AOPA’s Nall Report€¦ · According to the Nall Report: In 2008, 228 amateur-built fixed-wing aircraft were involved in 226 distinct accidents, the same numbers as in 2007. This

Volume 4 - Issue 1 First Quarter 2010

$5.50 US

Every year, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association pub-lishes a summary of a single year’s accidents called the Nall Report. Using NTSB data, AOPA’s Air Safety Foundation examines trends and points out where general aviation is gain-ing and losing ground in the fight for safety. In years past, the Nall Report has been critical of Experimental/Amateur-Built aircraft, and the report published this year, using 2008 data, is no different. In fact, the tone can, I think, be read to be either condescending or alarmist, and the conclusions clearly fail to understand the unique nature of our sport.

According to the Nall Report: In 2008, 228 amateur-built fixed-wing aircraft were involved

in 226 distinct accidents, the same numbers as in 2007. This represents 18% of all non-commercial fixed-wing accident air-craft, the highest proportion in the past ten years, during which time that proportion has steadily increased. Sixty-one of these were fatal, resulting in 82 deaths; these were increases of six fatal accidents and nine fatalities from the previous year, and made up 26% of fatal accidents and 19% of all fatalities. By comparison, amateur-built aircraft logged continued

on Page 5

AOPA’s Nall Report:Homebuilers Get a Black Eye. Do We Deserve it?

GlaStar & Sportsman Flyer 2 First Quarter 2010

a quarterly publication of the GlaStar & Sportsman Association International

Editor and PublisherMarc Cook

Technical Contributor (Unpaid But Appreciated)

Ted Setzer

Editor EmeritusDave Prizio

Web Sitewww.glastar.org

www.glastarnet.org

[email protected]

Mailing Address203 Argonne Ave, Suite B105

Long Beach, CA 90803Phone (562) 219-3283

[Note: This is a new phone number!]

Back issues $5.50 plus shipping© Copyright 2010. All rights reserved

GlaStar® is a registered trademark of Glasair Aviation LLC. The trademark symbol is not shown throughout this publication merely for convenience.

Contents of this issue...

Features1 AOPA’sNallReport:HomebuildersGetaBlackEye.

Do We Deserve It?

By Marc Cook

3 GSAI Flight Deck: The Value of Community

By Marc Cook

4 FirstFlight:RobGriesdaleSportsmanC-GRGX

8 Insurance Beat: The Basics

By Scott “Sky” Smith

10 SafetyReport:SportsmanLoss-of-ElevatorAccident

By Marc Cook

12 Flying Safely: Landing Without the Elevator—

Can It Be Done?

By Marc Cook

14 Travels with Arlo: Winging It in the Northwest

ByArloReeves

19 More Travel: Smiley Creek 2009

ByDaveHulse

20 A Blast from the Past: Spy Shenanigans For

Ted and the Gang

By Ted Setzer

23 Maintenance Tips: Starting a Fuel-Injected Lycoming

By Ted Setzer

24 MaintenanceTips:LycomingNoseSealReplacement

By Marc Cook

RegularColumns27 StarFlight Achievement Awards

28 Calendar

First Quarter 2010 3 GlaStar & Sportsman Flyer

The Value of CommunityBy Marc Cook

I received a call from Ken Day recently who was asking some pretty smart ques-tions. He had noticed that the ailerons of his GlaStar were heavier in one direction than the other. And although he’s not the original builder of his airplane, he knew enough that something was wrong.

After a few minutes on the phone, I offered him a few places to look and he promised to make a thorough investiga-tion the next time he was at the airport, and before further flight. Turns out noth-ing more than a seatbelt caught in the pas-senger side aileron pulley was the culprit, easily remedied.

There are two take-homes from Ken’s experience. First, it’s important to be suf-ficiently aware of your airplane to know when something is different. Does the engine sound a bit unusual? Vibration levels changed since the last flight? Speeds high or low? Does your fuel computer suddenly disagree with the fuel truck’s reading? (For that matter, do you keep a regular record of fuel consumed versus fuel computer calculations, or inflight performance data? Do you download your engine monitor’s contents religiously?) Any changes at all are worth investigat-ing. And, any abnormalities regarding the flight-control system should be investi-gated right away.

The second aspect of this interaction is something inherent in our group: The avail-ability of people who know the GlaStar

intimately, most of whom are more than willing to offer advice and their experiences day and night through the GlastarNet. In the ranks of GlaStar and Sportsman build-ers, we have many who have flown several hundred hours, and have seen many of the common maintenance issues. Make use of them.

In order to do so, please consider signing up for the GlastarNet bulletin board if you haven’t already. It’s an important part of your GSAI membership, and probably has more great information than you can imagine.

Here’s an example of GlastarNet’s value. Recently, a discussion about homebuilt safety brought out the issue of where to get transition and recurrent training in our aircraft, and who might be able to provide flight time to builders about to commit first flight. (This is important. According to recent acci-dent analysis, overall for homebuilts the first flight is statistically as dangerous as a whole year’s worth of flying afterward.) Within a few hours, several members added their names to the hat. As this issue of the Flyer went to press, 23 GlaStar and Sportsman owners had volunteered to give

GSAI Flight Deck

Association Update

Please note that we have dropped our fax line and changed our primary telephone contact number to an almost unbelievably cheap Skype number. It is 562/219-3283. Any forms can be mailed to 203 Argonne Ave, Suite B105, Long Beach, CA 90803.

“fam” rides. To find them, log on to the GlastarNet. Click on the StarBase link in the top menu. In the form on the next page, click the button next to List members who can provide a demo or familiarization flight in a Glastar or Sportsman. We have owners in the U.S., Canada and Switzerland will-

ing to offer rides. They are in addition to Alan Negrin’s new venture, offering tran-sition training, tailwheel checkouts, and Advanced Flight EFIS training for build-ers. As Glasair Aviation’s demo pilot for several years, Alan has what you might call extensive experience in the type.

Our community is rich, varied and won-derful. We can give each other the tools to stay safe. •

Martha Cook grabbed this shot of N30KP landing at Torrance, CA.


First Flight

The first flight of #7103 was this November and we now have 50 trouble-free hours on C-GRGX. She cruises at 148 knots TAS at 6500 feet and 23 squared, with an IO-390 from AeroSport Power and a constant-speed prop. This engine/prop combo is great. We operate out of High River, Alberta (CEN4), which has an elevation of 3440 feet.

I’m going to put the big tires on her and use our ranch as a base in the future, giving up a little speed I suppose but landing next to the kitchen and the shop. I made a bunch of mods (improvements) but nothing too radical. The fuel vent system was the most radical but has proven to be perfect so far. I copied a Russian high wing that I was familiar with—the vents exit the belly and the fairings cover riser loops in the 1/4-inch vent line.

I love the position of the com antennas on top of the wing, as it gives me the best perfor-mance I have ever had from aircraft radios.

The wing-tip landing lights and HID taxi lights light up our way. We also modified Billie’s seats, as they crowded the sticks but gained a great storage spot. I also substituted the inboard vortex generators for laid up fair-ings and have no problems, only a very leak-free cabin. I must give credit to the designer of a very good aircraft, one that will improve with time. •

Rob GriesdaleSportsman C-GRGX


Nall Report (con’t from page 1)

less than 5% of the corresponding flight time. 2008 saw the highest numbers of fatal accidents and individual fatalities in the past decade, and more total accidents than any year except 2007. The 27% lethality rate in these accidents was 10 full percentage points higher than that for accidents in type-certificated airplanes.

Sounds pretty bad, doesn’t it? But that summation of homebuilt aircraft just doesn’t jibe with our experience as GlaStar builders and pilots. So I decided to dig into the raw data from the NTSB to determine just what’s up. Are we really that danger-ous, or is there something rotten in the data?

A long few days poring over the data proves a few things. First, the NTSB database is, indeed, flawed. Important data fields are often left empty, incorrectly filled out, or plain mixed up. The big problem is that many aircraft listed as Experimental/Amateur-Built are not aircraft that we nor-mally define as being in the category. For example, recent changes to the LSA rules have forced many owners of ultralights to register their aircraft as Experimental Light Sport. Accidents that would have been reported as “unregistered ultralight” are now designated as ELSA and find them-selves with an “EXP” marker that puts them in the same category as a GlaStar. Moreover, there are many accidents listed as EXP that clearly are not, including a Kaman helicopter, a Laird biplane and an Extra 300. Plus the ultralights.

The Nall Report calls out from the 270 total accidents some 69 fatals. When you remove the entries that are not genu-inely Experimental/Amateur-Built, there remain 53 fatal accidents. The involve-ment includes one GlaStar, one Glasair III, seven four-seat Lancairs, four two-seat Lancairs, 11 two-seat RVs, and two four-seat RV-10s.

