Learning About Engines And Shopping, But Not For Engines

Posted Wednesday July 24, 2019

Yesterday, I noticed that the Lycoming tent was going to have a pair of seminars:

Since this is high on my list of things I'll probably be doing in the biplane build, I made it a priority to show up for these.

I rushed through breakfast, cutting short my involvement in a conversation that started with me overhearing the name Harriet Quimby (look her up if it's not a familiar name). I got on an 8:30ish bus (the buses are supposed to run at the :00 and :30 minute marks each hour, but instead seem to run kind of whenever they can), hoping I could get there by 9:30, when the session was supposed to start. Fortunately I did, but there was a long period where we were just sitting there.

Each session was scheduled to be about 2 hours, and both lasted a bit less than that. For the first one, they had an engine with just one cylinder attached -- each cylinder being a separate assembly to facilitate field repairs -- mounted on a stand. The stand for an aircraft engine is a bit different than any other I've seen, in that the crankshaft, which has the propeller flange on the forward end, is bolted face-down to some kind of a base, so that the "forward" direction of the engine is pointing down.

Norbert learns about disassembling a Lycoming engine

They went through the procedure, and I was pleased to find that I was already roughly familiar with most of it. The one thing that had been mysterious to me before was this mythical "splitting the case halves" operation, which seems to flummox a lot of amateur engine builders. What they did was to attach a 5 lb slide hammer to the cylinder attachment studs, and progressively pull the halves apart. It was quick and painless on their demo engine. They explained over and over again that on a real engine that had been running for a couple thousand hours, it would definitely not be so easy. Still, it looks like a workable technique for an amateur, and the tooling is not particularly expensive.

There were a couple of hours between sessions, and I took myself back to the Quiet Technologies booth, determined to get myself a new headset. My existing headset is working well, but it does suffer from being big and heavy, and in warm weather, the insides of the earcups start to resemble miniature saunas in a most unpleasant way. So I bought a new QT Halo headset that I can work with on my way back to Seattle. I had tried to get an Oregon Aero microphone muff for my current headset, but couldn't remember for sure which style of microphone it had, so they were reluctant to sell me the wrong size. I stopped by the booth again after picking up the Halo and got one to fit the new headset.

Norbert doesn't think much of the new Champs. LCD screens, bah!

Further in my wandering, I came across the Steen booth. The produce plans for at least one very good homebuilt biplane, though what drew my eye was the books. They had all kinds of homebuilder-oriented books out on a table, and I trolled through them slowly. I spotted a copy of Construction of Steel Tube Fuselages by Dave Russo, which has been on my list for a long time, so I had some new bus reading. Even the short way I've gotten into it is very informative, a pleasing purchase.

I've been eyeing the windsocks that are being sold in a couple of booths, but have hesitated because I don't really have space in the plane to bring one back. I want to install a small windsock on my new garage/shop, half as a joke and half as relevant if somewhat useless decoration. The wind doesn't usually blow very hard at my house, so it would spend a lot of time hanging limp. Still, it's appealing to have "the windsock I got at Oshkosh" to put up on the shop. I'll have to go back and ask about shipping, which just now occurred to me as being an option.

The engine re-assembly seminar was similar to the first one, and suggested that I knew the general shape of the operation. It filled in some details that I hadn't known before, but probably the most important bit of information was learning that Lycoming has essentially published a disassembly/re-assembly manual in the form of a set of Service Bulletins and Service Letters. The instructor listed them all on the whiteboard, and I got a photo of the list, so assuming I can ever find the photo again, I'll be set.

On the bus in this morning, I sat next to someone whose grandchildren were going to be participating in the parade of the pedal planes: little toy airplanes that are set up so a 4-5 year old child can sit in them and pedal them along. Some are quite involved and have propellers that spin and control surfaces that move. I had planned to attend the parade, but got distracted from finding out when and where it was happening, so I missed it. I was a bit bummed about that, because it sounded ridiculously cute.

Instead, I had found the NASA building, and spent an enjoyable hour-plus wandering around talking to NASA folks about their various displays. The first person I met was a very attractive woman who caught my eye the moment I stepped in the door. I made what I hope wasn't a blatantly obvious beeline for her display, which was about an automated traffic management system for unmanned aerial vehicles (aka drones). This is a topic I've given some thought to, because A) drones are an interesting subject, B) there are more and more of them, and C) a collision with a drone could easily drop Norbert out of the sky.

We ended up talking for about 20 minutes as she explained the project she's working on. I was obscurely pleased that NASA actually had working scientists presenting their projects -- she's a human factors researcher (which she described as, "Creepily hanging out behind the drone pilots and looking over their shoulders"). The project is moving forward at a breakneck pace, since industry is pushing them hard. Their research should be in to the FAA by the end of the year, and they'll still be collecting data in August. That's going to be some rushed analysis and writing.

While we were talking, what I now think of as a Typical Pilot came up and mansplained at her about how all this drone crap was going to result in a new type of airspace that manned vehicles just wouldn't be allowed into, and how helicopter pilots were going to get in trouble all the time, and he clearly hated it. After he wandered away, we quietly commiserated about people like that, and she expressed gratitude that I'd stopped to chat since a previous even worse negative interaction had been fairly distressing. She felt better having a more supportive, interested person to talk to in me, likely similar to how I felt yesterday upon finding my little group of gay pilots.

