Categories: all aviation Building a Biplane bicycle gadgets misc motorcycle theater
I attended the monthly EAA Chapter 26 meeting last night. It was pretty interesting, and as I suspected, I've found another old-rich-white-man hobby. (That's not an insult, the people at this meeting were very friendly, and I felt like I fit pretty well with a number of them.)
There were a few presentations, some discussion, an impromptu dissertation on why fatal crashes are happening at Oshkosh (a very large fly-in event where they have to deal with lots and lots of air traffic), and finally a free-for-all after the meeting.
The presentations were interesting, being mostly pictures of airplanes. The first person to speak had a Kitfox which struck me for two reasons: first, it was on floats (the idea of flying with floats is intriguing to me); second, it had the coolest paint job I've seen in quite a while, with a Northwest Indian animal head painted on the cowling. When he got to a later picture with wheels on, the wheel fairings were painted in the same style with eagle claws. It was a very striking design. I was particularly interested, because I haven't yet decided anything about how I might paint my plane.
The next two presentations were pictures from the big Arlington fly-in, which I missed by a week. Of course, it's less than an hour up the freeway, so it would have been a fabulous and inspirational introduction to the whole homebuilding subject. Ah well, next year. One thing I saw which piqued my interest in those pictures was a biplane on floats. I didn't know people did that.
In the discussion afterwards, I was able to talk to a few people, and got some good information. That's why I came to the meeting, to meet other people who know more about this subject than I do.
I got three good tidbits of information. First, "limit the number of 'experimental' variables as much as possible: your freshly built airframe is experimental, so try to avoid having an experimental engine." Good thought, and it inclines me back towards the Continental O-200, which is a known-good engine, with millions of cumulative flying hours.
Next was the same guy asking why I wasn't considering the Jabiru engines. I replied that I thought they were horribly expensive, and he said, "nah, they cost about $14k, just like a bunch of other engines [including the radial R2800]." Ah-hah. So I went and looked, and the Jabiru 2200 actually looks pretty interesting. What is it with Aussies and airplane engines? (The same guy also guessed that I'd want an 80 HP motor, which I found interesting and worthy of note -- I'd been thinking 100 HP would be the more appropriate level, but there's a lot to be said for lighter weight. The Jabiru 2200 only weighs 132 lbs, vs. the 220 for a Corvair or R2800. That's a big difference.)
Finally, I got a recommendation from a new member to seek out George Kirkish for tailwheel instruction. He runs Vashon Island Air, which despite its name operates out of Boeing Field. He has a couple of Piper Cubs and a Maule, all of which he uses for training. I think if it'll lift us, there's no way I can pass up doing training in a Cub. I've got that set to go in later September, after my theatrical schedule calms down a bit.
So, hooray for progress. Of course, now I want to build a plane more than ever.
Posted at 08:40 permanent link category: /aviation
Categories: all aviation Building a Biplane bicycle gadgets misc motorcycle theater