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PUFA NEWSLETTER
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May 17, 1997
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
The Intergalactic Aerodrome field conditions were almost perfect this past May 11th. The ground was firm enough for several ultralights to attend the Mother's Day pancake breakfast fly in. By all accounts this year's event was a complete success with a reported 75 breakfasts served. Larry and Marie White did much of the work, taking over admirably from the long time pancake workaholics, Terry and Marilyn Parsons.
It was a beautiful morning and everyone seemed to enjoy our first breakfast function this year. Ultralight arrivals included Bernie Strotmann, Gord Brogan, Glenn Ursel and yours truly. Bob Christen and I were easily talked into an impromptu airshow and several passes were made by a real ultralight, Gord Brogan's Lazair. Jack Menard's MX II is nearing completion so perhaps it will be ready for the next fly-in.
Plaudits to everyone involved in the PUFA breakfast and a special thanks to Fred and Precy for hosting us at their incomparable airfield. I must add that all of my fingers are fine as I didn't lift any one of them. Coming soon, Barnston Island fly in?
Julius Szalontai and I flew our Renegades to the Abbotsford Flying Clubs' Auction, held at their clubhouse May 14th. Unfortunately, the auction had not started by the time the sun was threatening to go elsewhere, so we had to leave. I don't know if there were any deals among the array of articles donated by the club members. If numbers of interested parties were any measure of success, then it was indeed just that. The place was packed. This was their first attempt at an auction and member John Spronk told me they were unsure of how it would go. Sounds like a winner to me. Maybe PUFA should consider an auction.
For a change from grabbing stuff off the Internet, I have dedicated much of this issue of the PUFA Newsletter to a story of Gerald Edwards' P-51 Mustang replica which is being painted near the Chilliwack Airport at time of writing. Gerald and Bob Bambrick were very kind in providing me the material for the story and editing it for me. Gerald said he would let us know when we can fly (or drive) out to Chilliwack to see the finished 3/4 size fighter replica do its trial flight.
I also was very fortunate to get two stories emailed to me by Patrick Simpson and Bob Peters. Their stories are very interesting in that they portray Patrick's and Bob's personal experiences with ultralighting. I left the email format in in the hope some more of you might get similarly inspired to email me your own recollections of aviation stories.
In the near future, I hope to establish a more complete version of our PUFA web page on the Internet with links to pictures of local ultralights; profile on members, the PUFA Newsletter, other Ultralight web sites, etc. I'm finding, though, that it is easier said than done. One has to have software in good working order and be able to use it efficiently. For example, Daryl Hegyi tells me that you have to convert a word processed document into text form and then copy it into the html page composer because of the formatting. However, I should be able to accomplish it sooner or later.
About three years ago I flew my Spectrum Beaver floatplane into Eric Riess' field just south of the ultralight airstrips of Bob Bambrick and the late Craig Smith near Yarrow for a visit with Eric.
I met Gerald Edwards at Eric's workshop there and Gerald enthusiastically showed me the kit plane fighter replica that Eric was beginning to assemble for him. Gerald showed me pictures from an aviation magazine of what the completed plane would look like. The kit is an all-wood 70% scaled down version of a P-51 Mustang. I couldn't get over the complexity of the wood frame that Eric was working on with the myriad of parts involved.
I visited the field a couple of times over the following year and noted Eric's slow but steady progress in constructing the fuselage and wings parts. During one of these visits, Eric mentioned his intention to return to Germany and last year in late spring, he did go back to the fatherland after putting in about 800 hours on Gerald's P-51 replica.
Gerald's project then went into a holding pattern while he found another home for the partially constructed plane and someone else to complete the project. Bob Bambrick was a logical choice, being nearby and an experienced builder of planes. The plane was moved to Bob's new workshop at Langley.