Somewhat reluctantly, I moved on to the next display, and had another involved conversation, this time with a gent talking about his predictive analysis system for figuring out when there would be demand for departures at the airport. The idea is that if you can time the system right, you can save people's time waiting on the airplane, fuel from idling planes, CO2, etc. We transitioned into me telling him about my plane and the sort of typical "What's it like to own a plane" questions I'm used to answering. He was once a pilot, got his certificate, but then had to drop it when he had a kid. A common enough story. I hope he's able to get back into it.

In addition to these, I saw a second-gen personal locator beacon system that will come out later this year; a warping-wing model that was a test-bed for providing wind-tunnel lift analysis on a wing in flight; a fluid-battery system I had heard of before but don't understand, including a cool-looking hubless ducted fan system; a researcher who was experimenting with icing conditions on flight surfaces; and hybrid electric propulsion systems.

My final stop was again with the attractive lady, who now held a familiar remote control for a radio controlled plane, which was hooked up to a model airplane simulator playing on a big monitor. I put in an uninspiring flight that ended in a crash after the PA started telling us all that it was 5 pm, and the NASA facility was closed. I was going to try to attempt a landing, but didn't want to keep them over-long. We parted with a smile, not knowing each other's names, and for the next few hours I reflected that maybe it was better to not meet any attractive people than it was to meet an attractive person where no further development of any kind of relationship is possible.

There were constantly planes flying overhead in formation, with a daily airshow at 2:30

Dinner was an uninspiring container of penne marinara. Vegetarian options in Wisconsin are clearly available, but mostly as an after-thought. I wandered a bit, still musing unhappily on the nature of attraction and my ineptitude in situations like that. I decided I was done for the day, so I walked back to the bus stop, and climbed on the bus that was waiting there.

A brief conversation on the bus reminded me that today is Wednesday, and I'd meant to watch the after-dark airshow they put on, so I hopped off again, and walked back to the runway. I had an hour to kill, so I did some reading in my new book, and pulled out the new headset and got it adjusted, and tried it out with the handheld radio. I haven't transmitted, so I don't know how the mic will work, but my initial impression is that the microphone boom isn't long enough. I won't know for sure until I get into the plane and test it under actual conditions whether it will work. I ended up listening to the "air boss" frequency, which is the controller who's in charge of the show itself, a fairly fascinating look into the background action at the airshow.

Night airshow: Norbert is ready for the show

Night airshow: F-22 fighter showing off its afterburners

Night airshow: a flight of four with an interesting light show, flying through their smoke trail

Night airshow: a jet truck wowing the crowd

Night airshow: a SubSonex jet trailing sparks

The show was fine, but it reminded me that I'm really just not much of an airshow person. The most impressive thing was also the most martial thing: an F-22 fighter jet which blew past multiple times with the afterburners on, basically just a monumentally expensive bass drum, but it got the crowd good and riled up. As it got darker, the acts got more interesting, with one act being a quartet of planes that flew in close formation trailing smoke with a light shining back from the tail, so it looked like they were flying in rocket-powered planes even though they were plainly piston prop planes. They had very bright lights so that occasionally they would pass through their own smoke trails and light them up impressively.

It's funny. I definitely appreciate the skill and work that goes into these acrobatic displays. I know how hard it is to do that. But the biggest reactions always come from the dick-swinging military displays, which really put me off. I just think about how much money we're spending to produce these terrifying death-delivery machines, and I imagine what it must be like to be on the wrong end of a fighter jet, probably on the ground having done nothing more than been born in the wrong country. This F-22 has flown over the airport multiple times each day, and I wandered past it on the ground yesterday: there were at least 10 soldiers I could easily see standing in a loose perimeter around it behind a rope barrier, M-16 rifles in that sort of resting-ready position, as if they expected terrorists to come at them any minute now. I was quite sure those rifles were loaded, and got out of the area by the most direct path possible.

The final act I saw tonight was much less swaggering, a Sonex jet. This is a little homebuilt kit airplane that has an oversize model airplane turbine strapped on its back, and is clearly a capable flier from tonight's demonstration. The owner had decked the plane out with LED lights that pulsed and color-cycled, but also had some kind of sparkler system on the wingtips that trailed a long line of sparks, and shot off little fireworks every few seconds while flying a graceful aerobatic routine. It was nothing compared to a municipal 4th of July display, but it was still pretty cool. I'd stopped by the Sonex area earlier in the day and noted the jet on display.

And now I really need a shower, for the day was hot and cloudless. I also haven't checked the schedule tomorrow at all, though I know I'll be at the Biplane Forum dinner in the evening. It'll be good to put a few names to faces. One of the things I'm definitely missing at Oshkosh is having any kind of friends with whom to share the experience. I guess that means a relatively richer travel journal for you to read, but it's a lonely experience when I have time to reflect upon it.

Also, just in case it sounds like I'm doing nothing but complaining: I am actually having a good time. It's just tempered by my usual angst and uncertainty. I can't switch it off, and it would be patently false to present some kind of "Everything Is Awesome!" face to the world. I'm having a good enough time that I thought today was Tuesday when it was actually Wednesday, so something seems to be going right

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Copyright © 2019 by Ian Johnston.