It's So Old!
But it still smells fresh.
WEF 1001281601
With all this old stuff sticking around, you have to wonder how we keep it
smelling so fresh. Ha! I've got quite the secret up my sleeve.
You see, my wonderful wife makes candles. Not just any candles, but
soy candles. Highly scented, and at a price anybody can afford.
Even me.
So, cruise on over to Skyline Candle
Company, and pick yourself up a candle or twelve. I recommend the
Waterfall Mist. Smells so good. Way better than all these moldy
old headlines.
FMI: Skyline Candle Co.
Taildraggers, Inc. Archives - March - December 2011
These are our top stories and links from the rest of 2011. They're still cool,
but we gotta keep the home page clean and quick to load! Enjoy the
Archives!
And as always, if you have a link or photo to share, we'd love to
hear about it, and hopefully add it to the site. We are also looking
for guest writers and photographers to submit content. If you would
like to write an article or a photo essay, shoot us an email. We
won't pay you (we don't even pay ourselves), but we will give you full credit for any contributions.
Drop us a line anytime:
webmaster@taildraggersinc.com
Enjoy
Eric Minnis in "Amelia", a Clipped-Wing Taylorcraft. The signs in
the window beat it all. Well done, Eric.
Well done.
WEF 1111010008
Discuss this in the Taildraggers, Inc.
Forum
New
CFI's Added 1108082044
Votaw
Aviation
Instructor:
Diana Votaw
Location:
Sparta Community Airport
Hunter Field, Sparta, IL (KSAR)
Telephone:
(314) 537-7381
Email:
Click Here to Send a Message
Website:
www.votawaviation.com
Aircraft:
CubCrafters Sport Cub
Rental Rates: $165.00/hour
all inclusive
Instruction Rates: $60/hr
- your airplane
Solo Rentals Available: No
Additional Information: Sparta
Airport is ideally suited for tailwheel training. It has intersecting
grass
runways making for more days with
gentle or no cross winds. The runways are well maintained and grass
is more forgiving of the new student
than hard surface. The CubCrafters Sport Cub is a new version of an
old favorite. It is an excellent
training platform. It is easy to fly, provides excellent feedback, can be
flown with the windows open for that
real invigorating flying experience and has a very slow landing speed
making your time on the ground easier
to manage.
Skyhoppers
Aerial Adventures
Instructor:
Andrew Dilworth
Location:
Reid-Hillview Airport of
Santa Clara County, San Jose, CA (KRHV)
Telephone:
(800) 515-4225
Email:
Click Here to Send a Message
Website:
www.flyskyhoppers.com
Aircraft:
Cessna 180K Skywagon II, 230hp.
Rental Rates: $190/hr
Instruction Rates: $85/hr
Solo Rentals Available: Accompanied
flights
available for per diem only, for
qualifying pilots.
Additional Information: Andrew
Dilworth of SkyHoppers Aerial Adventures is a career CFI operating the
only Cessna 180 for dual instruction
and accompanied long-distance flights in the lower 48 U.S. We also
offer private flight training
excursions into Baja, the inter-mountain west, and the Caribbean.
If you operate a flight school, or offer training in tailwheel
aircraft, please let us know. We would love to add your
information to our CFI / Flight School page. It's getting
harder and harder to find good tailwheel airplanes to rent, and just
as hard to find competent tailwheel CFI's. Our hope is to
connect as many students and renters with as many CFI's and flight
schools as possible. Let's all work together to keep the art
of tailwheel flying alive and well!
Visit our
CFI / Flight School page for all of our listing, and to
learn how to get yourself or your school added.
WEF 1108082044
Taildraggers,
Inc. Tip of the Day:
Join the Taildraggers, Inc. Forums!
You may have noticed that at the
bottom of most posts here on the main page there's a little "Discuss
this in the Taildraggers, Inc. Forum"
tag. Well, that's because we have a Forum
that's completely free to register and
use. Seriously, it's free. And we encourage you to use it! As a registered user, you can post new topics, reply to
existing topics, mock my poor writing abilities, and communicate with other users via email and private
message.
We've
got Forums for
Hangar Flying,
Upcoming Events,
Aircraft Construction and
Maintenance,
Projects, and a completely free
For Sale / Wanted section.
The Forums are for you
to use, and they depend on you for their growth and content. You can
navigate to the Forums
by clicking on the "Forum" tab at the top of this page, or by clicking on
the "Discuss this in the Taildraggers, Inc. Forum" link at the
bottom of each daily update.
Take a minute to register, and become a member of the Taildraggers, Inc.
community. Once you do, post a new thread telling us a little bit
about yourself on the
New
Members area. Tell us about your airplane, your favorite
airport, or your buddies' restoration project. If you think it's
cool, it's a pretty good bet that everyone else does, too.