Some of the problems Bob encountered were an 8 lb garage door spring that Eric had installed as part of the retractable gear mechanism which Gerald decided was too heavy and, after consultation with the manufacturer, replaced with a sturdy 5/8 " bungee cord. Some of the rear fuselage also had to be rebuilt due to the length of construction time and problems with the wood material warping. At the request of the Transport Canada Aviation inspector for home built aeroplanes, Bob also had to install an electric fuel pump for the Rotax 582. Reg Lumsden assisted Bob in the design of the hookup for the electric fuel pump to the existing vacuum diaphragm pump of the Rotax. Because the Rotax 582 has an E gearbox with the starter motor at the front of the engine, the nose of the
5151 had to be extended 4 inches which altered the centre of gravity calculations. Gerald says this modification only emphasizes the similarity of the replica to the real war time P-51 Mustang. Another modification of the plane was the addition of false ribs between the main ribs at the front of the wings to smooth the surface of the wing. These modifications all had to be approved by both the manufacturer and Transport Canada. Gerald says the manufacturer is now incorporating the bungee cord design of the retractable gear into all new 5151 kits along with the modified console in the cockpit.
Bob put in more than 1,000 hours work on the plane during the past year and has transformed it from a collection of partially assembled structures to a completed fuselage and wing assembly ready for painting when I visited him in late April. Bob said the plane would be ready to test fly in late May after painting at Chilliwack and its flight trials.
According to an article by Dave Martin in the March, 1993 issue of Kitplanes, the reason for the 5151 name was that the kit was originally priced at $5,151 US in the mid 1980's for a fixed gear version which included a 503 Rotax engine. By 1994, however, the price had climbed to $9,495 US just for the airframe kit with another $2,800 US for the retractable gear and $7,500 Canadian for the 65 hp water-cooled 582 Rotax engine which has replaced the air-cooled 50 hp 503. With this engine, the P-51 replica cruises about to 90 to 95 mph with a VNE of 100 mph which remains the same as the original kit plane for legal reasons.. The manufacturer, Mike Loehle of Wartrace, Tennessee, cautions would be fighter pilots that the 5151 is not stressed for aerobatics and that they had better not try it.
While the flying characteristics of the original P-51 made for very good handling in the wartime dogfights of aerial combat, the very high wing loading of the fighter plane resulted in hot approaches, fast touchdowns and ground taxing problems.
In order to overcome these problems, Mike Loehle designed the 5151 replica as a light weight true to scale plane by using wood geodetic construction techniques and stits fabric covering. The Loehle 5151 is really two airplanes, one inside the other. The inner airplane is a simple square wooden fuselage with the outer portion being a series of bulkheads, formers and streamers that transform the inner box into the shape of a P-51 Mustang. The finished plane has a wingspan of 27 ft., a wing area of 130 sq. ft. and a length of 22 ft.10 in. When the wings are removed, the width of the fuselage is 8 ft., permitting it to be trailered down the highway. The empty weight is 513 lbs. with a gross weight of 885 lbs. The plane was reported to withstand 4+ Gs and -2 Gs load factors as originally designed. However, Gerald advised me recently that the modified 5151 will now take 6+ Gs and -3 Gs. The manufacturer is considering applying for the TCA advanced ultralight status.
According to the Dave Martin article in Kitplanes and another one by John Conrad in the Sport Pilot magazine that Gerald showed me, the plane is easy to fly for anyone experienced with tail draggers and performs well with a takeoff roll of 200 feet, landing roll of 300 feet, a climb rate of 1,200 fpm, cruise speed of 90 to 95 mph and a stall speed of 38 mph. Lowering or raising the main gear, assisted by the bungee cord, takes about 8 seconds.
Gerald told me the plane is now being painted with Paul II colours - blue and yellow with a light grey underbelly and with stars and bars (stars as the American symbol and bars representing invasion stripes) on each side of the fuselage. Other markings will include red and yellow checking on the rudder with 3 bar checks behind the spinner. Gerald's initials "GBE" will be painted on each side of the fuselage around the stars. Gerald's old handle "Gruesome" will also appear on a decal on each side of the forward cockpit. The new registration for the aircraft will be C-FGBE.
