It never ceases to amaze and inspire me to see how many people have purchased Glasairs, and now GlaStars for educational aviation training programs to promote general aviation, for young people and adults alike. Right now, a high-school class from Canada is standing outside my office window watching our Glasair III take off. It's a good thing to see young people interested in flying and aviation as a career. I was that same young person in high school, in a not-so-common but very motivating class on aviation careers.

Well, what's new in the state of the union at Stoddard-Hamilton? A lot.

We have flown and proven the GlaStar as a floatplane. Wow, what a plane! Tim Johnson took me for my first ride and pretty much didn't touch the controls. My extensive float flying experience (one hour total four years ago) really helped prepare me for this! What I'm saying is that it was a really easy floatplane to fly even with my limited floatplane experience. Putting my engineering hat on, I must admit I was a little skeptical at first as to whether the performance would be adequate with the size of the wing on the GlaStar. I was very pleasantly surprised. Lightly loaded, we were off the water in eleven seconds. Any of you who know me, know I love to fly aerobatics, but I must admit that float flying in the GlaStar is now right up there with aerobatics in the Glasair for me. What a joy!

In another major development, we hired a new vice president of operations, Mark Hanson, and he has already proven to be quite invaluable. With the revamping of many of our internal procedures behind us, Mark is guiding us as we put in place a whole new materials resource planning (MRP) system. Encompassing purchasing, production, inventory control and shipping, such a system is crucial to the success of any business' customer service efforts, and we look forward to great improvements in these areas. With help from our Operations Team—Lord Miller, Larry Espe, Bryan Poole, Taylor Smith and Roy Matson—Mark is making tremendous progress in solving our logistical problems. We actually shipped a kit recently with only three back-ordered parts. None of us will be satisfied until we reduce that number to zero for every kit that goes out the door, but nevertheless, I am very happy to be able to report this improvement.

For all you who know and love Ted Setzer, he stepped in during the last quarter of 1996 to help me temporarily with marketing and sales. Ted will be returning to full-time work with the GlaStar development team, AAD, after Sun n' Fun. I am very thankful to Ted for all the great help he has given to us during his return engagement here at S-H. We are new actively looking for a new vice president of marketing and sales. If you know anyone who might be interested in this position at S-H please send me a resume only.

In February, Grant Semanske and I attended a NASA workshop at the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, to kick off the work for '97 and to brainstorm research issues. Representatives from Lancair, Cirrus, Cessna, Beech, Simula, etc,, were also in attendance. The NASA AGATE program continues to be an excellent research and development opportunity.

I have received some negative feedback recently from customers concerned about what they perceived as our unreasonably high prices on hardware and other off-the-shelf items. These comments prompted the realization of an obvious point, but a point that even we sometimes lose sight of, and which therefore may be worth making explicit: S-H is not in the parts business. We make a profit (and thereby stay in business) by selling Glasair

Continued on Page 30 . . .

Free Stuff!

I am a Glasair II builder. I would like to offer some free stuff to others building these planes.

In the manual, Stoddard-Hamilton refers to doing some fiberglass lay-ups on a waxed aluminum sheet. I didn't find this very satisfactory. It was not easy to take off the sheet, and the finish wasn't very good. There was probably wax in the finish also, which may not be good for painting.

I work for a plastics manufacturing company that uses sheet polypropylene like others use plywood. We have a lot of scrap pieces. One of the benefits (or drawbacks) of the plastic is that stuff doesn't stick to it.

It turns out to be terrific for doing small lay-ups to make your own fiberglass gussets, flat parts, etc. Just lay them up directly on the raw plastic and let them cure. When you are ready, just lift them off and notice the great finish on the side toward the plastic.

1 have accumulated a few dozen sheets approximately 15" X 15" each that I am willing to send at no cost to those who want them. I would like, however, to develop some contacts with others building the planes. I would certainly accept a few dollars for postage since I'm just a regular guy, but the plastic is free.

1 occasionally run across larger pieces that can be sent by special request. Write to me at Verteq Systems Automation, 4575 SW Research Way, Corvalis, OR 97333, or call me at home at (541)998-3951.

Curtis Brown Corvalis, OR, Glasair II-S RG

III Stuff!

I noticed in the last newsletter (Fourth Quarter 1996, No. 63) that people were still having problems getting insurance on their Glasair IIIs. I have had my insurance with Aviation Unlimited Agency for several years. I have never had any problems getting the Glasair III insured with them, and they have not required the PIC course that AVEMCO required.

They can be contacted at P.O. Box 35289, Greensboro, NC 27425, phone (800)727-3823.

William A. Billups, Jr., M. D. Meridian, MS, Glasair III

Donut?

It is that time of year again to start planning for the 1997 Convention, and we at EAA Headquarters want to remind you of a few special events to consider in your Convention planning: the Homebuilders Headquarters Picnic and Donut Day.

The Homebuilders Headquarters Picnic is the event that features the homebuilt completions for the year and the homebuilt aircraft that actually flew to the Convention. It is the inspiration event for the new builder and the accolade event for the accomplished builder. At the '96 picnic, Ray Stits entertained his fabric builders, and a representative from Pulsar described his record-holding adventures. Workshop instructors and aircraft designers were also in attendance to share an evening with the building enthusiasts. Of course, EAA's number-one homebuilder, Paul Poberezny, is always the featured speaker' It is a casual event—as casual as 600 people can

be—featuring roasted corn on the cob and chicken picnic-style. We try to keep the price reasonable, $5.00 per person, and it is held at the PHP Conference Tent on Saturday, August 2.

Monday morning is Homebuilder's Donut Day. All homebuilders and their families are welcome to stop in for a donut from 8-10 a.m. at Homebuilt Headquarters.

Please remember the special events that EAA Homebuilders are organizing in trying to make Convention '97 memorable.

We'll see you at the Convention!

Kari Klauer EAA Information Services

Your scurrilous article in the Fourth Quarter 1996 newsletter (No. 63) suggesting that I am a former member of the Missoula (Montana) Police Department demands a harsh and immediate rebuttal. As a Super-Crime Fighting alumnus of the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department, I am deeply offended that you would associate me with a two-bit, lily-livered outfit like the MPD. While cops in Missoula were chasing jaywalkers and getting Old Mrs. Higginbottom's cat out of the tree, my colleagues and I were busy kicking butt and taking names on the mean streets of the city, skills which I now apply every day on the S-H Option Sales Desk.

In fact, contrary to the filthy pack of lies in your yellow-bellied report, my time in Missoula was spent honing my deadly

Air Mail skills in pursuit of Truth, Justice and the American Way by studying accounting at the University of Montana. Oh, sure, the MPD wanted me, but unlike you, I wouldn't come cheap.

Print this letter if you dare, and watch your back if you're going to continue to impugn the reputations of Good Men.

Harry DeLong Los Angeles County Sheriffs Deputy and University of Montana graduate student, retired

P.S.: Hey, wanna go flying over the lunch hour?

Quarter 1996 newsletter (No. 63) suggesting that Harry DeLong is a former member of the Missoula (Montana) Police Department demands a harsh and immediate rebuttal. As the chief of a professional and respectable law enforcement department, I am deeply offended that you would associate us with an unbalanced, big-city palooka like Harry DeLong. While the fine public servants of this department were apprehending dangerous criminals and rendering community service, DeLong and his cronies were tasting the racier side of life on the wicked streets of the city, a taste DeLong no doubt intends to continue indulging while working for your disreputable company.

In fact, contrary to the dirty pack of lies in your cowardly report, Mr. DeLong quickly came to the attention of this department not as a potential employee but as a menace to social order. His

mysterious obsession with airplanes is the least worrisome of his anti-social tendencies.

I expect you to print this letter and to cease and desist from your underhanded practices if you ever hope to walk the streets of our peaceful town.

Chief I. M. Kidding Missoula Police Department

P.S.: Please send a GlaStar video and info pack.

Editor 's note: The preceding two letters may or may not actually have been written by their purported authors, but regardless, they combine to correct an error in last quarter's newsletter. Stoddard-Hamilton deeply regrets any offense given to Mr. DeLong and/ or the fine city of Missoula. Whatever Harry may have been, however, he's now one of ours!

Scene: A Saturday afternoon hangar-flying session at Billy Bob's Pretty-Good FBO, Anytown Municipal Airport.

Time: Sometime in the summer of 1997.

Old GlaStar builder: "I'm telling you, Sonny, you young 'uns have no idea how easy you 've got it nowadays. When we were buildin' our GlaStars, well we had it tough/" Young GlaStar b u i l d e r : "How's that, Cramps? "

Leave the jigging to us! Old GlaStar builder: "Why, when I was your age, we had to seam our GlaStar fuselage shells together by hand/"

Young GlaStar builder: "Wow . . . !"

Old GlaStar builder: "Had to pot in the hardpoints and install the cage attach screws, too. Yep, I reckon you youngsters 've got it pretty durn easy nowadays. "

Introducing the GlaStar Jump-Start Fuselage Option—a quick way to start your fuselage assembly off right if you haven't yet begun and a quick route to inalienable bragging rights if you've

already done it the "old-fashioned" way! In the Jump-Start option, the two composite fuselage shells come completely pre-assembled around the cage structure, with the belly and dorsal seams already professionally laid up. All the cage attach hardpoints are in place, and the cage attach hardware is

i n s t a l l e d t h r o u g h

Step 25 of the GlaStar

Assembly Manual

fuselage section. In

add i t ion , the option includes a

high-per-formance, zero-drag

dipole COM antenna bonded into the vertical fin (ordinarily a separate $50 option).

We estimate that the Jump-Start Fuselage Option will save the average builder 35-50 hours of assembly time. Essentially, the fuselage will be ready to mount on its gear right out of the crate.

The introductory price of the Jump-Start Fuselage Option is only $1,195. Orders are being taken now for new kits and for System 3 builders who have not yet taken delivery of their standard fuselage kits and wish to convert to the Jump-Start configuration.

S-H Website Is Up and Running

After many delays, the S-H home page is finally home on the World Wide Web at http://www. stoddard-hamilton.com.

Currently, the site is geared mainly to prospective builders. However, our intent is to post more information relevant to current customers. Ideas under consideration include advisory publications, newsletter articles, options catalogs, builder hints, and so on. There has also been discussion of incorporating security measures to allow us to take credit card orders over the 'Net.

As our on-line presence develops, we'd like your input. What information would you most like electronic access to? Would you place orders over the 'Net if such a service were available? Let us know what you think.

Meanwhile, e-mail is becoming an ever m o r e i m p o r t a n t m e a n s o f communication with our customers. We welcome this, but we need your help to use this tool most effectively. At present, all mail sent to our main address (glasair@stoddard-hamilton.com) goes to one mailbox and must be distributed by hand. So please clearly indicate the intended recipient of each message. Also, please remember that Technical Support has its own address (104751.200@compuserve.com); tech. support queries cannot be accepted at the general address.

GlaStar "Jump-Start" Fuselage Introduced

Meanwhile, Back at the Plant

GlaStar Fuselage

Alignment Jig

Rental Policy

Revised

We have received complaints from GlaStar builders who have waited thirty days or more for the fuselage alignment jigs, which are used in assembling the fiberglass fuselage shells around the steel-tube cage. In response to the backlog of orders for these rental tools, we built several additional sets of jigs a few months ago, but this has not really relieved the demand as more and more builders get to this stage in their projects.

Based on experience to date, we have concluded that our thirty-day rental period for the jigs is excessive. We are therefore instituting a new fourteen-day,

reduced-rate rental policy, the terms of which are outlined below. We feel that this policy will help reduce the backlog of jig orders. To further speed the turnaround time, we ask for your cooperation and assistance in the following two ways:

First, please be ready for the jigs -when you order them. Make sure you have all the wing attach bushings pressed into the cage lugs and the wing pivots bolted in place. The mating edges of the fuselage halves should be sanded, and the landing gear socket and wing strut lug cutouts should be opened up sufficiently to allow the shells to come together around the cage. In fact, there's no reason you can't tape the shells together around the cage before installing the alignment jigs.

With these tasks completed, the jigs shouldn't actually be required for more than one or two full days or three or

four evenings. Once the shell attach tab holes have been drilled, the jigs can be removed from the shells.