But even when you manually exclude the bad data, there remain errors. There

was a tragic ground-contact accident in Florida between a Velocity and an RV-8. Apparently, the Velocity landed after four RVs were finishing a formation landing to a pancake breakfast. The Velocity lost con-trol, slid through the grass, and collided with the RV-8 on the ramp. You might accept that the Velocity could be counted as an EX/AB accident, but it hardly seems

fair for the death in the RV-8 to go on our record, so to speak—even though it’s statistically correct to exclude it. What’s more, the fatality listings had it as three each. Turns out the two in the Velocity died, and the RV-8’s pilot died; apparently, his back seater had serious injuries. But that’s three deaths counted in the NTSB data as six.

Noted aviation writer and statistic maven Ron Wanttaja created a short report for the EAA in the aftermath of the Nall Report. His findings were that of the 269 aircraft listed in the accident database, 84 were not Experimental/Amateur-Built. As a result, when you look at the involvement rate based on fleet size (31,242 on the FAA’s rolls), the number changes from 0.86% (using the 269 accidents) to 0.59% with correct sorting. That’s not the kind of sta-tistic you’re accustomed to seeing, though. Safety watchers like to focus on accident rates—total accidents divided by number

of hours flown. Unfortunately, the data come from two places, the numerator from the NTSB and the denominator from the FAA. And, worse, the FAA’s numbers are estimates based, in part, on voluntary report of hours flown. It’s a common assumption that these hours-flown figures are far less than immaculate. Combine an overstated number of accidents with the

possibility that the number of hours flown is under reported, and you get a poor-looking accident rate.

The Nall Report took us to task for a high number of mechanical and unexplained loss-of-power acci-dents. Wanttaja looked closely at the accidents and found that, best he could determine, less than 40% of the fleet used conventional engines, while 35% of the aircraft involved in 2008 accidents had auto-engine conversions or two-strokes. The dif-ficulty in appreciating these figures is

because of the way some aircraft are regis-tered, and there are many where it is diffi-cult or impossible to know precisely which engine is aboard. Wanttaja summarizes that the “use of non-traditional engines is one of the most cherished aspects of the homebuilt aircraft movement, but it does present increased risk.”

In the categories of “maintenance error” and “other mechanical,” homebuilts are close to the GA fleet, but are much worse in the categories of “engine mechanical,” “fuel system,” and “undetermined loss of power.” As Wanttaja points out, many of the aircraft involved could have their engines started afterward, suggesting carb ice or fuel starvation/exhaustion—all items that rightly ought to be in the “pilot error” column.

From the NTSB records: During the first 20 minutes of flight, the fuel selector was set to the main (center) tank. The pilot then switched the selector to the left wing tank, and then to the right tank during the flight. Approximately

Wanttaja on Homebuilt Accidents Page 6

The mechanical failures related to the engine are probably due to the high

percentage of experimental engines installed in these experimental aircraft. In 2008, for

example, less than 40 percent of the accident aircraft carried a traditional aircraft engine

(Lycoming, Continental, etc.), while 35 percent of the aircraft mounted either an auto-

engine conversion or a two-stroke engines.

Use of non-traditional engines is one of the most cherished aspects of the homebuilt

aircraft movement, but it does present increased risk.

0% 5% 10% 50% 60% 70% 80%

Other Mechanical

Undetermined Loss of Power

Fuel System

Engine Mechanical

Builder/Manufacturer Error

Maintenance Error

All Pilot Error

Percent of Accidents

Cessna 172/210

Homebuilts

The higher percentage of experimental engines may contribute to the higher rate

of “Undetermined Loss of Power,” as well. For accidents involving aircraft with certified

engines, representatives of the engine manufacturer often contribute to the investigative

process. This level of support is not as available, for accidents in the Experimental

Amateur-Built category. With unusual, custom-built engine types, investigators are

probably forced to list the engine failure reason as “undetermined” more often than usual.

In a number of the “Undetermined Loss of Power” incidents, the engine was able

to be started afterwards. Some may, then, actually be “Pilot Error: accidents, involving

carburetor icing or mismanaging a new aircraft’s fuel system.

Ron Wanttaja’s sort of homebuilt accidents versus a control group of Cessna 172 and 210 models combined.

continued on Page 7


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20 minutes after switching back to the left tank, the engine lost power. While perform-ing the emergency checklist the fuel selector was found to move freely with little resis-tance. In a statement written to the National Transportation Safety Board, the pilot stated that he knew the main tank fuel gauge was not working and that if it were operational it would have alerted him to the fuel selec-tor valve control failure. Examination of the airplane revealed that the center fuel tank had a capacity of 10 gallons of fuel and it was not breached. This tank was found empty of fuel. Further inspection of the fuel selector valve and handle revealed that a cotter pin used to secure the handle to the shaft, which turns the valve was sheared. This resulted in movement of the fuel selec-tor handle not changing the position of the valve and remaining on the main fuel tank position.

And while homebuilt aircraft aren’t as exposed in instrument-related crashes, we are definitely over-represented in the areas of low-altitude maneuvering and failure to maintain control during the approach and landing phases of flight.

From the NTSB: Soon after taking off from the paved runway, the pilot of the experimental airplane leveled off about 200 feet above ground level. At that altitude, and long before reaching the departure end of the runway, the pilot began a 180-degree turn that would bring him onto a low-level downwind where he would soon turn base from this very abbreviated traffic pattern. During the turn, the bank angle of the air-plane became very steep, and the pilot failed to maintain an airspeed above the increased stalling speed (Vs) in the steep turn. The air-plane stalled and descended at a steep angle into the terrain.

The question is: Are the characteristics of some homebuilts such that this same pilot might get away with the maneuver in a Mooney or a Bonanza? Possibly. I think the docile handling and low land-ing speeds of the GlaStar/Sportsman have done the design a lot of good in terms of the safety record.

But that’s just half of the work done. After spending several days with the NTSB data, looking at all the ways pilots can come to grief, what stands out most is attitude. Take maintenance seriously. Because we aren’t subject to the same reg-ulations as certified aircraft doesn’t mean we can ignore accepted methods and prac-tices. Fly intelligently. While our accident rate, as presented by the Nall Report, is exaggerated, the truth is that we as pilots remain our own worst enemy. •

—Marc Cook

Nall Report (con’t from page 5)


Insurance Beat

It happens. Things are going fine, your air-craft is flying great, the winds are favorable and then—the unexpected, the nightmare you have worried about and trained for as a pilot: an insurance claim. It’s not a time to panic. If you land off airport or push the tail into a pole, don’t worry. The claims pro-cess is still the same. If you plan ahead, any mishap will be just another day in the life of an aircraft owner. So what do you do? All those hours of training have paid off if you have an accident without a serious injury. We tell our insureds that an aircraft can be replaced, but pilots and passengers can’t. So the first thing to do is make sure the pas-sengers and pilots are safe.

In the overall claims process the first thing the claims departments recommend (after pilot and passen-ger safety) is to secure the aircraft. This means to make sure that it is out of the way, locked up or tied down (if possible). Don’t be sur-prised if it’s not always possible to do this right away. Sometimes this happens the next day or by a friend or local FBO. The next thing is to contact the FAA and claims department. While many people fear the FAA it is important to notify them as soon as possible of the situation. If the problem is damage to the aircraft in the hangar or while pushing it on the ground or even when taxiing, you might not need to contact the FAA. Minor claims, from an insurance standpoint, don’t need to have FAA involvement. But, be careful about when and if you call the FAA. If you have an accident that blocks the runway, or injures a person, you’d better call. On the other hand, if you back the aircraft into

your hangar and tweak the tail, the FAA won’t need to be involved.

As an independent agent I am at a dis-advantage. The claims department wants us to notify them of any claims, but then they work directly with the insured and I never see anything until the check is mailed. Usually the claims department wants the insured to contact them directly. So what we recommend is that the insured

contact the claims department and us. We will then send a notification to the claims department and they will try to contact the insured.

The claims department will want a description of the claims. This means: when, where, who, what and why. It is important that you are straight forward with these people because after the report, they often send out a claims adjuster to get more details. The adjuster can be a friend or foe depending on the initial contact. I have not met a claims adjuster that was what I would consider “bad.” I have met a few that were harder to work with and a few that frustrated me with the time it took to

settle, but they did their job. And their job is to try to satisfy the insured while at the same time try to save the insurance com-pany money.

If there is a claim, the adjuster has to dig for the facts and try to establish a way for the company to settle and minimize the claim amount paid. At the same time, the insured wants a brand new aircraft to replace the old ratted out damaged plane. It

doesn’t work that way. The company just has to put the aircraft back into the condition that it was, before the accident. They don’t have to replace anything that was damaged from wear and tear or failure. Example: you blow a cylinder and the aircraft lands off airport. They will pay for the damage from the off airport landing but not to the engine for the blown cylinder. If the engine is past TBO, they don’t have to put in a new engine (although they can help reduce the cost for an overhaul). The process takes time. It can happen

fast if it is a simple claim. A simple settle-ment example; an arsonist started a group of aircraft on fire. One of my insureds’ air-craft was totally destroyed, another insured was just overly heated (enough to melt all the windows and decals off the aircraft). The claims adjuster appeared within 24 hours and made a decision to pay the claim within the next week. (Other owners with a different insurance company and agent took months to get their money, but that’s a different story).

