winning producer

Ben Shedd,

and

others.

-WomenVenture-All women

@eaa.org

pilots are

invited

to be a

part

of a

weeklong effort to

encourage more

women to

learn

to fly,

including

the

world's largest

gathering

of fe-

male

pilots

on

Friday, August

1 at

10:30 a.m.

on

AeroShell Square.

Not able to

come

to Oshkosh, but

want to

show your support?

Visit

www.AirVenture.org/200B/events/

WomenVenture.html

and sign the

WomenVenture

logbook.

EAA

AirVenture Info

Guide-

Every attendee gets one free No

other

source provides

as

much

useful information on scheduled

events, exhibitors, air shows, fo

rums

and

presentations,

and work

shops. You name it, it's in the

Info

Guide

presented

by Ford Motor

Company. It's also available on

line on www.AirVenture.org.soif

you re

on the

grounds, you can

ac

cess the information via any Wi-Fi

hotspot.

-AirVenture

Today Pick up Air

Venture s

official

newspaper

each

day and read about what s hap

pening on-site. I t will also be

posted online and e-mailed daily

in

a special

e-Hotline.

Not

an

e-

Hotline

subscriber? Visit

www.EAA.

org/newsletters

to sign up.

http:///reader/full/www.AirVenture.orghttp://www.airventure/http://www.airventure.org/200B/eventshttp://www.airventure.org.soif/http:///reader/full/www.AirVenture.orghttp://www.airventure/http://www.airventure.org/200B/eventshttp://www.airventure.org.soif/


6/44

EAA

Participates

in

Industry FAA Study for

Part

3

Certification Review

EAA

recently participated in a

Part 23 ad

hoc

certification stan

dards

comm

ittee meeting

in

Kan

sas City, Missouri. Created

at

the

request of the Federal Aviation Ad

ministration Small Airplane Di

rectorate, the committee

is

tasked

with recommending

changes

for

small aircraft. Part 23 regulates air

worthiness

standards

of

normal,

utility, aerobatic,

and

commuter

category airplanes.

EAA's

Vintage

Aircraft Association Executive Di

rector H.G. Frautschy represents

EAA

and

is

co-chairman of the Con

tinued

Airworthiness subgroup.

The committee includes repre

sentatives from

various

certifica

tion and

operational offices

within

the

FAA

as well as from the General

Aviation Manufacturers Associa

tion, National Air Transportation

Association, Aircraft Owners and

Pilots Association, and Aircraft Elec

tronics Association.

John

Colomy,

the directorate's acting assistant

manager, urged committee mem

bers to consider the lessons learned

from aircraft maintenance

and

cer

tification issues

that

have come to

light over the past few years

and

ap

ply them to a new version of Part 23

that

will be created after the follow

up certification review by the FAA.

The

review is

intended to

give

the

regulations relevance to air

craft that

will be certificated

in

the

future. Issues discussed

included

aircraft airframe maintenance

and

Museum Guidebook

Published

The EAA AirVenture Museum is

celebrating its

25th

year in Oshkosh

with the release of a new

EAA

Air

Venture Museum Guidebook. The

48-page publication

is

filled with col

orful photographs of the planes and

the people highlighted in the mu

seum's exhibits, beginning with the

Wright brothers and the early years

of flight and ending with the eclectic

collection of Treasures From EAA's

Attic donated by

EAA

members

and

other aviation enthusiasts. Museum

visitors can use the publication

as

a

companion to their tour and

as

a re

membrance of their visit. The Guide

book, available in the museum's gift

shop, costs $8.95 for members and

$9.95 for nonmembers.

nir of this year's event, printed on

heavier paper

and

including more

photos and interesting articles . . . and

with room for air show performers'

autographs. Price of

the

commemo

rative program

is

7,

and

a copy of

the

Oshkosh: The Spirit o Aviation

DVD is bundled with each copy.

In addition to traditional distri

bution

outlets on

the

grounds ,

you ll also see

programs

bundled

with an exclusive Oshkosh T-shirt

design that will be available for a

special price

at

selected

EAA

mer

chandise locations.

Ken Kotik

We're sorry to report that avi

ation artist Ken Kotik, whose

unique hangar/studio at Creve

Coeur Airport near St. Louis was

truly a work of art in itself, has

passed away after a brief illness.

Ken, whose aviation art clients in

cluded Fairchild Aircraft, Falcon

Jet, Sabreliner, and McDonnell

Douglas (where he was a staff art

ist for years), enjoyed present

ing

all facets of

aviation

though

his artwork. One of Ken's paint-

ings was

featured on the back

cover of last year's July issue of

Vintage Airplane and a print of his

artwork was made available to Di


7/44

Last of a Generation

ohn Miller 1905-2008)

Summer 1939- Eastern Airlines Captain John

Miller

flies

the

mail

from

the

roof

of the

Philadelphia Post Office in a Kellett

KD-1

autogyro.

W

hen John Miller EAA 37635) was 4 years old,

he

saw

Glenn

Curtiss

fly

his

Hudson Flyer

down

the

Hudson

River

from

Al

bany to

New York City

to win

a $10,000 prize

sponsored

by

New ork World

newspaper.

One of

Curtiss'

two

allowed fue l stops

was

in

a farmer's field across the road from the Miller family farm.

I

did not

see

him

land,

he

told

EAA in 2003, but

my father

took me

over

to

see

the

flying

machine

after

he landed, and

I was so

thrilled

when he took

off and flew

down

t

he

river

that

I lost all inter

est

in becoming

a

steam

l

ocomotive

engineer. Miller passed away

on June

16

in

his native Poughkeepsie, New York,

at

the

age

of

102.

He began flying

at

age 18 and

went on to attend the

Pratt

Institute

for

Mechanical

Engineering,

graduating in

Ju

ne

1927. He

skipped

school

to

travel

to

Roosevelt Field

on

Long Island

to

witness Charles

Lindbergh take off

at

the start

of

his historic nonstop flight

to

Paris

U p c o m i n g

M

a j 0 r

F l y In s

Mid-Eastern Regional Fly-In

Mansfield Lahm Regional Airport

(MFD), Mansfield, Ohio

August 23 24, 2008

www.MERFI.info

Southeast Regional Fly-In

Middleton Field Airport GZH),

Evergreen, Alabama

October 24-26, 2008

www.SERFI.org

Rocky Mountain Regional Fly-In

Front Range Airport FTG), Denver

(Watkins), Colorado

September 19-21, 2008

Copperstate Regional Fly-In

Casa Grande Municipal Airport

CGZ),

Casa Grande, Arizona

October 23-26, 2008

www.Copperstate.org

u.S. Sport Aviation Expo

Sebring Regional Airport SEF) ,

Sebring, Florida

January 22-25, 2009

ww

w.Sport-Aviation-Expo.com

Aero Friedrichshafen

Messe Friedrichshafen (EDNy),

Friedrichshafen, Germany

April 2-5, 2009

www.Aero-Fri

e

richshafen.

