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PUFA NEWSLETTER
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November 16, 1996
Jeff Rochon, President
Bernie Strotmann, Vice-President
Ken Buck, Treasurer
Glenn Ursel, Secretary
Mail to: Pacific Ultralight Flying Association
102-16071 82 Avenue
Surrey, B.C. V3S 2L6
PUFA Newsletter published by Glenn Ursel
It's been a hectic few weeks for some of the membership, what with all the developments. Some Pufa members were at the GVRD meeting where the board members, made up of Mayors and Councillors from the lower mainland, were about to vote on the destiny of the Delta Airpark. The usual speeches were made, both lauding and criticizing the venerable airport. In the end the vote to allow operations to continue for at least four more years was unanimously in favour. The Delta crew attending were jubilant in their victory. We were very pleased for them and gratified that we could offer support.
Besides that important event, the Pufa reps were doing the rounds of mayoralty and councillor candidates' meetings. These meetings have been held almost nightly in the last part of October and on into November until the elections on the 16th. We have been making our presence known at these events and while occasionally we throw a question at the contenders, we usually are satisfied to just be visible. By this time most of the candidates know who we are and why we're there. Our November newsletter should arrive on your doorstep a day or two after the elections so Pufa members will know whether our efforts to support politicians sympathetic to our cause have been at all effective.
Bruce and Janet Archibald, Juluis Szalontai and I, attended what was deemed an extremely preliminary meeting to discuss plans concerning the newly acquired Mound Farm. Part of the farm has been dedicated for a Heritage Park. Surrey purchased the property and wanted participation from the public to decide what uses it should have. Consultants hired by the city are holding various meetings and then will make 3 or 4 presentations to Surrey Council. Wouldn't it be nice if one of these presentations included an airpark and air museum or both? I put my two cents in from the floor. We must consider alternate sites for an airfield. There may come a day when negotiations with the city will fail.
I participated in the political process to some extent with the Presidents of PUFA and Airflow during this past month - even got talked into addressing a question to the mayoralty candidates at their Fleetwood Community Hall meeting as to how they would handle the King George Airpark issue. Fred Glasbergen asked the candidates for councillors if they approved of the Ultralight field. Of course everyone (while most everyone) held up their hand. After the formal meeting, we briefly spoke to Mr. Bose on what his views were. He emphatically denied that the rumoured golf course at the base of Panorama Ridge was a factor in Surrey's opposition to the existing site and continued to insist on objections from nearby residents as the reason.
With respect to the content of this month's PUFA Newsletter, I offer a story from the Vancouver Sun which details the proposed human pedalled powered flight of the Raven from the Boundary Bay area of Delta, B.C. to Seattle, Washington. Included is some further information I copied off the Internet. A couple of Fred Baron's stories rounds out this final issue of 1996.
Pedalling an Ultralight to Seattle
The engineer-inventors of a $300,000 plane dubbed the Raven want to wing their way into the record books with a nonstop pedal powered flight from Boundary Bay to Seattle, a five hour, 160 kilometre crossing. The human powered plane has a wingspan longer than a Boeing 737 and an auto pilot computer about the size of a biscuit. The 34 kilogram pedal plane is the brainchild of inventory Paul Illian and his associate, Heather Costantino, both engineers at Boeing.
The project has united 250 volunteers, 11 schools and dozens of private
businesses in a quest to break world records for human powered flight.
Testing begins in August and the potentially record-setting flight is expected
some time next year. Why Boundary Bay? "Traditionally, when
human-powered airplanes have set world records, they've always
flown internationally", says Costantino.
The plane needs a highly conditioned athlete to pedal nonstop for five hours over Puget Sound. Stop for 30 seconds and the plane would drop six metres into the water. The unsalaried, as yet unadvertised job is for real, as are the more than 100 hopefuls who want to land it. The records for distance and duration were set in 1988 by cyclist Kanellos Kanellopoulos of Greece. He pedalled the Massachusetts Institute of Technology designed Daedalus 115 kilometres from Crete to Santorini Island in three hours, 54 minutes and 59 seconds.
