TALESPINNERS - November, 2002

Art West's Great Lakes Project (Front end)

The Fuselage of Art's Great Lakes Project

The Fly-out Squadron Rides Again!
by Lee Jewell

Since the 174 Fly-out Squadron was shot down in its attempt to travel to Middlesboro for Glacier Girl's first flight, we decided to try again on Saturday, November 2 with a lunch trip to Bluffton, Ohio Airport, 5G7.  The airport is the home of Grob Motor Gliders but we were unable to schedule a tour there on such short notice.  Perhaps that will be reason enough for a future trip back..  A total of seven airplanes made the trip with Mark Webb flying his Kitfox, Tom Jenkin in his Colt, Eric Rood in a 182, Norm Beaudette in a 152, Gary Collins and Howard Wells in Gary's 170, Don Reasoner and Bob Porter in Don's RV-6 and me in my Citabria.

We slower guys, Tom, Norm, Mark and I, tried to get an earlier start so we wouldn't be the last to arrive for a change, but it was to no avail.  Don and Bob shot past us around Springfield and Gary went by not long after as we all battled a strong headwind.  Norm was Tail-end Charlie in arriving at Bluffton this time, a spot usually reserved for me.  The only reason I beat Norm there was that I got away from Clermont much earlier than he did.

Bluffton is a very nice facility with a very modern and attractive terminal building.  It has one landing strip, with runways 5-23.  Grob has a large complex of about three buildings.  The restaurant is Eagles' Nest and has a multi-page menu with many choices and reasonable prices.  Some had breakfast, while others enjoyed lunch.  There were many comments about the wide selection, with guys having trouble deciding what to eat.  This probably means we'll have to go back sometime, especially if we can arrange a tour of Grob.

With the eating out of the way, some of the group headed for home.  Norm wanted to stop at Phillipsburg to check out a 1967 172 that Gene Miller has for sale, so he and I went in that direction.  Gary and Howard also showed up there after a quick jaunt over toward Ft. Wayne.  Howard and Gary went over the plane with their educated eyes while Norm and I gave it the non-mechanic once-over (or three or four or five).  As Norm pondered his decision, Gary and Howard left.  Norm and I arrived back at Blue Ash about 5:25 as we watched a beautiful sunset, thus ending another adventure of the 174 Fly-out Squadron.

 

Attention Tube and Rag Builders!
by Mike Griffith

Now’s a chance to learn the Stits process without a trip to Oshkosh.  In connection with the Buckeye Chapter of the Short Wing Piper Club, we have the opportunity to learn first hand the covering system developed by Stits from the Ohio dealer.  They are interested in working with the SWPC and EAA for a forum early next spring at Clermont County Airport.

If you're interested please let me know, as the number is limited and we will also be inviting other EAA groups to attend the workshop.  I’m not sure of the cost, but I’m sure we can be very competitive with any workshops of this type.  I’ll be able to confirm this as soon as we have an idea of how many will be interested.

Back in the Saddle ... Again!
by Eric Rood

Sixteen years ago I passed my Instrument Flight Test check-ride. I flew two trips IFR in the following year.  Back then, you had to have 250 hours total time before you could think about getting your ticket.  The rules were changed in the late 80’s/early 90’s, so that one can now get their Instrument Rating with 125 hours of total time.  When I got my rating, I didn’t really have a need for it, it was just the next step on the rung after Private Pilot.  The last two years, I have actually logged more high performance time than Champ time!  I have gone from individual, personal, pleasure flying to family trips.

After our trip to Florida last year, I decided it was time to get current.  As anyone who has had children know, they move at their own speed.  We had spent the night in Savannah, Georgia and I knew when I got up, that unless we got to the airport within the next half-hour, we would be fogged in.  Of course we didn’t make it, and the fog didn’t lift sufficiently for a VFR departure until noon.  I was motivated.  It still took a little over a year to really get it done, though.  During October, I began my trek to get instrument current after a 16 year “layoff”.  When I first decided to initiate my plan, I thought I’d spend a few hours in the simulator, then another couple of flights in an airplane.  Ten to fifteen hours ought to about do it.  Fortunately, living on Columbus’ northwest side places me only three miles from The Ohio State University, Don Scott Field and the University’s flight-school.  Chuck Ventula has been running their simulators for the past twenty years, so he knows how to test a student’s abilities and where to focus attention.  I did my initial training with Chuck in 1985, and the simulators have gotten better.

I spent four, one-hour sessions with Chuck.  The first session was a basic pattern to help me get familiar with the feel of the simulator.  This same pattern would be used in subsequent sessions.  The second session dealt with VOR holds, procedure turns and approaches.  The third session was NDB approaches.  The fourth session was ILS approaches.  The nice thing about OSU’s simulators is that they are attached to plotters, so you can see how you actually tracked the procedure.  It’s a real confidence builder when you see the plot matches the approach procedure.  At the end of the fourth session, I asked Chuck what should do next.  His reply was simply, “Go fly”.  Next, I scheduled a flight with an experienced instructor, Richard Truske.  Wednesday morning was perfect IFR training weather... 400 to 800 scattered/broken with 1,000 to 1,600 overcast, and tops to 6,400 to 7,800 feet and forecast icing conditions.  On Tuesday, we had discussed doing the following:

