July - EAA691

www.eaa691.org
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EAA
PRESIDENT ~ JEFF SCOTT
VICE PRES. ~ THOMAS SPICKERMANN
SECRETARY ~ SKIP EGDORF
YOUNG EAGLES
COORDINATOR ~ JAMES SHINAS
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Treasurer ~ Rick Shore
Editor ~ David Roe
Tech Counselor & Flight
Advisor ~ Will Fox
~ July 2012 ~
Chapter 691 meets every third Thursday of the month.
July 19th ~ Hosted by Will Fox~ Los Alamos Municiple Airport (LAM)
• Contents
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From The Desk Of Our Commander In Chief .. 2
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Interesting Links………………….……………..... 3
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TC Corner by Will Fox …………………..………. 4
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Robert Talarczyk’s AOPA Article ……………… 8
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Bulletin Board ………………………………….… 9
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Events Calendar ……………………………….… 10
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EAA Chapter 691 membership Form …………. 11
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From The Desk Of Our
Commander In Chief
70 day extension on the short 20 day comment
period for the proposed modifications to the third
class medical requirements. Approximately
14,000 comments were received during the 20 day
period. If you missed the opportunity, you can
still put in your comments at
http://www.regulations.gov/#!searchResults;rpp
=25;po=0;s=FAA-2012-0350
This Month's Meeting
The July meeting will be hosted by Will Fox at the
Los Alamos Airport in his QuestAir Venture Hangar
in the second hangar row East of the terminal
building. As usual, social time starts at 6:30 with the
business meeting starting around 7:00.
Will will talk about some of the issues he has run
into with the landing gear and baffling on his
QuestAir Venture. Then Jeff will present a talk about
the NSTB report on Experimental Amateur Built
Aircraft Accidents and their recommendations to the
FAA and EAA.
See you at the meeting,
Jeff Scott
EAA Chapter 691 President
Last Month’s Meeting
The June Meeting was hosted by Skip Egdorf at the
Harley Lane Memorial Hangar in Los Alamos. Skip
did a fine bugrer and brats burn, then also did the
technical presentation with a talk about the
procedures for rigging the wings on his AcroSport II
project as well as demonstrating the rigging
jigs he built. Thank you Skip.
Young Eagles
July 7th we flew 98 Young Eagles from the
Santa Fe Airport. This time we were a bit
overwhelmed both on the ground and in the air,
as was Santa Fe Tower. It was a very busy, but
fruitful and fun day. Thanks to all the volunteers
that made this happen. This makes 146 Young
Eagles flown by the chapter in the last two months.
We still have two future Young Eagles dates, Taos on
Sept 22, and Lindreth some time in October.
Lindreth will be for rough field only operations as it
is a dirt strip near the town of Lindreth north of the
Jemez Mountains.
Class III Medical Comments
The EAA and AOPA requested and were granted a
2
Interesting Links Masten Space Systems takes its Xaero
suborbital rocket out for a spin
Masten Space Systems has performed a record-­‐setting flight of their vertical takeoff, vertical landing (VTVL) Xaero suborbital rocket at the Mohave Air and Space Port. Unlike the rockets designed specifically for the NASA Lunar Lander challenge, the Xaero is the only VTVL rocket intended to carry payloads into suborbital trajectories. The test flight saw the Xaero propelled to an altitude of 444 meters (1,457 feet), before returning to Earth and making a perfect landing on its jets. However, the test flight took place on July 3.
Stalker UAS flight time improved
by 2,400 percent using laser beams
Late last year, DARPA researchers upped the standard two-­‐hour endurance of Lockheed Martin’s Stalker small unmanned aerial system (UAS) by a factor of four using a propane-­‐fueled compact solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC). Now the flight time of the aircraft has been improved by a whopping 2,400 percent, with a test flight lasting more than 48 hours using a laser power system to wirelessly transfer power to the UAS from the ground.
FlyNano achieves first test flight
Last April, we told you about the FlyNano – a single-­‐occupant petrol/electric microlight amphibious aircraft being developed by a Finnish aeronautical firm of the same name. At the time, some readers expressed skepticism, rightly pointing out that there was no video of the plane actually flying. That changed this week, however, as the company posted a video of one of the prototype’s first test flights.
全日空機、着陸時に損傷
けが人なし、調査官派遣
日午後 時 分ごろ、北京発の全日空
便ボーイング
乗客
乗員
人 が、成田空港への着陸時に大きく揺れ、着地の際の衝撃で
Doesn’t matter. The video says it all!
