AUGUST 2010
S
tay tuned for more coverage on EAA Oshkosh AirVenture 2010 in the October
Vintage Airplane
magazine.Heads up everyone: EAA is asking the membership to stand down on reacting to the FCC’s controversial announcement on June 15. As many of you are already aware, the FCC has a planned change to 47 CFR Part 87 to prohibit the certification, manu-facture, importation, sale, or use of any 121.5 ELT (emergency locator transmitter) devices. (With the excep-tion of the Breitling Emergency watch with ELT).This of course is in direct conflict with FAA Rule 14 CFR Part 91.207, which requires you to have an op-erational ELT on board your U.S.-registered civil aircraft regardless of the operating frequency of 121.5 or the updated 406 MHz. Although this new FCC ruling was written to take effect 60 days after publication, EAA is busy working with other aviation associations to remedy these conflict-ing rules. As of July 13, the proposed regulation had not been published in the
Federal Register
, so the 60-day clock had not begun. Because of the atten-tion brought to bear on this proposed rule change by industry and govern-ment agencies like the FAA and the U.S. Small Business Administration, publication has been delayed as the FCC re-evaluates the situation. In an attempt to better educate my-self on the latest developments with a non-leaded alternative to 100LL, I have managed to learn a little about this important issue and how the in-dustry continues to struggle to find that ever elusive silver bullet to resolve this matter. Nearly all of you know that the EPA continues to push hard on the fuel industry for a resolution to the formulation of a non-leaded fuel that will perform satisfactorily with our piston-powered aircraft. In addition, aviation is soon to be the only user of the lead additive, thus making aviation subject to financial and supply interruptions. There is only one producer of the additive left in the world. All it would take is one industrial accident at that plant and there would be no 100LL available.While most of our lower- and mid-dle-horsepower vintage aircraft would actually be better off with one of the currently available specifications for
unleaded
aviation fuels, our friends with high-horsepower engines would be put in a difficult position, with de-rated engines or worse.It appears that the struggle con-tinues. Along the way I have become aware of a number of relevant factors that I was totally ignorant of that you may find interesting. We are all aware of the issues surrounding the need to find an alternative fuel for our vin-tage flying machines, but I was to-tally rolled back on my heels when I learned that 100LL makes up only 1/10 of 1 percent of all the refined fu-els in this nation. So you can easily imagine why the need for the fuel in-dustry to heavily invest in a solution isn’t high on its radar. The EPA has actually been success-fully sued by environmentalists who continue to demand that the EPA en-force the rules and get the lead out of aviation fuels. The FAA has only recently engaged itself in the fray, and it has gotten busy with evaluating the hundreds of alternative blends for-mulated to address all of the technical and complicated issues at hand. The goal is to find a common standard fuel that will service the entire fleet without any compromise to perfor-mance or engine life. That’s a huge goal, and it’s not likely to be devel-oped overnight, or any time soon for that matter.
The industry has never had to reverse engineer a safe alternative fuel for the existing fleet, and it has indeed proven to be an elusive task. Then, mix in the fact that there remains only one manufacturer of tetraethyl lead fuel additive left in the world, serving only 1/10 of 1 percent of all blended fuels in this country, and you begin to realize the need to move forward with this initiative. Let’s all hope for the best. I like to think that we have not yet found that chemical engineer with the talent to see this issue resolved. Industry leaders are now lament-ing the fact that “leadership by the FAA is vital at this juncture in or-der to remove any unnecessary or outdated hurdles,” and “Such hur-dles could delay the development and delivery of new products and should be removed if they provide no safety benefit.”
For more on this subject, I’d sug-gest reading the Advocacy Update on page 10 of the August issue of EAA
Sport Aviation
; EAA has long been ac-tive in the research related to fuels, and it intends to continue to be pro-active in helping the industry find a solution that works. We’ll continue to monitor both these situations along with our friends at EAA, and we’ll keep you posted.
GEOFF ROBISON
PRESIDENT, VINTAGE AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATION
STRAIGHT & LEVEL
Keeping abreast of issues
IFC
Straight & Level
Keeping abreast of issues by Geoff Robison
2
News
4
Aeromail
6
The Sensuously Svelte Ryan SCW
The Larson family’s flying legacy by Sparky Barnes Sargent
15
How to Tie the Seine Knot!
Don’t let that pesky little knot drive you insane by Bob Whittier
18
Life and the Zen of the Stinson
How an airplane weaves its way into many lives by Budd Davisson
26
Light Plane Heritage
The Allen A-4 Lightplane by Jack McRae
29
The Vintage Mechanic
Structural alignment by Robert G. Lock
34
The Vintage Instructor
The lost art of slips by Steve Krog, CFI
36
Mystery Plane
by H.G. Frautschy
39
Classified Ads
40
A Different Perspective
The right seat by S. Michelle Souder
VINTAGE AIRPLANE
1
AIRPLANE
AUGUST
CONTENTSSTAFF
EAA Publisher Tom PobereznyDirector of EAA Publications Mary JonesExecutive Director/Editor H.G. FrautschyProduction/Special Project Kathleen WitmanPhotography Jim Koepnick Bonnie KratzCopy Editor Colleen WalshPublication Advertising:
Manager/Domestic, Sue Anderson
Tel: 920-426-6127 Email:
sanderson@eaa.org
Fax: 920-426-4828
Manager/European-Asian, Willi Tacke
Phone: +49(0)1716980871
Email:
willi@flying-pages.com
Fax: +49(0)8841 / 496012
Coordinator/Classified, Lesley Poberezny
Tel: 920-426-6563 Email:
classads@eaa.org
COVERS
Vol. 38, No. 7 2010
FRONT COVER:
With the translucent turquoise waters of the Gulf of Mexico below, father/son team Brad and Glenn Larson cruise along in Brad’s 1938 Ryan SCW, which he purchased in 1952. Read Sparky Barnes Sargent’s story starting on page 6. EAA photo by Chris Miller, photo plane flown by Bruce Moore.
BACK COVER:
The Stinson 108 series has been a favorite of generations of pilots since their production in the 1940s. Each seems to weave in and out of people’s lives as the airplanes move from caretaker to caretaker. NC6865M is one of those aircraft, and in Budd Davisson’s article starting on page 18 you can read more on its journey and the people who have come along for the ride. EAA photo by Jim Koepnick, photo plane flown by Bruce Moore.
18
6
BONNIE KRATZ
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