The Smilin’Jack

EAA Chapter 866 monthly newsletter                                    May 2002

Chapter Meeting Weds. May 1st at 7:30 PM at Dunn Airpark Bldg. 10

N. Williams Ave, TitusvilleThe Smilin'Jack

Big Pietenpol/Antique (and anything else)Fly-in

May 18, 2002 Arthur Dunn Airpark

Titusville, Fl

Driggers and Titan Flight Takes Evasive Action!!

Gene told us this story about his flight back from Fantasy of Flight on March 24.

I had navigated East, to Lake X airport by GPS (never have spotted that airport) and made my turn to the Northeast for Dunn Airpark and just about due East of Orlando international I was near that strip of pavement in the middle of nowhere that has the strange antennae on it when I first saw it. It was a light that started toward me from quite a ways off to the West. It got my attention mainly because of potential heavy traffic from that direction. As I moved to the North it seemed to take a bearing right for me and the light was getting bigger. Now I'm really concerned because something was after me. Closer and closer it got getting bigger all of the time! Man, I gotta get out of the way of this thing now! Hard right turn and steep dive down to the deck...... Since I have the underside of my plane painted black, I figured if I tilted the underside up it would be easier for this thing to see me. Ahhh..... seems to be I've avoided whatever that was. Funny thing though, I didn't see anything go by! Must have been a fast bugger. Still nervous I've covered quite a bit of ground now and although I'm still nervous, everything seems OK. Was I dreaming or imagining this thing that was after me? No, I know I saw that light. Can't tell the guys back at Dunn. They'll think I'm nuts. Better say something though cause maybe someone will have an explanation for me. So the above is my story and I'm sticking to it!!

Quite a story isn't it? When Gene first told us this story we made light of it and accused him of thinking there was a UFO after him and being near that mysterious strip with the antennae on it, it was a little convincing. Then we told him he is nuts! After all of this we have surmised that what was after Gene was a reflection of the sunlight off of one of those glass skyscrapers in Orlando. If you've never seen Gene's Titan, he has it painted up like the US Airborne Thunderbird planes and when you see it from beneath it looks like the silhouette of the black Thunderbird.

This Month's Flying

Got a ride with Larry Bierman in his Mooney Executive. We flew up the river a few miles then looked at Blue ridge airstrip, Then Larry showed me his house and then back to Dunn twas a pleasant ½ hr and Larry has a nice Mooney. My friend, Herb Rutter brought his Long EZ down from Pa. and parked it at New Smyrna Beach (longer runways) and I flew up to pick him up and to deliver him back when he was ready to head to Sun n Fun. Chapter member Larry Reynolds bought a beautiful Piper Warrior at Fort Pierce Regional Airport and I flew him and an instructor friend of his down there to retrieve the plane. The weather was Florida springtime perfect. Going down, we flew through the class D airspace at TICO, Patrick, Melbourne and then went around Vero Beach class D thinking it would be easier to get into Fort Pierce since they were using runway 9 and it seemed more expeditious to approach from the Northwest than the Northeast. We were wrong about that because instead of giving us instruction to report left base for 9, they told us to turn to the East and approach from the Northeast, then report mid field downwind for 9. When we questioned the controller, he acted irritated and told us again more deliberately to approach from the Northeast. When we told him that we just wanted to be sure we understood, he told us that he'd already told us three times. Well that shut us up but good and of course we complied with all of his instructions. Didn't question him any more after that!

Grasso's Landing

Vince and Eve Grasso are located on what the Jax sectional identifies as Blue Ridge airport. Their home and hangar are located on the very South end of the strip and this is a beautiful place! Vince stopped in at Dunn one Saturday morning a few weeks ago and told some of us about his annual picnic being held at their place on Sat. March 30. It appeared to me as though he had invited everyone. Well anyway, Loretta and I and a bunch of us from Dunn went up and had a wonderful time there. There were people whom I recognized from Space Coast as well. The Grasso's provided a lot of food and beverages and everyone brought a covered dish. We ate in their spacious hangar. This hangar has doors on both ends and when they're opened a wonderful breeze flows through it. Bernoulli effect I think, so even when the temps are high like it was that day it is very comfortable in the hangar. It was a nice day and Loretta and I are becoming more comfortable down here in Florida because we are meeting and becoming friends with some very fine people.

