We had a beautiful day for a meeting on March 28th at Marysville. It seems like every time there is a meeting here, Gary Brewer flys up from Vacaville with a new student! This time it was Bill from Utah. Bill is working on an RAF 2000 project and spent a few days in training with Gary. Chapter 5 is really fortunate to have our own CFI. Many have to travel from miles around to train here because there are no CFIs closer to them. We had 2 other guests in attendance and, compared to last month, a huge crowd of 13 people total.
All projects are coming along nicely. Mark's machine looks beautiful now with the new white powder coat. He's also got the horizontal stabilizer mounted and painted white, complete with nice red stripes. The only question is, does anyone make a rotor blade big enough to lift this beast?! We will find out in a few more months.
Bob Lewis' Barnett was disassembled in the hangar. Bob is carefully going through the machine and rebuilding it. It is for sale if any one is interested, but he wants to ensure that all components are in good safe shape before selling it to a new owner. This machine, when he gets it done, will have a freshly overhauled O-235 Lycoming Engine!
Progress on Tim's RAF 2000 project seems to have ground to a halt as he continues the tedious work of preparing the fiberglass for paint. Actually a lot of work is being done, but it just doesn't look like it. All this sanding, bondoing, sanding, priming, and even more sanding takes a huge amount of time! But all this preparation work is nearly complete and the paint job should be in progress by the time you read this. Maybe next month it will start to look like a machine again as the finished parts start coming together.
Bob Aspegren is working on wiring the EIS monitor in his Bandit Pro. He brought the EIS unit to the meeting. It has an LCD that shows several monitor numbers at once and lets you cycle through all of them. It has CHTs, EGTs, engine and rotor tachometers and so on.
Georgi brought his new Digipod, a similar monitoring device by Ralph Taggert. The digipod also includes computer logging capabilities. Both look nice and are packed full of monitoring features for a reasonable price and a lot less panel space than separate gauges. We'll learn more about these units after they are flying.
Gary has all but finished his Barnett restore and is still waiting for the right time to take his machine off-line for the cabin upgrade. This is difficult to do with all these people needing lessons!
Update... By the time you read this Gary should be well under way of the upgrade!!
Gary is also going to the Ask First Society meeting in Florida this month. They are requesting any feedback or input on what should be included in a more standardized training program. Joe suggested more emphasis on rotor blade management. Students shouldn't become dependent on the pre-rotator of the training machines, especially if their own machine will not have one.
Preparations for Air Expo '99 continue and it is pretty much set. Les Sanders also mentioned the possibility of displaying some gyros at the Sports Expo at the Yuba City Mall on the 17th and 18th. It would be a good way to show off our machines to more of the public. You can bet they would attract a lot of attention sitting in a mall!
Of course several members went flying right after the meeting. Meanwhile, some of us took turns zipping around the airport in the new HKS powered Ultra Bandit which doesn't yet have its' rotor. What a kick! With almost no drag and all that power, it makes for a very peppy little go-cart! Of course it will be even more fun in the air.
News Flash... The HKS Powered Bandit has been spotted in the skies over Marysville! That's right, it has flown!! Joe has about 4 hours on it now and it is performing flawlessly! This is, to the best of anyone's knowledge, the first Gyro powered with this engine! Jim Vanik from Sport Copter even drove all the way down here just to check it out and fly it. Joe will have a full report on this and Jim's opinion at the next metting so plan to be there! Congratulations Joe!!
Chapter 5 PRA patches are in and will be available at the next meeting.
The next meeting of PRA Chapter 5 will be April 25, 1999 at 1 pm, Nut Tree Airport, Vacaville. See you there!