The second thing you can do to help us make this process more efficient is to send the jigs directly to the next builder rather than return them to us. When you are done with the jigs, simply call the Option Sales Department for shipping instructions. They may ask you to return them to S-H, but more likely we'll give you the name and address of the next builder on the list. This will reduce time in transit dramatically.

The new rental rate for fourteen days is $25.00. The rental period is based on time from date of shipment to date of return receipt (or date of receipt by the next builder, as the case may be). A late fee of $5.00 per day will be assessed on jigs kept longer than fourteen days.

GlaStar Firewall Forward Options!

>LYCOMING CARBURETED INDUCTION SYSTEM Part No.: 930-02320-01 Price: $489.95

This complete induction system feeds air to the carb of any four-cylinder Lycoming from a stylish, low-drag NACA intake on the side of the cowling. The kit features a pre-molded induction housing designed to accommodate a Brackett air filter, which is included. The kit also includes a pre-assembled carburetor heat valve; pre-molded fiberglass carb air box; all necessary SCAT hose and clamps; all necessary sheet-metal, angle stock, gaskets and hardware; special fire-retardant vinyl ester resin; and detailed installation instructions.

> LYCOMING 0-320 BAFFLING INSTALLATION Part No.: 922-04000-01 Price: $695.00

Engine cooling baffling looks so simple until you try to make and install a set, at which point the seemingly simple sheet-metal project becomes, well. . . baffling! Our deluxe kit takes the headaches out of this vital installation. All the sheet-metal parts are laser cut to the precise contours of the 0-320 case and cylinders. The parts are anodized for corrosion resistance and, where appropriate, pre-drilled. The kit also includes complete installation hardware, Garlock baffle seal, and detailed instructions.

>LYCOMING BAFFLING STANDARD ALTERNATOR RECESS Part No.: 505-03001-01 Price: $76.83

The standard 0-320 baffling (see above) is designed to accommodate short, aftermarket alternators (like the B&C) popular with homebuilders. If you are running the longer, standard alternator, you'll need to extend your right forward baffle aft to accommodate it. This pre-molded recess makes this job a snap. Instructions and hardware for installing the recess are included in the baffling kit.

Glasairs Continue to Reap Awards

It was almost embarrassing.

Everywhere you looked in 1996, another Glasair builder was flying home from some major airshow with a baggage compartment full of trophies. The honors racked up by Glasair builders just never stopped coming. Taken together, they must constitute some kind of all-time record

The reason this incredible streak was not embarrassing is the indisputably high quality of the award-winning aircraft. Although builders and manufacturers of other kits must surely have been envious, they couldn't have had any

complaints about the judges' decisions because the Glasairs that won were so flawless.

With that preamble and a hearty congratulations to all 1996 award winners, here are a few that got away:

J. Haden Cowdrey of Dallas, Texas, was named Grand Champion in the kit-built category at the 32nd Annual Kerrville (Texas) EAA Fly-In for his II-S RG. Another Dallas builder, Ming Ho, won the Outstanding Homebuilt award at the All-American Sport Aviation Fly-In in Fort Worth, Texas. And adding to his Grand Champion win

at Oshkosh, Tom Taylor of La Crescenta, California, went home from the Copperstate EAA Regional Fly-In with Second Place in the Custom-Built —Composite category. (Incidentally, Tom was edged out of first place by the Grand Champion Wheeler Express built by Jerry Sjostrand of Oakhurst, California, who, like many Express builders, buys all his composite supplies from S-H. So we'll take credit for an assist on that one!)

Again, congratulations to the entire Glasair team for an incredibly successful year!

As part of its ongoing project of conducting in-depth, objective evaluations of popular homebuilts, the Comparative Aircraft Flight Efficiency (CAFE) Foundation recently put a Glasair III through its paces. The results were reported in an extensive and very favorable article in the February 1997 issue of EAA's Sport Aviation magazine.

The III chosen by the foundation to represent the breed was N313CH, owned and built by Chuck Hautamaki of Loveland, Colorado. The choice was based on the quality of Chuck's construction, which was described in the final report as "superb," as well as the

fact that he had followed the manuals quite closely and made only minor changes to the aircraft's design. Chuck had previously built a Glasair I TD.

Over a two-day period, six test flights were conducted at various CO locations and with and without the extended wingtips. The results of the testing are presented in great technical detail in the SA article, but the report concludes simply that "the Glasair I I I is a fine airplane with excellent flying qualities." Of course,

we already knew that!

The CAFE Foundation is jointly sponsored and funded by EAA and the Federal Aviation Administration.

8

Glasair III Is Toast of CAFE Society

G las News

Popular GlaStar

Website Reaches

Milestone

'StarGate, the World Wide Web home page devoted to the GlaStar, recently recorded its 20,000th "hit," or visit The page is administered by GlaStar builder Sid Lloyd of Cypress, Texas. The tremendous popularity of the site reflects the high level of interest in the GlaStar, but even more so it is due to Sid's initiative, hard work and clever ideas in maintaining the page. Sid also administers GlaStarNet, an Internet newsgroup for GlaStar builders. And somehow, he even manages some time to work on his GlaStar, we think!

In addition to photos, specifications, and flight reviews of the GlaStar, 'StarGate features an encyclopedic builder hints section, sources for tools and accessories, an international directory of GlaStar builders on the Internet, links to other informative aviation sites and, perhaps most uniquely, the chance to join the 'StarClub—a global network of GlaStar builders with spare bedrooms (or at least couches) for visiting GlaStar enthusiasts.

The address for 'StarGate is < h t t p : / / w w w . i n s y n c . n e t / ~ s i d l / glastar.html>. Drop in and say "hi" sometime, and if you see Sid, congratulate him on a job well done!

Wipaire to Put a GlaStar on Floats

One of our newest GlaStar builders is Robert Wiplinger of Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota. Since Minnesota is the "Land of 10,000 Lakes," it's only appropriate that Bob happens to be the

namesake of Wipaire, Inc., manufacturer of the world-famous Wipline aircraft floats.

Rather than starting with a tail kit or a complete kit like most builders, Bob arranged rush shipment of just a fuselage cage so he could get his crew working on developing—you guessed it!—float rigging for a pair of Wipline 2100 amphibious floats. The rest of the kit has since followed, and we anxiously await the results.

Inquiries about Wipline floats should be directed to Wipaire, 8520 River Rd., Inver Grove Heights, MN 55076, phone (612) 451-1205, fax (612) 457-7858. Don't ask for Bob, though; he's got an

airplane to build!

Once Is Not Enough for Intrepid Frenchman

Having proven himself and his Glasair Super II FT during last summer's non-stop New York-to-Paris epic, Henri Chorosz plans to do it again this year to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Charles Lindbergh's first solo crossing of the Atlantic. Henri plans to display his Little Transatlantic at the Paris Air Show, and then he will make the return crossing in time to be at Oshkosh '97.

As spring arrives, we are all in preparation mode for the airshow season, and our department has been busy getting all of the aircraft ready for Sun n' Fun. I am happy to say that Cal Spangler will be the Technical Support representative at Sun n' Fun this year, which helps to rotate the duties and spread out the fun. Cal has been working hard and has been doing an excellent job answering your questions and deserves the great opportunity such a trip has to offer.

Since we have initiated the second Tech. Support phone line, the ability to contact our department has been greatly improved. Cliff Faber, who has answered the Technical Support line for many years prior to Cal, has been stepping in as a back-up to Cal and me with his wealth of knowledge and expertise. If you should need to contact us for technical support, you may speak to any one of us.

Our experience has shown that a telephone call is still the most efficient way to get your questions answered. Written responses are much more time-consuming and not as spontaneous for clarifying questions that we may have to better answer your questions. Probably the most effective way to get answers to your questions is to send us a fax or e-mail message with your questions, stating that you will call us the following day. This procedure gives us a chance to research your questions and then give you more accurate and complete answers over the phone without being spread so thin with numerous written responses that, based on the volume, take us longer to respond to.

Our fax number is (360) 435-9525. For e-mail, you can contact Technical Support at either of the following addresses:

104751.200@compuserve.com SHTechSupport@compuserve.com

If you are a CompuServe user, you can simply drop the "@compuserve.com" off either address and specify it as a CompuServe-type address. For all other, non-technical e-mail communication, please use our standard address: <glasair@stoddard-hamilton.com>.

When contacting us—regardless of the method used—please always have handy your kit number, gear type, a reference to the assembly manual pages (if applicable) and, if you are not the owner, the registered kit owner's name. Our Technical Support telephone number is (360) 435-8536. This number will automatically trunk to the second support line if the first one is busy. If both lines are busy you will simply get a busy signal, saving you the expense of an unnecessary phone call.

GlaStar Wing Angle of Incidence

The GlaStar wing angle of incidence, which is set by the fuselage cage, has come up as an issue of concern to a number of GlaStar customers because of their discovery of a difference from left to right. After we were informed of the problem, we immediately corrected the cage tooling to ensure that both sides would be the same on all future cages produced. This change took place from cage serial number 304 on.

As a result of this news hitting the GlaStarNet, many more customers began checking their own cages. The discoveries varied somewhat, but generally the difference between one side and the other was about 0.6°.

One customer stated that, out of curiosity, he checked a couple certified aircraft in his local area. A Stinson measured 1.1° different from one side to the other, and a Cessna measured 1.3° from one side to the other. We consulted with our aerodynamicist and were informed that it would take more than 0.75° difference from one wing to the other before it would even be noticed by the pilot, and even then, that the condition could easily be corrected with a trim tab that would only result in about a 1° deflection of the ailerons. We are talking about a very small amount of aileron movement here. One degree of deflection translates to about 1/4" at the trailing edge.

Now, I understand that as the builder of the aircraft that will be your pride and joy for years to come, you would prefer only to accept perfection, which is why the majority of homebuilts are far superior to your standard production-line aircraft. We are in a slightly different situation in that we have to deal with a large volume of kits produced and therefore must determine a tolerance that we feel is acceptable. Therefore, we recommend that a difference of 0.75° from one side to the other is acceptable and does not need further adjustment. However if your cage is outside this recommended tolerance, or if you are a perfectionist like many of us are, then you may want to adjust your angle of incidence so the two sides match as closely as possible.

Several builders have already done just that by grinding away at the rear wing pivot assemblies to shorten them so they can then place washers above or below the brackets to adjust the trailing edge of the wing up or down. Because of the design of the assemblies, the bottom is more conducive to material removal than is the top. Unfortunately, that results in placing washers on the top side of the assembly where the shear loads are the highest.

10

By adding washers to adjust the wing, you take a bolt that is designed only to be in shear and put it into bending. Because the loads are the highest on the top of the fitting, we have determined that we can only allow a maximum of one standard, . 063 " thick steel washer between the top of the wing pivot assembly and the cage, and no more then two standard, .063" thick washers on the bottom of the wing pivot assembly.

If you would like to determine if you cage serial number is 304 or higher, all early cages before number 293 had their number stamped just above the right rear wing pivot upper mounting lug, on a half moon cap. The half moon cap is welded on at about a 45° angle onto the end of the big cross-tube. For cages with numbers 293 and later, the number is located on the outboard side of the forward right taildragger main landing gear leg socket, near its upper end. It was moved to this location to be more visible on a completed aircraft.

GlaStar Floatplane Baggage Bulkhead A

I have had a few builders asking if the baggage bulkhead—Bulkhead A—is adequate for the GlaStar on wheels because of what we have discovered after installing the aircraft on floats. Bulkhead A will likely require some beef-up in GlaStars going on floats, but any such modification will be only for the floatplane configuration.

The details of this modification are still under development, so even if you're planning on going with floats at some point in time, we cannot yet tell you what we will call out for the floatplane bulkhead. In any case, whatever we decide on will be easily retrofittable to existing GlaStars.

GlaStar Rudder Pedal Close-Outs

Who knows if we will ever develop an option for rudder pedal close-outs or not, but in the meantime you builders who are ready to go flying can use thin aluminum sheet—.020" will do—and bend some flanges at the forward and aft ends to about a 45° angle so that the panel can be screwed to the floor boards and attached with Velcro to the aft side of the firewall. Our GlaStar prototype has a firewall blanket on the back side that we had sewn by Northern Upholstery. For more information, call Billy Buckingham at (360) 435-5882.

