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December 2007
Next meeting: Friday, December
14, 2007
Christmas Dinner at the ABC Restaurant
Time: 5:30pm.
This
site hosted by OCIS, On Call Internet Services.
376-3858
Due
to the limited space available, the archives will
not contain anything older than one year. For
members only: If you need to look at a specific
newsletter from previous years, please let me
know, I will e-mail you the file. villeneuve@shaw.ca
President's Letter
Hello
Everyone:
Another
year almost finished, boy does the time pass
quickly!
Everything
is going well at the Knutsford strip. The fall of
this year saw a lot of flying activity. With Bill
Huxley and Camille flying regularly and others
joining in when time and weather permitted, the
airstrip was quite busy. Things have slowed now
that the winter weather has arrived. But the nice
days do beckon.
There
has been some out of town interest in our Club
and hangar availability at the strip as there are
several fliers moving into the Kamloops area.
Several other individuals are looking into
purchasing airplanes at the present time and want
to hangar at Knutsford as well. Things are
looking quite well for the Club and the
strip. It is nice to see some new bodies
interested in joining and becoming part of the
flying community in Knutsford. I received a letter
from Gary Wolf last week, the topic being close
to many of our projects! The letter was about
using formerly certified parts in an
amateur-built project. Lower on this page I will
insert the body of his letter.
Hopefully
this will not affect to many peoples projects for
very long!
I
am in the process of doing rib stitching on my
Super Koala right now. It is progressing well. I
am really hoping on working on it this winter and
get it flying in 2008. I haven't had much time to
fly this fall with travelling, but hopefully
that will change in 2008! My trip to Europe was
great, good weather, visited with relatives and
saw some beautiful places. Switzerland was a very
beautiful country and London was probably our
favorite city for sights and things to do. Europe
is a very expensive place to travel though and we
were very grateful to have relatives to stay with
during our trip.
Looking
forward to seeing many of you at the Annual
Christmas Party next Friday at the ABC
restaurant! Don't forget the $5 gift exchange and
if anyone wants to bring an entertainment puzzle
or such please do! The 2008 calendars are out now
as well and selling for $10. There will be sales
at the Christmas Party. If you cannot make the
party and want a calendar, please contact Camille
or me to pick-up a calendar.
Well,
Merry Christmas to all and a very Happy New Year!
Dick
Suttie.
Gary Wolf's letter
Please
stop phoning the MD-RA ( Ministers Delegates -
Recreational Aviation) office asking for guidance
on the use of formerly-certified components in
amateur-built projects. These questions are
Transport Canada's to answer, and a full day on
the phone has revealed that Transport's people
have not thought this one through. At least they
certainly do not have any answers yet.
Here is the conundrum - it has
always been legal to incorporate
formerly-certified components into an
amateur-built plane, and nothing has changed
because of Transport's recent decision. Further,
it has always been illegal to take a certified
plane, deregister it, and then rebuild it as an
amateur-built plane. However anytime a
formerly-certified major component is proposed to
be used as part of an amateur-built plane, this
requires an individual ruling from Transport,
because they do not have anything written for
MD-RA to use as guidance.
The real problem is that there is a
wide middle ground that needs to have a clear
line drawn, so that we can know if we have
crossed over from "incorporating
components-land" to "deregistered
certified plane-land". I asked specific
questions and got conflicting answers, from the
Transport inspector who is supposed to be ruling
on these matters.
RAA: If I dismantle my Cub and sell off the
components at a swap meet, can the buyer of the
wings remove the fabric and use the wing ladders
on his Wagaero Cuby project?
TC: Yes
RAA: Can the buyer of the fuselage strip its
fabric off and use it as the basis of his
amateur-built project?
TC: Yes.
RAA: Can I use the same components myself to
construct an amateur-built plane?
TC: No. You would be rebuilding a certified as an
amateur-built.
RAA: If I buy a Cessna 150 fuselage at a swap
meet and build new wings and tail, and install a
different engine, can I register this as an
amateur-built?
