Newsletter October 1997 Volume 17, Number 10 Chapter 724, Experimental Aircraft Association Merritt Island, Florida Mailing address: P. O. Box 320923, Cocoa Beach, FL 32931 Internet Web Site: http://www.BeginAt.com/EAA724 Officers Technical Counselors President: John Murphy 783-1515 Ted Yon 783-7966 Vice President: Eric Kennard 631-3264 John Murphy 783-1515 Secretary/Treasurer: John Soukup 783-7128 Young Eagle Coordinator Newsletter Editor: Fred Mahan 452-5797 Tony Yacono 459-0080 The next meeting will be the second Wednesday of October October 8, 1997, 7:30 P. M. Big Merritt Island Air Service Hangar, South Side of Runway Second Floor, Southwest Corner Meeting Room ______________________________________________________________________________ EAA Chapter 724 P. O. Box 320923 Cocoa Beach, FL 32931 Calendar of Upcoming Events Oct 10-11 Plant City, EAA Chapter 1178 Annual Strawberry Aircraft & Auto Show, 1-800-760- 2315. Oct 10-12 Thomasville, GA, Thomasville Aviation Club Fly-In Extravaganza, 912-226-4708. Oct 10-12 Evergreen, AL, SE Regional Fly-In, 334-765-9109. Oct 17-19 Lake Wales Airport, 1997 International (Model) Jet Rally, 941-677-1785. Oct 23-25 Orlando Executive Airport, AOPA Expo '97, 1-301-695-2000. Nov 1-2 Sun ‘n Fun Wings ‘n Things 97, 941-644- 0741 Nov 1-2 Miami, EAA Chapter 620 Air Fest, Tamiami Airport. Nov 1-2 Lakeland, Alexander Sportair/EAA/ Aircraft Spruce Workshop, 1-800-967-5746. Nov 1-2 Jacksonville, Airshow, Cecil Field NAS Nov 2 Lantana Airport Annual Pancake Breakfast Nov 7-8 Pensacola, Blue Angels Homecoming Airshow, NAS Pensacola. Nov 7-9 Fantasy of Flight, Polk City, Wings and Strings Music Festival, 941-984-3500. Nov 8 EAA Chapter 908 Fly-In Breakfast, Melrose, 29?39.55’, 81?57.54’, 561-461-0346. Nov 8-9 Daytona Beach, Daytona Beach Skyfest. Nov 15-16 Florida Flying Gators Ultralight Association Annual Fly-In, 407-767-9621. Dec 6-7 Lakeland, Lakeland Airport Annual Christmas Party Apr 19-25, 1998 Sun 'n Fun. May 3-4 Ft. Lauderdale, Shell Air and Sea Show, 954-527-5600, ext. 88. Jul 22-26 PRA Convention, Mentone Airport, Mentone, IN. Jul 29-Aug 4 Oshkosh. Regularly Scheduled EAA Fly-Ins Across Florida Every First Saturday, Cannon Creek Airpark, Lake City, Fly-In Breakfast, 904-755-4760 Every Second Saturday, Charlotte County Airport, Punta Gorda, EAA Chapter 565 Pancake Breakfast, telephone number TBA. Every Third Saturday, Sebring Airport, EAA Chapter 803 Pancake Breakfast, 941-465-6996. Every First Sunday, Ft. Myers Airport, Chapter 66 Pancake Breakfast, 941-945-7000. Every Second Sunday, Naples Airport, EAA Chapter 1067 Fly-In Breakfast, 941-261-5701. Every Third Sunday, Kissimmee Municipal Airport, west side of the field, 9 am on. Every Fourth Sunday, Bob Lee Airport, De Land, EAA Chapter 635 Fly-In Picnic, 904-734-1032. Every Last Sunday, Quincy, FL, EAA Chapter 445 Pancake Breakfast, 904-421-4335. __________________________________________ September Meeting The 44 faithful that attended heard a report on the Cozy Mk IV project of Brice Daunay. Brice’s Cozy was being built with a Wankel rotary engine and an Infinity retractable gear. Brice reported that gear down seemed to affect roll control. Prez John Murphy reported that Superior Air Parts is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and may be looking for a buyer. Superior is still shipping parts, however. John also reported that Lycoming was selling off old machine tooling at their Williamsport plant. Lycoming apparently is going to be in the engine assembly business, with the manufacture of all parts being subcontracted out. One chapter member reported that a precision GPS approach was being set up at Flagler County Airport. __________________________________________ Guest Speaker at October Meeting Chapter Secretary/Treasurer John Soukup had arranged for Kevin Kimball to be a guest speaker at out September chapter meeting. Kevin had a last-minute conflict and was not able to make it to our September meeting, but has agreed to be at the October meeting. Kevin and Jim Kimball operate Jim Kimball Enterprises, Inc., in Zellwood, which constructs aircraft replicas. Kevin is going to bring a slide presentation of construction of a Gee Bee Model Z done in their shop, and perhaps information