Antique Aero BBQ-2013

by on June 12, 2013

A friend of mine was nice enough to wrangle an invitation for me to attend the annual invitational BBQ at the Antique Aero shops of Chuck Wentworth on the Paso Robles, CA airport (KPRB). The weather even cleared up between Reno and there after a week of on-again-off-again storms and wind. It was a nice 2-hour flight to KPRB in the Swift on Friday morning. I was welcomed into the group that showed up early to help set up for the Saturday event. The main hangar was cleared out and tables were set up. Sixty of us went out to dinner Friday night at a really nice place in Paso Robles. Friday morning most of us were out at the airport again by 8:30 am to see what would be flying. Javier Arango, owner of most of the planes in the museum collection flew his Le Rhone powered Sopwith Camel (see the video below). The museum and Antique Aero have probably the largest collection of Rotary engines. There are 18 either on flying airplanes or on display. Since parts are no longer available Mr. Arango is having some more scratch-built. A recent article in Air & Space Magazine gives more details about their effort. In the photos you will see one of their “rotary engine kits’ on display in the hangar.

It was really fun to watch the wide range of aircraft show up with people invited to the event. Everything from a 4-ship of beautifully polished PT-22s to a DC-3. After the BBQ it was even more fun to watch them all depart and ‘wave goodbye’ as they left the area.

The only drawback to the weekend was the 104 degree temperatures on Saturday. I probably went through ten bottles of water during the day. By late afternoon everyone was totally baked. I was really glad that I had decided to spend Saturday night there. Sunday morning was clear, calm and cool. When I took off it was probably 60 degrees. I climbed up to 10,500 and then 11,500 for the trip across the Sierras and was back in the hangar at Stead after another beautiful 2-hour flight.

It was a really great weekend event. The Antique Aero facility is well cared for and the crew helping out with the event was super-friendly and efficient. This year was the 18th annual BBQ. I am really hoping that I will be invited back next year.

NOTE: I’m trying something new this time with the photos – a thumbnail gallery. If you click on one of the photos it takes you to a page with only that photo on it – click on the photo again and you will see the large version of the shot. I took most of the photos, but some were taken by my friend Richard Savell

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Catching Up

by on June 9, 2013

I have a relatively quiet afternoon today, so I’ll see if I can get a couple of articles published to catch up on things. I was going to fly down to Marysville, CA this weekend for the Golden West Fly-in until I saw the weather forecast. It was supposed to be 100+ here in Reno, so the Northern California valley temps could easily have topped 105, not factoring in the temperatures on an airport ramp. I decided to stay home and catch up on things instead. The morning flight over wouldn’t have been bad – probably really enjoyable. But leaving after the airshow, so 3:30-4:30 would have been the hottest part of the day. Not fun for the pilot of the airplane.

Focke Wulf 44J Stieglitz

Focke Wulf 44J Stieglitz

A while back I ran across a couple to unusual airplanes at Stead Airport. This first one is a 1938 Focke Wulf 44J Stieglitz. It was being towed from one part of the airport to another. According to Wikipedia Stieglitz translates to Goldfinch. The plane was built primarily as a trainer ans sport plane. It was also produced under license in several other countries.

 

 

Focke-Wulf-44J-Stieglitz-2

Focke-Wulf 44J Stieglitz

The next plane was parked in front of a hangar the other day. I had heard it was out flying earlier in the day. The pilot hadn’t flown this particular type of plane before and it took him three tries to get it on the ground – he just wasn’t comfortable flying that slowly.

The Fiesler Storch was a German liaison aircraft built before and used during WWII. Production actually continued until the 1950s. According to Wikipedia more than 2900 were built.

It certainly does look utilitarian and purpose-built.

Fieseler-Fi-156-Storch-2

Fieseler Fi-156 Storch

Fieseler-Fi-156-Storch-1

Fieseler Fi-156 Storch

 

About a month ago I flew to my favorite breakfast location, had a nice meal and headed back to the home airport.
I happened to be scanning the instrument panel when I saw the vacuum gauge needle make a mach-2 run for the bottom of its case.