Another example: An insured had a gear failure and damaged the left engine, prop and belly of his multi engine air-craft. While a simple claim, it happened

Claims Settlements: The BasicsBy Scott “Sky” Smith


a long way from the home airport and in the process of the move, the company changed adjusters. This in itself should not be a problem but the new adjuster had a different opinion on the settlement and has asked for additional estimates. This of course stopped the repair process and greatly disturbed (in fact, infuriated) the insured.

Let’s make a note here, I would not have known about any of this if the insured hadn’t called me. The claims department generally leaves the agent out. There is nothing really for us to do in the claim process.

In this situation, the insured asked me for help and I contacted the claims depart-ment. They explained their position and the need for additional estimates and said things were being taken care of. While the insured is not happy, it appears that there is nothing left to do but wait.

While it might not make the insured happy, they were just doing their job. This was and probably is the only insurance company that will provide coverage for this situation (the type of aircraft and the pilot). And now after a claim it will prob-ably be worse. The insured has a claim in his history and other companies are less likely to quote the risk.

This would be a “worst” case scenario; most claims are simple and settled quickly. Some of the factors that could affect the settlement are: the type of claim, type of plane, type of engine, location of the acci-dent, parts availability and the insured value. These are all pretty self explanatory. If the plane is hard to locate, hard to get parts for or extensively damaged, the claim settlement may take longer. If the aircraft is undervalued, it may be simply a case of the claims adjuster writing a check and taking the salvage.

While the claims adjuster may request moving the aircraft, I’d hope not too far. I did have an owner call and describe

a claim on an aircraft they owned. The accident happened on their private strip. Their question was about moving the air-craft to another airport. Apparently the adjuster required them to move the air-craft from their private strip (and hangar) to another airport for settlement. This required removing the wings and trucking it there! This was an unusual request. The moving costs were added to the settlement amount, which was added to the total amount of the loss. This was unusual and I have never had this happen to any of my insureds since.

I’d also be wary of adjusters that send all their repairs to one shop. Sometimes this can be a good thing for the insured. The adjuster might just have a good working relationship with the shop and actually get you better repair quotes then somewhere else. But, they might also have a “special deal” going with the mechanic. Beware when this shop is the extreme in the esti-mates (highest or lowest). The insured should research the repair shop for reputa-tion and quality. Like anything else in avia-tion, buyers beware.

Most claims adjusters will work with the insured and offer a number of alternatives to settle. Sometimes it’s cash, sometimes it’s the “first option” to buy back the sal-vage and sometimes it’s just repairing the aircraft back to what it was. Overall, if you work with the adjuster, I have seen very few problems in the claims settlements.

If you have questions about your insur-ance company, feel free to contact your agent. While they aren’t always involved in the claims process they can try and help if you need them to. As the insured, you are the customer and the agent is your repre-sentative to the company. •

For more information, contact SkySmith Insurance at www.skysmith.com, 800/743-1439, or 515/289-1439.


Safety Report

On April 17, 2009, the second of the only two fatal GlaStar Sportsman accidents occurred. Tom Alexander’s Two Weeks to Taxi Sportsman was in Phase I flight test and, according to the NTSB report, originated at the Rancho Murieta airport. (You can read the entire report by going to

www.ntsb.gov/aviation and search for case number WPR09LA202.)

The airplane had been flown in Arlington and then transported to California for the remaining portion of Phase I. Before we begin looking closely into this accident and its repercussions, I think it’s fair to say that as pilots and builders we express our sincerest condolences to Tom’s family for their loss. And rather than consider this a macabre picking of the bones, I would hope they would see our discussion as a way to understand the issue and to prevent something like this happening again.

The initial description of the accident

Sportsman Loss-of-Elevator Accident

By Marc Cookcontains clues that would send a shiver up the spine of any experienced pilot. Excerpted from the accident report:

A witness reported that while taxiing his airplane at RIU and monitoring the common traffic advisory frequency (CTAF) of 122.8 megahertz, he heard a radio transmission

stating, “MAYDAY MAYDAY, I’m going down into the brush.... I’ve lost elevator control.” The wit-ness stated that he continued to monitor the frequency, but did not hear any further radio calls. A second witness, who was fly-ing near Placerville, California, reported that while monitoring 122.8 megahertz, he heard some-one transmit “Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!, (unintelligible call sign numbers) No elevator no elevator, I’m going down, I’m going down, no elevator, I’m going down, I’m going down in some trees!”

Examination of the acci-dent site by a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspector revealed that the airplane struck the tops of 40 to 50-foot tall trees

and subsequently impacted the ground about 300 feet from the first identified point of contact with trees. Multiple topped trees and down tree limbs were observed within the wreck-age debris path. The airplane came to rest adjacent to a residential structure against a retaining wall and was mostly consumed by fire. All

major structural components of the airplane were observed at the accident site. The left and right wings were separated from the fuselage. The left and right flaps and aile-rons remained attached to their respective mounts.

Examination of the recovered airframe revealed that the elevator torque tube was disconnected from the forward rod end bear-ing. The forward rod end bearing remained attached to the elevator bell crank assembly. The forward torque tube rod end jam nut was observed threaded about one-half inch from the threaded rod end. Gray colored paint was observed between the jam nut and torque tube. No paint was observed from the jam out to the end of the rod end. No dam-age was noted to the forward torque tube rod end threads or forward rod end bearing threads.

The aft torque tube jam nut and torque tube rod end was observed against the aft rod end bearing. The aft torque tube rod end was slightly bent and did not allow movement. The aft elevator rod end bearing remained attached to the elevator control horn. No evidence of “torque seal” was observed on the forward or aft jam nuts, rod end bearings, or torque tube assembly. The elevator control


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cables remained attached to the elevator bell crank and continuity was established to the cockpit control column area. Control conti-nuity was established from the left and right aileron to the wing root. All separations within flight control cable system exhibited “broom straw” and overload signatures or were cut by wreckage recovery personnel to facilitate wreckage transport.

The elevator trim motor was removed and functioned normally from stop to stop when power was applied using a 9-volt bat-tery. The position of the elevator trim was not determined. No additional mechanical anomalies were noted with the airframe.

We see a clear indication that Tom had lost elevator control through a separation of the last link in the control chain, the short pushrod between the bellcrank and the elevator itself. All aircraft have single points of failure, components that would be impractical to double-up. When we look at these systems, we expect to see com-ponents that work far below their breaking points; the idea is that certain pieces—wing spars, crankshafts—have extremely generous material margins. But they have to be properly assembled to achieve those margins, and that responsibility rests solely on our shoulders. Many builders say it’s a good idea to have another set of eyes look at newly constructed (or reassembled) air-craft, and are equally valuable during the annual condition inspection.

I can relate a similar experience. Just prior to my Sportsman’s first flight, three of us took to the airplane with the final-assembly checklist in hand, and each of us saw four things the other two did not...despite us all having been around the air-plane for nearly three weeks. Humans are fallible. I would strongly encourage each of you to take advantage of local build-ers, other members of your EAA chapter, friendly A&Ps—whatever it takes—to have another set of eyes and hands go over your GlaStar before first flight and again before release out of Phase I. •


Flying Safely

Landing Without the Elevator: Can It Be Done?

By Marc Cook

The Alexander accident brought the inevitable question: What would you do if faced with the loss of elevator control? In order to answer this question, first understand that there are at least a couple of failure modes in play. One is a jammed system where the elevator is locked into place. Depending upon the angle of the elevator at the time of the jam and other factors—including how close you are to the ground—the airplane may or may not be controllable.

But there’s the other scenario, where the elevator control is lost but the elevator itself is free to float. In this case, the trim system is your friend. Changing trim will cause the GlaStar to seek the airspeed cor-responding to that setting, the so-called trim airspeed. Unlike many homebuilts, both models of the GlaStar have excellent adherence to trim airspeed. They seek it

quickly and hold it well; excursions from trim airspeed are relatively shallow and short-lived.

As an exercise, I took my Sportsman up to see if I could perform “landings in the sky” using just the trim system and manipulation of power. Testing the theory is harder than it sounds. Managing roll through the ailerons without imparting pitch inputs requires some discipline. I found it easy to use rudder to keep the wings level and, in essence, fly hands off the stick.

I flew a configuration that was both ideal and worst case: Just me in the airplane, inboard fuel only, no baggage. The for-ward CG would make it harder to “flare” for the landing at altitude, but the lack of outboard fuel would reduce wing-rocking tendencies.

