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February 2008
Next meeting: Thursday, February
14, 2008
Clubhouse, Knutsford Strip.
Time: 7:30pm.
Note that this is on
Valentine Day....
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site hosted by OCIS, On Call Internet Services.
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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
month just about gone! Where does the time go.
Not too much happening in the Knutsford Airforce
at the present time. I think quite a few people
are probably looking for warmer climates!
Plans
are being made by some of the TVSAC members to
head to Sun and Fun in Florida. I have heard that
some great airfare prices have been achieved by
flying out of Seattle. Too bad we could not get
cheap fares from Kamloops. It costs more to fly
to Vancouver than to cross the United States from
Seattle.
If
anyone has a project that they are working on,
please forward some information and pictures to
Camille or I and we will include it in the
newsletter. My progress on my wings has slowed
with the inclement weather. Will resume once
things get a little warmer.
I was
looking at E-Bay last night and there is a very
good deal on right now. There is a Zenith 601 HD
that had a off field landing and got beat up a
bit, but very rebuildable for under $10,000.00
Buy it now! Complete with a Rotax 912. If someone
was looking for a project it would be an
interesting rebuild. It is in the US so don't
know how the rulings etc. would affect importing.
There
was several more updates from Gary Wolf on the
transport Canada rulings. They read as follows.
UPDATE -CERTIFIED PARTS ON
AMATEUR BUILT AIRCRAFT
Well it certainly was a
surprise this week to see how Transport soon
plans to deal with the use of formerly certified
parts in amateur built aircraft. Recall that back
in November their representative issued an edict
that certified parts could no longer be
incorporated into the build of an amateur built
aircraft. Two months of almost daily calls by RAA
got that changed to a barely acceptable middle
ground, in which these parts could be used, and
their contribution to the 51% determination would
be in proportion to the work that the builder
performed to bring them up to snuff. If the
builder found it necessary to install half a
dozen wing ribs, that work would would be
evaluated and it would count towards the 51%.
This would have worked acceptably well for
builders who wished to start with just a fuselage
or a set of wings, and build the rest of the
plane from scratch or from kits.
This week RAA received a
draft of the policy that Transport intends
shortly to put in place. The FAA has apparently
dictated to Transport how Canadians will deal
with this issue. Transport's draft document makes
the statement that the repair or rebuild of a
formerly certified part will not be credited
towards 51%. This will satisfy the FAA by
effectively shutting down the conversion of
certified aircraft to amateur built, but there
will be collateral damage. Under the current
wording, a set of wings presented for the 51%
evaluation will receive no credit, even if they
are so damaged that they could be used only as
patterns. Any work performed to bring these wings
up to usable condition would not be credited. A
builder would be far better off to buy new spars
and ribs from a kit manufacturer, than to reuse
parts that were certified in their former lives.
This policy will have a strong negative impact on
the value of used parts, something that was not
lost on a dealer who called me a week ago to tell
me that he had been in contact with Transport,
and that I had been telling everyone lies, and
should stop. This fellow is also a director of a
Large Canadian National Organization, who
purportedly had been sent by its president to
stop RAA from telling builders about Transport's
change in policy on the reuse of certified parts.
It appears that while Transport's front office
was telling everyone pleasant tales, the back
room was writing a draconian document.
RAA has sent to Transport's
policy people a letter asking that their document
should say what they mean, and nothing more.
Although there has never been a safety issue
given as a reason, Transport and the FAA wish to
stop Canadians from dismantling a certified
plane, and reassembling it as an amateur built.
They are not willing to credit any points for
rebuilding or repair of existing components, even
if that requires almost complete reconstruction.
RAA has asked that at minimum Transport remove
the words "rebuild and repair"and
substitute "reassembly", which would
deal with the behaviour they wish to control.
Last week I suggested that
if you are considering a project that reuses
certified components, you could roll the dice on
the cost of opening a file with MD-RA and having
Transport give a 51% ruling. This week I am
recommending that you not write a cheque for any
used components until the policy letter has been
finalized. Dealers in used parts who wish to
complain about this recommendation may call me at
my hangar number 519-648-3030.
