www.ContactMagazine.com
Summer 2012
Issue #105 CONTACT! ISSUE 105 PAGE 1
PO BOX 1382 Hanford CA 93232-1382 United States of America 559-584-3306 Editor@CONTACTMagazine.com
Volume 18 Number 5 Summer 2012
Issue #105 MISSION CONTACT! Magazine is published quarterly by Aeronautics Education Enterprises (AEE), established in 1990 as a nonprofit corporation, to promote aeronautical education. CONTACT! promotes the experimental development, expansion and exchange of aeronautical concepts, information, and experience. In this corporate age of task specialization many individuals have chosen to seek fresh, unencumbered avenues in the pursuit of improvements in aircraft and powerplants. In so doing, they have revitalized the progress of aeronautical design, particularly in the general aviation area. Flight efficiency improvements, in terms of operating costs as well as airframe drag, have come from these efforts. We fully expect that such individual efforts will continue and that they will provide additional incentives for the advancement of aeronautics. EDITORIAL POLICY CONTACT! pages are open to the publication of these individual efforts. Views expressed are exclusively those of the individual authors. Experimenters are encouraged to submit articles and photos of their work. Materials submitted to CONTACT! are welcomed and will become the property of AEE/CONTACT! unless other arrangements are made. Every effort will be made to balance articles reporting on commercial developments. Commercial advertising is not accepted. All rights with respect to reproduction, are reserved. Nothing whole or in part may be reproduced without prior permission of the publisher. SUBSCRIPTIONS Four issue subscription in U.S. funds is $20.00 for USA, $24.00 for Canada and Mexico, $32.00 for overseas air orders. CONTACT! is mailed to U.S. addresses at nonprofit organization rates on a irregular schedule, trying to mail in January, April, July and October. Please allow time for processing and delivery of first issue. ADDRESS CHANGES / RENEWALS The last line of your label contains the number of your last issue. Please check label for correctness. This magazine does not forward. Please notify us of your date of address change consistent with our bimonthly mailing dates to avoid missing any issues. COPYRIGHT 2012 BY AEE, Inc.
This has been a fun issue to compile and one that’s long overdue. Recognizing Chris Heintz and his family business is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, and I can never get tired of publishing information on the Corvair. The two seem to have been made for each other, as do the efforts of William Wynne and Zenith. Andy Elliott is a wonderful spokesman for Zenith, Corvairs and homebuilding in general and I’m thrilled to have his cooperation with this issue. His plane is a beautiful piece of workmanship and innovation and I couldn’t be happier with the image he provided for the cover of this issue. He sent me several to choose from, all were winners, but the colors and contrasting background in addition to the subject (his highlypolished plane) just made it pop off the cover.
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3 500 Hours Flying Behind A Corvair.— Andrew Elliott tells the story behind deciding to build an experimental aircraft, what drove him to choose the CH601, and why he installed a Corvair— and all the fun he’s had with it thus far. 10 Planning and Executing a Professional First Flight.— William Wynne outlines a solid plan to help us complete our first flight professionally and successfully. 13 Phase I Flight Testing Like A Professional.— Andrew Elliot spells out the keys to a successful flight test regime, and includes worksheets along with tips from his test period. 20 A Change in Perspective; From Homebuilder to Pilot.— Phil Maxson tells of the joys of bringing his creation to life and proving that it’s more than a dream to fly something he built with his hands. 23 Get Checked Out.— Louis Kantor, as a CFI and a homebuilder who found himself in need of a check out, makes the argument for getting time-in-type before flying your new homebuilt for the first time. 26 Reflecting on a Decade of Corvair Powered Zeniths.— William Wynne makes an interesting observation as to why many airframe manufacturers seem to be against alternative engines. 27 Chris Heintz: Designing the Future of Experimental Aviation for Forty Years.— Jim Cavanagh pays homage to Chris Heintz in this short biography that tells the story of Zenith Aircraft Company and the aircraft plans and kits offered. 31 Book Report: Flying On Your Own Wings, By Chris Heintz.— John Moyle gives us a brief look at the semi-autobiographical, but mostly technical writing designed for the first-time airplane designer to design, build and fly a unique experimental aircraft. On the cover: Andrew Elliott in his CH601XL over the Salt River in the Tonto National Forest. Photo was shot by Zeigh Owensby from the back seat of N566U, an RV-8 built and flown by Ron Smith.
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By Andy Elliott EAA 687140 a.s.elliott@cox.net Dr. Andrew Elliott is an MIT graduate, and holds a PhD in Aerospace Engineering. As a former officer in the United States Air Force, Andrew flew extensively as an instructor, with much of his time in T-38s. He Andy Elliott’s 3100-Corvair-powered Zodiac CH 601XL B and another beautiful open-top Corvair! has a solid general aviation background and the flight test program he develCorvair engine would have no reduction drive to be conoped for his Zenith reflects his professional approach to cerned with, no liquid-cooling issues, and no computerflying. While some items will have to be adjusted for othized ignition bugs to worry about. er airframes, his detailed format would form an excellent basis for nearly any homebuilt aircraft. (see page 13) His Fortunately for me, it turned out that William was holding test program proved his plane to be nearly flawless, and #3 of his (then) new-fangled “Corvair College” events at in 40 hours he knew his plane better than many pilots San Geronimo Airpark (8T8) in San Antonio, TX, on the who have flown theirs for years. His 601 is unique in that same weekend that the American Yankee Association he designed and installed mass balanced ailerons with (AYA) was holding a fly-in at Stinson Field (SSF), about 20 NM away. So I jumped in the Yankee and headed spades to lower the stick forces in roll. Based in Arizona, he has flown much of the Southwest in his 601. The area 700 miles east, arriving at San Geronimo Airpark on Friis known for harsh terrain and challenging flying, but the day evening, January 17, 2003. plane earned Andy’s trust through rigorous testing. This When I arrived, the College was already well underway is more preferable to the blind faith some people accord at Oscar Zuniga’s hangar, a fellow Corvair engine guy. their aircraft. There were pieces of Corvair engines on multiple workbenches and William was going around helping everyone During the winter of 2002/2003, I was flying a highlyget set up for the real work starting the next morning. modified (160 horsepower with a tailwheel!) 1969 AA-1 Yankee. It was a very fast airplane, but I had done pretty much everything that could be done with a certificated aircraft, and the stack of STC’s and 337’s in the logbooks was about two and a half inches thick. Plus the airframe was almost 35 years old and the annual inspections were getting more and more expensive. I was thinking it was about time to change to Experimental, amateur-built. I heard about a guy in Florida, William Wynne, who had developed a process for converting Corvair engines for flight use and had checked out his web site, www.flycorvair.com. I am an aerospace engineer, and Wynne’s work seemed to be pretty well thought-out compared to some automotive conversions. Designed as an air-cooled engine in the era of leaded auto fuel, and running well under the engine’s capabilities, a
The author piloting his highly-modified 1969 AA-1 Grumman Yankee over the Superstition Mountains in Arizona.
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The 3100 hung on the front of N601GE, nearly ready for first engine start. Note the old style flywheel and ring gear (in the image on the left) which has since been replaced by the more reliable solid one (shown on the right), and the original multipiece black SAE-1 hub with drive lugs, now available as a beautiful, unitized, computer-machined, gold-anodized part. Note also that the image on the left was before 5th bearings were available; image on the right shows the 5th bearing in place.
This wasn’t a massive affair like some of the more recent colleges, it was just 20 or 30 guys looking to learn and build something and one guy (William) willing to explain how its done. But the atmosphere was totally noncommercial and the camaraderie was evident, so the next morning, after hopping over to Stinson Field for the AYA breakfast, I went back to the College and stayed for the rest of the weekend. I left with copy #5282 of William’s newly-printed conversion manual, and a lot of ideas about what I might do when I finally got out of certificated aviation. Fast forward about three and a half years to the summer of 2006, when it came time for a top overhaul on the O320 in the Yankee, to the tune of $7500! In the interim, I’d kept up with the advances in the Corvair community and had acquired two good engine cores (for $200 total!), torn both of them down, cleaned them up and had the best two of the four heads refurbished to complete one engine. Meanwhile, William had constructed his own Zenith CH601XL and installed a Corvair on the front, modified to accept 94 mm Volkswagen cylinders that increased the displacement from 2700 cc (164 cu.in.) to 3100 cc (198 cu.in.). I checked the specs on the 601XL, which looked to be a good project for a first-time builder, being all-aluminum and 99% constructed with pulled rivets. By this time, there were a lot more engine conversion parts available from FlyCorvair.com, plus a couple of guys at my field were also building 601s so I decided to take the plunge and put the Yankee up for sale. Immediately I took 60% of the sale proceeds and sent it to Zenith for a quick-build taildragger kit. Shipped from Canada, it showed up at the end of that year, and in the spring of 2007, I was busy building in the garage every night and weekend. In about a year, the airframe was done and I was getting really itchy to fly. So when William sold his 601, sans engine, and offered me the 220hour, 3100cc engine that once powered it, I sold all of my accumulated Corvair parts and bought the 3100. www.ContactMagazine.com
The engine was torn down and completely checked over by William before shipping and was ready to hang and fly when I got it. The Corvair/601 Engine Installation Manual that William has produced and offers at zenvair.com as a firewallforward instructional aide, outlines every step needed to produce a reliable engine installation, and I followed it carefully. While I’d become pretty good at sheet metal work over the past year and a half, in no way am I a “motor head.” Experimental amateur-built aircraft unfortunately have a bad track record of flight during the first one or two flights, and most of those accidents are usually due to prop-stoppages for any number of reasons, and aren’t usually airframe-related. My airframe and avionics differ from William’s 601, so some deviation from the manual was required. I tried very hard to minimize the number of changes from the known working arrangement, and to engineer the unavoidable ones for maximum robustness and reliability.
FIRST FLIGHT Fast forward another six months to November 24th, 2008. I had an airworthiness certificate from the FAA, I had completed all the engine ground-runs and highspeed taxi tests outlined in my detailed test plan, (which is included in this issue of CONTACT! Magazine on page 13) and I was ready to go! I’ve logged a lot of flying time. I had kept current during the building period and I had done a few recent hours of taildragger time. So in my estimation, there probably weren’t many who would have been a better candidate to conduct the first flight than I. Early in the morning, when the winds were calm and there wasn’t much traffic at my field, N601GE and I took to the sky for the first time! The Warp Drive propeller was set a bit shallow and the horizontal stabilizer incidence angle definitely needed to be adjusted, but the engine
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ran smooth and steady the whole time. My son recorded the flight and edited it for YouTube, where you can watch it at www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OCO9_sXma4 or simply type N601GE into the YouTube search window.
601, N601AZ. The Corvair easily outperforms the O-200 and I am quite pleased! There are lots of fly-ins around Arizona in the wintertime, and I stared to go to them all to show off my new plane.
WOW! 0.6 HOURS ON THE CLOCK!
TESTING PAST 40
After resetting the horizontal stabilizer incidence, I began my carefully crafted flight test program, slowly expanding the flight envelope and learning how this 601XL flies. I tried to get airborne at least three or four times a week, but never more than once a day and rarely for more than an hour and a half at a time. This gave me plenty of time to digest and document what I’d learned on each flight and to prepare for the next flight. My logbook shows 27 flights to get to the 40-hour mark. Slow flight, straightahead stalls, turning stalls, high-speed flight, maneuvering flight, propeller pitch changes, tailwheel changes, flights at gross weight, CG limits, high-altitude performance, crosswind take-off and landings, more performance testing, pitot-static calibration, higher crosswinds, autopilot tuning, spade adjustment and many, many touch-and goes.
Just because the 40 hours are completed, it doesn’t mean aircraft testing and improvements are done. Next I did night operations testing and annotated the logbook appropriately. Then instrument operations. And there were friends I’d promised rides to that had to be given.