Established in low-cruise flight, the first order of business is to slow down. At a fixed trim speed, reducing power results in a nose-down pitching moment. That’s no surprise, as the airplane is trying to regain its trim airspeed. A quick push of the Nose Up trim switch soon has the nose rising again, but it’s sluggish and it’s easy to overshoot the trim setting you want for level flight. I found the best approach was to pulse the trim motor a bit at a time and wait to see the result. Eventually, I got the airplane comfortable at 85 knots indicated (KIAS) clean and could make turns easily. In the turn, the nose would fall slightly, airspeed increase, and then when rolling out, the nose would rise again. These oscillations were minor and would damp out within

two or three cycles.I also tried one notch of flaps at 75

KIAS and two notches at 65-70. Turns out, the airplane, at this loading, is more stable and controllable with just the one notch. Full flaps makes it too draggy and slow to respond. One notch helps reduce the deck angle but isn’t so draggy as to be difficult to manage.

And while manipulating elevator trim was effective, adjusting power was more so. A high-wing airplane tends to respond nose-up with the initial application of power—the thrust line is below the cen-ter of lift—and then settle into whatever pitch attitude is necessary to achieve trim airspeed. Maintaining 75 KIAS takes rela-tively little power, and adding and subtract-ing small amounts would see the airplane descend comfortably at 500 fpm, remain level, or climb gradually without excessive pitch excursions. As long as you’re smooth with the power application and willing to tolerate the nose bobbing up and down, the airplane is controllable.

Of course, practicing in the air is quite different than doing the deed for real, and there’s a chance the airplane would touch down nose-first, but I’m convinced that it’s possible to get the airplane to the runway and into a reasonable landing configuration, speed and rate of descent, that the outcome would be good. I’m not intending to second-guess what happened inside Tom Alexander’s Sportsman last April, and wouldn’t dare to diminish the effect of surprise. Instead, I recommend that you all go out and simulate a landing to a hard altitude to see how your airplane responds. You will probably never need to perform such a feat, but it’ll be helpful to know you can. •


Travels with Arlo

From our home base in coastal Northern California (KLLR), Ann and I fly south in the fall and spring to explore the desert and find the sun. But when summer arrives, northwest air-camping beckons and we discover a little more on each trip. My O-320 powered GlaStar with Hartzell propeller is set up as a trike with 5-inch tires. This configuration has served us well for 950+ hours of eco-nomical flying, but it’s not what you’d call a bushplane. Yet we’ve found that with a little care we can visit many interesting unpaved airstrips with fine campsites in the northwest without damaging our prop or even removing our wheelpants. Here’s a report on a few we visited in the summer of 2009.

We had a good two-plus weeks blocked off, but only had plans for the first few nights. By taking along our camping gear, we could be more spontaneous in our planning and relocate as weather and whims dictated. We also knew we’d pick up travel tips from other pilots along the way.

GlaStar and Sportsman builder Dave Ammenti invited us to start our trip by meeting him at his place near Truckee (KTRK), just north of Lake Tahoe. This put the first hour of a long flight behind us before a good night’s rest and also allowed us to fly together the following morning to Smiley Creek, Idaho, for the 2nd Annual GlaStar and Sportsman fly-in organized by Dave Hulse. Last year, many of us first timers discovered the upper Sawtooth valley in perfect weather, so we

knew it would make a great start to our summer trip. You can get the whole scoop on

the Smiley Creek fly-in as well the dates for next year’s event in Dave Hulse’s article on page 19.

We spent a memorable weekend in the Smiley Creek area with our GlaStar buddies that included a half day raft trip with John and Brenda Lake

Winging It in the NorthwestText and Photos By Arlo Reeves

A sunset flight into Truckee to meet Dave and Ann Ammenti.

Dave and Anne Ammenti lead the way to Idaho the second morning.


on the Payette River near Garden Valley (U88), hiking again with them to Bridal Veil Falls near Stanley Lake and a little kayaking on Redfish Lake with Martin and Alex Baumer. There was also plenty of time for hangar flying, aircraft ogling and group dinners. It wasn’t long before our conver-sations inevitably turned to air-camping destinations.

Charles Adkisson flew his GlaStar up from Midland, Texas, on a month-long trip with Chantal. Independently, we had both discovered Stehekin State (6S9) on the Seattle sectional, located deep in a valley among the North Cascades at the end of 50-mile-long Lake Chelan, acces-sible only by foot, boat or plane. Despite an intimidating description of this airstrip on the Washington State Department of Transportation web site, Ted Setzer, who also came to Smiley Creek, assured us we

could land there, even in our GlaStar trike. Onto our itinerary it went!

Kyle Garrett, a friend of Alan Negrin’s and an experienced backcountry pilot from Sandpoint who’d brought his fam-ily to Smiley Creek in their Saratoga, recommended we visit Moose Creek (1U1). Along with Johnson Creek and Big Creek, Moose Creek is another of the easy backcountry strips in Idaho. Located at the confluence of Moose Creek and the Selway River, it even has a crosswind run-way. Kyle’s enthusiastic recommendation moved Moose Creek up the destination short list.

After Smiley Creek, we continued east to West Yellowstone (KWYS) and enjoyed exploring the area west of Yellowstone

National Park (we’d visited the Park itself by GlaStar twice before). First, we stayed at Henry’s Fork Lodge right on the Henry’s Fork of the Snake River, which is a fisherman’s paradise. Bubbling out of the ground nearby at Big Springs, the Henry’s Fork is mineral rich and packed with fish. Although we’re not fishing fanatics our-selves, Ann and I could not help but mar-vel at the number and size of trout in this river on a short canoe trip we did from Big Springs down to Macks Inn. We also drove into the Centennial Valley to the Red Rocks Lakes National Wildlife Refuge and hiked in nearby Harriman State Park. We saw moose, pronghorn antelope (common at Smiley Creek, too), marmots, trumpeter swans and cygnets, sandhill cranes, and a

Above: Ann and Arlo over Nevada. Right: The 2nd Annual GlaStar fly-in at Smiley Creek, Idaho, begins now!

Below Left: The GlaStar crowd watches as John J. makes a late arrival. Right: Breakfast at the Stanley Baking Company warms us up.

Travels with Arlo


ruffed grouse with nine chicks, among other things. The Centennial Valley gave one the feeling of seeing Montana largely untouched, like it was, well, a century ago.

Our last night in the area was spent at the West Yellowstone airport campground. Although it’s not visible on Google Earth, there’s a very nice collection of campsites in the trees north of the ramp and camping there is free to pilots (the tiedown is a reasonable $5). Loaner bicycles are available and there are tables, fire-rings, portable showers and vault toilets. West Yellowstone is only 2 miles away and although it’s something of a tourist trap, the town has several restaurants and one very interesting used book-store, The Bookworm.

The next morning we overflew the largest and most photogenic hot spring in North America, Yellowstone’s Grand Prismatic Spring (see the August cover of National Geographic magazine). It’s on the west side of the park, so we were careful to keep our noise down and our altitude up over 2000 feet AGL, before continuing on to Twin Bridges, Montana (7S1), for fuel. Prior to flying into high or short strips, I always consider my fuel load. Normally if I happen on some cheap fuel I’ll top off all the tanks, but it’s nice to be light as possible when performance equals safety. And with the two of us 6-footers and 120+ pounds of camping gear, I didn’t want to tanker too much extra fuel around. This requires flight planning all the legs to the next fuel stop, but with a calibrated fuel totalizer I can esti-mate my needs accurately simply using my Garmin 196’s flight plan functions and an estimate of the winds aloft.

Our route continued to Moose Creek, over the south-ern end of the Bitterroot Mountains, and into the Selway river canyon. Moose Creek has two generous turf runways 4000 and 2300 feet in length with surfaces that are quite good where they see frequent use. We chose the longer on arrival, and found that outside the narrow centerline the grass was getting tall, so my prop tips turned green as we weed-whacked our way into a parking spot. At the ranger station, we enjoyed a friendly greeting from a volunteer and learned that no power tools are used to mow the field since it’s in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness; all mowing

is done by a mule-drawn mowing machine. Even supplies and workers come in on horse-back, reducing air support flights to about 20, from previously over 170 per year. Still it’s a popular fly-in destination. While we were the only aircraft there the night we camped, the following morning a group of flying buddies stopped in from Stevensville, Montana. Among them was Dolan McDonald, chief pilot for the forest service in Missoula. He was very interested in the GlaStar and even tried it on for size and a photo.

Built in 1922, the historic Moose Creek ranger station is at the northeast end of run-way 04/22 with several other buildings, two with potable water on tap. The camping

Top: Dave Ammenti and Anne find that dueling iPhones is even more entertaining. Center: A hike to Bridalveil Falls (Idaho version). Above: a half-day whitewater trip down Swirley Canyon.


