EAA Ultralight 110 Round Robin

November 18 and more, 2006

DURING THE MEETING:

We elected new officers at the Nov. meeting. Our new President is Mike Ettl, and Vice Pres. is Lou Janis. Continuing on as Treasurer is John Gould, Web-Master is Blade Doyle and secretary is Vaughn McIlrath. Congratulations to all.

Jack Sunzeri is back! Last month I mistakenly called his Hornet a Hawk – made him mad enough that he came back to set us straight. Jack is healthy and full of spunk as ever, but still has his share of the Hornet for sale. If you’re interested, contact me at mcilrath@pobox.com and I’ll put you in touch with Jack.

Here are Jack and Bill Denison, his partner, tuning up the Hornet.

ROUND ROBIN, around the table:

Hangar J-32, So. Co., now has 3 aircraft in it: Stephen Mann’s Quicksilver, Jack Sunzeri’s and Bill Denison’s Hornet, and Steven Winegarden’s Challenger II.

John Gould spoke up looking for Trike people. Trike-flyers in need of instruction, contact John, gould42@aol.com.

Stephen Mann has mounted a nose shell on his Quicksilver, with a windshield, wheel pants, and various other items.

Stephen has a set of scales for weight-and-balance that he’s offering to anyone who wants to use them. They measure to 1/10 lb. Contact Steven: mannstep@gmail.com.

Stephen also announced that Jack Sunzeri is the PDRD of South County Airport. “PDRD” = “Precision Decision Revision Division”. Congrats to Jack, I think?

Jack Sunzeri says Robin Reid has flown off 4.5 hours so far on the Hornet. Robin is getting used to the aircraft and likes it. There has been one difficulty however – the ring gear fell off the starter. The bolts that hold it together are too long and bottom out, so that they never are tight. All Hornet kits have the same “GPL” starter and could have the same problem. Jack is pursuing this difficulty further with the factory and with the FAA.

Here’s the Hornet and a handy tool – her checklist.

Bill Denison is continuing lessons toward his biennial flight review, and plans to have some instruction in the Hornet with Robin Reid as his instructor.

John Nogatch visited us today. John is active in EAA 119 at Watsonville, flies a C-172, and does amazing adventures in airplanes – and we’ll have to get to know him better. He’s looking for a Long-EZ or a VariEze.

Jim Shaw is currently working on the fuel system of his Falcon. The aircraft should be flying soon.

Steven Winegarden has moved his Challenger II from Lodi to South County. The aircraft has a Wankel-design engine – “Midwest” is the manufacturer – putting out 50 hp.

Check that dorsal fin!

Ryan Kimber is working on his Hawk. He asked for pointers on installing Dacron sails on the airplane, and was directed to George Nicholson, master of aircraft covering technique. Good show!

Ryan also commented on how useful and great www.runwayfinder.com for flight planning. It uses VFR charts overlaid over Google Maps, and gives plenty of information about airports, services, weather conditions, etc.

Mary Doherty is now Treasurer of EAA 119, Watsonville. Congratulations!

Mary is a powerhouse. We’re fortunate to have her around here.

Mary has taken and passed both written exams for Private Pilot and Sport Pilot. She reports that there are no preparatory tests with previews of questions for the Sport Pilot Exam, and that the Sport Exam has several questions involving the pilot’s decision-making skills.

Mary has EAA Calendars for 2007 for sale for $10 each, with some profit going to EAA 119.

EAA 119 has a member who can do dynamic prop balancing for ultralights at $200 per propeller.

The 99’s will hold a Flying Companion Seminar in February, near Santa Cruz.

Jim Doherty’s “rolling boneyard” trailer is now in hangar D-10 in Watsonville.

Jim is married to Mary. Jim is a very lucky guy.

Jim and Mary’s Odyssey is still a project – Mark Beirele has flown it 3 times, and there is still a problem with fuel feed to the engine. It seems to vapor-lock and it runs too warm.

Here’s Jim consulting with George Nicholson, presumably on wisdom of vapor-lock and fuel sacrifice.

