VA-Vol-37-No-5-May-2009

GEOFF ROBISON PR ESIDE NT, VI NTAGE AI RCRAFT ASSOCIAT ION

Fresh air

Happy spri n gtime to the mem­ bership of the Vintage Aircraft Asso­ ciation! Although it has been quite windy of late in my region, we have finally experienced a good number of days where we have been able to open the doors of the chapter hangar. We greatly enjoy the fresh air; we also look forward to the utility bills taking a giant leap downward each spring. The spring weather has also now allowed us to continue with the construction of a new addit ion to the chapter hangar here at DeKalb County Airport in northeastern Indiana. As you may well remem­ ber, we had hoped to complete this project last fall, but unfortunately, old man winter snuck up on us and had other ideas The plumbing hookups for the restroom facilities have now been installed, and we are prepared to pour the concrete foundation . God willing (and the creek don't rise), we shou ld be able to complete this exciting project by Oshkosh time. Speaking of vintage construction projects, be sure to check out the progress on the new Vintage Hangar at Oshkosh that is well on its way to meeting its construction schedule. This is an impressive structure that will be greatly enjoyed by our many members who will be joining us again at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh in Ju ly. You can follow the progress of this project on the Web at www. EAA.oIg by clicking on Multimedia: Photos, and on the right side, under EAA Photo Galleries: VAA Vintage Hangar Construction. We also have video posted on our home page at

www. VintageAircraft.org, and there 's a photo on the News page in this issue of Vintage Airplane. Executive Director H.G. Frautschy has put put together a nice pictorial of the progress on both websites, and he will be add­ ing additional photos and video as the project continues.

As many of you are

already aware , we

recently learned that

significant progress

has been made in the

development of an

alternative fuel

for certificated

aircraft engines.

Many of you are aware that the VAA sponsors a number of pre-con­ vention volunteer work on week­ ends at Oshkosh each year to help prepare the grounds and structures in the Vintage area of operations. Our work party dates will be May 15-17, June 12-14, and July 23-25. Anyone interested in participating in one of these weekend work par­ ties should contact VAA Chairman of Maintenance Michael Blombach at MichaeI846@aol.com. We have a lot of finish work to be done in the

new hangar, including electrical and plumbing work, rough-in construc­ tion, and HVAC work. We will feed you and provide housing if needed. These work weekends are a lot of fun. Hope to see you up there! By the time you read this issue you should have received your full­ color mailing requesting your par­ ticipation in our annual Friends of the Red Barn campaign. I encourage you to consider participating at any level that you're comfortable with. The Friends of the Red Barn is very important to our annual budget; it helps us ensure we can continue to meet the needs of VAA members during EAA AirVenture Oshkosh . As many of you are already aware, we recently learned that significant progress has been made in the de­ velopment of an alternative fuel for certificated aircraft engines. This fuel, 94Ul, may provide a long­ term alternative that would poten­ tially replace lOOll while imposing the least amount of impact on the flying community. EAA has con­ ducted considerable research into alternative aviation fuels to ensure our members can pursue their pas­ sion for flight. The industry doesn't have all the answers yet, but the testing of 94Ul could prove to be a viable answer to a lot of the con­ cerns we all have about the future availability of lOOlL. Aircraft en­ gine manufacturer Teledyne Conti­ nental Motors began testing 94Ul a year ago, and on March 25 of this year, it made the first flight using the fuel in a production GI000­ continued on page 38

N E VOL. 37, NO.5

MAY

2009

CONTENTS

I Fe

Straight & Level Fresh air by Geoff Robison

2

News

5

Aeromail

6

Replicating a French Barracuda Tom Wathen, Mark Lightsey, and the Caudron C.460 by Budd Davisson

14

Those Wonderful Widgeons Flying since the'40s by Sparky Barnes Sargent

20

Light Plane Heritage Uncle Bob's Midwing Midway Part II by Bob Whittier

28

The Vintage Mechanic Some thoughts on restoration and airworthiness by Robert G. Lock

32

The Vintage Instructor Weight ... wait, don't tell me by Doug Stewart

34

Mystery Plane by H.G. Frautschy

38

Classified Ads

STAFF

Tom Poberezny EAA Publisher Director of EAA Publications Mary Jones H.G . Frautschy Executive Director/Editor Kathleen Witman Production/Special Project Jim Koepnick Photography Bonnie Kratz Sue Anderson Advertising Coordinator Lesley Poberezny Classified Ad Coordinator Colleen Walsh Copy Editor Director of Advertising Katrina Bradshaw Display Advertising Representatives: Specialized Publications Co. U.S. Eastern Time Zone-Northeast: Ken Ross 609-822-3750 Fax: 609-957-5650 kr40@comcast.net

U.S. Eastern Time Zone-Southeast: Chester Baumgartner 727-532-4640 Fax: 727-532-4630

COVERS

cbaumlll@mindspring.com

FRONT COVER: In 1936 during the National Air Races , Michel Detroyat and his Caudron C.460 didn't just beat us, they cleaned our clock . This magnificent replica of the winner of the Greve and Thompson Trophy races was built at Flabob Airport. See the article beginning

gary.worden@spc-mag.com

on page 6. Budd Davisson photo . BACK COVER: Frank Marzich wheels into a left turn after departure from the annual Mid足 west Antique Airplane Club's members-only fly-in in his 1944 Grumman G-44 Widgeon. For more on a snazzy pair of Widgeons , please see Sparky Barnes Sargent's article beginning on page 14. VAA photo. by H.G. Frautschy.

U.S. Central Time Zone: Gary Worden 800-444-9932 Fax: 816-741-6458 U.S. Mountain and Pacific Time Zones: John Gibson 916-784-9593 Fax: 510-217-3796 johngibson@spc-mag.com

Europe: Willi Tacke Phone: +49(0)1716980871 Fax: +49(0)8841 /496012 willi@(lying-pages.com

VINTAGE AIRPLANE

Flush Toilets! ... and other site improvements to make AirVenture attendees more comfortable

It's not that often that something as modest as a commode takes center stage. But when talking to EAA's members about the sweeping changes coming to their conven­ tion site, one simple priority con­ sistently rated highly: flush toilets. Focusing on flush toilets in a broad discussion about the comprehen­ sive AirVenture site-enhancement program is like focusing on shoul­ der harness adjustments in de­ scribing a cross-country flight. It's a small consideration in the big scheme of things, something that doesn 't really matter to anyone ... except to you when your comfort begins to suffer. And then it mat­ ters a lot. The lO-year, multimillion-dollar plan to upgrade EAA's convention site not only will bring improve­ ments to roadways, layout, and infrastructure (see last month's Hotline in Sport Aviation), but also will result in significant improve­ ments in "creature comforts" for attendees. The long-range vision calls for flush toilets in many ar­ eas, addit ional and refurbished campground shower facilities, more green spaces, additional shaded rest areas, more benches, campground hookups, expanded wireless Internet availability, social gathering pavilions, and an eve­ ning sit-down dining option for unwinding or celebrating special occasions after the air show. Enhancements in place for Air­ Venture 2009 will cater to the most compelling of the members' desires, according to member surveys, focus groups, and general feedback. Accordingly, members will see more shady retreats as they traverse the grounds this year. liThe best 2

MAY 2009

John Berendt Cannon Falls, Minnesota Just as this issue was going to press we learned that long­ time VAA Director John Berendt passed away early in the morning of April IS, 2009, at the age of 74 . A lifetime EAA member (EAA 36591, VAA 984), John started fly­ ing in the late 1950s and had his interest in aviation renewed in and most cost-effective way to cre­ ate shade is with trees, and we had a ready supply of trees that had to be removed from the paths cleared for new roadways and construc­ tion," said Steve Taylor, EAA facili­ ties manager. "We've transplanted 42 trees and added a few new ones to strategic locations around the site to create shade areas for relief from the sun." Many of these shade areas were relocated around food venues so visitors will be able to take advan­ tage of some refreshments while taking a break. In addition to the trees, Taylor's facilities team is also creating more seating and tables equipped with large umbrellas. Another conspicuous enhance­ ment, particularly for campers, will be the renovation and expansion of four key shower facilities. The

1967 when he joined EAA Chap­ ter 300 in Faribault, Minnesota. John enthusiastically owned an Aeronca 11AC Chief, a Fairchild PT-19, and a Fairchild F-24. He's best known as the president of the Fairchild Club and editor of the Fairchild Flyer. John was a charter member of VAA Chapter 13 in Albert Lea, Minnesota. He was appointed an advisor to the Antique/Classic Di­ vision (now VAA) in 1989, and after his election as a director in 1990, he continued to serve the membership until his death. John has been a volunteer at EAA Air­ Venture Oshkosh since 1975, con­ centrating his efforts on the VAA forums and the Type Club tent, and throughout the years John was the volunteer who sent you your membership longevity pins. We will miss John's direct and forth­ right manner as well as his pas­ sionate commitment to aviation and to the VAA. We extend our condolences to his wife, Marge, and his friends and family. Bunkhouse, West, Stits, and North 40 shower houses will boast new interiors with better lighting, up­ graded shower stalls, lavatory sink facilities ... and, of course (drum­ roll), flush toilets. The toilets will be added to the back half of each shower house, with access from both inside and outside the facility. The number of available stalls will vary from one to two dozen, ac­ cording to each shower house's size. Renovations to the other shower houses and the addition of brand­ new shower facilities are planned for subsequent years. Next month, we will highlight new navigation, wayfinding, and transportation routes, including a map to acquaint readers with the site's new layout showing locations of the renovated shower houses and the shady rest ,areas.

2009 AirVenture NOTAM Available for Pre-Order Get a jump on EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2009 by pre-ordering the 2009 notice to airmen (NOTAM) . Although many of the procedures are similar to previous years, there are updates in nearly every area to enhance safety, efficiency, and con­ venience for the thousands of air­ planes expected. The EAA AirVenture NOTAM is required reading and should be part of a pilot's preflight prepara­ tion. It outlines all arrival/depar­ ture procedures, radio frequencies, Wittman Regional Airport details, and much more. The 32-page booklets are ex­ pected to be printed and available later this month, along with an on­ line version. You can place your order at https://Secure.EAA.org/airventure/ notamJequest.html.

Submit Your Type Club Meeting Information Many type clubs hold special events, dinners, and meetings in and around Oshkosh throughout AirVenture week, and EAA provides a listing on the AirVenture website. If your type club plans to meet here, visit https://Secure.eaa.org/air­ venture/type_clubs.html and com­ plete the online form. The deadline to submit information is July 14. Call 888-322-4636, ext. 6112, or e-mail ssedlachek@eaa.org for more information.

Submit Your Nominations for Young Eagles Awards The EAA Young Eagles program is successful because of the efforts of EAA member volunteers who make significant contributions to its overall success. EAA chapters and individual EAA members are encouraged to nominate outstand­ ing volunteers for the annual Young Eagles awards. The following honors will be presented by Program Chair­ man Harrison Ford at AirVenture this summer: Chapter Coordina­

tor, Field Representative, Ground Support Volunteer, Humanitarian (presented for efforts to reach spe­ cial needs Young Eagles), and the Young Eagles Horizon award, rec­ ognizing efforts to go beyond the

basic Young Eagles flight. The nomination period is open through June IS, and the official nomination form is available at www. YoungEagles.org/nomination form.pdf

VAA Work Parties The new VAA Vintage Hangar is up, and now it is time for us to in­ stall the interior offices, reconnect the water supply, and install electri­ cal service to the other buildings in the VAA Red Barn area. There is much to do before AirVenture 2009 , and we sure could benefit from your skills, talents, and help. If you have any background in rough con­ struction, finish work, electrical, plumbing, HVAC, or if you would make a good supervisor, please come up and help us during any of our work weekends. Come for one day or all three days-it's up to you. All we ask is that you check in with us via e-mail before you arrive so we can plan our work and resources. We have living accommodations for volunteers, and we will have great evening meals supplied by chefs Steve Nesse (your regular host at VAA' s Tall Pines Cafe) and Bob Lumley. We will also supply lunch. Please let Archie James know (afjamesn46p@comcast.net) if and when you are coming so we can make arrangements for food and lodging. Please bring tools ... hammers, drills, tape measures, etc. The work weekends are as follows: May 15, 16, 17-Finish the electrical to the office spaces, start the electrical to the exhibition area of the new hangar, install paneling, and connect the water and drainage. June 12, 13, 14-Finish the cabinets in the Volunteer Center, finish the trim to the other offices, connect the outside electrical, and finish whatever else needs to be done. July 23, 24, 25-Setup and cleanup before EAA AirVenture Osh­ kosh 2009 . See you there! Mike Blombach, michaeI846@aol.com Archie James, afjamesn46p@comcast.net Bob Brauer, photopilot@aol.com VINTAGE AIRPLANE

3

EM's Consolidated PT-3 will be featured at the Classic Military Trainers Ultimate Fantasy Camp, October 9-11.

