DOPE SHEET CHAPTER 13 OF THE EXPERIMENTAL AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATION THE NEWSLETTER OF. Volume 54 Number 3 website; EAACHAPTER13.

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1 DOPE SHEET THE NEWSLETTER OF CHAPTER 13 OF THE EXPERIMENTAL AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATION SERVING SPORT AVIATION IN THE DETROIT AREA Volume 54 Number 3 website; EAACHAPTER13.ORG March 2009 President... Rex Phelps runwayrex@juno.com Vice President... Mike Fisher mjfisher@banyanol.com Secretary... Cliff Durand pchdurand@yahoo.com Treasurer... Don Miller millerdon@wowway.com March 5 REG. Meeting* 7:30-10 pm 12 Officer Meeting** 7:30 pm April 2 REG. Meeting* 7:30-10 pm 9 Officer Meeting** 7:30 pm Sun-N-Fun May 16 Ray A/P Cleanup day July 11 EAA picnic 22-Aug 2 Airventure Aug Selfridge Airshow *All Regular Meetings (not all are listed) will have a pre-meeting Bar-B-Q/Setup get-together that starts at 6 pm. **Officer Meetings are normally held the following Thursday at the chapter hangar. REGULAR MEETING 1 ST Thursday of each month. Our regular meeting place is Ray Airport, in the chapter hangar (#304) located on the Northeast corner of the field. Meeting time is 7:30 pm to 10 pm. MEMBERSHIP AND DUES Chapter 13 dues are $25 per year for renewing members, this will pay to the end of the year You can make your check out to "EAA Chapter 13", and send it to our treasurer, Don Miller, Old N. River Rd, Harrison Twp., MI 48045, March 5th, Meeting Auction and Speaker Bob Hunt will be in charge of the auction. Please bring out what ever you have. It does not have to be airplane related. Our speaker for the March 5th general meeting is Chris Dackson from EAA Chapter 333 in Ann Arbor. He has an interesting presentation about flying his PT-17 Stearman to events in Lakeland, FL, Oshkosh, WI and the annual Stearman Fly-in. Feel free to bring your friends and neighbors Chapter 13 Membership Roster By the time you get this, the Roster should be printed and ready to hand out at this meeting. Membership is down about 15 percent, at this time. We lost many of our out of state, and non-active members that used the newsletter to stay up to date on Chapter 13. Welcome New Members One new members joined in February. Welcome to George Fox. For the 2009 calendar year, paid membership is at

2 Web Site EAACHAPTER13.ORG is now a great tool in the way we can show the community what we are all about. We are now at the point that we need your input. People love to look at photos when exploring the internet. Please send your photos to our WebMaster Carol Lynn (Dick Green s wife) at gwynnyd@comcast.net. She will be happy to find the right place for it on the website. Include current project, past project, what you are flying, photos of chapter activities. Let s let the community that we are a good and fun neighbor. Chapter Library Thanks to Tom Vukonich the chapter book and video library has been open at the meetings. Chapter Operating Expenses While we mentioned that we will need to cover greater expenses each year by owning our own building, member s are asking how much? We still are working on coming up with a number. The hangar will be paid off this year and the stock in the airport will be issued. The way the building property insurance was accomplished in the past has changed and the board is working on quotes at this time. We are waiting for the Ray Airport board to work with the county to divide the building so we can know our property tax liability. This was our first winter, and the heat was on more than usual in order to finish the inside, so we will probably have an idea of the heat bill per year soon. RC Flying Postscript After our presentation at the EAA 13 monthly meeting, while I was loading my planes back in the vehicle, a number of guys spoke to John and me about R/C flying & we answered some additional questions. One made me realize that I did not clarify during the presentation that the Intro Flights, where we will take a visitor up on our plane using the buddy-box, are free. I was asked how much they cost. The flight instruction is also free. Perhaps you could clarify this to your members sometime, either at the next meeting, through your website, or your newsletter. They can find more details at Thanks again, Noel Hunt For Sale New in the box engine heater 120 volt-model 700 safe heat, fits on oil sump. Fits continental engines:c125, C145, O300, GO300, E165, E185, E215 and more, check with factory. phone $50.00 Larry Mage (586) PAPER OR PLASTIC? AFTER MARCH 31, 2010 YOU WON T HAVE A CHOICE The world keeps changing. No truer is this old expression than in the world of aviation. We ve dealt with changes in how we obtain our weather, how we navigate and the types of airplanes we fly. Now we have to deal with changes to our Airmen Certificates. Just over a year from now all pilot licenses must be converted over to a new, more counterfeit resistant, plastic certificate. If you don t, your airmen s privileges will be null and void until you convert over to the new system. That means you can t legally fly with your old paper license. The easiest way to get your new license is to go to: FAA.gov/licenses_certificates/airmen and apply online. If you haven t already done so you will have to register with Online Services, which should only take a couple of minutes. If you don t have a computer or would rather mail your request in, send it to: F e d e r a l A v i a t i o n A d m i n i s t r a t i o n Airmen Certification Branch, AFS-760 P. O. B o x Oklahoma City, OK The request must be signed and include your full name, date and place of birth, social security number and/or certificate number, the reason for the request and your current address. There is a $2 fee, payable by check if you are mailing your request in or by credit card if doing it online. You do not have to turn in your old paper certificate. Your new certificate will come with an English Proficient endorsement, needed to fly internationally after March 5, Yes, Canada is international. If your current certificate number is your Social Security number you can request a new number free of charge. That way you ll get your new license, along with the English Proficient endorsement and it won t cost you anything. The form is on line or see me for one. As they say on TV, which is also being converted, beat the rush and apply now. Doug Conciatu, MCFI -2-