omlhtml

l en

Sun 'n Fun Fly-In

Lakeland Linder Regional Airport (LAL),

Lakeland, Florida

April 21-26, 2009

http://www.merfi.info/http://www.merfi.info/http://www.merfi.info/http:///reader/full/www.SERFI.orghttp:///reader/full/www.SERFI.orghttp:///reader/full/www.SERFI.orghttp:///reader/full/www.SERFI.orghttp:///reader/full/www.SERFI.orghttp:///reader/full/www.Copperstate.orghttp:///reader/full/www.Sport-Aviation-Expo.comhttp:///reader/full/www.Sport-Aviation-Expo.comhttp:///reader/full/www.Sport-Aviation-Expo.comhttp:///reader/full/www.Sport-Aviation-Expo.comhttp:///reader/full/www.Sport-Aviation-Expo.comhttp:///reader/full/www.Sport-Aviation-Expo.comhttp:///reader/full/www.Sport-Aviation-Expo.comhttp:///reader/full/www.Sport-Aviation-Expo.comhttp:///reader/full/www.Sport-Aviation-Expo.comhttp:///reader/full/www.Sport-Aviation-Expo.comhttp://www.aero-friedrichshafen.comlhtmllen/http://www.aero-friedrichshafen.comlhtmllen/http://www.aero-friedrichshafen.comlhtmllen/http://www.aero-friedrichshafen.comlhtmllen/http://www.aero-friedrichshafen.comlhtmllen/http://www.aero-friedrichshafen.comlhtmllen/http://www.aero-friedrichshafen.comlhtmllen/http://www.aero-friedrichshafen.comlhtmllen/http://www.aero-friedrichshafen.comlhtmllen/http://www.aero-friedrichshafen.comlhtmllen/http://www.aero-friedrichshafen.comlhtmllen/http:///reader/full/www.Sun-N-Fun.orghttp:///reader/full/www.Sun-N-Fun.orghttp:///reader/full/www.Sun-N-Fun.orghttp:///reader/full/www.Sun-N-Fun.orghttp:///reader/full/www.Sun-N-Fun.orghttp:///reader/full/www.Sun-N-Fun.orghttp:///reader/full/www.Sun-N-Fun.orghttp://www.merfi.info/http:///reader/full/www.SERFI.orghttp:///reader/full/www.Copperstate.orghttp:///reader/full/www.Sport-Aviation-Expo.comhttp://www.aero-friedrichshafen.comlhtmllen/http:///reader/full/www.Sun-N-Fun.org


8/44

SEND YOUR COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS TO:

VAA LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

P O Box 3086

OSHKOSH,

WI 54903-3086

OR

YOU

CAN E-MAIL THEM TO:

[email protected]

The Vintage Instructor

Runway Incursions

in the

May

2008

issue is an extremely inter

esting article, covering

important

stuff. I'm a retired air traffic control

ler. Controllers who refer to

the end

of a runway are chastised by

sharp

controllers. Arrival end is an oxy

moron. There is a threshold

and

a

far

end

of a runway. Cogent

and

unambiguous.

Over the fence

is

slang

and

clear for identifying the

threshold,

but

of

course its use is

limited to arrivals. Takeoffs begin at

the

threshold. These

aren't

official

terms, just good ones.

Another

one:

Controllers

make

this mistake,

too,

and it's

more

grievous

when they

do. In

neither

ICAO

nor FAA documents

does ac

tive runway appear. Reason: All

runways are active. It's a state-of

mind

thing,

and it's

more impor

tant that it be in the controller's

mind. There is a runway-in-use,

clumsy to be sure,

but the

distinc

say, Mooney 44 Uniform cross

ing 28 at Golf. Let him take

it

that

I'm

a dummy, already cleared

across

and bothering his lordly self

unnecessarily. It's

been my

obser

vation

that dumb people think

a

lot of people are dumb.

The local

control position

(cleared to land/take off, etc.) de

termines

the

runway-in-use and

the runways-in-use. The ground

control

position

gets

the remain

ing

one

for h is traffiC, in

other

words, all of the movement

area

except

the

runway(s)-in-use. Local

has no jurisdiction over taxiways.

Ground avoids

use of landing

turnoff taxiways and coordinates

with

local

when

necessary. Local

is

the symphony

conductor,

ground

the

concertmaster. There

can

be

no doubt

here

about

who's respon

sible for where . It works

this

way:

Local might say, when Runway 17

is

in

use,

Runway

24 base. (The

idea

is,

the

runway's there, why

planning a few

minutes

ago. Local

now

must start swinging

his

ba

ton

faster. Maybe

he should have

scanned the airport better,

to

see if

24 actually could not be used. He'll

look

at

it all later,

adding

to his ex

perience.

He so lves this problem

of

the moment with anyone

of

a

number of traffic

adjustments

he's

already learned.

I've just described a crisp opera

tion where everyone, including

the

pilot for 24, is expected to be

on

his toes

and

adjustable. This situa

tion doesn't occur on Easter Sunday

morning

at 7 a.m.

And the incident

at Danbury:

Long gone from ATC

culture

is

the notion that when an

aircraft

does

something different

from

what

the

controller

wants it

is the

con

t roller's fault,

not

the pilot's,

or what does control mean. To

day

the controller

takes the

blame

for nothing. (The etiology

of

that

is mighty interesting, but not

the kind of stuff

Vintage

irplane

is involved

in.) That

incident

in

Danbury

2S

years ago involved a

controller who might have been

from

the

old school.

Twenty-five years ago

the

system

was in transition. He knew he goofed.

He knew his job was more than issu

ing the

correct clearance,

which is

all they care about today, but to eye

ball it to make sure that that's

what

the

plane did. It was his job

to

see

that your pal didn't

do something

the controller didn't want done, so

he was not about to engage him in a

phone

conversation.

mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


9/44

column.

The first thing I saw was

the

headline

The DA. Imagine

my

surprise when I saw in the first

paragraph

that

you said

that

DA

should only

mean

one thing to a

pilot . . . density altitude.

Silly me, I was anticipating an ar

ticle on instrument approaches

and

things like decision altitude

and

the

finer points of conducting such

approaches and statistics about ac

cidents while

conducting

such ap

proaches,

going below DA or

DH

and

CFIT Then

I realized your sub

ject

matter

was

density altitude.

As

an

instrument

instructor I

went

down a different

path

and

thought

DA

meant decision altitude.