-- Appleton VOR holds and approach to Knox County/Mount Vernon (4I3)
-- Simplified Directional Approach (SDF) to Newark/Heath (KVHT)
-- Localizer Approach (LDA) to Fairfield County/Lancaster (KLHQ)
-- Full ILS procedure to Bolton Field (KTZR)
-- NDB approach to Don Scott (KOSU)

On Wednesday, the SDF at Newark was out of order, so we changed our plan to the following:

-- Full ILS procedure to Bolton
-- Yellowbud VOR holds and VOR approach to Pickaway County/Circleville (KCYO)
-- LDA to Fairfield County
-- NDB to Don Scott

Takeoff from OSU (900 MSL) at 1115 ET, in the clag at 1,600 MSL, climb and maintain 3,000.  The ILS at Bolton went well.  Three times around the Yellowbud holding pattern, procedure turn and fly the VOR approach to Circleville.  I over-compensated for the northeast wind and went a little left of course but was over the northeast airport boundary at the missed approach time.  I initiated the missed approach procedure, climbed back up to 3,000, for vectors to Fairfield County.  I looked out at the left wing and noticed some light, mixed ice on the struts and fuel vent with the same thing on the other side.  I looked at Dick and asked, “What do you want to do?”  He said, “Tell’em we want to go back to OSU".  So that’s what we did.  Rickenbacker had tankers in the pattern, so we got vectored around them; east, then north, then west, then north to the OSU 9R ILS.  Again, the ILS went well and the ice was melted by the time we landed.  We debriefed and discussed the different procedures and approaches.  I asked when he was available to fly next and was told to go out and fly some more approaches with a safety pilot.  I asked about getting back with him for a signoff for IFR proficiency and he said he could do that now.  WOW!!!  We flew 2.1 hours of Hobbs with 1.8 hours actual.  Add that to the simulator time and I had my six hours, six approaches in four weeks.

I am now IFR ‘legal’ again!  I feel confident that I can do what needs to be done, but I still feel I need to fly more approaches to get the procedures down so that everything becomes automatic and smooth.  I still need to do lots of partial panel flying and approaches.  One of the women I went to Oshkosh with is partially through her instrument rating and we have discussed flying safety pilot for each other.  I will probably file IFR whenever I fly, just for the practice.  It is easy enough to do.  When it comes to flying, there is nowhere that I HAVE to be.  I do not fly ‘hard IFR’. I do have high personal minimums... like 1,000 AGL and two nautical miles visibility.  All I want to do is be able to get out when there is get in or out when there is a low, thin cloud layer.  Getting my instrument rating taught me what types of weather I DON’T want to fly in.

Got the Shimmies?
by Lee Jewell

I had been having a severe shimmy problem with the Scott 3200 tailwheel on my Citabria for several months and finally decided something had to be done about it.  Some years ago, when we were having the same problem with the Precision Flying Club Cessna 170A, Howard Wells told me what he had learned about tailwheel shimmy while watching, of all things, grocery carts do the same thing.  The vertical pivot axis around which the tailwheel swivels MUST be exactly vertical, or even slant forward from top to bottom or the wheel will tend to shimmy.  If that angle slopes back from top to bottom you are in for a rough ride.  With that in mind I planned to install a wedge-shaped shim between the tailwheel mechanism and the leaf spring to correct that angle.  But, I quickly discovered the bolt was not long enough to have the required number of threads past the nut.

While I was looking at this, Dave Ballard, an A&P who parks next to me at Blue Ash, said, "Let's take the tailwheel apart".  Several parts were worn and I replaced them, but that didn't cure the shimmy.  My friend, Kathie Doyle, said the tailwheel was not aligned with the fuselage, something that I couldn't, or didn't want, to see.  When I visited with Forest Barber, in Alliance, a week later, the tailwheel shimmied all the way down the runway.  Forest thought the leaf spring was twisted and asked if the plane had been ground-looped.  It had, though certainly not by me.  Forest suggested having the leaf spring re-bent but I decided to just get a new spring from Aircraft Spruce.  I knew some Citabrias had a 1 3/4 inch spring while mine had a 1 1/2 incher.  The girl at Spruce didn't know the width, so I figured if their catalog said ‘Citabria spring’ it would be the right one.  WRONG!!  Too wide for my plane.  Return that spring to Aircraft Spruce and call Univair.  The first thing the Univair guy asked was, "Is it a one and one half inch or one and three quarter inch spring".  Bingo!!!  I knew I was in the right place.  That new spring cured my shimmy problem!!!

With my newly gained education and experience I began to check all the Scott tailwheels I could find.  Gary's 170B, our club 170A, Larry Wolfe's 170B and others all showed signs of the tailwheel tilting one way or the other, a sign of a twisted spring, or the spring relaxing its shape allowing the swivel angle to go to a trailing position.  All were experiencing tailwheel shimmy.  I relayed this info to Jeff Schaber who is the maintenance officer in our 170 flying club.  Jeff went on the web and asked for ideas with many responses saying the same things I had learned from Howard.  Confirmation enough!  Jeff and I added two shims to the 170A to correct the swivel angle and, lo and behold, the shimmy was gone!  This is a temporary fix for the club plane though, as the membership voted at the next meeting to order a new leaf spring for our 51 year old Cessna.

So, if you taildragger types out there are experiencing that dreaded tailwheel tango, take a good look at your leaf spring, correct that swivel angle, and get some relief that isn't spelled R-O-L-A-I-D-S.