June 2006

Hello, Members!
Maybe the calendar doesn't say so but, weatherwise, spring turned into summer this week. It is hot and muggy. Density altitude time. But frontal thunderstorms are giving way to white puffies and afternoon pop-ups which die down by evening. Long daylight hours make for good early evening flying.

Chapter Hangar

John Smith works on installing the kitchen plumbing fixtures. Note the granite counter tops.	Bill Ghan stains interior doors.
Photographs by Fred Kalhoefer

Things are moving along quickly toward finishing our beautiful hangar. We are generating a lot of donations of materials from businesses eager to become sponsors when they see the quality of the work and the interest and involvement of our members. Ozark Mountain Granite gave us the granite and the installation expertise for the kitchen and bathroom countertops. Ron White and John Smith visited Harry Cooper Supply, taking with them a portfolio of pictures of the hangar from the beginning of construction to the present. This resulted in a donation of all the fixtures for the kitchen and bathrooms plus a hot water heater.

The base cabinets for the center island and counter which will be by the range in the kitchen.	The many drawers will provide plenty of storage for utensils in the kitchen.	The granite lavatory countertop in the women’s restroom.
Photographs by Sue Kalhoefer & Fred Kalhoefer

Bob Bohemier and Jim Vokac installed floor tiles donated by Doc Openshaw in the kitchen and bathrooms. The tile floors have been sealed and the cabinets are being stained. We anticipate being able to hold the June meeting in the new hangar. The meeting will be at 11:00, and the lunch at noon will be potluck. Y'all come!

The granite lavatory countertop in the men’s restroom.	There are many finishing details yet to be done. The vents covering ductwork outlets is an example.	This is a “gotcha!” All this time they’ve been telling us how hard they’re working...!
Photographs by Fred Kalhoefer & Sue Kalhoefer

New Planning Project
We are so excited about the hangar that, naturally, it has generated thoughts of holding events. Bill Ghan suggested a fly-in. Others reminded that we should have a dedication of the hangar, and we need to honor and show our appreciation of our sponsors. All together? Separately? However it is to be done, it will require planning. Accordingly, a study group/planning committee has formed. Volunteers include Bill Ghan, Fred Kalhoefer, Jim Vokac, Kent Clotfelter, Bob and Kathy Bohemier, and Tom and Phyllis White. They held their first meeting after breakfast last Saturday, June 3, discussing what kind of event(s) we should have, and a time table for accomplishing the major tasks. They will present some of their early ideas to us at the meeting.

Businger Aviation Library
Materials for the Chapter library are accumulating. We do not yet have a librarian. Come on, all you Laura Bush fans and wannabes, surely one of you has the talent for leading this needed service. We know it is a big responsibility, involving cataloging, organizing, and preserving a lot of material—and then making it available for use by members. But Chapter 1218 members have never shied away from doing big jobs, have they?

Member News
Bill and Mary Marx are finding it a little harder to get out like they used to. But they have a lovely place, and they enjoy visitors. Let them know before coming, of course.

Jim and Millie Tausworthe bought 2¼ acres just north of Houston. They are having a new mobile home custom built and are preparing to move, while hoping for a buyer for Taus River Ranch. Jim also has a new book at the publisher. Have you read the others yet? They're just great.

Benny Butler already has over 100 hours on the RV-7. The Eggenfellner engine has a unique sound. He promised to do a show-and-tell one of these days.

Our son Craig, and grandson Kyle (age 6), flew here from Tampa in the Piper Arrow for a long weekend visit. Kyle is now old enough to enjoy being outside on the farm. He fished, tried shooting targets (pretty good little marksman), started learning bow and arrow, rode the tractors, collected ticks, wore out the dogs, found some of his Dad's old toys in the barn, and developed a big appetite. Now that we've flown there, and they've flown here, we hope to make it a habit.

Memorable Flight (How Not to Fly a Yankee)
Fred Kalhoefer submits this story for our enjoyment.

“The year was 1969 and Jim Bede, the designer of the American Yankee, had just started mass-producing the little two-seater when the opportunity for me to fly a Yankee arose. A local flying club based at El Monte Airport in Southern California had purchased two of the little airplanes and was willing to rent them out after a good check out by one of their pilot instructors. I don't recall what the hourly rate was but it seemed to me that, as a family man with two little boys, even I could still afford to rent a Yankee now and then without totally busting the budget. Sue, my wife, probably thought different, but I went ahead and made an appointment for a check out.

“I had read some not-so-favorable reviews about the Yankee in aviation magazines, some saying the airplane was poorly assembled, with some bad flying characteristics such as being unstable—having a high stall speed with a very snappy stall that came on without warning—as well as lacking many of the creature comforts that Piper and Cessna pilots had come to expect. However the general consensus was that, for the purchase price, the little Yankee was a bargain.