The article

was

well written

by the

way. One

statement stood

out, though, and

that

had

to

do

with

your

mention of 59°F (l5°C)

as

the standard

temperature. For

its own

standard temperature

for

its

elevation. Following the stan-

dard lapse rate,

the

3,OOO-foot air

port standard temperature

would

be well

below

59°F. In

the above

example, if

the

actual temperature

at 3,000

feet was 59

°F,

then the

temperature

would

be well

above

standard

and the density

altitude

is well above

standard for that

altitude/temperature.

Airplane

performance

would be

greatly

compromised . Barry Schiff wrote

an article specifically about

this

in

a past issue of

AOPA Pilot.

Thanks

for your

dedication

to

safety

and teaching pilots

to fly

safely.

Sincerely,

John Rosenberg

ATP

and CFI

Chanhassen, Minnesota

Hello John,

You are absolutely spot on Please

forgive

my

critical omission.

To be honest, most of the instruc-

tion I conduct is

instrument

instruc-

tion . t would be nice i f I could write

some

articles on

instrument

flight;

however, it really doesn't fall into the

general category of "vintage, espe-

cially with the demise of radio ranges.

Thus, please don't expect to find any

articles on DA, minimum descent al-

titude, Missed Approach Point (MAP),

or the like. In fact, over the

past

35

days I have conducted more than 100

hours of dual, with the vast majority

of

that

being instrume

nt

instruction

in the lousy weather we've been hav-

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10/44


11/44

EAA

Chapter

149. I

had

been flying,

but nothing out of the ordinary,

and through

them, I came to real-

ize there was a lot more

to

aviation

than Cessnas.

In 1995 I came

down

to Florida

essentially

to

vacation, but I really

liked it.

I t

was a big change from

Albany

in the

winter.

While

I was

down there I got checked out

in

a

Stearman

at Bob

White

Field, not

far from Zellwood, in

Mount

Doyle.

That

really got me going, and I had

to have a Stearman.

Herb

apparently

does nothing

in

half

measures because it wasn t

long

before

he owned

not

one but

three Stearmans.

I found three dusters that an

old spray pilot had retired

in

1960,

when

he got

into Ag

Cats . He had


12/44

The cockpit of Herb Clark s custom UPF-7. The use of white nd light gray

paint in the cockpit makes it easier to see the structure nd components.

The M 4P uses a compressed air

system for starting. Just in case the

tank on board the airplane has gone

flat , a standby bottle of compressed

air is ready nd waiting.


13/44

project, I was learning new skills at

an amazing rate, especially because I

spent

so

much time at the Kimballs.

On that

first

airplane, however, I didn't

feel I knew enough to do the covering

and paint, so I had them do it, with

me

watching over their shoulders.

Since

the

Stearman was spending

time

out of his hands

at

the Kim

balls and Herb was spending

more

time enjoying

his Waco, it

wasn't

long before he couldn't totally ad

here to the I-bought-it-to-fly con

cept

that

lay

behind the

purchase

of

the

Waco

in

the first place. The

stage was set for changes

to

begin.

Pha s e

One

I t

Look s

Jus t

a Lit t le u n k y

From the beginning, I

thought

the

airplane was

too 'ordinary'

looking,

and

I

wanted

to spruce it

up a bit. So,

in

the first phase of

what turned

out

to be a three-phase

rebuilding project, I

concentrated

on the cosmetics of the

airplane.

I

added

wheelpants and faired in

the

gear so it looked as

i f the

pants

belonged

on the

airplane.

Then I

changed what I

thought

was a really

uncomplementary paint

scheme.

I t

had been painted white,

with

all

the

sheet metal panels painted

red.

It

didn't look as if

the

pieces

fit together, so I

painted the

entire

airplane

white

and put red

accent

stripes

on it.

Another

thing

that

bothered

me is

that

I've always

thought

UPFs

look

'unfinished' in

their

stock

form because their basic

airframe

is

more

streamlined

than

most

bi

Pha s e

Twiro

Le t s

In jec t SO.Jn.e ore i gn

Tes to s t e rone

With the exception

of

the

late

Jimmy Franklin's jet-powered Waco,

no one

has ever said

the

UPF was a

performer. Especially with

the

stock

engine.

In fact,

words like lei

surely, sedate,

and

unexciting

come

to mind.

Apparently

Herb

had some of the same thoughts

and, even though

he

was already

on

an originality kick because of his

Stearman projects, hanging around

the

Kimballs began to have

an

un

expected effect on him.

About

the time

I got

the

air

plane back together, Kevin and

Jim started really getting their Pitts

Model 12 ball rolling. I'd be

over

there on some Stearman stuff,

and

they'd have Russian

M14P

Ven

denyev engines sitting around.

I f

you're

a

round-motor

kind of guy,

which I definitely

am,

you can't

help but

look

at that

engine and

start looking for places to hang it.

and

lost

forever. But,

that's any

thing but true. In fact, part of Herb

Clark's goal from the beginning was

to

make

the

Waco more usable and

with more performance without per

manently changing a single thing.

As we sat

around

talking

about

the

project, we decided that

one

of

our goals would be

that

no

matter

how

much stuff

we changed, we

wanted the

airplane

to always be

one inspection

away

from going

back to original. This

wasn't

going

to be

the death

of an antique, it was

going

to

be taking it

in another

di

rection

temporarily with

the

road

back clearly

marked and

under

stood. The way we

handled that

was

by making certain every change we

made was a bolt-on. No welding. If

we

want to

go back

to

original, we

can

just

unbolt the

new, reinstall

the old, and we're ready to be recer

tified. The firewall forward package,

for

instance, can

be unbolted and

changed in a day or so.

Quite often making such changes

to

a certificated airplane,

no

matter

how old, can be handled

by

sup

plemental type certificates or Form

337s,

but that

would

not

be

the

case

here because the

engine had

never

been granted

a type certificate. As

far

as

the FAA was concerned, it was

a non-airplane part

and couldn't

be

used on a certificated airplane. Not

to

worry, however. That's what the

experimental-exhibition category

is

all about. That's where certificated

airplanes that have

strayed from

the straight and narrow go to play.

Almost

anything

is allowed, as long


14/44

A farm near Weirsdale Aorida is the home of Hobby Hill irport the home

ba se for Herbco and PittsFabric com

perimental sticker

out

where people

can see it, so they know they are

looking at something different be

cause, unless you really know

what

you re looking

at, it's

hard to

tell

anything has been changed."

He

's right about

that

. The

round

fugitive from

behind

the Iron Cur

tain looks right at

home

in the Bam

boo Bomber cowl, and only the MT

prop gives its presence away. Origi

nally

he

had the h uge two-bl

ade

with

the

squared-off paddle blades

so typical

of

Soviet airplanes,

and

that was a definite "tel ."

"Kevin's

the

expert on

anything

having

to do

with M14Ps, so I

had

him design and execute the en

gine installation . For the

mount,

he used

the

original Russian

mount

ring right at

the

cylinders, but built

up the

rest with a

mount

pattern

necessary for

the

Waco.