TC Corner by Will Fox
July 2012
Do you ever wonder why we tear our airplanes apart every year for the annual
condition inspection? It seems that if you own your own experimental aircraft and
work on it yourself, you keep a pretty good eye on everything and take care of
maintenance items as they come up, right? Well, I found a good reason for doing
my annual condition inspection this year. The inspection was going pretty well
with nothing more than the normal disassemble, clean, inspect, and reassemble
routine. Not much really showing up, and I start wondering about how useful this
process really is, when guess what? I noticed a small amount of black powder on
top of the air box. Hmmm, where did this come from? A little more sleuthing and
I found that my alternator bracket was loose. The black powder turned out be
aluminum oxide produced by fretting between the alternator bracket and the
engine case. The bolts had loosened up on the bracket and allowed it to shake
back and forth. This was interesting because the bolts had those washers where
you bend the tab over against a flat on the bolt to keep it from loosening. I was
talking to another one of our local intrepid flyers about this, who had recently
changed his alternator, and he mentioned that his alternator bracket had also
come loose. In his case, the bolts on the bracket did not have any type of safety
retainer.
Hmmm, was some type of alternator bracket virus going around and
infecting our airplanes? The answer is yes, and it is called vibration. Itʼs the
number one enemy of a tight fastener. So how do we inoculate against
vibration? The first step is proper preload. The fastener must be tightened
properly. The higher the preload, the more resistant the joint and fastener is to
vibration. This doesnʼt mean you should over torque your bolts, but if you tighten
them to the higher end of the permissible torque range, they will be more
vibration resistant. The second step is to use some technique to keep the
fastener from loosening and loosing the preload. Experts tend to agree that
using a thread locking compound like Loctite is one of the best ways to prevent
fasteners from loosening from vibration.
Loctite produces a variety of strengths of threadlockers.
It comes in different grades. Use the high strength stuff in high vibration
environments and the low strength stuff in low vibration environments. These
compounds have their limitations though, they donʼt work in high temperature
environments and their normal range of application is –65 to 450 degrees
Fahrenheit. Another good way to prevent fasteners from vibrating loose is with
friction between the bolt and the nut. Enter the metal lock nut.
A split beam lock nut or a nutplate provide good resistance to vibration
by using friction created by thread interference between the bolt and the
nut.
This is a nut that is usually slightly deformed in a manner to pinch the
threads of the bolt as it passes through the nut. These types of fasteners are
good for engine compartments where higher temperatures prevail.
Another way to prevent fasteners from loosening is to use a specialized
vibration resistant fastener such as a Spiralock fastener. The threads on the
Spiralock fastener are specially designed to allow all the threads on the bolt to
carry their share of the load. In a normal bolt, most of the load is carried in the
first few threads.
The Spiralock bolt has a unique thread contour. See the picture on
the left. In the picture on the right, notice the uniformity of thread loading
on the Spiralock fastener threads in the upper picture as compared to a
regular bolt in the lower picture. This provides much better resistance to
vibration.
Another way to fight vibration, is to use fasteners types that are more resistant to
it. Fine thread bolts are better than course thread bolts. More thread engagement is better
than less. I had a good engineering friend that said, a fine thread fastener with at least
three bolt diameters of thread engagement is much more vibration resistant than a course
thread fastener with one and one half bolt diameters of engagement. By the way, the
common spring lock washer is not very resistant to vibration, so avoid their use in high
vibration environments.
Enough said about vibration and fasteners for now. So why did my alternator
bracket come loose. I’m guessing that I didn’t torque the fasteners correctly and get
enough preload on them. Over time they began to move, and to slowly work against the
bent over metal tabs and slowly developed some play. From there on it was all down hill.
What did I do to fix it? After thoroughly cleaning everything, I applied high strength
Loctite threadlocker to my bolts and tightened them to their maximum allowable torque
and then bent the metal tabs back over the nut for added insurance. I’ll let you know how
this setup works after I get a few hours of operation on it.
On a different subject, it can be difficult at times to build experimental aircraft as
accurately as we would like. Getting that cowl or canopy to fit perfectly can be
challenging, or getting the joint between a wheel fairing and the landing gear to look just
right may drive you nuts. One place that accuracy is extremely important though, is
when you are building primary structural components, such as wings, stabilizers,
fuselages, and engine mounts. This is one place that you need to do your best to build it
right. Small errors can produce much higher loads on the structure than intended by the
designer. One such place is the struts on a strut-braced wing. It is extremely important to
make sure that the attachment fittings mounted to the strut are aligned with the axis of the
strut. If they are misaligned, even by a few degrees, much higher stresses are produced
then desired. Here is the reason. The strut and the fittings on the ends are designed to
take tensile and compressive loads. When things aren’t all lined up, this produces
bending loads on top of the tensile loads and results in much higher stresses. Let me give
you an example. Take a straight section of a metal coat hanger or a piece of 0.06”
welding rod and grab both ends and try to pull it apart. Pretty tough to do, isn’t it. Now
bend it in the middle so you have say a 30 degree angle and try pulling on it again.
Notice that you are able to easily permanently deform it and take some of the bend back
out of the rod. This is because you applied a bending load to the material instead of
simple tension load. The same goes for compression loads.
Zenith struts and fittings.