'Ultimate' Fantasy: Classic Military Trainers You won't want to miss this chance of a lifetime to experience unforgettable flights in two incredible aircraft from EAA's collection of military trainers-a Consoli­ dated PT-3 and a North American T-6 . EM's Classic Military Trainers Ultimate Fantasy Flight Camp, October 9-11, will include a course on the history

Send Your Young Eagte to Camp! Cutline: Air Academy campers get to test their abilities on EAA's Challenge Course. -Session 1: June 15-19,2009 -Session 2: June 21-25,2009

of perhaps the most interesting period of military train­ ers: the 1930s. Participants will have a rare opportu­ nity to fly in the only remaining airworthy PT-3, plus take a second flight in the famed " pilot maker," the North American T-6. Flights include a preflight briefing on the aircraft and its controls. EAA pilots and instructors will perform the take­ off, demonstrate in the air how the controls work, and then it is your turn! To learn more on this and other EAA Fantasy Flight Camps, visit www.Fantasy FlightCamp.org.

VAA Vintage Hangar Project Nears Completion After a particularly harsh win­ ter in east-central Wisconsin, we've enjoyed a nice stretch of workable weather as the construction crew

4

MAY 2009

The EAA Young Eagles Camp is designed as an introduction to the wonderful world of aviation for students ages 12-13. This program uses small group activities and close counselor relationships to present the basics of flight in a science camp format that is a unique combination of fun and discovery. Primary activities include rocketry and learning about how balloons fly and about avia­ tion history and flight. There are plenty of opportunities for kids to learn about aviation at the EAA Air Academy. To learn more, visit www.AirAcademy.org.

from MPB Builders completed the framing and outer shell of the new Vintage Hangar project. Here it is in its unpainted state after all exte­ rior work has been completed. Now it's time for a swarm of VAA vol­

unteers to descend upon it and fi­ nalize the interior work that needs to be done and paint the exterior. See the item on page 3 for more de­ tails on how you can volunteer to help!

SEND YOUR COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS TO : VAA, L ETTERS TO TH E EDITOR

P.O. Box 3086 OSHKOSH, WI 54903-3086 OR YOU CAN E-MAIL THEM TO: vintageaircraft@eaa.org

In the March 2009 issue of Vintage Airplane I was extremely TH E VINTAGE interested in the well-written ar­ MECHANIC ticle-The Vintage Mechanic­ on page 24, by Robert G. Lock. Repairs, aHerationl, maintenance, Regarding the importance of preventive maintenance ....- -- -..... locating original factory draw­ ings for a particular antique/clas­ ""I'ILIa' sic airplane, I would like to offer :r: ~=~I:t~t:::~~::::' Originally, these ~'=..:~~~:;:.;~j:·rt~l~ :::: the following information. ;==='=~ conversions were =I=:--=~:::,rl:t:: As many of you know (you ~.:=~~~~~ completed with a :::~:.J':;::'.t.= ,ov.' "field old-timers) or perhaps do not r-" \., ~'::;;,=;~~ from the eM_ ~;~~:~:I:h.:,.=n~;! know (you young-timers), I =n~':;.~~h~fl~r~:-;.: Try doing a com~;!,~:ln ""'-'11O ~!::~·.;~:t~=~ plete engine change oo!::~~~~d~:·i~·.~~~~~=:; have been researching and col­ without any type of lecting both historical and tech­ =n~~I:::;:~~o;,.'::; "approved data" in ~-=J*'~~It. :!.!!i nical information on airplanes ~::; :=:~.:,~~ today's world. ==........,.~ r~::If;'::-r."::

built by the Ryan Aeronautical Iut', •., Corporation of San Diego, Cali­ fornia, for well over 40 years, . 1\1.....,. if not more. In about 1961 (I think) I started the Ryan Type Club (now the International Ryan drafting standards, so they could be Club) for the very purpose of help­ more easily read and interpreted. I ing owners of existing Ryan built have sold many sets (not cheap) all airplanes with historical and tech­ over the world for use in restora­ nical information, so they could tions and repairs of existing ships. There was even a scratch-built rep­ keep these beautiful flying ma­ lica made (and flown) from one set, chines airworthy. And, du e to my working most which I had the pleasure of making of my life as a senior engineering a test flight in. If I had closed my design draftsman, I and a good eyes (of course one does not do that friend (another Ryan enthusiast) in a Ryan ST), I would have sworn searched both in this country as it was an original; it was that good. So, in agreement with Mr. Lock, well as abroad for original prints (some pretty dog-eared) of just such locating such priceless and valu­ drawings and, more directly, of the able drawings can be difficult in­ deed, especially if we wish to keep beautiful Ryan ST, STA, STA Spe­ these beautiful machines from the cial, STM, etc. airplanes (not the PT­ 22). I spent thousands of hours in "golden age" of aviation flying for a cold basement, nights, redrawing our future generations to see and those documents to more modern appreciate, and to develop an inter­ 8VR08(RTcii.\.OC1I

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est in, like us old-timers. The set I have available consists of well over 100 beautiful working drawings and is, to my knowledge, the only one in existence. You may wish to have a set for either build­ ing up a replica or perhaps just an exact scale model. I can also supply 112 construction drawings, taken in the Ryan plant in the early '30s. Incidentally, my very first air­ plane was a 1929 Command-Aire 3C3, OX-S powered, and carried registration NC90 1E. I st ill have the old wood prop from that air­ plane. See my article, published in the September 2001 issue of Vintage Airplane, page 9. Ev Cassagneres Cheshire, Connecticut VI NTAGE AIRPLANE

5

estled in the hills on the edge of Riverside, California, Flabob Air­ port has a form of aer­ ial patina to it. It's as if it has been fondled by generations of loving hands, which have smoothed the sharp edges and worn the finish, thereby giving it a friendly, lived-in feel. Many of the hangars are rusty, while others, at the high-rent end of the airport, have been painted and cleaned and generally upgraded. But they still look like a well-worn pair of high-quality boots: polished but soft to the touch. And that is the character of Flabob. It is an en­ thusiast's airport. And as an enthu­ siast haven, it has given birth to more outstanding airplanes than most. But it surely holds the world's record for producing flying replicas of golden age racers. And today the shark-like outline of the Caudron C.460 curving onto final says that

N

6

MAY 2009

the spirit of Bill Turner, the long­ time replica king, still lives on at the airport he called home for so many years. The Caudron C.460 is another of aviation philanthropist/entre­ preneur Tom Wathen's projects. He and Bill Turner created some fantas­ tic airplanes (Turner-Laird SpeCial and de Havilland Comet, to name just a few), and his latest partner in creative aerial crime is Mark Light­ sey of AeroCraftsman. Mark, who based his business just over the hill on Hemet-Ryan Airport for years, is a relative newcomer to Flabob. Mark says, "I was restoring air­ planes at Hemet and using lots of Poly-Fiber products, so I knew jon Goldenbaum of Poly-Fiber, who also had a restoration shop on Fla­ bob. Then his guy there moved, which left Flabob with no one do­ ing restoration work, so john talked me into moving over there. It was a

good move, and I'm loving it." Mark came into airplanes the same way most people do, via mod­ els and a very early interest. He got his private pilot certificate in high school at Long Beach, California, but then started hanging out up at another Southern California sport aviation hot spot, Santa Paula. "I got my license at Long Beach, but actually learned to fly at Santa Paula, where I was renting Cubs, Champs, etc. "Then one day I was browsing through the hangars and ran across this super friendly guy who was re­ storing a Ryan ST. We talked while he worked, and it occurred to me that this guy had the coolest job in the world. Even at that age, I couldn't think of any other job that would be as much fun and so satisfying." He later learned the source of his inspiration was none other than jim Dewey, another South­

ern California legendary airman, airplane creator, and restorer. Mark got a "real" job working for the gas company, but old air­ planes almost immediately started working on him. "I was living in Hemet but com­ muted to Hawthorne in an old Bel­ lanca Cruisair. When you put that amount of time on an old airplane, you can't help but learn how to work on it. Then I built a Cor­ ben Super Ace with a Model A for power. I was always out at the air­ port working on something, and people kept dropping by, 'Hey, can you help me with this? Can you make this part for me?' and about 10 years ago, I had enough busi­ ness going that I jumped out on my own. And here I am building wild-looking French airplanes." As he tells it, Tom Wathen had the Caudron shuffling from front to back burner for a number of years before Mark took the proj­ ect over. "Tom likes to do airplanes that were winners. Plus it has to be

In 1936

.. . Michel

Detroyat

and his

Caudron

C.460 didn't

just beat

us, they

cleaned

our clock.

Running in a pair of sideways-mounted Ole" channels, the entire canopy and windshield slides forward to allow access to the cockpit. An advan­ tage to the forward-sliding canopy is that there is no worry of losing it at speed because air pressure keeps it closed.

VINTAGE AIRPLANE

7

something no one else has done. After doing such a long series of racers together, Bill Turner and he decided the Caudron would be the next project because it fit both of his criteria: It had won both the Greve and the Thompson trophies in 1936, and no one was working on one. So, Bill got started cut­ ting wood. Unfortunately, Bill was taken seriously ill and died just af­ ter they got the basic fuselage box roughed out." The project gathered dust for a while, and then Tom struck a deal with another builder. This one said they'd have to back up and basically build the box all over again. And that was the stage it was in when Mark came on board, although there was one little piece of information he didn't have until very recently. 8

MAY 2009

"What I didn't know was that Tom had gone to France and come back with a complete set of original construction drawings for the air­ plane. They apparently were used on the project for a little while then totally disappeared. I didn't know any of this when I started the project, so I just plowed ahead as if no worthwhile information of any kind was available, which meant going the model airplane and photo route and designing everything yourself. Now that we have it flying, I'm not sure I want to see the drawings." Building any airplane from scratch with no plans is a heroic, semi-masochistic project . How­ ever, when the airplane is as well­ known as a Caudron C.460, the difficulty factor increases consid­

erably. Because it has to look like a specific airplane, you're terribly constrained in your design work. On the one hand, you have the areas and basic dimensions avail­ able, but on the other, every time a detail is even slightly wrong, ev­ ery modeler and history buff on the planet comes out of the wood­ work to tell you. The net result is that besides having to design and invent every aspect of the aerody­ namics and structure, voluminous historical research has to be done to make sure the final product is as close to being indistinguish­ able from the original as possible. Which often isn't easy. "When we got the fuselage, it had been set up for a Ranger and that was going to cause some se­ rious problems, both mechanical

and appearance-wise." What he was referring to is that the Ranger is a bigger engine than the original Renault engine. Also the bigger nose on the case was likely to cause cowling changes. How­ ever, a bigger problem with the Ranger was that it was a quite slow-turning engine, which ne­ cessitated a fairly long prop to get enough thrust, and the tiny airplane just didn't have enough ground clearance for that. "We looked around and started measuring the six­ cylinder Moravia LOM en­ gines, one of which is 260 hp at 3000 rpm. And it's su­ percharged. It appeared to be slightly lighter than the original Renault and smaller in displacement, 364 cubic

inches versus nearly 500 inches. But, we could get it with a con­ stant-speed prop, which would be a huge improvement over trying to run a fixed-pitch on a Ranger.

With an airplane that was, in theory, going to be fairly fast, a fixed-pitch prop would be a real detriment. The original had a two-position prop: You took off in

VINTAGE AIRPLANE

9

coarse pitch; then, when you were up and running, ram air pressure triggered an automatic change to a finer pitch. A constant-speed prop turning faster wou ld be about the right diameter, around 6 feet, and it would work well at both ends of the envelope. Once we discovered the LOM we never looked back."