Back to the close-outs . . . You will need to cut big holes in them so they will fit down over the pedal assemblies. Ours are square with rubber sheeting stretched over the hole and secured around the edges with 1/2" strips of aluminum and pop rivets. We then cut slits in the rubber big enough to slip the whole thing over the top of the rudder pedals and brake master cylinders and to let the rudder pedal posts move back and forth. We also bent side flanges over to fit against the center console and the fuselage sides. Velcro also works well for these areas, though screws could be used if desired.

GlaStar Fuel Gauges and Adapters

We now have adapters available for adapting the standard GlaStar fuel tanks to the Vision Microsystems capacitance fuel probes. The adapters are designed to work only with the Vision probes, which are available separately. The adapter kit, which includes gaskets and hardware, is P/N 933-03000-01; please call for pricing.

We are waiting for Rochester to send us a drawing to approve so we can place an order for new mechanical fuel gauges specifically designed with the correct travel and clocking of the float arm to travel up and down inside the GlaStar tanks. However, as with everything, they are very slow to respond, and we do not expect to have mechanical fuel gauges available for at least another ten weeks. In the meantime, you could get some from Wicks or Aircraft Spruce and bend the float arms to work the best you can. That is what Jim Londo and others have done.

Rochester does provide a remote gauge sender unit with gauges in the panel that replace the direct-reading dial on their fuel gauge body. However, I would not recommend such remote gauges. Our experience with such gauges in Glasairs has been very poor. They will give you a trend, but should not be trusted for any sort of accurate fuel-level readings.

Facet Fuel Pump Filter Contamination

Ed Knutson contacted us a while back to say he was experiencing low, fluctuating fuel pressure during the early flights of his carbureted Glasair II-S FT. Further examination showed that the filter in the Facet low-pressure fuel pump was partially clogged with debris from the fuel tank.

The owner's manuals of all the Glasairs talk about cleaning the fuel filters, but they do not mention this particular filter by name or place. It is on the bottom of the Facet fuel pump and can be reached by cutting the safety wire securing it to the outlet and turning the 7/8" hex counter-clockwise. Be sure to turn off the fuel first! Remove the filter by gently pulling it down. The filter is a plastic screen held in a plastic frame, so be careful. Clean and reinstall the filter, cap and safety wire. Turn the fuel on and run the pump to check for leaks.

Fuel starvation is the cause of many accidents during the first few hours of flight, and we are certainly glad the contamination that Ed found in this filter did not lead to serious trouble, as it certainly could have. We cannot stress strongly enough the importance of flushing the tanks until no debris is found. Ed is to be commended for pursuing this problem until he found and fixed the cause, as well as for bringing it to our attention so that others may enjoy safer flying.

II

In this quarter's Hangar Notebook, Cliff Faber shares some hints and tricks for the installation of S-H's popular fuel vent float valve installation in Glasair Is and Us. Although this option was designed for later Glasair models, it can be installed quite easily in early Glasairs and offers the same considerable benefits to pilots of the "oldies but goodies."

The wing tank design in the Glasair aircraft is the ultimate in simplicity with its single leading-edge fuel tank. This system allows for maximum capacity, while simplifying fuel management by allowing the pilot to operate the airplane using only the "main tank" fuel selector position.

As with all systems, however, there is a compromise inherent in this fuel system design. The outboard fuel tank vent lines have very little room to rise prior to exiting the aircraft. With the long, low-dihedral wing, and a full fuel level in the wing tanks, a small increase in the elevation of one wing tip relative to the other, such as might occur when the aircraft is parked on an incline, can result in fuel flowing overboard through the "low" wing-tip vent line. S-H and its customers have tested several wing-tip vent combinations over the years, all of which also had some drawbacks, such as low points.

The introduction a couple of years ago of the fuel vent float valve (FVFV) option has proven to be a very effective solution to the fuel venting situation for many builders and pilots. Unfortunately the original design and installation instructions were tailored to the wing tank design of the Glasair II-S, Super II and III models. Glasair 1 and II builders, as well as people fabricating tank systems of their own design, found it difficult to install these units in their wings.

The FVFV has a mounting plate with two protruding tubes designed to enter the outboard end of the wing fuel cell. This is straightforward enough on the aircraft with the fuel cell ending right at the wing tip, but it is awkward to install on wings where the end of the fuel cell is approximately 18" from the tip, as it is in the Glasair I and II. With the fuel tank end rib in this position, the standard option was to cut an access hole in the lower wing skin just outboard of the tank end rib and try to install the FVFV through this opening.

After studying this situation and helping customers devise methods for utilizing this valve in their systems I have come up with some ideas I'd like to share with builders who have not yet installed FVFVs because they thought they wouldn't work in their airplanes. These methods allow the FVFV to be "remotely mounted" on the outboard wing rib even though the tank ends further inboard. Thus, no holes need to be cut in the wing skins, and access to the FVFV remains a simple matter of removing the wingtip, just as it is in the later Glasair models.

To function correctly, the FVFV requires two lines into the outboard end of the wing fuel cell: a "vent line" going to the highest point in the outboard end of the cell, and a "drain line" going to the bottom of the outboard end of the cell. This dual-line system provides a "loop" type system, allowing the float in the FVFV to move upward as the fuel level in the tank rises. As the fuel level nears the top of the tank, the float closes an exit port to the overboard vent line, preventing fuel from venting overboard.

The upper vent line is in place in most aircraft already, and in most cases it can be connected to the FVFV using techniques that I'll describe below. The installation of the lower drain line is the most difficult aspect of the remote mounting of the FVFV

The valve can be remotely mounted (relative to the end of the fuel tank) and connected into the existing vent line by installing different AN fittings in existing ports in the FVFV body and fabricating and installing a new drain line. We need not always use the mounting plate to provide access to the end of the fuel cell. Using a 1/8" NPT pipe thread tap to cut thread holes, we can modify the existing ports on the FVFV to accommodate AN fuel fittings. The mounting plate can be replaced by a close-out plate fabricated from either .100" thick aluminum sheet or angle stock. This new plate should be threaded to allow the AN509-6R32 screws provided with the FVFV installation kit to be used to attach the FVFV to the plate. The O-rings provided in the kit (P/N 620-0568-110) can be used to seal the mounting plate ports when the new plate is installed.

The first models of the Glasair I and II series used a vent line at the outboard end of the wing, which extended to the wing tip. This line can be used to connect the vent line to the FVFV, using either an AN816-4D nipple (when 1/4" vent lines are installed, as in Glasair I aircraft) or an AN816-6D nipple when 3/8" vent lines are installed (such as in Glasair II aircraft).

The new drain line can be installed using some simple "custom" tools. First (if necessary), cut a large access opening in the outboard leading edge rib to access the dry bay outboard of the fuel cell. Working through this rib opening, use a 3'-long section of 3/8" diameter aluminum tubing with one end

Continued on Page 21. . .

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As FAA and NTSB accident reports can take up to one year to be published, advance notices of accidents in this column do not contain all the facts and information necessary to draw definitive conclusions about the incidents reported. Rather, these accounts are intended to bring the circumstances surrounding the incidents to the attention of the reader in the sole interest of promoting safety. These reports are not intended to judge the ability or capacity of any person, living or dead, or of any aircraft or accessory. Stoddard-Hamilton appreciates the willingness of its customers to share the details of their experiences so that similar outcomes might be avoided by others.

We are happy to report that there have been no flying-related accidents reported to us during this last quarter. However, there was an incident involving the first GlaStar being damaged.

GlaStar Trailering Accident

In this case, the aircraft, still in the construction phase, was being transported down the highway with the wings folded. The bolt being used to secure the wing support brace on the vertical fin to the wing apparently lost its nut, and the bolt fell out. The wing, which did not yet have its upper skins riveted in place, apparently wanted to fly before it was ready and swung out, taking out two road signs in the process. It then swung back and slammed into the vertical fin and the protruding support brace, which tore into the aileron and lower wing skin. On the inboard end, it bent the flap down to about a 90° position. Luckily, the aircraft was insured, but the builder's heart sunk with the thought of all the hard work he had just put into building the wing.

Please use caution when moving your GlaStar, and even if you are not yet climbing in to take it for a flight around the patch, do your "preflight" anyway. Ensure that vibration can't undo any securing fasteners. It could save an embarrassing moment as well as a lot of extra work. The owner of this GlaStar suggests that a strap be used around both wing leading edges to ensure that they stay in the folded position.

I wish to thank the customer for sharing his unfortunate situation so that we may all be more aware of what can happen and take steps to avoid its happening again.

Glasair FT Brake Failure at Oshkosh '96

We received a letter from the owner of a Glasair I FT who had a brake failure on one side of his aircraft while landing at Oshkosh last year. He reported that the incident was caused by the master cylinder jam nut not being tightened properly. This allowed the piston assembly with the spring tension on it to turn and unthread the clevis on the brake pedal.

Fortunately, damage to the aircraft was minimal, but this had the potential for being a very serious accident. This area is difficult to inspect and can, for that reason, easily be overlooked. Ensure that your master cylinder jam nuts are secure and use a witness paint such as the torque seal we sell in our Options Catalog to help you determine that the jam nuts stay tight.

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s I lifted off the water, a voice on the radio interrupted my reverie. "Seems like you're being

awfully conservative, Johnson," Tom Hamilton growled from the dock.

I smiled, knowing that Tom always wants the best from his airplanes, and five seconds too long on the water was just more than he could stand. Little did he realize that my mind was far away from the frigid waters of Lake Goodwin.

I had moved thirty-five years back in time to the Amazon Basin. I sensed tropical jungle and suffocating heat, not crisp, cool air. In my memory, instead of the Olympic Mountains a few miles to the west, the snow-capped Andes towered to 25,000 feet. The lake surface was not close to freezing, but more like 80°, and it lay shiny, almost oily smooth in the afternoon heat at 450 feet above sea level. An abandoned "ox-bow" of one the mightiest rivers in the world, the Ucayali had cut off this ten-mile loop in a long forgotten flood centuries before. Cast aside like thousands of others, it became an isolated lake along the river's serpentine route from the Andes to the headwaters of the Amazon.

This was where 1 learned to fly floats.

My wife and I were in the Amazon with the Jungle Aviation and Radio Service (JAARS), the technical arm of the largest linguistic organization in the world. This group, dedicated to learning unwritten languages and

reducing them to writing, assists indigenous peoples as they become integrated into their countries' cultures.

To reach isolated tribal groups far back in jungle hideaways, we used both wheel- and float-equipped aircraft—

everything from the amazing old Grumman Duck to an Aeronca Sedan on floats. Helio Couriers on wheels and floats were our high-performance machines, but the spacious Noorduyn Norseman on floats lifted a ton of

weight, while the amphibious PBY gave us the ability to move multitudes of people and cargo. If it lived in the jungle, we moved it: monkeys, exotic fish, cattle, teachers, children, officials,linguists, colorfully "dressed" people and—sometimes

unknowingly—deadly snakes, snapping turtles, spiders, scorpions, and so on.

It was almost always hot and humid, and generally the planes were loaded, not to the designer's "maximum gross weight," but to the maximum weight we could get off the water. Learning to fly floats in these conditions taught me how to get the most out of a floatplane. Years later I would hone these skills flying DeHavilland Beavers and Cessna 180s on charter all over the Puget Sound and Canadian coastal waters.

This, then, was the "personal baggage" I brought on board the GlaStar for my introductory flight on floats. For over two years, for over 700 hours, various pilots have flown this most interesting airplane. Some of you, like me, are intrigued with the GlaStar's amazing

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A

slow-flight controllability. One reason I had spent so much time exploring this corner of the envelope was that I had come to believe that float flying was where the GlaStar would make its greatest contribution to sportplane development. Now, I finally had the chance to find out what Tom's sleek Aerocet floats would do on the GlaStar, already the world's most versatile kitplane.

Well, to make a long story short, I love what I found in the GlaStar on floats. It has simply superb water handling characteristics. Easy to come up on the step in smooth, no wind conditions but totally controllable when the wind comes up and the water gets rough, the airplane breaks loose cleanly and straight ahead. The floats keep themselves high in the water but carve a track so steady I felt like I was flying a locomotive. With its amazing low-speed roll control and great visibility, the GlaStar is an incredibly easy airplane in which to lift one wing while on the step and curve out of the water heading the direction you want to go. The slow, lifting wing is so solid you can comfortably make fairly steep banks close to the water, allowing you to clear those trees along the shores of small lakes and safely climb out over the

water.

