TARMAC
The Official News Letter
Of The
November 2001
Your Executive Officers
| El Presidente |
Andrew Parr |
479 3235 |
| Vice El Presidente |
Chris Todd |
833 5841 |
| Secretary |
Martin Seay |
525 6505 |
| Treasurer |
Peter Cole |
473 0130 |
| Committee |
Anton Lawrence |
813 6404 |
| Committee |
Willie Morton |
025 901 796 |
| Chief Flying Officer |
Willie Morton |
025 901 796 |
| Safety Officer |
Niol Lockington |
817 5959 |
| PPAB |
Peter Nicholson |
625 4010 |
| PPAB |
Gordon Swan |
827 5089 |
| PPAB |
Vern Booth |
360 4016 |
| Editor |
Anton Lawrence |
813 6404 |
Web copy of TARMAC
http://kirstant.orcon.net.nz/Armac/Tarmacs.html
Official ARMAC Web Site
http://www.acomodata.com/armac/
Next Club Meeting, 3rd Tuesday of the month.
November 20th
At the Pikes Point Airpark Clubrooms 19:00
Committee Meeting at 18:30 Sharp.
Editorial
Well this is the last issue of Tarmac for this year. I must pay great thanks to Jon Farmer in particular for being a regular contributor, but thanks to all others who have provided material through out the year. The magazine would be extremely boring if it was just me writing articles every month. I hope next years editor will get even more support. That sounds like a hint.
The RAANZ AGM is this weekend so Chris and I will be able to report at the next meeting.
Anton Lawrence
Prez Sez
Firstly I would like to welcome a new member to our ranks Martin Watson. Martin is a product of the training scheme.
The annual payout from the syndicate bantam was decided at last months committee meeting, and I am pleased to say that a nice sum was added to the ARMAC '00' account. The actual figure will be announced at the AGM in the treasurer's report.
As you are all aware that back in March, ARMAC did a static display with the bantam at the north shore aero clubs annual air show. Well after much lobbying and letter writing etc, we have been 'invited' to display at the 2002 show in March. ARMAC is to provide 3 aircraft of which 2 will be doing a flying spot in the show. The display team/aircraft selected, including reserve are Willie Morton and the Avid, Andrew Parr/ Peter Cole the syndicate bantam, Vernon Booth in the mighty Titan and Niol Lockington and the 701. This should be a fantastic opportunity to push the club and microlight's. I also hope other people can get there as visiting aircraft or even dare I say it - drive.
At last months club night I was asked a question if there was tea/coffee to be served, upon being told no there wasn't, I could see the tears beginning to form in the eyes of this individual, so as this month is the last meeting for the year we will make a concerted effort for this to happen, tea/coffee chocolate bikkies will be there + if anybody wishes to bring a plate it would greatly appreciated.
I also understand that a fly in is being organised by SAA at pikes point on the 8th December - please support it.
This month's guest Speaker is none other than Jon Farmer on the topic of navigation.
Andrew
SINS OF MY OLD AGE.
By Jon Farmer.
When you reach my age insurance companies tend to avoid you and one that has been taking my money for 50 odd years has just decided to give it back and get out of my life. Another truism is that when both your cars are over 15 years old and you have a windfall, you do tend to think about a new car. So, off I went to the Subaru emporium in my trusty old Subaru estate expecting the nice blue eyed salesman would be pleased to give me 3X dollars trade-in. When it came to the crunch the hard hearted, ice blue eyed B------ told me 1X was all he would give me. So I drove off in my coughing and spluttering old Subaru and went home to sulk. Next day I saw an advert in the RAANZ magazine for a Fisher R80 Tiger Moth kit, which is just what I wanted a year or so back when they first came out. At that time I was building three Pelicans at once and couldn't entertain another aircraft. But here I was with only two aircraft to my name and money in the bank. An exchange of Emails, a cheque off to Timaru by airmail and a few days' later two very heavy crates turned up at the door. Not much for a two seat, 4/5th scale aircraft with a wingspan of 23ft, I thought, but then it is nearly all air inside!
A quick inspection of the long crate revealed lots of very nice straight grained, sized and finished timber plus a packet of thin Birch ply. The other crate contained a great bundle of rolled up plans. Lifting these out revealed two massive 'Turf Master' tires like on Willie's Avid, complete with Matco wheels, brakes and axles. There were also two welded aluminium petrol tanks, one for the scuttle and the other for the upper wing centre section, a moulded fibreglass front for the engine cowl, a box of nuts and bolts, a box of cables and fittings and a number of wooden bits. Four cartons of 'dangerous goods' that came separately contained, the epoxy glue and some paint. So there we are – all the parts to build a Tiger Moth except the engine, instruments (Tiger Moths don't have many instruments but they do need two of each!), leather helmets, white silk scarves etc etc.
Now there is just one problem, apart from mollifying my outraged wife who has presented me with a list of jobs that should keep me from the plane for the next two years, where to get a 4/5th scale four cylinder inverted four stroke engine suitable for direct drive? One I have seen is the Walter Mikron on the late Bob Maisey's KR2 that flies out of Taupo. Does anyone know where one might be for sale or another suitable engine?
Whilst negotiating for the Tiger Moth kit, I got out a pile of old 'New Zealand Recreational Flyer' magazines because I vaguely remembered having seen it advertised some years back. Anyway, I sank into my armchair and spent the whole afternoon thumbing through and reading articles here and there. What a shame Bruce dropped that magazine, I really miss it, not to mention my $15 subscription that went down the gurgler with the magazine. After several hours I got to June/July 1998 and an article by Evan Gardiner about how he and Russell Brodie went to the Sun n' Fun Airshow in Florida. Among the aircraft they photographed was the prototype Fisher Tiger Moth. Russell was also taken with the aircraft as it turns out my new kit was originally his and he had just cut his first bit of wood when someone offered him the remains of a real Tiger Moth in exchange. The next owner of the kit had hoped that construction would be a family affair but it wasn't to be and it lay unopened in the back of a hanger for two years until just now.
