President:
Sam Suttle
Vice President:
Joel Graber
Treasurer:
Jason Cantrell
Newsletter Editor: Gerald McKibben
/ Secretary 662-312-7876
[email protected]
The big news in this issue is the Sun ‘N Fun fly-in at Lakeland, Florida.
Jason Cantrell and David Haney sent in the picture below (Remember the “Where
our shirts have been” contest?). They write: “We had countless people ask us
where we were from and comment on the shirts. We even had one guy who was
the Author of a book from Massachusetts want us to mail him one. Everyone
really liked them.” Pictured are Jason and Nancy, David and Joyce.
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The May meeting will be at Louisville on the 30th. President Dr. Sam Suttle
has promised us we will eat good!
The March meeting was at Barrett Field at Philadelphia on the 28th. Weather
was rotten—low ceilings. In spite of this, three airplanes flew in. There were
about 15 Chapter members and 10 visitors present. We enjoyed barbeque ribs and
all the trimmings, thanks to Gaston Barrett.
Fly-in / Meeting Sites for 2009
(They will be the last Saturday of
each month unless otherwise advised.)
May—Louisville
June—Starkville
July—Spurgeon place (corn roast)
August—Joel Graber’s place
September— Pontotoc
October—Lee place
November—Lowndes County
December—Christmas party
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Below: Macon, April 18th (top)
and Philadelphia, March 28th
(bottom).
I know it’s hard to believe, but I practically saw it with my own eyes. I was at
the Monroe County Airport not long ago when Richard came in from his flying job in Alabama. He was in his Legend Cub. Well, he was ecstatic because
he had finally passed another aircraft in the Cub. No matter it was the DirectTV blimp; he passed it. He said he could still see it from pattern altitude as
he approached to land. We guessed the blimp was headed to Tupelo.
Congratulations, Richard!
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and follow it until you see a golf course
on the left. At that point you turn due
South toward the airport and switch to
the tower frequency. You monitor only;
no keying the mike unless absolutely
necessary. They identify you by color
and type (“Red RV”). They sometimes
ask you to acknowledge by rocking you
wings.
Sun ‘N Fun
Although I’ve been several times, it had
been a few years. This would be my third
trip there in the RV. The other two times
I had a passenger, and the plane was
full. This time it seemed to be almost as
full with just me full. I had removed the
right seat to make room for an ice chest.
A place to keep ice is a real luxury when
it’s hot.
You turn into a close right downwind for
runway 27R and then turn a close-in
base leg. They land two at a time on the
same runway, one short and one long.
Tower told me to land on the green
spot, which is toward the departure end.
There is an orange dot for those landing
short. Three times he reminded me that
there was a Mooney close behind me,
so be sure to put it on the green dot.
The weather was good, with a high over
the entire Southeast. The best part was
that I had a nice tail wind. In fact, I had a
tail wind both going and coming, something that rarely happens. After a smooth
(and fast) ride at 6500 ft, I stopped at
Perry—Foley airport (FL) to re-fuel. They
had avgas for $3 / gallon.
That’s much easier than landing short;
you just keep in enough power to keep
it flying until reaching the desired touchdown spot.
I took off and headed south toward LAL.
I was a little anxious about the arrival—
things get pretty hectic—and the NOTAM is more than 30 pages long. You’re
supposed to congregate about 2 miles
East of the power station on the shore of
Lake Parker and head westbound over
the power station in single file. “Find
someone to follow” the NOTAM says. I
saw a Cessna ahead of me, the only
traffic I saw. As I was approaching the
station the controller (They are on the
ground at Lake Parker) told me to do a
quick 360 to the right. Then when I was
about half way around he told me to
“tighten it up”.
After taxiing for what seemed like a mile
or two I was parked at the aircraft camping area. As I was tying down the airplane a man came over who had parked
his Cessna nearby. He said he wanted
to apologize for “cutting me off” back
over Lake Parker. So that was the reason for the 360 I had to do. I told him
not to worry about it—no problem.
I spent three nights in the tent and parts
of four days at the event and thoroughly
enjoyed it. I had talked the Editor of
Sport Aviation into letting me do an article on propellers, so I spent a lot of time
surveying homebuilts and talking with
builders. I published an article in the
June, 2002 edition of Sport Aviation en-
I was already in a pretty steep bank, but
tightened it up considerably and had to
add power. I leveled off Westbound and
saw another Cessna up ahead. After flying over the power station you turn SW
after crossing the interstate highway,
(Continued on page 5)
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(Continued from page 4)
titled Propellers for High Performance Experimental Aircraft, and thought it was time to
do a follow-up. Actually it doesn’t appear that much has happened with propeller design in that time period, which is not surprising. I met with Editor Mary Jones after arriving on Tuesday, and she suggested that I interview owner/builders and find out why
they chose the propeller they did. I managed to find a dozen or so at their airplanes
and got interviews and photos. I wore out some shoe leather (and and my feet) walking
up and down the many rows of homebuilt airplanes, but it was fun, especially talking
with the builders. Airplane builders are always happy to talk about their projects.
Then the trip back on Friday was fun. The wind had changed around to the South, giving me another tail wind. Stopped again at Perry and was surprised to see Joel and
Sheila Graber taxi up in their RV4 for fuel. They were one their way to Lakeland. Well,
everybody can’t have a tail wind!
Van’s LSA, the RV12, attracted a lot of attention
Bigfoot
Campground at West end. My tent looks like a cloth igloo.
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The VLJ’s got a lot of attention
The Tango XR (above), with its wet
wing, is said to be able to go from Coast
to Coast nonstop. I don’t know if I could.
Jack Rosen flew his RV9A from Wareham, MA. I
wrote down his name and email address from his
propeller tag, meaning to contact him after I got
home. I wanted to ask him why he chose the MT
3-blade propeller. The MT costs significantly more
than a Hartzell, even in the 2-blade configuration.
Then the 3-blade MT costs about $1000 extra over
the 2-blade. Imagine my surprise when I spied him
Tom Norton from Sarasota chose the MT at breakfast one morning, sitting at the same table
as me (his name was on his shirt). Happy to talk
3-blade (composite) prop for his RV8
about it, he said he had also used the MT on his
because it is smoother than a metal one
One Design and liked it. It is lighter than a
and has a reputation for durability for
aerobatics. He said he was willing to give Hartzell, and he likes the shape. The small speed
penalty was not an issue for him.
up a small speed margin offered by a
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Hartzell for these reasons.
The Aeroshell Aerobatic Team has the best act at Sun ‘N Fun in my
opinion
Paradise City, the name given to the Southeastern portion of the Lakeland
Airport, saw a lot of ultralight activity all week long.
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EAA Chapter 1189
1982 Hickory Drive
Starkville, MS 39759
[email protected]
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