If all you have done is to
open a file, you might have missed the boat.
However if you have already had a 51% evaluation,
you are OK. Transport has been trying to change
that to require that the project must also have
had its precover, but I think that they have
pulled back from that position. I should know
after this weekend what they really mean. None of
this affects planes that are already flying.
However there is always the possibility that the
FAA might close the door, as they did with the
O-M planes.
Gary Wolf RAA # 7379
Hope
to see everyone out at the next meeting. There
are still some calendars for sale as well. The
price will be dropping soon, so all you Scotsmen
out there, your time is coming!!
IF YOU HAVE NOT RENEWED YOUR
MEMBERSHIP WITH THE TVSAC PLEASE DO SO AT THE
NEXT MEETING. WE ONLY HAVE 8 MEMBERS SO
FAR!!!!!!!!!
Richard
Suttie.
Winter Flying
I had not seen those
pattern since the days when I lived along the
Alaska Highway, and somehow I had not missed them
at all! But last week they appeared in one of my
windows. Mercifully it was only for a short time.
About the same time I was
on the phone to my brother Maurice, who lives in
the Lac Saint Jean area, some 400 miles North of
Montreal. He was telling be that a few days
earlier he had been flying his Beaver when the
temperature was 40 below!
In last month's
Newsletter, I had a picture of Dan Berwin flying
his Challenger on skis. This time, he sent me a
link to a video of his Justy spinning on the ice
covered Barnes Lake near Ashcroft. http://www3.telus.net/public/berwin01/20080129Justyonbarns1.wmv
http://www3.telus.net/public/berwin01/20080129Justyonbarns2.wmv
Editor's
notes
Note that the 2008
membership fees are now due. It will be $35. as
usual, and only $20. if you are an RAA member.
THE
BEAVER WILL FLY AGAIN!
The
Beaver has been grounded since 2004, when the
left wing got bent out of shape. But I finally
got started into there building process. I have
the wing frames done, still have to do the final
adjustments on the turnbuckles. I build them the
same way Jim Thibodeau used to do, which was an
improvement on the original design which had only
two wires and two turnbuckles.
When
I took the old wings apart, I was amazed at the
shape of the ribs: no two of them had the same
airfoil, as you can see below. And that Beaver
was still flying very well!
So I can be sure it will be
flying even better with proper airfoils, and
covered in Ceconite. Here is the jig I use to
bend the new ribs. I don't know how the
professionals do it, but here is my way: The
4-foot tubing is inserted 1/2 inch into the
fitting on the left, then pressed down by hand
into the groove cut into the top of the board.
Because the tubing always tries to spring back to
it's original shape, you have to exaggerate the
shape of the jig to get the proper curve. And be
sure I had to do quite a bit of experimenting to
get to the shape I was looking for.
So
far I have bent only twelve ribs, and I am very
happy with the result. At first they did not all
turn out identical; even though I bought all the
tubings at the same time, and they are all great
looking anodized 1/2" .035 6061-T6, some had
a different feel when I was bending them, and
they did not have the same spring-back value. But
they were easy to adjust for a final identical
airfoil.
I
expect that new airfoil to give me an even better
top speed than the original wing, while still
having a great low speed stall. And having seen
the strange airfoil on the Challenger, I think
that anything will fly! Bill Huxley and Dan
Berwin are quite happy with theirs! :-)
PILOT
NUMBERS and LEAVING FLYING TO THE BIRDS
If you check the latest
Transport Canada numbers, you’ll be humbled
by the reality of our situation as pilots in this
country. In our own little world, and I do
mean little, we’re sometimes caught up in
the misguided belief that we carry a lot of
weight, political clout and meaningful presence
in the community. But the reality is
pilots, roughly 61,500 of us, make up less
than one quarter of one percent of the Canadian
population. Zero point one eight percent
(0.18%) actually, and that includes all
commercial, private, recreational, ultralight,
balloon, glider and gyrocopter pilots.