On January 27th, 2009, I made it to 40-hours and made the long awaited entry in the airframe log: I certify that the required flight test hours have been completed and the aircraft is controllable throughout all maneuvers to be executed, has no hazardous operating characteristics or design features, and is safe for operation. The following aircraft operating data have been demonstrated during testing at 1150# weight @ 337mm Cg location: VS0=50 mph IAS, VS1=45 mph IAS, VX=72 mph IAS, VY=74 mph IAS. Andrew S. Elliott, ATP 220564421, builder & owner Two days later I made my first cross-country flight up to Payson AZ for breakfast, in formation with my friend Brian Biggerman who was flying his Continental-powered
The following March, I made it 225 NM out to Jean, NV (0L7) for CONTACT! Magazine’s Alternative Engine FlyIn. In April, I did my first dirt strip operations at Chapman Ranch airstrip (58AZ), near Young, AZ. In May, I made the 715 NM, 2-hop trip out to visit Lori and Doug of Quality Sport Planes in Cloverdale, CA (O60) for the West Coast Zenith Fly-In and got a chance to have the Zenith factory guys fly my plane. In June, my wife took her first ride in the plane! Finally, in July, exactly seven months and 110 EFIS hours since the first flight, I took off on the new-plane pilgrimage to AirVenture, Oshkosh, stopping to see friends in Colorado on the way there and Kansas on the way back. 14 flight hours each way! I got to see William Wynne for the first time since January, 2003 and met a lot of other Corvair-powered plane builders. The milestones keep adding on. In August, I took my mother-in-law for her first small airplane ride. In September, I did my first biennial flight review in this airplane. In November, with 145 hours in the logbook, I did my first annual condition inspection. In December, I visited my son for the first time in his new home in Avon, CO, where he was working for the Vail Corporation. This was my first flight through really high mountains (> 12,000 feet)
N601GE on the ramp at Coolidge, AZ (P08) for a First Saturday fly-in, with Jim Timm’s beautiful Jabiru-powered 601 taildragger and Brian Biggerman’s patriotic, tricycle-geared, O-200-powered 601. This highlights the adaptability of the 601 to many different engine types, and shows how much design customization is possible for homebuilders. A non-pilot wouldn’t even recognize these three airplanes being the same.
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where I had to fly through passes and valleys because I couldn’t get over them! It was also my first encounter with sub-zero temperatures and I found I need to drastically improve the cabin heat! I made the 447 NM flight in one hop, in just over 4 hours, using 20 gallons of avgas. By this time I was feeling pretty comfortable with N601GE and was using the airplane for business trips, too. Even though the cruise speed is only about 110 knots (and I’m still trying to improve that), it still easily beats commercial flying for door-to-door time on trips under 350 miles. My company’s headquarters are located just north of the John Wayne Airport (SNA) in Santa Ana, CA, but I usually end up flying into Fullerton (FUL) for much lower costs. The flexibility of arriving on short notice and not having to worry about leaving at a fixed time to get home are very significant. In March of 2010, I again attended CONTACT! Magazine’s Alternative Engine Round-Up in Jean, NV, but this time I gave a presentation about the Corvair engine conversion and showed off the installation. After hearing many other speakers talk about all the re-drive and turbo problems they’ve had with their Subaru and Mazda conversions, I feel pretty good about my choice of the ‘Vair. Of course, I was still going to a lot of local fly-ins, and in April, I proudly took up my first Young Eagles. May was kind of quiet because many 601 owners were reworking their airframes in response to the FAA/NTSB suggestions for structural modifications in the wake of a series of 601XL accidents. I was very sure my plane was safe, having nearly 200 hours on it with many cross-country flights logged, so I decided to just wait it out to see what the final decisions were going to be from the insurance companies. Finances didn’t allow for a trip to Oshkosh that year, but in July, I made it up to the Grand Canyon Caverns, near Peach Springs, AZ (L37), where I landed on a nice dirt strip and taxied down the connecting road into park in the gas station!
Andy’s view of Red Table Mountain (elevation 11,503) on the descent into the Eagle, CO airport (EGE).
Later in August of 2010, just after getting back from the Rocky Mountain Fly-In near Denver (BJC), my insurance broker told me that they won’t renew my coverage unless I do the suggested “upgrades” to the airframe. We had several discussions about this, during which I tried hard to stay calm, cool and collected. In reality, the factory mods were designed specifically for the tricycle gear version and cannot be applied completely to the taildragger. Finally, we agreed that since my airframe is well proven, and since I am an experienced, ex-military pilot and a Ph.D. aerospace engineer, I can develop alternate means of compliance, which I proceeded to do, using parts from the US mods package, parts from the European mods package, some changes of my own, and some changes to the pilot operating handbook (POH). The POH changes include a reduction from the registered gross weight of 1450 pounds down to maximum cross-country weight of 1400 pounds with +3.6/-1.8 G limits, a maximum “normal” category weight of 1320 pounds with +3.8/-1.9 G limits and a maximum “utility”
Parked in the gas station at the Grand Canyon Caverns.
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category weight limit of 1140 pounds with +4.4/-2.2 G limits. Also, a maximum zero-fuel weight of 1220 pounds was added. The mods I incorporated only added about 7 pounds to the airframe so these new limits are not very restrictive. On August 14th, 2010, I made my first flight with the mods in place, and noted no changes to the flight characteristics.
In May of 2011, Bernie Wunder, the KR2 builder to whom I sold my original engine pieces, stopped in at Mesa for a visit. He told me that the parts are still in the boxes they were shipped in, but he’s making more progress on the KR now that he’s retired from the Naval Air Systems Command at Patuxent River NAS, MD. This is also home of the Navy’s flight test school. Keep at it, Bernie!
FLYING RESUMES
FIFTH BEARING TIME
In September of 2010, I gave my niece, Abby Dobbs, her first airplane flight. Later that month, it was a 286 NM flight out to California again, this time for EAA Chapter One’s annual Open House at Flabob (RIR), where William Wynne was scheduled to speak about the conversion process. In November, the plane underwent its second annual condition inspection with 256 hours on the EFIS. At this time I replaced the Warp Drive prop with a 64-inch diameter by 47-inch pitch wooden Sensenich propeller, and immediately gained about 4 knots on the top end. In December, it was up to Eagle, CO again to visit my son, and later that month the first flight for my other niece, Meredith Dobbs.
Also in May, I made an early morning run down the Salt River Canyon and posted a video of it to YouTube. My son again edited the video and set it to music. You can check it out at www.youtube.com/watch?v=24IbyVhtFsY or again, by entering N601GE into the YouTube search window. William saw the inhospitable terrain I was flying over regularly and called me to say that it’s about time I put a 5th bearing on the engine. CONTACT! Magazine readers will hopefully remember the introduction to the 5th bearing that was published in issue number 95, but the short description is that it’s an additional bearing that helps support the prop-end of the crankshaft. I purchased one from Dan Weseman and in June, with 332 hours on the airframe and 552 hours on the engine, on it went. This is an amazingly well engineered package that Dan produces, which doesn’t require one to tear down the engine to install it. In fact, I installed mine with the engine still on the motor mounts. Installing the oil-fed bearing support housing does move the prop flange forward about three quarters of an inch so modifications to the starter and alternator mounts were also required, as well as a bit of shortening of the propeller hub.
As 2011 rolled around, I continued to make small changes, fixes and improvements to the plane, adding fairings here and there, changing tailwheels, splitting the flap torque tube so I can adjust the flaps independently, and of course polishing. I also found some cracks in the leftside exhaust and had that rebuilt. I continued to make Young Eagles flights, and have now taken on the Young Eagles coordinator position at local EAA chapter, 228. In April, I took my wife Gykza down into the Grand Canyon so that we could land at the Marble Canyon airport (L41). It’s a beautiful ride across the Canyon to get there, but because flight below 8,000 feet is not allowed in that part of the Grand Canyon Special Flight Rules Area (except within 3 miles of the airport) we have to spiral down 4,000 feet to reach the airport. On the way out, it’s the reverse– spiral up to 8,000 feet before heading out. It was really bumpy on the way home, and my wife was not pleased.
Andy and his wife, Gykza, after landing on the rough, narrow strip in Marble Canyon in April, 2011 for a breakfast fly-in, before the bumpy ride home! The Vermillion Cliffs are visible in the background.
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The ground and flight testing after installing the 5th bearing proceeded with no problems at all, and in July, it was once again back to Oshkosh, this time with a stop in Enid, OK (where I attended USAF flight training at Vance AFB in 1975) to visit my friend Dwayne Lee, who still lives nearby. Flying over the brown Oklahoma fields full of shriveled-up corn was a little depressing, but it was great to see Dwayne again. On the return trip from Oshkosh, I made my first takeoff and landing from a grass field in Colby, KS (CBK).
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N601GE sits right in the middle of Conoco-Phillips Plaza as Andy (left) explains the airframe mods and the 190 engine (cubic inches, not horsepower!) to many interested attendees. Those are removable protective prop socks on the wooden propeller, not a custom paint job!
Oshkosh, 2011 was the year we honored Chris Heintz, the designer of my plane, for his many contributions to the homebuilder community, so there were a lot of Heintz -designed aircraft there, including 601s, 701s, 801s, 640s and many of his earlier designs too. I was lucky enough to get to display my plane in Conoco-Phillips Plaza (formerly known as AeroShell Square) during the official presentation to Chris, and I was mobbed with questions for some hours. Despite a nasty sunburn, it was a great time. After Oshkosh 2011, the regular breakfast fly-ins routine continued, plus another trip up to Colorado in August and another biennial flight review in September. The big COPPERSTATE Fly-In close-by at Casa Grande, AZ (CGZ) in October was only topped by a huge Young Eagles event at my home field with over 50 kids in November. But during the annual condition inspection in November, with 408 hours on the plane and 628 hours on the engine, I found a number of cylinders with very low compression. Further investigation turned up a number of burnt valves, so the heads came off and went up to Mark Petniunas at Falcon Machine for a rebuild.
NEW HEADS The heads that came with my engine are the large-valve variety that come from the 140 hp, quad carburetor Corvair that had been rebuilt by an automotive speed shop for the original conversion. Of course if you go to a speed shop and tell them that their valve job only lasted 600 hours they’d probably laugh at you. For car racers, a few hundred miles between engine rebuilds is pretty standard. 12 hours would be a lot of “quarter-miles!” Fortunately, between the time that the heads were first done and November of 2011, the technology of the Corvair www.ContactMagazine.com
The installation of the rebuilt heads. Note that pushrods and rockers are not yet in place. A sharp eye will notice that the two carburetor spigots have been milled off the intake “log” with the rear one being replaced with a piece of mandrel-bent aluminum tube, and the front one welded closed. Each head has this same but mirrored treatment.
community had advanced so much that we now have a dedicated vendor, Falcon Machine, specializing in flight conversion heads. They use a special hardened valve seat material with a well-proven installation method, stainless valves, bronze guides, valve rotators on the exhaust valves and a valve grind more appropriate for the way we operate the engines. The heads came back from Falcon Machine in February, 2012, so I put the engine back together and finished up the now long-delayed annual condition inspection. I’m happy to report that the engine runs much better now, so much so that I am using about one-half gallon per hour less fuel at typical cruise settings, and the CHT and EGT temperatures are much more even across the cylinders. In addition, I am now religious about using a lead scavenger at every fill-up. 100LL contains more than twice the amount of lead than what was added to regular automobile fuel back when the Corvair was designed. The aviation fuel additive, TCP, is probably the most effective lead scavenger commonly available, but is too dangerous to carry in the plane, so I use a product called Decalin Fuel RunUp, which is less volatile and is safe in the cockpit. And many still swear by Marvel Mystery Oil.
MORE FLYING In the spring of 2012, I flew out to San Diego to attend a technical conference, flying into Montgomery Field (MYF). I also made another trip up to Colorado, but that is getting to be a pretty “standard” flight now and I’ve taken to using a relief tube for the 4+ hour leg. In May, I participated in a group trip to see the Antelope Slot Canyon, near Page, AZ (PGA) and also flew out to Albuquerque (ABQ) for a wind turbine blade modeling conference.
