Wednesday, 23 December 2015

169 July 2015

 RansMail #169  July 2015
Cormorant Isle of Wight 14 July 2015 (JB)
Stow Maries WWI Airfield Armed Forces Day 27th June.
A BBMF Spitfire flypast was at 1500 & a flag raising ceremony on the Parade Ground at 1300 which commenced with the Tiger Club Turbulents flying a missing man formation. The biplane is genuine WWI construction & a Vee 8, Renault, Exhaust over Inlet valve engine.

"Three Cheers For The Man On The Ground" (Pprune 27 June)
By UK Comedian/Actor Eric Sykes. In 1942 he was a handsome LAC Wireless Operator/Mechanic.

Wherever you walk, you hear people talk
Of the men that go up in the air
Of the dare-devil way, they go into the fray
Facing death without turning a hair
They'll raise a cheer and buy lots of beer
For a pilot who's home on leave
But they don't give a jigger
For a Flight Mech or rigger
With nothing but 'props' on his sleeve
They just say 'nice day' and then turn away
With never a mention of praise
And the poor bloody erk who does all the work
Just orders his own beer
and pays
They've never been told of the hours in the cold
That he spends sealing Germany's fate
How he works on a kite, till all hours of night
And then turns up next morning at eight
He gets no rake-off for working till take-off
Or helping the aircrew prepare
But whenever there's trouble, it's 'quick at the double'
The man on the ground must be there
Each flying crew could tell it to you
They know what this man's really worth
They know he's part of the RAF's heart
Even though he stays close to the earth
He doesn't want glory, but please tell his story
Spread a little of his fame around
He's one of the 'Few', so give him his due
Three cheers for the man on the ground.
Fokker Eindekker, Trim Addition (Steve Duckworth)
Note wood slide each side for bias adjustment
A brush with the French Aero Flic (by Richard Arkell)
The Jodel pretty much knows its way from Chauvigny to St Pierre d’Oleron on the peaceful Ile d’Oleron, just off the west coast of France. It has become our most regular destination since we moved to France, and is about an hour’s flying time from our base near Poitiers.
Like the island, the airfield is relaxed and informal. They have their own radio frequency but it is normally only air-to-air. There is no landing fee or anything to do on arrival other than look round then set off for the seaside possibly via one of the restaurants in the tree-lined square at St Georges d’Oleron, a little more than a mile away.
On this occasion, the flight had been as straightforward as usual. Only once safely on the ground did things go somewhat awry. No sooner than we had parked, two gendarmes arrived at the side of the cockpit. I thought they were local plod just out on a sunny day outing. I was soon dissuaded from this view. They rather curtly demanded my pilot’s licence and aeroplane documents. Being a Brit, I am not overly punctilious about such things. Everything was at home and they were obviously less than impressed by my feeble excuse that I had been bringing the documents up to date and had forgotten to put them in my flying case. Of course, I should have known this would not wash. French officialdom has a great love of documents and bureaucracy in general. I rather suspect that inclination was reinforced by wartime experiences when no one could go anywhere without their ‘papers’. Anyway, we were invited to the clubhouse for a cosy chat. As it turned out, not too cosy. The two officers were from a special aeronautical police unit based in Bordeaux and clearly knew too much about everything I should have with me. They made it clear that we were grounded without the documents. That would make it a long and expensive way home to await the Republique’s displeasure.
Julia happened to have in her handbag my passport, which was duly scrutinised, and then I was asked about our flight that day, and where we were based. Having explained that I am based at Chauvigny and am a member of the aeroclub, they immediately telephoned the club president to verify what I had said. Even though I had proved who I was, and where I had flown from, they had clearly had not finished extracting their half a kilo of flesh. While the interrogation was going on my 11 year old daughter sat coolly by reading her book giving the impression that this sort of encounter was routine for Daddy!
As a last resort Julia telephoned our lovely neighbour. Could she possibly find a way into our house to locate some of the documents and fax the details? Madame Guilbault is made of stern stuff and soon rang back, having jemmied open our mailbox where our spare key resided, effected an entry and located my licence. The details of the licence were duly given to the chief interrogator and, I suspect, some testament to our good character. Madame is the widow of the village doctor and speaks with a quiet authority.
Things took a lighter turn after this exchange. The head man seemed to accept that we were just idiot Brits rather than a serious threat to stability of the Republique. Nevertheless, his aide had taken a detailed statement which I had to sign and swear on my honour that as soon as we had flown home we would scan and email the 13 or so documents required. I gave the solemn undertaking and was warned that whatever the outcome there would be a fine for each missing document. By this time, lunchtime had arrived so the Police decided that they had wasted enough of their valuable time on us and so shook hands and departed.
Somewhat crestfallen, we headed off to St Georges to dampen if not drown my sorrows and have a spot of lunch before retiring to the beach to contemplate my sins. As usual, we lingered rather too long at the lovely beach overlooking Fort Boyard of TV fame. We also had the usual difficulty finding a taxi as the local operators do not care to work long hours as they make enough money in high season. Consequently we very nearly had to add night flying to the already long list of offences to be taken into consideration.
In the event, we had landed before the sun dipped too far under the horizon. Once home, my Julia spent an hour and a half slaving over a hot scanner and emailing the documents in three tranches, such was the size of the files including such important stuff as my radio licence and the weight and balance!
The custodian of the club at the Ile d’Oleron had said that this type of incident was becoming an increasingly common experience with more such visits this year alone than in all the previous years; he added that we were lucky to get the two that we did as others had been really heavy-handed. Visions of ‘Spiral’ the violent Paris Police drama series!
Nothing happened for about six weeks until a letter arrived in complex French. It turned out to be a formal warning and instruction not to forget the documents again or there would be trouble! We were let off any fine, which was good as it would be 38 euros per document multiplied by 13 which would have added 494 euros to the cost of our day out.

