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EDITORIAL
Eye of the Experimenter
AirVenture Wrap-Up
The 2011 annual EAA convention, also known as EAA AirVenture, Oshkosh
- The World's Greatest Aviation Celebration, was the most exciting
I've ever attended. This may not be saying much since I've only been
attending for the past decade, but from what I've been told, there
were 976 homebuilts present, just a few shy of the all time record. I
don't think we ever cracked 1,000 yet, but we came real close. As
promised in my
wrap-up featured on the AirVenture
website, the following is my full report on AirVenture 2011.
Read
more
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PAUL'S PICK
Doug Rolfe and His JN-D-4
As told to Paul Poberezny
The name Douglas
Rolfe is synonymous with excellent aircraft drawings, and those of us
who have followed aviation through the years have recognized his
drawings whether they're in the old Flying Manuals - past and
pre-'30s, or in Air Progress magazine - past and pre-'98. Many
of us will find it interesting to know that Doug started his aviation
career at an early age while living in Europe, but it's best to let
him tell his story.
Read
Paul's Pick
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GUEST EDITORIAL
Uncensored, Raw, Fun Homebuilding
Brady and Caleb are
first-time homebuilders who are scratchbuilding an airplane, a
Bearhawk to be exact, in Caleb's basement. They stream live video
every week and welcome you to watch as they build their very own
flying machine. Their build sessions, most
Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m. (Central), are uncensored, raw, fun
homebuilding - one rib, flange, and lightening hole at a time. Watch
the video |
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Experimenter
Improves with
Your Help
The best stories come from you, and we implore you to share your
building experiences with your fellow readers. We need your help in
providing content for each issue of Experimenter. Please
consider submitting an article, especially the next time you feel
compelled to write a report to your e-mail group, type newsletter, or
EAA chapter newsletter. Help us build up a stockpile so we can do a
better job bringing you Experimenter each month. And please
remember to take our survey
when you are done with this issue of Experimenter.
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WHAT
OUR MEMBERS ARE BUILDING
Winter Work - Part Deux
Joe Horton checks in
In the March 2010 issue of Experimenter, EAA member Joe Horton
of Coopersburg, Pennsylvania, told us a little about the work he
performed on his KR-2S over the 2009/2010 winter, some being upgrades,
some being repairs. This past winter he was determined not to go through
that again, but rather he wanted to fly. |
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| To his dismay, Mother Nature
had a different idea, throwing a serious winter all over the Northeast.
Taking advantage of his downtime, Joe made some new changes to his
plane. Read more |
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MYSTERY
PLANE
This design has been around for more than 50 years. It's been through
many design changes and includes several options. It can be built with
conventional or tricycle landing gear. It was introduced as a
single-seat design that later evolved into a two-place by widening the
fuselage to fit the occupants next to one another. Read more |
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Looking for more coverage of light-sport aircraft, trikes, and
ultralights? Check out the pages of EAA's Light
Plane World. The following articles are features found in the
recent August 2011 issue and are typical of what you can expect from
every issue.
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Hummel
UltraCruiser Serial No. 1 Flown to AirVenture from New York
The original prototype all-metal UltraCruiser ultralight designed,
built, and flown by Morry Hummel was flown to AirVenture from central
New York state by its new owner Kirk Mills. It was his first long
cross-country flight. The engine is a two-cylinder 1/2 Volkswagen that
gives the FAR 103 legal ultralight a range of nearly 150 miles. He had
planned to have some flying companions but ended up going solo. Read
more
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EAA Welcomes New Homebuilders
Community Manager
Chad Jensen, EAA 755575, has been named EAA’s new homebuilders
community manager. Chad, of Normal, Illinois, is currently aircraft
sales manager at Image Air in Bloomington, Illinois, and holds
commercial, instrument, ASEL/AMEL, as well as a tailwheel endorsement.
Chad is a member of Chapter 129, for which he has served as president,
vice-president, secretary, and newsletter editor. You’ll be hearing
more from Chad in future issues of Experimenter once he gets settled
into his new role. Read
more
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Inside the Pipistrel
Taurus 4
Experimenter Editor Pat Panzera was at the right place at the
right time, specifically the day before EAA AirVenture Oshkosh when the
engineers and mechanics were putting together the electric-powered
Pipistrel Taurus 4, and he got to see what's in that huge nacelle. Read
more | First
Flight
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Maiden
Flight for SubSonex
Sonex pleased with test program progress
A little yellow jet was spotted over Oshkosh recently and soon
it was confirmed that John Monnett's SubSonex had made its first flight.
Jet sailplane pilot Bob Carlton, who wowed AirVenture crowds last month,
has now made at least five flights and according to Sonex the company is
"quite pleased" with how it's flying. The flights are the
culmination of at least four years of development including an engine
change and a design review to address controllability during takeoff and
landing.