Gerald had a complete fairing and wing tips made by the manufacturer to enhance the appearance of the 5151 and has a deluxe cockpit with upholstery included. He also designed a new avionic panel with a console that houses a permanent Narco 760 radio and Magellan Starblazer GPS. Each wing has full strobe lights. All in all, the resemblance to the fighter-style ambience of the war time P-51 will be unmistakable.
Gerald says the $42,500 plane will be featured in a filmed documentary by Flight Path of Vancouver and a story in Kit Planes.
I am sure many of you will be looking forward to seeing it in flight at the Chilliwack airport in the near future thanks to the skill and dedication of Bob Bambrick in completing the project started so ably by Eric Riess, not that long ago really, but what must have seemed to be an eternity to Gerald Edwards.
Glenn Ursel
We all have airplane stories to tell. They don't have to be fancy or daring or exciting. The strength of an aviation tale, in my opinion, is not measured in broken records or feats of flying skill. To me a great flying story is one that makes you feel as if you are there in the cockpit, smelling the scent of the leather seats, the wooden floorboards, the faint odour of oil and 100 octane low lead, seeing the scenery go by, feeling the fragile kite being buffeted by the wind.
Perhaps we get jaded by too much flying and forget that every flight is an adventure, and that the select few who go through pilot training are explorers, even if we only explore for ourselves. Every time I go to a Pacific Ultralight Flying Association meeting, I hear lots of stories and anecdotes that really should be copied down and printed so we could all enjoy them.
There's little things like when you're taking off on Widgeon Lake on floats how you can skim along just above the surface of the lake all the way across and, when you fly over the waterfall at the end, you're at 2,000 feet over a gorgeous river valley with the water cascading down underneath your plane. At least that's the way it was told to me and, although I've never been there yet, you can bet that when I get my floats on my plane, that's one of the first things I'm going to try. I've heard of people dropping a roll of toilet paper at 3,000 feet and seeing how many times they can cut it with their plane before it hits the ground. I'll save that one for when I have lots more flying hours, but I heard it was one of the training exercises they used in World War I.
One of my personal favourite flying experiences was a trip to Arlington last year. I think that (weather permitting)* the only way to go to an airshow is in your own aircraft. Last July, with the ink just barely dry on my STUDENT PILOT PERMIT Ultra-Light Aeroplane, I wanted to go to the Arlington airshow in the worst way; however, the Ministry** of Transport sez that STUDENT ultralight permits are about as valuable as their weight in confetti south of the border and, if I dared to fly my trusty two seater there on my own, I would be pulled over by the nearest F-16 and given my weight in air traffic citations and forced to walk all the way back to the Great White North at 2,000 feet and not allowed to touch any soil that wasn't CSA approved.
So I didn't try that. I could go if I was with an instructor and it was a training flight, so I called my friend Bob Peters, who had kindly test flown my A/C for me all the way to Fort Langley one way.
Bob readily agreed that a nice outing to Arlington would be just the way to spend a day and we'd better get cracking if we were going to get permission from the FAA to downwash American air. The next few days were spent working (life goes on) and phoning and faxing FAA Washington bureau. I was amazed at how nice they were to get along with. Although they had rules to follow and documentation they must have and special American hoops for Canadian flyers to jump*** through, they were so nice about it. They were thorough and exacting about what they needed; but, in the end, I felt treated like a human being by them. I felt like they did everything in their power to let us fly into the States. They even made a point of rushing things through so we could fly in that weekend. I wish I was treated this good by Canadian government agencies.
Sunday we were at Fort Langley field at 6:00 A.M. sharp. Ok, ok, 6:20, but for "up at the crack of noon" guys like me and Bob, that's just like showing up four hours early is for most people. The people I work with are in shock if I show up only an hour late for work.