TC. No. You would not be doing 51% of the work.
RAA: Actually according to the evaluation chart,
I would actually be doing well over 51% of the
work.
TC: If, if, if. Stop asking "If"
questions.
RAA: Again, can I use a Cessna 150 fuselage as
the basis of an amateur-built plane.
TC: No.
RAA: So, it is OK to use a Cub fuselage, but not
a Cessna fuselage?
TC. How about if you write the clarification for
Transport?
RAA: You want us to do Transport's repair work
now? If this is Transport's answer, I will
just recommend that builders call Transport for a
written clarification every time they buy a used
gascolator at a swap meet.
This was just one of the frustrating
conversations yesterday, and clearly Transport
has shot from the hip again. At the FAA/Transport
meeting, the FAA were asking for Transport to
assure them that any of our amateur-built planes
being sold into the US are not conversions of
certified planes, and that they were not
constructed under our builder assist program.
(Never mind that the US is full of "two
weeks to fly"custom build companies.)
Transport was unwilling or incapable of assuring
this, so the simplest recourse was to crack down
on the use of formerly certified components, when
it looks as if many of them came from one plane.
I called Copa to bring them up to date on this
situation, and they plan to have someone look
into it shortly. This mess is going to take some
well written wording to clarify what is legal and
what is illegal. Meanwhile, please stop calling
the MD-RA. They are waiting for a clarification,
same as the rest of us. Do not buy any used major
components from certified aircraft until
Transport gives everyone a clear answer. And
don't hold your breath while you wait.
There is a CARAC process in Ottawa, at which all
stakeholders meet to propose and approve changes
to the regulations, and RAA, Copa, and EAA have
long been part of this. Experienced people can
then provide input when major changes are being
made. Precious few at Transport even know what a
cleco is, and at meetings I sometimes find that
the people making the decisions have never even
been PIC of an airplane. In this latest decision,
by changing policy instead of regulations,
Transport has sidestepped taking input from the
stakeholders. Their meeting with the FAA was not
a short notice surprise, and they could well have
asked the industry beforehand. Instead, Transport
chose to keep us all in the dark, and then
blindsided us with their new policy. The result
is that everything comes to a halt until the
industry sorts it out with the people we pay to
regulate us. The average builder is well
educated, and invests something approaching $100K
in his project, yet these ivory tower worthies
treat us as if we are somewhat dim-witted. We do
not need non-pilots to act in loco parentis. What
we need is a set of clearly written rules that
make sense.
Gary's
Update
It
appears that Transport inspectors and chief do
not always sing from the same hymnbook.
I sidestepped this fellow who gave me the
first response and went to his boss, and we have
since had daily conversations about the
impropriety of denying the use of formerly
certified parts.Transport are now willing to
allow these, but for the 51% evaluation there
will be no contribution except for work that is
actually performed by the builder.
The
next step is to get Transport to treat used parts
the same way they treat new fastbuild parts.
Currently the purchaser of a Vans fastbuild
receives a wing that is completely built and
riveted except for the wingtip and the root rib,
yet he gets credit for building the wing. Someone
using a Cessna wing could do the same amount
of work but he would receive credit only for
having installed a wingtip and one rib. They
now agree that it is unfair to penalize
someone because he cannot afford to buy a kit,
but they are uncertain how to level the playing
field.
The
FAA is really calling the shots here, and it
looks as if they might actually be reducing the
contribution credit for a fastbuild wing.
Transport has to keep the decisions of the FAA in
mind unless we want to end up with our
Amateur-Builts forbidden to enter US airspace,
the situation we have with our Owner Maintenance
aircraft. There is also the problem that the US
does not like our builder assist program, and was
asking that Transport guarantee that no Canadian
plane sold into the US was built under this
program.
Transport
was unwilling to supply what would be an export
document for a non-certified aircraft. I do
wonder if anyone at the FAA has ever had a look
at the number of builder assist companies
operating in the US. The simplest internet search
will call up a large number of companies willing
to assemble complete aircraft from kits. Where do
the FAA think these are being sold and
flown? Their inspection process seems to have
some porosity, but instead of correcting their
own problems, they are focusing on the threat
from Canada.