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SWITCH ON! Continued from page 2
Being able to fly out early in the morning for the first day and fly back late in the evening after the second day saves a significant amount of time and money. Summers here in central Arizona are slow flying times, as the temperatures often exceed 110°F in the afternoons. I usually do morning trips where I can be back in the hangar not later than 10:00 a.m., when the temperature will only be in the high 90s. This year in July, instead of going to Oshkosh, I made a long trip up to the highcountry in the Four Corners area, so named because northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico area, southeastern Utah and southwestern Colorado all meet at one point there. This trip is chronicled on the Zenith Aircraft Builders and Flyers web site, under the blog post www.zenith.aero/profiles/blogs/travels-in-the-four-corners-area, which you are invited to read if you desire. It was a great trip through a vast, nearly empty and truly awe-inspiring part of the country.
AIRVENTURE 2012 It was only a few weeks ago that I returned from another exhausting trip to Oshkosh. As in previous years, I couldn't have done it without the help from our volunteers who I’d like to recognize and thank. David Chickering who for nearly a decade, delivers the contents of our booth each year, and retrieves it after we’ve left— storing it at his home 90 miles away from KOSH. John Horvath stepped up during our Alternative Engine Round-Up earlier this year with an offer to haul anything I needed to bring from our office in California to KOSH. Although we didn't need his help with hauling from CA, we did utilize his help during the show, and to deliver back to CA the Revmaster engine we had on display in the booth. Jerry and Laura Olszewski assisted with multiple chores throughout the week, as did John Horvath, and we had a celebrity of sorts, Bob Hasson, former President of COPPERSTATE who filled in for me several times so that I could take care of multiple forums and appearances. Ben Haas whose Zenith 801 graced the cover of CONTACT! Issue #103 spent some time helping in the booth too. And last but not least is Ashlynd Hunter, the wife of Morgan Hunter (builder of the Corvair Cruiser featured on the cover of issue #88 and one who helped me in the booth last year) who when not needed in the ICON booth (her employer), would spend time helping out in our booth. To all of you, I would like to say that your help and enthusiastic support made my week very enjoyable— I couldn’t have done it without your help.
RENEWALS
Covered up and tied-down for the night using old tires as makeshift anchors at Black Rock Airport (ZUN) on the Zuni Pueblo Indian Reservation.
Quoting the last paragraph of that blog post: “Solid, reliable performance from the engine and the airframe. No glitches. No problems. Not even a headwind! Cruise speeds averaging about 115 KTAS, not bad for a 601XL. 1 quart of oil added. The people you meet participating in general aviation have to be some of the best ever! Doesn't get much better than this...”
And speaking of help, there were a few AirVenture volunteers who were also very helpful to us. This year we found ourselves moved to a remote location, buried between two vendors who were in violation of height limits that are in place to keep from obstructing the view of one’s neighbors. A polite complaint from us got us moved overnight to a premium location, at no additional cost and without any of us from CONTACT! having to lift a finger. But that may have been a double-edged sword for us since it seems that many of our “regulars” couldn’t find us this year– we weren’t where we usually are. Continued on page 25
As I write this, the plane is in the hangar with 485 hours on the EFIS, waiting for its next adventure. Probably that will be the Pagosa Springs Air Race in southern Colorado (PSO) in late September. The Sport Air Racing League www.sportairrace.org has a special Sportsman class for Volkswagen and Corvair powered aircraft. My Zenith won’t be competitive against KRs and the like, if any show up, but it will still be fun to run the course and make new aviation friends. Maybe my next Corvairpowered plane will be a bit faster! Until then… Andy Elliott EAA 687140 a.s.elliott@cox.net www.ContactMagazine.com
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By William Wynne Orange Park, Florida (904) 529-0006 WilliamTCA@aol.com William Wynne with his wife Grace Ellen in front of their 3,100 cc Corvair powered
The day your homebuilt takes its 601 XL N1777W at Sun ’N Fun 2006. The plane has since been sold without the first flight will be one you remem- engine, which has now been sold to Andrew Elliott for use in his CH 601 XL, shown ber as a day of triumph. But much on the cover of this issue. of this elation comes after the safe B) The second accident was in a CH601 in Washington landing relieves the stress of the moment. I have been State. The engine quit off the end of the runway. Later on hand for many first flights of Corvair-powered aircraftinvestigation revealed that the mixture cable was not - even if you do everything right, and you have done it secured at the carb and as the engine ran, it vibrated its many times before, it is still a time of great tension. It is way to the idle cut-off position. I had met the builder and perfectly OK to feel the tension, but none of it should the plane’s paint job looked great, but planes are more come from being unprepared. than paint and have to be 100% mechanically correct. A letter from one of his friends said that he had not flown in When I started my work with Corvairs, a total of one poor a long time, and had no check out in the plane which fellow had died flying a Corvair-powered plane in the first didn’t help while flying the forced-landing. 30 years of them being used in experimental aircraft. In the early years, people flew a lot of questionable stuff C) The third accident happened in 2009 in Valdosta, and there was very little information available. In the Georgia, and it was another KR-2. I had met the pilot most recent 20 years, six more people have lost their who had chosen to work with another engine builder in lives in Corvair powered planes. I had met three of them. his area. I never saw the installation nor pictures of it. The root cause of each of these accidents was of course Official cause is reported as an in-flight fire for undeterpreventable. In some cases, the people were doing mined reasons. I have told people for many years that something dumb; in others they had taken the advice of they must use AN lines for fuel systems, and that no one someone who didn’t respect the value of their lives. Of should fly with a stock Corvair mechanical fuel pump or particular concern is the fact that three of these people any arrangement that requires a pressure regulator. This were making the first flight in their planes. There’s absoadvice has not always been heeded. lutely no reason why anyone should become the fourth person on this list, yet somebody will, probably by ignorThese thoughts are sobering for sure, and it’s not my ing several things written in these pages. You can’t intention to highlight the negative aspects of experichange the nature of self-destructive or careless people, mental aviation and the use of automobile conversions. but you can make sure that your name doesn’t appear My intention is rather to educate in a manner that will on the list. help us all outlive the expiration date on our medical certificates. So with that, I’d like to present the following list A) The first accident on the list was a person in Brazil in of my absolute rules of first flights. a Rand Robinson KR-2. I never spoke to him, and he was working under the guidance of a person who had 1) Never have more than a few people on hand. They gathered information from the Internet and then built this are a complete distraction, if not to the pilot, then to a engine. It had an improperly-adjusted AeroCarb on it and ground crew. Leave the video cameras home. On severit was running poorly. After some tinkering, he evidently al occasions, I have put planes back in the hangar when decided to fly it anyway, over some very rough terrain. spectators kept interrupting the preflight. The burned remains of the plane were found later. www.ContactMagazine.com
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2) Let the most qualified person fly the plane; forget who built it or owns it. If you want to fly your plane first, then become the most qualified person by getting time-in-type instruction in another plane. 3) If there is anything you know you are going to do to the plane or check in the next few hours, just stop and do it now. There is no reason to put off preparing the plane, and there is absolutely no reason to fly a plane once you have identified an issue. 4) The plane must run perfectly at wide open throttle for at least two minutes at the climb out angle of attack with all of the flight systems (such as the cowl) in place. There is no reason not to do this. If anyone objects, tell them to go away. If they are an airport employee and they object, switch airports. 5) Making successive runs back and forth down the runway is a signal that the pilot doesn’t trust the plane. This often leads the pilot into “being forced to go around.” Anytime you read this type of a report, know that the real translation is “I didn’t have a plan, so I just ran up and down the runway until I got my courage up and brain suppressed, and I cast my fate to the wind.” 6) Just learn how to say no. Listen to your inner voice of caution and just stop. After an accident, people on the ground crew will often say that they saw the plan coming apart, but didn’t say anything. Don’t be this person. Learn how to step in front of the plane, and say: “Stop, return to the hangar.” 7) Take the plane to the runway only once in a day. If you are going to fly it at 7 a.m. and you find an issue, don’t take the plane back out at 9 a.m. and line it up. Set the clock back 24 hours. This is how they do it in all professional circles. There are significant human factor issues on stress cycles, the wind isn’t as calm later, and there will be more people around. In short, you are making up a new plan as you go, which is the first step in getting surprised and having an accident. 8) Don’t do any work, any at all, on the ramp. This extends all the way down to inflating a tire. If you notice that a tire needs air only when it is on the ramp, it is a sign that the pre-flight was not good enough. On Easter Sunday morning, a friend and I watched a guy taxi out to the run up area in a Cherokee Six with his whole family inside. From 500 feet away you could see the three-foot “remove before flight” streamer on the pitot tube cover. My friend signaled him, removed the cover to show him. Clearly his whole preflight was in question. He waved thanks, lined up and took off. You might get away with this on a plane you knew well, but on a first flight, it could be your last mistake. 9) Set up a veto system. By far, the least forgiving first flight I have been involved with was the V-8 powered Lancair IVP’s N420HP in 1996. The plane was the first of its kind, and its complexity meant that there were dozens www.ContactMagazine.com
of single point failures that would take out the plane. To deal with this, I came up with the “Veto System.” The owner/pilot, Jim Rahm, the engine guy, Al Jonic, and the airframe guy, me, each had a Veto vote on flying. By prior agreement, if any of us said “not today” out on the ramp, we would return the plane to the hangar and close the doors for the day. There would be no discussion, voting, or maintenance out on the ramp. You can have one other trusted person act in this capacity for you. 10) Only one flight on the first day, and it should not be a long one. Bring the plane back, take the cowl off and do a very through inspection. When the first flight goes well, there is a large relief of tension. After a few photos and handshakes, there is a large temptation to fly the plane again, without a thorough inspection. If there are bystanders around, they will encourage it. Don’t do it. The guard of everyone is down now, and no one is vigilant. Inspect it and leave it 24 hours. 11) Never work on a plane up to the last minute. I have seen people work on a plane all day, shooting for a test flight by sunset. This is obviously a poor idea, but people do it all the time. It is much better to aim for a sunrise flight, have the plane perfect by dinner the night before, and head home early. In the morning, do a pre-flight inspection, but no maintenance. On the day before the first flight of Louis and Vince’s CH 601 XL N601LV: I took Vince up in our Taylorcraft to get a good look at the area from the air. Although they were equally qualified, and both checked out, it was decided that Vince should do the first flight while his partner Louis stayed earthbound. They had not flown from this airport, and they wanted to study obstructions and possible forced landing sites. We got a carbon monoxide detector for the plane. We also backed it up with a household one from Home Depot that has a digital readout. We equipped the plane with a Halon fire extinguisher, and secured it within easy reach of the pilot. We took the plane out and blocked it up at the climb angle and ran it for two solid minutes. We had already done the fuel flow tests for the FAA, but this was a running test. During the test, Louis tried in every way to get the engine to stumble by switching all four tanks and both ignitions and electric fuel pumps. It did not let out even the slightest blip, and the temps were well within range, despite no airspeed and with an outside air temperature of 95 degrees Fahrenheit. We reviewed the emergency numbers and the directions to the hospitals in the area. We live far out in the country and I don’t count on EMTs being able to find their way here quickly. I got the airport tractor and mowed the runway. Short grass allows a plane to get airborne quicker.
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During the rest of the test period, we gradually relaxed the safety level from “general quarters” to “vigilant.” The plane was nearly flawless. We did not make a single adjustment to the engine whatsoever. It got two oil changes during the test-period and we carefully inspected the engine before and after every flight. Automotive engines in aircraft have a terrible reputation among many homebuilders. There is a reason for this: they’ve earned it. There are countless records of auto engines overheating on first flights. If they had done the two minute test, they would have known not to leave the ground. Many people from new engine-conversion companies don’t have the education or industry experience to be offering anything to anyone. I have actually heard people say “It’s in God’s hands” – a nice way to absolve themselves of responsibility. From the very beginning, I have set our work with Corvairs apart from the existing poor track record but to succeed, builders have to do their part.