At that point research on the airframe began in earnest. This meant finding every p h oto possi­ ble along with every kind of draw­ ing available . With on ly mode l airplane drawings in their hands, it meant they had to continu­ ally check the accuracy of those against photos of the real airplane

Flabob legend Ed Marquart got the builders started in the right direc­ tion on the landing gear when he donated a pair of Culver V shock struts to the cause. The motion that closes the gear doors is so complicated that to call it "mon­ key motion" would be doing a dis­ service to monkeys everywhere.

using comparative geometry: Find something that's a known dimen­ sion, like the prop (in side view), and use that to create a scale to get the rest of the dimensions. Mark says, "We found one set of drawings from the American Air Racing Society that was extremely accurate and pulled the airfoil off those. We don't know what the air­ foil is, but it is perfectly symmetri­ cal. Fortunately, it handles fine in the air, so we made a good choice. "They had already enlisted the aid of Tony Furukawa, who works full time over at Charlie Nichols warbird operation, doing both wood- and metalwork, and he be­ came the wing guy. However, the wings and fuselage had never seen one another, and I wanted to get them together to see if we had any problems in that area, and we did: No provisions had been made in the fuselage for mount­ ing the wings, so we wound up

completely rebuilding the front half of the fuselage. Again." Since they had no drawings for anything, they relied on the tried and true method of looking at simi­ lar airplanes and using their struc­ ture as guides for their design work. Mark got with George Pereira, who designed the GP-4, which is similar in weight and speed to the Caudron, and used his wing at­ tach system. It's a one-piece wing that comes up into the fuselage, so it's not too complicated. One of Mark's previous customers was a retired Boeing engineer, and he looked over their shoulders to make sure they didn't do some­ thing really stupid . liThe wing uses a laminated, solid spar for the center, which tapers and slowly becomes a box spar toward the tips. liThe ailerons work on a unique torque tube system, the design of which is driven by the total lack of space in the fuselage, which is true of just about everything. I sit on the floor and still had to cheat the canopy up just a little just to fit in it. In fact, the trim and tail wheel lock are on the right side, making it look as if I have to change hands on the stick to get them, but that's not the case. I can reach almost nothing on the left side of the airplane with my left hand because I'm so crowded . It's only 22 inches across, so it's much easier to reach across the airplane with my left hand. liThe landing gear was actually the most challenging part of the airplane, so we started with that. When down, the wheels have to be well in front of the spar, but when the gear comes up, it has to move back to put the wheel behind the spar. We know the originals had some sort of helical gear system in there, but even if we knew how it worked, we didn't have those capa­ bilities. So, we came up with a ge­ ometry that accomplished the same thing. Electrically driven hydraulics bring the gear up and down, but a gas strut forces the link over center

Cleveland Would Never Be the Same

To hardcore air racing fans, 1936 will forever be known as "The Year the French Came to Cleveland." In a sport that had national prominence just below that of baseball with almo.st exactly the same level of strictly American testosterone, it was unthinkable that some effete Europeans could come over here and beat us at our own game. But they did. Actually Michel De­ troyat and his Caudron C.460 didn't just beat us, they cleaned our clock. In the Greve Trophy race, Detroyat was 22 miles faster than Harold Neumann in a Folkerts, and in the Thomp­ son Trophy race, he blazed across the line 16 mph faster than Earl Ortman in the Keith Rider R-3. Margins like that don't con­ stitute winning: They amount to a trouncing. In the defense of the good old United States, at least one point has to be made: Air racing in the United States was essentially a 3-D form of small-town drag racing. Every air­ plane was hand built by amateurs in their backyards and han­ gars, and every single team was nickel-and-diming their way around the racing circuit. The Caudron was built by anything but a bunch of amateurs, and its racing was part of a corpo­ rate strategy. In fact, Caudron had been a major force in the French aviation industry, which was considerable, by the way, since around 1912. For it to show up at Cleveland was the equivalent of having a team officially fielded by Boeing lined up next to you at Reno. The airplane was a professionally de­ signed and built machine. And it wasn't designed to come to America. That was something of an afterthought. The airplane was originally designed to compete in the Coupe Deutsch de la Meurthe race of 1934, Europe's premier aerial free-for-all, which a Caudron won. Naturally! Then its racers started playing with the record book. That summer Raymond Delmotte fired up the long, lean racer and set an absolute, world land-plane speed record of 314 mph. We say "Iand­ plane" because the absolute overall speed record was held by a Macchi-Castoldi M.C.72 seaplane at an amazing 443 mph. A Schneider Cup racer, the Macchi-Castoldi could outrun a Mus­ tang (which hadn't even been dreamt of yet) at low altitude. The Caudron C.460 (they built three of them) was the fast­ est airplane in the world, and when Howard Hughes set his sights on becoming the "Fastest Man in the World" in his H-1, the Caudron was the bird to beat. To put it in perspective, when Michel Detroyat ran the pylons for the first time to qualify at Cleveland, his slowest lap time was faster than any airplane in its class had ever run the py­ lons. It was a fast, and terribly competitive, airplane. VINTAGE AIRPLANE

t t

The gear was the most difficult part of the airplane to design because the wheels start in front of the spar but retract behind it.

Tom Wathen: racer angel, airport savior, sport aviation legend, and all-around good guy. He sponsored the Caudron project.

Mark Lightsey looks huge in this photo because the airplane is decep足 tively tiny, and he barely fits in it.

Left to right. Hualdo Mendoza, Don (Pops) Newman, Nando Mendoza, Carah Durell, Austin Jones, Mark Lightsey, and Barry Kennedy with the completed Caudron C.460 replica. 12 MAY 2009

to lock it down. "We had pictures of the gear but didn't know exactly which way we were going to go when the late Ed Marquart stopped by. He said, ' I may have something that'll help here,' and we went back and scrounged around in his goodie pile. He came back with a set of Culver V struts that were the right size, so we built the gear legs around the shock strut. "And then there were the multi足 faceted gear doors. Getting them sequenced was a chore, too. We still have some work to do in that area because they aren't closing completely tight." The fuselage was covered with 3/32 aircraft plywood, but on the wings

Mark used the metric equivalent, cov­ ering it all with Poly-Fiber products. liThe covering and painting sys­ tem is a new product manufactured by Poly-Fiber for the Ceconite STC. It's called Star Gloss, and it went on really slick," Mark says . When you see how tiny the air­ plane is and how Mark fills up the cockpit and then you look at Fla­ bob's 40 -foot wide runway, you have to wonder how it flies. liThe good news is that the nose is really narrow and the flaps re­ ally get the nose down so you have the runway in sight until you flare, but on the ground you can barely see the sides. liOn my first takeoff, I elected not to use any of the split-flaps. I brought the tail up and it hit 70, then 80, then 90, and it showed absolutely no indication it was going to leave the ground. At 100 I tugged on the stick a little, and it came right off. That symmetrical wing needs angle of attack to fly. Now, I use 15 degrees of flap and hold it slightly tail low, and it flies off really easily. "I know it looks like it ought to be a real handful in the air, but the controls are really quite nice. It isn't sensitive at all. However, it is abso­ lutely neutral on all axes. If you put a wing down, it'll stay down. Same way with the rudder and elevator. Be­ cause it has so much side area ahead of the CG, if I pull the nose to the side with rudder, it'll fly sideways all day long. There is zero dihedral ef­ fect: You absolutely can't pick up a wing with rudder. "With this smaller engine, 260 hp versus 340 in the original and the smaller displacement, it's not wildly fast-200 mph or so, although in a gentle letdown I did see 240 mph true." The original set a world record at 314 mph in 1934, which must have been "interesting" to say the least. "I put the gear down on down­ wind at 140 mph and work to get it over the fence at 100 mph. With the split-flaps down at 45 degrees, as it comes into ground effect it not only slows down quickly, but has a pronounced ground effect cushion,

The long barracuda shape of the C.460 replica is emphasized by the French tricolor stripe. The tiny 75-square-foot wing is partially respon­ sible for the original 's 314-mph top speed.

so I have a lot of time to get it set up for touchdown." liThe tail wheel is lockable, and I don't think you could control the airp lane on landing if it weren't locked. The pilot's weight is so far back and there's so much weight out forward that if the airplane started to move Sideways on the runway, it would be like a dumbbell and really want to come around hard. With the locking tail wheel, it's not that bad and a little rudder and brake holds it." So, now that Tom and Mark have created their airplane, what's next? "Tom is working with some air show people in Europe who really want to see the airp lane, so we're dismantling it and taking it to Eu­ rope for the summer. We're going to

hit the Geneva Classics show, and France is having a 100th anniversary of Caudron show. In total, we're go­ ing to hit eight to 10 shows." Mark is quick to point out that he didn't do this by himself and wants to credit the Caudron kids who were part of his crew. "I know I'm going to miss some­ body, and if I do, I'm sorry. But I have to thank Bill Hill, Tony Furakawa, Nando and Hualdo Mendoza, Don Newman, Larry Gudde, Barry Ken­ nedy, Carah Durell, Austin Jones, John Nelson, Rob Gold, and espe­ cially Tom Wathen. It may be a little airplane, but it took a lot of hands and a lot of hours to get it fin ished. Every time I strap it on I think of Tom Wathen, and I think of these guys. They really pulled it off." . . . .

rAiLWW66LS

V INTAGE A IRPLANE

13

I

THOSE WONDERFUL

WIDGEONS

Flying since the'40s by Sparky Barnes Sargent Two eye-catching Grumman Widgeons nestled wingtip to wing­ tip on the grass at EAA AirVenture Oshkjos 2008-one, a 1943 G-44, and the other, a 1944 G-44. Stand­ ing side by side, they exemplified the ways in which Widgeons have evolved since the 1940s, when they were manufactured by Grumman Aircraft Corporation in Bethpage, Long Island, New York. LONG AGO

The prototype Grumman Wid­ 14 MAY 2009

geon (G-44) first took to the skies in the summer of 1940 and received a pproved type certificate (ATC) 734 in April 1941. Nestling in the Grumman family lineage between the Goose and the Mallard, around 300 Widgeons were manufactured. Originally designed for civil avia­ tors-be they executives or recre­ ational pilots-about three dozen G-44s were sold before the Widgeon found its way into the hands of military aviators. The U.S. Army Air Forces obtained more thim a dozen

Widgeons in 1942, and, quite natu­ rally, both the U.S. Coast Guard and the Navy were interested in such a utilitarian, multipurpose amphib­ ian. It could be handily rigged to carry a depth charge for coastal pa­ trol, and it could also be used as both a trainer and a liaison aircraft. Ultimately, by 1945, there were 25 Widgeons at work for the Guard, and more than 130 employed by the Navy (per ]uptner's U.S. Civil Aircraft, Vol. 8). The twin-engine Widgeon is a

,

fairly rare bird and easily a favor­ ite among those who are fond of vintage amphibians-for both its eye appeal and performance. With its durable design and sporty ma­ neuverability, the Widgeon origi­ nally had seating for four or five people, and it featured all-metal construction, cantilever wings, and a semi-monocoque two-step hull, with an overall length of 31 feet,S inches and a wingspan of 40 feet. The G-44A featured a few improvements over the original G-44-including a modified hull and seating for six-and those were available for the civilian mar­ ket in 1949. Today, there are only 74 G-44s and 43 G-44As listed on the FAA Registry-and very likely not all of those are airworthy.

several engine conversions over the years. The Gannet conversion (Pace, Masan­ dorf) featured 300-hp Ly­ coming R-680 radials, while other conversions used 260-hp Continental IO-470-Ds or the 260-hp Lycoming GO-435s. McK­ innon Enterprises of Or­ egon developed its own conversion using the 270­ hp Lycoming GO-480s with three-bladed pro­ pellers and increased fuel capacity. The McKinnon Super Widgeon responded happily to the conversion, showing improved speed, climb, and range. Other features included mod­ ern avionics and retract­ able wingtip floats, along with various creature com­ forts ranging from wider windows to a larger door, soundproofing, and even an escape hatch. The McKinnon conversion also included changes to the struc­ ture and hull, thereby allowing an increased maximum take-off weight. Yet another engine conver­ sion uses the turbocharged 350-hp Lycoming TIO-540s. Through the years, Widgeons have also been modified with droop tips and a one-piece windshield.

N135MG Brian Van Wagnen of Jackson, Michigan, has been flying since he was 14, mowing grass to pay for flying lessons. "They had wa­ ter airplanes, which I was attracted to right away since I grew up on a lake," says Van Wagnen with a smile, "and I was fortunate enough to get around one of these when I was 16. Al Meyers of Meyers Aircraft had a Widgeon down at Tecumseh, and I was flying a Volmer [an ex­ perimental amphibian designed by Volmer Jensen] at the time with a guy-they took me out in the Wid­ geon, and I fell in love with it! So I've been flying them for a long time, and I do have one at home. I fly for American out of O'Hare, but I'm really a seaplane nut." Van Wagnen explains that Jim Hagedorn "contacted me to ferry the airplane and then give him some dual in it. This airplane was restored many years ago, and it was already nice when he bought it from Mike Reece in Portland, Oregon . Then Jim added a stripe and logo to the exterior, along with a new interior and panel done by Modern Aero in Egan, Minnesota. I don't know a lot about this airplane's history, but these little holes on the fuselage were for a depth charge rack, when it was used for coastal patrol dur­ ing World War II. Then it went into

MODI FICATIONS

As with many older aircraft, the Widgeon has morphed some­ what since the 1940s-most nota­ bly, those modifications include its powerplants. Originally powered by two 200-hp inline Ranger engines with Sensenich fixed-pitch wooden propellers, the Widgeon has had

This 1943 Grumman Widgeon's wings have been metalized aft of the spar. VINTAGE AIRPLANE

15

"AI Meyers of Meyers Aircraft had a Widgeon down at Tecumseh, and . they took me out in the Widgeon, and I fell in love with it!" -Brian Van Wagnen Note the immaculate interior and up-t<HIate panel.

Even the wheel well and shock strut look brand new.

N135MG won the Transport Category Champion Bronze Lindy at AirVenture 2008. Brian Van Wagnen of Jackson, Michigan, flew the Widgeon to AirVenture for owner Jim Hagedorn.

Close-up view of the Grumman logo on '--_ _ _ _ __''"'_ _ _ _ _ _---' the fuselage. 16 MAY 2009

This Widgeon is powered by Continental 10-520s.

ing, "the flight controls are fabric ­ covered on all the Widgeons, with the exception that some of them have had the flaps metalized-but this one hasn't." Van Wagnen thoroughly enjoyed flying the Widgeon to EAA AirVen­ ture Oshkosh for its first visit-es­ pecially wh en it came time for the judging and awards. N135MG made both its pilot and its owner happy when it was awarded the Transport Category Champion Bronze Lindy at the end of EAA AirVenture 2008.