For
the time being, I would not recommend that anyone
open a file with MD-RA if the project contains
many parts that are recognizable as being from
formerly certified aircraft. The farther you are
from Ottawa, the more conservative your
inspectors will have to be. In Ontario we are now
doing a few test cases with Transport to
establish what is acceptable and what is
not.
I
am still asking Transport for a written
explanation of where the line is drawn, but it is
obvious that they do not know
this themselves. I have explained that the
clearer the line is drawn, the fewer builders
will be calling them for clarifications. I have
also told them that if they do not come up with
clear instructions soon, I will be printing their
names and phone numbers in the magazine, so that
builders will know exactly who in Ottawa has the
last say on the matter.
They
now understand that it is in their own interest
to write a clear explanation. What is curious in
all of this is that neither the FAA or Transport
ever mention the word "safety" as a
reason for their new policies. The test should
always be whether the finished plane is a safe
one. Instead they appear to be focusing on
whether T's are crossed and I's are dotted. Of
course this is to be expected because they are
regulators and not builders. An
uncomfortably large number of these
regulators are not even pilots.
Gary
Wolf
Aussie
flight review.
(Dick found this on a Topica
posting board...)
Hi Mate,
I am writing to you because
I need your help to get me bloody pilot's license
back. You keep telling me you got all the right
contacts. Well now's your chance to make
something happen for me because, mate, I'm bloody
desperate. But first, I'd better tell you what
happened during my last flight review with the
CAA Examiner.
On the phone, Ron (that's
the CAA d*#"head) seemed a reasonable sort
of a bloke. He politely reminded me of the need
to do a flight review every two years. He even
offered to drive out, have a look over my
property and let me operate from my own strip.
Naturally I agreed to that.
Anyway, Ron turned up last
Wednesday. First up, he said he was a bit
surprised to see the plane on a small strip
outside my homestead, because the ALA (Authorized
Landing Area) is about a mile away. I explained
that because this strip was so close to the
homestead, it was more convenient than the ALA,
and despite the power lines crossing about midway
down the strip, it's really not a problem to land
and take-off, because at the halfway point down
the strip you're usually still on the ground.
For some reason Ron seemed
nervous. So, although I had done the pre-flight
inspection only four days earlier, I decided to
do it all over again. Because the prick was
watching me carefully, I walked around the plane
three times instead of my usual two.
My effort was rewarded
because the colour finally returned to Ron's
cheeks. In fact, they went a bright red. In view
of Ron's obviously better mood, I told him I was
going to combine the test flight with some farm
work, as I had to deliver three poddy calves from
the home paddock to the main herd.
After a bit of a chase I
finally caught the calves and threw them into the
back of the ol' Cessna 172. We climbed aboard,
but Ron started getting onto me about weight and
balance calculations and all that crap. Of course
I knew that sort of thing was a waste of time
because, calves like to move around a bit
particularly when they see themselves 500 feet
off the ground! So, it's bloody pointless trying
to secure them as you know. However, I did tell
Ron that he shouldn't worry as I always keep the
trim wheel set on neutral toensure we remain
pretty stable at all stages throughout the
flight.
Anyway, I started the engine
and cleverly minimized the warm-up time by
tramping hard on the brakes and gunning her to
2,500 rpm. I then discovered that Ron has very
acute hearing, even though he was wearing a
bloody headset. Through all that noise he
detected a metallic rattle and demanded I account
for it. Actually it began about a month ago and
was caused by a screwdriver that fell down a hole
in the floor and lodged in the fuel selector
mechanism. The selector can't be moved now, but
it doesn't matter because it's jammed on `All
tanks', so I suppose that's Okay.