We're glad to have you.
WEF 1108050139
Discuss this in the Taildraggers, Inc.
Forum
The
Bosman RV-3 - Back to work again! 4 hrs
Honestly, it took a while to gather the heart to go into the shop and work
on the bird. The first time I saw TeamRV fly into KLAL at Sun n Fun, all I
wanted to do was go home and remake my VS-307 vertical spar doubler that I
messed up a few weeks ago. But the tornado really took a lot out of me.
Thinking about my plane just made me think about the images of ruined
airplanes that I've been trying hard to forget. Especially Tony Boy II,
our friend Tony Spicer's RV-3B. But today it was time to cut some metal. I
made a new stab spar doubler, this time measuring the top and rimming the
sides before cutting out the lightening wedge. It fits marvelous.
This is my first attempt to post on the blog with my new phone... please
excuse any spelling errors, as my Droid thinks its smarter than I am!
-Katie Bosman
The Bosman RV-3
Blog
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New
CFI's Added 1108050122
ProMark
Aviation Services
Instructor:
Ken Wittekiend, MCFI & DPE
Location:
Burnet Municipal Airport
Burnet, TX (KBMQ)
Email:
Click Here to Send a Message
Website:
www.promarkaviation.net
Aircraft:
Piper PA18 Super Cub (dual only)
Remos GX LSA, Cessna 172
Rental Rates: Super
Cub $180/hr Dual
Remos $105/hr Dual
Cessna 172 $110/hr Dual
Instruction Rates: $50/hr
Solo Rentals Available: Yes,
in the Cessna and Remos
Additional Information: Ken
Wittekiend is a 3 time Master CFI, Gold Seal instructor, 2009 CFI of the
Year
for the Southwest Region & FAA
Designated Pilot Examiner with over 5000 hours of dual given. Tailwheel
training in the Beautiful Texas Hill
Country.
Anouck Le Bris
Instructor:
Anouck Le Bris
Location:
San Luis County Regional Airport
San Luis Obispo, CA (KSBP)
Telephone:
(831) 524-0644
Email:
Click Here to Send a Message
Additional Information: Learn
to fly in France in
old biplane and low wings tailwheel
aircraft.
Became an instructor in the U.S. and
taught
primary training in tailwheel
aircraft for four years
(Citabria, Decathlon, Cessna 180,
TravelAir 4000,
Cessna195) before heading to other
jobs.
Currently flying an Airtanker in fire
suppression
missions for the State of California.
Love taildraggers, and always looking forward to fly them.
If you operate a flight school, or offer training in tailwheel
aircraft, please let us know. We would love to add your
information to our CFI / Flight School page. It's getting
harder and harder to find good tailwheel airplanes to rent, and just
as hard to find competent tailwheel CFI's. Our hope is to
connect as many students and renters with as many CFI's and flight
schools as possible. Let's all work together to keep the art
of tailwheel flying alive and well!
Visit our
CFI / Flight School page for all of our listing, and to
learn how to get yourself or your school added.
WEF 1108050122
Brodhead
2011 :: 36th Annual Pietenpol and Hatz Fly-In July 22-24, 2011
The Brodhead Pietenpol Association and EAA Chapter 431 put together the
36th annual Pietenpol and Hatz Fly-In July 22-24, 2011. I was able to stop
in for about two hours on my way up to Appleton for the Oshkosh Fly-In. I
wasn't able to stay long, but I did take a few pictures while I was there.
I wish I had been able to meet some of the people, but I had to get back
on the road. I left Front Royal, VA at 4am Saturday morning and drove 14
1/2 hours to get to Brodhead. Next time I'll be sure to stick around
longer.
Please click below to see the photographs.
Brodhead 2011
WEF 1107250120
Video :: All Star Aviators - Sleeping Dog Productions
No kidding, videos are here. Forget about your VHS, it's High-Def
time.
I don't know anything about
Sleeping Dog Productions, but I just watched this
video, and now I want to grow a mustache. I figure that if I'm
going to ever be as cool as Hoot Gibson or Bruce Bohannon, I'm gonna need
a damn mustache. Obviously that's the secret.
Hoot was based at Murfreesboro, TN when I was in school there, and I met
him a couple of times when he was working on his highly-modified Cassutt
pictured above. He was very kind and courteous to me, and will
always hold my respect as a fine ambassador of aviation and aerospace.
Don't forget, he was an astronaut.
Anyway, check out
Sleeping Dog Productions' website. They're putting together some
fantastic aviation videos. In HD. I'm a little pissed that
they don't allow embeds, but I understand. As for me, I have a
mustache to grow...
WEF 1106200033
Discuss this in the Taildraggers, Inc.