"Since the

starting

system is en

tirely

pneumatic, that s one of the

things people think

is

going to be re-

ally difficult to operate and maintain,

but

it's

not

. It 's just different,

and

once you use it a

few

times, it's just

another system you learn to manage.

li he

air

system

is basically a

small

SCUB

bottle that is pressur

ized by an air compressor

on

the en

gine.

Whe

n starting

the

engine, you

trip a valve that slams air through

a little

distributor

that pressurizes

lines

to each cylinder in sequence

and spins the

engine.

It's actually

a good system, but you have

to

in

stall it with care

and

police leaks.

Once it's sealed up, you

can

pretty

much

forget about

it,

other

than

Stearman wings are part of the proj-

ect list at Herbco.

remembering

to

turn

the air tank

valve to 'off' before

you

leave the

airplane. That's just a little precau

tionary thinking.

"I

have an

800

psi

valve

on

the tank, so once the compressor

reaches

that

pressure,

the

pressure

is

released

and

you aren't working

the

compressor so hard all of

the

time."

Round motors,

by their very

design,

have at

least one charac

teristic

the square-motor crowd

doesn t

worry about:

the

possibil

ity

of

bending a

rod by

cranking

the

engine

with a bottom cylinder

full

of

oi .

Although

most of

you

already know, it's worth remember

ing

that as the

airplane

sits, oil in

th

e crankcase slowly works its way

past the

rings

and into the com

bustion

chambers of

the

lower cyl

inders. And, if

you try cranking it

with

oil,

which is

incompressible,

in t h e cylinders, it s possible to

bend a connecting rod when a pis

http:///reader/full/www.PittsFabric.comhttp:///reader/full/www.PittsFabric.com


15/44

Herb Clark s shop has become increasingly busy as other aircraft owners

look to him for construction nd restoration work.

Herb says, liThe Kimballs have

really worked this

thing

out.

MI4s

have drain

plugs

in the induc

tion

tubes

that you're

supposed

to

empty

before each start. The Kim

ball

mod

in that area manifolds

those drains together, so you don't

have to

open

each

one

individually.

To

keep oil from filling

the

cylin

ders

after

shutdown,

they have

a

pump that

scavenges the oil

out

of

the

crankcase

and

back

into the

oil

tank.

Then

they

put an

off valve

on

the

tank

that

has a micro-switch

on

it, stopping you from cranking

the

engine with

the oil valve off. This

keeps

the

oil from gravity feeding

back into

the

crankcase, and

with

the crankcase

pretty

much empty,

there's

much

less chance of getting

oil in

the

cylinders.

At

the

end of phase

two, Herb's

plodding

old

biplane was

turned

into a rock-and-roll angel capable

of climbing at 2,000 feet per minute

working

on

trucks

has

served

him

well

in

his

new

venture: aircraft res

toration.

That

first Stearman led

to

him

restoring

the other

two

at the

same time,

and

his

shop on

Hobby

Hill Airport

began

to see a

steady

succession

of customers'

projects

coming

his way. What

had been

a

hobby

was built

into

a business.

I

bought

a farm

by

Weirsdale,

Florida, not that far from Zellwood,

and

put a runway

on

it . In fact,

my

neighbor and

I

worked together,

and

it's now

3,800

feet

of

grass. I

raise

hay products

and rebuild air

planes. It's a sweet deal.

In

the late '90s I was bit

by

the

Pitts

bug

and bought one; then as

I gained confidence and

began

do

ing my own

paint and fabric work,

I

found

myself

doing

lots

of work

for other Pitts owners. In fact,

my

website is

Pitts abric com al-

though

we'll restore or help restore

almost

anything

that's

built

of

rag

and

tube.

Although

he

was a busy man, he

still had his Waco and

he

still

had

plans for it.

By

the time

I

set

up my

own

shop, it

had

been nearly 2S

years

since the Waco was last re-covered.

I t was

time

for a

complete

restora

tion, plus

there

were some

other

changes

and

improvements I

wanted

to

make.

Although the engine

installa

tion

was working great, I decided to

change the exhaust

system,

which

had

come

out

of a Yak As originally

built, the segments

were

all butt

joints, so

there

was always exhaust

http://www.pittsfabric.com.al/http://www.pittsfabric.com.al/


16/44

The

ld

irl Has a History

When

NC29909

rolled

out

of

the factory

in

1940

it

had a

lot

leaking inside the cowl. So, I had

one built locally

that

had

lapping

slip joints. It looked much better

and didn't

leak.

"Also, we

put

some offset in the

engine mount to help with the take

offs. As it was, with all that power,

I didn 't have enough

rudder

below

40 mph at full power to control it

without

some brake. And we up-

graded the wheels and brakes with

those

from a

310

Cessna. We

kept

the original Waco master cylinders,

however, because the 310 brakes

were too

powerful

and the bigger,

old master cylinders dropped

the

pressure

to where the brakes are

just right.

"At the other end of the airplane,

I redesigned

and

rebuilt

the

tailwheel

strut

assembly that

had originally

used a stack of rubber doughnuts. I

researched springs and, after

trying

two, came up with one that gave ex

When

we got

into

the wings, it

was

obvious

we had to build com-

pletely new ones. These were over

60

years old,

and

parts of

them

looked like it. It wasn't a small job,

but we were lucky because we

not

only had the originals for patterns,

but a friend gave us a

copy

of the

original plans from the Smithso-

nian. After

tha

t it became simple:

get

plans, buy wood, build wings.

And, by

the

way, we did

the

airplane

as a civilian version, which meant

filling in the handholds in the wing

tips, which were only on military

airplanes. Also,

we

lucked

out

in

finding a set of new-old-stock drag

anti-drag wires, which on the Waco

are different than other airplanes.

"Before we were finished, we

had

gone

through every

system and

component,

and

where

we thought

it

necessary, we

improved it, like

building a new

battery box and

of company on

its delivery flight

as

16 of

them were headed to the

same destination:

the

Plains Air-

ways Civilian Pilot Training school

in Cheyenne, Wyoming. This Herb

Clark could clearly see, as he had

all of the logbooks

for

the air-

plane going back to its first flight.

What he couldn't see was how the

airplane actually

looked

at

that

time. Then, as is sometimes the

case

blind

luck

plays

into

your

hands; in

this

case

it

was when

Ray Brandly, founder

of

the Waco

club, ran across a Waco company

advertisement

that prominently

featured a UPF parked in front of

Plains Airways PT school in hey-

enne with several South American

students

standing around it.

It

was NC29909

Now

that

the airplane

is

pretty


17/44


18/44

This de Havilland DH.60 Cirrus Moth, G EBLV, is owned by BAe Systems

as a tribute to the corporation s heritage. It is flown by Keith Dennison.