If a pilot chooses to learn the skills, the GlaStar is great at one-float, banked, cross-controlled step turns on the water. It is when it leaves the water, however, that the GlaStar's now famous slow-flight control and high cruise speed pays off. Powered-up, full-flap turns are amazing. Float pilots expect to pay a price because of the destabilizing effect of the floats' weight and side area below and forward of the CG. But the

GlaStar's design minimizes these effects and gives the airplane a stunning ability to turn tight and slow. What a great plane to take into the backcountry!

The folding wing, which makes launching from a trailer so easy, is just another great feature for those of us who don't live next to the water. Fifteen minutes after backing down a boat ramp with the trailer we were taxiing away from the dock.

With a few takeoffs and landings under my belt, I was ready to address the question foremost in every working floatplane pilot's mind: Does it come out of the water heavy? Oh yes! Initially, I could feel the extra weight like a sea anchor trying to hold us back, but up on the step and off it came.

Tom's mock "growling" turned to delight as we later explored together the wonderful water and flight characteristics of this most amazing airplane. Jungle river, mountain lake or coastal water—this is the floatplane for the sportsman pilot.

Now, I'm "growling" at Tom: "When can we try the amphibious floats?"

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his article is for all you would-be water jockeys with GlaStars. Your wait is over! Having had the wonderful

opportunity to fly everything from Glasairs to corporate jets to ultralights, float flying rates very, very high on my list of fun things to do with an airplane. Heck, it's even justifiable: "Honey, we need a way to get to our secluded cabin, where you can find the big fish and you can rest your soul. Besides, we can fly low and check out the scenery and feel safe with landing spots everywhere."

As everyone knows, the GlaStar was designed from the very beginning to have floats sitting underneath it. On all GlaStars, a spacer is incorporated between the engine mount and firewall, which is easily replaced with the forward float strut attach fitting. The rear tricycle landing gear socket is used without modification for the aft float attachment. An aluminum insert is utilized, which ties to the diagonal and rear float struts. Each plane has lifting eyes for a hoist, making the switch from wheels to floats quite easy. The water-rudder steering cables are attached to clamp-on arms that come off the rudder pedal assemblies, and the water-rudder retract cable is fitted through the bottom skin on a pulley bracket to a simple pull handle by the pilot's right leg.

Tom Hamilton is the founder of Stoddard-Hamilton and designer of the original Glasair. Although he has not been formally affiliated with S-H for a number of years, he also headed the design team that developed the GlaStar. Currently, he is president of Aerocet, Inc., and lives in Priest River, Idaho.

The floats themselves are Aerocet 2200s, which have an actual displacement of 2,230 Ibs. of freshwater per float. These floats are a scaled-down version of our larger 3500 series floats, which are certified for Cessna 180s, 185s and 206s. The 3500s have been very successful and are in their fourth commercial season on planes throughout the world.

Our new floats incorporate all the features that have made the 3500s so popular. They're an all-composite

design boasting no corrosion, no rivets to leak, a double-fluted hull design, six watertight compartments, two-piece float construction, easy repairability (non-sandwich bottom skin and common E-glass with vinylester resin), use of a high-impact sandwich core on the top and sides, large access panels, molded-in textured anti-skid decks, huge lockers and openings, an effective aerodynamic bumper, UHMW wear strips on the keel, extruded chine wear strips, etc.

Decisions, Decisions

The FAA requires that twin seaplane floats have a buoyancy of 80% in excess of that required to support the maximum weight of the airplane in fresh water. A shortcut to this formula is to take the displacement of one float and divide by 0.9 to get the legal gross weight. 2,230 •*• 0.9 = 2,477 Ibs., this being the legal gross weight for these floats.

This means that the plane has extra flotation, but that's not all bad. It

typically will allow the plane to come out of the water better, handle high wind conditions with ease, make the float very comfortable to walk around on, allow ample locker space, and handle the heaviest weights and CG shifts with good margin. The downside is drag, weight and, potentially, a rougher ride. Our experience with our larger floats has proven that we have not been penalized in speed, this being due to the clean, aerodynamic profile of the float. We have also been

able to come very close in weight to much smaller

floats with our 3500s, paying only a twenty-five pound penalty for the extra size. Calculations predicted roughly the same penalty on the 2200s relative to their smaller-sized counterparts. With the double-fluted bottom and proper deadrise angle (the angle from the keel to the chine), the ride typically is very nice in comparison to V-bottom designs.

Technically, the next design process we faced was configuring the new floats and mating them to a new airplane. This

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The way Tom's posing with that right-angle drill, we're all very glad he chose airplane design over dentistry!

T

process involved the determination of proper float spacing or width, proper height of the plane off the floats, correct step location fore and aft, and proper throat (angle of attack of the plane in relation to the floats).

The width was derived by comparison to similar floats in this class. We went with 86", just slightly wider in stance than Edo 2000s on a Super Cub. Height-wise, the aircraft needs to stand tall enough for prop clearance from spray and to be able to dock without hitting the tail surfaces, yet not be too tippy for step turns. We ended up with the belly of the airplane 22-1/2" off the float deck at the step location. This should give good propeller clearance for larger-diameter props down the road.

The tough one was the placement of the step fore and aft. The step on the float, as shown in the figure above, is the break between the forebody and afterbody of the float, at which point there is a jog in the surfaces. Action of the aircraft on floats centers specifically in this area. When the aircraft comes out of the water, it goes through the following stages: The first stage is plowing, where

power is on and the plane goes into a high angle of attack, with the control stick pulled aft. The water contact area on the forebody of the float decreases at this stage. The spray pattern transitions back toward the step, indicating less wetting of the forebody, within, hopefully, a short period of time the plane is in position to roll "onto the step." By releasing back pressure or even pushing the stick forward at the c o r r e c t time, the plane will roll over onto the step and b e g i n planing, with the afterbody t o t a l l y clear of the water. This stage is called "step taxiing" or being "on the step."

The final stage is rotating off the water. At an appropriate speed, the plane will rotate back at the step and fly clear of the water in response to back-pressure on the stick, similar to rotating a tricycle-geared aircraft off the runway. The float afterbody should be designed to allow plenty of rotation without hitting the heel of the floats. When this happens, hydrodynamic drag slows the plane, usually enough to prevent takeoff.

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If the step is placed too far forward, the plane will have a hard time rolling up on the step. With the step too far aft, the plane will porpoise up and down in the step-taxiing stage, because the CG places the weight forward toward the bow of the float, which has more drag, sucking the float down then releasing, causing the problem. There are a couple of guidelines that help in establishing the initial placement but no iron-clad formulas. Hence, when we came to Arlington to fit the floats to the GlaStar, we brought along extra strut material to cover our bets.

If you drop a line down from the aft CG position at a 4-6° angle, the step should fall within this range. Another guideline we used for placement was the position of the tricycle main gear. Knowing that the floats will be made into amphibs soon, positioning the main tire for rotation was important from the outset. On existing amphibs, the tire is typically placed 9-13" aft of the step . So we put the step 4.7° aft of the CG, matching the 9" main wheel guideline.

The final angle to figure was the throat, or the angle of attack of the floats to the

airplane. If this angle is too shallow, you will rotate and hit the heels of the float yet not come off the water because of lack of lift on the wing and drag from the floats. With the angle too great, step taxiing can be harder, with the airplane either wanting to fly too soon or wanting to fall off the step. Also, if the angle is too great excess drag is created in flight, slowing down the cruise

speeds.

Most aircraft on floats have a throat somewhere between 3^° relative to the waterline of the aircraft. Again, this is the angle between the float bottom at the step and the waterline, not including the wing incidence. Knowing that the GlaStar would be relatively fast in comparison to existing aircraft in this field, we wanted to assure good takeoff performance. The angle was put at 3.8°. By comparison, the 180s and 185s on our 3500s run at 4.0°, and the Cessna Bird Dog belonging to a friend of ours is set at 3.4°.

Let's Go Flying!

Using the folding wing feature, the GlaStar prototype was transported on a flatbed trailer over to Lake Goodwin, a small lake five or ten miles west of Arlington. Of course, nothing ever goes as quickly as you think it will, and by the time we arrived at the state park boat launch ramp, it was basically dark. The wings were extended, and the plane was sl ipped into the chi l ly water—just like launching my ski boat. The plan was just to fire the

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airplane up and taxi a short distance

down the shore to Myron Aadlund's dock. Myron is a long-time float pilot and a good friend, as well as being a GlaStar builder eagerly awaiting the results of the flight testing.

It was a good plan. But, with a dozen or so excited but cold S-H employees looking on, I couldn't get the engine started. Turned out that when Dick Anderson and I were putting the rear attach fittings in the tricycle sockets we had disconnected the battery ground strap. By the time we figured that out (it was underneath the carpet we had carefully replaced), it was pitch black. So the first opportunity to taxi the plane on floats was in the dead of night, making it a bit hard to tell what was going on.

The next day was clear and cold (20° F), but it was time to find out what we had. The plane came up on the step fine, so I taxied around for just a little bit and then just let the GlaStar lift off. Hey, we were flying on floats!

The plane handled great in the air

The powerful ailerons are wonderful. I

ran it through some preliminary stability tests, and it did just fine. Back on the water, I wanted to better check the float placement. I could tell that the floats were back slightly, but there was little tendency to porpoise, and any kind of back stick at all easily assured a smooth step taxi. The GlaStar rolled on

Floatplane

the step quickly, and there was plenty of rudder to hold it straight on a full-power takeoff. Rotation seemed just right, with no tendency to hit the heels. We could maybe cut the throat angle slightly, but I sure like using the wing to its maximum in getting off the water. A better test will be on a high-altitude lake on a hot day.

The floats felt pretty soft on the water so the choice of deadrise and the double-fluted bottom were working well. For a floatplane, the speeds were fantastic. The cruise speed is 35 m.p.h. faster than a Super Cub! And the extra flotation allows the wings to be folded while on the water. So for the time being, we'll keep everything as is:

It was time to give rides, and there was a whole bunch of smiling. One

could say we were just having plane old fun!

Among their many attributes, Glasairs are, of course, outstanding cross-country airplanes. Thus, it is not at all uncommon for Glasair pilots to drop in on us here in Arlington in the midst of their wanderings to and from exotic destinations around the U.S. and the world. So, when Helmut Schoener pulled up on the ramp last December in his pretty white taildragger, there seemed nothing unusual about him or his visit. Talk to Helmut for awhile, however, and you quickly come to realize what an extraordinary thing this son-spoken Canadian has achieved, not just in building his Glasair but in flying it under the conditions he does. We asked Helmut to write a few words about his experiences.

lasair I TD, Serial Number 280, registration C-GHSY, was born in 1994 in a drafty 30x30 log cabin

in Dawson City, Yukon, Canada, after about five years in labor. A friend of mine hit it right on the head when he replied to a tourist who had said this country looked like the end of the world, "No, it's not the end of the world, but you sure can see it from here." A lot of crazy things happened up here during the famous Gold Rush days of 1898 and thereafter, so why not build a fiberglass airplane?

What were the problems? Well, winter temperatures often reached -40° F, and if you're trying to heat the workshop with a wood stove made out of a converted 45 gal. drum that creates around 85° F in one corner and around 35° F in the opposite corner, it makes for very interesting fiberglass lay-ups.

And then parts—you know, that one little bolt that is holding up the project. The only thing you can get up here for airplanes is 100LL. In the beginning, I made the mistake of ordering parts from the U.S. for delivery direct to the Yukon. Unfortunately, the speed of the postal

system up here compares to that of carrier pigeons—carrier pigeons on snowshoes, that is.

To speed things up, I finally learned to have parts shipped to Eagle, Alaska, where I picked them up in my little Cessna 150—a 200-mile round trip

along the frozen Yukon River with nothing but the odd dogsled team below.

But finally it all came together. At the end of September '94, the wing and the fuselage were transported to the airport, eight miles out of town. There are no hangars at this airport. The 5,000 foot runway is gravel, and so is the rest. With the help of milk crates and an

inflatable car jack (an ingenious device—a four foot plastic pillow inflated with the help of your car's exhaust gases), the wings were installed and everything else prepared for the final inspection.