William Wynne with his Corvair engine on display at the Zenith Aircraft booth at AirVenture 2012.
On the day of the first flight: I had Vince put on a surplus USAF green Nomex jumpsuit. They’re cheap, they work, and we keep several around. They go together with flying like motorcycles and helmets. Dan Weseman came over to act as a chase pilot in his Corvair-powered Sonex known as Cleanex. The FAA has a lot of good recommendations in their Homebuilt Advisory Circular. It states that you should have two people in the chase plane. Grace acted as the observer. Louis was the ground radio man and of course, Vince was the test pilot. The four of them had a conference about frequencies and procedures, by themselves, without input of others or distractions. The launch-time came so I got set up as the safety person. Sitting at the side of the runway with the engine running, we had a vehicle with a large foam fire extinguisher, a crash axe, cutters for cables and seatbelts, and heavy leather gloves. Louis watched the plane with binoculars on the take off roll. Everyone spoke only what they had to on the designated frequencies. The plane flew perfectly. Louis read the items on the checklist to Vince, so all he had to do was fly, and read back the observed numbers. After a short flight and tackling the items on his checklist, Vince came back in for a smooth landing. Grace broke out a bottle of champagne, and we made some toasts. Those of us who didn’t partake in the adult beverage began the post-flight inspection. Keep in mind that if you’re the builder or pilot, you will probably want to leave the inspection for later, as the emotions of the moment are not conducive to really close inspection. Besides, it took years to build – enjoy the moment. www.ContactMagazine.com
If all of this talk of high pressure on first flights makes you nervous, keep these thoughts in mind: if you are nervous, that is OK because that means you are aware of the risk, and your nervousness will subside when you make a professional plan to manage the risk. You will not do this alone; there are qualified people to help you. There’s a lot to remember, but just like building a plane, do it one task at a time over a period of weeks leading up to the flight. If you did good work, and you run a good program, you will have little to fear on the day of the first flight. People who are corner-cutters and go through the motions of safety probably will not finish the plane. If they do, the first flight stands a good chance of being an ugly day of reckoning. You may love your Corvair and your airframe, but it doesn’t love you back. It is just metal, physics and chemistry. Your engine doesn’t play favorites. If it is a clone of another installation that is flight proven to work, it will work just the same. If you use tested information from people who are known to be trustworthy, then you can expect the same result. If you build a poor engine and take poor advice, it is just as inevitable that bad things will happen. There is no such thing as luck, and you will not get away with anything. Homebuilding is a great opportunity that comes along in life, where you have a chance to take your time, learn what you need to know, and do everything right, yourself. Many of the other things in your life can be almost right, filled with compromise, and tolerable. But experimental aircraft construction is a clean-slate, that you own, and it’s a chance to make a clean break from all of the other half-right things that pollute modern life. If you see it in these terms, and act on it, you will be in touch with the very core of homebuilding. Any pilot of a successful homebuilt will say that the rewards are actually greater than those that were imagined in the beginning. Decide now that you will take your place beside these aviators. William Wynne
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hours in a very short period of time.
Andrew Elliott in his modified CH601XLb over the Arizona desert. The large vertical formation in the background is Weaver’s Needle. It's in the Superstition Mountains, in the Tonto National Forest, near Apache Junction, AZ. Elevation 4,553’
By Andy Elliott EAA 687140 a.s.elliott@cox.net
Although this article is specifically about testing the aircooled six-cylinder Corvair engine as installed in a Zenith CH601XLb, most of what can be learned by reading this can transfer to virtually any homebuilt aircraft. Under FAA regulations, since we have an experimental engine we will be required to complete at least a 40-hour test program to fulfill the Phase 1 requirements. During Phase 1 we’ll be restricted to a specific flight area we would have worked out with our FAA inspector or a designated airworthiness representative (DAR). We cannot leave the area without specific permission and we can never carry any passengers during Phase 1. www.ContactMagazine.com
Many people just fly around randomly in the test area, building up the minimum required hours. But by following a carefully thought-out test plan, we can safely learn the flight characteristics, capabilities, and limitations of our engine/airframe combination, while discovering any little changes we might want to make along the way. This will also allow us to build our confidence in the plane. With a properly structured plan, we should feel comfortable carrying passengers or taking off cross-country as soon as Phase 1 is complete. The test-plan should consist of an ordered series of ground runs and flight tests that need to be completed to fill in the flight characteristics and limitations sections of our pilot operating handbook (POH), so careful records must be kept. Depending on how the tests go, we should be able to complete the plan in about 40 hours.
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Note that some tests should be fully completed before moving on to the next. Some tests may have to be done more than once to complete. Subsequent test events which require specific other tests to be completed prior to the event must show these as prerequisites. Some can only be done as pilot skills, weather and time permit. Take your time and take lots of notes. There are many aviation sayings related to safely completing a flight, like “Prior planning prevents poor perfor-
mance.” One of my favorites is a notation in the flight log from Frank Collbohm, Douglas Aircraft Company flight engineer, during the first ever flight of the DC-3 at Clover Field in Santa Monica, California, 17 December 1935. “Rather routine.” That’s what we’re looking for, so plan your tests in detail and then carefully execute your plans.
FIRST FLIGHT The first flight of our new experimental airplane will be a momentous occasion, for sure. Even so, this is not Continued on page 16
i.a.w.: in accordance with POH: pilots operating handbook TOW: take-off weight MIAS: miles per hour indicated airspeed RTB: return to base DA: density altitude
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Continued from page 14
something we want to announce to all our friends and family to have them all at the airport watching. The reason we don’t do this is to eliminate any unnecessary pressure to continue with the flight if things begin to deteriorate during the preflight inspection. If we find something that’s a little off, or just not right during the preflight, engine start or taxi-out, we need to be able to feel free to just shut it down and try it again another day. With a crowd of friends and fallibly watching expectantly, that may be a little hard to do.
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We do however want two or three reliable people there with us. One should be another builder or pilot who can sort-of look over our shoulder and point out anything that seems unusual– or things that we may have missed. If we know someone who built the same model of airplane, that’s good. Someone who built a plane of similar construction methods could be a good substitute. If we know someone who also has a Corvair-powered plane, that's also good. But by far the best would be someone who built the same model, with the same engine as ours.
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The other person we’ll want is a photographer/ videographer to document the momentous day. This is something we’ll want to record! Our pre-flight preparations for the first flight should be comprehensive. We should choose a morning or evening with zero to light winds and turbulence. We’ll probably fly for less than an hour so we don’t need to completely fill the tanks. We'll want to have the airplane fairly light, and the CG near the middle of the available range. We’ll
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need to review all the emergency procedures for our plane, especially those associated with take-off aborts and power failures and we should review landing and goaround procedures. If all goes well and we make it out to the run-up area, do a final check of static rpm to be sure that it is at least 2,700-2,800 (for the Corvair). If operating from a towered field, don’t be shy about letting the tower know that it’s the plane’s maiden flight. If operating from an uncon-
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trolled field, your ground crew should have a radio, and it certainly couldn't hurt to have a chase plane with a competent pilot on the same frequency. A typical plan is to take off, climb straight ahead to at least 1,000 feet AGL without adjusting the throttle, then
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continue to orbit over the runway at 2,000-3,000 feet AGL while flying our test program. The goal of the test program is to confirm controllability at pattern speeds, find the appropriate power settings for each stage of the pattern, and to prepare us for the first landing. This is not the time to do extemporaneous flight envelope expan-
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sion. Just get the plane up, feel it out a bit, and put it back down safely. Then go celebrate. In the example test plan pages that follow, the numbers are set up for a typical light-sport type taildragger like the Zodiac 601XL. You may have to modify it slightly de-
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pending on how your particular aircraft and panel are set up. Take your time, take notes as you can, and remember: Plan the test. Execute the plan. Fly Safe! Andy Elliott EAA 687140 a.s.elliott@cox.net
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By Phil Maxson Washington, NJ
Phil’s plane on prominent display at the Zenith booth at the 2006 Sun ‘n Fun fly-in. Photo credit: Dave Bregar
We first met Phil at an early Corvair College. He impressed most everyone as an easygoing guy, and one who had done his homework. At that time, William Wynne and his crew (affectionately known as "The Hangar Gang") were looking to get more Zenith CH601XL builders to follow the trail they blazed when they built the first Corvair-powered 601. There was great interest, but William wanted to shorten the time-span before the next plane flew. Without knowing it, Phil made a great case for himself to be William's next 601 flyer. After the College, William spoke with Phil about it on the phone, convincing him to bring his mostly-complete airframe from New Jersey to William's hangar in Florida. In a few intense months, where Phil worked side by side as much as possible with the Hangar Gang, the plane was done, flown, and went on to be the featured plane in the Zenith aircraft booth at Sun ’N Fun 2006. There are many things to like about Phil; he has a very good sense of humor. A negative Internet personality wrote a multi-page vitriolic tirade full of legal words gleaned from TV dramas to an on-line Zenith group. Phil responded with, “Haven’t I met you before? Didn’t you represent my ex-wife in our divorce?” www.ContactMagazine.com
Phil has said many times that he could have purchased any engine, but he chose the Corvair after careful consideration. He likes the people aspect of the movement. His aircraft flies with all of William's installation components that were available at the time. Phil flew his plane back to Florida for Corvair College #9, and was very popular with other builders. Beyond Phil’s charm, a lot of people said that they identified with his story, because they also worked outside of aviation and engineering. His success made their own path easier to visualize.
WITH ONE FLIGHT PHIL WAS TRANSFORMED With one half-hour flight, I went from “homebuilder” to “owner/pilot.” The first time I flew in my plane I was amazed at how quickly my thought process transitioned from builder to owner/pilot. The airframe that I was so very familiar with was suddenly very strange and unknown. I had spent hundreds of hours reading the drawings, searching the Web to find parts, asking questions, drilling, filing and riveting. I felt like I knew every square inch of my plane, and yet when it took to the skies, it was a different machine than I had previously known. Some things I liked, some I didn’t, but it was time to learn new skills again.
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My first flight in my plane was not the airplane’s first flight. I finished the project in William Wynne’s hangar, which at that time was based in Edgewater, Florida. I had taken my plane there in pieces, and done final assembly and airworthiness inspection there with William’s help and also the help of Gus Warren, now with FlywithGus.com. Gus flew the first flight and the testing period on my plane. He's a far more experienced pilot that I and had flown more hours on Corvair engines than probably anyone. We'd been waiting all day for the winds to die down and I was getting pretty eager to get into the air. I had to get back to New Jersey the next day and was running out of time. As predicted, the winds began to subside in the evening, so we decided to go. The flight probably lasted about 30 minutes, but it was an eye-opener for me. I found the plane different than I had expected in many ways, but I’ll only touch on three of them.
OBSERVATIONS FROM MY FIRST FLIGHT The Corvair doesn’t sound like any other aircraft engine. Six relatively small cylinders make for a very smooth running and distinctive sounding powerplant. Immediately after takeoff, this plane felt like nothing I had flown before. I was in sensory overload! Today, often after landing, people come over to the plane and ask, “What kind of engine is that? It doesn’t sound like anything I’ve heard.” My friends have commented, “We heard you flying over yesterday,” or, “I heard a plane overhead and knew it wasn’t you.” My wife always knows it’s me coming when I make a pass over the house and head back to the airport. On the first flight, I also found the plane to be powerful, light and responsive. It was blowing pretty hard that day and I felt every bump. An empty weight of 777 pounds means that there is not as much inertia keeping the plane from bouncing around. In retrospect, the wind probably felt worse than it really was because I wasn’t used to the weight (or lack thereof) of the plane. Consequently, the climb performance was excellent. I get very good short field performance even though the 601XL is not a STOL plane like others in the Zenith line. The view on my first flight was awesome. The bubble canopy provides excellent visibility upward and it makes you feel like you are riding on the airplane instead of in it. Many passengers have commented that it is a little disconcerting because it is so “open”. Now when I fly I look forward to the views. In fact, one of the joys of flight now is simply looking around. On that first flight I had a great view of New Smyrna Beach and north toward Daytona. It was completely overwhelming and exhilarating. Nothing compares to flying a plane and engine built by my own hands (with help from many experts).