Commercial pilots number .06%, the remaining hold
private licenses. It should come as no
surprise that we find ourselves regulated to
death, overcharged for fuel, parking, landing,
hangars, insurance, medicals, licenses,
certifications, navigation and facility
fees. Politicians and bureaucrats can
afford to ignore our complaints and
suggestions. When one citizen out of four
hundred requests something from his government,
there’s not a chance in hell that he will be
taken seriously.
We fight back with letters
to aviation publications and by talking it up at
flying club meetings. But non-pilots and
government people don’t read or talk about
flying, so are rarely aware of our
complaints. We join forces through COPA and
similar organizations to increase our
lobby. Through associations, we do enjoy
some inroads and progress, however, the bottom
line is our membership base does not carry a
really big stick.
The narcissists among us
would point to the respect that pilots enjoy from
the general public. They compare aerobatic
pilots with professional hockey or football
players, and boast airshow crowds numbering
in the tens of thousands each year would indicate
support for aviation. The truth is,
spectators watch, then go away. They have
no idea of the rules and costs in aviation.
They don’t want to know, simply because
it’s way too complicated. Like income
tax laws. At the same time, there is an
element out there, the left wing individuals and
groups, who not only don’t support aviation,
but they’re intent on getting more out of
the rich airplane owners. To
them, hockey players and pilots are a source the
government is ignoring at tax time.
New regulations are
constantly piled on all the existing hoops we
jump through. The same regulatory climate
could never apply to motor vehicles. There
are far too many motorists in the country to risk
that kind of enforcement. It boils down to
a question of numbers, and which groups can be
most easily controlled.
Some pilots turn to radio
controlled model flying. They live
vicariously through the hand-held transmitter
commanding their planes through aerobatic
displays, the likes of which cannot be achieved
in the real aircraft. And even if these
fellows have never even left the solid ground
themselves, their particular flying skills are
every bit as sharp, if not sharper than most who
must be inside their planes to fly.
So far, there’s not
much governing of RC models, other than where
they can and can’t be flown. Common
sense and some local noise rules at the municipal
level are about all there is. Obviously,
it’s a different kind of flying and is not
for everyone. But it’s flying, and
still relatively easy and open anyone.
If flying is still your
passion, and for some reason a Cessna or an RC
model won’t fit the bill, how about
this. A remote controlled pigeon.
There’s a robot engineering technology
research centre at a university in China that is
experimenting with micro electrodes placed in the
brains of pigeons. These implants stimulate
areas of the brain, depending on signals sent
from a computer, and cause the bird to fly left,
right, up or down at the whim of the
“pilot”. Similar experiments have
been underway since 2005 on mice, and it’s
all been quite successful. The success is
presumably measured by the degree of control the
researcher is able to exert over the subject
animal. The reports don’t detail the
susceptibility of the pigeon to crash if the
person at the controls fails to enter the correct
inputs.
The technology is very
advanced, but work continues on improvements so
it can be put into practical use. The
Chinese scientists didn’t specify what that
practical use might be. Should it ever
become prominent in North America, you can be
sure every animal rights group would be on top of
it, along with Transport Canada and the FAA. Nav
Canada would likely find a way to charge a fee
too. There’s nothing particularly
endearing about pigeons in my mind, but still, I
somehow doubt we’ll see anything like
controlling them with a remote anytime in the
near future. Don’t believe this
research is about controlling flight. There
are bigger goals involved here. More on
that later.
bcflyer@propilots.net
New in the Buy&Sell
1992
Challenger II.
Completed
in 2006. 503 DCDI with 150 TT.
Polyfiber Finish. 3 Blade Ground Adjustable.
Contact dberwin@telus.net or 250-457-9130 $18,000
New ads! A few aircrafts
have been sold too! And some price changes!
Have a look! http://www.ocis.net/tvsac/buyandsell.html
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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