I think the writing is on the aero club wall – les Flics are on our case in these troubled times. Needless to say I now carry my documents with me, including my passport and the French driving licence which the local Flics insisted I obtained so I can no longer avoid getting points on my licence.
Rans S6 Exhaust Box mounts always breaking ? Mini rubbers, ground out to make less stiff & threads recut.
Welcome to Jaap Rademaker who has joined us.
I like STOL, see http://www.foxbat.com.au/public/editor_images/2013%20November_web.pdf  and videos https://www.youtube.com/user/brainmaker   Landing looks a bit rubbish but that was because the bow of the ship was trimmed very high as it was empty ... so creating turbulence, you can't quite see that on the video as the camera angle is from above.
Rans S6. Adding a proper Static for the ASI (Don Lord S-116)
When I bought a Rans S6 I did not like the ASI without a external static vent, so made one. My Rans has the moulded interior kit and where I wanted to fit the static port is about thirty inches behind the back panel on the side of the fuselage at Station 4. With the only access through a flap at the bottom of the baggage compartment I had to devise a remote method to get the static where I wanted it on the join of the horizontal and vertical tubes. I designed a two inch square plate with sides folded into a "U". "A" is the distance of the vertical tube from the fabric so it slides behind to hold it in place without bulging the skin. 5/16 dia "B" holes will allow adhesive to run through onto the tube. Plate "C" matches the horizontal tube curvature & is pop riveted to my plate to hold it against the fabric.  "D" is a static port (from LAS) riveted to the plate with an elbow pointing forward.  "E" is an Ali pop rivet with 2BA thread bonded on pointing about 45 degrees down and 45 degrees out. Finally a 4 foot rod with a 2BA thread on the end screws onto this rivet firmly enough to hold it all in place. With wood blocks, G clamps and a Swiss clamp, do a rehearsal to check that you can get it in position. Then fit the elbow & connect the 6mm plastic static tube, mix some 3Ms Scotch-Weld epoxy adhesive using the plate as a ladle - as you turn into position the adhesive will run through the holes onto the horizontal tube (you can see I put too much). Clamp the rod till tomorrow, then unscrew it and lastly melt a hole through the fabric with a soldering iron.
[Maybe I should try that & take bi-directional GPS readings, because the recommended UK static up behind the panel induces highly flattering ASI cruise speeds. mike].
BTW. After a flat battery last week I wondered if anyone has added a voltmeter to the panel ?  BB (Reality Escapade) with similar Rotax engine has an ammeter.
See some primitive microlight types & hear owners talking about them. (Peter Everleigh BMAA)
Interesting to see for those who haven't come across this film before.  /www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAIV5qBv0EY
Frank Ogden sold his SSDR Chaser.
After a delightful five years I have left Jackrell's Farm: a chronic shoulder injury meant I could no longer rig it. I've taken up a share of Gwyn's Quik.

Richard Farrer has sold Rans S6 G-MYGP, Rotax 503.