However, as Ron was
obviously a nit-picker, I blamed the noise on
vibration from a stainless steel thermos flask
which I keep in a beaut little possie between the
windshield and the magnetic compass. My
explanation seemed to relax Ron, because he
slumped back in the seat and kept looking up at
the cockpit roof. I released the brakes to taxi
out, but unfortunately the plane gave a leap and
spun to the right. "Hell" I thought,
"not the starboard wheel chock again".
The bump jolted Ron back to
full alertness. He looked around just in time to
see a rock thrown by the prop-wash disappear
completely through the windscreen of his brand
new Commodore. "Now I'm really in
trouble", I thought. While Ron was busy
ranting about his car, I ignored his requirement
that we taxi to the ALA, and instead took off
under the power lines. Ron didn't say a word, at
least not until the engine started coughing right
at the lift off point, and then he bloody
screamed his head off. "Oh Shit Oh shit! Oh
shit!"
"Now take it easy,
Ron" I told him firmly. "That often
happens on take-off and there is a good reason
for it". I explained patiently that I
usually run the plane on standard MOGAS, but one
day I accidentally put in a gallon or two of
kerosene. To compensate for the low octane of the
kerosene, I siphoned in a few gallons of super
MOGAS and shook the wings up and down a few times
to mix it up. Since then, the engine has been
coughing a bit but in general it works just fine,
if you know how to coax it properly.
Anyway, at this stage Ron
seemed to lose all interest in my test flight. He
pulled out some rosary beads, closed his eyes and
became lost in prayer. (I didn't think anyone was
a Catholic these days). I selected some nice
music on the HF radio to help him relax.
Meanwhile, I climbed to my normal cruising
altitude of 10,500 feet. I don't normally put in
a flight plan or get the weather because, as you
know getting a FAX access out here is a friggin'
joke and the weather is always 8/8 blue anyway.
But since I had that near miss with a Saab 340, I
might have to change me thinking on that.
Anyhow, on leveling out, I
noticed some wild camels heading into my improved
pasture. I hate bloody camels, and always carry a
loaded 303 clipped inside the door of the Cessna
just in case I see any of the bastards. We were
too high to hit them, but as a matter of
principle, I decided to have a go through the
open window. Mate, when I pulled the bloody rifle
out, the effect on Ron was friggin' electric. As
I fired the first shot his neck lengthened by
about six inches and his eyes bulged like a
rabbit with myxo. He really looked as if he had
been jabbed with an electric cattle prod on full
power. In fact, Ron's reaction was so distracting
that I lost concentration for a second and the
next shot went straight through the port tyre.
Ron was a bit upset about the shooting (probably
one of those pinkoanimal lovers I guess) so I
decided not to tell him about our little problem
with the tyre.
Shortly afterwards I located
the main herd and decided to do my fighter pilot
trick. Ron had gone back to praying when, in one
smooth sequence, I pulled on full flaps, cut the
power and started a sideslip from 10,500 feet
down to 500 feet at 130 knots indicated (the last
time I looked anyway) and the little needle
rushed up to the red area on me ASI. What a buzz,
mate! About half way through the descent I looked
back in the cabin to see the calves gracefully
suspended in mid air and mooing like crazy. I was
going to comment on this unusual sight, but Ron
looked a bit green and had rolled himself into
the fetal position and was screamin' his freakin'
head off. Mate, talk about being in a bloody zoo.
You should've been there, it was so bloody funny!
At about 500 feet I leveled
out, but for some reason we kept sinking. When we
reached 50 feet I applied full power but nothin'
happened. No noise no nothin'. Then, luckily, I
heard me instructor's voice in me head saying
"carb heat, carb heat". So I pulled
carb heat on and that helped quite a lot, with
the engine finally regaining full power. Whew,
that was really close, let me tell you! Then
mate, you'll never guess what happened next! As
luck would have it, at that height we flew into a
massive dust cloud caused by the cattle and
suddenly went I.F. bloody R, mate. BJ, you would
have been really proud of me as I didn't panic
once, not once, but I did make a mental note to
consider an instrument rating as soon as me gyro
is repaired something I've been meaning to do for
a while now).
