It has been a hard couple of months.
First Europa Stuff:
N12AY is down for a few weeks. During Sun n Fun while on display, a couple
decided
to sit on my aircraft together on the port wing. At about 300 pounds total.
My wing leading edge root section seemed OK after security shooed them off.
I have been flying my Euorpa with local instructors doing stall, advanced
handling
training with them. After a few weeks I noticed a former repair I made (from
a depression from my knee while loading the plane) began to raise again
indicating
it delaminated again. After flying for a few weeks the delamination
grew to about plate sized. Ive grounded the aircraft now.
I know it is just the foam underneath that has been crushed and that causes a
separation
which eventually shows up as a delamination. I will cut back the skin,
reinforce the foam, then by deftly inserting small ribs of properly shaped
glass I will reinforce the walk area (aka butt sliding area) for the trigear.
This area in a Classic has lightening holes in the foam and can flex if
overloaded.
Once the ribs are cured I will restore the foam and using uni in 4 layers
as was in the original biaxial glass. I will reinstall the outer skin glass
properly tapered and overlapped. Then fill sand and paint.
My annual condition inspection is coming due in January so I will make use of
the
down time and do my 5 year fuel hose change as the R-14 hose is about 8 years
old. The fuel hose is in excellent shape so this will be a good validation
of my fuel line choice. Note that oil lines I inspect closely at each oil
change/annually
and replace whether good or not at 5 years as oil lines are in close
proximity to the exhaust.
This condition inspection will allow me to make some more mods also. I sold my
LED light pod to a customer, and Ive decided to add a landing light to 12AY.
There are many choices now and it will be interesting.
I have selected components and fabricated a stall warning circuit with not just
the piezo noise maker but also a voice warning circuit. It seems my young
instructors
all have ANR headsets and couldnt hear the horn and in the right seat
did not notice the warning light easily. I bought about $40 in electrical sound
boards and voltage reducers and did about $500 in labor and testing and have
made a postage stamp sized MP3 player with its own Buck Converter voltage
regulator to allow ship voltage from 15 to 10 volts while putting out a precise
5 volt output. My intentions were to make it an add on to the Europa stall
warning. I did not buy the Europa stall warner, I made my own some years before
and have converted mine to be exactly like the Europa one to test. It works
very well. The circuit has a push button on the panel to silence the horn and
voice if desired during airwork. It will work with the music or aux audio
input of most intercoms as I tested it with the Sigtronics, PS Engineering PM
3000, and Flightcom 403 and they all worked fine with a good sound level. The
sound is adjustable and the input can be wired directly to the pilot headphone
jack avoiding the intercom completely if desired. The warning comes on right
at 5 knots above the stall clean and about 3 with full flaps as set up. Paper
will follow.
I will also play with my new leading edge stall rumble strip for better airframe
buffet approaching the stall without causing a premature drop in lift as you
flare. It takes quite a few flights to get the POH stall strips to work just
right without too much of an increase in landing speed. More on these mods
later
when I get time to do a paper.
Ive been laid up for some days due to a slip and fall accident. I was
delivering
some wing walkers along with some glider wings in my shop that were to be
donated
to the Ron Alexander Youth Aviation Program in Griffin GA. During a fuel
stop I began my routine checking of the trailer. It was raining and I was
wearing new shoes and standing on greasy gas station concrete. I stepped on the
trailer tongue and began to slip. I attempted to step down on to the concrete
and my other foot slipped off the trailer and my legs and feet became entangled
in the steel structure and heavy trailer wiring bundle. I hit hard with
my legs pinned in the tongue A frame and hit face first but both forearms came
out and I did a half roll relaxing my legs. Needless to say, I hit like a ton
of bricks but was lucky as I didnt break any bones. Of course, I had extensive
bruising and jarring of joints. My back was a mess for a while. I am back
to homo erectus and can walk easily without a cane. I guess Im getting old
and fumble footed. Not my best judgement decision for sure crawling over a wet
trailer in the rain with wet feet. Dumb.
As far as flying:
I have been flying though. My flight with new instructors was prompted by a few
minor but noteworthy near mishaps at our local airports. It prompted me to
do a FAAST program briefing on how to regain and maintain flight proficiency.
In the US you must complete 3 landings within 90 days before you can carry a
passenger. You are required a BFR or Biennial Flight Review also. So, a pilot
may not fly for nearly two years, and then hop into an aircraft and go fly.
Make three landings and take his grandkids up to fly, or fly with is non aviator
friend to a breakfast at a small airport hes unfamiliar with. In my
professional
years as a pilot, I had currency and recurrency requirements. If you
didnt fly in 30 days you had review rides with an instructor and over 90 days
a full mission, instrument and advanced handling proficiency flights and
emergency
procedure training simulators and flight check reviews. So, we kept ourselves
current and proficient to avoid impacting the unit with additional training.
But after a ground school or other professional course, recurrency was needed
and the requirements written down.
The KPCM FBO chief instructor had me fly with some of our local instructors as
they had only flown in the Cessna 172, 152 and the LSA 162. These aircraft have
benign stall characteristics. However, from watching local pilot pattern work
the chief pilot was alarmed at how many local incidents and near incidents
there were in our flying area. What we were seeing was poor pattern spacing,
indifference to the winds, unorthodox salvage of poor final approaches and very
long hot landings ending in a porpoise or requiring guys to grind on the brakes
to stop on the 3-4000 feet of runway available.
I put together a FAAST presentation on regaining and maintaining proficiency to
help out. We have presented it with mixed reviews because it requires thorough
airwork. We pilots are opinionated and confident in our ability. If our
instructor
didn't teach it, its not important. However, in talking to our local
aircraft owners, with the cost of fuel, operations and maintenance getting so
high, many just dont fly as much as they used to. The airplane gets flat tires,
filthy dirty, and old avionics get cranky and they go fly anyway. I was shocked
to hear about 20% say they havent done a full stall since they got their
pilot licenses. Some have not exceeded 15 degrees of bank in years. On their
BFR (flight review) they simply recover at the horn and that is good enough to
pass. Normally they just fly faster and wider in the pattern to keep safe and
then stick the aircraft on the runway any way as long as it is smooth. None
would consider a go around if they were high and hot or were landing well down
the runway. None of our locals had done a simulated power off pattern to a
low approach over a runway EVER. We did a chair fly of emergency procedure
review
with one chap and were disturbed on how vague his recall was on how he would
handle rather simple emergencies. Nice guy, in a couple of hours he was back
up to speed.
I began working with our chief pilot to fly with some of his newest instructors
on how to teach how a stall can happen and how the straight-ahead stall (clean
and dirty) was not the only way to teach stall prevention. The chief pilot
and I did some practice and he summoned a meeting. Many of these instructors
had no experience in other aircraft other than the Cessnas. In flying with one
chap, he commented he never uses the rudder in the 162 because the springs are
so stiff you cant feel a smooth input. It is not uncommon that the students
then dont use the rudder and simply steer the castering nose wheel with only
the toe brakes, otherwise the rudder is unneeded. Sad.
We use the Europa as an example for a new pilot (or old pilot) transitioning to
a Light Sport or faster aircraft. Its a shame to have to direct and instructor
pilot to go around as he tries to land the Europa like it was a Cessna 172.
They do that falling leaf approach I commented on. It is interesting flying
for me and our new instructors do learn some things. Ill do a paper when we
and if we finish.
Stay proficient, keep up your airplane and enjoy the finest light kit built
aircraft
and all she can do.
Best Regards,
Bud Yerly
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