Everything else on the plane was working fine so I continued toward home. About 5-10 minutes later the attitude gyro started rolling over. So, it wasn’t the vacuum gauge that failed, it was the vacuum pump on the back of the engine.

I already had a spare on hand, so when I got back to the hangar I started to swap it out. This engine I have in the Swift is a big bigger than the plane had when it was built in 1948. That meant I would first have to disconnect the vacuum hoses running into the cockpit, then loosen the upper engine mount bolts and let the engine rotate on the lower engine mount attachment points in order to have enough clearance to back the vacuum pump gears out of the accessory case and remove the pump. The engine mount is made to do this and is part of the STC for the engine installation. Luckily all I had to do was loosen the upper engine mount bolts (back the nuts off) about a half of an inch to get sufficient clearance. I had the old pump off, the new one on and the engine mount bolts re-torqued in just a few hours. That’s where my progress ended for a week or so. Part of installing a new vacuum pump is blowing out the vacuum lines from the instruments to the pump and replacing the two air filter elements – one in the vacuum pressure regulator and the other, the main air supply filter. I had one on hand but not the other. Yet another order to Aircraft Spruce. I had the parts I needed in about 4 days, but I didn’t have time.

More in the next article…

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No, the Sky has not Fallen

by on February 25, 2013

Mini-Swift Fly-in at Minden, NV

Swift Mini-Fly-in at Minden, NV (Click for larger)

Yes, I’m still around and still flying. I did finally finish the Annual Inspection of the Swift at the beginning of this month and have flown in a couple of times since then. Once to renew my landing currency (it had been 95 days since my last flight) and the other to have lunch with a couple of friends in Minden, NV. It was sort of a mini-fly-in. there were 4 Swifts on the field – the two parked in the middle are painted in a new stealth camouflage paint.  Actually, they were in hangars, though one of the owners joined us for lunch.

It seemed to take forever to complete the annual inspection – I set a limit to only go out to the hangar and work when the temperature was supposed to hit 50 degrees (F). This year we had some really cold weather – though not a whole lot of snow to go with it. There is still a little around in the deep shadow areas, but not much. The mountains got a bunch early, but haven’t had much since early in the skiing season.  One more lesson on not having the annual due during a winter month if you have an unheated hangar.

On the way back from Minden I flew by Pyramid Lake and noticed that the water level is up quite a bit from last summer, which is really nice to see. I noticed an article in the local newspaper (online) that the Lohontan Cutthroat Trout population is starting to come back in the lake – several trout size records have been set at Pyramid.

The Swift in the front of the photo is based in Carson City, NV though it’s owner lives in Hawaii. The plane was at Minden to have an avionics fan installed behind the instrument panel. This plane was the Grand Champion trophy winner at the West Coast Swift Fly-in last September. Beautiful plane – and for those techies out there, it is fitted with a Glass Panel – if you look closely at the large photo you will see all the antennas on the top of the fuselage.

It was a nice flight – obviously overcast, but clear and smooth under the high clouds. Great to get back into the air and out of the traffic pattern.  I will be up again later this week with a friend from Stead. He wants to get some hands-on experience with his iPad Mini, ForeFlight and his dual GPS for the iPad.  I’ll fly and he’ll tap away on the various screens – much safer than trying to do both and accomplishing neither very well.

Today is cold and windy – currently there is a wind chill of 28F and winds 310/24G32Kts at Reno-Stead. Tomorrow is supposed to be more of the same but by the end of the week they say it will be in the mid-60s. Meanwhile, the mid-west is digging out of a huge snow storm – go figure.  Wonder if the groundhog got buried under a snow drift…

I have the same alerts for aviation articles that I have always had – used to find the articles that I have been passing along to you for a couple of years. Google’s latest algorithm changes must have caused  a major change in the way their alerts produce results. I haven’t found anything at all worth passing along in a couple of months. Most of the interesting articles that I come across are in either the AOPA or AvWeb email newsletters – which you are probably already receiving (or should have subscriptions). Maybe the article traffic will pick up as the flying season gets started. We’ll have to wait and see.

