On the road again again!
On the road again again!
It probably should be Bret.
I have a friend in the propeller business and he feels he can repair it for very little money. I just got back from the 570 mile journey to deliver it to him and visit Mike and Vince to see how the planning for the empennage project is coming along.
Vince is doing a great job of planning as I imagined he would. His attitude is, “this will be easier than everyone thinks!”
Thank you Stan for the kind words,
I don’t know what hit the propeller. I did not see the damage when I put her away almost ten days ago and I did not feel any vibration in flight.
Ed wasn’t with me and she still has her camera.
I feel challenged by all the changes in direction and all the decisions about details. We don’t know what we are doing or how good it needs to be so we just make it the best we can figure out and scrap things when we discover a better way to do something.
I can be exhilarating at times. On the way up to visit Mike today I figured out a way to accomplish what I want for the main gear. I got so excited that I nearly drove off the road as I imagined touching the various parts and watching the imaginary hardware perform the task of limiting roll with generous suspension travel.
Ed knew I was getting close because I was describing things with my hands as I slept.
I have been struggling with this for quite a while. I kept coming up with half measures and rejecting them when they wouldn’t fulfill all of the requirements.
It may not work when we make the parts but so far it looks like it will work and it’s simple and light. The devil is in the details.
This comes on top of finishing the design for the front suspension, steering and steering dampener.
Thank you Arnie,
You put things beautifully.
Mickey Thompson is one of my heroes.
I hope the book will live up to your expectations. We will give it our best.
Just today Mike, Vince and I were going over some of the things I have worked on that worked well and it was clear that if I get the right people together on a project that the result is greater than the sum of its parts. I feel fortunate to have such remarkable friends that are capable of so much and are willing to share it with me.
I was telling a fellow I had just met at Mike’s seat shop about Mariah Gale, the adventure and the book. I realized about a third of the way through it was too big a dream to seem real to this nice fellow. He was polite about it but I could tell he was skeptical about the dream coming to fruition. He had lots of good reasons why my friends and I can’t just design and build an aircraft in a garage and expect it to fly across the country. He said that getting a book published is very difficult. His final conclusion was that I didn’t know enough to know that I couldn’t do it.
I don’t want to imagine that the propeller ding is hangar damage. We lost the Spitfire so there is only John and I in the corporate hangar and I have been away. There is plenty of room to get around because John’s Acrosport is a smallish aerobatic biplane and the Predator doesn’t take up much room. John is very careful around all aircraft and I am sure he would tell me if he had an accident.
He has been working on “Woodstock” because he ground looped his conventional gear aircraft and bent the propeller quite badly. He has been checking the propeller flange for run out. I am concerned for the case and there doesn’t seem to be a simple way to inspect it without tearing it down. It was a 70 inch aluminum propeller that is somewhat smaller now.
I started the Predator up before I removed the propeller Thursday and she shook in a most unpleasant way and made a strange noise. It must have happened while I was taxiing back to the hanger or I would have felt the shaking in flight. It got bad at anything over 900 RPM and became violent at 1,700 rpm. I was afraid to go any higher for fear something would break from the shaking.
I am surprised that I didn’t notice it in my post flight inspection. Part of the inspection is checking the propeller for damage and it was checked off on the list.
I may have been distracted as several people came by wondering how the flight went on such a blustery day.
I need to be more careful about getting distracted while doing my inspections.
I saw it as soon as I rolled the hanger door open just enough for me to slip through and the light wasn’t very good. The light was good during my post flight inspection.
Thank you, Vance