Since a Greek named Archytas built a wooden pigeon that flew through the air 2,300 years ago, people have been trying new ways to fly. Italian inventor Leonardo da Vinci built an ornithopter with wings that flapped. British inventor George Cayley made a glider and founded the science of aerodynamics. In 1903, Ohio bicycle-makers Wilbur and Orville Wright built their first airplane, the Flyer. It was a biplane with a 12 horsepower gasoline engine and cotton fabric-covered wings spanning 12.3 metres.
The specs for the Raven are remarkable. Along with a 35 metre wingspan and tiny auto-pilot computer, the plane has a three metre long propeller that weighs only 680 grams. The hollow wings will be covered in a special carbon skin that weighs just 521 grams a square metre. Its frame is made from a light weight graphite. "Everything's very focussed on weight in this airplane, because as the weight goes up, the pilot will have to work harder. Everything's as light as possible."
Originally published in the Vancouver Sun
The Raven*
The Raven is a human-powered airplane which will set four world records in 1996 and 1997. It is also the culmination of a four-year project involving 300 college students, 100 industry professionals, and supporters from around the world.
In 1997, the Raven will challenge the world record for distance and duration of human-powered flight by flying 100 miles (160 km) over Puget Sound, from British Columbia, Canada to Seattle, USA. (map)
Raven Design Specifications
Powerplant (human) 140 lb; Power 0.25 hp
Dihedral 4 ft, Length 30 ft, Height 10 ft.
Maximum takeoff weight 245 lb
Empty weight 75 lb, Fuel (water) 14 lbs.
Raven 350
Wingspan 115 ft, wing area 350 sq ft, chord 60 in.
Mean aerodynamic chord 3 ft, range 100 miles.
Cruise altitude 18.5 ft, cruise speed 20 mph.
Raven 210
Wingspan 92 ft, wing area 210 sq ft, chord 40 in.
Mean aerodynamic chord 2.3 ft, range 50 miles. Cruise altitude
18.5 ft, cruise speed 17 mph.
Human Performance
The team of eligible pilots is gathering, but we are still looking for others to join the team! Pilots must be 5 feet, 7 inches tall, about 140 lbs and interested in flight. The A team, B team, and C team are being established now.
Raven Project History (1996 Vintage)
The Raven project began in 1988 with the inspiration of Paul Illian (bio). Illian, who had worked with Wayne Bliesner on previous human-powered airplanes, decided the world records for distance and duration aloft were ready to fall.
While Illian was working on this concept, Bliesner decided to focus on Kramer prize speed records. The two are working on separate programs now, but Illian and Bliesner still collaborate on the technologies involved in human-powered flight.
The RAVEN airplane was originally called KAWQS (Salish Indian for raven). It was part of a Seattle educational organization called the Flight Research Institute. Illian worked with local undergraduate students and professionals to design the airplane.
In February of 1993 the Flight Research Institute closed, leaving KAWQS without a sponsor or organized program to operate under. In order to continue the educational aspects of the work, Illian set out to find a project manager. In August of 1993 Illian brought Heather Costantino (bio) on board as Program Manager.
Together they established a program for working with undergraduate schools in the Seattle area, the Puget Sound Industry and Undergraduate Studies Research Program. In November of 1993 the KAWQS changed its name to RAVEN and became a cooperative effort with Seattle's Museum of Flight. The RAVEN has since brought in integrated teams of students and professionals from 11 undergraduate schools, over 30 businesses and 11 professional societies.
About The Airplane
How big is the airplane?
The airplane has a wing span of 115 ft, a length of 30 ft, a height of 11 ft, and a weight of 75 lb.
Are you using a propeller to generate thrust?
Yes.
Why not use flapping wings?
While flapping wings are theoretically more efficient then a propeller, there are no materials available that are strong enough, stiff enough and light enough to make it possible.
Why did you place the propeller on the front of the fuselage?
Placing the propeller on the front of the fuselage makes sense for a lot of reasons:
It places the propeller in undisturbed air; it makes for a small drivetrain; it's lightweight and it moves the fuselage out of the propeller slipstream.
How fast will the propeller spin?
The current design has the propeller spinning at about 135 rpm.
What determines the how fast to spin the propeller?
The first factor is that the pilot will probably pedal at 90 rpm. This is the average pedal speed of a competition endurance bicyclist.
Off the shelf gear sets will restrict propeller rpm to some standard multiple of 90 rpm.
Beyond that restriction, here are some rules of thumb for low speed propeller design. The slower the rotation speed, the better. The larger the diameter, the better and the smaller the chord, the better.