A study in rapid aeronautical progress: a WWII era CCF Hawker Sea

Hurricane

l

G BKTH on

the flightline with the Bristol Boxkite replica

G ASPP and t

he

Avro Triplane IV replica G ARSG.

The second evening

air show

at

Old Warden aerodrome, the home

of the Shuttleworth Trust Collec

tion

took place on Saturday, June

14, 2008.

The

weather on the

day

was

somewhat

variable

with

the

wind moving around, but generally

it was from the west. The weather

conditions

also led to some mag

nificent

cloud

formations

acting

as a

backdrop

for

the evening

' s

affairs.

The rain that

was

moving

slowly across

the country

managed

to

avoid

the

airfield

until

after

the

show

had

drawn to

a happy

con-

clusion.

That

respite from

the

rain

gave

those picnicking and sitting

leisurely

by vehicles on the

grass

on

a summer's evening

in

Old War

den's

natural amphitheater

a won

derful experience.

One new

feature being tried

out

for

the

first

time during this show

was the use of

two

of

the

collec

tion

's own pilots

in the

role of

announcer.

Both pilots

were also

active

display pilots

for the

show

from

time to time .

t would have

been extremely difficult

to

find two

more

knowledgeable individuals.

Both

Trevor Roche, who

covered

the

early

part of the show

before

later

going

on

to

fly both the CCF

Sea Hurricane

Mk.1b

and Deper

dussin CIE, plus George Ellis, who

flew the Avro S04K and de Havil

land DH.S early on in the show,

added

their

commentary to the

day's events.

Of the two, Trevor certainly ad

opted a

more

laid-back

approach

more

by

his posture than his an-


19/44

Alan

Hartfield s

Dart itten II G-AEXT built in 1937.


20/44

One of the many lightplanes on display

at Old

Warden, a Southern

Martlet

No. 202

G AAYX

, flown by

John

Turn er

Trevor Roche hops the Oeperdussin monoplane G-AANH down the turf runway at Old Warden.

same

time

.

For some spectators, the parade

of vintage vehicles during the

30

minutes before

the flying

display

skies a bit in the slightly brisk wind

conditions . The original was built

for the 1924 Lympne Light Aero

plane Competition. The replica is

grand dame

of

U.K. general

avia

tion

heritage.

The

Dart Kitten was

then

fol

lowed

by three de

Havilland

types


21/44

The de Havilland DH.S1 G·EBIR will outrun the bird

you

can see against the fuselage. ens compression

makes the bird appear to be closer to the airplane than t really is, but it still looks like it s working hard to

keep

in

front of the big silver biplane. The DH.S1

is

flown

by

George Ellis.


22/44

also the three

photos

of the Black

burn in

the May 2008 issue of Vin-

t ge Airplane .

The final flight slot was taken by

the French-designed

Deperdussin

CIE

monoplane

G-AANH), built

in

1910. It was flown, or more honestly

hopped,

by

Trevor Roche several

times along the grass runway.

To

the

delight of all present, his grand

old lady, a sprightly 98 years of age,

achieved

almost

heady

heights

in

her

several hops. The human form

of

1

arresting

gear,

should things

go wrong on landing, was ready

and waiting alongside the runway.

Once

again

this

small grass air

field,

nestled

in the middle of

ru

ral Bedfordshire, yet so close to

the

Al and

a

stone s

throw from Big

gleswade,

delighted

all

those who

were

fortunate enough

to have

been present for the evening s

entertainment.

The Spanish-built version of

the

Bucker Jungmann, the CASA

1·131E Series 2000 G·RETA is

being flown by Peter Kosogorin.


23/44


24/44

Light Plane Heritage

ORIGINALLY

PUBLISHED

IN

E Experimenter DECEMBER

99

Remember th Klemm

Part II

Y

O WHITnER

Th

e baron ft:Q.lQ..the front co ckpit for th benefit of news c ~ ~ e r s The

plane was

normally flown solo from th rear cockpit. The stabilizer is not in place because th ship

was in th process of assembly. Note th large, slow-turning propeller.

ast month we described the Klemm

light

long

distances .


25/44

he

made

a motorcycle

trip

around Germany,

during

which he came down with pneumonia.

He

passed

the

weeks

of recuperation reading aviation books

and

developed a

strong interest in

flying.

Upon graduating

from college

in

1929

at

the

age

of

22,

he decided to learn to

fly. His

conservative

father was very

much

against

this,

but

his

aviation

minded

mother

supported

it. Eventually,

the two

of

them

managed to win

the

father's

consent.

They traveled

to the

town

of Bbblingen,

south

of

Stuttgart, to

see

Hans

Klemm

about ordering one

of

his

increasingly popular

L.20

planes

.

And

now

we are

about to

go back

in time and

recall a

kind

of

aviation that,

for

better or

worse,

no

longer

exists.

To

best follow

this

story, get a

good

atlas

that

shows

circle 28 miles across.

At

that time

in Germany,

a

trophy known

as

the

Hindenburg Cup

was

awarded

annually to

the pilot

who had

made the

most

significant

sportplane

flight

of

the

year.

F K

.

decided

to go after it.

n

contrast to

his

heavyweight name, he

was a

person

of so

slight

a

build

that he could

have

blended

right

into

a gath

ering of

jockeys. Because

this

likely

kept

him

from

engaging in rough

athletic competition,

perhaps he

saw

the

Klemm as a way

to

prove

his

manhood.

It's

certain,

however,

that

his

light stature helped the

plane do what

it

did

with him onboard.

I t

occurred

to him

that

a

good way to

seek

the

trophy

would

be

to

attempt

a

nonstop

flight from

Berlin

to

Moscow.

More

experienced pilots

sought

The new plane was

delivered

to the

airfield

at Magdeburg some

8 miles southwest of

Berlin and it was there

that F K learned to fly

both cultural and

topographical

details. For

the

sake

of

brevity,

we will

refer

to

the

young baron

from

to

dissuade

him

from

trying this because they were

concerned about his

limited

flying

time.

But

no, he


26/44

The baron standing

on

a platform explains details of his 20-hp Mer

cedes engine to n interested friend. The engine had four valves per cyl

inder hence the double exhaust st ks. The round housing behind the

propeller hub covers the reduction gear.

passed

the city of Danzig, which

is now Gdansk, Poland.

This

was

four hours out and 250 miles

from Berlin,

which

works

out to

a

groundspeed of 62

mph

with the

tail

wind,

so an

airspeed

in the

50s seems likely.

Then

the

weather

turned rainy,

but

at

least it

was now

daytime

.

Poor visibility forced

him

down

to

about

100 feet. After flying for

14

hours, he

was

miserably

tired,

wet,

and

cold. Weary

of it

all,

he

landed on

a farm field

near

an ob-

scure Russian village. This

happily

turned out

to be

only

10 miles from

Russian aviators gave him quite

a

reception,

and he remained in

Moscow for several days.