When the inspector arrived it was the middle of October, fairly chilly, around 0°, and there were about four inches of snow on the

ground. The inspector was a very understanding and patient man in spite of the cold and all, and the only time 1 could sense some dismay was when he got stuck in the rear of the fuselage, grumbling something about inspection panels. But we freed him and all

went well in the end.

Finally, on December 22, 1994, after a long period of bad weather, the first flight was made. In the winter, the runway is graded, and a 2" layer of packed snow is left on the surface. Actually, it is not a bad runway to land on as long as the temperatures stay fairly cold. It feels a little bit like a grass strip—white grass—and I do prefer it over asphalt.

G

The first hours of flight in the new machine—what a thrill! It is almost worth building another airplane just for those moments. Then, twenty-five hours around home base, which really didn't matter much, since everything more than two miles from the airport is wilderness anyway. It makes for a simple choice in the event of a forced landing: go for the trees.

Survival gear—including snow shoes, axe, sleeping bag, tent, etc.—is mandatory, and I ended up building an extra compartment behind the regular baggage compartment to store all the roughly 40 Ibs. of stuff. Wing, tail, and cowling covers are a must in the winter,

as is preheating. I installed one of those heat pads for the engine oil pan and, to my amazement, after a few hours the whole engine is warm—even when the outside temperature is less than -35° F. However , keeping the cockpit warm—no, not warm, just tolerable— during flight is still an unsolved challenge. The best solution so far has been a snowmobile suit.

Yes, there are a lot of hassles involved with winter f lying at lower temperatures, but, oh, do the airplanes perform!

Finally spring approaches. Around the middle of April the snow usually starts

Snowmobile Suit

to melt. It is a season of mud, rubber boots and dirty airplane bellies, but who cares? It is nice and warm during the day—around 50° F—and the days grow longer very rapidly. Normally the snow has disappeared by the middle of May, the rivers are running free again, and there is light for twenty-four hours. One of the priceless experiences in the North is going flying at 3:00 or 4:00 a.m. in June. At this time, the light is so incredible, turning this landscape, which is always so beautiful and pristine, into a mystical, almost alien surrounding.

Summer . . . often hot, into the 80s, the air full of forest fire smoke and water bombers, very dusty gravel runway, black leading edges created by mosquitoes who got into the way. But still lots of light and energy and many hours in the sky. So nice, so short.

By September, the cycle begins to close again. Dig out the wing covers and the snow shovel. And then, in the middle of winter, on a cold, gray, snowy day, I drive by the airport, and there it sits. The nose up high, that elegant little taildragger, so fragile looking but so tough, handling this harsh country better then its aluminum and fabric brothers. A thoroughbred that can do well without a warm, comfortable stable.

What a joy this airplane is!!

sharpened with a file to make numerous teeth, to cut a 3/8" diameter circular opening in the lower, aft corner of the fuel cell. Use a vacuum while drilling to minimize dust entering the fuel cell. It may be necessary to use a rat tail file to slightly enlarge the hole enough to allow the new vent line to be inserted.

Then use a 90° hook on the end of a long shaft to remove the foam core around the new hole. Once again remove the dust and chips using a vacuum. Drill a resin-injection hole in the upper end of the foam-cleared area to allow resin to be inserted into the cavity around the inserted drain line, thus sealing it in

Hangar Notebook . . . Continued from Page 12

place. The access hole in the rib will allow you room to reach in with a syringe filled with resin/Cabosil mixture to fill the cavity around the drain line. Additional fill material can be packed around the outboard face of the fuel bay end rib and the drain line to provide additional sealing. Be sure to rough up the aluminum tube to ensure a good bonding surface.

The existing fuel vent lines should be modified as necessary to compensate for the size of the FVFV. Support the installed FVFV in the wing tip by filling above and below with RTV silicone sealer. The clearance is relatively close, so this method provides ample security for the unit.

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As any good business school (or dental school) student knows, diversification is the key to successful business growth. And you thought Stoddard-Hamilton was only a pioneering force in the composite kitplane industry . . .! Read on for Part Five of the Pig Farm Chronicles.

. drew the short straw. My stomach churned as I realized there was no turning back. The mission was too important. Moments later I was dangling beneath the rising chopper, twirling at the end of the thin nylon strap. I clawed at the invisible, swirling wind as I tried to gain some stability and face forward. The chopper pilot couldn't see my struggling below, and 1 knew I'd be in serious trouble if I couldn't meet the enemy head-on. We hadn't had the time for practice—this was a do-or-die mission, and I was the first one in . . .

'Nam, 1969? Guess again! Pig Farm, 1979.

"Easy" Money

Back in the frugal early days of Stoddard-Hamilton, we all lacked gainful employment, as we were the sole shareholders of a wing-and-a-prayer business (pun intended). From time to time, however, we caved in to the desire for a little spending money. One such circumstance is etched into my megabytes of RAM forever. (Editor's note: For those not into computers, it's worth noting here that "RAM" stands for "random access memory;" let the record show that Ted said it, not me!)

Tom Hamilton had a friend who bid on Forest Service contracts to pick pine cones out of the tip-tops of genetically selected trees. He bit off more than he could pick on one particular job and called on Tom for help. I recall that Tom went out with him and struggled an entire day to climb one tree. He came

home exhausted.

The trees were located on steep slopes in the Cascades within the Seattle City Watershed. They were huge—three to five feet in diameter at the base and over 200 feet tall. The climbers had to labor over crooked snags and branches the thickness of small trees themselves. Even with Tom's help, the pine cone contractor wasn't going to complete the job on schedule

Tom is always up for a tough challenge, and he came up with alternate plan, which he shared with me the following day. As for me, I seem to always be up for one of Tom's crazy plans (like starting a kitplane company in a hog barn, for example), and I thought Tom's idea sounded great. All we had to do was talk Chuck into it.

Chuck was an Alaska Airlines pilot who kept his RV-3 at the Pig Farm and performed some of the initial Glasair flight testing. He had also managed to survive a tour in Vietnam as a helicopter pilot. We needed Chuck to rent a helicopter to help us climb the trees.

It was a hard sell at first, but Chuck finally saw things our way.

Our business plan was simple: The Forest Service paid $100 per tree picked. We only had to fill a small burlap sack from the very top of each tree—piece of cake. The helicopter rented for around $275 per hour, which meant that after three trees we were into serious gravy to be divided among the pickers and the pilot. Tom recruited

another of his many gullible friends so we'd have four pickers to maximize the efficient use of the helicopter.

Blow Once for "All OK," Blow Twice for . . . "All OK"

D-Day dawned bright and blue for the courageous pine cone crew. We met at the Pig Farm, all anxious for a day of manly adventure. We heard the chopper—WHOP, WHOP, WHOP— long before we caught sight of it. I was envisioning some sort of older-looking Rent-a-Dent chopper. Instead, we were pleasantly surprised to see a bright, shiny new turbine Hiller hover and land in front of us. Chuck was in his element. We loaded up and took off to rendezvous with the pine cone contractor on a remote mountain logging road.

During the flight, like any crack combat team, we checked our gear. The plan was to wear a climber's chest harness and use caribiners to hook onto a strap suspended beneath the chopper. We determined the optimum strap length to be about eight feet, which unfortunately wasn't long enough for us to be entirely visible to Chuck. A large police whistle hung around each of our necks to signal Chuck once we were secured to the tree.

We debated about whether to hook the caribiner to the front of the harness or the back. Hooked to the back, we theorized, would free our face and arms to grapple with branches at the tops of the trees. (Editor's note: You planned to grapple with the tops of the trees with your face, Ted?!) The difficulty would come in trying to reach behind ourselves

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Hooking to the front of the harness, on the other hand, would make it easier to disengage, but with the strap out front, we worried that it might be difficult to penetrate the outer branches far enough to get a good grip on the tree.

Well, good engineering is all about managing compromise. We finally agreed that hookup in the back would be best.

We spotted the vehicles perched high on a ridge. Chuck maneuvered the chopper to a gentle landing on a wide spot in the logging road.

On the outside, I exuded fearlessness as I swaggered away from the copter and surveyed the huge trees and steep slopes. The Forest Service ground-support crew was mostly female, so it was essential that I offer my best Rambo impression. "This is child's play," my expression said. Inside, however, 1 was running back to Momma's house to dive into bed and hide under the covers. "This is absolute insanity," I was thinking.

Tom's voice jerked me from my Rambo-Scaredo stupor. "We need to figure out who's going first," he said.

Chuck picked up four twigs, broke one of them off, and arranged them in his hand. "Short one goes first," he said.

"Not a problem," I joked, "I never win anything."

All the money we hoped to earn wouldn't have bought me a long straw that morning. The others didn't even bother to hide their sighs of relief as they gleefully pointed out that I had drawn the short stick. Once again I longed for the safety and security of those old bed covers ... but there was no turning back.

After a short, final briefing with Chuck, I clipped on to the nylon strap and squatted next to the Hiller as it spooled up. Chuck went into a gentle hover next to me, then slid overhead, and suddenly I was hundreds of feet in the air.

The Forest Service guides pointed out the tree they wanted me in. Chuck approached cautiously, as his rotor blade tips were perilously close to the uphill trees. How he positioned me into the tree top and kept his blades out of the other trees I ' l l never know, but frankly that was not chief among my concerns at that moment.

The tree was much tougher than I thought. These were/?r trees, after all, not oaks, so I was prepared for a fairly soft tree top. But what I found myself wrestling with was a gnarly, heavy, spiky old tree with very stiff branches and needles like wire brushes. 1 grabbed a handful and pulled myself in toward the trunk.

Unexpectedly, the chopper bobbed up a few feet, which yanked me upward

through the stiff, unyielding branches. Then the helicopter bobbed back down again, and I felt the strap go slack. I tightened my grip on the branches as I desperately struggled to get to the center trunk. Finally with a solid grip on the tree, I reached back with one hand to release the caribiner at my back. To my horror, I couldn't find it! I scrabbled wildly all over my back and couldn't lay a finger on it. Finally, I turned very slowly to look over my shoulder. There it was, dancing gaily in mid-air a few feet behind me. It had already come undone!

\ blew for all I was worth on that whistle, and the chopper banked away sharply toward the downhill side. In a few seconds Chuck was hovering back at the loading zone.

Clutching the tree like a kitten at the top of the telephone pole, I realized how close I'd come to disaster. I needed to warn the others. I frantically waved one arm and blew on the whistle. Darn, I thought, we hadn't worked out any other whistle signals besides "Fly down for the next sucker; everything's OK." I waved

23

even more frantically.

Unfortunately, the ground crew apparently thought I was signaling my success, but they began to realize something was wrong when I wouldn't stop waving and blowing the whistle. After all, Rambo would've been getting down to the business of picking pine cones by then. They signaled Chuck to land and shut down. With the engine winding down, I shouted for the others to rig up in front of the harness rather than behind, and to use two caribiners rather than one. We also lengthened the harness from eight to twenty-five feet to give the rotor blades a little more room.

It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's ...

Soon the Miller was plopping the rest of the pickers into tree tops within a hundred yards of each other. Each time the chopper approached a tree 1 had to stop picking and watch the tense drama. After the fourth picker was successfully treed, Chuck landed and shut down. As the helicopter noise died down, it was replaced with whooping, yahooing, and heroic reports about the battle each of us was waging with his respective tree. Once we gained a little confidence, the talk centered more on the incredible view we had.

Only one sackful of cones was required from each tree. We tied the stuffed sacks to the ends of long, coiled ropes we'd brought with us and lowered them slowly to the ground far below. Jiggling the rope dislodged the sack from the branches on the way down. Voice communication with the ground crew was easily accomplished, but we rarely caught glimpses of them.

1 don't recall how many trees we picked that day—it seems like only four or five each. I do recall that we worked until the afternoon upslope drafts made maneuvering the helicopter too difficult to continue. Chuck elected to pluck us one at a time from the top of our last tree and drop us off at the contractor's car, which was parked at the bottom of the

valley at least 1,500 feet below.

Since I was first in, I got to be first out. Full of the sheer freedom of pulling away from the ultra-close proximity of the trees all day, Chuck banked the Hiller quickly away, out and over the valley in a rapid, steep descent. It was the ride of my life as I clung to both caribiners with a grip of iron.