N744G

Close-up view of t he tail.

civilian hands, and at some point it was converted by Dean Franklin in Miami to the Continental 470s. Later on, someone changed it to the 300-hp Continental 10-520s with McCauley props, which it has now. There aren't a lot of Continental­ powered Widgeons."

Other mods on this 1943 Wid­ geon include an auxiliary fuel tank in the wing, which increases its to­ tal fuel capacity from 108 to 156 gal­ lons; Cleveland wheels and brakes; and a heater in the cabin. "Also, the wing has been metalized aft of the spar," explains Van Wagnen, add­

Frank Marzich of Rockford, Il­ linois, started hanging out at air­ ports when he was just 10 years old. He was a flight instructor dur­ ing his college years at Ohio State, and soon th ereafter he began flying charters an d corporate fligh ts be­ fore he signed on with the airlines. Marzich credits Van Wagnen for getting him involved in the world of Widgeons. "Through Brian, I was able to go to seaplane splash-ins, and people would give me rides. I'd been up in Gooses, Widgeons, and Lake Amphibians, and Brian was letting me fly his little airplane arou nd when this one came availV I N T AG E AIRPL A NE

17

•

The Widgeon's flight controls are fabric-covered.

Close-up view of the wheel well.

Unlike most general-aviation air­ craft, the Widgeon has a round nose, which gives the pilot a dif­ ferent sight picture from that of a typical airplane "square" nose.

Frank Marzich of Illinois enjoys fly· ing his Widgeon to splash-ins and fly-ins, such as AirVenture. 18

MAY 2009

Here you can see the entryway into the cabin.

N744G 's panel- note the handsome wood yokes.

able," explains Marzich, "so I've owned it about 10 years now. " N744G is one of the few rag­ wing Widgeons that hasn't been metalized, and Marzich has logged somewhere close to 400 hours on it since he's owned it. Describing the mods to his 1944 Widgeon, Mar­ zich says, "It has a McKinnon en­ gine conversion, which was done back in the 1950s; it's powered by two 260-hp Lycoming GO-435C series engines. This one does have a little electro-hydraulic power pack, so we've gotten away from the generator and hydraulic pump run by each motor. And this one

has two batteries in it for backup . It holds 100 gallons of fuel, and it can carry 40 gallons in each tip tank. But when you get another 80 gallons in this thing, you can only have a few people on board, and then you can't land on water with tip loads, because they're supposed to give you buoyancy." Marzich can't help but smile when he describes his N744G's fly­ ing characteristics. "It has abso­ lutely delightful ailerons on it; it is a sweet airplane and flies really nice-of course, there's a lot of mass out there on the wings, so it can get into a little Dutch roll in rough air,

if you let it. The biggest attraction of this airplane is on the water, and coming out of the water," he says, smiling broadly. "When you're in full displacement taxi, you just turn around like a fishing boat, and then all of a sudden you just jam the power to it, and the monster just lurches up-and this one comes out of the water really fast, in 9 or 10 seconds-and you get up on the step and it takes another second to pick up speed. It's pretty impres­ sive, because the water is spraying up all around and the windows are getting wet." As much as he loves it on the water, he says it also "handles real nice on the land; the only thing that's a little different is that with the round nose on it-like the bow of a ship-your ight picture is not square like in must airplanes. So it's not so easy to tell if you're in a crab. You ask yourself, 'Where on that roundness do I really want to put the horizon?' It takes a little bit of getting used to, to see when your nose is straight, because other airplanes have a boxier nose and it's pretty easy to see when those lines line up on the runway. At first, it's pretty easy to land crooked, be­ cause you don't know what you're looking for-but if you use your pe­ ripheral you can catch your drift. So you get used to looking out the side, and then you'll pick out where that runway line should be on the nose up there, and pretty soon that will start to come together." N744G was restored by Chuck Greenhill and Tim McCarter in the early 1990s, according to Marzich, and it, too, is an award winner, hav­ ing won Best Amphibian at the Sun 'n Fun Fly-In at Lakeland, Florida, in 1994. The next time you're at a fly-in or splash-in, keep your eyes open for those wonderful Widgeons, and take a closer look at each and ev­ ery one you see to try and spot one or more of the numerous modifi­ cations they've come to embody throughout their fabulous flying career since the '40s. ...... VINTAGE AIRPLANE

19

Light Plane Heritage ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN

EAA Experimenter

AUGU ST 1994

Uncle Bob's Midwing Midway

Part II BY BOB WHITTIER

EAA 1235

ast month we told how designer Grover C. Loen­ ing in 1918 created a shoulder-wing monoplane that was significantly simpler, lighter, and faster than the biplanes then being used in World War I. This M-8 also had an advantage from the impor­ tant standpoint of military logistics. Warplanes built in Europe were picked up at factories by ferry pilots and flown comparatively short distances to the battlefront. But when the United States entered the war in April of 1917, it did not take our military people long to realize that aircraft built in this country would have to be dis­ mantled after being test-flown and then crated for ship­ ment to Europe. To keep shipping crate size as small as possible, the cen­ ter sections of biplanes would have to be removed to keep

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crate height to a minimum. Once the planes had been uncrated in Europe, mechanics would have to reinstall the center sections and take care to rig them accurately. Slight misalignment of a center section would translate into appreciable misalignment of long upper wings. When procurement officers saw that the Loening M-8 had no center section and only two wing panels in­ stead of the biplane'S four, they realized how much easier Lead: Heath midwing of 1926 would draw an admiring crowd if it appeared at a 1994 ultralight gathering. Cantilever wing spanned 26 feet. Spruce and plywood fuselage with integral landing gear weighed only 22 pounds. Ship was 274 pounds empty. Did 109 mph with a 32-hp English Bristol Cherub opposed twin engine.

Editor's Note: The Light Plane Heritage series in EAA's Experimenter magazine often touched on aircraft and concepts related to vintage aircraft and their history. Since many of our members have not had the opportunity to read this se­ ries, we plan on publishing those LPH articles that would be of interest to VAA members. Enjoy!-HGF 20

MAY 2009

developer of th e now wide ly used Poly-Fibe r ai rcraft covering mate­ ria ls, created one- and two-seater midwing designs called the Flut-R­ Bugs, wh ich became popular among homebuilt airplane enth usiasts. In recent years, Randy Schlitter of Kan­ sas h as re-created a line of RANS ul­ tralights. It includes the S-9 and S-lO aerobat ic mode ls, which are mid­ wings. In Te n nessee, Wayne Ison's TEAM Inc. organization developed The midwing design has been used in numerous types of homebuilt air­ th e very popul ar miniMAX ultra­ planes, such as this Cassutt speedster and the similar-looking Monerai. light, which also is a midwing. None made the choice of mid­ Absence of dihedral can simplify construction of cantilever wing spars. wing configuration capriciously. In d isc ussing Little Audrey, Po­ berezn y said, "I chose the midwing configuration basically for structural reason s. It is easier, and a bit safer, to have struts in tension u nder the wings rat her than in compression as they would h ave to be on a strut­ braced low-wing. I also wanted the greatest possible proportion of the total wing area within the propeller slipstream to coax more lift out of it during takeoff or in the event of a go-around ." He went on to say, "I once flew a Cub th at had been modified into a high-wing twin by installing Lycom­ Brothers Paul and Norman Poberezny built the low-wing Pober Sport ings on both right and left wings. P-5 in 1959. Paul found that the low wing's larger wing struts had sig­ During the run-up prior to takeoff, I nificantly higher turbulence on the upper wing surface at the wing strut chanced to look down at the wheels juncture than his midwing Little Audrey, which required much smaller and was surprised to notice that tire struts below the wing. deflection was much less th an nor­ mal. This showed that even with the monoplanes would be to ship overseas. Had that war ship at a standstill, so much air being driven over the dragged on into 1919, it is very possible the M-Ss might wings by the propellers was generating an appreciable have seen a lot of action. amount of lift." You won't read about this in coffee table books, but the He also related how when flying four-engined KC-97 fact is that aviation progress has always been based on planes for the National Guard, he and other pilots found seemingly small and obscure developments such as Mr. that the slipstreams of the four big propellers working over Loening's decision that the battle plane he was starting so much of the total wing area generated surprising lift. By to design should be a shoulder-wing monoplane rather chopping engine power at just the right time during land­ than a biplanes. While it never went to war, it performed ing flare-outs, they could make these planes promptly sit so much better than the two-wingers that it started other down onto the runways in good, "solid" landings. From now on, whenever you are looking at three-view deSigners to thinking. As the 1920s moved onward, more and more monoplanes rolled out of factories, and a sig­ drawings of airplanes, in the front views notice both how nificant number of them were shoulder-wing designs much and how little of the propeller discs cover the cen­ that bore a strong resemblance to the M-S. tral portions of the wings of assorted ships. In some para­ When gathering material for these articles, we con­ sols with high-mounted wings, very little slipstream works tacted people who had firsthand experience with mid­ on the central part of the wings. One of the drawings with wings. In the mid-19S0s EAA Founder Paul Poberezny this article is a front view of Roscoe Turner's racer-a mid­ built a Single-seat midwing he named Little Audrey, af­ Wing-and in it you can see how much of the slipstream ter his wife. Also in that decade, Ray Stits of California, works on the wings. Many old-time airplanes take off and VIN T A G E AIRP L AN E

21

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Some military planes used the midwing concept to ad­ '-", vantage. In the Martin B-l0 of 1935, above, and some later bombers, it created space in fuselage bellies for bomb bays. Top right, the 1937 Douglas 0-47A carried pilot, observer, and rear gunner. Observer could move into belly to see through underwing windows. Belly hatch opened for verti cal photography and dropping messages, etc. Right, midwing design allowed Grum­ man to draw on biplane experience when creating its first monoplane , the F4F-4 Wildcat. Since it is a big ship, the pilot could sit above the wing to clear the main spar. This high position combined with small diam­ eter of twin-row radial engine gave excellent forward visibility for combat and carrier landings.

climb out so well as to startle modern fliers. Their slow­ turning engines drive large-diameter propellers. You have now learned one of the "mysterious" reasons why some planes are eagles and other are turkeys. Poberezny also told us that some time after the Little Audrey project, he built a low-wing, the Pober Sport. It had two struts above each wing. Tests with yarn tufts attached to the upper surface of one wing showed that there was much turbulence in the areas where the struts met the wings, with appreciable loss of lift. In addition to this loss of lift, the struts had to be made of heavier streamlined steel tubing to give adequate resistance to buckling under the compression load applied to them. At fly-ins you will notice that most ultralights are designed to have wing struts in tension rather than compression. Discussing his firm's miniMAX, Wayne Ison said, "We chose the midwing configuration because careful engi­ neering is required to keep an ultralight within the le­ gal weight limit. Calculations showed that by attaching wing roots to the top longerons instead of using cabane struts as on a parasol, we got maximum strength for the amount of material used. We achieved simplicity of con­ struction for the sake of inexperienced builders. The mid­ wing configuration also allowed us to run lift struts from the landing gear to the undersides of the wings, which kept them short and stiff enough to allow us to dispense with the cost, weight, and drag of the jury struts needed to stiffen the central portions of longer struts.// Mr. Schlitter of RANS Similarly states that the good strength-to-weight characteristic of the midwing layout is why he chose this configuration for the S-9 and S-10 models. He pOinted out that when considering ultra­ lights of comparatively short wingspans, the overhead struts of a low-wing would affect lift over an objection­ ably larger proportion of the total wing area . The fab­ ric-covered steel tube fuselage frame he uses makes it 22 MAY 2009

structurally easy to incorporate admirably large windows just below the wings. In an informative and much-appreciated letter, Ray Stits told us that the reason he chose the midwing configura­ tion for his first Flut-R-Bug was to concentrate the differ­ ent airframe loads into as compact an area as pOSSible, and also for the sake of structural strength with low weight. It was originally intended to power that first, quite small Flut-R-Bug with a VW engine. Thus it was imperative to keep weight as low as possible consistent with safety. But in 1955, techniques for converting those auto engines for flight were in their infancy, and stories reaching Ray about problems various people had encountered prompted him to switch to a 65-hp aviation engine. This led to the basic design evolving into the two-seat Flut-R-Bugs. These planes were fitted with cockpit canopies built up of metal strips. Right and left sides had transparent plastic panels, while the top areas were fabric-covered to shield occupants' heads from the hot sun. Test flights were made with and without these canopies and also with and without the plastic side panels. The airplanes did not have the kind of instrumentation needed to make really accurate performance measurements, but the pilots did sense that these midwings flew better and with less turbulence effects with full canopies in place. Tests with lengths of yarn were conducted on a side­ by-side Flut-R-Bug having a full canopy, and the pilots were surprised to observe that after leaving the trailing edge at the root, air reversed direction and flowed for­ ward and upward at a 45-degree angle along the side window. However, only 18 inches outboard the flow was normal. Ray therefore came to feel that many planes have similar airflow problems of which the builders are not aware because of not having made yarn tests. He also said one just can't tell by looking at a plane. They flew one SA-6A tandem-seater with no side plastic

Top left, French Bernard set 278 mph speed record in 1924. Hispano-Suiza engine of 450 hp had 12 cylinders in three banks of four each. Cowl over right and left banks blended cleanly into roots of midwing. Center and top right, Wittman Buster of late 1940s had flat-four 85-hp engine and used same idea in its cowling, as did others. Bottom drawings show Art Chester's Jeep of mid-1930s. It had a gull wing similar to Stinson Reliant. Spars were deepest and strongest where struts attached. Fairly open angle at junctures of struts with wing undersides minimized drag from "squeezing" air in these angles. Shorter wing chord at roots minimized size of juncture between wings and fuselage. Short wingspans of racers afforded good bracing angles.

