schmeddz

Yeh Yeh Yeh,,,,,,,, I'm still waiting on those tickets! Just tell me where to plant the airplane.

I wanna know where I sign up to get honored with box seats and a shout out on the field at the Super Bowl for crashing an airplane into the Hudson river. Who cares what the circumstances were! Does anybody else think this has gone on long enough???

Where are you certifying airplanes??? Hidden nutplates are constantly re-used. That's why they are riveted in place. This is so you can quickly take off and replace panels, doors, and cowls, etc, for inspections.

And if you use old circuit boards you can solder all kinds of electronical stuff on it to make it look cool. Heheheheheh:cool:

The nutplates are squashed on purpose for bolt/screw retention. Think of them as locknuts. Great for preventing your fastners from falling out under vibration. They also have a little dry lube wich can account for ease of installation of your bolt. (Clean it with acetone and it's not so easy!) The front of the AirForce F-4 Phantom jet intake was covered with hidden nut plates. Imagine a screw coming loose and going down the intake with a running engine. Don't ask me how I know this!!! Think 'grip length' of your fastner going into the nutplate. Your nutplate looks purdey! Nice work.

That's a whole can of worms, although I have posted on a public forum! There is probably going to be much debate about the merits of both. There are issues of spinal compression, straight line g-loading, hard point failure, etc... I actually do know somebody who was in a crash. They are alive and well, and I refuse to I.D. them. I don't know the specifics of whether they came out from under the lap belt. I have actually heard of other crashes where the shoulder hard points were pulled out of the backrest. But again, I haven't confirmed that. That is a good question and I haven't done the research. I've read a few crash reports, but I haven't actually given this much thought. Maybe I would consider a lap belt after some research.

You would have to create/install a hardpoint somewhere in the center bottom of the seat. It would have to have substantial structure around the hard point to be effective in a crash. I myself don't much like the thought of a strap across my privates!

Go to google and type in "Racing Seatbelts" Endless prices and colors. Even for picking the type of belt clips and ends. Wesco Performance has Hot Pink for $59.95! (And all other colors of the rainbow. Except green or orange. Hmmmm... I feel cheated!) I had custom smoke grey colors done for my first airplane. Now come the arguments against 'Non aircraft hardware.'

Yeah, I agree. The extra weight comes from the bondo, bondo, bondo, micro, paint, and all the extra stuff we put on to make it purdy! Things like starters and stuff to make it all work in IFR, and cushions, and extra's.... Look at the bottom of Voyager in the Smithsonian and it's not even painted on the back two thirds of the wings. But, peel ply and a heat gun will remove some of those ounces...

In the aerospace industry, everybody who manufactures parts uses peel ply. They don't always use vacuums or autoclaves, but they liberally use peel ply. (Without the peel ply, those tools don't work at all.) And if there are no secondary bondings being planned, you will see fiberglass or reinforcing weave. Look closely at the tail plane of an F-18 up close next time you are at an airshow. You will see the carbon fiber weave in the stabilator. Most of the layup ratios by weight are 35-40 percent epoxy to the reinforcing materials for ideal strength of the total structure. The best hand layups are usually around 50/50. Using peel ply always takes off a few grams the more you use it. Unless you just like wet layups and sanding a lot! Take off several hundred grams and you get several ounces and then several pounds. It all adds up. You never have to sand into major structural fibers when you use it liberally. If your part is straight to begin with you will sand and fill a whole lot less. Look closely at Burts old airplanes in the museums. They are really rough looking compared to all the show planes out on the flying circuit!

I find that glazing putty or spot putty works great for pinholes even up to the size of those pea sized holes. Now before I get griped at, I use the mixable putty that uses a hardner. (MEKP) It gives you about 5 minutes to fill pinholes and scratches and even deep weave. Get it at any auto parts store that sells bondo. Spreads like cake frosting and sands like butter with fine grit sandpaper. NEVER use the solvent based putty! NOT EVER!! It will lift the paint!