The only thing that would have made the whole event better would have been if we could have flown in. Don't know the details but it there is a dispute of some kind going on amongst the residents on the airport and to be on the safe side fly-ins were discouraged. Up until this year there were a lot of planes in there and one of the guests, Bob Tinsley, told me that he always had a lot of fun taking friends up in his L19 Bird Dog at this event. Hope this dispute is resolved soon.

Back in PA., Loretta and I always attended the Labor day picnic at Holtz's strip. Like the Grasso's, Ralph Holtz invited everyone in the area out to his farm and we'd have a grand time. Ralph would hop rides in his Waco, Aviat Husky, and Wilga after we ate. A couple of the locals would don parachutes and literally drop in on the event. Paul Nuss, a world class aerobatic pilot would demonstrate his skill in his Pitts, and others would loop their Cubs, Champs, and Aerobats. There was a lot of Ultralight there and one of those guys could loop his plane too. I have an idea that's what the Grasso Landing picnic used to be like too.

Shirts and decals

Hey our official Pietenpol fly-in shirts are in and selling fast cause they're only $10.00!!! Did you get an opportunity to order yours? At our last meeting all who attended ordered these and you can order yours now too. In case you were not in on our last meeting, these are a grey T shirt with drawings of Piets on the front and back

and lettered up to identify our Chapter, airport, and home town. We feel that they will sell fast on the day of the fly-in so be sure you get yours ahead of time.

The decals are being designed by Chris Garrison and these too you will be proud to display on your plane or car. There is a silhouette of the Piet aircamper and the word Pietenpol and other stuff on it pertaining to our event. These are $5.00 ea payable to Chris.

Sun N Fun

The vendors were saying that sales are down, the exhiition halls are not as crowded as they used to be, the airshow was very good but I think they used to be better. Is it true? Is the event dying? What are your thoughts about this?

This year I attended for two days. Had a good time as usual, especially at the Ultralight area. I like to be close to the planes landing and taking off. There was a lot of new stuff there and I get the impression that the new Sport Pilot planes and pilot license are going to create a boom market in these light planes. It appears that's where it's at now to me. There was a few new and neat things to see in the regular plane area but there was something lacking too. Maybe it's the spirit of the whole thing, I don't know. Maybe me and the people who were with me are part of the problem because instead of buying food and drink while there we were carrying our own because the prices have just gotten too high for us. If we're doing this, I'll bet other people are too and that means less revenue to the sponsors

ASA was offering a 25% discount on the 'On Top' IFR simulator software and I bought this. Installed it on the old home computer and find it works very good. The first time I flew it I set the ceiling at 800' and took off out of Dunn and climbed to 2,000' in the soup. Once I saw that I could keep it under control I tracked the Orlando VOR inbound, crossed and tracked the same radial outbound for a while. Then I plugged in the Geiger Lake NDB and flew to that in a no wind condition. Once I'd crossed the NDB I dropped down out of the clouds and spotted the runway right away and landed on runway 33. The program has a map function that re traces your flight and you can see how well or bad your performance really was. I looked at the track to and from the Orlando VOR and then to the NDB and was quite proud of that job. That is till I saw where I landed. Instead of X21 it was X68, the shuttle landing strip. No F15s showed up either! The view outside the windows is not detailed, after all it is an IFR program. All you can see out side while you're in visual conditions is green that represents the ground and black strips that represent runways. No water or buildings or anystuff like the Microsoft Simulator has. I think that's a good thing because the control I use is a joystick and works better with this program than Microsoft and I think it might be because there's some memory freed up without all of the detailed scenery.

Presidents Corner Presidents Corner

By: Steve Pangborn

Where does the time go? Sun N Fun was just here a minute ago, and now May is knocking on the front door!

Speaking of May…we will have a full plate this month and we are going to need everyone's help to make it all come together.

First and foremost will be the Chapter meeting {05-01-02}, followed quickly by the culinary event of the month…the Smilin' Jack pancake breakfast {05-04-02}. Later in the month {05-18-02} will be our first and hopefully annual Piet N Pol fly-in.