WHILE BUILDING, SMALL THINGS SEEM BIG Before I flew my plane, I tried to envision how different features of the airframe and engine would affect the way it flew. This is harder to do than I thought. For example, the 601XL is designed with a center stick between the two seats. At the top of the stick is a “Y” that the both the www.ContactMagazine.com
pilot and the passenger can grasp at the same time. Many would think that a right-handed person would have difficulty with cockpit organization with their right hand fixed to the stick. But changing the settings on the radio (in the center of the panel) and writing ATC instructions on paper are simple. I really don’t even remember how I do them – it comes as second nature. Another example: The Corvair engine turns counter-clockwise (pilot’s view), which is the opposite of most conventional planes. People often ask if that is hard to get used to since we "normally" hold right rudder while climbing to oppose the left-turning tendency of traditional aircraft. In reality, I don’t even think about it and I never did! I just fly the plane and keep the ball centered. No thought required. In short, my advice to builders is, “Don’t over-think it; build the plane and engine according to the plans and what has been tested.” My plane has no modifications to the original Zenith plans, and the engine is built strictly to the specs and guidelines in William’s conversion manual, with all the parts he sold at the time. Since then, he has continued to improve and extend his product line so I recently installed the electronic ignition module he now offers, and I plan to install a Fifth Bearing this winter.
GAINING CONFIDENCE IN YOUR CREATION I think the main reason more people don’t build and fly homebuilts is because they lack confidence. I hear many capable people tell themselves that they can’t build their own engine. I know Corvair engines are not for everyone, but I have a suspicion that many people are simply a little scared to build and fly their own machine. I also suspect that many homebuilts sit on the ramp today because the owners have lost confidence in their plane. The single most important factor for me to gain and retain confidence in my plane is the fact that I fly a proven design. The airframe has seen many thousands of hours of testing – as has the engine. There are many Corvairpowered 601XLs out there flying every day. William and others have spent many, many hours making this a simple and safe design; there will be time to experiment with changes after you fly the plane the first time. Also, as owner/pilot I still have strong urges to modify my plane! I enjoyed the building process more than I knew at the time (due to all the little frustrations), but after flying it a while, I wanted to build again! Because it wasn’t practical to start an entirely new project, I decided to re-do my panel and avionics. Initially I had no radios, so I installed a comm radio and transponder, and I panel-mounted my GPS. But that wasn’t enough to satisfy my building urges, so I removed the panel and upgraded from “steam gauges” to “glass” by installing a Dynon FlightDEK D-180 which has electronic flight information (EFIS) and engine management (EMS) all in the same box. The new panel appealed to the computer geek in me and it also has some neat functionality my old steam gauges didn’tsuch as individual exhaust gas temperatures (EGT), two cylinder head temperatures (CHT), fuel flow, angle of attack (AOA) indicator and more. The airplane project is never done.
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MY FIRST LONG FLIGHT
MY FAVORITE FLIGHT
My longest flight in the plane was when I flew to Corvair College #9, in November 2006, from my home field is Hackettstown, New Jersey (N05). That year the College was to be held at Massey Ranch Airpark (X50) in New Smyrna Beach, FL which is about 900 miles south of me if you don’t plan to cut across parts of the Atlantic Ocean, (which I didn’t). At that time, I had no radio or transponder installed, so I had to plan my flights around the Philadelphia class B and the Washington air defense identification zone (ADIZ) and stay out of their controlled airspace mode C veil. Just in case, I had a handheld radio wired up for power and an external antenna, but I was not counting on talking to ATC all the way down the East Coast. My biggest problem with planning the flight was Washington, D.C. I didn’t want to fly over water, and I didn’t want to divert all the way to the west of the area, which would have added more time to the trip. The other obstacles on the east coast are all the Military Operations Areas (MOA) and restricted areas. My best bet was to fly down the Delmarva Peninsula and stay to the east of D.C. A careful inspection of the sectional charts showed a small gap east of the D.C. mode C veil and west of the Patuxent River MOA, where I could pass through. After that, it would be easy navigation.
Another fun flight I’ve taken is a trip up the Hudson River between New Jersey and Manhattan. I live about 10 miles west of New York’s controlled airspace so it is a short flight for me – about 1.5 hours round trip. Many people don’t know that there is a VFC corridor set up over the Hudson and East Rivers that allows helicopters and fixed wing pilots to do sightseeing flights in the area. The floor of the NY airspace is at 1,100 feet, so much of the flight takes place down low. Usually I start by entering from the south, flying a heading that takes me toward the south side of the Lower New York Bay, decreasing my altitude as I go to stay under the Newark Airspace. I then fly along the south side of Staten Island and move closer to the center of the water to cross over the Verrazano Bridge. Technically, according to the FAA, you are supposed to stay below 1,100 feet and also be at least 500 from buildings and structures. However, when you cross the Verrazano and the George Washington bridges, it’s kind of difficult to maintain these minimums. As I approach the first bridge, I usually make the first radio announcement on the Hudson River common traffic advisory frequency (CTAF).
The morning of departure I woke early to see a few clouds passing to the southwest, which was my intended direction of departure, so I took that as a good omen. Shortly after takeoff, I tried to contact Philadelphia approach for flight-following and they were unable to hear my calls, saying that I had a bad noise during transmission. So I gave up transmitting, and listened for traffic all the way. The flight went almost exactly as I planned. When I got to the critical spot between the MOA and D.C., I climbed to 8,500 feet to cross the Chesapeake Bay, all the while listening on my handheld radio. I made two fuel stops as planned: one in Emporia, Virginia, and one in Ridgeland, South Carolina. This is when I learned that the endurance of my aircraft was greater than the endurance of my bladder! I was careful with fluid intake after that. What a beautiful trip down it was, seeing the country from a perspective I’d never had before. Those long flights are actually boring if you don’t have much navigation to do – this was a good problem to have on my first long trip in my homebuilt aircraft. I slipped the ear buds for my iPod under my headset and listened quietly during low excitement parts of the trip. What a difference it made when I arrived at the College as a pilot instead of a builder! All of a sudden, people were asking me for rides in the plane, and asking all sorts of questions like I was an expert! Of course, I still have much to learn, but I hope I answered questions that helped other builders along. This was a sort of celebration for me. I intentionally didn’t plan to do any “projects” at the College, only answer questions, socialize and celebrate. I was wiped out on the Friday night of the College (from flying all day), and ended up flying a lot on Saturday. All in all, it was a great event. www.ContactMagazine.com
The Statue of Liberty photographed by Phil Maxson over the wing of his 2,700 cc Corvair powered 601 XL, N601MX.
Northbound traffic is to stay to the east side of the river and southbound to the west. From there I make radio calls every so often as to my position stating that I am “northbound, New York side, abeam the lady,” (Statue of Liberty) or the Colgate Clock, Ground Zero, USS Intrepid, or the George Washington Bridge. I enjoy making these radio calls because it reminds me of the history I’m flying over. I usually exit the river at the Alpine Tower and head back home. During these low-level fights I always think of what I would do if I had an engine problem. Often, my answer is that I would ditch the plane in the river near enough to the shore to make it by swimming. Incidentally, when US Air flight 1549 ditched in the Hudson, Captain Sullenberger was flying on the Jersey side of the VFR corridor, southbound, following the correct traffic pattern. I doubt he made any of the VFR corridor radio calls, but we can forgive him since he was on an IFR flight plan.
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By Louis Kantor We first met Louis in 2004, when he was living in St. Louis and flying regional airliners. He and his friend Vince Olson came to Corvair College #6 to build the engine for their Zenith 601XL. William later included their hangar as a stop on his 2005 Midwest Winter Tour. At the time Louis and Vince were in their late 20s, and among the youngest of William's serious builders. Fast forward to January 2009. After several address changes and other delays, Louis and Vince decided to use William's hangar as a base to finish their project.
Louis Kantor proudly holding his freshly-minted airworthiness certificate
William and his wife Grace Ellen made the in front of his completed, Corvair-powered CH601XL. offer to them because they had a very techthey still have their own specific traits and should be nically interesting plane and they both felt that their protreated with the same respect as any other airplane. fessional flight background would be an asset to the Corvair community. Louis had more "spare" time available, Even with all of my flight experience, I chose to receive and did the lion’s share of the work. For several months, an appropriate checkout before I flew my 601. It is not as Louis worked long hours, almost every day of the week. if the 601 is difficult to fly, it’s just different from the William was impressed with his work ethic, and noted planes I am used to flying. I also hadn't been flying all that he and Louis disposed of the myth that airline pilots that much since I was spending 14+ hours a day finishare not mechanically inclined. (William jokingly said that ing the plane. I had only flown about 10 hours in the 6 as an A&P mechanic, he is required by professional months prior to my first flight in the 601, and all of that code and tradition to help spread this myth.) time was in regular, Part 23 certified airplanes. As the plane moved to flying status, it became very apGETTING THE CHECKOUT parent that Louis may be an amateur aircraft builder, but My checkout was brief, only about an hour. I performed he is an absolute professional about flying. His three takeoffs and landings and one go around. I also did knowledge about training and standards is impressive. some slow flight (turning, climbing, descending) and When he completed N601LV’s test program quickly and some flying at normal cruise– in addition to the typical flawlessly, William asked him to reflect on where he stall work. The go-around maneuver was necessary bethought typical homebuilders might have difficulty transicause some airplanes have abnormal tendencies transitioning into flying the plane they just completed. Louis’ tioning from the landing configuration to a departure conhundreds of hours as a working instructor allows very figuration. The 601 doesn't normally have these tendensharp insight, which we present here. cies, but I still wanted to experience this for myself. Any pilot who is contemplating transitioning to a homebuilt aircraft should receive a complete checkout before To me, the ideal checkout would be one that takes place doing so. You should be aware of the specific flight charin the same airplane model, with the same engine, avionacteristics associated with that particular plane, especialics and fuel system. And of course the instructor should ly light-sport aircraft. These planes often have their own be experienced in the plane, being intimately familiar quirks and specific flight characteristics that are not alwith all of the equipment and systems. I was not able to ways found in Part 23 certified airplanes. locate an airplane and instructor that met all of these qualifications, so I had to compromise. I ended up choosThe bottom line is that even though most light-sport airing an airplane of the exact same model, and flying with craft are touted as being easy to fly, or as having benign a private pilot, not an instructor, who had hundreds of flight characteristics, this should not be taken for granted. 601XL hours under his belt. Well, he wasn't just a regular You shouldn’t allow yourself to become complacent just pilot; he was Roger Dubbert, the factory pilot for Zenith. because the airplane is allegedly easier to fly than your The airplane didn't have any of the same avionics as my run-of-the-mill Bonanza. Although most light-sports are plane and it also didn't have the same engine, but it did not as technically complex as (for example) a Bonanza, have a Jabiru 3300 and I felt that this was close enough www.ContactMagazine.com
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to the Corvair as to not adversely affect my check ride. The fuel system wasn't exactly the same either, but the procedures for takeoff and landing were similar. I was already familiar with the avionics package installed in my plane, and very familiar with the operation of my engine so I didn't feel as if I really needed to be “checked out” in these areas, although given the opportunity, I certainly would have opted for it.
