Experimenter - EAA's Homebuilder's Newsletter, May 2009

A Record Year for Homebuilts
Wow! Many adjectives are being applied to EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2009 - best ever, spectacular, amazing - all apply.

This was a record year for homebuilts at AirVenture with 1,024 registered throughout the week. What an amazing sight it was to look across the homebuilt parking and camping areas and see the wide variety of aircraft, the wonderful craftsmanship on display, and most importantly, the camaraderie evident among the people. I want to thank each and every one of you who attended. The pilots who flew the planes to Oshkosh, the volunteers who put in so many hours helping their fellow EAA members, and the enthusiasts who came to look at the planes, possibly to gain inspiration to pursue their own dreams of building an aircraft. All of you helped make the 2009 EAA convention a huge success. That's what it's all about! - Joe Norris

Paul's Pick

Do things really change? Do we members change - new ones or us older folks? Not really. Here it is - 2009 - and I was asked to write an article for this month's Experimenter, and I thought that an editorial I wrote for Vintage Airplane back in 1975, some 34 years ago, would still be appropriate today. In reading EAA chapter newsletters and personal correspondence received, us folks haven't changed all that much. But look how EAA has grown through the years and all of aviation is richer for it. Read more

Snedden M7

To say that Andrew Snedden is passionate about the current state of the ultralight industry is an understatement. But unlike those who will sit on the sidelines and bemoan the "good 'ol days", he’s doing something about it. His answer is the innovative Snedden M7. Read more

Drag for the Common Man
My plane is too slow-is it too little power or too much drag? What is my propulsive efficiency? How does my plane's efficiency compare to that of my buddy's plane? How will changing weight affect performance? What will my fuel consumption be at x speed and altitude? Howard Handleman has developed a model and a spreadsheet to predict answers to these questions and more. Read more

How Fast Are You Really Going?

Here I am toolin’ along in my Fast-Glaster behind that big ol’ TIO-540, lookin’ at those two multi-function displays (MFD). 280 knots! 322 mph! Hot dog - and I just came from the avionics shop where the avionics tech worked his magic on my pitot-static system while I fed numbers into the computer from my laptop, so I know what it says is true. Read more

How To ...
Wiring Made Simple
Terminal strips versus point-to-point
In the latter stages of building your project, regardless of which airframe you have chosen, you will be faced with electrical installations and wiring decisions. All this must be thought out and planned before you install those fascinating gauges. The following will give you contemplative action to occupy all those empty hours during the winter-as if you needed any more concerns. Read more

What Our Members are Building
Flitzer - Nostalgia Now!
Rolf Steiger climbed gingerly from the gangway into the cockpit of the tiny bright red biplane suspended beneath the bow of the old Schutte-Lanz airship as it plowed its way through the arctic air. They were on a secret mission to survey future refueling stops for German U-boats, but the real goal was to locate the hidden treasure of the Romanovs. Now plans are available for the 18-foot span wood-and-fabric sport plane, and John Morris is building one. Read more

From the EAA Homebuilding Community
The Homebuilders Corner message forum at Oshkosh365 is buzzing with activity. People are discussing everything from favorite kits to homemade towbars. And some users have questions that we're betting some of you might be able to answer. Have a look at the list below and follow the links to read the actual questions and discussion topics.

Can You Help?
: How do I build a Comm antenna?
: Prepping a composite fuel tank for ethanol?
: Venting a crankcase on a Lycoming engine?

Interesting Discussions
: What are you building?
: Check out this brilliant homemade towbar!
: What's the best homebuilt amphibian?

From the Editor
Patrick Panzera, EAA 555743
ppanzera@eaa.org

I really appreciate the comments many of you have been leaving at the survey link; please keep it up. Your input certainly helps me find and choose articles that will be well-received. Interestingly, one of our readers last month mentioned that the July issue seemed to have a biplane theme. The selection of each feature was certainly intentional, but the grouping was not. There was no theme in mind; it just happened to work out that way. But this issue's focus on performance was not by accident.

It has always been a pet peeve of mine that we can't seem to be on the same page with respect to reporting the performance of our homebuilt aircraft. Sometimes we'll see almost identical homebuilts reporting varying performance numbers, and more times than not the designer's numbers almost seem to be an unattainable goal. My contention is that the planes are not all that different from one another or even from the prototype; the inconsistency comes in with the measuring, interpreting, and reporting of the performance. Most reporting is empirical at best.

With the publishing of Paul Lipps' tongue-in-cheek "How Fast Are You Really Going?" article and Howard Handelman's "Power and Drag for the Common Man" masterpiece in this issue, I think we can start on a journey of accurately gathering, extrapolating, and reporting performance in a meaningful way.

Look forward to more of these performance-based articles in the future. Feel free to submit articles of your own as well-performance-based or otherwise. For those who would rather just build and fly, I apologize for dedicating space to the performance subject, but you weren't forgotten. The Flitzer and Snedden M7 articles should make up for it-although the M7 demonstrates some wicked performance.

And by all means, please feel free to discuss any of these articles in the forums area of the newly formed Oshkosh365 community.