We gave the Challenger II a thorough pre-flight and fixed a few loose ends until we dubbed her airworthy and topped up the tanks. Excitement was in the air as it was time to launch for my first trip to a major fly-in and to the USA in my own airplane.
Bob took the front seat while I navigated from the rear. We climbed out at Vy (best rate of climb) speed of 50 mph (900'/min) and at 1,000 ft went to cruise climb of 55 mph (500'/min) to 3,000 ft. If we were going to have engine problems, we wanted a big cone of fields to choose from. Those of you who have flown to Arlington know the beautiful mix of farms, hills, and forests that grace the trip. We took an almost direct route there. I had never had an instructor in my plane on a long cross country trip, and had no idea what the fuel consumption would be. I had projected it out from shorter trips, but you never know until you've done it just what the margin for error is****. I wanted a large margin. I hate running out of gas in an airplane. You gotta leave the plane up in the air and walk down to a service station, get gas, climb up to the plane... what a hassle! I hope I never have to do it.
I checked the map with the scenery and marked our route and position and kept track of airtime. This was a new experience for me and I wanted to get as much information as possible about this plane's cross country performance. I had flown around the patch on my own and the lower mainland was familiar. I had what seemed like months of circuits at Fort Langley. My eyes drank in the beauty of brand new territory. Everywhere I looked was a fresh experience. Lakes and airports appeared right where they should be, confirming us to be on course, or at least meandering in the right direction. The sun rising high in the east revealed a landscape still wet with dew from the chill night air and shone on a clear sky of endless blue.
We entered the circuit at Arlington as per approach instructions faxed by FAA to us. The controllers wanted only 'colour of aircraft' and 'type'. Bob handled the radio work and called us in as "white experimental", so we could use the main runway instead of the ultralight strip thereby getting to U.S. Customs easier. A quick trip through a friendly Customs tent later and we were turned loose in what I called "Pilot's Heaven".
I have never been to an airshow where there were so many small general aviation aircraft. For those who have never been to Arlington, I should mention that it is the U.S. Experimental Aircraft Association's Northwest fly-in. Homebuilt and general aviation aircraft come from all over North America. It's sort of an Oshkosh west.
We taxied after a volunteer on a moped to the ultralight tie down area past aircraft of all descriptions. A silver skinned Swift, so clean and polished it could have been cast out of chrome. A Grumman Wildcat of World War II vintage. These "cats" were the backbone of naval air power until replaced midway through the war with the even more formidable Hellcat. A row of Harvards, or as the Americans call them SNJ Texans, sat waiting to take to the air for a flyby. Over in the ultralight area, 3 Titan Tornadoes were on display in fire engine red, ocean blue, and one in camouflage, looked like it was awaiting deployment on a close air support mission. I've often wondered how an ultralight with 8 paintball cannons mounted on the wings would spice things up at paintball war games, especially if the other team wasn't expecting it. A pterodactyl was on the ground stood up on its tail, with its nose pointing straight up. This unusual parking attitude was possible because it is ! a tail-less flying wing with a relatively square back and a canard. Talk about yer unusual flying attitude.
We deplaned and parked her with her back to the wind. The wind was brisk, but not fast enough to be dangerous to the aircraft so we decided we could safely walk around and see the sights, coming back often enough to check on the plane if the wind shifted or increased.
We saw other Challengers at the show. One builder had increased the tail size by about 40%, solving one of the aircraft's few weak points. I like the plane's slow landing speed and gentle handling qualities. It is a forgiving training craft and, for my first plane, I wanted something that would be unlikely to bite me (although any aircraft can be dangerous in careless hands). The weak area is that you must use a lot of rudder to get in and out of turns, compared to most planes. The vertical stabilizer is a little small and close to the fuselage. This means that, when you chop the throttle and don't use a little more rudder, it feels a little squirrelly, especially if you have doors on the plane thereby increasing the side area forward of the centre of gravity. The English require a larger tail on any Challengers built in Britain to counteract this. This builder at Arlington had squared off his tail and faired it into the dorsal so it looked a lot like a Cessna tail.