Travels With Arlo (con’t)

area, however is at the opposite end of that runway, so it’s good to have a jug to tote water back to the campground. Nice campsites in the trees each have a large table and fire ring, with a vault toilet nearby. A 10-minute walk takes you about 200 feet down to the river where substantial suspension bridges cross both the Selway River and Moose Creek. At the confluence is a small sandy spit where we took a brief dip in the cold and fast moving waters of Moose Creek.

We departed the following morning and followed the river downstream 25 miles to Selway Falls, then turned north and in 90 minutes arrived at Cavanaugh Bay (66S). A nice turf strip on the southeast corner of Priest Lake, Cavanaugh Bay has it all: a great location next to a beautiful lake and resort with dining, an accom-modating airport manager who maintains an excellent airport campground with hot showers (currently being rebuilt), free fire-wood and an inexpensive car ($5/day and 30¢/mi). Although it had only been open for a day since being resurfaced and reseeded, there were already 14 aircraft there when we arrived on July 3rd. We were happy to discover among those camping our new friends from Smiley Creek, Charles and Chantal in GlaStar N46CT.

To celebrate July 4th, we paddled a rented canoe to Bartoo Island in the middle of Priest Lake to picnic and swim. That evening we enjoyed a campground potluck with our flying friends and sat on the dock of the bay for a dramatic amateur fireworks show.

According to my fuel totalizer, we had arrived in Cavanaugh Bay with 13.3 gallons remaining, plenty to make it to nearby Sandpoint for our next fill-up. However Charles found himself a little short after dipping his tanks. He was about to make a fuel run to Sandpoint (KSZT) in a friend’s 180 when I offered to fill

his 5 gallon jug from my aircraft. Having religiously recorded the amount required for every top off and compared that to the totalizer, I was confident this would leave me with plenty to make Sandpoint safely. This tool has proved its value over and over, but accurate calibration requires keeping records over many flights.

After several days of fine weather, rain was forecast for Priest Lake, so we departed to the west via Sandpoint and spent a night at the airport in Chelan, Washington (S10). It’s beautifully located among cherry orchards next to the Columbia River and shortly after landing we met a young family departing in a 206. They insisted we borrow their airport car, an aging Suburban, which allowed us to drive a couple miles into town for a good meal at the Apple Cup café. Encounters with kind and generous pilots are one of the nicest things about traveling in small aircraft. When the cold front passed through that night we were intro-duced to the notorious Columbia gorge winds. We feared our tent would collapse until I strategically parked the Suburban as a wind block.

The runway surface at our next stop, Stehekin State, is described online as being “extremely rough,” so I tried to get a current report on its condition, but nobody I asked had flown there recently. So we departed prepared for a round trip and flew 50 miles up white-capped Lake Chelan into an increasingly stiff headwind. Announcing our intentions a few miles out, we heard a welcome pirep from a Chelan Airways Beaver pilot who reassured us that with the wind and uphill landing we should have no problem with the surface. The 2600-foot runway is surrounded by tall trees and though rougher than the local dirt roads, was safe for our 5-inch tires and wheelpants. Instead it was the turbulence, trees and

Telling flying stories well into the night. Dave Ammenti loves it here.


terrain on our dogleg final that provided excitement.There’s no camping under the wing at Stehekin, but there are

loaner bicycles and baggage carts, so you can wheel your gear to the Harlequin campground on the banks of the glacier-blue

Stehekin River about a half-mile away. Each campsite has a table and fire ring and a shared bear box and vault toilets. We were tickled to have this great campground to ourselves, even if it meant occasionally donating blood to the local mosquitoes.

Riding our loaner bikes down to the lake, the first landmark we passed was Rainbow Falls, which plummets 312 feet down from a hanging valley. Next we stopped at the Stehekin Pastry Company, a local bakery that’s so go we felt like opening a tab. Ann loves a good bakery, and Stehekin’s star rose perceptibly as we indulged ourselves there. After that we felt like a couple kids on a pedal (and pastry) powered discovery tour and hadn’t gone far before finding a huge organic vegetable garden where the barefoot proprietor single handedly tends to a 2-acre plot, selling produce and homemade goat cheese to those who stop and ring the bell. A little further we came to the lake itself where there are amenities for Pacific Crest Trail backpackers and day-visitors alike: The Ferry Landing, Stehekin Landing Resort, Post Office, store, public showers and phone (there’s only one). There’s also the Golden West Visitor’s center where you get mandatory but free camping permits from National Park Service personnel.

The population of Stehekin is so small that we kept running into the same people, sometimes in their park uniforms, and sometimes eating cinnamon rolls in the bakery. In the course of just a few days we started to recognize more and more faces. With the friendly and relaxed pace of life there, we soon started to feel like locals.

As we hiked above Rainbow Falls the next morning we saw Charles and Chantal arrive in their GlaStar, followed by their

180-flying Ohio friends Jim and Karen Hill. After camping in Johnson Creek and Cavanaugh Bay this foursome upgraded their accommodations and rented a nice cabin at the Stehekin Valley

Top: Martin and Alex show off their bikes and trike. Above: Landing at Moose Creek, a backcountry airstrip. Arlo wore his “Trust Me” t-shirt for the occasion. Below: An impressive departure.


Travels With Arlo (con’t)

Ranch, 9 miles up the valley. Equipped with a kitchen, WiFi and even car privileges, they were doing Stehekin in style. Over the next few days we visited them at the ranch and went on a hike together up Agnes Creek Gorge and on an 11-mile rafting trip down the Stehekin River to the landing.

None of us wanted to leave idyllic Stehekin, but reluctantly we bid our traveling buddies farewell and each headed homeward in different directions. The weather was beautiful, calm and very clear all over northern Washington, which made for some great scenic flying on our route up Stehekin valley and over the

Cascades. We had intended to begin making our way home via the coast of Oregon, but the fog there was much less inviting than the local weather. Instead, within an hour after departing Stehekin, we dropped into a completely different setting on Orcas Island.

Orcas Island (KORS) is the only public airport we’re aware of in the San Juan Islands that accommodates fly-in camping. They have a turf parking area where you can camp under your wing and although no tables are provided there is a hot shower in the end of one of the hangar buildings. It’s a 10-minute walk into East Sound, which has many restaurants. We rented bikes there and saw a little bit of the island, glad to have low gearing for the many hills. But compared to the quiet Stehekin Valley, the pace was more hectic and made us feel like we should have been there 40 years ago, or at least not on a busy summer weekend.

We’d never seen the San Juans in such perfect weather, though, and found good company in the other pilots who were camped out at the airport. Kenny from Camas, OR, regularly flew his highly modified Coot to the San Juans for fun and told us how to find killer whales. “Fly west and south of San Juan Island, then look for a large number of boats.” Whale tour operators form an

entourage for the whale pods that make them easy to find, though no less exciting to see. Finally we pointed the GlaStar south, stopped once for fuel in Lebanon, OR (S30), and were home in about 5 hours.

GlaStar trips like this have been a great joy for us and we’re always looking forward to the next one. It’s a wonderful way to see our country and provides easy access to some remote areas. And

even if most of your flying, like ours, is from paved strips in a GlaStar trike, there are many beautiful and interesting backcoun-try strips that are accessible without larger tires or converting to a taildragger. So we hope to meet you out there—how about next summer? •

Above: Flying up Lake Chelan, the terrain feature of the GPS shows us where not to go. Left: Columbia River near the town of Chelan. Cherries and apple orchards abound. Below: One last look at the Stehekin airsptrip.

Summer GlaStar Trip Index (from Garmin 196 Flight Log and personal fuel logs):

• 19.5 hours aloft (20.7 Hobbs)• 17 flight legs averaging 1.1 hours each• 2718 statue miles flown over the ground• 121.5 knots average ground speed (when > 30kts)• 147 gallons 100LL burned• 1 Qt. Aeroshell 100W oil• 16 nights out, 12 in our tent• 1 squawk: leaky aux tank sump drain on our last leg home (replacement O-ring 35¢)

In June, 2008, we organized a four-day fly-in to Smiley Creek, Idaho. There were six GlaStars in attendance. Thus began what was to become an annual event, the most recent of which was held June 25 through June 29, 2009. This event attracted 17 aircraft, 13 of which were GlaStars/Sportsman. In 2009, we were joined by Ted Setzer and Scott Taylor from Glasair Aviation. The farthest distance traveled was by Charles Adkisson from Midland, Texas, in GlaStar N46CT.

There were several reasons for choos-ing Smiley Creek as an Idaho destination fly-in. The airport (U87) lies at the south end of the scenic Sawtooth Basin, mak-ing a great base for accessing the Idaho Sawtooth Mountain range and other cen-tral Idaho mountain strips. The airport is owned and operated by the Idaho State Aero Division and has a 10-passenger van available that can be rented at a nominal charge for accessing lakes, streams and riv-ers for fishing or many of the area’s trailheads and other points of interest. At 7200 feet, it has a well maintained 4900-foot grass strip with no obstructions at either end. GlaStars with tricycle gear, fixed pitch props, and standard 5-inch tires operate easily from this field.