I recently inspected two strut-braced airplanes. In one case the fitting was
misaligned by about 3 degrees and in the other by 10 degrees. A call to the factory
indicated that 3 degrees, while not desirable, was acceptable. In the case of the 10 degree
misalignment, a rough calculation indicated that the stresses were more than doubled in
the fitting and that it should be replaced. Both builders are conscientious and safety
oriented. They also do good quality work. Both are also comfortable using a technical
counselor to help inspect their aircraft, just for the added insurance. Getting a second set
of eyes on your work is always a good idea. Who knows, they might see something you
didn’t, or point out something you didn’t like to begin with, and just needed a little more
encouragement to change.
Our own chapter 691 member Robert Talarczyk (no, I don’t know how to pronounce his last name) once again finds himself in AOPA magazine. What he’s doing with those store bought airplanes I don’t know! You can find some of his handy work published in this months (July 2012) issue of AOPA. He authored the Pilots article shown here. Congratulations Robert! ~Roester Bulletin Board
Pegasus Aviation
offers 100LL
discounts every
Saturday
Everyone probably
received a post card in
the mail that looked a
lot like the one shown
below from Pegasus
Aviation. They’re based
in Raton (KRTN)and
apparently they’re under
new ownership. It seems
that this would be a
pretty good fly out for
that $200 burger. They
advertise that they offer
discounts on 100LL every
Saturday and to join them
for a burger.
Here’s a rundown of the
listed features: -under
new ownership - A&P on
duty – courtesy cars and
Hertz rentals – overnight
hangars – catering –
pilot shop – resurfaced
runways – 24 hour call
out service.
www.pegasusflightservices
.com
✔
Oshkosh Ride and
room available
I have an open seat and an open
bed at the dorms for the trip
to OSH?
I plan to depart NM Saturday
and depart OSH Friday.
Art Tangen
[email protected]
HI Guys,
I flew over and landed at Lindrith
airport on Sunday. It is at an
elevation of 7200 feet MSL and is 3300
ft long. See the pictures below.
It's not a bad airfield except for the
ruts from a truck driving around on
it. There is no drainage, so planning
a Young Eagles event during the
monsoon season is probably not a good
idea. Perhaps an event in September
would work.
Will Fox
Check out our chapter website as well Calendar
Fly-In’s
Ongoing Events
Pilots ABQ Lunch – Every Thursday,
Formation begins at 11:15 AM at Monroe’s
Restaurant at 6501 Osuna Rd. NE (about four
blocks East of San Mateo on the north side of
Osuna).
EAA AirVenture July 23rd – 29th
2012 Oshkosh, WI [KOSH]
Rocky Mountain Regional Fly-In
August 24th – 26th 2012 Rocky
Mountain Metropolitan Airport,
Broomfield, CO[KBJC]
Pilots Mid- Valley Lunch – Every
Tuesday, Flyins are always welcome. Just taxi
east on the paved road parallel to and on the
south side of the E/W dirt strip runway to the
end, turn south on the wide street (Tammy
Dr.) and park anywhere. We always have
rides to lunch. My hangar has a Luscombe 8E
inside. Formation begins at 10:00 AM at Bob
Henning’s hangar, 3884 Tammy Ct. SE, Los
Lunas. NM (Mid-Valley Airpark) Ph 8650007, then onto lunch at TJ’s New Mexico
Restaurant at 235 Highway 314 SW, Los
Lunas at 11:45 AM.
Land of Enchantment Fly-In
September 8th – 9th 2012 Moriarty,
NM [0E0]
Copperstate Fly-In October 25th-27
2012 Casa Grande, AZ [KCGZ]
Events
Las Cruces / El Paso EAA Chapter 555
Breakfast – Every third Sunday of the
month. A huge $6.00 breakfast. Look for the
large EAA hangar located at the Las Cruces
International Airport (LUR). All pilots and
interested others are invited. Consider this
for a ‘Fly Out’ or for other fun events!
Los Alamos Spot Landing Contest
August 11, 2012 Los Alamos
[KLAM] (proposed date)
Chapter 691 Young Eagles
9/ 8 & 9, 2012 – (Young Eagles as
part of Land of Enchantment Fly In
at Moriarty, NM)
September 22, 2012 - Young Eagles
at Taos, NM
Aviation Historical Society – First
Thursday of the month. Formation begins at
7:00 PM at Bear Canyon Community Center.
Contact Harry M. Davison ph(505)256-7212
Artesia Breakfast Fly-In – First Saturday
of the month. Free and discount on gas. 8:30–
10:00 AM until time change, then will be
7:30-9:30 AM. Hope some of you all would
like to come down. Info: Lance Goodrich,
Airport Manager.
Chapter 179 and 530 Young Eagles
9/9/2012 Moriarty (0E0)
11/3 Double Eagle (AEG)
Rick Shore
46-D San Sebastian
Santa Fe, NM 87505
EAA Chapter 691 Membership Application/ Renewal
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Your projects (finished or in progress) as well as currently flying A/C.