The Fisher website blurb states that the aircraft can be built in 550 hours but experience dictates at least doubling that. Construction is similar to model aircraft where one lays the full size fuselage elevation plan on a flat surface, cover it with clear plastic and lay the longerons directly over the outlines on the plan. The braces are glued in with two-part epoxy glue that prefers not to be clamped up tight and has considerable gap filling properties – my kind of glue!! I'll write up progress from time to time, once I've renewed the spouting, painted the outside of the house and fixed the kitchen floor!!
Thinking about Willie's experience last month, when fog descended around him near the Manukau Heads, and he was thinking of landing on the beach at Cornwallis, I realised that a large proportion of our flights pass that way and there are not too many good places to land. So I went out there by car and walked the beach on the Eastern side of Cornwallis peninsula. It is about 1 ½ km long and there is a 50m wide strip of firm sand at half tide, excellent for landing on. The catch is that at high water there is only a 5m wide strip of softer sand, which I suppose is better than a 100m wide strip of soft mud! I believe Willie had his problem at high tide and his choice was shallow water or a narrow strip of soft sand with trees hanging over it. With a tail dragger, a nose over would have been a very real possibility. There were several quite large grassy spaces adjacent to the beach but none had a clear approach. You were real lucky Willie. While I am on the subject of Cornwallis, I would like to point out to all the flyers who come and go past there that Auckland International Airspace extends over the tip of the peninsula and all down the Eastern side to the root. When outbound you should fly over the peninsula at it's root and not turn towards the South until you are clear of the Western side of Cornwallis. Cross the harbour entrance keeping West of the Westpoint beacon radio aerial. If you don't spot the aerial then err on the safe side and keep to the West. Auckland International radar tracked one of the SAA members who cut the corner at Cornwallis and they traced him by his radio calls and reported him to the CAA!! Happy flying.
The Horses Arse
The U.S. standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That is an exceptionally odd number. Why was that gauge used? Because that's the way they built them in England, and the U.S. railroads were built by English expatriates. Why did the English build them that way? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used. Why did "they" use that gauge then?
Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing. So why did the wagons have that particular odd spacing? Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long distance roads in England, because that's the spacing of the wheel ruts. So who built those old rutted roads? The first long distance roads in Europe (and England) were built by Imperial Rome for their legions. The roads have been used ever since. And the ruts in the roads? The ruts in the roads, which everyone had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels, were first formed by Roman war chariots. Since the chariots were made for (or by) Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing. The U.S. standard railroad gauge of
4 feet, 8.5 inches derives from the original specification for an Imperial Roman war chariot. Specifications and bureaucracies live forever. So the next time you are handed a specification and wonder what horse's arse came up with it, you may be exactly right, because the Imperial Roman war chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the back end of two war-horses. Thus we have the answer to the original question.
Now a twist to the story...When we see a space shuttle sitting on it's launching pad, there are two booster rockets attached to the side of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRB's. The SRB's are made by Thiokol at their factory in Utah. The engineers who designed the SRB's might have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRB's had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line from the factory had to run through a tunnel in the mountains. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad tracks, and the railroad tracks are about as wide as two horses' arses. So, the major design feature of what is arguably the worlds most advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a horse's arse!!!
Don't you just love engineering?
Trade And Exchange.
Private owners only
Contact the Editor to place an add
813 6404hm 025 354 998wk
kirstant@orcon.co.nz
Trike, FXN, current air cert, plenty of instruments, long range tank, rainbow wing a pleasure to fly, low engine hours, $3,800.00 neg contact Alex; 09 5366815 h or 09 5342190 e-mail atocollision@paridice.co.nz
Koenig "Pagojer" 18 Hp 3 Cyl radial engine, with prop, cage, and harness for powered 'chute. In good condition, reconditioned a few hours ago. $2000. Further details from: BRODIE ANDREWS, ph. 8175433"
Warpdrive three blade 58"-60" left hand ground adjustable prop. Older type with two sets of hub plates to suit either standard Rotax 75mm or 4" bolt pattern for VW or Subaru. Moulded-in metal leading edge protection.
Never been used. $900 Contact Jon Farmer, ph (09) 520 0641
Icom A22 handheld radio, 760 com: channels plus VOR navigation readout. Alkaline battery pack. Brand new in box $950
Contact Jon Farmer, ph (09) 520 0641
Two quality Peltor headsets, intercom with cables for connection to Icom radio and push to talk switch. All new. $650 the lot or I can fit the headsets with standard GA plugs and sell them separately. Contact Jon Farmer, ph (09) 520 0641
Intercom, with connoectiions to radio $200 Contact Jon Farmer, ph (09) 520 0641
Helmets with clip on peak and Peltor earmuffs. Fully adjustable for size. Wear a beanie underneath in cold weather. Either red or blue. $180
I can customise these helmets with speakers and microphone to suit your requirements. Contact Jon Farmer, ph (09) 520 0641
Dac and ¼ share of Hanger No.3 at Pikes Point.
Dac has only 5 ½ hours airtime, recovery chute and many extras.
Make an offer for aircraft and hanger together or separately, but aircraft must be sold before hanger goes separately. Contact Brian Mcleod, 351 Weber Rd, RD1 Dannevirk 5491. Ph 06 374 6635.