The Americans have strange (to Canadians) ultralight rules. ANYONE can get into an airplane and fly to their heart's content as long as it weighs 254 lbs. or less, and flys between 26 mph and highway speeds. But, I guess this isn't so strange considering what they allow people to do with handguns down there.
We saw lots of ultralights that you don't see in Canada, mainly because our rules allow for more weight and performance. Weedhoppers, EZ Risers, single seat Challengers (virtually unseen in Canada), single seat Beavers. The only time anyone can fly a two seat U/L in the States is for training with an instructor. When the student goes solo, he is supposed to use a single seat plane!!! I prefer our way - three perfect circuits with an instructor on board, a full stop, out gets the instructor and solo flight in THE SAME AIRCRAFT that the student trained in.
The guy from Exec helicopters was there with some new Execs and some Scorpions, forerunner to the Exec. The tail rotor is powered by what must be the world's longest v-belt. The Seawind was there, an amazing looking composite seaplane that looks like it could easily go 200 mph. The hull is about a quarter inch thick and must weigh a ton, but I would be happy to have it between me and the water at the speeds that thing must land at. I would have bought one but I was about $50,000 short at the time.
A Grumman Goose was on the flightline. It was beautiful, in mint shape, obviously immaculately maintained. We talked to the owner and he showed us around. With a section aft of the pilot/copilot seats large enough to sleep 4 overnight, it looks like the ideal air camper. Unfortunately the economy cruise is 22 gal. per hour, but if you can afford a quarter of a million for an airplane, that shouldn't be too much of a setback.
There were hundreds of aircraft of all sorts at Arlington, and many weird and wonderful booths and exhibits. Bob ate a Gator on a stick. I had a Buffalo burger. After a long hot day of happily poking and prodding planes of every description, it was time to head home. We chose 7:00 P.M. for a departure time and filed a flight plan to end up at Abbotsford International Airport. Lift-off was routine, after a short wait while the museum at Arlington taxied and towed several amazing vintage aircraft down the ultralight strip and back to the museum. One was a Chance Voght Crusader, the last of the gunfighters and, arguably to this day, probably one of the most manoeuvrable jets that ever flew. Missiles and different tactics put the single role Crusader into retirement, but apparently the pilots of its multi-role replacement, the Phantom, would have been reluctant to dogfight a Crusader with it's superior speed and agility. After the Crusader was towed by, the runway was ours! and we used it. Climbout seemed sluggish compared to that morning due to scorching weather and a resultant 2500 ft. density altitude. We flew a slightly different course on the way back, crossing Sedro Woolley and going up between two ridges of hills over the airfield at Acme. As we neared Mount Baker, the sun was getting low enough on the horizon to light up a massive rocky ridge between us and the mountain. It was a beautiful sight, the granite lit up in reds and oranges from the setting sun, and Mount Baker in pristine snowy white gliding silently by as a backdrop.
We crossed the Canadian border Southwest of Cultus lake and were vectored into the Abbotsford Circuit to an uneventful touchdown,***** and subsequent wait for 40 minutes to talk to Customs. They never did show up, finally allowing us to file by phone. While we were waiting, a yellow BD5 joined the circuit and landed. He taxied over to the Customs waiting area and parked. Apparently he had left Arlington only 20 minutes before. What had taken us an hour and 15 minutes at 60 mph, he had done in 20 minutes at about 200 mph. Wonder if my plane could do that with a tune up or a 912?
The sun was setting in the west when I landed home at Fort Langley. The air was starting to cool, shadows fell, and dew formed in just the reverse of our early AM departure. It was the end of one of the most satisfying days of my life. I would do it again in a minute, weather permitting.
* Funny how that phrase never entered my vocabulary before aviation. Since I had a few hair raising experiences where I was really wishing I had stayed on the ground and to hell with the airplane God just get me down in one piece, suddenly every time I make flying plans, its "weather permitting".