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The valley where a low-wing meets a round or oval fuselage, A, is a big drag generator. Effi­ cient root fillets, B, are complicated and costly to make. Flat-sided fuselages, C, became a "'!!!55=======;]~ common solution to this problem. At D, round cowling on 1,000-hp P&W Twin Wasp on Ros­ coe Turner's late-1930s racer led to round fuse­ lage. Use of midwing concept offered simplest, cleanest wing-to-fuselage juncture. Wing and stabilizer are on prop thrust line. Pilot weight aft balances big engine. Visualize this ship on the ground and note how wing blocks forward view. At E, Chester's Goon replaced Jeep. Mid­ wing design provided a deep fuselage belly into which to install short, sturdy, retractable land­ ing gear. Would be hard to retract it into the thin cantilever wing.

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VINTAGE AIRPLANE

23

Interesting things can be done with midwings. In 1955 Ray Stits designed this single-seater SA-SA Flut-R-Bug. Inboard ends of wings detached from fuselage and swung upward. At same t ime, wing struts pivoted on t heir bolts and wings ended up folded , with roots upward and tips downward. Could fit into odd hangar spaces. Wing panels were only 8 feet long, overall span proved to give too poor span loading for good takeoff and climb, so 2 feet were spliced to each wingtip to increase span. Tips would then touch the ground if folded; change was made to detachable wings racked on each side of the fuselage . This ship led to later two-seat Flut-R-Bugs.

on the canopy but just the top fabric in place and expe­ rienced no turbulence. Then some builders of this model began to report experiencing turbulence over the tail sur­ faces in tight left turns at cruising speed. Simple, single­ curvature, triangular fairings made of sheet aluminum and installed in the angle between wing leading edges and the fuselage cured this by delaying airflow separa­ tion. Live and learn. As far as we know, no wind tunnel tests have been made of small, simple midwing planes designed and built on tight budgets-not enough such midwings have been built to attract the attention of the wind tunnel people. Probably some have been made for larger, faster military types, but one could spend much time trying to hunt down the decades-old reports that resulted. When one looks at the accompanying side-view draw­ ing of the Grumman Wildcat, it becomes readily appar­ ent that the enclosed cockpit positioned so far above the juncture of wing roots and fuselage sides could cause no turbulence problems. But when we look at pictures of as­ sorted smaller midwings, with the inboard ends of their wings close to large open cockpits, common sense says turbulence must result. One has to consider each mid­ wing individually. Generalizations are risky. On studying photos and drawings of midwi ng and shoulder-wing aircraft accompanying this article, you can spot both "clean" and "dirty" designs. The midwing configuration has been used in some military planes. It left generous belly space available for bomb bays in bombers. But because the wing spars ran right through the middle of fuselages, converting such bombers to passenger-carrying craft was either impos­ sible or discouragingly expensive. For reasons involving production considerations, cabin pressurization, weight, performance, and so on, many large and fast all-metal planes have been designed with circular or oval fuselage cross sections. Acute an­ gles appear where low-mounted wings meet such fuse­ 24

MAY 2009

lages. The classic cure for the aerodynamic drag created there is to install well-shaped sheet aluminum fillets hav­ ing elaborate curves requiring much work and expense. This is one reason why many low-wings have fuselages with flat bottoms and sides. They can get by with much simpler fairings or none at all. The drawings in this ar­ ticle make it easy to visualize what this is all about. Read Tony Bingelis' article on fairings in the April 1992 issue of Experimenter. Now look at the draWings of Roscoe Turner's big rac­ ing plane, the LTR-14. The l,OOO-hp P&W Twin Wasp engine that powered it was of the radial type, today often referred to as a "round" engine. The NACA drag-reducing cowling fitted around it was, therefore, round as seen from the front . This dictated that the fuselage cross sec­ tion should be round to blend in with it. And now notice where the wings join this fuselage. The angles are obtuse rather than acute. Airflow was thus smooth and easy in this area, and so even such a fast plane as this could get by without large and complex wing root fillets. Their absence left more of each wing's inboard area open to the beneficial effect of the big pro­ peller's slipstream. Since this plane carried only the pilot, a midships cabin space was not needed and so the mid­ wing configuration was ideal. As the 1930s moved on, the Grumman people real­ ized they would have to switch from light and sturdy but high-drag biplanes to the monoplane configuration to meet the Navy's demand for greater speed. The resulting F4F-4 Wildcat was a midwing. The more we study it, the more we appreciate how logical this choice was. It allowed Grumman to make use of the light, compact, into-the-fuselage retractable landing gear it had developed for its biplanes. Engineers could readily adapt design and production methods developed for all-metal biplane fuse­ lages to this first venture into the monoplane field. In biplanes, upper and lower wings are more or less equidistant from the propeller thrust line. This results

in little change of trim with movement of the throt­ tle. Because the midwing layout duplicates this setup, Grumman engineers probably felt using it for the Wild­ cat would help Navy pilots accustomed to biplanes to make the transition to monoplanes. For the same reason the Turner racer did not have them, the Wildcat also had no big wing root fillets. The twin-row, 14-cylinder P&W Twin Wasp engine chosen to power this design similarly had a round cowling that blended into a round fuselage. But because this engine was 48 inches in diameter compared to the S4 inches of single-row radials of the same power, cowling diameter was minimized to the benefit of forward visibility when making carrier landings or firing at enemy aircraft. To maintain good streamline form aft of the engine, the fuselage was of quite appreciable diameter. This al­ lowed the pilot seat and controls to be located completely above the wing. The pilot's head was thus positioned quite high and therefore to the benefit of visibility both forward and to each side. The reason why later Grumman fighters were low­ wings was because the Wildcat's landing gear track had to be made quite narrow to retract into the fuselage. It was too narrow to handle the enormous propeller torque created by more powerful engines. The reason why the Vought F4U Corsair used an inverted gull wing was be­ cause this layout retained the midwing's simple, clean, wing-to-fuselage juncture while also enabling short, light, sturdy landing gear legs to be positioned well out from the fuselage centerline. The more one looks into and thinks about the design features of any successful air­ plane, the better one appreciates the amount of engineer­ ing talent put into it. Many racing planes of the 1930s and 1940s were of the midwing type. Their short wingspans allowed streamlined steel tube struts or tie rods to be used with favorable bracing angles. The design and construc­

tion of two-spar-braced wings was well understood by airplane builders of those days, and they were compara­ tively easy and inexpensive to build. The quest for speed led deSigners into cantilever wings that reqUired increasingly sophisticated engineering as speeds and stresses increased. The midwing configuration allowed such wings to be simply, lightly, and strongly at­ tached to the fuselage framework. Airfoils tended to be quite thin for the sake of speed, and it was a challenge to retract landing gears into the available space. Again, the midwing configuration worked well because landing gears could be retracted into the ample fuselage space in the area below the wing. Mention has been made of the similarity between biplanes and midwings in regard to minimal change of trim with changes in throttle setting. Flying racing planes around closed courses called for as much skill and concentration as does driving an Indianapolis race car. The planes flew very fast and not very far above the ground. Pilots must watch instruments, get into position to round pylons, and keep track of competing planes. It would be easy to lose sight of altitude for even a mo­ ment and let the plane fly into the ground. We wondered if the midwing's minimal change of trim was one of the reasons those race pilots liked the type, so we asked no less an authority than Steve Wittman about it. He replied that yes, they were aware of this and ap­ preciated it, but it was not the major reason for choos­ ing midwings. When simple-to-build wings braced with streamlined tie rods were used, the layout lent itself to fastening both upper and lower rods to the fuselage. As in the Turner racer, there could be streamlining advan­ tages. Both low-wings and midwings afforded good visi­ bility ahead when racers banked around pylons. Minimal change of trim came as a welcome bonus. Compared to high-wing monoplanes, the downward visibility of midwings is fundamentally poor. Very few

We see many ideas in midwings. Left , RANS aerobatic ships have large windows below wings to give very good view below. Right, designed in Belgium after World War II by Mr. E.O. Tips, the VW-powered Tipsy Nipper had t ricycle gear. This put wing trailing edge well above ground. Arrow points to flap that hinges downward. Stirrup-like step at lower end facilitates boarding. Picture is of a neat rubber-powered scale model by Sieg­ fried Glockner of Germany. VINTAGE AIRPLANE

25

position. That's why some racing and aerobatic ships are low-wings. On the other hand, light mid­ wings intended for sport flying usually have engines of modest weight, and to get proper balance pilot seats are located where wings join the fuselage. In such ships downward visibility can be nil. This might not bother a pilot who normally flies cross-country over monotonous terrain, but could be considered unacceptable by one who likes to fly over scenic regions. The midwing design finds applications today. Above, Pushy Cat has its It's worth noting that TEAM Inc.

wing on the propeller thrust line. Does 265 mph on a 200-cubic-inch en­ offers customers a choice between

gine. Below, the popular miniMAX ultralight uses the midwing idea to its midwing MiniMAX and high­

simplify construction and reduce weight compared to a high-wing. Tall wing Hi-MAX.

Openings or windows on fuse­

vertical tail carries a useful amount of its area above turbulence coming lage sides of midwings have been back from cockpit in open models. much used as a way to improve downward visibility. In some cases the visibility gain has been mar­ ginal, in others quite worthwhile . Punch a small hole in a piece of paper. When you hold the paper some inches ahead of one of your eyes you can see little through the hole. But your arc of vision increases substantially the closer you bring the card to your eye. The same effect governs the visibility through airplane windows. Study the illustrations used in these ar­ general-purpose civilian midwings have been manufac­ ticles and evaluate how different shoulder-Wings and tured because of this. But there is variation in downward midwings rate in this regard. visibility among midwings. The high cockpit positioning Some years ago we corresponded with Robert on the Grumman Wildcat offered quite good visibility Thompson]r. (now deceased) of Ohio. He was very not only ahead, but also to each side, and fighter pilots well-informed on Heath light planes, and in discuss­ seldom have need to look directly below. A low-wing ing the Heath Center-Wing, he stated that it was a with low-set cockpit and a lot of dihedral can offer poorer much better windy-day plane than was the Parasol. visibility to the side, it should be noted. In the air, this had something to do with the fact The late-1930s Douglas 0-47 A and other observa­ that it had a shorter wingspan and consequently tion/reconnaissance planes had pilot seats located at higher wing loading. In landing and taxiing work, or even ahead of the wing's leading edge so as to pro­ a crosswind working on a Parasol's high-mounted vide quite good downward visibility. The same can wing had appreciably more tendency to tip the ship be said of the light Short Satellite sport plane. onto its downwind wingtip than was the case with Racing planes had powerful and therefore heavy the Center-Wing. Mr. Ison of TEAM Inc. substanti­ engines in their noses. To balance them pilot seats ates this by observing that the midwing miniMAX were located aft of the wings. Depending on the par­ is more manageable than the Hi-MAX in crosswind ticular plane, visibility dead ahead could be poor, to conditions. He also states that the midwing model the sides and in racing turns it could be good, and has a faster response to the ailerons than does the downward on each side, good enough to see check­ high-wing. This would be because in the midwing, points when flying cross-country. the wing is positioned closer to the ship's vertical In planes having such aft-located cockpits, a mid­ center of gravity. wing ahead of the pilot could block forward visibil­ A long time ago we read that for much the ity seriously when a taildragger was in three-point same reason , midwings ride better in rough air 26