Forum
The
Bosman RV-3 -
“Congratulations! You’ve finished the first major sub-assembly on your new
airplane.”
I’ve read that sentence at the end of the Horizontal Stabilizer section in
the RV-3 assembly manual probably 100 times since acquiring my kit last
summer. Now, it’s finally true. There was a time a few months ago when I
wondered if I could even get this far, that maybe an airplane like the
RV-12 was more in line with my experience and skill level. But honestly,
now that I’ve seen what I can do and I’ve felt the “extra” satisfaction
that comes with the large amount of fabrication needed in the -3, I’m glad
Van’s original design is my chosen path.
Stop laughing, you can’t tell me you’ve never gone out into the workshop
in your pajamas.
In addition to the basic fabrication and finishing of parts like
measuring, cutting, filing, drilling, deburring, fluting, cleaning,
priming and the like, these are a few new skills I learned or practiced
while I built my stab. Items marked with * are things I got an extra hand,
extra muscle or extra brain power for from Ben. If he’s in the shop when I
am, he’s working on his RV-8’s instrument panel, engine rebuild, or some
other task. (That's his -8's vertical stab hanging above the work bench.)
The good man that he is, he will begrudgingly come over to my half of the
garage if I ask him to help hold a piece while I dimple it, or give me an
opinion on my craftsmanship, or hand-squeeze a 1/8” rivet. (I will also do
the same for him—equally begrudgingly—except for things involving
muscles.) He did spend at least half a day engineering and constructing my
jig—most woodworking involving materials bigger than 1/8” square balsa is
over my head. :-P Anyway, here’s the list:
Build a Jig*
Clamp skins to frame—After trying Van’s way and hating it, I’m audacious
enough to think my way was better. :-)
Plot out rivet hole spacing around flutes, hinges, and other pitfalls.
Then drill a straight rivet line.
Match drill framework to skin rivet holes without drilling too close to
the edge of a piece.
Set up DRDT-2 with enough pre-load to make a distortion-free dimple.
(Thank you VAF!)
Dimpling:
Dimple skin with DRDT-2*
Countersink skin in 4 spots to accept rivets
Countersink framework in 12 spots to accept skin dimples
Dimple frame with pneumatic squeezer (bad idea)
Dimple frame with hand squeezer.
Rivet using:
Bucking bar and gun—visual*
Bucking bar and gun—Blind*
Pneumatic squeezer
Hand squeezer (which turned out better than the pneumatic, even with my
weak little girl hands)
Difficult
Rivets—Interference with structure*
I have several perfectly mis-aligned holes. Meaning, they look wonderful
on top of the skin, but are too close to the hinge brackets to be bucked
or squeezed properly. We ground down a bucking bar and tried bucking with
marginal success. Then ground the squeezer yoke and dies oval-shaped to
give them clearance from the hinge brackets with the squeezer. By no means
are they perfect, but OK.
Note: When Van says you “may” move the rear spar rivet line slightly aft
to make room for the spar doublers, he means you MUST move it aft, and it
has to be more than 1/16”!! Especially near the hinge brackets!
Drilled out a few rivets. Surprisingly few. None of the bucked rivets had
to be removed; only a few that didn’t squeeze properly.
Now that I have a finished piece of my own on the wall, I can take a break
from figuring stuff out and worrying about assembling & riveting, and
begin again with some peaceful, brainless fabrication of parts for the
Vertical Stab. :-D
-Katie Bosman
The Bosman RV-3
Blog
WEF 1105092014
Gone West
On Sunday, March 6, 2011, aviation lost a great one.
I never had the pleasure of meeting Jack Cox, but his decades of articles
in EAA's Sport Aviation and his own Sportsman Pilot magazines have been
inspirational to me in ways words cannot express. I extend my
greatest sympathies to Jack's wife and partner, Golda. Their names
have been interwoven into my conscience since I became aware of the EAA
and Sportsman Pilot as a young man. It's hard for me to imagine
aviation without their contributions.
For more information about Jack, his life, accomplishments, and legacy,
please visit
Sportsman Pilot.
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They Never Should Have Changed Their Name
The CAF used to be the Confederate Air Force. Now they're just the
"Commemorative" Air Force... BOOOOOOORIIIING... C'mon, guys.
Why did you puss out and change your name?
YOU FLY FIGHTERS AND BOMBERS! NOBODY'S GOING TO F*&% WITH YOU!!!
Whatever. This video is awesome. I watched this and thought
how lucky we are to live in the age of super high-def video and imagery.
If you've forgotten how bad videos used to be, just go dig out your old
VHS player and pop in a tape. Ugh...
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Looking for some more Aerotainment? Go to February 2011 :: OR :: Check out the Archives!
