tis a good day by the numbers

[Cozy1200]

Dave has developed as very wise set of priorities. I've adopted them myself.

 

Plane Priority number one... Flying airplane

Plane Priority number two... Building or Modifying said airplane

Plane Priority number three... Talking about building or flying said airplane

 

I met Dave at Morrabin at 10am to go flying. Saw Stuart and his Sonex, broach priority number three. Looked at his plane and discussed it's cross country abilities or lack there of, but makes up for in fun, sportiness, and acrobatics abilities. Stuart is the big wig in the SAAA (Sports Aircraft Association of Australia), Dave & I were carefull not create an honorary priority number four... talking about the administration or politics of said plane group. He passed along a useful tip on cleaning Aluminium (for you Australian, notice how I seamlessly translated that from Aluminum). He suggested using Dawn dish soap to clean it before alodining; not Palmolive, only Dawn.

 

Then we went flying in said airplane thus meeting the very desirable priority number one. It was a little bumpy at 2,500 but smooth at glass at 4,500. Dave practiced intercepting VORs with reasonably good success. His best comment was, "it's just like my simulator". For some reason I think it should have been the other way around, but that would be overly picky. While Dave was flying I used my digital level to determine the flying attitude while flying straight and level. This will be used to properly level the airplane on the ground prior to installing his new wheel pants. I was amazed at how accurate the level was. At cruise the datum point (bottom of top longeron) was 2.4 degrees up. At lower speeds a plane will fly at higher angle of attack. At one point my level indicated 3.5 degrees but was slowly decreasing. I thought something was wrong, until the above dawned on me. Dave then confirmed that he was indeed increasing his speed. That’s Fascinating. Then we landed at Lethbridge for a short break and exercised priority number three with the local pilots and some other just flying through. Then on home to Moorabbin to where I promised Dave that I'd shout a cuppa.

 

Both coffee shops on the field were closed. Gee you'd wonder why some people want off work on a holiday. So on to the local McCafe for more number three. The conversation turned to Bruce who has been tingling to start building. We agreed on a plan to harass him until he gets up to speed, if for no other reason than he's an easy target. Three calls to Bruce with nothing but a talking monotone voice. Dave got on board and text him that "you're phone's ringing, answer it". A later attempt did reveal that he's at Lima Charlie Foxtrot. That's the extended version of LCF, which has even earlier abbreviated from LongEz Construction Facility. That sounds better than the "Wooden Boat Centre”.

 

So off to the Wooden boat ce... correction. So off to Lima Charlie Foxtrot I go to hopefully witness plane priority number two. No Joy. I find Bruce curled up in a corner in the fetal position sobbing into his micro exclaiming "WHAT DID I GET MYSELF FLOXED INTO!" Bruce shows me the start of his plane clean up and organizing. We talked about his retracts. It’s a very cool modification. In one of his hundreds of plane purchases he picked up a couple rubber squeegees that don't appear to have been cleaned in years as they were nearly stiff with epoxy. I offer to take them home to my belt & disk sander for cleaning. After good chat later, I head home as my Cozy wife had started supper.

 

Unfortunately my hopes of fulfilling priority number two on Bruce's plane didn't happen as only priority number three was accomplished. After my cozy supper, I head out for a quick one hour layup that I prepped for the night before. Wow that was close, couldn't let priority number two be abused or neglected. So with that layup curing, I let the rubber hit the road... or at least the sand paper. I spent about 15 minutes cleaning up Bruce's squeegees on the built sander. They cleaned up real nice looking as clean and flexible as new. They look even better than mine. Correction. Bruce, yours look reasonably good with a little epoxy here and there. Surprisingly, yours look like they have never touch a sander. Mine on the other hand look great, but recently cleaned up on a sander!

 

My day concludes with all plane priorities met. A very plane day indeed.

[daveb]

OK clarifications… the sim.. it moves and it sorta has a canard. Drew seems overly keen to cut off my pants too, bit of a worry. We aren’t so sure how to put the new ones on.

 

The real reason for the cruise angle is for gear leg fairings, carefully ignored I notice. We are still researching despite generous help and the usual on-line look around. Suggestions and info for either gratefully received.