Take care and fly often and fly safe.

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Flying Stories for December 28, 2012

by on December 28, 2012

I hope you all had a good Christmas holiday – and that Santa brought you at least one item you can use in your flying activities.

Now your assignment is to have a safe and sane New Year’s celebration.  Maybe since the new year rings in on a Monday night the celebrations will be more subdued – but I doubt it.  Have a great time but be careful out there!

Not much new on the Swift front. I have all I need to complete the annual inspection – except reasonable temperatures. I have mentioned before that my hangar is not heated. The high temperatures each day for the rest of the year are supposed to be at the freezing mark. It doesn’t look good for winter flying this year.

Boeing 307 Stratoliner

Boeing 307 Stratoliner.
Photo Credit: D.Miller/Armchair Aviator | Flickr:CC

I’m not sure how many of you have heard of the Kickstarter Program. It is set up to allow individuals or organizations to pitch their ideas or projects to potential investors through the internet. This is usually done with a video and accompanying text explaining what they are trying to accomplish. Individuals who think that the idea/project has merit can click on one of several buttons to donate to the project to help the project move along. It is VERY IMPORTANT TO UNDERTAND THAT THE ACTIVE WORD IS DONATE.  There is no guarantee that the project will ever be completed or the product will ever be developed and offered for sale. Often the donate buttons offer items in return for the donations – usually associated with the product to be developed. No matter how much you would like to have one of the proposed items and you provide the maximum donation there is no guarantee that you will receive anything in return.

Having said that, I received an unsolicited email today pointing to a Kickstarter project to develop a documentary film around one of the only remaining Boeing 307 Stratoliners. There were only 10 of these planes built. One is still in flying condition – the one that the Boeing employees restored for a second time and donated to the Air & Space Museum a few years ago (after putting it into the water in Seattle on an early flight after it’s first restoration). The only other surviving fuselage is from a plane once owned by Howard Hughes. It was ultimately turned into a private yacht and is moored at a marina in Florida. Louis Trueba of TruebaMedia has established a Kickstarter Program for his effort to film a documentary on the history of the airliner-boat. You can find the kickstarter project here.  And an article from BornRich about the boat here.

I’m not saying that I endorse the project, I just thought you might be interested  in finding out that it exists.

Here are some fairly recent articles that you may have missed:

Learn to fly, beat the crowd
This is from Fosters Daily Democrat in Dover, NH. Conner Makem is a reporter for Fosters and, as he describes himself, a semi-frequent traveler. He found himself dreading the commercial flying experience. He was invited recently to take a flight lesson at a local airport – here he describes the experience and compares it to his average commercial flight…

Wright factory to be preserved
This is from AOP Online. Thanks to the auto industry the original Wright Aircraft factory buildings are still standing – the oldest original aircraft factory buildings in the world. The National Aviation Heritage Alliance in Dayton, OH has taken title to the buildings and plans to restore them as part of the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park…

The ultimate paper airplane.
This is from the RadioTimes in the U.K. James May has always been fascinated with airplanes. “That fascination with flight is wonderfully apparent as May supervises a project for his Christmas Toy Stories special – to build a model balsa-wood glider and fly it 22 miles over the English Channel to France.” At the end of the article he gives instructions for folding his Ultimate Paper Plane.

Trends
This is from General Aviation News. Here is your first (that I have seen) wrap up of the aviation trends we saw this year and what we may see in 2013. The article by one of GAN’s editors discusses the purchasing trends seen by Sporty’s Pilot Shop over the past year. I hope the comment about taildraggers proves true…

Top 10 Air Safety Institute products of 2012
This is from the AOPA website. The AOPA Air Safety Institute(ASI) provides videos, articles and courses to pilots and prospective pilots. This article is a list of the top ten ASI products of 2012 – the most often watched/read content that they produced. Some are videos, some are webcasts answering questions posed to ATC representatives and one is a set of training flash cards. You do not have to be an AOPA member to access the material.

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