Media watch. The April issue of Kitplanes had a feature article "Picking an Oregon Plum" on Ray
Purkiser's Falco. Did we read it right, Ray, that your "well-equipped
shop" included a "hand-cranked sander"?
Karl Hansen's Falco was on the cover of the December Midwest
Flyer and the latest Flieger Magazine in Germany,
and it is the subject of a major article in a Brazilian magazine. |
From the Christmas
issue of Marchetti Matters, the newsletter of SF.260 owners:
"To satisfy numerous requests, we repeat our 'Italian Stew'
recipe for the holiday season. Ingredients: 1 elephant (medium
size), 2 rabbits (optional), carrots and potatoes as needed,
brown gravy (to cover), salt and pepper to taste. Cut the elephant
into bite size pieces. Add brown gravy and cook at 465° for
3 weeks. Salt and pepper to taste. This will serve 3,800 people.
If more guests are expected, add the two rabbits but only if
necessary as there are many who do not like to find hare in their
stew." |
According to Air & Space magazine, "Voyager
pilots Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager will be immortalized in a
movie based more on their relationship than on their accomplishment."
Heritage Entertainment president Skip Steloff foresees the plot
as "an incredibly beautiful love story." Whaaa?! This is the same jerk who hogged the wheel for 85% of the flight?
The same bighearted fellow who wouldn't get out of the driver's
seat for the first sixty hours, electing to sleep sitting
up while his "partner" monitored the autopilot?
After a terrible thunderstorm-filled night, they crossed the
west coast of Africa and the male ego announces on the radio
"I'm coming home." What's the matter, Dicky-boy, never
heard the word we? Then after landing, this sweet fellow
never even gave the girl a glance or acknowledgement that she
was even part of the flight. What a guy! It was a tremendous
flight, done with two lives at enormous risk, but gimme
a break about the "love story". |
Everything you
ever wanted to know about wood and more: "The speed of sound
in a structural material varies directly with the square root
of the modulus of elasticity and inversely with the square root
of the density. The speed of wood varies strongly with grain
angle since the tranverse modulus of elasticity may be as small
as 1/20 of the longitudinal value. Thus, the speed of sound across
the grain is about one-fifth to one-third of the longitudinal
value. The speed of sound decreases with increasing temperature
or moisture content in proportion to the influence of these variables
on the modulus of elasticity and density. The speed of sound
decreases slightly with increasing frequency and amplitude of
vibration, although for most common applications this effect
is too small to be significant. There is no recognized independent
effect of species on the speed of sound. Variablity in the speed
of sound in wood is directly related to the variability of the
modulus of elasticity and density." Got that? It's all in
the latest edition of the Forest Products Laboratory's Wood
Engineering Handbook, available for $49.95, plus postage
and handling charges from Prentice-Hall, Inc., Professional Books
Division, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey 07632. |
Stelio Frati's latest design, the Jet Squalus made
its first flight on April 30 and had accumulated about 40 hours
by its appearance at the Paris Air Show. The two-place jet trainer
is being designed for a consortium in Belgium. Frank Strickler
reports that test pilot Jack Zanozzi spun the plane from less
than 3,000' at the show. The flight test program is going very
smoothly, and the airplane is flying better than expected. The
jet is very quiet, and Frank Strickler reported that there was
much interest in the plane. |
Jim DeAngelo's
Falco was on the cover of the April issue of Pilot magazine
in England, and Karl Hansen's was on the cover of Fliegermagazin in Germany. One photograph of Karl sitting in the plane was captioned
"Sequoia President Scott." All of the German pilots
who called were very kind to me-good to know that people will
still be nice to me when my hair falls out! Ray Purkiser's Falco
was featured in an article in the June issue of In Flight. |
Plans for one of the oldest and best homebuilt
designs, the Pitts Special, are no longer available because of