MAY 2009

than other types. When plunging into a gust, drag acting on a high-mounted wing causes a momen­ tary tail-down action. In the case of a low-wing it would cause a nose-down action. Ison of TEAM and Schlitter of RANS said they have not noticed this effect, but that might be because their planes are quite light. Probably what we read applies to heavier and faster midwings. Read "Exploring the Parasol Monoplane" in the March 1993 issue of Ex­ perimenter; note particularly the drawing on page 20 and interpolate to midwings. With less wing drag compared to biplanes, mono­ planes have become popular among aerobatic pi­ lots, and many monoplanes are midwings. Lower drag translates into better performance in the spec­ tacular upward-zooming maneuvers now so much a part of competition and air show work. The mini­ mal change of trim with throttle movement that has long made biplanes popular similarly makes the midwing configuration advantageous in aerobatic work. The simple but very strong attachment of wing to fuselage is an advantage when vigorous use of the ailerons is made. Some midwings have no dihedral, others a notice­ able amount. "Flat" wings are often seen on racers and aerobatic ships. Having no dihedral can simplify the construction of box spars for cantilever wings. Sometimes a one-piece cantilever wing turns out to be both lighter and stronger than a similar one consisting of three panels connected with steel fit­ tings. Often the absence of dihedral can make a mid­ wing respond to the ailerons faster or make it handle better in inverted flight. A designer has to think of many things. On the other hand, dihedral is common on light midwings intended for sport flying. We have seen nothing in airplane design textbooks on midwing di­ hedral. In the early 1960s EAA published a softcover book entitled EAA Aircraft File Number 3, DESIGN, Volume 1. On page 22 is an article by Bill Meadow­ croft on "Dihedral Effects." The calculations it pres­ ents use a midwing design as a subject. Dihedral, fin area, and spiral stability are closely interrelated, but this is a subject very little under­ stood by most amateur deSigners. There's a sec­ tion on spiral stability in Model Airplane Design, by Charles Hampson Grant. It was originally published in 1941 by Jay Publishing of New York and in 1983 by Charles H. Grant Associates Inc., Manchester Ver­ mont. This section runs from page 108 to page 114 and uses diagrams of parasol and midwing free flight models to illustrate the aerodynamics involved. EAA's Library will copy and mail to you the Mead­ owcroft article and the Grant book's coverage of spi­ ral stability. Contact the library at slurvey@eaa.org, or call 920-426-4848. The chapter on "What the Airplane Wants to Do"

in Wolfgang Langewiesche's well-known book Stick and Rudder has something to say about spiral dives, which are to full-size planes what spiral stability is to free-flight models. Cockpit entry and exit can be more of a problem to the designer of a midwing than other types. In ships having the cockpit between the wing roots it's usual to provide a step of some sort at a convenient location on the side of the fuselage and a step pad or walkway on the wing root. Some sort of handhold is also needed, especially in taildraggers, by which a pilot can lower himself into and pull himself up out of the seat. Wire-braced midwings like the Buhl Bull Pup are nice in this respect, because the cabane struts to which the overhead wing tie rods are at­ tached also serve as a convenient and sturdy hand­ hold. Such struts also provide pilot protection in the event of a nose-over. Strut-braced mid wings such as the miniMAX and RANS aerobatic models have no such overhead structures. The former is boarded from ahead of the wing by means of a step in the fuselage just above the landing gear. The RANS planes have projecting footsteps on their fuselages and pads on the tops of their rear wing spars and are boarded from behind the wing. It's easy to step from the ground to the wingwalk of a lOW-Wing, but in some designs one must then clamber over a rear wing strut to reach the cockpit. But once up on the wingwalk of a midwing, the path to the cockpit is clear. In small parasol monoplanes there's often not much clearance between the top of the fuselage and underside of the wing, which calls for some squirming to get in and out. Turbulent airflow and therefore much drag can be created by the combination of a usefully high wind­ shield ahead of an open cockpit, the cabane struts, and the underside of the wing of a parasol mono­ plane. Based on Heath Parasol components, the 1929 Church Midwing was much cleaner in this area and appreciably faster. Plans for it are in the 1931 Flying and Glider Manual reprint available from EAA (and on the EAA online store at www.EAA.org) and are in­ teresting to study. Because visibility downward and to the side, and boarding and getting out are critical aspects of de­ signing a good midwing, it is advisable to build a mock-up before actual construction is begun. We ask readers not to interpret these two articles as meaning that we endorse the midwing configuration and rush to their drafting boards. Our objective is to create a better general understanding of this seldom­ written-about type. Over the years there have been very successful midwings and also some miserable ones. The good ones resulted from careful evaluation of how the midwing configuration might lend itself to a particular application. ....... VINTAGE AIRPLANE

27

BY ROBERT G. LOCK

Some thoughts on restoration and airworthiness As the aviation industry contin­ ued to grow in the middle 1920s, Congress, in an attempt to create a uniform set of regulations govern­ ing aviation, created the Aeronautics Branch of the Department of Com­ merce. The Aeronautics Branch (re­ named the Bureau of Air Commerce in 1934) began to create new docu­ ments, one of which was Aeronautics Bulletin 7H (right, top). This docu­ ment spelled out the first published data on making repairs to certificated aircraft in the United States. The pub­ lication date was January I, 1936. This was the first data published to aid mechanics in accomplishing re­ pairs and alterations of aircraft. By 1938 the government contin­ ued to evolve its oversight of avia­ tion by creating the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA). It created the Civil Aviation Regulations (CAR) and Civil Aviation Manuals (CAM). Re­ quirements for approved type certifi­ cates (ATC) were now contained in the CARs; CAR 3 was certification re­ quirements for small aircraft. Also to appear was the "mechanic's bible," CAM 18 (right), which spelled out re­ quirements for maintenance, repair, and alterations to airframes, power­ plants, propellers, and appliances. CAM 18 was an expansion of Aero­ nautics Bulletin 7H and may have first appeared in 1941. This publica­ tion was to eventually evolve into the present FAA Advisory Circular AC43.13-1B that gives advisory data on major repairs to aircraft structure. Annual relicensing of aircraft was 28 MAY 2009

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CIVIL AER O NA UTICS M A NUA L 11

inspected for issuance of a permanent airworthiness certificate, then upon the restoration of that aircraft, appli­ cation would be made to the FAA and a conformity inspection would have to be completed before a new perma­ nent certificate could be issued. As the workload for CAA inspectors increased, a new method of licensing was created. The designated airworthi­ ness maintenance inspector (DAM!) was selected as a means to license air­ craft annually. These selected DAMls were well-experienced, certificated Aircraft and Engine (A&E) mechan­ ics who were hand-selected by local CAA maintenance inspectors. The air­ worthiness certificate was still reissued every 12 calendar months, but in the middle 1950s, about the time the CAA evolved into the FAA (Federal Avia­ tion Agency), things began to change for airworthiness certificates. They be­ came permanent. The aircraft could be relicensed every year by the DAM!. When the CAA evolved into the FAA, regulations changed to create an "au­ thorized inspector. The designation A&E was also changed to airframe and powerplant mechanic; thus the A&P with inspection authorization (A&P/ IA) was created. So today, the A&P/IA can return-to-service annual inspec­ tions, many major repairs, and some major alterations. An A&P mechanic was eligible for the IA after three years of active experience and by taking a comprehensive written test. I remem­ ber my IA test lasted seven hours! Congress created the Federal Avia­ tion Agency in 1958, and soon after, II

CAM 18 was effective until the current FAA created the Advisory Circular system.

required and a new airworthiness certificate was issued to the owner after the airplane was approved for return-to-service. These certificates expired after 12 calendar months and were subsequently reissued. Fig­ ure 1 shows the old renewable air­ worthiness certificate. Today, if an old aircraft was never

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Form 60 8

Figure 1. IS iI us ration above s a copy taken 'AA air­ worthiness paperwork file. The original registration number, NC150M, has been assigned to another airplane due to inactivity. These early airworthi­ ness certificates were issued annually and therefore had an expiration date. Note that the airworthiness certificate is signed by a CAA inspector, as mechanics could not relicense aircraft in those days.

the word"Agency" was dropped in favor of "Administration." And that is what it is today, the Federal Avia­ tion Administration. Government control and bureaucracy continues to grow ever larger. While we are on the subject of the FAA and airworthiness, perhaps an easy method to distinguish differ­ ences between a major repair and a major alteration is to apply the fol­ lowing: 1) If the repair returns the aircraft to its original type certificate, affects airworthiness, and cannot be done using elementary techniques, then it is a major repair; 2) If the re­ pair (or modification) alters confor­ mity to the original type certificate, then it is a major alteration. If an A&P mechanic cannot ap­ prove a major repair or alteration, then a "field approval" by an FAA maintenance inspector must be ob­ tained. At times it may be beneficial to solicit the aid of a DER (designated engineering representative) or a DAR (designated airworthiness represen­ tative) to speed the process. An alter­ native to this, in the case of a major alteration, would be to obtain a sup­ plemental type certificate (STC). I have an STC on my Command­ Aire biplane for an engine change. It took almost four years and many aspirin tablets to quell the massive headaches associated with this pro­ cess. Note that the date of application

Figure 2 . The Wright engine instal­ lation in my Command-Aire.

was January 1,1986, and the date of issuance was July 16, 1990. Perhaps a future story on FAA field approvals could prove interesting. This STC is a one-time approval for installation of Figure 3. 7b C6Z rIRcAn::

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Stacks of 50-pound glass bead bags to gain mechanical advantage dur­ ing pull test. VINTAGE AIRPLANE

29

'l Nearing the end of a very long day and a successful engine mount pull t est. That's me to the left (not looking very happy) and my father, Leon­ ard, to the right. In the center is FAA inspector AI Strickfaden. If we look slightly overheated, it was due to a temperature of over 100°F in my shop when we completed the test in late afternoon.

a Wright R-760-8 engine in NC997E. The STC required an engine mount pull test to 7.441s; I believe this was beyond the limits of design in 1929. But it was either do the test or cancel the STC application, so I did the test! Figure 2 shows the Wright engine in­ stallation in my Command-Aire. The FAA required an engine mount pull test. I constructed a very simple "I" beam arrangement and made the problem into a weight-and-balance solution. By calculating the amount of pull to be exerted on the engine mount structure, I used the axle cen­ terline as a fulcrum point and deter­ mined how much weight to place on a plywood mount I had fabricated at the horizontal stabilizer attach points. Figure 3 shows my notes on how to conduct the pull test. Adding SO-pound bags of glass beads pro­ vided a down load in the aft fuselage, thus causing a downward pull on the engine mount structure. It worked and the fuselage supported 7.441s! So much for the engine mount pull test. It was one of the most difficult tasks I've ever undertaken in the avia­ tion business. To this day there is a very slight bow in the lower longerons be­ tween clusters, no doubt caused by the tremendous load during the pull test. If an aircraft never had a perma­ nent airworthiness certificate, then one must be obtained. Here again, the FAA issues the certificate. As I men­ tioned before, to obtain that treasured piece of paper, you must submit an ap­ plication and prove the airplane "con­ 30 MAY 2009

forms to its original type certificate. Sometimes this is very difficult, espe­ cially if the original type design data is missing. At the FAA headquarters in Washington, D.C, I have seen file cab­ inets with drawers containing type de­ sign data. Just like in Joe Juptner's U.S. Civil Aircraft books, each drawer had folders with the original ATC number at the top. Some of the folders con­ tained data; some folders were empty. When the folder was empty, the FAA has no type design data other than the data that is published in Aircraft, Engine and Propeller Listing, which is very limited. Just what is type design data, you ask? Upon original granting of the ATC to Command-Aire for my airplane in March 1927, type design data was in the form of draWings, engineering data, photographs, and any other type of data required by the Aeronautics Branch of the Department, and later the CAA, for manufacturing approval of a particular model of aircraft. For the coveted permanent air­ worthiness certificate, an FAA repre­ sentative will conduct a conformity inspection. Basis for the inspection could be one or more of the following: II

- FAA Aircraft, Engine and Propeller Listing or specification sheets micro­ fiche (now CD-ROM) of original re­ cords containing airworthiness and registration data. - Factory drawings (if available). - Aircraft and engine operation limitations. In addition, a current weight-and­

balance report with critical forward and aft center of gravity loading, a loading schedule (if required), and appropriate placarding must be included. A list of reqUired, optional, and special equip­ ment must accompany the weight-and­ balance data. And lastly, FAA Form 337 (Major Repair and Major Alteration) must be completed by the supervising A&P/IA. Aircraft and engine logbooks must have appropriate entries made by authorized individuals, and registration data must be shown. After many months (or should I say years) of restoration work, per­ haps that small piece of paper that says PERMANENT AIRWORTHINESS CERTIFICATE-STANDARD is now in your hand. Categories of the Air­ worthiness Certificate are: NORMAL, UTILITY, and ACROBATIC Types of certificates are: STANDARD (NC), RE­ STRICTED (NR), LIMITED (NL), and EXPERIMENTAL (NX). ATC data is also known as type de­ sign data. Type design data can be found in the Aircraft Listing, Engine Listing and Propeller Listing, an FAA publication for fewer than SO airplanes registered, and the Aircraft, Engine and Propeller Specifications for the "middle­ aged" aircraft, with more than SO air­ planes registered. For the older vintage airplanes the above is the only type design data available. If you are really lucky there may be copies of original fac­ tory drawings available as a valuable su pplement. However, most of the factory drawings for many antique air­ craft have been destroyed or the FAA will not release them. For the Waco and Boeing Stearman restorers, fac­ tory drawings are available. The Waco drawings are available at the National Air and Space Museum in Washing­ ton, D.C, and the Boeing Stearman drawings are available on CD from private individuals. Drawings are most valuable when restoring or repairing aircraft. I searched for the Command­ Aire drawings, but I have determined that they have been destroyed. How­ ever, in my search I did locate some valuable type design data from a most unusual source, which might fuel an­ other story someday. ......