FLYING WITH ROGER Roger wisely sat in the left seat, which is where he is most comfortable flying the plane. Also, since he was going to be the primary PIC and the airplane only had brakes on the left side it was wise for him to sit there. We talked extensively before we flew discussing (among other things) how to carry out positive exchange of controls. If you've been actively flying then a simple one or twohour checkout may be all that you need. Pilots who have been inactive for a long period of time will probably need a more extensive checkout. Some of these pilots may have to re-familiarize themselves with radio procedures, pattern procedures, and just getting used to flying again, in addition to learning the specific flight characteristics of a new type. Of course, a pilot who hasn't flown for two years is going to need a BFR before he pilots his own. If he flies around with a CFI for the minimum required one hour and that CFI says he is good to go with no need for further instruction, then I would sincerely question the CFI's judgment. It is possible, but not very probable that someone who hasn't flown in a year or two would be safe in an airplane after a one-hour session. Inactive pilots should ideally get current in the same type of airplane that they are expecting to fly. If a light-sport is not available in your area, or too expensive to rent, it is perfectly acceptable to fly any small airplane to refamiliarize yourself with procedures relevant to all types of flying. Then seek a checkout in the specific light-sport you are going to fly. So, instead of flying 10 hours in the light-sport, you may choose to fly eight hours in a Cessna 172 and then two hours in a light-sport. The amount of time required for you to become comfortable with the new light-sport will vary for each individual. Typically, the more recent your currency and potentially how varied your experience might be, the time required for checkout should be fairly low. However, as the PIC of any airplane, it is ultimately up to you to find your own comfort level. The only other thing governing the amount of time required for checkout may be an insurance requirement, and this will almost always be time in type.
COMMON MISTAKES PILOTS MAKE WHILE TRANSITIONING TO LSA A common mistake for most pilots is over controlling or under-controlling. This is easily done in light-sport with light wing loading and sensitive controls, or with controls that are slow to react. The most dangerous scenario is for a pilot in the flare during landing to over control and begin to porpoise (pilot induced oscillation, or PIO). The www.ContactMagazine.com
safest way to escape this maneuver is to perform a go around and come back to try again. I found that I was over-controlling the 601 early on in my checkout. This occurred during the first takeoff and landing. It was nothing violent that required a go around maneuver, nor even intervention from Roger, but I was over-controlling the plane nonetheless. And some light-sport aircraft can get real sluggish when slowing for a landing and it's easy to get "behind the aircraft" which can also lead to PIO. Another mistake common to most pilots is a tendency to improperly trim the aircraft. It is a problem in all aircraft, but most light-sports are extra susceptible to it because the controls are so light you could get away without using any trim at all, but it still makes for sloppy flying and will fatigue a pilot over time. Larger airplanes require trim because control forces are so high that you couldn't hold the plane in that configuration for very long. The biggest mistake I see some pilots make when transitioning from GA aircraft to light-sport is flaring too high. A lot of light-sport aircraft have the pilot seated closer to the ground than regular certified aircraft. If this goes unchecked throughout the landing flare, it could lead to damage of the landing gear, or even a prop strike. The good news is that after one or two landing demonstrations in the new airplane, pilots get a good look at the sight-picture and shouldn’t have any further trouble with this. It is quite possibly the easiest issue to fix. The next big mistake is carrying too much speed on approach. If you're used to a 100 mph approach speed (or even 75 mph), then the typical 50-60 mph speed in an LSA will feel very slow and it will probably make you feel uncomfortable. Pilots need to remember to fly the plane that they are in right now and not transfer speeds and procedures from some other that they have flown in the past. If you are having difficulty slowing down or it makes you feel uncomfortable flying at those speeds, I recommend climbing to a safe altitude and doing some slow flight. The speed should be brought down to the appropriate approach speed of the airplane. Even practice a stable descent at that speed so you can feel how the airplane handles at that speed. Take notice that even though you may be going slower than your normal approach speed in some other airplane, this speed is appropriate for the airplane that you are flying right now. The final couple of common errors refer to the lower power output and lower ability to carry weight that is inherent in the LSA design. Pilots used to larger, more powerful aircraft should take caution when loading their LSA. It may have been perfectly appropriate to load up your Cessna 210 with four adults, luggage and full fuel and expect the airplane to fly just fine. This is obviously not possible with an LSA, but someone who is used to flying a plane with the load carrying ability of a 210 or even a 182 might not think much of putting two adults and full fuel in a 100 hp LSA and expect it to fly just fine. Run the numbers, you may be over gross. High altitude takeoffs should be approached with caution for the same
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reason. Light-sport aircraft are already low on horsepower by nature, so taking off with a high density altitude will require quite a bit more runway than the turbocharged single you may have flown recently. GLASS COCKPIT TRANSITION In this new age of electronic flight instrumentation and comm radios that do more than just transmit and receive on one frequency, it is very important to be familiar with how to use your avionics. This is not something that you want to have to figure out at 500 feet shortly after takeoff because the EFIS is not displaying your airspeed or your electronic engine monitor is not on the right page to display oil pressure. It is a great idea to thoroughly understand this before leaving the ground on your own. If you are fairly techno-savvy, then you may be able to teach yourself how to use these items appropriately. However, most people don’t want to be bothered picking up a book, so they’re going to need someone to teach them how to manipulate the avionics. It is such a waste to see someone with $15,000 worth of avionics in their panel and all they know how to do is go direct to a destination on one page. Most of these modern GPSs and engine monitor systems have multiple pages and many functions available. Familiarizing oneself with a modern glass cockpit as found in many light-sport aircraft these days can typically be done without flying the airplane at all. You could become intimately familiar with the systems by taking some time to sit in the plane with the battery on going through the pages of the EFIS or GPS. The GPS in some panels is easily removable so you could sit in your living room and go through all of the pages and functions without having to drain the airplane battery. An even better idea would be to ask an experienced instructor to walk you through all of these new gadgets. This is certainly not to be considered a complete and end -all list of dos and don’ts for transitioning into a light-sport aircraft and this may not even apply to every pilot out there. But I do hope that you can use this as a general guideline when transitioning.
So for the first time ever, we lost money at this show and for the first time ever, our new subscribers outnumbered our renewals. Actually the number of new subscribers were on par with every other year, it’s just that this year, the number of renewals was extremely low. So if you are one of our loyal subscribers who normally renew at OSH but couldn’t find us this year, PLEASE send in your renewal form, or simply call us. 559-584-3306. And remember, at the beginning of this year we reduced the annual subscription fee and the number of issues mailed each year.
EAA’s camera crew about to conduct an interview with Patrick Panzera on CONTACT! Magazine and Revmaster’s new 85 horsepower R-2300.
ZENITH ALTERNATIVE ENGINE DAY AT OSH One of the highlights of my week was spending a few hours as a guest in the Zenith booth. As previously mentioned, we had a working example of the new Revmaster R-2300 in our booth at OSH. Sebastien Heintz had the brilliant idea to invite alternative engine representatives to spend a few hours in their booth on one particular day. This way their potential customers could see the broad array of engines that are suitable for powering Zenith aircraft. So about 30 minutes before the starting time, Sebastien and friends showed up at the CONTACT! booth with a truck, grabbed me and the Revmaster display and drove us to their booth— and reversed this process after the event. During the display time, I gave out close to 200 Revmaster handouts, while also introducing people to CONTACT! Magazine.
OTHER COOL STUFF AT OSH While at OSH, only part of my job is to man the booth. The other part is to scout for cool and unusual aircraft and offerings to feature in CONTACT! Magazine. This year I wasn’t able to get out as much as I have in the past, but I did find a few items of interest that I’ll be publishing in the issues to follow. So to whet your appetite a little, I’ll give tell you about a few of them.
Louis and Vince’s engine showing the Dan Weseman 5th bearing (left in the image and yellow in color) William’s rear-mounted alternator and firewall mounted oil cooler.
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One project of interest that I was hoping to squeeze into this issue is Dan Weseman’s Panther— a single-place, fully aerobatic, all metal, low-wing, Corvair-powered sport plane that can be built to meet the definition of light sport (to be flown by those with a sport pilot license) or built to go really fast. I got my first look at this Continued on page 30
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Photo: Tim Kern
and OSH, held a "Corvair Day" at the Zenith factory and held two Corvair Colleges at their West Coast facility. Cooperation like this between an alternative engine company and an airframe manufacturer is not the norm. There are two sides to this, one obvious, the other rarely spoken of. On the positive side, the Heintz family runs an extremely successful and professional operation, but they have never forgotten what homebuilding is all about. They recognize that many builders wish to use alternative engines, and choice is an important factor to traditional builders. While they do not "endorse" any particular engine, neither do they attempt to restrict individuals from installing the engine of their choice.
By William Wynne www.flycorvair.com 2012 marks the 10th year of our development of the Corvair-Zenith combination. In this time we’ve had every version of the 601, the 701, and the 750 models all fly on Corvair power- even the first amateur-built 650 was Corvair powered. Today there are more than 50 Zeniths flying with Corvair power and there’s good reason for this— Corvairs are economical to build and operate, they are fully insurable, and they’re just good performers. Corvair engines have flown in nearly every state in the USA and in places as far away as New Zealand, and we have over 100 more Zenith builders making good progress on their Corvair-powered homebuilt projects. All of these things are significant measures of success, but the one that I find to be the most important is one that’s often overlooked; The average Corvair builder knows vastly more about the engine he flies behind than builders who typically settle for buying an engine in a box from a salesman. The training we offer our customers and the subsequent education they gain is unmatched by any other engine provider. Reading CONTACT! Magazine indicates that you are a traditional homebuilder, driven by learning and craftsmanship, and these values are at the core of our work. I am always glad to highlight the achievements of our builders on these fronts. In 2002 we developed a Zenith engine mount at the request of customers who were building Corvair engines from our plans and parts. In 2003, my wife and I decided to buy a 601XL kit for ourselves. By demonstrating to the Heintz family that we thought enough of the combination of their plane and our engine to purchase a new kit from them, do all of our own development and testing, and retain this aircraft for our personal use, we began an unusually positive and productive cooperation. Over the years we’ve flown more than 100 demo flights in our plane, displayed our aircraft in the Zenith booth at SNF www.ContactMagazine.com
There is a facet of the airframe manufacturer’s attitude on alternative engines that is rarely discussed in aviation magazines, but is particularly important to readers of CONTACT! Magazine. Almost all of the "buy it in a box" engines, from Rotax on down, quietly make airframe kit manufacturers "non-stocking dealers" for their engines. In many cases, the airframe people are quietly paid very handsomely for every one of their builders that choose one of these engines. Often, a builder complaining to his airframe supplier about the high cost of imported engines has no idea that 10-15% of the money he paid was directly funneled back to the guy he’s complaining to. This system has a particular negative effect that all alternative engine fans should be aware of. In more than 20 years of alternative engine work, I’ve encountered hundreds of people with negative opinions of alternative engines. Most of these people are generally recognized as blowhards with no experience on the subject, and usually have little effect on most new builders. However, it’s hard to overstate the damage done to the image of alternative engines by an army of airframe factory reps who continuously offer negative comments about alternative engines while posing as an impartial 'friend' of their builders. While there can be legitimate criticism of alternative engines, I am sure that the majority of airframe salesman are driven by a system that makes sure they are paid well for their comments and personally rewards them for every customer they can steer away from alternatives. The fact that this reward system is a closely held “secret” by the industry makes the entire process deceitful. Fortunately, there are also some good guys in this arena. CONTACT! Magazine may be the only publication that would print the above paragraphs. The Heintz family has always supported Zenith builders’ free choice of their engine selection. At the very core of home building are the traditionalists who operate by the original EAA motto of "Learn, Build and Fly." While the numerical majority of magazines, companies and people may have consumer perspectives, I am focused on working with builders who came to aviation to find out what they could learn, create and master— not how little. The real rewards of homebuilding are not reserved for those with thick wallets, but those who will open a book, open a tool box and open their mind to the endeavor of homebuilding. Thank you. ~William Wynne