For those who like to camp there is a well-equipped and maintained camp facility at

the airport intended for fly-ins only. The facility has restrooms with showers, hot/cold water and electricity. The headwaters of the Salmon River run next to the devel-oped campsites, but most people prefer to camp next to their airplanes. For those who prefer a comfortable bed, the Smiley Creek Lodge is a short walk from the airport. There is a restaurant at the lodge offering breakfast, lunch and dinner, ice, and basic grocery needs. It is well known for its milk-shakes and freshly baked cinnamon rolls.

We enjoyed several group activities this year, the first being a barbecue Thursday evening. Friday morning some of us drove to the old rustic mining town of Stanley, Id. for breakfast. Besides the airport van we had two rented cars we brought from Sun Valley. After breakfast we walked the town’s dirt Main Street, visited shops and a nearby historical US Forest Service Station and museum. Friday evening we transported everyone to Red Fish Lake

Lodge for dinner. Saturday morning two GlaStars

departed for Garden Valley Airport for a whitewater raft trip previously arranged by Ann Walker. Three more aircraft led by Dave Ammenti left soon after for a 244-nautical mile sightseeing excursion. Saturday evening we enjoyed another social get-together at Smiley Creek Lodge, group dinner and campfire afterwards.

During the four days several people took advantage of the fishing and hik-ing opportunities available. There were a few others who scouted out other nearby mountain strips. Gail and I enjoyed get-ting back together with past acquaintances and making new ones within the GlaStar/Sportsman community. It’s always a plea-sure to put faces on the names we often see on the GlastarNet. Smiley Creek 2010 will be June 24 thru June 27. We look forward to meeting everyone again and seeing more new faces. •


More Travels

Smiley Creek 2009Text and Photo By Dave Hulse

Early morning coffee: Standing L to R, John

Jessen, and Arlo Reeves at the stove. Sitting L to R,

Brenda Lake, Ann Walker, John Lake


A Blast From the Past

Most of the time, the kitplane business is all about fun, but sometimes the game turns serious, as Ted explains in the fourth install-ment of his random and mostly truthful his-tory of Stoddard-Hamilton. This newsletter will self-destruct in five seconds.

The following story could have been on the bestseller list with the likes of “The Hunt for Red October,” but in the interests of national security, I’ve been unable to share this account with anyone…until now. Enough time has finally passed since the events I’m about to relate to satisfy concerns about the protection of deep-cover agents and super-secret operations that might otherwise have been jeopardized.

Now quit laughing! This is a true story! Though many of you have known me to spin a yarn from time to time, this is no tall tale. Hard to believe? Absolutely! But true? Every last word of it!

Over the years, S-H has made more than one “cash sale” wherein the shiny new Glasair kit has gone out the door in exchange for an equally shiny pile of crisp, new hun-dred dollar bills. The cash raises sus-picions, and rightly so, for many of these airplanes have ended up in impound down in Miami or New Orleans and these cash customers have ended up in the DEA’s “gotcha column.”

Well, this story is about a cash cus-tomer—we call him “Jacob” —who aroused suspicions from our sales manager all the way to the White House.

He looked like a foreigner but acted and sounded very American. I shook hands with him and went back to my desk, hand-ing him off to our sales manager, Mike

Currieri, who took him on the factory tour. It was sometime after lunch that Mike raised the first alarm. He came into my office and expressed a concern that this guy was up to something fishy. Jacob, it seemed, was ready to pay cash not only for a Glasair RG (the II and III hadn’t been introduced yet), but for a complete set of

spare parts—engine mount, landing gear, flight controls, the works. I remember the total bill being in the neighborhood of $40—45,000. Cash.

Mike also reported that while showing Jacob around the production building, he had been called to the telephone, and upon returning, he had “caught” Jacob “studying the manufacturing process.” Mike’s con-clusion? Jacob was going to run off cheap copies of the Glasair overseas and drive S-H out of business!

Mike was so adamant about his suspi-cions that Tom Hamilton and I finally agreed to meet with Jacob and question him a bit. We respectfully inquired about why he needed all the spares. We also asked his nationality and where the kit was to be shipped. Jacob produced identification showing him to be an American citizen.

He said he was purchasing the kit on behalf of a wealthy Italian friend. His friend, said Jacob, simply had a lot of money, and wanted a spare parts inventory close at hand so he wouldn’t have to wait for anything to be shipped from Arlington.

Jacob’s understanding smile at our expressed concern about his copy-ing our design put us at ease. In fact, it made us a bit embarrassed. After all, who in his right mind would go to so much trouble to get into the kitplane business? We shook hands with Jacob, accepted his money and chastised poor Mike for being over-zealous in his suspicions. For crying out loud, we didn’t want to give up a big sale to a legitimate customer, did we?

It wasn’t ten minutes after Jacob drove away that a couple of guys in

crew-cuts and really bad suits were at the front desk asking to see me. They showed FBI identification and demanded to know everything I could tell them about Jacob. Tactfully dodging all my questions, they would reveal only that Jacob was “no ordinary kitplane purchaser.” We were instructed to let them know whenever Jacob contacted us and to provide them with any information he provided us.

Naturally, we were dying of curios-ity, but we could only trust that the FBI knew what it was doing. About a week

Spy Shenanigans For Ted and the Gang

By Ted Setzer


prior to the date the kit was to be shipped, the G-men came back to the factory and marked various parts with invisible ink. (I’d always wondered if they really used that Dick Tracy kind of stuff !)

Things were getting really exciting: Jacob was getting anxious to get the kit shipped, and between every phone call from him, we were having these cloak-and-dagger conversations with the FBI. In the midst of all this, about two days before the ship-ment date, my phone rang. It was Alice, our receptionist. “Ted, “ she said, “It’s the Pentagon on line 2.” Alice was always very cool under pressure.

The man from the Pentagon identified himself as the Head of Naval Intelligence or something very close to that. He said he was calling to request that we stop the ship-ment of Jacob’s kit. Naturally, I asked why, and even more tactfully and respectfully than the FBI men, he answered simply that “the Navy feels that this shipment would be prejudicial to National Security.” (You could tell by his voice that he was using capital letters for “National Security.”)

Wow! This was heavy stuff—almost too heavy for little ol’ Stoddard-Hamilton, late of the Pig Farm and only recently moved to the Big City of Arlington. Coming back down to earth, I registered two con-cerns about the Navy man’s request: First, how was I to explain to a customer who had given me $45,000 (that I wanted to keep) why I couldn’t or wouldn’t ship his kit when I didn’t really understand why not myself ? And second, if this was for National Security, how come the FBI wanted us to let the kit (complete with invisible ink) go?

Dead silence on the phone from Washington. “The FBI? I’ll have to have my people get with their people on this and get back to you,” said the Head of Naval Intelligence after a long and awk-ward pause. “Do you have their phone number?”

I gave him the number the FBI guys

had given me and waited anxiously for the phone to ring again. It was a tense time, let me tell you. Everything in the company was taking a back seat to the drama that was unfolding. So if any of you are still hold-ing a grudge against me for not returning a phone call or something back about ten years ago, now you know the reason why!

Finally, late in the afternoon, the call came. The Navy and the FBI, it seemed, needed more time to “coordinate inter-agency parameters for the maximal opera-tional effectivity” or something like that. They needed me to call Jacob and give him a believable excuse for delaying the shipment of his kit by one week. Boy was I nervous! As a good Christian lad, I was uncomfortable lying to a customer, but heck, I had been given permission to fib by the Head of Naval Itelligence! I figured on Judgement Day that was likely to be about the best excuse I’d ever have.

My palms were sweaty, but I don’t think Jacob ever suspected a thing. He was a lit-tle perturbed by the news and asked some probing questions, but I held firm with my story that one of his fuselage halves had been damaged during removal from the mold. A new one would have to be made, which would entail a week’s delay. Jacob accepted the delay, and I called the FBI with the good news.

Fast-forward to Wednesday of the fol-lowing week. The excitement was mount-ing once again, with the FBI and the Pentagon now singing off the same page. The Glasair kit was to be shipped so it could be shadowed to its destination. By Wednesday afternoon, I was bursting at the seams, dying to tell anyone and every-one. “If only my high school reunion were next week,” I thought…

“So, what are you doing these days Ted?”

“Oh, nothing much, I do a bit of inter-agency coordination work with the Naval Intelligence, set operational parameters with the FBI…I can’t really talk about it…it has to do with the maximal effectivity of National Security…very hush-hush…Top Secret…you understand..”

Alice once again interrupted my daydream.