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BY DOUG STEWART

Weight . . . wait, don't tell me Not too long ago, a potential cli­ ent called me seeking training for a tailwheel endorsement. He had heard that I conducted the training in my Piper PA-12 Super Cruiser and was hoping that he would fit inside. Need­ less to say, the bells and whistles went off inside my head. "Fit inside?" I asked. "Umm, yeah," he replied, "you see, I'm a little on the heavy side." "Well, how much do you weigh?" I asked. "You are aware that there is a maximum certified weight limit for the airplane that we can't exceed." "I weigh about 330 pounds," he answered. Doing a quick calcula­ tion in my head I realized that be­ tween us, plus the empty weight of the airplane, we would be close to max gross weight, and that wasn't even accounting for any fuel. "That will be pushing our weight limits," I responded, "but if we start with only half fuel we should be okay. You realize, though, that in order to remain within the center of grav­ ity envelope you will have to sit in front, and it might be a bit tight for you up there." He replied that he understood what I was saying, but he had been searching for an airplane and an in­ structor for quite some time and I was the first one he had found who was willing to give it a try. He was willing to make the long drive to the airport where I'm based in order to see if he would fit. I had my doubts, but as I almost always will go the extra mile to help someone who wants to fly get in the air, I wasn't going to deter this gen­ 32

MAY 2009

tleman. However, I must say that this was not the first time I had re­ ceived this type of request, especially since the advent of the light-sport certificate. Many people have called me wanting to receive training who are just too heavy to fit in any of the airplanes that qualify for operation under light-sport rules, i.e. a maxi­ mum cert ified gross weight not to exceed 1,320 pounds.

... it is so easy to

exceed the limits

that many

instructors take

a very cavalier

approach and tell

their clients,

"Just a few

pounds overweight

won't matter."

My guess is that most of these folks, whose avoirdupois is on the large side, typically also have some type of medical problem associated with their obesity that prevents them from obtaining a third-class medical certificate. What with the light-sport certificate requiring only a "driver's license" medical, they see this as their avenue into the air. They see a way around the rules, but if they weigh all the consequences,

they will realize there is one law for which there is no escape: the law of gravity. It's as if they are saying: "Weight? Wait, don't tell me." Seeing as how many of the leg­ acy aircraft we fly easily fit into the light-sport aircraft (LSA) category, it seems like it might be worthwhile to review the many issues that need to be considered relative to weight and balance. Let's look at maximum certified gross weight first, as that is the area that most often will be at or over the limits, particularly with airplanes like Cubs, Champs, Vaga­ bonds, Taylorcraft, and even that venerable trainer for so many pilots, the Cessna 150/152 (which, by the way, does not meet LSA rules). For many of these airplanes, with pilots of today's typical weights, it is not very difficult to exceed the max gross weight limits. In fact it is so easy to exceed the limits that many instructors take a very cavalier ap­ proach and tell their clients, "Just a few pounds overweight won't mat­ ter." In doing so a horrible mental­ ity is created, especially for neophyte pilots who are so susceptible to the "rule of primacy" : The things we learn first are the things that stick. Thus they start off their flying careers thinking that it's no big deal to exceed the weight limits of our airplanes. As an examiner I often ask an appli­ cant if an airplane will fly if it weighs more than max gross, provided the center of gravity (CG) limits are not exceeded. I usually get the true an­ swer of "yes, it will." But then I fol­ low up with the question of what is

the greatest danger of flying in this condition. I'll typically get theses an­ swers: It will take more runway to take off and land, the stall speed will be higher, and it won't climb as quickly. All of these answers are correct, but it's almost as if I have to go fishing to get to the greatest danger, and for that there is only one answer: the risk of structural damage. I am amazed at how many pilots don't come up with that answer immediately. I'll then follow up with questions relative to the center of gravity. I ask, what are the dangers of exceed­ ing the forward CG limits? Most pi­ lots answer correctly that it will be difficult, if not impossible, to rotate on takeoff and that when landing it might be hard, or again impossible, to flare . Some appropriately men­ tion that it will raise the stall speed. I then move on to the dangers of having the CG aft of the limits. To this I will often get answers again related to the takeoff and landing phases of the flight. Some will discuss the fact that it will be less stable with the CG aft. But when I ask about the greatest danger of having the CG aft of the rearward limits, it concerns me that not every applicant comes up with the immediate answer that in that condition it might be impos­ sible to recover from a stall. I then move on to another weight-and-balance scenario. In this scenario, two pilots, Jack Sprat and his wife (you remember them, "Jack Sprat could eat no fat, his wife could eat no lean.") are going for a flight in their Piper Cub. The winds aloft are blowing and there is an AIRMET for moderate turbulence along their route. I now ask, if you were them, how would you load the airplane? Who would get to sit in the front, Jack or his wife? Unfortunately, not every pilot can answer this type of question. Most, if not all, pilots know how to calculate weight and balance. They know that weight times arm equals moment, and that if you total the moments and divide that number by the total weight, the number you will get is an­ other arm. That arm is the center of

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gravity of the airplane, as loaded. Virtually all pilots know that when dealing with weight and bal­ ance, weight is equal to 16 ounces to the pound, the arm is not an ap­ pendage coming from their shoul­ der but a distance from a measuring point (the datum line), and that a moment is more than a short period of time while they think up the an­ swer, but a number representing a force (when you calculate weight and balance may the force be with you). Most pilots are also keenly aware of the dangers of exceeding the limits of weight and balance, but not all pilots are truly aware of the ramifications of moving the weight around in the airplane while remaining within the limits. In the course of a practical test, a flight review, or an FAA Wings pro­ gram, I ask them about how they would load the airplane for a given condition. Do they consider the load­ ing relative to possible turbulence or their desire to have the most stable aircraft they can have? If instead I present a scenario where the highest cruise airspeed or greatest endurance is sought, many of the pilots I interact with are unable to answer. They are either unaware, have forgotten, or perhaps were never taught that the farther forward the CG is the more stable the aircraft will be, and also that it will have a higher stall speed. Conversely, the farther aft the CG is located, the air­ plane will be less stable and thus less down force will be required by the horizontal stabilizer, and since the horizontal stabilizer will be flying at

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a lesser angle of attack, there will be less induced drag, yielding a higher cruise speed and thus greater range. The reason for this lack of knowl­ edge is most likely rooted in the fact that too many instructors are just teaching to the practical test standard rather than teaching the practical ap­ plication of the knowledge of the con­ sequences of weight and balance. I can understand if someone enamored of flight, who has been waiting most of his or her life to finally be able to begin flight training, might not yet be aware of the issues of weight and balance, but for those who are ready for a practical test, or worse yet are al­ ready certificated, there is no excuse. Now, lest you say, "I waited, but you didn't tell me," unfortunately the gentleman referenced in the begin­ ning of the article was unable to fit in­ side my PA-12. I couldn't help but feel the man's disappointment, but there really was nothing I could do to help him out, or in, for that matter. Regardless of the size of the air­ plane you fly, please remember that it is susceptible to the effects of weight and balance. Ensure that it falls within all the limits relative to not only maximum certified gross weight, but also the fore and aft lim­ its of the CG envelope. And hope­ fully you won't have to wait ... for blue skies and tail winds. Doug Stewart is the 2004 National CFI of the Year, a NAFI Master In­ structor, and a designated pilot ex­ aminer. He operates DSFI Inc. (www. DSFlight.com) based at the Columbia County Airport (lBi). ~ VINTAGE AIRPLANE

33

BY H.G. FRAUTSCHY

THIS MONTH'S MYSTERY PLANE COMES TO US VIA

VAA

MEMBER BRIAN BAKER

Send your answer to EAA, Vintage Airplane, P.O. Box

3086, Oshkosh, WI 54903足 3086. Your answer needs to be in no later than June 15 for inclusion in the August 2009 issue of Vintage Airplane. You can also send your re足 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.

FEBR UAR Y'S MY ST E RY A N SWER

Two views of the 1927-1928 Lehman Weil man-powered airplane.

Our February Mystery Plane came to us from VAA member/ editorial volunteer Wesley Smith. It was a real long shot from the 1920s, and we didn't get any responses on that airplane. It was the 1927-1928 Lehman Weil man足 powered airplane. We've included another view of the aircraft on this page. We did receive a follow-up 34

MAY 2009

note from longtime member and aviation writer John Underwood regarding the Nielsen Golden Bear: Re the Nielsen Coupe, N883E: The crowd swarmed it after the landing gear collapsed while it was taxiing for takeoff for the featured deliberate crash. Don't know who the pilot was, but Jack Irwin of Meteorplane fame had offered it for sale, with or without

its 150-hp Comet engine. Anyway, the crowd stripped it bare, leaving the engine and prop, which were the only items of value left intact. Incidentally, Richard Korman was the designer, and a second X-job was reported under construction as of April 1929, but it appears not to have been completed. The debut of the Golden Bear se e ms to have coincided with the Wall Street "crash" of October 1929. John Underwood ...... Glendale, California

Walter Kessler

Hampshire, IL

• Started flying 62 years ago

• Flying the DH 82-A Tiger Moth Biplane for the past 27 years

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- Walt Kessler

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Name_______________________________________________________EAA#________ VAA#________ Address____________________________________________________________________________________ City/State/Zip_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ Phone________________________________________E-Mai1____________________________________ Please choose your level of participation: ___ Diamond Plus $1,250.00 ___ Diamond Level Gift - $1,000.00 ___ Platinum Level Gift - $750.00 _ Gold Level Gift - $500.00

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NameofCompany _____________________________________________________ The Vintage Aircraft Association is a non-profit educational organization under IRS SOIc3 rules. Under Federal Law, the deduction from Federal Income tax for charitable contributions is limited to the amount by which any money (and the value ofany property other than money) contributed exceeds the value of the goods or services provided in exchange for the contribution. An appropriate receipt acknowledging your gift will be sent to you for IRS gift reporting reasons.

Mail your contribution to: EAA, VINTAGE AIRCRAFT ASSOC., PO Box 3086, OSHKOSH, WI 54903路3086 36

MAY 2009

TOWER: You are now cleared to Oshkosh as filed.

Climb to seventh heaven. Expect Cloud 9. Maintain an ecstatic attitude.

Contact all your friends on arrival to brag. Squawk loudly.

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EAA AirVenture Oshkosh I July 27-August 2, 2009 Buy your tickets online now to save time and money! THE SPIRIT OF AVIATION

For more information visit www.airventure.org

EM Calendar of Aviation Events Is Now Online

Something to buy , sell , or trade? Classified Word Ads: $5.50 per 10 words, 180 words maximum, with boldface lead-in on first line. Classified Display Ads: One column wide (2.167 inches) by 1, 2, or 3 inches high at $20 per inch. Black and white only, and no frequency discounts. Advertising Closing Dates: 10th of second month prior to desired issue date (i.e ., January 10 is the closing date for the March issue). VAA reserves the right to reject any advertising in conflict with its policies. Rates cover one insertion per issue. Classified ads are not accepted via phone. Payment must accompany order. Word ads may be sent via fax (920-426-6845) or e-mail (classads@ eaa. Off!) using credit card payment (all cards accepted) . Include name on card, complete address, type of card , card n umber, and expiration date. Make checks payable to EAA. Address advertising correspondence to EAA Publications Classified Ad Manager, P.O. Box 3086, Oshkosh, WI 54903-3086 .

