Light Aviation December 2021

THE MAGAZINE OF THE LIGHT AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATION

LIGHT

Aviation December 2021 £4.25

SAFARI… SO GOOD! Francis Donaldson flies the XL-sized KFA Safari

Reminisces from Francis Donaldson and Brian Hope Light Aircraft Association WWW.LAA.UK.COM

ELECTRONIC CONSPICUITY

UNDERSTAND ITS FOIBLES AND LEARN HOW TO RESPOND TO IT

VINTAGE DELIGHT

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Contact us to discuss your Avionics build requirements and to go through ideas.

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Our Address: LX Avionics Ltd, Hangar 10, Turweston Aerodrome, BRACKLEY, NN13 5YD

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The KFA Safari is a larger but budget variant of the Avid / Kitfox genre

The Team Chairman TIM HARDY CEO STEPHEN SLATER Chief Engineer FRANCIS DONALDSON B.Tech C.Eng FRAeS Chief Inspector KEN CRAIGIE President ROGER HOPKINSON MBE Vice Presidents BRIAN DAVIES & JOHN BRADY Engineering email engineering@laa.uk.com COMMERCIAL Email office@laa.uk.com Office Manager Penny Sharpe Head Office Turweston Aerodrome, Nr Brackley, Northants NN13 5YD Telephone for engineering and commercial 01280 846786

LIGHT AVIATION MAGAZINE Editor BRIAN HOPE

60 Queenborough Road, Sheerness, Kent ME12 3BZ Telephone 01795 662508 Email bfjjodel@talktalk.net

A fond farewell to all…

W

ell, this is it, my final magazine as editor. Next month this column really will be Ed’s Desk as Ed Hicks picks up the reins and takes the magazine into a new era. I’m sure he’ll do a great job and I wish him as much enjoyment meeting and talking to so many fascinating members as I have over the years.

I am delighted that we managed to get Graham Smith’s KFA Safari sorted in time for this issue. My thanks to photographer Neil Wilson and his team for going the extra mile to shoot the pictures, and to Francis Donaldson who flew the test and who has written up the article.

I had my first good look at the Safari at the Rally and hope it finds a ready market. There has always been strong demand for the Kitfox variations, but the Safari takes the genre a step further by enlarging the aircraft significantly. It now has a much chunkier look to it, more cockpit space and more carrying capacity, but a lower price than its smaller cousins (p26).

Jim Copeman has kindly sent in an update on his and Tony Palmer’s delightful 1934 British Klemm L25C rebuild, which is edging ever closer to flying again. Work during lockdown has concentrated on the inlet and exhaust manifolds and engine installation, and the little Pobjoy radial has now been test run and all is well. I very much look forward to seeing the aircraft at events next year (p42).

Neil Fraser has written some excellent features on aircraft avionics over the past couple of years so it’s great to feature him in this issue.

Electronic Conspicuity is going to become increasingly important, although in recreational GA but at the moment the mix of systems and lack of standard protocols is not helping. Neil

raises these issues and the impact they have on the user interpreting what their EC device is telling them and, if, and how they should react.

Don’t forget it is an aid, the Mk 1 eyeball remains the primary collision avoidance tool! (p14).

I hope readers will allow me the indulgence of a few final words of thanks, as ‘editor’ is only a title so people know where the buck stops. Magazines are produced by teams of often unsung participants.

Putting it together involves a team of regular contributors, plus many members who maybe submit individual articles only once. The team at Seager Publishing has, for over half of the 20+ years that I have been privileged to be the editor, moulded that material into the end product that you receive each month. And of course, there is the team that makes up the staff, offering help and guidance and keeping all the balls in the air as best they can.

Many people, now good friends, have made up those teams over the years and it would be unfair to start trying to single people out, but it has been a pleasure to have known you all, and to have been part of the team.

With Christmas and a New Year upon us, I wish you all the very best and a safe, happy and fulfilled life. Brian.

PS: Someone once passed comment that my sign-off pic was taken when I was ‘much younger’ and ‘unrepresentative’. Perhaps this one is more pertinent…

By Brian Hope December 2021 | LIGHT AVIATION | 3

CEO Thoughts

Teamwork at its very best!

F

or me, one of the highlights of the LAA AGM, as well as meeting so many members from around the country, is the announcement of the annual LAA Service Awards. As you’ll read elsewhere in these pages, as a result of last year’s virtual AGM, we had two sets of recipients to recognise, both the current year’s winners and those from 2020.

However, I am sure that you’d agree that one group of people are worthy of specific mention here; Paul FraserBennison, Chris Thompson and the LAA Rally A/G Radio Team. As many will know, as Sywell Aerodrome struggle to return from the pre-summer Covid lockdown and were unable to field their normal air traffic services, the LAA team managed, within just six weeks, to put together from scratch a team of appropriately experienced air to ground radio staff, convinced the CAA that they could provide a service, then safely supported the arrival (and departure) of 700+ aircraft at the 2021 Rally.