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By Jim Cavanagh cavv@knoxy.net During the 2011 Experimental Aircraft Association’s AirVenture at Oshkosh, esteemed and to some, legendary, aircraft designer Chris Heintz was honored for his contributions to sport aviation— and we‘re not just talking experimental or homebuilt aviation. He helped write the rules for Europe’s Very Light Aircraft (VLA) category, and the Sport Pilot and Photo: Patrick Panzera Light Sport Aircraft (LSA) rule in America. Paul Poberezny (right) honors Chris Heintz at celebratory dinner at the EAA In his adopted country, Canada, he was Nature Center during AirVenture 2011. instrumental in the development of the The son of a physicist and an opthamologist, Chris had Advanced Ultralight category, which was the blueprint for always been creative and inventive, drawing and sketchthe American LSA rule. ing his way through his childhood, designing and building canoes, and when applying at ETH Technical Institute in Chris Heintz is not a new name in experimental aviation. Zurich, Switzerland, he was able to catch a ride in a PipIf a generation equals twenty years, then two, and going er Cub, an incentive (or maybe bait) offered by the aviaon three generations of pilots are familiar with this ention department. He was hooked! gaging and approachable man. He’s been one of the leaders in bringing dependable, no nonsense, economiImmediately following his graduation in 1960, Chris went cal aircraft to general aviation. His hallmark is designing to work for Aerospatiale, working as a flutter engineer on aircraft that are affordable, easy to build for the first-time their project that would become the Concorde. Later, builder, easy and safe to operate by the low-time pilot. after his mandatory stint in the French Air Force, Chris Over the years, he not only designed and built aircraft, went to work for Avions Robin, to update their “Jodel” he works tirelessly to promote and formulate the homeline of wood and fabric aircraft and ultimately designed built aircraft industry and create timely, technologically two all-metal aircraft that were later certified, the HR – advanced aircraft for a diverse aviation marketplace. 100 and the HR-200. This set the tone for his model designations in the future. Back in the beginning, when the Experimental Aircraft Association was getting started, there were a few guys like Paul Poberezny, Curtis Pitts, Molt Taylor, Steve Wittman, and Frank Smith, who designed small aircraft that a person could build in their basement or garage. They would sell plans via a simple little newsletter, over the phone, for a hundred bucks or so. The new builder would then go out and scrounge parts and materials to begin a multi-year project that would result in an airplane that performed better than a factory-built airplane at much lower cost. Besides beginning what they called the homebuilder movement, they created something on a much grander scale. They created a pervasive dream. Chris Heintz was infected with this dream. Even thousands of miles away from the center of the activity, he became enamored with the idea of an independent design, personal construction and the freedom and accomplishment every homebuilder feels. www.ContactMagazine.com
Chris Heintz at the controls of a Zenith CH 200
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Allowed to use the facilities at the factory during his off hours, Chris designed and built his first personal airplane, the CH-200 shown on the previous page. He completed and flew it 1970. It was all metal and relatively simple, and was powered by a 100 hp Continental O-200 engine. Chris realized that his forte was designing, not necessarily craftsmanship, so he designed the airplane for its simplicity to fabricate and assemble. This is a philosophy that has been a constant thread throughout all of his designs. It wasn’t long before Chris and his wife Annemarie had five children, and they began to consider moving to another continent where the family would have access to good schools, creative freedom, and where Chris would start his own small airplane business. One of their first trips was to Brazil, at a time when the country was courting any and all businesses to invest. The aviation industry in particular was a key Brazilian focus. Embraer was one of the companies formed there but the heat and humidity just didn’t work for the Heintz family. Canada, with its friendly people and much cooler climate, along with European flavor and language, won out. Upon leaving Avions Robin, Chris had signed a “noncompete” clause, so he accepted a position with deHavilland where he was assigned the Dash 7 Regional Commuter and worked on the design of the tail section. The CH-200 arrived in a container and Chris set about creating plans and a material list for it, and began flying it to local airshows to show the airplane and sell the plans. Its growth in popularity and requests by a number of anxious builders prompted him to provide materials and some parts, hand formed ribs being among the first, and suddenly he was an airplane factory from his two-car garage— in a residential neighborhood! The growing demands resulted in Chris leaving deHavilland in 1974 and starting Zenair, Ltd. Any successful businessman knows that once you start a project it very soon takes on a life of its own. A successful design oils the machinery and soon more ideas begin to “pop” and new designs start to take shape. Sometimes these designs are market-driven, like the Ultralight boom in the 1980s that spawned the “Zipper” and “Zipper II” and the “Mini-Z.”
tention to economy, simple fabricating techniques and the resultant quick build-time and became a very attractive project for the first time builder. Chris’s trademark is a long chord, thick, high lift wing. Forsaking high end speed, he has always opted for a wing that creates a safety factor. With this wing, a modified NACA 64A515, all of his airplanes require minimal landing and takeoff space. Along with all-aluminum construction, the use of pulled rivets (which have become a widely accepted standard), and multiple powerplant options create a flexible and friendly family of aircraft. During their first year of business, Zenair was awarded the Best New Design Award at Oshkosh for the CH-200. The next year, the company won the National Association of Sport Aircraft Designer’s award for best and most complete plans, as well as the Pazmany Efficiency Contest. The latter was a wonderful competition held annually at Oshkosh. It was a “proof is in the pudding” event that pitted aircraft designs against each other for pure efficiency. An aircraft would fly two passes through a closed course, first at cruise speed and next at slowest speed above stalling. It was a simple and yet effective gauge of an aircraft’s performance envelope. Marketing pressures eventually caused the demise of this event. In 1976, the company performed an audacious but very effective demonstration of the simplicity of its design. An aircraft was assembled and flown in just eight days. This “Eight Day Wonder” demonstration was ambitious and highly successful, and was followed by similar feats in 1986, when a new Zodiac was built and flown in ten days, and later in 1993, with a Zodiac being built and flown in just seven days at Sun ‘n Fun in Lakeland, FL. Today, even this extraordinary build-time could be drastically reduced by the use of CNC matched holes and pre cut aluminum panels. Fifteen thousand drilled, deburred, and riveted holes take a lot of time. The company was recently granted the FAA’s fifty-one percent endorsement for the newest kits. All the while, the company was putting out new or updated versions of their designs including the Zipper, which won Best New Design in 1984, and in this same year, a second Best New Design with the iconic CH-600 Zodiac. The company was dabbling in STOL designs and even had time to develop a set of floats, both straight and amphibious, that are very popular among its builders.
Initially though, the impetus was on refining the CH-200 into he best airplane it could be and creating comprehensive detailed drawings and kits. Zenair, Ltd. took off with great success, bolstered by Chris’s enthusiasm, his atwww.ContactMagazine.com
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tion from colChris’s STOL lege. Mathieu projects were stayed in Canamore than a da to oversee passing fancy. Zenair Ltd. while The first flight of Sebastien startthe unique CHed a new busi701 was in 1986. ness, Zenith Air25 years later, craft Company in as this is being Mexico, Miswritten, the desouri, in 1992, to sign is virtually build and market unchanged and Chris Heintz deis still in producsigns in the U.S. tion. Initially conHere is where all sidered boxy and of the kits are rather homely as created and most aircraft deshipped and all signers were customer supgoing for “sleek,” Twin-engine CH 620 Gemini concept aircraft powered by Jabiru 2200 engines. port is handled. the 701 has deBuilder seminars are held on a regular basis, teaching veloped a passionately devoted and protective legion of the basics of construction and assembly. Sons Michael builders who are the adventurers of aviation. The airand Nicholas are also involved in the family business at plane was designed for off-airport, unimproved, and exZenair Ltd. in Canada. ceedingly short landing areas, as well as water operations. Its full-span flaperons and permanently slotted Removing himself from the day-to-day grind of running a leading edges, combined with Chris’s trademark thick company, Chris returned to designing. Over the years he and long chord wing, offer takeoff and landing potentials developed the CH-4000, a four seater that was placed that border on pure levitation. The Zenair float kit was on a back burner when the LSA market loomed. The developed for this airplane, no doubt through Chris’s reneat little CH-620, a low wing twin that had sport aviation patriation to Canada and the country’s penchant for bush all abuzz for a long time is just one of two well-known flying. Often called the smoothest flying airplane in the twin-engine homebuilt designs, Rutan’s Defiant being the world based on control input balance, the 701 fostered other. The CH–620 may yet make it to the marketplace. the much larger, heavy hauling CH-801 in 1999, which doubled the lift and carry capacity of the 701 to 1,000 The company took time to design and certify a four seat lbs, as well as the slightly larger, LSA category CH-750 aircraft. Chris worked on a couple of initial versions, the to bring back country flying to sport pilots. CH-400 and the CH-640, before developing the CH-2000 that was eventually configured into two aircraft, the AMD While all of this was going on, Chris’s family was growing Alarus trainer (manufactured in Georgia) and the SAMA and having families of their own. Sons Mathieu and SeCH-2000 Military Tactical and Surveillance Aircraft. His bastien decided to join the family business upon gradualatest accomplishment was being the lead writer of Transport Canada’s TP101.41 document that helped create the ASTM standards for building Light Sport Aircraft. Even industry Giant Cessna uses Chris’s work. In 2001, Chris was awarded the Light Aircraft Manufacturing Association’s President’s Award for Outstanding Individual in Light Aircraft, just one of many, many accolades he has received from both within and outside of aviation.
Ben Haas’s small-block Ford-powered CH-801, shown here on the cover of CONTACT! Magazine’s issue #103, is a prime example of Heintz’s openness to alternative engines
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Chris officially retired in 2006, but is ever available to his sons when the need arises. He took the time to write a book, Flying On Your Own Wings. It is a
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combination autobiography and primer on aircraft design and construction; a wonderful introduction to the man, his family and the art of designing aircraft that you’ll fly yourself. It is easy to read, entertaining, and except for some of the math, explains things in a way that any interested, intelligent person can grasp. He and his sons worked diligently to identify the causes of a number of accidents involving his designs, and while determining that they were unrelated, they developed kits and directions for builders to modify existing aircraft to totally eliminate any similar accidents in the future, and at a minimal cost. This form of proactive response and consideration to owners is unique to aviation.
plane at Sun ’n Fun earlier this year, and since seeing it then, Dan’s made great progress. There’s really no reason it shouldn’t be flying by year’s end. Dan describes his creation as an RV3 the size of a Onex (it has folding wings too) that can fit a real, full-sized typical American male. The prototype has conventional gear, but the plane is designed to easily have a nosewheel.
Completed versions of Chris’s designs are nearing the 4,000 mark. You can find Chris Heintz designs in most of the countries around the world, and this doesn’t count all of the pirated versions coming out of Russia, Brazil, Italy, and other countries. Imitation is the highest form of flattery, so they say. It is ironic that towards the end of his illustrious career, events and bureaucracy conspired to create the largest bump in the long, long road. As previously mentioned, a series of unrelated accidents involving the CH 601 XL, including factory built S-LSA versions, created a perception that there was a structural problem with the design. In an unprecedented example of bureaucratic malfeasance, the problem grew and spread, impacting the confidence builders had in their aircraft. Though retired, Chris and his sons dove into this problem and any areas that seemed questionable were subjected to hundreds of hours of testing and redesign. While no smoking gun was discovered, the concerns were subjected to hours of testing by Zenith and a comprehensive upgrade kit was developed and sent to builders at cost. The kit addressed not one but each of the items in question. This hands-on concern is testament to Chris Heintz’s dedication to his designs and to his customers. The FAA subsequently concluded that its thorough review of the accidents “did not indicate a single root cause, but instead implicated the potential combination of several design and operational aspects.” The company has developed two “next generation” aircraft— the new CH-650 and the CH-750, and each can be flown by a sport pilot. Both are refined designs, based on the 601 and 701, and are quick build kits with different cowlings and installation kits available for a myriad of engines that have become available to light aircraft builders. These aircraft will usher in a new generation of pilots to keep sport aviation alive and growing. Today, at 72 years young and now living in his native France, Chris sits back and watches the two generations of pilots and two generations of family continue to build and enjoy the aircraft he has designed. What greater legacy can a man hope for? What greater life could a man live? Jim Cavanagh cavv@knoxy.net www.ContactMagazine.com
I regret not getting a better overview photo.
Another cool airplane I plan to feature in CONTACT! Magazine was found in the ultralight aircraft area. When I told a friend about it and said that is has an IO 360 XP installed, he said, “What’s it doing in the ultralight area?” To which I simply said, “It doesn’t need much runway.”