In

the

course

of

talking aviation with

them, one of

them

began extol

ling

the

great flying conditions

to

be found

in

the southern

part of

that vast land.

This

intrigued

EK.

so

much

that the idea grew in his

mind that it would be interesting

to press

on to the city of

Baku

on

the

western shore of

the

Caspian

Sea

in

Azerbaijan,

some 1,200

miles

south-southeast of

Moscow.

So

on

the

morning

of August

13,

he took

off and set course

over

long flights, as told

in

his book

ings round the orld

G

.P. Put-

nam's Sons,

London and

New

York,

1930),

says

nothing

about

the plane

being

eqUipped

with a

relief

tube.

Either he took along a

tin

can or

had a phenomenal rest-

room range

In Baku

he

had his first contact

with Asia,

finding

the people

no

ticeably

more

relaxed

and outgo

ing

than Europeans.

While

in Baku

he met the German consul from

Tehran in

Persia

(now

Iran)

,

who

was in town on business. The

con

sul

invited

EK. to visit him

in

Teh-

ran. Since it was a comparatively

easy

300 miles

south-so u

theast

from Baku, and the

route would

most ly follow the southwestern

shoreline of the Caspian Sea, EK.

accepted

the

invitation.

His departure was delayed by an

odd

bureaucratic

foul-up . In the

course of making

out a visa ap

plication, the word not was in

advertently

left out. This made it

appear to horrified officials

that

he

was carrying a radio, camera,

and

machine

gun

.

The foreign devil

was surely a spy EK. finally con

vinced them that he

was an

inno

cent

tourist,

and they let

him go.

While following the

Caspian

shore line, he found himself fly-

i

ng

alongside a flock

of thousands

upon thousands

of pink flamin

goes,

some of

which almost

col-

lided with the

Klemm.

He made

a

rest stop at

a

re

mote town called PachlewC

which

was surrounded

by

dense

forest.


27/44

fine

cantaloupes. Another

person

told him

that it

took a

week to

travel from Pachlewi

to

Tehran by

camel, 14 hours by car, and four

hours by airplane.

Once aloft,

F K

decided

the

load

of cantaloupes crowded his already

cramped cockpit

too

much. So,

pretending he

was flying a

bomb

ing airplane, he dropped

them

over

the

side

one

by one, choosing

targets

such

as

shrubs

and rocks.

As each in turn splattered far from

its

intended

target,

he

learned

that

aiming bombs involves

much

more

than

guesswork.

While

traversing the

Mechil

Pass

he

looked

down

on

caravans

totaling

hundreds of

plodding

camels

carrying the

riches

of

the

East

to markets in the

West,

just

as

they had done

for

many

gen

erations. He

began to

realize

how

miraculous i t was to

be

magic

carpeting

along

even

in such a

slow

plane

as the Klemm.

Thirty miles from Tehran he

ran out of gas, having decided it

would

be

easier

to

get over

high

mountain

passes if

he

didn't

top

off

the

big tank. He landed on a

lonely road that

he

was later

told

was

the

same

one

traversed by

the

army of Alexander

the

Great

in

300-200

B.C. After a

while

he

spotted

a

car

in the

distance.

Its

driver at first thought the Klemm

sitting out there in the middle of

nowhere

must

certainly

be a new

and strange kind

of mirage .

Once

convinced

that

the

plane and

pilot

were real,

he

gave

F K

2 gallons of

Baron von Koenig Warthausen in the cockpit of his Klemm. Pilots flying

open

c

ockpit planes

in

tropical desert lands often wore pith helmets as a

precaution against sunstroke.

egg whites. How

about that,

FAA?

Once in Tehran

he thought

he'd

stay for several days

and then

start

for home. But he ended

up

stay

ing there

a month,

learning

much

about the ancient country

of Persia

and

its people. He was

introduced

to the Shah, who invited him to

come along

on

several hunting

trips.

While

the

novelty of

travel

ing

by

newfangled airplane had

something to do with

it, his

status

as a real live baron probably also

helped

to open

doors.

In 1929,

the

Persian air force

consisted

of

30 planes, each one

a different

make

or model

There

were

only

two railroads in

this

en

Isfahan

at that time

was rarely vis

ited by tourists and was said

to

be

a

fascinating

place. It

had been

a

political, religious,

and

commercial

center since time immemorial.

On

the

way

there,

F K

found

himself

flying at 6,000

feet

over

beautiful, mountainous country

and also

dealing with

a fuel trans

fer pump

that refused

to work.

Again, the Klemm's low

landing

speed

proved

to

be a lifesaver, for

he was able

to

set down on a small

patch

of

smooth

ground.

By si

phoning

gas

out of

the big tank,

he

was able

to top

off the

plane's

gravity-feed tank and continue on

his way.


28/44

quisite works of

highly

skilled

silversmiths

could be

bought

at

flea-market prices.

After three days of sightseeing,

F K took

off for Shiraz,

about 100

miles

inland

from

and northeast

of Bushire. A friend from

Ger

many

was now living there,

and

he wanted

to

pay him a visit. This

flight required traversing a

moun

tain range with peaks that soared

to

14

,000 feet. He

encountered

winds and downdrafts so

strong

that

he

could not

coax

the plane

through

the passes, so he set

down

on a

patch

of sand he sighted

on the slope of a

mountain.

The

plane rolled to

a

stop just

60 feet

from

the

edge of a precipice.

So there he

was,

very much

alone,

without

food

or

water,

and

with

the thermometer

reading

100 degrees. According to his map

there was a small Village

about

25

miles away. He

spent

four hours

burning away shrubs

to

clear a

path for taking off. Late in

the

afternoon the

wind

settled down

enough to encourage him to

at

tempt

a

takeoff.

He

kick-started

the engine and eased the throttle

forward. The plane didn't budge;

its thin, high-pressure

tires

had

cut deeply into the sand.

He clambered out of the cockpit,

opened the

throttle a

little,

and

jumped down on the sand

to

push

it in hopes of

getting the plane

moving. Alas, he

had

opened

the

throttle a little too much

and,

as

soon

as the ship started

to

roll, it

accelerated and

almost got away

map. By that time

night

had come,

the air had cooled off considerably

from

the daytime

temperature

of

100

degrees, and a bright moon

was

shining.

After a while

he made

out

in

the moonlight what

looked

like a fort on a

slope

above him.

Nobody answered when he called

so he kept moving. Finally at dawn

he reached the Village and its in

habitants. Later on one of

them

told him that

he had indeed

seen

an old fort. I t had become the

headquarters

for a

gang of

bandits,

and

very fortunately

they

were do

ing business elsewhere when he

happened

along.

