Air Command SxS is AIRWORTHY!

barnstorm2

Platinum Member
Joined
Nov 1, 2003
Messages
14,573
Location
Cincinnati, Ohio
Aircraft
2-place Air Command CLT SxS (project), & Twinstarr Autogyro
Total Flight Time
750+hrs and climbing
Yesterday a very long awaited event took place....


My 2-Place Air Command Side by Side PASSED it's Airworthyness Inspection!!
:D :D :D :D :D :D :D

SHE IS LEGAL!! :eek:


Though she is still far from done.. Needs 40 hours of flight testing, adjustments, lights, GPS chartplotter install and more.

Photo shows Tom the FAA inspector giving me the 'OK'.
 

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Runway tests! :D
 

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More Testing...
 

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COOL! Keep us posted, I think that a side by side open frame is WAY COOL!
 
Great News Tim, it looks great. I'm sure you can't wait to get airborne. Congrats.
 
Looks good Tim, lots of work huh!Tom Milton is a great guy to do inspections.He knows his way around gyros. Just curius why you didn`t use Stan Faskie to inspect your gyro (he`s from cinncy)?Tim do you have rating to carry a passenger?
 
Thanks Scott!

Todd, Yes I can't wait. Patience is most difficult.

After fast-taxing and getting the nose light I found that she has some trim adjustments to be made and I will need alot of basic practice with her.

She is so differn't from my 447 it will almost be like learning all over again.

Rick,

Although I keep my 447 in Cincinnati my 2-place is in Greencastle, IN. A 6-hour round-trip drive from here. It was great to meet Tom. He flew in with a cool airplane checked out the gyros, certified me and attended the PRA Chapter 34 meeting. How cool is that!?!

No passinger rating ..YET..

I feel ready to take my check ride and have almost all the duel time I need ( I still have to do the landing at a towered airport thing and x-cty ). However, my 50+ hours of solo time has been in an ultralight gyro so it doesn't count for squat toward by private rotorcraft ticket.

Now that I have a N-numbered gyro with an AW cert I can start counting my hours toward my PPL. :D

I think it will be a long time before I will feel I have the skill to carry anyone other then my instructor or another qualified gyro pilot.
 
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It was great seeing you on sunday Tim. I like your chapters set up on the airport. The lack of F/W traffic is a real plus also.

Tom and I flew on to Anderson, In. where he did another inspection on a RAF 2000. Yes to all, it does have a horiz. stab. Can't remember the gentlemans name but he does plan on flying out of his farm.

After being bounced around in the Beach Sundowner I sort of missed my gyro.
 
Chuck I, and Ron, Thanks!

I do plan to be carefull. I will have to have my instructor teach me how to fly her. I had hopes of being able to teach myself but it is just WAY too differnt' from my single place. I feel like I was trying to fly a step-ladder!

Chuck,

Good meeting you! Yes the Greencastle airport is great for training and testing. I am so lucky to have access to it and all of the resources of Chapter 34. Unfortunatly, it is a very long drive for me and the airport seems to be windy often. Must be that flat IN landscape or something.. :confused:
 
Tim, great job! I have a question for you. Is Greencastle the airport that has the pig farm near it? If so, the PRA convention held there had the wind in the wrong direction!
 
Dean, Greencastle had the last PRA convention in 94' I believe.

It was the PRA convention in Mentone that had (has) the pig farm down the road to the east.
 
your two place

your two place

Tim:

Would you tell us about your machine?

The rotor blades...are they Dragon Wings? The blade straps are black like theirs...but the hub bar looks too long to be a Dominator one...

What about the engine? What kind, size, etc.

Is this an Air Command SXS converted from an original SXS, or a newer version?

Looks pretty spiffy!
 
Shoot! My parents lived outside of Danville In. before they moved to Fla, a couple of years ago. I still have 2 brothers in that area, but I don't get up to visit as much as I'd like.

I think there is a pig farm on every acre that doesn't corn or soybeans on it!
 
Screw-In

Fantastic News Tim!!! You comming to ROC this year? What's a few more hours drive anyway? I'd love to see you Aircommand. Please do be carefull. Are you gonna leave it white or do have some paint ideas in mind?

Screw-Out
 
Dean,

Yes, there are pig farms around and you have to keep distance so they don't freak out. I have not suffered the smell of the farm though so either I am lucky or there is a closer pig farm at Mentone.

Screw,

I plan to leave it white for the forseeable future. I have knocked some ideas around about painting a griffin on the tall tail. I would love to come to ROC but it is not looking good with my work schedule.

Kevin,

This is the first Elite Air Command Side by Side. It was built from the ground up to be what it is, no upgrade kit. Currently I know of 2 other side by side Elites. One is our very own Chris S. ( CLS447 ) who is doing a single place Elite to side by side Elite conversion. I have been told by Air Command that there is someone in northern Ohio doing a high-thrust line side by side ( original ) to Elite side by side conversion and this weekend I heard a rumor that another low thrust line side by side is being upgraded. So how does that work out? 1. ground up. 1. conversion from single. 2. ( unconfirmed ) conversions from 2 place original. = 4.

I am running a carb'ed EJ-22 with a warp drive. Chris is running a EA-81 in his. Rumor has it one of the 2-place upgrades plan to use a Rotax 682.

I have 28' DragonWings.

We did a thrust test Sunday and with the prop at a 14 degree pitch the RPM maxed out at 5000 ( right where I want it ) and static thrust in excess of 500lbs ( the scale maxed out at 500 ).

Thanks!
 
Tim,

Those numbers really sound good. What HP do you suppose the EJ 22 is putting out?

Kevin,

When the DW's get longer than 25 feet (I believe it is) then the hub bars start getting longer. In other words, the longest blades Ernie makes is either 12 or 12.5 feet. Thus a 4 foot bar and 12 foot blades makes up a 28 foot set.
 
Chuck, Mentone may have pig farms around it but I've yet to notice them and I've only missed one convention since Mentone opened in '96. So it must have been Greencastle. And believe me the wind was definitely letting us know that there was a pig farm near by. That and the flies!
 
tim congrats on the airworthy sounds like you are putting out some great thrust i put out ea 81 62 inch prop 350 at 4700rpm scale max at 14 deg pitch i can go to 5400rpm where did ya get a scale that goes that hi ??? congrats again
 
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