I saw it. It didn't give a whole lot of technical details about the crash. It was more like a bio about Steve. Of course that's to be expected. I did get a kick out of the quote from the one pilot who said, (I'm paraphrasing again) "He was trying to survive, and by surviving he could be living and not dying." That was as close as I can remember it anyway, I was laughing so hard. Brilliant! That was a pilot talking! Of course to be fair, I've been interviewed on TV at airshows about my plane, and I look like somebody shoved a board up my backside while I'm trying to say something that sounds halfway smart. The editing process will never put you in a positive light. The media is the devil! I don't talk to them if I can help it. I had to run the media guantlet to get to the pit in OKC after the bombing in 95. EVIL MEDIA!!! But anyway, I was hoping to learn something about the crash and didn't get anything new.

Yeh! It's like fantasy football teams. "I wish I had....., if only..." I never saw the point. My time gets more valued as I get older. I only fool around on this during breaktime at work. When it ceases to be fun, you won't hear from me again!!

Do you consider reasonable cost to include possibly hundred hours of extra labor? Finish time will go up big time. My time is at a minimum worth 25 bucks an hour. That's a cheap estimate of what I'll consider my time worth. It took me over 200 hours to refinish an already existing/flying long. That's just what I counted. It's going to be more on the one I'm doing now. The material, (if you can find it cheap.) will not be as cheap as you hope. And your time won't be either once you get going. Look up "Explosafe" on Google. That was a popular trend back in the 70's and 80's to put in EZ tanks. Nobody's doing that anymore either. You like exercises in hard schooling don't you?

Here's a fun read about the Glasair III and NASA research. 20020080124_2002131887[1].pdf

When Glassair was still in business, they tested an under the skin foil technology for their glass airplanes. (Oshkosh 93 I think I saw the factory demonstrator.) I think it's very similar to what you see on the Cirrus technology airplanes. My employer (a major aerospace manufacturer, won't say who, I'm not an official spokesperson! ) Is very much into composites lightning strike prevention technology. It always involves some type of Faraday shield. Look up pictures of Nikola Tesla standing in lightning fields with his Faraday cages around him. Interesting stuff. It always involves some serious cash outlay to protect from lightning. Look at the stats. How many deaths due to lightning strikes in small planes have you heard about? I rest my case. Avoid the storms. Are you really going to fly in thunderstorms??? Jeepers! I shure don't! Good luck with that too!

There is a guy at Roanoke Texas who had a rotary intstallation in his Long. After two failures where one left him in the field by his home airport, he went back to having a Lycoming. If your an aircraft mechanic, why the big consideration to go with the wankel? I would think that you would be seeing lycomings all the time for sale and could put a great engine together for cheap without the engineering cost. (Time, more time, lots of time. You say you have lots of money so that shouldn't be a problem.) Tracy Crook has done great things with the Mazda. But he spent over twenty years getting there. I've still got a 13B core sitting in my shed if anybody wants to come take it away!!! No garanties on the condition though.

Yeah, I forgot to mention that I'm as tall as Burt who happens to be 6'4". I also wheigh 235. I'll just bet he designed the back seat to fit him and Dick who is also the same size. It's tight in the back but not uncomfortable. Just don't plan on stretching out your legs. You sit with your knees up and not any moving around room. My only regret is that I couldn't give my dad a ride who is more broad thru the shoulders and he has wider hips than me. He's more stocky than I am so there is a limitation for some people on size. I used to say if the girl didn't fit in the back of a Vari-Ez I wouldn't date her. Still applies, but I'm dating less....

I was a newbie once and I had read a boatload of information and knew everything about canards from reading. Now that I've bought my third project airplane and still have to finish the second one. (even if I've flown it already) I've figured out that I know very little about anything. Throw in the qoute from Mark Twain. "When I left home at 18 I was convinced my father was an idiot. Then when I came home at 21 I was amazed at how much he had learned in three years!" Yeah yeah I'm paraphrasing, so don't correct me, I took that off the top of my head. Newbies rock, we were all one once. Some newer than others! Give the boy a chance to prove himself. We talk less as we actually accomplish something.