Designed with the 80hp Rotax in mind but tolerant of the 100 hp version, this Tapanee Pegazair kind of breaks the mold with its 200 hp on tap. In short, the plane is similar to the Zenith 701 but with a tube-and-rag fuselage and self-deploying leading edge slats.
ALTERNATIVE ENGINES AT OSH On the alternative engine side, I found two new entrants to the game. One is basically a one-half O-200, where a proprietary casting is used for the case. The “builder” is then to find a core O-200 to reuse many of the parts to complete the engine project. The other is a little more exciting for me personally, as it’s the resurrection of Bill Sadler’s (of Sadler Vampire fame) little radial. Continued on page 32
CONTACT! ISSUE 105 PAGE 30
By John Moyle, EAA 4260 jmoyle1@juno.com Chris Heintz is chief engineer and founder of Zenair Ltd. (Zenith), and was inducted into the EAA Homebuilders Hall of Fame in 1999. AirVenture 2011 hosted the largest gathering of Zenith aircraft owners and builders ever assembled as they celebrated the company’s various models of airplanes and the man who created them. July 25, 2011, was designated “Chris Heintz Day” and included a special recognition event on ConocoPhillips Plaza with examples of Heintz-designed aircraft followed by showcase flights. Over the years, Chris has introduced more than a dozen successful kit aircraft designs, including the STOL CH 701, Zodiac CH 601, CH 650 LS and LSi, STOL CH 801, Zodiac XL, STOL CH 750 lightsport utility kit airplane, and CH 2000. His latest book on light aircraft design, Flying On Your Own Wings, was submitted to CONTACT! Magazine for review. Most experimental aircraft builders have at least contemplated modifying their chosen design, if not considered actually building a unique new airframe. While few of us really have the actual skills and education to travel that road, it remains a driving ambition. The desire to create a flying machine which perfectly suits our personal mission is strong. One of the established axioms in aviation is that every aircraft design is a compromise in functions. To get the performance the designer hopes for in one area, some other performance issue may have to be sacrificed, but the designers who can get what they want while giving up the least in other areas are the winners! Chris Heintz has spent his entire career in aeronautical design areas, beginning with his collegiate studies in central Europe, and then his broad experience in his native France included a stint with the Air France supersonic jetliner project, followed by an extended career with Avions Robin. Next came a move to Ontario, Canada, with his growing family to pursue the dedicated ambition of creating his own line of light aircraft designs. His education continues even now, as success in any field requires learning what is new to complement what has been taught in years past. The basic engineering remains unchanged, but advances in materials sciences and changes in application theory do alter the medium. When new things appear on the horizon, they must be monitored and considered as possible options for existing design modifications or the basis of fresh designs. www.ContactMagazine.com
While the chapters on mathematics, physics, and aerodynamics provide a fabulous insight into the mind of a qualified engineer, they are beyond the scope of this review other than to report that you will certainly learn some items worthy of knowing and gain a fresh perspective on the adventure of designing a small personal aircraft. During this process Heintz weaves stories of how these lessons played into his own philosophy. Somehow, like all great teachers, he manages to entertain us while instructing the “class.” Besides the learning of structural issues with aircraft in the early chapters, one of my favorites deals with the “Human Factors,” a realm that seems to be frequently lost to many designers. The details of comfort, visibility, and access are of equally as important as crash protection! If you are a person of typical American dimensions, then you understand that squeezing into a small plane and suffering in the cramped cockpit of some aircraft takes away much of the joy of flight. Giving adequate thought to personal comfort has become an increasingly popular issue, and with the average age of pilots increasing geometrically, ease of ingress and egress are also of great importance. Heintz’s advice for thorough flight testing is another chapter full of absolutely critical information which is worth the price of the publication by itself. His half century of applied design science shines here, and his experience as the designer of his own line of widely successful light aircraft is apparent. He makes wisdom seem simple and will likely improve your general knowledge as well as offer some specific details that you’ve wondered about but had not known where to look for the answer. While any experimental aircraft builder could benefit from reading this book, I believe it’s a must for those building, or considering building, an aircraft of stressed aluminum skin structure and most specifically a Zenith Aircraft Company product. Frequently, builders fail to realize just how much engineering and the careful thought that go into the process of creating a repeatable design with strength and fine flying qualities. Your appreciation for these designs will swell with the knowledge of the effort that goes into creating an easy-to-build light aircraft. Make this book a solid foundation for your learning process. The education of its lessons is good groundwork for the changes you might be thinking about as it is an exceptional amateur engineering primer. I enjoyed the read, and I suspect that you may, too. JPM
CONTACT! ISSUE 105 PAGE 31
For the longest time, we’ve had custom hats made for our volunteers but we’ve never offered them to the public. We’ve had tons of inquiries, leaving folks disheartened, and finally decided it was time to change that. We are pleased to finally offer CONTACT! Magazine hats to anyone who would like one. These are high-quality, 100% cotton ball caps, that we can offer for $15.00 plus shipping. Please see the inside of the protective cover-wrap for ordering information. SWITCH ON! Continued from page 30
The same company that’s in the process of bringing this little gem back is also producing a bizarre horizontallyopposed 4 and 6-cylinder engine that uses overhead cam motorcycle heads and cylinders and a PSRU.
Then of course there’s the Zenith 701 with the turboprop engine. But that one will have to wait till next time.
FACEBOOK CONTACT! Magazine’s Facebook page is updated nearly daily, sometimes several times a day, with news and information if interest to homebuilders. www.facebook.com/ www.CONTACTMagazine
COPPERSTATE 2012 Last year I made the decision to stay home and not attend COPPERSTATE. This was a difficult decision since I’ve not missed one since I started going in 2000. However, we were still able to keep our commitment to fill the Alternative Engine forum tent with interesting presenters. We are now working on scheduling speakers for the upcoming event, scheduled for October 25th through the 27th. We should have a vendor booth again this year and I’m planning to present a few forums myself. The first scheduled speaker on the first day of the show is the founding editor and publisher of CONTACT! Magazine, Mr. Mick Myal. Mick has written a book on the art of building fiberglass wingtip fuel tanks that help extend range without negatively affecting gross weight. SEE YA THERE! ~Pat www.ContactMagazine.com
CONTACT! ISSUE 105 PAGE 32
Classified ads– minimum $15 donation from subscribers. All ads must include a price. No commercial ads allowed. Ads will run for 3 consecutive issues or until sold. Must be renewed after the 3rd printing. CONTACT! Magazine reserves the right to refuse any ad. FOR SALE: Miscellaneous parts. One of our supporters donated the contents of his garage. Listed below is a smattering of what we have available, and the value we declared for his donation. No reasonable offer will be refused. Please contact Pat Panzera with your questions or offer. CONTACT! Magazine, 559-584-3306 panzera@sti.net Subaru 2.0 engine, extra head REDUCED MORE New Mazda A10 engine Brock master brake cylinders Vari-Eze Vari-Eze spinner SOLD! Dragonfly project, no engine Dragonfly project, no engine Dragonfly project, ready to taxi
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For Sale: B0208/MFI-9 (Messerschmitt built) A unique recreation of the mini-coin Biafra Baby #BB905. Historically accurate and documented. New zero-time TMX IO-240. A highly maneuverable small ship for a small pilot. Registered Experimental/Exhibition warbird. New prop, paint, interior, instruments, wheels and brakes. NOT LSA qualified. Contact italmotion1@comcasr.net for brochure or go to www.italmotion.com for images under “current project.” Priced at $38k FL59 Ft. Myers FL. Partial or full trades for aircraft or vintage racecar considered. Don Black 107 For Sale: Instruments- Falcon GH-002 3 1/8" Vacuum Attitude Gyro ACS 10-22955 $250 * Airborne 1J7-1/D9-18-1 Filter ACS $25 * 4" Venturi ACS 15050 $35 (has fiberglass streamlined housing) These units have about 300 hours total.* CONTACT! Magazine (559) 584-3306 Sales@ContactMagazine.com 103 For Sale: Subaru EJ-22 Firewall Forward. 300 hours TT w/o any problems. Ross redrive, all electronics, engine mount and some spare Subaru parts included. See CONTACT! issues #6 and #8 for a full description of this engine as installed on a Dragonfly. $5,000 Ruidoso NM. Randy (575) 937-3586 lsbp1919@yahoo.com 102 For Sale: Two RV6 Motor mounts for 4.3L Chevrolet V-6. One tail dragger, one with nose wheel. $1,000 each. Ruidoso NM. Randy (575) 937-3586 lsbp1919@yahoo.com 102
Wanted: Tuned port fuel injection system for my Ford Windsor 351W (See CONTACT! issue 16) which would be fed by my McCulloch (Paxton) supercharger, with each cylinder's injector adjustable and all mixture leanable. For Sale: Prince P-tip propeller with Gates 2.67:1 PSRU and Polychain Kevlar belts, Used 40+ hours on O'Neill Magnum V8 “Pickup” with modified Ford 351W, with and without McCulloch (Paxton) supercharger, 260 to 380 HP. Spinner included. Engine not included. $800 For Sale: Torsional vib. damper, for Lyc O-320. $180 For Sale: Female molds for wingtips for NACA 4412 airfoil, 63" chord. $170. troneill@charter.net Terrence O'Neill 103
ALTERNATIVE ENGINES VOLUME 3 The third in the series from Mick Myal is available only through CONTACT! Magazine. See the back inside cover wrap of this issue for ordering info or visit www.ContactMagazine.com For Sale: 3.8L Ford V6 with Blanton redrive, as pulled from an RV-6 shown on Youtube.com by searching for “V-6 airplane engine” (yellow plane). Includes three-blade Warp Drive prop, all manuals and engine instruments. $2,000.00 Buyer pays shipping from Benbrook TX. (817)692-6742 Richard luggman@sbcglobal.net 102
ALTERNATIVE ENGINES VOLUME 2 Once again available! See the back inside cover wrap of this issue for ordering info or visit www.ContactMagazine.com For Sale: Glasair 1 TD kit. Fairly complete, unstarted kit with extras. $4500.00 Located in Hanford California. Please contact Pat Panzera with your questions or offer. CONTACT! Magazine, 559-584-3306 Sales@ContactMagazine.com 106 For Sale: Ross Redrive with aluminum flywheel. $1800.00 For Sale: Warp Drive Propeller threeblade, 66” diameter, left-hand rotation with nickel leading edges. Comes with spinner. $500.00 Or buy both for $2000 total. These components were bolted to a Subaru EA-81 and tested for a maximum of 30 minutes only. Buyer pays shipping from Las Vegas NV 89104. Don Thompson (702) 236-1691 106
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Alternative Engines Volume 4 CONTACT! Magazine currently offers three 8-1/2x11 soft cover books, each of them a unique, authoritative reference, dealing with auto engine conversions, each unrivaled in scope and detail of content. Each volume of "ALTERNATIVE ENGINES" is a compiled work of past CONTACT! Magazine articles, documenting individual experiences in preparing, installing and flying converted auto engines. The three volumes also contain important information and solutions for cooling, ignition redundancy and selection of components. We are pleased to announce the publication of yet a fourth in the series, "ALTERNATIVE ENGINES VOLUME 4" Over 350 glossy pages of black and white content, (or your choice of full color!) compiled from issues of CONTACT! Magazine (picking up where Volume 3 left off) as published by Patrick Panzera, the current editor and publisher of CONTACT! Magazine. Each volume explores in detail the builder's or designer's trials and tribulations in development and testing. Decades of experience are available at your fingertips, presented in a manner that is educational, informative, and entertaining. While we have not printed the book yet, progress is being made. We are very close to being ready to go to print, but we need your help to make the color book happen. While the black-and-white version will be created on a "print on demand" basis, we have to preorder the color book in in the highest quantity possible in order to get the best price. The prices shown below are based on a first run of 500 books, and that's where we need your help. Just as we did with Volume 3, we are asking you to pre-purchase the book now, which is several months before they actually become available. We will either have enough orders in the next few months to go into print, or we'll refund all the monies sent in for the color book. The black-and-white version will go to the printers in two months no matter how many orders we get.
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