“Ted, the White House is on Line 1.”Now, let me interrupt myself here briefly

to remind you that this story is 100% true! (Well, except for the lie I told to Jacob about the damaged fuselage half.)

I know it’s almost too much to swallow, but I don’t want to lose you to “Builder Tips” or “First Flights.” So stay with me here and read on…this really happened!

OK, so I picked up the phone and said in a squeaky voice, “hello, this is Sed Tetzer.”

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A Blast From the Past (con’t)

The voice on the phone identified himself as the personal aide to Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger. “I’m sitting here with Secretary Weinberger and Secretary of State Schultz,” he said, “and we’re discuss-ing the pending sale of your company’s product to an unfriendly nation. In the interest of National Security, we are insist-ing a very strong request that you stop this sale”.

Italy? I thought.Holy smokes, were the wheels spin-

ning in my head. I asked this guy the same question I had asked of the FBI and the Navy: why? The secretary’s aide was every bit as adept at avoiding substantive answers. “Let’s just say that Jacob is not an ordinary kitplane builder,” he said in a confidential murmur. Well, that was noth-ing I didn’t already know—I had long ago decided that we wouldn’t be seeing Jacob at Oshkosh anytime soon. I asked to speak with Secretary Weinberger, but was rebuffed. “Well just make sure he lets the Navy and the FBI know what’s going on,” I said. Another long awkward silence on the phone from Washington. “The Navy and the FBI?” he asked. More numbers were exchanged and again, I was told to wait.

My excitement at our role in this drama was rapidly diminishing with the growing realization that, although all the hounds were after the same fox, none of them knew it. Were these bunglers the people I was counting on to keep me and my family safe in our beds at night?

The next day I got another call from the Pentagon. Yep, you guessed it: their people were “firming things up liaison-wise” with the FBI and the State Department, but I needed to delay the kit another week. I can’t remember the excuse I cooked up for Jacob, but I think it had to do with backorders—yeah that’s it. Too many back ordered parts to ship the kit. I expressed my concern to the Naval Intelligence man that this might not be a plausible excuse, since it was well-known throughout the

kitplane industry that Stoddard-Hamilton hardly ever had any backorders…

I called Jacob and bemoaned the unusual spate of backorders. One more week, I promised. I immediately called the FBI, the Pentagon and the State Department and told them that I was worried that Jacob had been suspicious. In fact, he hadn’t sounded suspicious at all; he’d just sounded like any other enthused homebuilder anxious to get going on his kit. “Just wait for our call,” the Feds said.

At this point, I was really beginning to lose patience with the spies, and I just didn’t know what I ought to do about Jacob’s kit. So I did what any red-blooded American boy would’ve done: I called my dad for advice. Dad listened to my story and then said, “You should tell the darn government to either give you a good darn reason not to sell the darn kit or to step aside and let the darn sale go through!” Dad never was a big fan of the Reagan Administration.

As it turned out, Dad’s advice (though probably correct) was unnecessary, as we received a call from our FBI buddies a few days later. Jacob, it seemed, had been arrested boarding an international flight out of New York City with classified com-puter materials and more than $10,000 in undeclared cash in his possession. Needless to say, we never heard from Jacob or his wealthy Italian friend again.

Several months later, we learned from the FBI that Jacob, whose real name was Yahoob, posted bail and promptly fled to Libya. Apparently, he had been working for Libyan intelligence on a scheme to stuff a Glasair full of explosives and use it as a kamikaze bomber against a U.S. naval target in the Mediterranean.

The FBI requested that we refrain from discussing the incident for “a few years” in order to protect undercover agents still working on related cases. We respectfully held the lid on this for more than ten years, and just think of the advertising ammuni-tion we had to forgo in the interest of

National Security…In view of its outstanding speed, agile han-

dling, practical payload, rugged durability, quick build time, stealthy radar signature and superior customer support, Glasair was simply the only choice for our mission. —Yahoob, Libyan intelligence operative, Glasair builder.

There is one question that remains hang-ing over this affair, however: Whatever happened to Yahoob’s cash? The answer to that, my friends, remains a matter of National Security to this very day.

Closing comments from Ted, present day: In light of the September 11, 2001, terror-ist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon and in respect for the lives lost in those attacks, I considered editing out the ending paragraph in which I lightheart-edly stated that we could have advertised the Glasair was the choice of terrorists around the world. However, I decided to leave it in this reprint to drive home the point that this was a clear example that our intelligence agencies knew that extrem-ist Islamic terrorists had the idea to wage terror against the United States with air-craft in kamakazi-style attacks way back in 1986. I wrote this newsletter article ten tears later in the fall of 1996 and the hor-rible attacks of 9/11 occurred five years after that. We trust our government will keep them on their heels and our intelli-gence communities will be successful this time to thwart it. •


Maintenance Tips

Starting A Fuel-Injected LycomingBy Ted Setzer

I recently was a participant in a hangar ses-sion in which the subject of proper cold and hot start procedures was discussed. One of the people there is someone I’ve worked with in the past and highly respect for his knowledge of the workings of Lycoming engines. His suggestions made a lot of sense to me so I thought I’d pass them along.

For cold starting, I’ve always advanced the throttle and mixture, turned on the boost pump for 2-3 seconds, reduced the throttle to the one-quarter position and cranked the starter. This technique has worked for me 90% of the time, but every once in a while, the engine doesn’t want to cooperate; probably related to variations in duration of the fuel pump priming. I was informed that this tech-nique is commonly called the flooded start method.

When the engine shuts down the valves all end up in random positions. Some of the intake valves are open and others are closed. When the electric fuel boost pump is turned on, atomized fuel is introduced to the cylinders with open intake valves. On the cylinders with closed intake valves, the priming fuel runs back down the intake pipes to the intake manifold, creating conditions for an internal backfire and the potential for a fire (not good).

My technique (the flooded start method) tends to start the engine with too much fuel, and as the starter cranks the engine, it “dries” out the excess fuel mixture and the engine fires when the correct mixture is reached.

Something else is happening with this

procedure that isn’t good for the engine in the long run: Turning the fuel boost pump on with the mixture and throttle controls wide open introduces a sudden burst of fuel pressure against sensitive diaphragms and springs inside the fuel controller (some-times referred to as the fuel servo). Think of it as slamming the front door every time you arrive home from work. It won’t be noticeable for a year or so, but after a thou-sand slams, the hinges will start getting loose in the door jam and the lock-set may not be in alignment with the striker plate any more. Closing the door easily is better

in the long run. There is a way to introduce the fuel “eas-

ily” and it is called the dry start method:• Throttle: One-quarter open (cracked)• Initial Mixture position: Full lean/Idle

cutoff• Boost pump: On• Ignition switch: Start• Mixture: Advance slowly until engine

fires• Boost pump: Off (until taxi complete

and ready for take-off ).As you can see, the dry start method

doesn’t introduce the fuel until you begin

cranking the engine and advancing mix-ture. This method introduces the fuel “easily” to the fuel controller with the slow advance of the mixture control and evenly to the cylinders because the intake valves are opening on all cylinders (as the engine rotates). Try it—you’ll like it.

A different procedure is necessary for hot starts. Since the boiling point of avgas is relatively low, once an engine shuts down, the heat from the engine will heat-soak the fuel lines and cause the fuel inside them to boil (vaporize). The hot start procedure is similar to the cold start, with the excep-

tion of purging the fuel lines of vapor just prior to starting.

• Throttle: Full forward• Mixture: Full forward• Wait: Approx. 5 seconds

(Note 1)• Mixture: Idle cut-off• Throttle: Cracked open(Note 2)• Ignition Switch: Start(Note 3)• Mixture: Advance slowly

until engine starts• Boost Pump: On momen-

tarily after start, if engine idles roughly (Note 4).

Note 1: To let gravity flow from fuel tanks and to purge vapor from fuel lines.

Note 2: Position throttle for idle at 1,000 rpm.

Note 3: Start engine without delay fol-lowing the previous steps.

Note 4: To purge remaining vapor from fuel lines. This should be necessary only at high ambient temperatures. Increasing fuel pressure slightly with the electric fuel pump raises the boiling point of the fuel, often enough to eliminate the engine roughness. •


Maintenance Tips

It didn’t seem right. After just 500 hours, my IO-390 had an oil leak. No ques-tion about it. After every flight, a trace appeared below the cowling, where the nosewheel strut extends through. Oil was in evidence on the nose of the crankcase below the crankshaft; a light film had, for several hours before, begun to coat the starter “nose” where the Bendix clutch resides, and it was present on the alterna-tor. Finally, after a long series of flights, oil residue could be seen trickling down the front, lower baffle plate and running down around the air cleaner.