He

was

also

fortunate

to get

a

ride

in a mail delivery car for

the

200-mile

trip

to Shiraz. The

road

was

incredibly rough,

and

they

repaired

14 flat

tires along

the way. In Shiraz, he looked up

his friend, who

loaded

a

wheezy

Ford with provisions for the trip

back.

I t

took

24 hours for F K and

his friend

to

reach the Village and

then four days to reach the plane

by

horseback

. A dozen villagers

came

along

as

helpers

and

it

took

them four

mo

re days

to

clear a

300-foot take-off path .

The

nights

were

cold,

and

the

two

Europeans were

very grateful

for the natives' way of coping with

this. For their

evening cooking

they

made fires in what seemed like

un

necessarily

long

pits

scooped

out

of

the sand. When it later came

time

to go to sleep, they brushed

the

campfire

embers

out of these

pits and

snugg

led

down into

the

Shiraz.

While

en route he circled

several times over

the

ancient ru

ins

of

Persepolis for

some aerial

sightseeing. In Shiraz, he saw the

tombs of

Ali Baba

of the

Forty

Thieves

and the

great Persian

poet

Omar

Khayyam.

The

subsequent f l igh t to

Bushire took F K over

some

very

wild

and arid country.

In

trying

to

get over yet another range of

13,OOO-foot mountains on a

par

tial

and

therefore light

tank

of

gas,

head winds

caused

him

to

run

out

of

fuel.

Upon

landing close

to

a tiny Village, he

found

him

self surrounded by a group of not

very-friendly-looking

natives who

promptly took him

to

the local

sheik's house.

There he

was seated

on

a pile

of

fine Persian rugs

and surrounded

by 20 grim men as he was inter

rogated at length . Who was he?

What was he doing in

their

land?

Finally

the tribunal

seemed con

vinced he

was a

friend and

not

an

enemy and

became

quite cordial.

F K began

to

realize how primi

tive

these

people were

when

he

discovered they had never seen a

wristwatch, compass, or map.

It

took

two days to fetch gas by

camel.

As F K was pouring it into

the Klemm's tank, the sheik asked

if he

might have

a

small bottle of

it. F K obliged and was aston

ished

and

horrified

when

the

fel

low

downed a

generous swig

of

the stuff. I t

seemed

these people

considered gasoline

to

be the very

best

cure

for

whatever

ailed

them.


29/44

rthur MelvinMoose

Mt

. Pleasant

N

•

World

Wa

r veteran

• Pilot for over 5 years

• Wright Brothers Master Pilots Award Winner

o

remain a pilot

in

aviation for this long you have to

be

dedicated

and

make the right choices,

in the air

or

on the ground. The easiest

part was

my choosing

U

insurance through the years


30/44

BY

ROBERT GLOCK

Troubleshooting techniques-

Learning the system

Editor's

Note: We're

pleased

to

introduce

Bob

Lock as

a

Master Mechanic Award,

Bob has worked as an

airframe

regular

columnist

for

Vintage Airplane. Many

ofyou

have

and powerplant

(A P)

mechanic and

A P

instructor

for

seen Bob's work

within

the pages of the Travel

Air

Restorers his entire

professional life. f

you

have a technical question

Association

newsletter.

Bob has agreed to share his experi-

you d like answered, please

feel

free

to

drop us a line

here

ence

with our Vintage Aircraft Association membership

at

EAA

headquarters, and we ll pass it along

to

him. Wel-

on a regular basis. A winner

of

the

FAA's

Charlie Taylor

come,

Bobf-HGF

T

he ability

to

effectively

troubleshoot, diagnose,

and repair problems

is a

gift

from

experience gained over

the

years of

being

an aircraft me-

chanic and always seeking the

reason why the problem

occurred

in the

first place. Over

the

years I

have had the opportunity to

meet

many

legendary pioneers,

both

mechanics and

pilots. I

was

al-

ways interested

in

what had

made

them

successful.

One famous

person I

have

known

for

many

years

is

retired

U S Air Force Gen. Chuck Yeager.

Yeager will always say i t was luck

and being

in

the

right

place

at

the

right time

when

he

was flying the

( /

-

I

F


31/44

Figure 2: A common magneto switch from before World War II

the prop would occasionally not

stay in the constant speed mode

of operation.

After

his

return, I

went to visit Chuck, and

he de

scribed

the

problem

in

complete

detail.

Then he took

out the

main

tenance manual, turned to

the

ap

propriate

page, and

proceeded

to

describe exactly how the

system

worked and

how to fix

the prob

lem by

cleaning and filing the

points in

the relays .

That is

the se

cret of

troubleshooting

problems

with

airframe and powerplant

components.

Know

how the

sys

tem

works,

diagnose the

problem

in

detail, look

at

the

schematic

(in

this case), and fix

the

problem.

Since

this

column

deals

with

tem

to see

how

all

the components

fit together. The schematic diagram

is copied from the

operating

and

maintenance instructions for a Con

tinental W-670-6N radial engine. It

is

a good example of what

an

entire

ig-

nition system looks like. In this case

the

magnetos are Bendix

SF7,

since

these magnetos are approved for

the

W-670-6N.

If

Bendix-Scintilla mag

netos

were used,

the engine

would

be a W-670-6A.

See

Figure 1.

A pOint made previously

dis

cussed knowing the system

and

how each

component within

the

system

works, which

makes trou

bleshooting

easier and

the outcome

to

a

problem

quicker

to

reach.

In the

system schematic men

ver was

moved

to

the ADVANCED

position; that caused the breaker

points to

move

opposite on the

cam,

thereby causing the

spark

to

occur at the fully advanced po

sition,

which

was

24-32 degrees

before

top

dead center,

depend

ing

on the type

of engine. The

control lever

was

set at

the fully

advanced

position for all normal

flight

operations.

MAGNETO SWITCH

A rotary

switch that either grounds or opens

a

circuit

to each magneto. When

the

switch says

OFF,

both

magnetos

are grounded.

See

Figure 2.)

With the engine

running

at

idle

speed, turn

the switch to the OFF

position

and the

engine should quit.

Coil


32/44

About

18

turns no. 18 wire)

Figure 3: This isometric drawing

shows the components of a typical

magneto. A magneto generates a

high-tension spark using

the

prin

OUTSIDE

INSULATION

_ _

MICA

CIGARETTE

BASE

ciples of induction and requires no

Figure 4: The spark plug on the left is a non-shielded type, while

to

the

external power source.

right is a fully shielded plug.

= = ~ i i i < - SBESTOS W SHER

SPARK PLUG TERMINAL

V 1 ' r - - C E R A M ~ C L ~ ~ I A I I N G

TERMIN L

CONT CT

1I'I'b

N---:7-...,...-CEMENT

SIUMENT SE L

H--- SBESTOSW SHER

t S I L L M E N T

SF L

SHEU

I N S U L A T O R

C SKET

r ~ C E R M INSUL TOR

&11

:- --

CENTER

ELECTRODE

................