Suddenly Ron's elongated
neck and bulging eyes reappeared. His Mouth
opened wide, very wide, but no sound emerged.
"Take it easy," I told him, "we'll
be out of this in a minute". Sure enough,
about a minute later we emerged, still straight
and level and still at 50 feet. Admittedly I was
surprised to notice that we were upside down, and
I kept thinking to myself, "I hope Ron
didn't notice that I had forgotten to set the QNH
when we were taxiing". This minor
tribulation forced me to fly to a nearby valley
in which I had to do a half roll to get upright
again. By now the main herd had divided into two
groups leaving a narrow strip between them.
"Ah!" I thought, "there's an omen.
We'll land right there." Knowing that the
tyre problem demanded a slow approach, I flew a
couple of steep turns with full flap. Soon the
stall warning horn was blaring so loud in me ear
that I cut it's circuit breaker to shut it up,
but by then I knew we were slow enough anyway. I
turned seeply onto a 75 foot final and put her
down with a real thud.
Strangely enough, I had
always thought you could only ground loop in a
tail dragger but, as usual, I was proved wrong
again! Halfway through our third loop, Ron at
last recovered his sense of humor. Talk about
laugh. I've never seen the likes of it. He
couldn't stop. We finally rolled to a halt and I
released the calves, who bolted out of the
aircraft like there was no tomorrow.
I then began picking clumps
of dry grass. Between gut wrenching fits of
laughter, Ron asked what I was doing. I explained
that we had to stuff the port tyre with grass so
we could fly back to the homestead. It was then
that Ron really lost the plot and started running
away from the aircraft. Can you believe it? The
last time I saw him he was off into the distance,
arms flailing in the air and still shrieking with
laughter. I later heard that he had been confined
to a psychiatric institution - poor bugger!
Anyhow mate, that's enough
about Ron. The problem is I got this letter from
CASA withdrawing, as they put it, my privileges
to fly; until I have undergone a complete pilot
training course again and undertaken another
flight proficiency test. Now I admit that I made
a mistake in taxiing over the wheel chock and not
setting the QNH using strip elevation, but I
can't see what else I did that was a so bloody
bad that they have to withdraw me flamin'
license. Can you?
Ralph H Bell
Mud Creek Plantation
From
Dan Berwin
I did get out after I took
my wheel pants off. That took over an hour
as all the brake cables ran through them and
such. I should dress warmer as I was cold
after about 40 minutes. It was only
-7. The EGT was high as I did not
adjust my carbs so if I do some more I will have
to adjust them a bit for colder weather.
An
Airborne Engagement
By
Barry Meek
If you ever think there are
no new ideas to be thought of, better think
again. Actually, there will never be
a shortage as long as there are people. Just
when you think you’ve seen everything
.......... well, you haven’t! Take
marriage proposals. The guy gets down
on one knee to pop the question, or blurts it out
over dessert after a nice dinner, or gets much
more creative and hires an aerial banner towed
behind a plane to fly over his sweetie’s
house. There’s always somebody coming
up with a new way to do it.
Several years ago, I bore
witness to an interesting and entertaining
proposal in my airplane. A company out here
on the west coast had given certificates for
sightseeing trips to it’s employees as
Christmas presents. One of the secretaries
in their office called up one day to ask whether
she could bring her boyfriend along. No
problem, as our group of partners had two
four-place airplanes in the hangar. “Romeo”
showed up a bit early, took me aside and informed
me he’d like to propose to this secretary
somewhere over the mountains. They’d
only been dating for a few months, so it was to
be a big surprise. He had brought along the
engagement ring just in case she said yes. I
figured if she said no, she could always toss it
out the window and leave no doubts as to her
feelings.
“Romeo” was a
gentleman about everything. He confidently
explained to his bride-to-be why certain things
had to be done prior to “lift-off”.
Like why I was running my hand over the prop ....
“to check for ice” (hey, it was
February). Why I was draining fuel into a
cup under the wing “to check for ice”,
why I was inspecting the “wings”
(actually the ailerons) “to be sure they
went up and down to shake the ice off”.