It's gone from Devon, up to John Cook in Lincolnshire. I am retiring from plane owning, but will try to keep current for a while. I am doing a lot of aeromodelling and getting into aero-towing with a 4 metre span scale SZD Pirat, a quarter scale refinished by rogers-models.co.uk/  to represent the real aircraft (lower pic). Model aero-towing uses a tug, often a scale model of a full size aircraft such as a Pawnee or a Wilga with single/twin cylinder petrol engines of 50 to 250ccs and weigh up to 30 kgs. At this size they need CAA approval. They tow up to a thousand feet AGL on a ~30 metres line with release mechanism on both glider and tug - just like full size. You will be relieved to know that when these aircraft are being used for aero-towing a NOTAM is issued. Further information http://www.scalesoaring.co.uk/
Bob Hartunian  In USA, builders are  encouraged to slip Fire Shield over engine bay bare rubber fuel hoses to protect in case of fire. Fire Shield is a glass fabric with silicone coating over exterior used with SS clamps on ends. Supposed to withstand hot fire for  over 2 min and keep fuel hoses from breaking down while you land quickly.
Enstone Oxfordshire, BMAA SSDR meet. (Colin Johnson photo's)
I flew the Rans in on the Friday & congratulate the BMAA for choosing a central & neat uncluttered venue and for all the work the BMAA staff & friends put in.

Geoff Weighell BMAA Chief Executive reported:
The format this year was to concentrate the event as it was entirely organised and run by the BMAA staff with help from Mick Broom Chief Marshal of a staff of one. Presentations covered the full weekend and were on time, repeats gave visitors the chance to attend each rather than miss one.
One thing I noticed was the atmosphere, it was like going back thirty years to the days when pilots talked to each other rather than disappearing over the horizon in their latest fast ship; the e-Go presentation was fascinating.

 
For Sale £14,000 ono, Rans S-6ES Coyote II, G-SBAP by the Royal Aeronautical Society.  https://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/20757909/295246965/name/SBAP%20Advert%20(Jul%2015).pdf
Built in the Schools Build-a-Plane Programme. Thomas Blowers, Royal Aeronautical Society thomas.blowers@aerosociety.com

Adrian Whitmarsh is going 3-axis & selling his weightshift microlight.
2009 P&M, QuikR 912ULS, £26,000 ono. Superb tourer, 2 owners from new. New Permit & Conair 100hr engine service. Soft Start engine 260 hrs. Always hangared. Single-handed wing-fold to use limited hangar space. Flydat & electric trim, P&M panniers; Pair Ozee suits; Trailer. 07802 244620 / 01403 267942 West Sussex.
Very early 80 hp Rotax conversion seen at Bourne Pk in Pacer.
The search is on for the oldest certified ROTAX aircraft engine who announced a 40-year anniversary contest awarding an expenses-paid trip to the Rotax factory in Austria, (value €4000) for the owner of the oldest certified ROTAX aircraft engine currently in service.

 
Geoff Emmons asked about black mould treatment. Ref.Jan, Feb & March RM.
I just bought a Eurostar with the fancy upholstery etc it's more like flying a car !! Sadly selling my Rans S6 after completing over 1000 hrs in it. It's in my garage at home, I plan to give it a good clean etc. I will be sorry to see it go and really have very little idea what it's worth.
["Wet n Forget" is good & non damaging, but not an instant 'cleaner', more of a mould spores killer. Today my Rans is a lot better looking than before treatment but inside it patches of black stain spots are very visible. I fear all other so-called harmless sailcloth whiteners of cleaners are damaging to the fabric, personally I'd rather have integrity in the air than perfect clean looks. When washing the Rans I add a dollop to the bucket along with liquid soap, in the hopes it'll mildly discourage mould returning & perhaps penetrate into the fabric and attack the stuff on the inside too. mike.]

Jabiru forum owners  have produced an improved 'flywheel' fixing, tests sanctioned by UK LAAOne has been flight testing for approximately 4.5 hours and it all looks good. This is the flywheel access hole view. No more farting around removing half an engine to check torque on bolts.
U.K CAA General Aviation Reports - Occurrences processed by Safety Data in June 2015.
A free monthly digest of UK General Aviation safety related information.
WorldWide Accident listing - all a/c types      http://aviation-safety.net/index.php