There is an incredible thrill in doing something exciting but dangerous. "A thrill to be savored..." Rambo thought, " . . . but not necessarily repeated," I added.

Tom's friend Steve was the next to descend from the ridge far above, and I felt for him, hanging on up there for dear life. But then, as my disbelieving eyes began to resolve the distant speck dangling from beneath the chopper, Steve appeared to be flying, not clutching. Like a skydiver, he was stretching his arms and legs out to full extension and steering his way back and forth beneath the descending chopper. As he got closer, he struck the pose of the FTD florist flying in to deliver somebody a bouquet.

I was instantly ashamed of my own technique and envious of the fun he was having. I wanted another turn. Tom descended with the same "let it all hang out" attitude. He, too, was having a ball, and I felt doubly ripped off. "Oh, well," I figured, "tomorrow I'll loosen up and enjoy it more."

With all four pickers safely back on the pad, we released the day's stress and emotion with plenty of high fives and back slapping. The ride home in the Hiller was exuberant with the feeling of having accomplished something unique.

That night Tom called me and said that the Forest Service "brass" was going to be on the mountain to witness our program the next day. The contractor even thought the media had been invited to record for posterity this great

leap forward in pine cone picking technology.

D-Day +1: A Re-evaluation

We met again at the Pig Farm early the following morning. Chuck was strangely sober. He kept mumbling about the proximity of the trees and the tricky winds. He described the fatal consequences of the smallest miscalculation on his part or of an unexpected, strong gust at the wrong moment. Gulp. We stared back and forth in silence. Good sense or chicken feathers (or both) finally got the best of me; "I don't know about you guys, but I was pretty scared up there yesterday."

In the end we all agreed—it was an experience we'd never forget, but it was too dangerous and risky to repeat. Chuck flew off to return the expensive helicopter to its home base while it was still in one piece.

We had to attend to only one more small detail in order to complete the dissolution of our forestry subsidiary: the contractor and Forest Service people were waiting for us. Since this all took place at least a dozen years B.C. (Before Cellular), we scribbled out a quick note of apology, good sense and retreat, stuffed it into a small cardboard box, and flew up to the mountain in Tom's little Piper Clipper. As Tom lined up on the logging road for a low approach, I opened the window and delivered the message. We never looked back.

Anyway, we had more important fish to fry. We needed to hurry back to the Pig Farm and continue our development of another new technology (i.e., get the Glasair prototype ready for Oshkosh)! Talk about a hare-brained scheme...

Somewhere high in the Cascades, a squirrel chews on a genetically selected pine cone and wonders what manner of beast left these frantic claw marks in the trunk of the old tree . . .

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Stoddard-Hamilton freely shares ideas submitted by builders. However, inclusion of an idea in this newsletter should not be construed as official endorsement or approval of the idea by Stoddard-Hamilton. Builders are strongly urged to exercise their own discretion and judgment when considering the implementation of a suggestion presented in this column.

A Few More GlaStar Ideas by

Howard Stearns, GlaStar Refuge Cove, BC, Canada

Electrical System Shut-Off

Having built thirty or so boats over the years, I know that the marine industry wouldn't think of selling a boat without some method of cutting off all power to the electrical system. I have heard many stories of solenoids sticking, starters locking up and batteries frying, so I looked for a small, lightweight switch for shutting off all power to the electrical system.

I found such a switch used in formula racing cars; it's shown in Photo 1. It's available from Pegasus Racing Supplies, (800)

688-6946, for about $30; the part

number is 4431. The switch will handle 50 amps, and it has a removable key, so it doubles as a theft-prevention device.

I mounted my switch on the upper left side of the cage under the wind-screen with a bracket

attached to the cage, so it's easily accessible in flight if an electrical fire should occur. It also provides a sure-fire way to shut off all power when working on the engine.

Stick Boots

I wanted some neat way to close out the gaps in the seat pans where the control sticks come through. At an auto junkyard, I found the gearshift boots from a 1989 Subaru Justy to be just about right, although there are a dozen other small car models that would work just as well. One of the boots is shown in Photo 2.

The boots are very flexible, light and have just the right angle to match the stick as it emerges from the seat pan.

'11 install them on the seat pan with a few screws and nutplates.

Seat Foam

Anxious for the first "sit" in my GlaStar, I fitted the seat pans and started piling in various densities of foam. This went on and on until I had 9" of foam, which weighed 5 Ibs. per seat. This seemed a bit much.

The seat pans must sit on the cage tubes for structural reasons, so I installed a 4" base of hard Styrofoam shaped to fit the pan. On top of the foam you could cement a piece of 1/6" plywood to achieve a solid base for the actual seat foam. Mine ended up with three different densities of foam totaling 4" thick. It's quite comfortable and saved 8 Ibs.

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Photo 1

Photo 2

Builder Hints

GlaStar Flaps, Take 1 by

Fred Matuszewski, GlaStar, Coal City, IL

In mounting the flap to the tracks, I found that the flap was not working freely in the tracks. When I tightened the castle nut firmly to the clamp-up bushing so that the only movement was between the roller bearing and the bushing, I found that the nylon washer locked up the bearing. But if I removed the nylon washer, there was too much end play in the bearing.

Here's what I did: I miced the bushing length at .622", the bearing length at .432" and the bearing diameter at .440". The thin nylon washers were each .032" thick and the thick ones were each .066" thick. Here is the hard part: I totaled one thick and one thin washer for each side of the track, which came to .098". There are two sides, which brings the total to .196". The bearing length is .432", so the total of all the washers and the bearing is .432" + .196" = .628".

Now, I subtracted the total washer and bearing stack-up from

the bushing length to find the total amount of interference: .628" - .622" = .006" too tight. To fix this, I took the thick nylon washers and milled a 29/64" diameter counterbore .004" deep on each one—one for each side. Then 1 could tighten the castle nut and not lock up the bearing.

However, after I did this, the flap was still hanging up. So, my next step was to make a larger nylon washer to replace the two nylon washers from each side of the track at the forward, upper bearing. I made one washer for each side about 1/8" thick and counterbored for the bearing to a depth of .036".

This second fix freed up my flap without introducing excessive end play in the bearings. If you don't have the nylon to make the thick upper washers, you could use three washers—two thin and one thick—from your kit. Mill out the thick washer 29/64" in diameter and .004" deep, drill one thin washer completely through at 29/64" diameter, and then install them in the following order: the whole thin washer, the milled thick washer and then the drilled thin washer.

The measurements I give here and in the figure below are for my GlaStar. These could vary from one GlaStar to another.

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Builder Hints

GlaStar Flaps, Take 2 by

Ron Barrows, GlaStar Fridley, MN

When building my flaps, I found it much easier to final-rivet them by Clecoing the spar and ribs to the bottom surface as specified, but then setting the assembly on the bench on the upper skin surface and holding it down with sandbags, as shown in the figure. This made it very easy to reach around and buck, but more importantly, it eliminated a lot of the pop rivets in the nose ribs because they can be reached, especially around the reinforcement plates.

Firewall-Forward Gremlins (and Some Solutions)

by Mike Palmer, Glasair I/II

Phoenix, AZ

Fluctuating Fuel Pressures

For the longest time, we had a problem with our fuel pressure (carbureted engine). Occasionally, the fuel pressure would fluctuate wildly, with a set frequency. It didn't seem unsafe (an advantage of carburetors!), but unexpected and annoying. Turning on the electric pump didn't seem to make a difference.

I never could quite predict when it was going to happen, although it seemed to happen most predictably when we were full of fuel and climbing. From that, I figured it was a vent problem. Perhaps a slug of fuel got into those long lines in the wing vent and made it hard for the fuel pump to work, resulting in the pressure fluctuation.

Well, we found the problem, serendipitously. We have a Flowscan fuel-flow transducer and had mounted it inside the firewall, just before a right-angle bulkhead fitting. (We were using the old G-I fuel firewall pass-through.) The fuel-flow gauge has never been right, and I thought perhaps the problem was due to mounting that Flowscan so close to a right angle. (You're supposed to have it mounted with a few inches of straight line before and after the transducer.) So, I moved it further upstream, where I had a straight section of fuel line.

1 don't know if that did it, or if it was the fact that one of the AN fittings on the Flowscan was "loose," but the problem is solved. Our fuel pressure is now rock solid.

In previous issues of the Glasair News (really old ones) there was some discussion about how a tiny leak in a fuel fitting could be small enough not to pass fuel but big enough to allow air to be drawn in. (This was before S-H had moved the location of the electric fuel pump on the old G-Is.) We had just the tiniest hint of weeping fuel at the fitting. As our Flowscan was located before the mechanical fuel pump, perhaps we were sucking a little air?

That seems the most plausible theory, but if that's not it, maybe having the Flowscan mounted so close to the right-angle fitting was causing some pulsating turbulence in the fuel line? I don't really know, but if you're having fluctuating fuel problems, I'd suggest checking your fittings for tightness first, and if that doesn't do it, maybe try bypassing your Flowscan if you have one.

Cermi-Chrome

This has nothing to do with Glasairs per se, but be on the lookout for extreme cylinder wear on early Cermi-chrome cylinders. We were one of the first to get Cermi-chrome, back in '88. As usual, we didn't get flying until '95, and by that time, they had found out about the ring incompatibility.

In our case, we've been playing "catch up" with all you builders who finished before us, and had 360 hours after a year-and-a-half. Everything was looking good engine-wise, with hardly anything in the oil filter. Then, at about 320 hours, we started getting a few flakes of "stuff. We do oil analysis, but after establishing a baseline, only send in every other sample. Flew to Florida and back, and upon return, found more stuff in the oil filter, and sent that oil sample in. Got a call back that chrome and iron content were too high, suggesting cylinder wear-through.

Upon pulling the jugs, we found that was right. All four

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Builder Hints

cylinders had begun stepping. Sigh. Because of time constraints and previous commitments, we decided to opt for new Millenniums. But if you have Cermi-chrome, beware.

Hard Starting

I was beta-testing a new electronic mag when our engine became harder to start. It was getting to be "winter" here in Phoenix (where the temps drop into the 40s in the morning—brrrr...), we have no primer, and I had changed to longer-reach spark plugs for the new ignition. Between all that, I wasn't sure what the problem was. If anything, this new ignition should have made the engine easier to start.

When I got to Florida, where it's warmer than Phoenix in the winter, I took a fellow involved with this new ignition system up for a flight. The engine wouldn't start there either. He said he knew exactly what the problem was.

Turns out the nozzle for the accelerator pump had plugged with something. (I wish I'd seen what was plugging it, but he blew it out before I had the chance to stop him.) In fact, it was so plugged, that the pressure from the accelerator pump had split the tubing, and fuel would spill out the bottom of the carb.

As a temporary fix, we simply cut the tubing—but considering that this made for a bigger nozzle and seems to work fine, it may become permanent.

So, if your engine is hard to start, check to see if your accelerator pump is really pumping. And pumping where you want it to.

Stumbling Engine

This same fellow, who so correctly diagnosed our starting problem, also suggest we switch to a K&N air filter. (He was concerned that the paper Fram filter we were using would clog up after flying in rain.) These K&N units are used by hot rodders and also Van's RVs. He suggested that when we switch, we also make a front baffle for the airbox, so as to not let air impact directly on the filter element.

So we made the change, and obediently put in a baffle. The air filter may be good, but the baffle wasn't. (Since putting in the new air filter, we find that we have to run richer. Maybe we were starving for air before?) The engine really ran rough from 2,200 to 2,500 r.p.m..

I cut out the baffle, and voila—the engine runs much better. It's amazing how sensitive a carburetor is to air flow.

Electro-Mag

The new electronic ignition I've been testing is called an "Electro-Mag." It's very simple (read that: "reliable"). It doesn't have any fancy microprocessors to vary your timing, which would be nice, but would also be very susceptible to interference. (Ever fly under virga in a Glasair? We really charge up the airframe, pulling sparks off metal, and driving the radios nuts.) It's very simply a unit you bolt in place of one of your mags that has two hall-effect sensors in it and a rotor. The hall effects drive an external, oil-filled high-voltage coil, like the kind you used to have on your car in the 60s. The result is a very hot spark. (Did you know the spark from a well-tuned mag is only 8KV?) You can open the gap on your plugs to .050". In fact, it's so reliable that a major manufacturer is negotiating to make it a certified product for certified airplanes.