** I still haven't figured out why they call it the Ministry and what church it's affiliated with. I do know that whenever I have dealings with them I don't feel any closer to God; however; I sometimes wish whoever came up with that system could have a personal interview with the big guy himself. The sooner the better.
*** I would have flown through, but I didn't have permission yet.
**** I heard that 90% of all off airport (forced) landings were because someone forgot to put gas in the tank. I make a policy of ALWAYS starting from home base with FULL tanks and checking fuel before any subsequent takeoffs. The #1 item on my checklist is fuel. I check it every time I enter the aircraft. If I eliminate 90% of my forced landings, maybe I'll get to do some flying in between patch jobs.
***** I did the landing and, when we screeched to a stop, I said to Bob "Boy that runway sure is short" and he said "yeah, but it must be at least 7000 feet wide".
From: Patrick Simpson <patrix@uniserve.com>
Hi Glenn,
Patrick Simpson and I were busy swapping flying stories last night and he suggested I forward this one to you to add to your newsletter as he also informed me that you were looking for contributors but not too many pilots have time to write up their experiences. Here it is:
This one concerns a flying competition held at the former Extraordinaire airfield near Pit Lake a number of years ago, back when I had my Lazair series II. First item on the agenda was the 'ribbon cut' that Patrick described in his story of Arlington. I was the first one off the ground, a roll of asswipe and two 'bombs' (whiffle balls with surveyor's tape attached) securely tucked into my flightsuit. To prepare the roll for the drop, you first peel off about 3-4 feet but leave it attached, then wad it up. This forms a drag chute which helps the roll unspool when dropped into the air. Anyway, I climb up to the requisite 3 grand and toss it overboard, then pull the plane into a nice wingover.
Couldn't find the damned thing so pull a chandelle searching for it. Ahhh! There it is hanging in a nice spiral; hadn't unravelled worth a damn. Maybe all of 40 feet there; the rest must've broken off. I go to take a lunge at it. Now, when you're used to dodging other airborne objects in the sky, it does take some psychological reprogramming to deliberately try to hit this thing. Nipped off 2 feet on the first pass. Wingovered back for the next one. WHUMP! Wound up with the whole works in my lap. Wasn't enough left in the sky for a fly to blow its nose with so headed back for the deck for the two bomb drops.
Over the target I reach for bomb #1 and drop it, noting where it lands, then whip around the circuit to drop the second one. Where the hell did it go????? Couldn't find it anywhere in my flightsuit! Start thinking.... Hmmmm.... what to drop? Let's see now.... my wallet? Nope!, its contents would wind up all over Hell's half acre. Hmmmmm, anything else?? YES-S-S-S-S!!! ONE OF MY GLOVES!
Fine, so I drop the glove over the target, then go once more around the circuit for the precision 'carrier' landing. Pulled that one off okay, then went to see the ground monitors and was informed that I'd lost a bomb on takeoff and was assured that the glove's site of impact had been noted. Then sat down to watch the other contestants do their thing. Nigel Tarvin, in his new red anodized Beaver RX550 made seven nice cuts. Thought he had it in the bag until Martin Dennis topped him with eleven cuts. Then Martin comes in and powders the line on the carrier landing but smacked up his nosewheel in the process. Poor Geoff with his MX!! He nicely spools out his roll but doesn't once touch it. Would you believe it, it comes floating down about 10 minutes later and nicely lays itself out on the water from one end to the other along the ditch running along the edge of the runway. One of those things that happen about as often as a politician in power keeping an election promise. The precision of it all just blows the mind!
Anyway, when all is said and done and all the trophies are handed out, I walk away with two of them, second place for the carrier landing, and first place for the bomb drop. Just for the sake of curiosity, I enquire about which bomb placed first and guess what? IT WAS THE GLOVE THAT WON!!!!
From: Robert Peters <robert@uniserve.com>