It sounds like you're going to take a really long time to build. Especially if you use a wankel! That's two or three extra years at least!!! Will the back seat size be an issue? Will your girl hang around that Long? I may have mentioned before that I had two late 80's RX-7's and wanted to use a rotary in mine. Take the money for an auto conversion and convert it into an aircraft engine. You will save time and majot headaches. I just bought my third airplane last week. It was a formerly flying airplane, no engine or instruments. Now all I have to do is find another airplane engine to install. Of course I still have to final finish my second airplane so this third one is in the corner for now.

It was never off topic. You usually can't get two or three friends to agree to rules even with a contract, someone in the group always thinks he's getting screwed by the others, or spending too much time/money on the airplane, then with less benefit of use. How do you expect to to get ten or more strangers in different places to agree to build what and to what quality? Even if you spread some wealth around? I'm in the aerospace business and I know all about subcontracting. What you are talking about is what we would call "Cost prohibitive." I mean no disrespect and I'll say good luck with your idea. You'll need a government contract to pay for it that way. You, by yourself with limited help, can build an airplane!

Here's an Idea. Try getting into a two or three way partnership on an aircraft. Then see how much infighting there is with two (or three) guys who used to be friends before they tried to share an airplane! Hang around enough airports and ask that question! What you are proposing on a much grander scale is to bring total strangers into line with your own personal wishes, desires, schedule, ethics, etc. What if the work doesn't meet your personal building standards? Who sucks up the bill for labor and parts costs? Why isn't everybody doing that now? Good luck with that! I'm on my third airplane project. You either get busy and do it, or it doesn't happen.

I also saw a new video of bigfoot so I'm I'm convinced he's real now!!! 40 years of re-analysing that one and only film of the bigfoot walking away just wasn't enough to convince me. Iwas just not convinced before!!! More gratuitous exclamation points!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Good luck voting tommorrow. There's an even chance that your candidate will get elected!

James anderson is not a real red bull pilot. Check the Redbull roster. He's not even on it! They are cleverly inserting him at the end of the roster as 'disqualified' at the James Anderson site. Notice the Killathrill sponsor on the website. It looks like a bio for 80's non-rapper Milli Vanilla ICE. How come he's on the crowd side of the fence in the pictures? Maybe because he's not let in the pilot area??? 475 HP engine on his airplane specs?? Gimmie a break!! The video is a fake. It's an ad campaign by a company called Killathrill. Anybody who looks at the actual landing would realize the physics of that plane hitting the ground at speed would have planted it in the dirt and the pilot would be one hell of a lot shorter if not immediately dead! watch this vid of Wayne handly hitting the ground for a comparison. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1331251820902328022 Anyone notice how super jittery the Killathrill vid gets when the plane gets right on the deck? Notice how short the landing is? Boink! It amazes me how this hoax has taken off in the pilot community!!! This annoys me so I'm venting about it. Jeez! How many of my pilot buddies have sent me this going "Wow, check this out!" This same climate has given us the current crop of politicians currently up for election. Doesn't anybody have any skepticism left???? Ok I'm done. Night shift is getting to me. Gotta go find something to break so I can fix it.

You can also imagine the liability they would be exposing themselves to if they actually produced an engine and sold it. Check out Luscombe aircraft in Altus OK. I was Living in Altus until 2005. I've seen the two (and only two) prototypes at SNF twice now. They started this venture in 1996. I personally spoke to Daniels (The President) a few times and he spoke glowingly of the future of the company. But here it is twelve years later,... and no airplanes! Check out this article from 2004. http://www.altustimes.com/articles/2004/04/17/news/top01.txt Good luck getting your engine! RE-ally!!! Just don't put a deposit down on it! I would have to see a working engine on a test stand that I could pay cash for, and take it home that day before I spent a dime on one.