Perhaps the greatest compliment to their skills is that some of you flying in didn’t even realise the scale of their achievement. Other than some changes to the AIC documentation (yes, you read it all from cover to cover of course!) the principal feedback from many was that the radio procedures were simpler than previous years. CAA take note!

Their achievements were matched by others at the Rally. The Chris Paul Award for services to the Rally was won

by Sean Cantwell, one of the long-term volunteers in the LAA Rally Workers’ Strut, who always joins in with every part of the pre-Rally build up. The team arrive two to three days before the Rally to help fit out and wire up the marquees, then spend the Rally weekend on car parking and campsite duties as well as, with their faithful canine collectors, raising funds for the Air Ambulance Charity. They are also among the last to leave the site on the Monday after clearing up after the Rally. They are a team to be proud of.

Teamwork is proving increasingly important in other areas too. While the CAA has been in receipt of the odd

4 | LIGHT AVIATION | December 2021

By Steve Slater LAA CEO

brickbat from our direction in the past year or two, there has been a genuine commitment to greater teamwork in recent months in areas as varied as airspace, airworthiness and new technologies. This has extended right to the top of the organisation, with the CAA Chairman Sir Stephen Hillier joining us and fellow Associations in August at a GA sampling day, gaining greater experience of the range of GA types.

He also joined us for the opening day of the LAA Rally.

With environmental issues at the fore, one area we discussed is driving the greater use of unleaded UL91 avgas, which has been available in the UK for more than a decade. It is estimated that around 90% of the LAA fleet and around 81-85% of the wider GA fleet could transition with no issues.

Indeed, the use of UL91 removes some issues such as spark-plug fouling and is generally better for most engines.

However, there are two impediments to take-up.

One is cost, because the lower volumes currently sold mean that transport costs are proportionately higher, and the other is that many airfields simply don’t have an infrastructure to allow UL91 and 100LL to be stored and dispensed separately.

In a true spirit of teamwork, the LAA and AOPA have been working with the Department for Transport to address these issues, advocating a grant system, similar to that offered for 8.33 radios or Electronic Conspicuity, to support airfields in investing in additional storage and infrastructure.

Hopefully, if the volumes go up, costs will come down and we’ll end up with a cleaner fuel supply and similar cost.

Of course, there are some engines such as high-compression Lycomings, turbocharged Continentals and even Rolls-Royce Merlins that could never stomach 91UL. Again, we’re working with DfT, the Historic Aircraft Association and some specialist fuel suppliers to look at the feasibility of new UL100 fuel blends that might address the situation in the longer-term. Once again, teamwork!

06 NEWS

Synthetic fuels, LAA Bursaries, RAeC Award nominations, and more…

08 LETTERS

LAA airliners, Henri Mignet, Oshkosh 2022 and Clacton’s WWI RNAS airfield

10 PROJECT NEWS

Pilatus P3-03, Pietenpol Air Camper, Zenair CH-601 HDS, Brandli BX-2 Cherry. Cleared to Fly and New Projects

14 EC REVIEW

Neil Fraser explains EC’s foibles and says understand what you will do with the information…

20 AGM

Brian Hope reports of this year’s LAA Annual General Meeting…

24 COACHING CORNER

Pilot Coaching Scheme Head of Training, David Cockburn, highlights Airproxes and CO poisoning…

26 FLIGHT TEST

Francis Donaldson flies the new XL-sized KFA Safari

36 FLYING ADVENTURE

Martin Ferid takes a trip to Lydd, in the Garden of England, an area full of history and charm – and only a hop and a skip away from the Continent…

40 THANKS BRIAN!

Steve Slater looks back at Brian Hope’s 20 years of editing for PFA/LAA

42 KLEMM PROJECT

Jim Copeman reports on the progress of British Klemm, G-ACXE, a fascinating vintage machine…

46 STRUTS4U

Anne Hughes looks at Strut activities

48 IT’S GOODBYE FROM ME…

…and it’s goodbye from him. Francis Donaldson and Brian Hope discuss all things LAA as both bid farewell…

53 FLY-IT DAY

The weather didn’t play ball but members still celebrated LAA’s 75th birthday…

56 CLASSIFIED

Buy a bargain or sell your wares!

Contents December 2021

26 Flight Test

14

20

46 December 2021 | LIGHT AVIATION | 5

LA News

News

Plenty more news is available on the LAA website at www.laa.uk.com check it out every day!

Spirit of Innovation record breaker On 16 November Rolls Royce Spirit of Innovation achieved its goal of breaking the electric aircraft world speed record, pilot Phill O’Dell, the Rolls-Royce Chief Test Pilot achieving 555.9 km/h (345.4 mph) over three kilometres, smashing the existing record by 213.04 km/h (132mph).

The 400kW (500+hp) electric powered NXT based machine also achieved 532.1km/h (330mph) over 15 kilometres flown

by Steve Jones, 292.8km/h (182mph) faster than the current record, and also set a new fastest time to climb to 3,000 metres of 202 seconds, 60 secs faster that the existing time.