Another thing that differentiates this unit from those others on the market—it's fully shielded. Some will warn you that you can't run a Stormscope with their electronic ignitions, but not this one! We've been running our Stormscope and LORAN just fine! (One of the reasons I got to beta test this unit was for this very reason. A composite airplane presents a worse case RFI scenario.)

We've noticed about 10% better climb, hotter CHTs, broader leaning band, and when we pulled the pistons out for the cylinder change, a much bigger burn pattern on the Electro-Mag side. (Less lead fouling and valve sticking?)

Charlie Bass, inventor of the Electro-Mag, is planning on being at Sun n' Fun this year, so if you make it out there, check him out. Tell him Mike sent you.

GlaStar Wing Jig Post Alternative

by Jim Rose, GlaStar Big Bear Lake, CA

Here is a wing jig idea that I came up with "while strolling through the Base (Home Base and/or Home Depot) one day" (but not in the merry month of May).

I happened to see in the "fence" department some 8' X 2-3/8" diameter tubing that would make great vertical posts for the wing fixture. In fact, they also had the clamps that will slip around the tubing to allow attachment of the homemade wing spar brackets that we will build out of aluminum angle stock.

Using metal will solve the problem of having wood move with the ever-changing moisture conditions. It is also very cost effective—just over $20 for all the pieces.

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Spray Gun Lowdown by

John Top, GlaStar La Jolla, CA

I had never owned a paint gun, and I researched them for my GlaStar project. I settled on the Binks Ml-G, which is a gravity-feed high-volume/low-pressure (HVLP) gun. It complies with all air quality regulations with very low overspray and a 65% transfer efficiency. It requires only 18 Ibs. of inlet pressure. It will handle all types of materials—including waterborne and high-solids—as fast as a conventional gun with a 50% material savings.

I kind of assumed that all HVLP guns were equally expensive or took a lot of added equipment until I saw a very informative ad from A & I Supply ((800) 260-2647), which included a matrix comparing the Binks conversion system with a turbine HVLP on various points. I gave Binks a call ((800) 992-4657), and after talking to their techies, gave A & I a call and talked to their techies. They recommended the gravity-feed Ml-G gun, which will work with the small 3-5 h.p. compressor with a 25-30 gal. tank that most of us probably have.

A & I sells the gun for $269, which is not much more than the

Builder Hints

conventional DeVilbis gun Cleaveland offers, and you'll probably save the difference in materials. (A & I ships orders over $50 for free.) It's more expensive than what you'll find at Home Depot or Sears, but if you want a quality gun at a good price, you can't beat it.

When I talked to Binks, I mentioned that S-H was recommending a Binks Model 7 or equivalent with a #36 nozzle for the Deft primer they sell. The Binks techies said that the M1 -G with their #94 fluid nozzle and #95 air nozzle will handle anything that the S-H setup will.

So far, I have used my new gun to finish-paint my engine mount. After 10-15 minutes of spraying, I was amazed that 1 had only gone through 3 oz. of paint. Had I bought this gun earlier, I probably wouldn't have needed to buy an extra quart of PPG at $70! The gun can be choked down to less than an aerosol can, which keeps runs to a minimum.

I see no reason why it wouldn't work as well with primers. Most turbine guns will not handle water-based materials, and those that do require them to be thinned. However, the Binks conversion HVLP guns are purported to do a great job of atomizing water-based coatings, many without thinning.

Funny how you tend to get what you pay for when it comes to tools!

Crack-Stop Technique by

Cal Spangler S-H Technical Support Department

2-3" disk sander held at a shallow angle to the surface. Shoot for a concavity about 3/4" wide.

Then lay a single strip of bi-directional glass into the concavity. Block sand it flush and re-gelcoat or paint.

Here's a tip to prevent flush-head rivets from cracking through your paint job or gelcoat in places like the attach hinge rivet lines on the cowling.

Countersink and install the rivets slightly deep—say, twenty thousandths or so. Then sand a slight concavity along the rivet line just below the gelcoat but not into the fiberglass cloth. If you're careful, you can accomplish this very neatly with a

Sanity Check by

Thomas Lempicke, GlaStar Rock Hill, SC

Here are some tips concerning the horizontal stabilizer and elevator.

1. Start by performing a sanity check. Look over several Cessna and Piper products before you get underway.

Notice the spacing of the rivets at the forward and aft spars. Check out the quality of the riveting, straightness of the pieces, number of doublers, and general finish of the skin. You, of course, are going to do a better job. By the same token absolute perfection is nearly impossible to achieve. If your goal is to just build an airplane, then nitpick the project 'till death do you part. But if your goal is to build an airplane and go flying, then settle for somewhat higher quality than Cessna or Piper and enjoy the experience. If you have checked the factory efforts you will have noticed that the GlaStar is really quite over-

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Builder Hints

designed. The designers went for the ideal condition, rather than a financially viable product, and also put a little bit in for the fact that the guy building the airplane is 5. not a pro and probably will not drive every rivet just perfectly, etc.

the table.

Unclamp the 2X4s and pick up the whole assembly. This assembly now consists of your straightedge, three pieces of hinge, and a bunch of clamps.

4.

Don't start anything until you have read over the whole section of the manual and understand the "why" of each step. This is one of the best manuals in the business, but it is still in the development stage. You will find many better ways of doing things if you will think out each step before doing.

The elevator is really quite complicated because it has to fit up to the horizontal stabilizer. We generally followed the manual, but found a much easier way to fit the elevator to the stabilizer. First, we finished the stabilizer completely right up to installing the hinges, just like it says in the manual. Then we bought a 1/8" thick X 2" wide X 20' long piece of steel from a local fab shop. We cut it so that we had a piece as long as the stabilizer. This is a straightedge and has come in handy in many different ways.

Lay the straightedge on your table so that it is on edge. We clamped it to a couple of 2X4s to hold it. Very carefully measure and mark the positions for the hinges as they will be when installed on the rear spar of the stabilizer. Put the three hinge pieces in an "L" shape with the pins in the center of the "L" and clamp them into position on the straightedge. One part of the "L" is now clamped to the straightedge, and one part is flat against

6. Bring the assembly up to the rear spar of the stabilizer and clamp the free ends of the hinges to the bottom of the top flange. If you push the straightedge right up to the spar/skin edge the hinges will be under the spar flange by just the right amount. The straightedge is a little heavy and you will probably want a couple of wood blocks to help support it. Our stabilizer had a little bit of a curve to the rear spar, and we had a problem getting edge distance in the center hinge. We did not use the pre-punched holes here, but rather moved the holes aft by about 1/16" and drilled them in the centers between the pre-punched holes. At this point we drilled all of the holes and squeezed the rivets. Now we have a completed stabilizer, and we know that the hinge line is straight.

7. We assembled the framework of the elevator. Before we drilled the top skin, we attached the hinges to the forward spar. We used two counter-sunk rivets in the side hinges and three in the center hinge. Now you can clamp the counterweight ribs to the stabilizer and leave them that way until all of the skins are drilled. By doing this your elevator has got to match up to your stabilizer.

8. Do the trailing edge last. Use a piece of hardware-store aluminum angle to keep it straight. Just drill and Cleco through both the skins and angle.

From the Flight Deck Continued from Page 2

and GlaStar kits and the proprietary options we develop for them. In these areas, we feel we offer very fair value for the dollar. However, on many other parts such as fasteners, tires and tubes, electrical components, etc., we simply cannot offer prices competitive with those of the large aircraft supply houses or specialty shops. Because we buy in minuscule volumes compared to an Aircraft Spruce or a Chief Aircraft, we must charge more simply to cover our costs. We sell these sorts of parts solely as a convenience to our customers, some of whom prefer "one-stop shopping" even if the price is a little higher. I am certainly not trying to turn business away, but neither does S-H try to gouge its customers or "nickel-and-dime" them on small, off-the-shelf items. Please

keep this in mind as you compare our prices to those of our competitors.

We are in the final stages of negotiating a GlaStar distributorship for the United Kingdom and the Benelux countries with Aero Developments Limited, Hangar D2, Kemble Airfield, Kemble, Gloucs., GL7 6BA, England. The phone is 011-44-1285-770-291, and the fax is 011-44-1285-770-455. Please contact Aero Developments directly for any sales inquiries from the UK or the Benelux countries; ask for Melvin Cross, Graham Brunwin or Paul Hinchcliffe. We are very excited about getting Aero Developments on board and look forward to a prosperous future with them. (Note that worldwide Glasair sales will continue to be

conducted directly from S-H.)

The auxiliary fuel tank option for the GlaStar is very close to being finalized and should be available in early June. There are several firewall-forward options also newly completed or nearing completion. See Page 7 of this newsletter for an update on new options that are available now.

Until next time, thanks for your support of Stoddard-Hamilton in its endeavors to create some of the best kitplanes on the market. We continue to be an ever-improving company, and I personally invite any comments, both negative and positive, that will help us serve you, our customer, better. Now, we're off to Sun n' Fun in Florida. Hope to see you there!

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The class activities will include an introduction to molded composite and sheetmetal light aircraft fabrication. Following introductory lessons, using a team approach, class activities will revolve around the fabrication of a GLASTAR.

The workshop is open to all individuals who have an interest in aviation and basic capabilities with materials and tods. An excellent opportunity to learn and develop composite aircraft fabrication skills and knowledge concerning the purchase of a light aircraft This program is a part of the Indian Hilts Community College Continuing Education Program.

The class will consist of four weeks of instruction during the month of June. Tuition: $600 which Includes a reservation/laboratory fee of $100. If the class fills (15 students), the reservation deposit ($100) will not be refunded after April 15th. Partial scholarships are available for college students. The laboratory facilities are located at the Ottumwa Industrial Airport, Aviation Center. Short-term students can participate on the following tuition and lab fee basis: One or two weeks, $375.

CLASS ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT;

The participants will receive a copy of the aircraft prints and other essential details prior to coming to class. Following a plans exam, the class will be organized into teams based upon interest, knowledge and skill. These teams will proceed to build their respective aircraft sub-assemblies and then collectively assemble the plane. Class hours will be 8:00 a. m. to 6:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, over a four-week period. There will be daily seminars concerning aircraft fabrication techniques.

FOR DETAILS:

John Vanddto Indian Hills Community College Division of Continuing Education 525Grandview Ottumwa, IA 52501 1-800-726-2585 ext 183 or (515) 683-5183

Dr. John Ritey Professor 1978 21 Oth Street Boone, IA 50036 (515)432-6319

Ottumwa Campus 525 Grandview Avenue Ottumwa, Iowa 52501 (515)683-5111

William Curry, Hot Springs, AR, Glasair I TD, N622BC, 1,800+

Dr. John Zasadny, Torrance, CA, Glasair III, N2JZ, 1,800+

Stoddard-Hamilton Aircraft, Glasair I FT, N89SH, 1,700+

*Stoddard-Hamilton Aircraft, Glasair Super II RG, N902S, 1,500+

Dr. Kent Farney, Navato, CA, Glasair I TD, N82SS, 1,400+

Chuck Mason, Nokomis, FL, Glasair I TD, N28CM, 1,300+

*Carmine Petracca, Lewiston, ID, Glasair I FT, N272CP, 1,200+

John Bourland, Dallas, TX, Glasair I RG, N529RS, 1,100+

Robin Rice, Nassau Bay, TX, Glasair I RG, N86JC, 1,100+

Tom Stanley, Hanford, CA, Glasair I RG, N309TS, 1,100+

Peter Vollheim, Nashua, NH, Glasair I TD, N348PV, 1,100+

*Henri Chorosz, La Gaude, France, Glasair Super II FT, N36GC, 1,000+

Ed Covington, Old Church, VA, Glasair I RG, N3EC, 1,000+

Everett Davis & Paul Wallace, Jackson, CA, Glasair I RG, N14WD, 1,000+

William Hillman, Tucson, AZ, Glasair I RG, N84AG, 1,000+

John Levy, Carlsbad, CA, Glasair I RG, N88JL, 1,000+

Dr. Jerry Pekin, San Diego, CA, Glasair I TD, 1,000+

Tom Robertson, Phoenix, AZ, Glasair I FT, N325TR, 1,000+

Gene Spaulding, Dallas, TX, Glasair I FT, N18GS, 1,000+

Bob Luwig, Meridian, MS, Glasair I RG, N86BS, 1,000+

Robin Young & Bill McKee, Lakeland, FL, Glasair I TD, N286YM, 1,000+

* denotes new member or change in hours

Flymarket

Jim & Julie Londo, Owners (206) 338-7070 (619)394-4848

Karen Louise, Order Desk

P.O. Box 368 Mukilteo, WA 98275

(206) 745-6937

GlaStar Seat Packages • Choice of FAA-certified fabric, vinyl,

fabric/vinyl combo or fine European leather • Designed for comfort and made with airliner

quality and durability by the builder of Boeing 777 seats.

