H.G. Frautschy

In fact, you can subscribe to a number of FAA-issued documents. Of particular interest to most VAA members are ADs, which can be found here. You can also subscribe to ADs from that same web page.

As the world of aviation evolves, the amount of information being disseminated via electronic means is only becoming larger. Graphic depictions of TFRs, downloadable copies of advisory circulars and other airman and maintenance related information is all available on the FAA's newly revised website at www.faa.gov. On one of those cold winter evenings when you've got a few minutes to surf the web, visit their website. There is a lot of information there that we can access to maintain and fly our aircraft in as safe a manner as possible. Until our next edition, here's wishing you a safe and enjoyable holiday season!

H.G. Frautschy Editor, Vintage Aircraft Online
Editor, Vintage Airplane magazine
Executive Director, VAA

There's often other material we use for reference when we are writing an article, and we never get a chance to share it with our members. With the addition of our online resources, now we can! One of the greatest assets at EAA is our archive, overseen by EAA's librarian extraordinaire, Sue Lurvey, and her equally helpful and dedicated co-worker Ron Twellman, our collections curator. They helped point us towards a fascinating donation, a multi-color brochure entitled "It Lands in the Length of its Own Shadow" from Pitcairn Aircraft, which we've scanned as a PDF and are making available to you here. We hope you find it interesting!

While we were composing the November issue, Mike Posey of Posey Brothers Aviation, the folks who maintained the Pitcairn PCA-2 autogiro Miss Champion for so many years, sent along the text of an article published by Champion Spark Plug Company. A typical public relations piece from the 1930s, it gives you a glimpse into what the public perception of the amazing autogiro was during the Golden Age of Aviation. You can read it here.

To highlight this issue once again, the FAA has issued Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin (SAIB) NE-10-05, Fuel Control/Reciprocating Engines -Float-Type Carburetors. Over the past 20 years, a number of service bulletins and service information letters have been issued by manufacturers to deal with problems related to poor idle cut-off and fuel leakage after engine shutdown. Three years ago, the FAA issued SAIB CE-06-33R1 to highlight their concerns. Still, those problems persist; so the FAA has issued the new SAIB to give more in-depth recommended actions. You can read it here.

Every wonder just how a rotary engine works? How about a Stirling engine? What exactly is going on inside a steam locomotive or radial engine? The rotating and reciprocating innards of those engines and a number of others are illustrated in animated form on this website: www.animatedengines.com.

For many smaller organizations, the expense of printing and publishing a print edition of their club or association newsletters has proven to be too much to bear. But some folks have been unwilling to give up on the dream. Recognizing that the need for information and camaraderie is still strong; the folks at World War I Aero Inc. decided that for the organization to survive, they had to suspend the printing of their publications World War I Aero and Skyways. The organization plans to continue offering their publications online through an electronic subscription. Visit their website here: http://www.ww1aeroinc.org. They recently posted their most recent issue of Skyways as a free 23 megabyte PDF download; you can view and download it here.

Most of us recall the 1960s' World War I movie The Blue Max, which starred George Peppard, James Mason, and Ursula Andress. But how many of us can recall the name of the author who penned the novel on which the movie was based? I couldn't off the top of my head, and until I ran across it in the latest edition of Skyways (see above), I really didn't know anything about Jack Hunter, the author of The Blue Max. At age 87 he passed away this past spring, but his blog and website make fascinating reading, and if you didn't know of him while he was here on Earth, I'd heartily recommend his website to learn more about this exceptionally erudite man.

One more interesting website; the internet has provided a fantastic way to share old family photo collections in far more detail and to a wider audience than could ever be imagined in the "old days." Here is a nice little collection of both civilian and a few military aircraft in the northeast United States in the decades before World War II.