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Upcoming Major Fly-Ins Virginia Regional Festival of Flight Suffolk Executive Airport (SFQ), Suffolk. VA May 30-31, 2009

www VirginiaFlyln.org Golden West Regional Fly-In Yuba County Airport (Myv), Marysville, CA June 12-14, 2009

www.GoldenWestRyln.org Arlington Fly-In Arlington Municipal Airport (AWO), Arlington, WA July 8-12, 2009

wwwNWEAA.org EAA AirVenture Oshkosh Wittman Regional Airport (OSH), Oshkosh, WI July 27-August 2, 2009

www.AiNenture.org

MISCELLANEOUS

Colorado Sport International Air Show and Rocky Mountain Regional Fly-In Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport (BJC), Denver, CO August 22-23, 2009

Flying wires available. 1994 pricing. Visit

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Mid-Eastern Regional Fly-In Grimes Field Airport (174), Urbana, OH September 12-13, 2009

www.MERR.info Copperstate Regional Fly-In Casa Grande Municipal Airport (CGZ), Casa Grande, AI. October 22-25, 2009

www.Copperstate.org Southeast Regional Fly-In Middleton Field Airport (GZH), Evergreen, AL October 23-25, 2009

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Flight Comes ~ALIVE!~

Members get in FREE! www. airventuremuseum.org Phone: (920) 426-4818

•

38

2010 Events

u.s. Sport Aviation Expo Sebring Regional Airport (SEF), Sebring, Florida February 2-4, 2010

www.Sport-Aviation-Expo.com Aero Friedrichshafen Messe Friedrichshafen, Friedrichshafen, Germany April 8-11, 2010

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Sun 'n Fun Fly-In Lakeland Under Regional Airport (LAL), Lakeland, Florida April 13-18, 2010

~~~

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MAY 2009

continued from inside front cover

equipped Hawker-Beechcraft Model 36 Bonanza. TCM believes 94UL av­ gas is the best option because pro­ duction and distribution infrastruc­ ture already exists, and its higher oc­ tane allows many engine models to use it with minimum impact. TCM plans to proceed with certification on existing engines and evaluate ad­ ditional fuel options, including bio­ fuel. These developments may not provide all of the answers needed to address all of the concerns of the vintage aircraft owner, but it is cer­ tainly a promising development. To learn more about the Continental Motors Alternative Fuels Strategy, visit www.TCMLink .com and watch the video of its recent test flight. Another company I am aware of who is also researching and develop­ ing an alternative to lOOLL is Swift Enterprises in Lafayette, Indiana. This company is pioneering the devel­ opment of a synthetic aviation fuel to replace 100LL. Check this com­ pany out at www.SwiftEnterprises.net. I recently attended a presentation by this company, and it is stating that the advantages of SwiftFuel are seam­ less replacement of l00LL (no engine modifications), 15 percent increase in range over l00LL (no oxygenates), 20 percent drop in pollutants over the current lOOLL fuel, 15 percent more volumetric energy than l00LL, and no need for stabilizers or addi­ tives. These are all impressive devel­ opments! Stay tuned, because this is where the industry is headed, and it is going to be exciting. Please do us all the favor of invit­ ing a friend to join the VAA, and help keep us the strong association we have all enjoyed for so many years now. EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2009, The World's Greatest Aviation Cel­ ebration, is July 27 through August 2,2009.

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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-<lpi digital photo. A JPG from your 2.5-megapixel (or higher) digital camera is fine. You can burn photos to a CD, or if you're on a high-speed Internet connection, you can e-mail them along with a text-only or Word document describing your airplane. (If your e-mail program asks if you 'd like to make the photos smaller, say no.) For more tips on creating photos we can publish, visit VAA's website at www.vintageaircraft.org. Check the News page for a hyperlink to Want To Send Us A Photograph? For more Information, you can also e-mail us at vlntagealrcraft@ eaa.org or call us at 920-426-4825.

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Show off your pride and joy with a fresh set of Vintage Rubber. These newly minted tires are FAA-TSO'd and speed rated to 120 MPH. Some things are better left the way they were, and in the 40's and 50's, these tires were perfectly in tune to the exciting times in aviation. Not only do these tires set your vintage plane apart from the rest, but also look exceptional on all General Aviation aircraft. Deep 8/32nd tread depth offers above average tread life and UV treated rubber resists aging. First impressions last a lifetime, so put these bring back the good times ..... New General Aviation Sizes Available:

500 x 5, 600 x 6, 700 x 8

Oesser has the largest stock and selection of Vintage and Warbird tires in the world. Contact us with Telephone: 800-247-8473 or 323-721-4900 FAX: 323-721-7888

1/1I3'/1~~~ 6900 Acco St. , Montebello, CA 90640 TIRE &: RUBBER

COMPANY-.::ll~~

3400 Chelsea Ave, Memphis, TN 38106

www.desser.com

VINTAGE AIRPLANE

39

VINTAGE

AIRCRAFT

ASSOCIATION

OFFICERS President Geoff Robison

Vice-President

George Daubner

1521 E. MacGregor Dr.

2448 Lough Lane

Hartford, WI 53027

262-673-5885

New Haven, IN 46774 260-493-4724

clTief7025@aol.com

gdaubner@eaa.org

secretary Steve Nesse

Charles W. Harris

2009 Highland Ave. Albert Lea, MN 56007 507·373-1674

7215 East 46th St.

Tulsa, OK 74147

918-622-8400

Treasurer

cwh@hv5ll.com

DIRECTORS Steve Bender 85 Brush Hill Road Sherborn, MA 01770 508-653-7557

sst 10@comcast.net David Bennett 375 Killdeer Ct Lincoln, CA 95648 916-645-8370 antiquer@;nreach.com

john Berendt 7645 Echo Point Rd. Cannon Falls, MN 55009 507-263-2414 fchld@bevcomm.t1t'l

jerry Brown 4605 Hickory Wood Row

Greenwood, IN 46143 317-422-9366 IbroWT14906@aol.com Dave Clark

635 Vestal Lane

Dale A. Gustafson 7724 Shady Hills Dr. Indianapolis, IN 46278 317-293-4430 dale{aye@msfl.com jeannie Hill P.O. Box 328

Harvard, IL 60033-0328

815-943·7205

Espie "Butch" joyce 704 N. Regional Rd . Greensboro, NC 27409 336-668-3650 windsock@aol.com

Dan Knutson

106 Tena Marie Circle

Lodi, WI 53555 608-592-7224 Jodicub@charter.net

Steve Krog

lOO2 Heather Ln.

Plainfield, IN 46168 317 -839-4500 davecpd@att.llet

Hartford, WI 53027 262-966-7627 sskrog@aoi.com

john S. Copeland

Robert D. "Bob" Lumley 1265 South 124th St. Brookfield, WI 53005 262-782-2633 Jumper@execpc.com

lA Deacon Street Northborough, MA 01532 508-393-4775 copelmld l @jullo.com

Phil Coulson

S.H. "Wes" Schmid

28415 Springbrook Dr. Lawton, MI 49065 269-624-6490 rcouisonS16 @Cs .com

Wauwatosa, WI 53213 414-771-1545 shschmid@gmail.co,n

2359 Lefeber Avenue

DIRECTORS

EMERITUS

Robert C. Brauer 9345 S. Hoyne Chicago, IL 60643 805-782-9713 pllOtopilot@aol.com

E.E. "Buck" Hilbert 8102 Leech Rd. Union, IL 60180 815-923-4591 buck7ac@gmaii.com

Gene Chase

Gene Morris

2159 Carlton Rd. Oshkosh, WI 54904 920-231-5002 GRCHA@charter.net

5936 Steve Court Roanoke, TX 76262 817-491-9110 genemOrriS(fllcharter.net

Ronald C. Fritz

john Turgyan

15401 Sparta Ave. Kent City, MI 49330 616-678-5012 rFritz@pathway"et.cotll

1'0 Box 219 New Egypt, Nj 08533 609-758-29 IO jrtllrgyan4@aoi.com

~

Membershi:R Services Directory

ENJOY THE MANY BENEFITS OF EAA AND EAA's VINTAGE AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATION

...

~

:1iI .

""AI' '7

~ TM

EAA Aviation Center, PO Box 3086, Oshkosh WI 54903-3086

Phone (920) 426-4800

Fax (920) 426-48 73

Web Sites: www.vintageaircrafr.org, www.airventllre.org, www.eaa.org/memberbenefits E-Mail: vintageairaa{t@eaa.org

Monday-Friday CST) EAA and Division Membership Services (8:00 AM-7:00 PM membership@eaa.org FAX 92()'426-4873 www.eaa.orgjmemberbenefits 80()'564-6322 -New/renew memberships -Address changes -Merchandise sales -Gift memberships www.airventure.org airventure@eaa.o!g_ EM AirVenture Oshkosh 888-322-4636 sportpilot@eaa.orf< www.sportpilot.org Sport Pilot/ Light-Sport Aircraft Hotline 877-359-1232 Programs and Activities dwalker@eaa.or Auto Fuel STCs 920-426-4843 mrobbins@eaa.orf< 920-426-6570 Education/Aeroscholars airacademy@eaa.orf< 920-426-6880 www.airacademY.orf< - EM Air Academy scholarships@eaa.orf< 920-426-6823 - EM Scholarships tdeimer@eaa.org Right Instructor information 920-426-6801 www.eaa.orJUnafi slurvey@eaa.org Library Services/Research 920-426-4848 Benefits www,auaonfine.com AUA Vintage Insurance Plan 800-727-3823 www.eaa.orJUmemberbenefits membership@eaa.orf< EM Aircraft Insurance Plan 866-647-4322 80().853-5576 ext. 8884 EM VISA Card 80().654-2200 www.eaa.orgjhertz membership@eaa.org EM Hertz Rent-A-Car Program EM Enterprise Rent-A-Car Program www.eaa.orgjenterprise membership@eaa.org 877-421·3722 www.vintageaircraft.org vintage@eaa.org Editorial 920-426-4825 tbooks@eaa.org VAA Office FAX 920-426-6579 888-EAA-INFO (322-4636)

EAA Members Information Une Use this toll-free number for: information about AirVenture Oshkosh; aeromedical and technical aviation questions;

chapters; and Young Eagles. Please have your membership number ready when calling.

Office hours are 8:15 a.m. -5:00 p.m. (Monday - Friday, CST)

MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION

EAA Membership in the Experimental Aircraft Association, Inc. is $40 for one year, inelud­ ing 12 issues of SPORT AVIATION. Family membership is an additional $10 ann ually. Junior Membership (under 19 years of age) is available at $23 annually. All major credit cards accepted for membership. (Add $16 for Foreign Postage,)

EAA SPORT PILOT Curre nt EAA m embers may add EAA SPORT PILOT magazine for an additional $20 per year. EAA Members hip and EAA SPORT PILOT maga zine is available for $40 per yea r (SPORT AVIATION magazine not ineluded). (Add $16 for Foreign Postage.)

VINTAGE AIRCRAFf ASSOCIATION Current EAA members may join the Vintage Aircraft Association and receive VINTAGE AIRPLANE magazine for an ad­ ditional $36 per year. EAA Membership, VINTAGE AIRPLANE magazine and one year membership in the EAA Vintage Aircraft Association is available for $46 per year (SPORT AVIATION magazine not ineluded). (Add $7 for Foreign Postage.)

lAC

Current EAA members may join the International Aerobatic Club, Inc. Divi­ sion and receive SPORT AEROBATICS magazine for an additional $45 per year. EAA Membership, SPORT AEROBAT­ ICS m agazine and one year membership in the lAC Division is available for $55 per year (SPORT AVIATION magazine not included). (Add $18 for Foreign Postage,)

WARBIRDS Current EAA members may join the EAA Warbirds of America Division and receive WARBIRDS magazine for an additional $45 per year. EAA Membership, WARBIRDS maga­ zin e and one year membership in the Warbirds Division is available for $55 per year (SPORT AVIATION magazine not ineluded). (Add $7 for Foreign Postage.)

FOREIGN MEMBERSHIPS Please submit your remittance with a ch eck or draft drawn on a United States bank payable in United States dollars. Add required Foreign Postage amount for each membership.

Membership dues to EAA and its divisions are not tax deductible as charitable contributions

Copyright t<l2009 by the EAA Vintage Aircraft Association, All rights reserved. VINTAGE AIRPLANE (USPS 062-750; ISSN 0091-6943) is published and owned exclusively by the EAA Vintage Aircraft Association of the Experimental Aircraft Association and is published monthly at EAA Aviation Center, 3000 Poberezny Rd., PO Box 3086, Oshkosh, Wisconsin 54903-3086, e-mail: vintageaircraft@eaa.org. Membership to Vintage Aircraft Association, which includes 12 issues of Vintage Airplane magazine, is $36 per year for EAA members and $46 for non-EAA members. Periodicals Postage paid at Oshkosh, Wisconsin 54901 and al additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Vintage Airplane, PO Box 3086, Oshkosh, WI 54903-3086. PM 40063731 Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to Pitney Bowes IMS, Station A, PO Box 54, Windsor, ON N9A 6.15. FOREIGN AND APO ADDRESSES - Please allow at least two months for delivery of VINTAGE AIRPLANE to foreign and APO addresses via surface mail. ADVERTISING - Vintage Aircraft Association does not guarantee or endorse

any product offered through the advertising. We invite constructive criticism and welcome any report of inferior merchandise obtained through our advertising so that corrective measures can be taken. EDITORIAL POLICY: Members are encouraged to subm~ stories and photographs. Policy opinions expressed in articles are solely those of the authors. Responsibility for accuracy in reporting rests entirely with the contributor. No remuneration is made. Material should be senl to: Ed~or, VINTAGE AIRPLANE, PO Box 3086, Oshkosh, WI 54903-3086. Phone 920-426-4800. EAA® and EAA SPORT AVIATION®, the EAA Logo® and Aaronautica'" are registered trademarks, trademarks, and service marks of the Experimental Aircraft Association, Inc. The use of these trademarks

and service marks without the pennission of the Experimental Aircraft Association, Inc. is strictly prohibited.

40

MAY 2009

Drive one.

"WE SPEAK CAR.

And People Like Wnat We're Saying."

Introducing the New 2010 Ford Fusion + Hybrid The most fuel-efficient midsize sedan*

CertaIn resb1cIions apply. Available at parIicipa1Ing dealers. Please refer to www.eaa.org or calI8OO-JOIN fAA.

"The 2010 Fusion is the best gasoline-electric hybrid yet." -USA Today, February 2009

"Fun and fuel economy have finally gotten married in a mid-size sedan." -Car and Driver, February 2009

"The new benchmark among mid-size hybrid sedans." -AUTOMOBILE Magazine, March 2009

"Wait, so has somebody invented the car of the future and didn't tell us?" -Los Angeles Times, December 2008 'Fusion Hybrid EPA estimated 41 cityl36 highway mileage.

LINCOLN

MERCURY