At this point, I was unwilling to think the nose seal had blown with so few hours on the engine, and the fact that the inside of the starter ring gear was nearly dry seemed to support my fear that the leak was somewhere else. A call to Barrett Precision Engines helped move me off the dime. “It’s almost certainly the nose seal,” said Alan Barrett. “I have seen this same thing happen to other engines at this total time.” The more we talked the more he convinced me that I should hope for the problem to be the nose seal. The area

where the oil was showing up included the lower crankcase split line. “If it’s leaking from the case,” Alan said, “there are ways to seal it from the outside, but they don’t often work; the only right way to do it is to split the case.”

Lycoming says that nose seals fail for a variety of reasons, including blocked breather tubes, which raise crankcase pressure in flight. Other reasons include an oil slinger ring that’s too tight. Check out Lycoming’s Key Reprints in the Maintenance section for more on this subject.

As it happened, I was ready to change propellers anyway, so the replacement of the nose seal—more accurately called the crankshaft oil seal, according to Lycoming—was not a lot of additional work. Lycoming crankshaft seals come in two forms, the single-piece style and the split style. The issue here is obvious: The seal has to fit tightly around the crankshaft outer diameter, snugly inside the crankcase recess, and also fit over the much larger propeller flange. The split style can easily fit into the recess, but the single-piece seal is preferred by engine shops because it has proven to be more durable.

The single-piece seal (also called the stretchy seal) was what was installed in my engine to begin with, and was strongly rec-ommended by Barrett. In fact, because the engine was relatively new when this hap-pened, Barrett agreed to send me a seal at no cost—for reference, the seal costs about $12.

Preparation is straightforward. First, go

download a copy of Lycoming’s Service Instruction 1324C. You’ll need the new seal, a selection of angled picks or simi-lar tools to remove the old seal from the engine, some Pliobond #20, and the tools and materials to remove and then replace the prop. After uncowling the airplane and removing the prop, take a moment to closely inspect the alternator belt for wear and evidence of riding strangely in the pul-leys; if it’s more than 5 years old, it’s worth replacing it now.

It’s a tight fit between the backside of the propeller flange and the seal recess, but there’s just enough room to work. Carefully clean the exposed crankshaft and mask the area. You’ll be working around the exposed crankshaft with tools that could nick it, and that’s something you’ll want to avoid. Begin removing the seal by carefully prying between the outer edge of the seal and the crankcase recess. Take it a little at a time. You are simply breaking the bond between the contact cement and the OD of the seal. Gradually break the seal all the way around the opening. After awhile, it will be possible to work the seal forward,

Lycoming Nose Seal ReplacementBy Marc Cook

Left: The evidence of the leak was this trail of oil on the starter. Right: After removing the seal, carefully clean the crankcase recess with MEK.

away from and out of the recess. Again, go slowly and use extreme caution that you don’t slip and nick the crankshaft.

The seal is about ⅜-inch deep, but once you get it about halfway out of the recess, it’ll come the rest of the way easily. You might have to pry it out. Place a rag between the shank of a flat-blade screw-driver and the crankcase, and use the blade to work the seal out. It has circumferential grooves that you can use to work it out. Eventually, it will come free of the recess.

Inside the seal, facing the engine, will be a spring. Carefully pry it out and find the hook. Most will have a simple pair of

hooks and eyes where the ends meet, but some are threaded together at the ends. Unhook the spring and set it aside. The seal is now ready to be cut off the engine. Use diagonal cutters to snip through it a piece at a time, and, again, be very careful around the exposed crank. I was amazed how much stiffer the old seal felt compared to the new one. I could believe that it had simply hardened to the point it could no longer keep the oil inside the engine.

Now that you’ve had a chance to work around the seal, you now appreciate how much it’ll have to stretch to go over the prop flange. Images of childbirth will dance in

your head. To help the seal accomplish this feat, it helps to submerse it in hot water for 15-20 minutes—water run through your coffee maker will do the trick.

While the seal is becoming more pliable, carefully wrap packing (clear) tape around the prop flange. The purpose is to prevent any sharp edges on the flange or around the prop-bolt bushings from catching the seal on the way over. Also, you will need to clean the old contact cement out of the crankcase bore. Use methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) and all the usual precautions—it’s nasty stuff, but it works a treat on Pliobond. The ID of the seal recess must be


Left: The old seal, cut from the crankshaft. The residue is the old Pliobond. Above: Soak the new seal in hot water for 15-20 minutes. Party-themed bowl optional. Right: Be sure the retaining spring is fully latched when you reinsert the spring into the seal.


Maintenance Tips (con’t)

scrupulously clean. Apply a very thin layer of DC-4 lubricant to the packing tape around the prop flange, and a very small amount to the exposed crankshaft OD.

When the seal is hot and pliable, place it open-end down on the prop flange. Slip a clean, smooth-shank screwdriver or metal dowel through the most conve-nient prop bushing to hold one edge of the seal in place. Now comes the fun part. With another smooth, clean, round-shaft screwdriver or dowel, carefully work the seal around and over each prop bushing and around the flange, stretching it as you go. It seems brutal sitting there reading the description, but it very quickly will expand around the flange and, once it’s gone half-way, will just about snap into place on its own. Half a day of preparation for a job that, at its heart, takes about 20 seconds.

Allow the seal to cool—Alan Barrett likes to give the seal several hours to con-form to the crankshaft OD—and care-fully clean its OD to make sure there’s no DC-4 on it. Your next step is to insert the

spring and shimmy it into the groove on the backside of the seal. It will be obvious where it goes. It’s easier to snap the spring ends around the crankshaft on the back side of the flange than it is to hook them first and then try stretching the spring over the flange. Now apply the Pliobond to the ID of the crankcase bore and the OD of the seal. Remember, this is contact cement, so allow it to become tacky on both sur-faces. An acid brush cut short and bent 90 degrees works to apply the Pliobond to the ID of the case.

With the Pliobond just tacky, slide the seal into the case. You’ll be amazed how easily this goes, considering the effort to get that sucker out of there. In my case, in the 20 hours since the seal replacement, the engine is just about bone dry. What’s more, a symptom that I thought was just part of the engine’s nature has disappeared: It used to be that after every flight, I’d get a small “burp” of oil out of the breather onto the hangar floor. Did it from Day 1. Since the seal replacement? Not a drop. •

Above left: Prepare the crankshaft flange with tape to prevent damaging the seal. Above: Looks a bit brutal, but the seal WILL expand around the flange without lasting damage. Below: When you’re done, be sure the seal fits carefully inside the crank recess; it should be flush with the front face of the crankcase.


StarFlight Achievement AwardsGSAI has instituted the StarFlight Achievement Awards for our members, recognizing those who have logged pilot-in-command

time in GlaStar and/or Sportsman aircraft. Upon receipt of your form, two patches will be mailed to you and your achievement

will be noted in the GlaStar & Sportsman Flyer. Be proud of your achievement!

Please fill out the form and mail it to GlaStar & Sportsman Association International, 203 Argonne Ave, Suite B105, Long

Beach, California 90803. You may also email your statement to [email protected].

Osprey LevelMore than 100 hours pilot-in-command logged

Normand Biron, Lewisville, TXWilliam Hayden, Lees Summit, MO William Herrington, Richland, WA

Kestrel LevelMore than 250 hours pilot-in-command logged

Dustin Paulson, Mora, MNRolin Randall, Valdez, AK

Hawk LevelMore than 500 hours pilot-in-command logged

Falcon LevelMore than 1000 hours pilot-in-command logged

GSAI StarFlight Achievement Award Nomination

Name:________________________________________

Address:______________________________________

City:__________________________________________

State/Prov.:____________________________________

Zip/Postal Code:________________________________

Country:_______________________________________

E-mail:________________________________________

I am applying for the following StarFlight Achievement Award:

□ OspreyLevel 100hours□ KestrelLevel 250hours□ HawkLevel 500hours□ Falconlevel 1000hours□ EagleLevel 2000+hours

I have logged ___________ hours as pilot-in-command in a GlaStar and/or Sportsman airplane.

Signed__________________________ Date________

GlaStar & Sportsman Flyer 28 Fourth Quarter 2009

203 Argonne Avenue, Suite B105Long Beach, CA 90803 USA

FIRST CLASS POSTAGE

2010-2010 Calendar

April13-18 Sun‘nFun Lakeland,FL

May1-2 AlaskaAirman’sAssociation Anchorage,AK

May22-23 VirginiaRegionalFestivalofFlight SuffolkExecAirport, Suffolk,VA

June24-27 SmileyCreekFly-In SmileyCreek,ID

July7-11 ArlingtonFly-In Arlington,WA

July26-Aug1 AirVenture Oshkosh,WI

Sept15-19 RenoAirRaces Reno,NV

To submit events to our calendar, send an email to [email protected] or visit www.glastar.org and click on Calendar. We maintain a Google-based event calendar for all members.

Documents

AOPA’s Nall Report€¦ · According to the Nall Report: In 2008, 228 amateur-built fixed-wing aircraft were involved in 226 distinct accidents, the same numbers as in 2007. This