He confidently assured the little lady that I was
a safe pilot. Since I’d met him only
ten minutes earlier, I’m not sure where the
basis for that conclusion came from. At any
rate, I had to think it was all in an effort to
ensure she was comfortable.
“Juliet” got to
ride in the front seat, while “Romeo”
crammed himself into the back. Another act
of chivalry I thought. He was out to
impress this gal. We departed just before
sunset, and were soon level at 7,000 feet over
the mountains on the north side of Vancouver.
It was a beautiful evening, perfect for what was
about to happen. Maybe it’s just me,
maybe “Romeo” was cursed too, but
it’s not very often that things go exactly
as planned. Fortunately nothing’s
ever turned into a disaster, but I’ve
learned to always have a ‘plan-B’
whenever I start at something.
Particularly with any flight of any duration to
any destination. On this evening, I’d
need that plan.
Image: Tourism British
Columbia
Just about the time the big
event was to occur, I noticed the alternator had
quit producing. The volt meter still read a
healthy 12 volts, so it wasn’t a problem
just yet. The circuit breaker wasn’t
popped, no smoke smell, everything else seemed
normal. So I killed the unnecessary drains,
including the intercom. When the two
passengers found they couldn’t speak and
hear through the headsets, I smiled, nodded
everything was OK, they proceeded to yell their
comments at each other. I couldn’t
tell what they were saying exactly over the
engine noise, but figured he’d popped the
question when she screamed, “Yes it is
scary”.
I thought I heard
“Romeo” say, yelling at the back of her
head, “Not scary .... MARRY”. To
which “Juliet” responded, “VERY
SCARY” at the top of her lungs. They
both looked over at me with quizzical looks on
their faces as if I could tell them what
they’d just said. I smiled and
nodded. He was a bit frustrated at
this point. After all, the romance had
surely gone from the moment, which had turned
into a screaming match. She was still
interested more in the mountains and the sunset.
Finally, from the back seat, “Romeo”
thrust the ring in front of “Juliet”,
and bellowed his proposal once again. This
time there was no doubt in her mind. She
flung the seatbelt off, struggled to her knees,
turned around on the seat and kissed him.
They didn’t get their
full hour in the air as I was already headed back
to base, but who’s counting at a time like
that. We landed while there was still power
enough for the lights and radio. Then the
happy couple was off to celebrate at a local
restaurant. Nothing else matters when
you’re young and in love, except probably a
forgotten wallet. “Romeo’s”
was sitting on the back seat when I put the plane
away, just one small detail that he wouldn’t
care about until it came time to pay for the
dinner and drinks. I’m thinking that
night may have turned into a scenario like this:
Boy invites girl for dinner, then discovers his
wallet is missing, the girl grudgingly pays the
bill but never trusts him or sees him again.
Don’t know if that happened or not.
When this couple has
children, they’ll be truthful when they tell
them about a screaming match that turned into an
engagement. Other guys have taken the
plunge, literally, proposing while skydiving,
some underwater scuba diving. The list of
wild ideas goes on and on. Marriage is
something you do once in your life, if
you’re lucky. You might as well pull
out the stops and create a real memory out of it.
bcflyer@propilots.net
New in the Buy&Sell
One new ads! A few
aircrafts have been sold too! And some price
changes! Have
a look! http://www.ocis.net/tvsac/buyandsell.html
MONI GLIDER
Sonerai 2L
Newsletter
published by Camille
We
welcome your feedback. And we could also use some
help with the newsletter. Photo would be great!
And articles of any length will be gladly
accepted! If you would like to contribute with
photos, flying stories, or project updates,
contact:
President:
Dick Suttie, 1-250-374-6136 richard_suttie@telus.net
Vice-President: Dennis Seib 1-250-573-3714 dseib@mail.ocis.net
Newsletter Editor: Camille Villeneuve
1-250-374-4181 villeneuve@shaw.ca
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