I plan to make this month's breakfast {all right, no snide comments Furnholm!}. I figure you all have suffered enough under Bill's leadership {?}, not to mention his cooking! Your continued participation is greatly appreciated AND needed.

The meeting will be a planning session to co-ordinate everyone's help for the fly-in, work parties to erect and tear down the tent, decide what we want in the way of groceries, etc. I believe we have received a couple of Piet N Pol commitments for the fly-in. We would like to have a phone campaign to call all the state wide Piet N Pol owners and give them a personal invitation to attend…so, if you have an interest, volunteer to make a few of those calls.

Well, the Nieuports are getting close to having wheels under each one. Mine is on it's feet, as well as Gils. Bill and Jim are getting very close. Patti is on the table {well, not her personally, her airplane!} and getting the last of her fuselage structure completed. I am still fooling around with the brakes and I did get the firewall mounted last weekend. Progress has been slow, but we are keeping at it. Soon we will be able to fly cover support for the SE-5!

I'd better sign off for this month, before I put you all to sleep! Fly safe, and fly smart!

Steve Pangborn

The Bored Met

Chapter 866 board met on Weds. April 17th and mostly discussed our upcoming big event (The Pietenpol Fly-in) on May 18. We've decided that Bill Mitchell's suggestion made at our regular meeting last month about calling all plane owners who we know is a good one and we should personally invite them to this event. We may assign members with names to call at our meeting on May 1. If you're asked to make some calls please co-operate and make the calls. If you know some people who are pilots and some who own planes please bring the information to the chapter meeting.

Since we don't have any confidence that the paving will be done on the apron by May 18 we are planning to set the big tent up near the rotating beacon like we do for the Smilin 'Jack event. We intend to carry our Pietenpol project down to the tent to display. It may even be on wheels by that time too.

We plan to paint the front of bldg. 10 maybe on the day of our next breakfast. (May 4) We'll be discussing all of the above matters at our regular meeting night which is May1st.

Pietenpol Fly-in Shirts are in!!

We have ordered and received the shirts for our event and they are very attractive and we think you'll want to have yours prior to the fly-in, so make sure that you attend out regular chapter meeting and get yours while we still have a good selection of sizes. Be sure and wear it to our fly-in. They're only $10.00, what a deal!!

Affordable Turbine Power!!

Several months ago I wrote about a turbine engine that was being test flown on an RV-4 up in Pennsylvania and I've had inquiries about this since then. Well the folks up there have test flown it successfully and are enthused and ready to start production on these engines. Check em out at www.atpcoinc@netphd.net I think they have something here.

Hey let's put one in the Piet!

Every pilot wants to be able to go faster and further. No longer is the piston engine a hindrance in accomplishing the goal. The Model 6.5 ATP engine can generate between 120 and 240 HP. Better - because the turbine design is aerodynamically economical, - the 14" x 30" power plant weighs less than 200 pounds!

There simply is no other engine that's as powerful, light and affordable as the Affordable Turbine Powers' - Model 6.5

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Subliminal message Don't forget about the 1st annual Pietenpol fly-in at Dunn on May 18.

8th Annual EAA Chapter

Book and Video Sale

May 1, 2002 ? June 30, 2002

50 % Off

Any Item in the EAA Book/Video Catalog

(Excluding the SportAir Workshop Fabric & Composite Videos. 20% discount

applies to these videos.)

This is an exclusive offer for EAA Chapters (Including EAA Divisional Chapters)

The order form and catalog will be sent to each Chapter President soon

Hurry Offer Ends June 30, 2002.

ONE ORDER PER CHAPTER

I Told You To Keep Your Speed up on Final!!!!!

Proud New Airplane Owner!

Member Larry Reynolds has taken delivery of a like new Piper Warrior. You oughta see it! It is a 1989 model completely refurbished and well equipped w avionics. It's beautiful!

DON'T FORGET, CHAPTER BREAKFAST SATURDAY MAY 4 AT DUNN AIRPARK

BIG PIETENPOL (AND ANYTHING ELSE) FLY-IN AT DUNN AIRPARK SATURDAY MAY 18

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