“My arrival at El Monte had been delayed by two fussy little toddlers who were my responsibility for the day since Sue, as a nurse, had already gone to work early in the morning. They balked at going to the baby sitter instead of staying with Dad. So I was fifteen minutes late for my appointment and the instructor, who was much younger than I, showed his displeasure openly. I had to tell him that if he didn't want to go out with me, I could always cancel and make another appointment. He, however, declined that. I suspect he didn't want to lose the income.

“Our walk-around inspection also served to familiarize me with the design and the functions of the controls. The airplane's main spars are 4-inch diameter aluminum tube s that also serve as the gas tanks. Fuel quantity is checked through sight glasses just inside the fuselage next to the seats on the left and right sides. The airplane has flaps but they are useless when it comes to reducing the airspeed and reducing the stall speed. They did help a little with the attitude by bringing the nose down a small amount. This was important to me since I am a little bit vertically challenged, and the seat was a fixed unit which could not be brought forward to facilitate looking over the nose for a reference point on the horizon.

“Our takeoff was very brisk and the VSI showed a 1000-foot per minute climb rate. The overall visibility was great because of the big bubble canopy and the relatively high seating. I do remember that the seat was very uncomfortable, though, and my thought was that Bede probably gave up creature comfort for economy. My logbook shows that we made power-off and power-on stalls, and that they were just as described—“very snappy”— but recovery was good. You just had to be a lot faster than you would be in a Cessna 150.

“Next, the instructor asked me to fly to Fullerton where we would do some takeoffs and landings. I don't know how it is today, but in those days, in 1969, you entered the pattern at 1000 feet indicated and, once you had been sequenced in by the tower, you descended to 800 feet. You then trimmed the airplane for landing speed and kept an eye on the traffic ahead of you. Here is where my trouble began. I had slowed the aircraft down to the correct airspeed and started to trim so that I could relieve some of the pull on the controls and could pay more attention to the traffic in the pattern. The trim wheel is in the middle of the console and was actually pretty handy, better than the overhead cranks in the Pipers that I was used to. I started turning and turning the wheel—and nothing was happening. I gave the instructor a questioning look and he told me to turn some more and it would come in. And in it came! With a violent pitching up of the nose and a loud snap, the cable had finally freed itself from where it was hanging up, and I had far too much trim in a split second. Here is where the power of stall practice that I had done earlier came in handy. Pushing forward on the yoke, I slowly reduced the trim to where the pressure on the yoke was relieved and made an uneventful landing at Fullerton.

“The instructor had been harping at me all the time that he was going to miss his next student and, in view of the fact that we had had all those problems with the empennage, it was decided to return to El Monte and resume the checkout on another day. The return flight went by in a hurry. The little Yankee truly was a very fast airplane and the visibility made the flight seem even shorter. We were in the pattern at ELT in no time and I began to throttle back. For those of you who have never been to ELT, this little airport is located right in the center of the Los Angeles Basin and is surrounded by houses with small backyards and busy streets. There is no place to make an emergency landing except maybe on the very heavily-traveled San Bernardino Freeway. This is, however, impossible during the noon rush hour and the situation we were in would more than likely have resulted in a stall about five hundred feet AGL than any kind of an emergency landing. But I am getting ahead of myself. As I was saying, we were on our downwind leg, flying along at 80 MPH indicated when we caught up with a Cessna 150. This guy was slow, just about as slow as you would ever want to fly a Yankee. I slowed down to his airspeed and tried to keep my distance. On base, the Cessna lowered its flaps even more and now we were really slow. Much slower than I was comfortable with. I asked the instructor if I shouldn't make a go-around, but he declined because, again, he wanted to be there for his next appointment. By now I was down to 60 MPH indicated and the sink rate was increasing rapidly. Increasing the power stopped that—but here I was, flying along without the help of the trim. Since I didn't want a repeat of the problem that I had experienced at Fullerton, I had my hands full. The yoke felt like it would soon come right out of the panel from all the pull I had to exert on it, and the visibility over the nose was very poor even with full flaps. In spite of making lots of S-turns behind him we were catching up with the Cessna. When we reached the runway we landed only 100 feet behind the 150. Heavy breaking and a castering nosewheel made the trip down the runway difficult. I climbed out of the airplane, paid the guy, and never returned to the flying club again. It didn't take long before they were out of business anyway.

“Since then, the Yankee became known as the AA1 and was taken over by other aircraft manufacturers, the last being Grumman. It has since evolved into a nice little airplane, maybe not for a novice, but AA1 owners love them. They have the American Yankee Association, which offers checkouts to any prospective buyer, and they have an annual fly-in. You can read more about it on their website, www.aya.org.”

Thank you, Fred, for sharing this from your recollections. If any of you other members have a short story to tell suggested by browsing through your old logbooks, we invite you to write it down and hand it to the editor or attach it to an e-mail.

June Meeting
As mentioned earlier, the June meeting will be held in the new hangar, Saturday, June 10. Business meeting expected to start at 11:00 a.m., then potluck lunch. Bring anything you want, we'll all enjoy it! See you there! Until then, tailwinds!

We Celebrate

June Meeting Announcement