< GROUND ELECTRODE

4PlHlfj S

COLD

HOT

Figure 5: The reach and length of the center

electrode combine

to

determine

the

relative tem

perature at which a spark plug operates. This illus

tration from Advisory Circular AC 43 13 18 shows

how heat is conducted within the plug.

thusly

:

I

-I,

2 -3,

3 -5, 4 -7, 5 -2,

6 -4,

7-6.

On the ends

of

the

harness leads

are wire spring coils

called Cigarettes.

The cigarettes trans

fer spark

from the

leads

to the

spark

plug. The opposite

end of the lead

is

connected to the

distributor block in

the magneto . This

installation

is a

high-tension sys

tem,

meaning the

high-in ensity spark

leaves

the

magneto,

travels

through the

harness to the spark

only when

the

piston

is

on

the

proper

stroke

at

a specific

number

of

crankshaft degrees before top

dead center on the compression

stroke. (See Figure 3.)

When troubleshooting the

igni

tion

system,

the problem

could be

anyone

of

the components.

Isolat

ing

the

problem is achieved by

the

experience of a

mechanic and the

description of

the

problem in great

detail by the

pilot.

We'll discuss

troubleshooting problems in the

next installment

of this

column.

Both

Scintilla

VMN

and

Ben

dix SF7 magnetos

had a manual

spark advance

for

easier

starting

of

the engine. The

breaker points

were rotated

to

change the

point

where magneto

firing occurred ,

thus

retarding the spark

closer to


33/44

TAiLWW LS

the

data plate

on

Scintilla mag


34/44

OIL

SfJMP DR IN

Figure 6: The Continental R-670-4 engine with Bendix SF7 magnetos and

non-shielded spark plugs. Photo from Continental Motors Corporation's

-

erating and Maintenance Instructions for the R-670-4 aircraft engine dated

March

1941

netos to see if the automatic

advance feature

is

installed

in

the unit.

SPA

RK

PLU GS:

I t is

im

portant

to

match the original

equipment manufacturer's

(OEM)

recommendation on

spark

plugs. This data can be

found in the

Engine Specifica

tion or

Type

Certificate

Data

Sheet published by

the

Federal

Aviation Administration

(FAA).

Do

not substitute

a

plug type

without

specific

approval,

as

there are several factors that

determine

precisely

what

part

number spark plug

is

used.

Basi

cally there are two types of spark

plugs,

the unshielded and the

shielded. The unshielded plug is

rarely used because of radio in

terference;

the

shielded type is

more desirable. However, it may

be difficult

to

install

shielded

plugs with a magneto

that

was

not manufactured for shielding.

Another

consideration

is

reach,1I which is

the length

of the

threaded portion

of the

plug. (See Figure 5.) Also

heat

range

is

another factor. There

are

hot

and cold

plugs. The

term hot

indicates the

plug

does

not

conduct

heat

away as

quickly

as

a cold

plug, which

rapidly conducts heat away from

the plug.

Consult FAA

Advisory Cir

cular 43.13-1B,

Chapter

8,

paragraphs 8-15, for more data

on aircraft

ignition

systems.

OEMs

offer

a

chart showing


35/44

OCEAN R F CLUB

Thursday, December

4 - Sunday, December 7, 2008

including

The Antique and

Classic Yacht

Rendezvous

The

Concours

d'Elegance

of Automobiles

The

Antique

and Classic

Airplane Fly-In

Registration

Fee:

$375.00 7.5% tax per person

PLE SE C LL

FOR

RESERV TIO NS BYNOVEMB

ER

3

Participa tion includes

305-367-5874

or

email [email protected]

road rally

nd

uncheon

nd

welcoming cocktail

p rty

on Friday

G LEAMING BRIGHTWORK

CC

E

NTING

ELEG NT CURVES.

THE

SMELL OF OLD L EATHER

PALMS REFLECTED

IN

SPOTLESS

CHROME

.

IT COULD

ONLY

BE

.

Saturday day-long celebration

of

boats cars

nd

airplanes

Saturday evening dinnerparty awards nd

farewell breakfast on Sunday morning.

Special Lodging Rate:

$230.00

tax and daily service

charge

mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


36/44

L 4 C U B

1 finished

my

1942 L-4

Cub

about a year ago

with the

help of

several members in

my

local

EAA

Chapter 64, then 1 flew

it

across

the coun

try

for

three

weeks

about

100

hours)

to

help

raise awareness for brain tumor

and cancer

re

search

I

am

a

brain cancer

survivor).

The old

Cub warbird flies hands-off

in

level flight,

and

I

could

not

be happier.

Brian "Brain" Kissinger

www FirstGiving comlbrainsflight

and

www

BrainsFlight com

BEECHCRAFT DEBONAIR

We

have just finished restoring

our

1962 Beechcraft

Debonair to like-new condition. The plane features an

10-470

260-hp

engine, horizontal situation indicator, JPI,

S-Tec

55 (alt hold and tracking), and an MX20 with a com

plete UPS radio stack.

I t

also has VistaNav with synthetic

vision

and

XM

WX Satellite Weather in the cockpit. Our

Little Debbie is a very nice ride.

Jim Deutsch

Punta

Gorda, Florida

http://www.firstgiving.comlbrainsflight/http:///reader/full/BrainsFlight.comhttp://www.firstgiving.comlbrainsflight/http:///reader/full/BrainsFlight.com


37/44

WHAT OUR

MEMBERS

ARE RESTORING

Are you nearing completion

of

a

restoration?

Or

is it done and you're

busy

flying and showing it off? If so,

we

'd

like to hear from

you

.

Send

us a

4-by-6

inch print from a commercial source

(no home

printers

,

please

-

those

prints just don't scan well) or a 4-by-6

inch,

300.


38/44

BY H.G. FRAUTSCHY

THIS MONTH'S MYSTERY PLANE COMES TO US ROM THE COLLECTION OF

TED BUSINGER, SALEM, ARKANSAS.

We

should

mention that the

previous two images

from Ted's collection were originally taken by

his

friend

Roy Russell . Roy was a

young man during the

early

years of aviation, and he often had his camera with

him

as

he visited the airfields

in

southern California.

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 10 for inclusion

in the

November 2008 issue of

Vintage

Airplane

You

can

also send your response via e-mail. Send

your answer

to

MysteryPlane@eaa org

Be sure to in

clude

your

name

plus

your

city

and

state

in

the

body

of

your

note and put

(Month) Mystery Plane

in

the

subject line.

MAY S MYSTERY

Vintage Airplane - Aug 2008

Documents

Transcript of Vintage Airplane - Aug 2008