Mike Ettl is our newly elected President, is a GA pilot, and has lots of ideas to propose. A few of them are:

To put more emphasis on Light Sport.

To produce a calendar with events scheduled a year ahead, to be posted in January.

To produce a membership list with equipment and specialties for each member. (Actually, Mary Doherty started this kind of list a while back, and it needs to be supported into existence.)

There are many more ideas. Mike and Lou Janis (our newly elected V.P.) have been exchanging e-mails around ideas for the past few weeks. This will be an interesting year for us!

Rich Grialou renewed his GA Medical recently. Congratulations, Rich! Rich is heading up the idea of hosting Light Sport and Ultralight poker runs next year in conjunction with other EAA chapters.

George Watson put out a request to the group for a tire for the nosewheel of the Genesis, and got back 4 offers! That sure shows the strength of this group thingy we’re into!

Vaughn McIlrath brought up a question about static electricity around our aircraft and “should we take precaution?” around that, due to stories an old friend in Iowa has recently related about exploding farm equipment. That set off a hot discussion, mainly around use of plastic gas cans in refueling aircraft. It was suggested that we include a section in our newsletter (you’re looking at it, by the way) called “Wing Tips”. Another good idea. Let’s do that.

John Feemster –

John has a set of 12’ amphibious pontoons, brand new, that will work on an aircraft that weighs up to 1000#. He wants $2500 for the set.

John acknowledged the work of John Gould and Lou Janis, and all the effort that they put into making this club real, in the face of adversity from existing airport cultures in the early days. We are reaping the result of that now, with at least 5 Ultralight/Sport aircraft and projects at South County – a place that was severely hostile to Ultralights not very many years ago. Thanks, John F., for doing that.

OUTSIDE THE MEETING:

Here’s a special treat – in a senior moment, I couldn’t remember what kind of aircraft Bob Meuse flew in WW II, so I sent him a note and asked him. Here’s his response”

My plane was the B24 Liberator. I was in the Second Air Division,  Eighth Air Force, 389th Bomb Group,  567th Bomb Squadron,  United States Army Air Corps which later became the United States Air Force in, I think,  1954 when they changed from “pinks and greens” with brown shoes to blue uniforms with black shoes. (Anyway, brown shoes shouldn’t be worn by men after 6:00 PM!)

I have to tell you that I visited the Fantasy Of Flight Museum  in Polk City last October 9th. It’s a great museum and the B24 there has the markings of my very own 389th  Bomb Group! and something else of interest; the tour guide tells the folks that the original name of the plane was “DELECTABLE DORIS”.  Since I was one of about 35 spectators I couldn’t very well correct him because Delectable Doris WAS actually in my group and I had flown it several times. I had later heard that is was either shot down or crashed; in any event the plane was lost.

I later went back to an official and told him that I would send him a photo that I took in 1944 of the actual Delectable Doris and that the serial number of the plane is plainly visible in the photo. (42-50551) and to tell the tour guide to refrain from “verbal inexactitude”.  (Sounds better than calling him a liar).

One disappointment; the B24 is way back in the hangar and I couldn’t leave the group of 35 or so to wander back to see the plane, so when I told the official about flying the real Delectable Doris, I mentioned this  to him,  so he took me back to the hangar for a personal tour.

The plane has been  named “JOE. ”   (Not many WW2 aircraft have been named after men). It has no Norden bomb sight - only a 50 CAL gun in the nose. The plane seems in great condition, although I spun one of the turbo-superchargers and felt that the main bearing was shot because it didn’t spin freely.

By the way I can’t make it to the Christmas Party. I’ll be recording the Symphony San Jose and in addition they’re having a Christmas Dinner here in my park.

Now go and do the right thing,
Cheerio

Bob

Here’s a photo of the B-24 at the Fantasy of Flight Museum, from the web site, so she must be “Joe”.

-VM

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Now go and do the right thing. Cheerio!

Vaughn McIlrath, November 26, 2006