At AirVenture 2007, I took the challenge of sampling the builder workshops—specifically sheet metal, composites and fabric—as a clean-sheet newbie. I wanted to see if I could pick up the basic skills necessary for building, and how the instructors and Technical Counselors would do with a rookie. Thanks to their patience, expertise and clarity in [...]
Do you ever get the feeling that someone’s watching you? The paint on the Sparrowhawk gyros on display at Sun ‘n Fun drew many such comment from passersby as the strolled through the commercial exhibit area. And, yes, those eyes do seem to follow you as you walk past. Fortunately, this bird doesn’t have eyes [...]
The need to coordinate the arrival of thousands of aircraft, to manage the airshow flow, and maintain separation on the Lake Parker arrivals demands a lot of preparation and attention by pilots as well as the skills of dozens of our friendly aviation agency’s top performers, the men and women of the Air Traffic Service. [...]
Dave Hansen of Vari-Prop is pretty excited about the company’s newest product, a four-blade, variable-pitch propeller for warbird replicas that will bolt on to basically any engine that can turn it, no matter whether the crankshaft is hollow or solid. Vari-Prop can do that because all of its constant-speed propellers are operated by a master [...]
If your kit is meant to fly high and fast, and especially if you’ve designed the machine to fly well in the clouds, then you owe it to yourself to consider some kind of de-ice or anti-ice system. Most systems designed for light aircraft include complicated pneumatic pumps, ugly rubber boots or expensive titanium leading [...]
Not all that flies at Sun ‘n Fun roars like a radial, buzzes like a hornet or spews smoke during low passes. The traditional Saturday-morning balloon launch provided an uncharacteristic bit of hushed flying for thousands willing to crawl out of their bunks and camps to witness the spectacle of color. For others the quiet [...]
I finally got a chance on Friday to catch up with William Wynne of FlyCorvair.com to see if there had been much in the way of improvements to the Corvair conversion since mine first flew about a year and a half ago. At that time, I was the proud recipient of the latest and greatest [...]
Sun ‘n Fun’s Chopper Town provided a graphic reminder Friday that you don’t need a wing if your ship’s got that swing, as a turbine chopper and a Butterfly gyro amply demonstrate. A Mosquito on floats—FAR 103 legal, by the way —hangs in a hover as the pilot concentrates on showing off the little ship’s [...]