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The initial flight was a happy day for Sonex Founder John
Monnett, who designed the SubSonex for the recreational pilot. Read
more and watch the videos
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The
Robinson Seabee Conversion
Do automobile engine conversions used to power otherwise obsolete
certificated aircraft sound like a viable powerplant answer to you? It
certainly does to Brian Robinson who has brought the Republic Seabee
into the present century. He and three other Seabee owners, who have his
conversion, flew into EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2011. Read
more
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The
Source of the McCulloch Engine
Many may have seen the little four- and six-cylinder two-stroke,
horizontally opposed, compact target drone engines built by McCulloch,
but not many have seen the drone. Experimenter Editor Pat Panzera found
one at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh. Read
more
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EAA
Members Respond to EAA/NTSB Amateur-Built Safety Study
5,000 completed - survey closes August 31
EAA has been working with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)
to create a profile of amateur-built aircraft and their builders to use
as a guide for programs and activities to further advance and promote
safe building and flying practices. EAA is hosting the summer-long
survey that is open to all builders, owners, and operators of
experimental/amateur-built category aircraft. According to Jim Sweeney,
EAA's director of market research, the response to date has been
outstanding with more than 5,000 surveys completed. Read
more | Hear
Vern Ellinstad – NTSB talk about the NTSB survey
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AirVenture
2011 Aircraft Award Winners
AirVenture is where great craftsmanship is on display and each
division of EAA honors the supreme effort put forth by members in their
workshops and the ultimate honor, displaying it at AirVenture.
Ceremonies were held to recognize the winners among the aircraft
submitted to be judged with the top aircraft receiving Gold Lindys in
the following categories: Homebuilt, Warbird, Antique, Classic,
Contemporary, Rotorcraft, Ultralight and Lightplane, and Seaplane. View
the winners
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Chris
Heintz Honored at AirVenture Dinner
On Wednesday evening at AirVenture, aircraft designer Chris Heintz was
greeted by nearly 250 attendees who gathered together for a dinner in
his honor. Hosted by Sebastien Heintz, Chris' son and president of
Zenith Aircraft Company of Mexico, Missouri, and Charlie Becker,
director of EAA Member Programs, attendees came from as far away as
Venezuela and South Africa. Paul Poberezny was the guest speaker and
gave the message that we are all family, which is especially relevant to
the Heintz family of five sons who are all in the process of following
in their father's footsteps. Read
more
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Eye
of the Experimenter: Not all canards are Rutan canards
…but they're all inspired by him
It's nice to see so many canards at this year's AirVenture. By Wednesday
morning, the count of all Rutan-designed (or -inspired) aircraft on the
field was approaching 200. But to the casual observer, any or all of the
canard aircraft on the field seem to have a common source, that being
the fertile mind of Burt Rutan. It's a logical assumption since Burt was
the seemingly the first EAAer to arrive at AirVenture with this unique
canard design, the VariViggen, named after the Swedish fighter plane,
the Saab 37 Viggen. Read
more
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AVIATION GLOSSARY
Confused
by a strange aeronautical term? EAA's online
Aviation Glossary can help.
CANARD - An
arrangement in which the horizontal stabilizer and elevators of an
aircraft are mounted in front of the wing(s). An airframe configuration
of fixed-wing aircraft in which the forward surface is smaller than the
rearward, the former being known as the "canard," while the
latter is the wing. In contrast, conventional aircraft have a small
horizontal stabilizer behind the wing.
More
glossary terms
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A
Fast Long-EZ
Gary and Char Spencer's Long-EZ, powered by a direct-drive, all-aluminum
small-block Ford 302, bored and stroked to 360 cubic inches, is capable
of 250 mph with better fuel economy than an O-235 when flown at the same
speed. Watch the
video
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Fournier
Glider Lets Fresh Air In
This is possibly the first Fournier RF5B in the U.S. that can be flow
sans-canopy. The canopies can be exchanged for the fresh-air
configuration in about three minutes, allowing you to choose the kind of
flying you want to do on any particular day. If you want to know more,
read our two-part article on the Fournier RF4D Motorglider from last
spring.
Watch the video
| Fournier
Part 1 | Fournier
Part 2
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Timeless
Voices of Aviation: John McGinnis
John McGinnis is the brainchild behind the radical new aircraft design
called Synergy, a competitor in the CAFE Foundation's 2011 Green Flight
Challenge. Inspired by Burt Rutan, John decided to design his own
airplane. Life got in the way, but the dream never died, and over the
past 35 years John researched as much as he could about aerodynamics and
drag. His "eureka" moment came after reading a paper on
viscous induced drag by George Green of NASA Langley. Everything John
has learned has come together in the Synergy design and he shared the
story of its development during AirVenture 2011. Watch
the video
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EAA
is a Family Affair; AirVenture is the Facilitator
The Rodrian family builds a Rutan Defiant and flies it to OSH.
Watch
the video
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HOMEBUILDER GALLERY OF
THE MONTH
Homebuilt Aircraft of AirVenture 2011
Nearly 1,000 homebuilt aircraft visited AirVenture 2011 and there were
many standouts. If you would like to see a list of the award winners,
you can see
it here. In the meantime, enjoy some of the homebuilts EAA
Photographer Steve Cukierski found around the grounds. View
the gallery
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WEBINARS
Curious About EAA's New Chapter Websites? Watch This Webinar!
The new EAA chapter websites have been created. Okay, now what? How do
you begin taking your chapter's website to the next level? Join EAA's
Hal Bryan as he takes you through a tour of the websites and explains
some of the quick steps you can take to customize your chapter's site.
All webinars begin at 7
p.m. CDT unless otherwise noted. To find out more about upcoming EAA Webinars
and to register, visit the webinars
page.
EAA gratefully
acknowledges the support of Aircraft
Spruce and Specialty Co. for their generous
sponsorship of our webinar programs.
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From the Experimenter
Online Community
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