How will you move the control surfaces?
There will be two electro- mechanical servos in the aft section of the tail boom. One will control the vertical surface, the other will control the horizontal. Just like The Outer Limits.
What will happen to the airplane after it has flown?
After setting a new world record, the airplane will become the property of Seattle's Museum of Flight.
RAVEN Project Frequently Asked Questions About The World Record
Why 100 miles?
The current world record for distance flown by a human powered airplane is 74 miles. 100 miles seemed like a reasonable starting point for the design of a record breaking airplane. Subsequent analysis showed that such an airplane could be designed and built. Therefore, the goal became 100 miles.
Who owns the current record?
On April 3, 1988, in a recreation of the Greek myth about Daedalus, a human powered airplane flew from Heraklion, Crete, north to the island of Santorini. The Daedalus 88 airplane was constructed by a team of faculty and students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Raven Project Student/Industry Task Teams
The Raven Project is organized into 19 student/industry task teams. Each team is responsible for a particular piece of the project. This allows all volunteers to make a contribution in an area that is of interest to them, and gives students experience with modern design/build practices. The teams are roughly grouped into Program Administration, Airplane Construction, and Support Operations.
*Information on the Raven from the Internet
Mother
When your kids are out for the night and you're not sure that they have returned, do you check their rooms to make sure? Even when they're grown up, we still worry about our brood.
Owning an airfield is similar; you have a fatherly (motherly) worry about any of your fellow pilots not returning from a flight. I find myself walking down the hangar line, checking to see if everyone made it back safely. Sometimes I sit in our 'control tower', watching and listening for the distant hum (more like a buzz, as in buzz saw) of a Rotax engine approaching. It is the camaraderie of PILOTS! It's a great big dangerous world out there for our frail craft; it is a person of true grit that can jump into his bird and put the pedal to the metal and head er' on out. I take my hat off to them all.
There are lots of people sitting in front of their TVs thinking about flying and lots of people talking about flying, in fact, too many people talking about flying; but I take my hat off to the people that do it. I look forward to those intrepid knights of the air that dare to come on in and visit us at the 'Intergalactic Aerodrome'; they are my kind of people. In their noble bird, big (Cessna 180) or small (Lazair), they all have one thing in common - they LOVE to fly! I wish them all a safe journey with a smooth running engine, no turbulence, courteous air traffic controllers, sunny weather, soft landings and good cups of coffee.
So, just like a good mother (father), I worry about my friends at the Intergalactic when the shadows turn long and are slowly creeping across the runway and the sun gradually sinks below the horizon. I scan the skies for any of my missing flock to return from their adventurous flight. If the windsock is showing a strengthening south wind, a sure sign of bad weather moving in, I know it will be a crosswind landing for my returning brethren. It might not be visible to my fellow pilots, but mother Baron worries and watches for late returning warriors of the air. Each time I hear an engine droning in the distance, I strain to see if it is one of my brood. I rest a lot easier when Top Cat, White Swan, Swiss Air, Snoopy and the Wolf Man have softly touched down on the smooth grass runway.
Fred Baron
Hooked
To some people it's smoking, some it's nail biting, others golf. The list can never end. I have done scuba diving under the water, motorcycling and wrestling but this darn flying never seems to end. After a few crashes and many engine failures with 2400 hours in the log books, I'm still plugging away 13 years later. A few flying friends have passed onto the great puffy cloud place in the sky but I'm still hooked. Sometimes I wonder about my sanity on a windy, bumpy, bad day, or Big Brother's constant breathing down my neck from local levels or from the far off land to the east.
But you know what? On a beautiful sunny, calm day with a gentle breeze from the west and a few of my good friends, Bryan, Larry and Gord, we have the birds all tuned up to the nines. We blow this popsicle stand and make like a gaggle of geese off to the great beyond. We've got good company, good weather. My, does it feel good.
The earth slipping away below; the air is calm. The engine is turning over like a Swiss watch; my, does it feel good, so good - I love being hooked. They can have their, whatever, that they need to make them high; I'm already there. The only thing I'm worried about is where do we go to top this. I hope it lasts till I have a head full of so many good memories of good friends, good flights, that I can reflect back on them or talk of the good old days, as I hear spoken about by my senior friends. Are you hooked?
Fred Baron