Old RansMails are now on line courtesy Peter Greenrod. https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4702449/Ransmails.pdf
Collected Rans S4 & S5 Tips      http://ranss4s5tips.blogspot.co.uk/
Rotax practical owner help    http://www.rotax-owner.com/rotax-forum/index
Rans Aircraft USA site   http://www.rans.com/aircraft/home.html
From Ron Atkinson
Dedicated to Amy Johnson who perished off the coast near Herne Bay, on the prom. there is a bench fashioned like a Bi-plane, you sit on the lower wing & the top one can be used as a table.
Flying Cat Video already seen by thousands (USA).
Bale Out Procedure Spitfire Mark IX - the recollections of my father, who flew Spitfires in 1941-42 (Pprune post # 1288 in the "Gaining an RAF Brevet etc" 
72 Sqn – March 1942 – Engagement, Bale-out and move to Biggin Hill
.... Anyway, as you know by now, I’d been seeing quite a lot of Mum during the time I was at 111 and now 72 and I had a few days leave at the beginning of March and we thought it would be rather nice if we were to become engaged. Now in those days it was the usual thing for the prospective son-in-law to see the father-in-law and ask for the hand of his daughter. Well we’d been down to Monkhams that night (The Monkhams Inn was a pub about half a mile from 76 Kings Avenue, near Roding Valley Station, and a favourite of Ferdie and Else, who continued to frequent it right up till the ‘60s), and we came back and Mum knew I was going to speak to Ferdie about this and she and Else (mother in law of RJHR) went into the kitchen and I said to Ferdie, 

“Can I have a word with you?”

“Yes, alright.”

So we went into the lounge and with some trepidation I said that Con and I would like to become engaged if it’s alright with you. Well he seemed fairly pleased with the idea but said he’d rather we waited to get married for a year or so. We didn’t mind, having surmounted the first hurdle. Now at that time I had about £10 in the bank and a tax rebate, so having collected the tax rebate, Mum and I went up to the City and bought the engagement ring which I placed on your mothers’ hand on the 10th March in the Queens’ Brasserie. But Mum took it off again, because Ferdie rather wanted us to become engaged on his birthday, which, if I remember rightly, was the 11th March.

I went back to the squadron highly delighted and full of myself and the lads were quite pleased, because they’d heard nothing but my talking about Mum day in and day out, which may surprise you, young John.

The weather was picking up, we did quite a few sweeps of which I was on eight in March We went to various places, Boulougne, Calais, Dunkirk, Abbeville and a place called Massingguard, which I’ve never yet managed to find on any map. All I remember is that it was quite a long way into France, but we met very little opposition, I didn’t get a squirt at a Hun anyway. We met them, but they wouldn’t play and we got to ignore the flak unless it came very close; there was no great panic about it, particularly over Abbeville. If you went one side of the river, I can never remember which, you got flak all round you, but if you went the other side of the river you got very little flak at all, which was quite good.

On the 14th March we were due to escort six Bostons to Le Harve which we didn’t mind a bit, inasmuch as the Bostons were quite fast and they didn’t hang about once they’d bombed the target which gave us a little more scope to have a crack at anything that came up. Well on this particular occasion we had to hang around in the Ops Room after being briefed and whilst there was nothing doing the Intelligence Officer, a Sqn Ldr Derfour decided that we could have a little chat from a Sqn Ldr who’d baled out a few days before and finished up in the Channel. As I said before, very few of us had ever baled out and any information was good for us. Well, I sat next to Brain Kingcome while the talk was going on, and the chap was explaining how he’d pulled up into a slow roll, hung on his back, undone his straps and dropped out. Brian turned to me and said,

“I don’t believe that method, Robbie, it’s a lot easier to shove the stick forward and get hurled out.”

Well I didn’t think any more about it and we picked up these Bostons, went across to Le Harve and there was a fair amount of flak and I’m not sure if I got hit, to be honest. Anyway, coming back, about halfway across the Channel, glycol started pouring out like mad and the engine was making funny noises. My Number 2 called up and said that I was on fire and bale out. Well on the 14th March it was very, very cold, very bleak, there were enormous waves which had great white tops on them and I didn’t fancy finishing up in the drink at all. We passed a couple of coasters, quite near our coast and my Number 2 was calling,

“Get out, get out” 

And I still didn’t fancy it inasmuch as if I’d finished in the sea, with the height of the waves, the coasters probably wouldn’t have seen me anyway and I’d have frozen stiff or drowned or both, so I said, 

“No, I’ll put the aircraft down on the beach”. 

Well, having got so far near Brighton I thought, ‘Oh well, the beach is probably mined, so I’ll put it down in a field’. Well it was still chuntering along, but by this time a fair bit of smoke had come out and the smoke was coming up through the cockpit and I thought I’d better get out and for some reason I had an idea that if baled out you were given leave. So before I undid my straps and decided to get out I called up my Number 2 and said,

“Is it right you get a weeks leave if you bale out?”