on other projects they are working on and have completed. Should be quite interesting! Thank you, John, for setting this up for us! __________________________________________ Valkaria Airport According to Mark Cannon, the county Commission has decided to go ahead and repave 09/27. He reported that AOPA assisted in dealing with the FAA, and that the FAA insisted the runway was needed. He also said it now appears slim that the Melbourne Airport Authority will take over the operation of Valkaria Airport. Valkaria may get its own airport authority, but nothing has yet been decided. The county is starting to advertise for an airport manager for Valkaria, Mark said. For more details contact Mark Cannon at 724-8671. _________________________________________ Sport Aviation 40 Years Ago The October, 1957, issue of “Experimenter” had a report on the 5th Annual EAA Fly-In. Twenty- four homebuilts were there, including B. D. Maule’s M-4 “Bee Dee,” the prototype of today’s Maule and two Tailwinds. Ten antiques were there, all pre- WW2 birds which might have been as little as 15 years old, back then. One of what we’d now call a “warbird” was there, a rare Curtiss-Wright CW- 22B. Some attendees who were or later became famous in flying circles were above-mentioned Bedford D. Maule, George Meyer (Little Toot), Ray Stits, Frank Tallman (stunt pilot), and Prof. August Raspet (aerodynamicist), Total expenses for the Fly-In were $1840. The top door prize was a West Bend color-glo electric percolator. _________________________________________ Prop Strikes From Sacramento Sky Ranch Service Manual Sky Ranch has been doing engine overhaul and engine repairs as a Teledyne continental distributor and as a Avco Lycoming distributor for 47 years. During this period we have performed several hundred propeller strike examinations and approximately 30 engine accident examinations for the FAA. Based on this extensive experience we have made the following observations: 1. You cannot reliably predict whether the engine has been damaged. We have seen very minor strikes result in crankshaft breakage. Conversely, we have seen major aircraft accidents where the engine was undamaged. Consequently, airworthiness assessment should be thru an engine examination. 2. The most probable damage in both Lycoming and Continental engines is a crankshaft crack at the rear radius of the oil slinger. This type of damage can only be found thru removing the crankshaft from the engine and magnafluxing the crank. 3. Lycoming crankshafts will crack without bending. The loading applied to the crankshaft may not be a bending load but may be a twisting or shoving load that will result in a crack without bending the crankshaft. “Dialing” the flange will not detect this type of damage. 4. Continental crankshafts will have a greater tendency to crack. The flange of the Continental crankshaft is hardened and normally will not bend. It is rather like trying to bend a good quality drill bit. It will break before it bends. Dialing a Continental crankshaft will not be very informative either. 5. The crankcase may be bent or cracked. Typical crack point is at the front main bearing boss. 6. The counterweight hangar may crack. The counterweight bushing may crack or be bruised. At 1000 RPM the counterweight has a centrifugal load of 3 tons for a Lycoming engine and 2.4 tons for a Continental engine. At 1750 RPM the loading is 10 tons for Lycoming and 8 tons for Continental. During a prop strike the counterweights will momentarily stop rotating and will slam against the crankshaft hangar housing. 7. We agree with Continental and Lycoming in that not every propeller strike requires an engine tear-down. However, based on past experience we know enough to know that we don’t know if damage has occurred without a engine teardown. _________________________________________ Chapter Internet Site Did you know that Chapter 724 has an Internet Web Site, set up by chapter member and on-line impresario Ron Cadby, and an E-mail address (which forwards your note to your newsletter editor -- me)? The address is: http://www.BeginAt.com/EAA724 Go have a look. You can contact Ron at his E-mail address at: rcadby@BeginAt.com _________________________________________ 2 3