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4 Torque Specification Guidelines for Flared Tubing B Nuts Nut/Tubing Size Minimum Torque Maximum Torque inch pounds 80 inch pounds inch pounds 105 inch pounds inch pounds 140 inch pounds inch pounds 180 inch pounds inch pounds 195 inch pounds inch pounds 350 inch pounds inch pounds 430 inch pounds inch pounds 550 inch pounds inch pounds 840 inch pounds inch pounds 1020 inch pounds The above table is a partial reprint of the chart that was in this months Safety Wire, the Technical Counselor news letter. I think this is good info to share with the chapter. Submitted by Ron Walters -4-

5 Twenty Years Ago-March 1989 by Del Schmitz Bernard Pietenpol flew the first version of his now classic Air Camper in the summer of In February 1989, its 60 th anniversary, his venerable creation continued as a popular homebuilt design. The recently completed Piet pictured here was built by Howard Henderson of Kirkwood, MO. In 1989 he was retired from a career as an aeronautical engineer with Curtiss Wright and later M c D o n n e l l - Douglas. He was, of course, an EAA member. He founded EAA chapter 32 in East St. Louis and was twice its president. Howard had regularly made the annual pilgrimage to Oshkosh since 1970 and before that the ones at Rockford. He was building airplanes all his life and had seen many changes in the home built movement. One change he noticed that was particularly unsettling to him was those price tags! some kits being $50,000 or more. Howard remained an advocate of the idea that sport aviation doesn t have to be an activity only for the wealthy. Howard believed there is nothing wrong with high tech airplanes, he built a Thorp, but good airplanes can be built at a nominal cost. In 1984 he decided to look for a plane to build that many dreamed of in the 30 s, 40 s, and 50 s from the old Flying and Glider Manuals. It was then he decided to build a Pietenpol from the original plans using a Model A engine for power. The article in Sport Aviation was written by Grant MacLaren who was a member of a Model A club. Grant told Howard he could help him find an engine for his project. That was easy as Henry Ford had built five million of them from late 1927 through 1931, and car restorers seemed to know where they were in A few weeks later they attended Grant s Model A club s swap meet, and came home with a Ford engine number A They determined it was built at the Rouge assembly line in the summer of The engine s owner was asking a reasonable price and it had been overhauled. For the next few years Grant watched Howard work from the then 60 year old Piet plans. During that time both of them annually attended a Pietenpol mecca- Brodhead, WI. Every year on the first week end of EAA s Oshkosh meet a bunch of Pietenpol enthusiasts would gather to camp at the small WI town s grass airfield. In 1986, while Grant s 31 Ford was being rebuilt, the car became a test and break-in stand for the Piet s engine. Grant drove it more than 2400 miles including a trip from St. Louis to Lake Geneva, WI and back. The occasion was the first-ever combined World Meet of the Model A Restoration Club and the Model A Ford Club of America. Six hundred Model A s on one parking lot talk about availability for Pietenpol powerplants! Three and a half years after Howard had acquired the engine he was ready to fly his beautiful new old airplane. In dawn s light of May 17, 1988, after one practice run down the grass strip, Howard opened the throttle on the Pietenpol Air Camper and lifted off in 350 ft. or so. Another Model A engine was successfully performing as an airborne power plant. The Pietenpol was designed in the late 1920 s by Bernard Howard Pietenpol from Cherry Grove, MN. He was a very practical man who believed reliable, simple, fun, and safe airplanes could be built of readily available materials and components. After many experiments he concluded that a Model A powered wood and fabric plane with a parasol wing could safely carry a pilot and passenger. In my 38 year membership in EAA I have seen many Pietenpols, but never one with a Model A engine for power. The Air Camper s design looks conventional for its time. It s mostly fabric and wood with many small metal fittings and lots of wires and turn buckles. You can see from the picture the prop was made by Howard of maple and mahogany from 1933 drawings of early Pietenpols. His may have been the only one flying with this design. It sure looks good. -5-

6 THE DOPE SHEET Robert Mahieu, Editor Harmon ST Clair Shores, MI First Class Mail Address Service Requested stamp here Joe Gores holding his rudder pedals for his RV-12. Joe has been bringing his subassemblies to the monthly meetings, looks like they are going to be getting a little too big to keep this up. -6-