the continuing problems of "product liability" lawsuits
in this country. While lawyers tut-tut about abuses and explain
the lofty legal "principles" involved, what is happening
in the U.S. is obscene. Christen Industries, for example, is
being sued by a pilot of a plans-built(!) Pitts who pulled
the prop through while the mags were hot, the engine fired and
the prop cut one of the man's legs off. Our sympathies to the
unfortunate pilot, but this is not any fault of Christen Industries,
which will have to spend about $20,000.00 to get the suit dismissed. Aviation Consumer's Dave Noland told me with a straight
face that product liability accounts for "only 7% of sales"
for general aviation-tell that to Christen Industries who's last
quote for the insurance was over $600,000.00 -- they used to
pay under $30,000.00 for more insurance. |
Media Watch. The
August issue of Woodward Governor Company's Prime Mover Control had a cover article on the Falco with photos of Karl Hansen's,
Pawel Kwiecinski's and John Oliver's Falcos. The August 30 issue
of the Sunday New York Times carried an article, "The
Big Business of Build-It-Yourself Planes," featuring photographs
of a Christen Eagle and Bill Wink with his Falco project. The
October issue of Kitplanes carried "Homebuilt Musings",
an article featuring a photo of Brenda Avery along with various
incoherent mutterings by A. Scott. |
Glad To See It Happens To Someone Else. At Oshkosh
I overheard an aviation writer telling a Bose headset salesman,
"If you can get the price down, you could sell a lot of
these." What an interesting and original suggestion! Can't
you imagine the boardroom? "Gentlemen, Bill and I just got
back from the big show yesterday and while we were there this
writer made a suggestion that we thought you might like to hear.
It could make a big difference in how many Model XT-43 Widgets
we can sell. Why don't you explain the concept, Bill, since you
were the one who talked to him...." |
Congratulations
to Jim DeAngelo, who took the award for the best homebuilt at
the 11th annual New England Regional Fly-In at Orange, Massachucetts. |
Falco builder, photographer Jonas Dovydenas has
a new book out. Nevada, A Journey is a collection of his
superb photography of the landscape and faces of our most barren
state. His earlier book Chicago Houses was published by
St. Martin's Press. Collector's editions are available for $225.00,
but us pikers can just order the hardcover edition for $37.50
from Undermountain Press, Box 778, Great Barrington, MA 01230. |
Falco media collectors
will have to go to Japan for the latest on the Falco, an interview
with Steve Wilkinson in English Journal, a video-tape-and-magazine
comb-ination directed at Japanese businessmen who want to learn
English. The interview is distributed on video tape along with
a magazine which includes a printed transcript of the interview.
Steve is interviewed by the lovely Consuelo, a six-foot-tall,
semi-pro tennis player who towered over the minibus of tiny Japanese.
See the latest Polish Wings newspaper for an article of
Pawel Kwiecinski's Falco. |
The FAA has a new Advisory Circular on how to obtain
a Repairman's Certicate if you've built your own homebuilt. Obtain
AC 65-23A from your nearest FSDO/GADO, or write FAA, 800 Independence
Ave, S.W., Washington, DC 20591. |
Intoxicated
[From February 1987 Pilot magazine in England] The pilot and
his passenger were killed when the Skyhawk crashed into a slope
not far from Las Vegas, shortly past midnight on a clear night
with a nearly full moon.
The 57-year-old pilot had obtained his private license in
1980.
The plane had taken off sometime before 11 p.m. from Las Vegas.
At midnight, a fisherman observed the lights of an aircraft flying
very low over the water. The plane was located not far away the
next day, having struck fifty feel below an escarpment.
Lab tests showed the pilot's blood alchohol level was 0.18
percent, and the level for his female passenger was 0.14 percent.
In most U.S. states, drivers are considered intoxicated at a
level of 0.10 percent, and Federal Aviation Regulations now limit
pilots to 0.04 percent.
Police reported that, as evidenced by the position of the
bodies and certain injuries to the pilot, the passenger was performing
an act of oral sex at the moment of impact.
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