• Four layers of foam for height adjustment. • Seats arrive ready to Velcro in place—a five-

minute job. • Prices per pair:

Fabric, vinyl or combination $ 1,249 Fine European leather $1,649

Custom Interior Packages • Coordinated carpeting and headliner materials. • Quality, cost-effective materials. • Interior decorator available for custom design.

Call or write for color choices, fabric and material samples, and more information on finished products and custom options.

Tom Taylor, Owner 3559 Santa Carlotta St.

La Crescenta, CA 91214 (818)248-

2499

High-quality, labor-

saving, test-proven ... ... Glasair

Performance Enhancements

As used on Tom Taylor's 261 m.p.h. Oshkosh Grand Champion II-S RG and John Parker's record-setting 305 m.p.h. III.

• Aft wing fairings: One-piece and retrofittable. Fits all IIs and IIIs, easily adaptable to Is. $389.95 per pair.

• Wing tips: One piece, straight trailing edge. $199.95 per pair.

WANTED: Glasair I TD builder seeking retractable gear parts to convert to RG. Will consider whole systems or parts from salvage. Call Wayne at (541) 926-1499.

FOR SALE: Glasair I RG. O-320. $55,000. Call Jason Sharkey at (317) 769-6969.

WANTED: Partially completed Glasair I or II, RG preferable. Call Marty Kress at (908) 996-6060.

FOR SALE: Four Whelen A650 PG/PR wing-tip strobe lights. $90 each. Call Bill Paulson at (715) 344-8484.

FOR SALE: Glasair I RG Lycoming O-320 engine mount, new. $350 or best offer. Stainless steel Glasair exhaust system for Lycoming O-320, new. $475 or best offer. Call Dutch Schulze at (310) 457-3782 or e-mail <be574@lafn.org>.

FOR SALE: Glasair I stainless steel exhaust for 180 h.p. IO-360, complete and unused. $650 or best offer. Call Brad Peterson at (970) 493-7156 or e-mail <peterson@frii.com>.

FOR SALE: S-Tec 60-1 autopilot with altitude hold, gyro, bug, all instruments and harnesses complete. Also, WX-900 Stormscope. Both systems currently installed and working fine in Glasair II FT. Selling to finance avionics "downgrade" for new GlaStar. Call Bruce Williams at (504) 775-5476.

FOR SALE: 37° left rear induction adapter for Lycoming IO-540-K1G5D, perfect condition. Includes four mounting studs for Bendix throttle/fuel injection servo. Spacer block not included. $250. Call Michael Bowes at J.M. Bowes Aviation, Inc., (941) 751-3455 or (941) 747-2441, or fax (941) 747-0871.

BUILDER ASSISTANCE: Licensed A&P mechanic with 20-years of aircraft sheet-metal experience offering builder assistance on GlaStar projects. Will travel to builder's location. Call Paul Silva at (360) 416-6704 (evenings).

33

Section A : Engine Accessories A1 Please call A16 1,320.00 A31 345.00 A46 360.00 A61 4.86 A2 37,900.00 A17 1,320.00 A32 345.00 A47 Discontinued A62 5.90 A3 28,130.00 A18 1,320.00 A33 274.00 A48 360.00 A63 6.88 A4 25,225.00 A19 85.00 A34 Please call A49 360.00 A64 9.50 A5 17,585.00 A20 1,575.00 A35 84.44 A50 125.00 A65 9.95 A6 6,345.00 A21 1,575.00 A36 695.00 A51 220.00 A66 13.28 A7 6,445.00 A22 150.00 A37 695.00 A52 50.00 A67 43.99 A8 4,810.00 A23 150.00 A38 695.00 A53 15.60 A68 64.87 A9 7,497.00 A24 995.00 A39 715.00 A54 18.60 A69 75.65 A10 7,497.00 A25 429.95 A40 695.00 ASS 16.20 A70 88.41 A11 6,455.00 A26 52.03 A41 Discontinued A56 17.70 A71 120.12 A12 5,730.00 A27 80.00 A42 299.00 A57 17.70 A72 138.60 A13 150.00 A28 559.00 A43 250.00 ASS 14.25 A73 10.88 A14 140.00 A29 860.00 A44 250.00 A59 20.70 A74 22.47 A15 1,320.00 A 30 279.00 A45 250.00 A60 4.86 A75 14.61

Section B: Instruments

B1 3,180.00 B6 9,360.00 B11 475.00 B16 1.28 B21 110.00 B2 5,410.00 B7 5,990.00 B12 See B11 B17 30.71 B22 30.49 B3 1,940.00 B8 1,175.00 B13 SeeB11 B18 120.00 B23 27.47 B4 1,436.00 B9 60.00 B14 30.27 B19 275.00 B24 27.91 B5 5,475.00 B10 75.00 B15 23.63 B20 275.00 B25 6.86

Section C: Airframe Accessories

C1 22.50 C34 250.00 C67 24.50 C100 .44 C133 87.50 C2 149.00 035 70.88 C68 24.50 C101 2.01 C134 122.50 C3 495.00 C36 620.00 C69 22.93 C102 .59 C135 385.00 C4 239.25 C37 90.00 C70 24.50 C103 .21 C136 31.50 C5 395.00 C38 90.00 C71 24.50 C104 26.73 C137 58.24 C6 395.00 C39 90.00 C72 24.50 C105 26.73 C138 Discontinued C7 995.00 C40 49.00 C73 24.50 C106 .28 C139 Discontinued C8 Discontinued C41 49.00 C74 36.43 C107 .37 C140 Discontinued C9 65.00 C42 22.15 C75 38.85 C108 .51 C141 6.97 C10 699.00 C43 22.15 C76 37.10 C109 1.28 C142 2.85 C11 699.00 C44 22.15 C77 .18 C110 1.19 C143 2.96 C12 226.10 C45 22.15 C78 .18 C111 2.45 C144 4.48 C13 262.50 C46 75.00 C79 4.34 C112 4.55 C145 2.85 C14 SeeC15 C47 75.00 C80 4.34 C113 Discontinued C146 2.85 C15 435.00 C48 199.00 C81 .22 C114 49.00 C147 2.85 C16 435.00 C49 199.00 C82 .12 C115 49.00 C148 1.33 C17 459.95 C50 95.00 C83 .30 C116 49.00 C149 .88 C18 465.00 C51 95.00 C84 ,12 C117 49.00 C150 3.92 C19 590.00 C52 75.00 CSS .16 C118 49.00 C151 21.67 C20 495.00 C53 75.00 C86 2.36 C119 245.00 C152 5.76 C21 1,395.00 C54 95.00 C87 1.78 C120 295.00 C153 2.85 C22 1,395.00 CSS 120.00 C88 .79 C121 295.00 C154 5.69 C23 1,395.00 C56 14.47 C89 .33 C122 295.00 C155 87.15 C24 545.00 C57 495.00 C90 18 C123 295.00 C156 59.66 C25 498.00 C58 525.00 C91 .14 C124 335.00 C157 77.73 C26 498.00 C59 15.03 C92 .11 C125 25.00 C158 5.69 C27 126.12 C60 2.20 C93 .09 C126 33.87 C159 7.00 C28 4.20 C61 22.50 C94 .70 C127 31.77 C160 10.00 C29 385.00 C62 112.00 C95 12 C128 60.96 C161 5.95 C30 400.00 C63 23.71 C96 62 C129 80.00 C162 3.66 C31 145.00 C64 24.52 C97 .44 C130 80.00 C32 585.00 C65 48.39 C98 .79 C131 96.25 C33 575.00 C66 10.50 C99 .92 C132 87.50

Section D: Tools D1 Discontinued D12 23.33 D23 5.60 D34 19.00 D45 13.60 D2 6.02 D13 18.31 D24 5.08 D35 3.27 D46 12.25 D3 6.40 D14 75.00 D25 4.55 D36 7.21 D47 21.72 D4 6.40 D15 34.58 D26 8.31 D37 1.82 D48 38.76 05 4.09 D16 9.38 D27 3.06 D38 4.60 D49 48.54 D6 4.09 D17 9.38 D28 4.88 D39 3.34 D50 25.00 D7 52.50 D18 9.38 D29 21.88 D40 2.98 D51 5.72 D8 12.48 D19 9.38 D30 17.08 D41 3.63 D52 67.64 D9 13.18 D20 15.68 D31 18.72 D42 Discontinued D53 78.70 D10 13.18 D21 30.50 D32 2.27 D43 11.38 D54 DiscontinuedD11 13.18 D22 5.60 D33 4.24 D44 22.73

Section E: Construction Materials

E1 2.33 E10 10.00 E19 22.75 E28 10.64 E37 13.50 E2 4.00 E11 5.86 E20 22.75 E29 54.00 E38 2.50 E3 9.45 E12 Discontinued E21 1.50 E30 1.14 E39 20.34 E4 9.45 E13 Discontinued E22 8.38 E31 .94 E40 12.34 E5 5.00 E14 Discontinued E23 11.20 E32 7.78 E41 17.26 E6 5.00 E15 7.88 E24 .44 E33 33.65 E42 21.30 E7 3.36 E16 4.38 E25 .65 E34 16.83 E43 Discontinued E8 30.00 E17 4.03 E26 13.86 E35 13.39 E44 4.13E9 32.00 E18 18.41 E27 13.86 E36 2.12

Section F: Replacement Parts

F1 12.53 F10 97.50 F19 34.13 F28 16.00 F37 30.13 F2 6.35 F11 67.00 F20 19.50 F29 16.00 F38 .45 F3 9.75 F12 9.33 F21 4.88 F30 17.40 F39 .51 F4 975.00 F13 11.25 F22 39.85 F31 15.43 F40 1.21 F5 975.00 F14 202.50 F23 122.14 F32 14.75 F41 .54 F6 975.00 F15 135.00 F24 29.00 F33 .79 F42 .92 F7 975.00 F16 42.29 F25 24.15 F34 13.39 F43 1.31 F8 995.00 F17 87.21 F26 16.00 F35 14.28 F9 1,260.00 F18 132.52 F27 16.00 F36 16.66 Section G: Pilot Supplies

G1 25.00 G5 Discontinued G9 4.38 G13 13.13 G2 Discontinued G6 8.00 G10 4.38 G14 2.98 G3 Discontinued G7 Discontinued G11 4.38 G15 3.50 G4 175.00 G8 10.50 G12 4.38 G16 1.75

Glasair I Accessories

GI-1 870.00 GI-10 34.44 GI-19 10.57 GI-28 75.00 GI-37 4.29 GI-2 150.00 GI-11 395.00 GI-20 10.57 GI-29 675.00 GI-38 65.00 GI-3 150.00 GI-12 175.00 GI-21 150.00 GI-30 175.00 GI-39 135.00 GI-4 150.00 GI-13 22.50 GI-22 52.00 GI-31 120.14 GI-40 1.40 GI-5 150.00 GI-14 22.50 GI-23 375.00 GI-32 75.50 GI-41 9.03 GI-6 570.00 GI-15 22.49 GI-24 395.00 GI-33 345.00 GI-42 37.50 GI-7 2,450.00 GI-16 345.00 GI-25 195.00 GI-34 325.00 GI-43 37.50GI-8 315.00 GI-17 640.00 GI-26 9.98 GI-35 199.00 GI-44 37.50 GI-9 88.69 GI-1 8 9.12 GI-27 39.00 GI-36 375.00

STODDARD-HAMILTON AIRCRAFT, INCORPORATED

18701 58thAve.N.E. Arlington, WA 98223

Phone: (360)435-8533 Fax: (360)435-9525

3/21/97 35