Well his reply was short and to the point.

“Don’t whatsit whatsit” as he was yelling at me to get out. 

So having got rid of the hood, or slid it back, I undid all the straps and trimmed the aircraft fully forward, and I thought, well I’ll take my hands off the stick and give a mighty push and I should be hurled out. Well having trimmed it fully forward, the minute I let go of the stick, the nose dropped and the next thing I knew I was floating about in the air. Now I looked up and I couldn’t see any parachute and I thought I must be upside down, so I looked between my legs and there was still no parachute. I looked round and found I hadn’t pulled the ripcord, which I did a bit smartly and, a second or so later, there was a satisfying thump and the parachute opened. I must say it’s a very soothing experience, to float about 1500’ up, it’s so quiet it’s amazing. The only thing was that the aircraft was still on fire and flying round and round on its own and I had visions of it colliding with me, but it didn’t.

Sitting in my parachute harness, surveying the landscape, I found there were fields all around except for one large copse and that seemed to be the place where I was headed. Now I know that if you pull on one side of the rigging the parachute will go one way and if pull on the other side it will go in the opposite direction, but there’s no method by which you can keep the parachute up there any longer than the force of gravity will allow. As I didn’t want to land any faster than I would normally do, I just let the parachute take me and I was dragged backwards through quite a few trees and eventually came to quite a pleasant halt, stuck in the top of the tree. So I undid my harness and climbed down and made my way to the edge of the copse, through a hedge and lo and behold, in the road, just the other side of the hedge was one old dear, who looked at me as I came through the hedge, and said,

“Would you like a cup of tea?”

I said ‘No thank you very much’, crawled out, and waved to my number 2 to show that I was alright and he disappeared back to Gravesend.

Now just after that a lady doctor arrived in her car and picked me up and took me to the nearest military base, which happened to be a Canadian dental centre. Now these characters had seen me fly over, emitting vast amounts of smoke and seen the other Spitfire and naturally assumed that the Spitfire had shot down a Jerry and I was the Jerry. So the CO, a colonel, had armed everybody with rifles and revolvers and anything else he could lay his hands on and they were all set to come out and pick me up and I think they were quite disappointed when I arrived.

Anyway, they were quite nice to me and I was bit scruffy, but they took me into the Officers’ Mess and forced a large whisky on me, and as you know I can’t stand whisky, but I managed to get it down. The only snag was, I’d left my pipe at Gravesend on the window ledge of the dining room, I remember it well. So they gave me a cigar and I smoked that, had a very nice meal, then the CO gave me his car and driver and I was taken to Shoreham.

There was a small hospital at Shoreham where I spent the night and had a check-up and the following morning I was taken to Shoreham aerodrome where the lads were going to fly me back to Gravesend in a Lysander. Well I must admit I wasn’t too popular with the lads at Shoreham. They had an air-sea rescue base there with a Walrus and they’d watched me coming across the Channel with smoke and everything else billowing out and they were looking forward to doing a bit of air-sea rescue and getting another notch on their gun-barrel or whatever they do and they were most upset when I chugged across Shoreham, still emitting smoke and baled out farther on! Anyway, they put me in this Lysander and took me back to Gravesend and to sit in the back of a Lysander when it lands is quite an experience. To begin with, when it slows down, enormous sort of shutters shoot out of the wing with a helluva clatter and it drops almost vertically, but they got me there quite safely.

Now, having landed I felt quite the little hero and I was walking up to the dispersal and spoke to Brian, Brian Kingcome, who congratulated me on getting out and getting home alright and I felt quite chuffed until he said,

“There is one point, Robbie, you don’t have to tell all the bloody German Air Force, you’re going to bale out!”

I felt quite a little hero for a time, especially when I had to explain exactly what it was like getting out and what I did and how, but my number 2 still insisted I would have been better off jumping into the Channel, with which I did not agree.
Despite all the recent Hoo Ha ... (Russ Niles, AvWeb)
The first flight of an electric aircraft over the English Channel was actually by the Solar Challenger 34 years ago.  Two years after pilot Bryan Allen pedalled Paul MacCready's Gossamer Albatross over the English Channel, his solar electric version made the crossing - and some -  It covered 163 miles from Pontois-Cormeilles, Paris, to RAF Manston, in five hours and 23 minutes. Long before the recent Airbus electric and two other cross-Channel efforts which all use batteries. Solar Challenger didn't have any: 16,000 solar cells provided power.

Mike  Rans S6-116, June - Stow Maries
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