The fastest speed attained during the runs at Boscombe Down was 623 km/h (387.4 mph), believed to be the fastest speed yet to be attained by an electric aircraft.

Data for the flights has been sent to the FAI for ratification of the records.

Stjohn Youngman, managing director of Electroflight, who developed the propulsion and battery system in collaboration with experienced programme partners, commented, “Our next step is to adapt this pioneering technology so it can be applied across the wider aerospace industry to deliver a more sustainable way to fly.”

RAeC Awards nominations wanted Each year, the Royal Aero Club invites nominations to be considered for their Awards, for sport flying endeavour, innovation and service. The LAA along with many other associations takes the lead in offering these nominees. So, who would you nominate?

Among the awards are highly prestigious trophies such as the Britannia Trophy, for the British aviator or aviators accomplishing the most meritorious performance in aviation during the preceding year. The Prince Of Wales Cup, for a performance, feat or event by either a team or a group during the preceding year. The Gold, Silver and Bronze Medals of the Club and Certificates of Merit are awarded for achievements in aviation principally, but not necessarily, as a pilot but also to those who have spent many 6 | LIGHT AVIATION | December 2021

years serving sporting aviation, or aviation in general by their endeavours.

There are special awards too. The Norton-Griffiths Challenge Trophy recognises adventurous endeavours by aviators, outstanding feats of courage, tenacity and imagination. The Salomons Trophy is awarded for a special performance by a British aviator in a flying apparatus or device which is designed and built in the United Kingdom, while the Breitling Trophy is awarded annually to a young person or group of young people between the ages of 14 and 21.

At the opposite end of the scale, the Old and Bold Trophy is for a person aged 65 or over who flies, or only ceased flying, during the previous calendar year, who has been conspicuously involved in aviation in general

and sporting aviation in particular, for their work, initiative, devotion or in other ways.

So, who would you nominate? Any thoughts, along with a brief citation, should be sent to the CEO via office@laa.uk.com, before Monday 17 December.

Alan Kilbride Just as this edition was going to press, we received the tragic news that long-time LAA Coach and Vale of York Strut stalwart, Alan Kilbride, had perished in a flying accident.

Alan was well-known to so many members and will be sadly missed. A fuller tribute will appear in January’s Light Aviation. In the meantime, our deepest condolences to Alan’s family and friends.

LA News

LAA members’ recognition by Air Pilots Head of the LAA Pilot Coaching Scheme, David Cockburn, was one of a number of LAA members recognised at the Honourable Company of Air Pilots awards ceremony in London’s Guildhall, an event which is internationally recognised as the ‘Oscars’ of the aviation world.

David was awarded the title of Master Air Pilot, recognising his wealth of experience gained both as a military pilot and as a civilian instructor, as well as more than a decade spent working at the CAA on safety promotions, including the creation of the still highly popular regional GA safety evenings.

LAA members were also at the forefront of the receipt by the General Aviation Safety Council, GASCo, of the Sword of Honour for their contribution to aviation safety.

The award was made to the regional safety officers who voluntarily give their time to present the Safety Evenings, including Nils Jamieson, Jon Cooke, John Steele, Michael Benson, Geoffrey Connolly, Keith Thomas, Caroline Gough-Cooper and Penny Gould.

A further recipient of a Sword of Honour was Stuart McKay, see November issue.

LAA Scottish Tour 22-29 May

Jade Collett who completed her PPL in March 2021 with the aid of a LAA Bursary.

Five £1,500 Armstrong-Isaacs Bursaries

Are you a post-solo student pilot under 30 years of age? Or do you know someone who is? Any eligible pilots should apply now for the 2021 Armstrong-Isaacs PPL bursary scheme. It costs nothing to apply and offers the chance of winning one of the five bursaries of £1,500 that are being offered to support young pilots already in training, offering additional funding to help them complete their courses at a time when all too often, money starts to run out.

The funds will be lodged with the flying school of their choice and must be used exclusively for flying training or flight examinations. To qualify for a bursary a pilot should be under 30 years of age, have completed a minimum of two hours solo training and have gained the necessary medical and ground qualifications to continue their training.

The Armstrong-Isaac’s fund is supported by

legacies from former Association luminaries David Armstrong and John Isaacs. They offer support to young pilots who have reached the financially challenging latter stages of PPL training, with longer cross-country flights requiring greater outlay in aircraft rental costs. These bursaries have a demonstrated record of allowing students to complete their training, when perhaps they may otherwise have had to suspend or even forego finishing their course.

Applicants should complete a form which can be downloaded from the LAA website at www.lightaircraftassociation.co.uk/Bursary/ AI.html The final date for applications is Friday 31 December 2021 so do it now!

Places available on LAA courses Just a quick note this month to remind you that places are still available on the Aviation specific Emergency First Aid course to be held at Turweston on Tuesday 25 January, price £120, and Aircraft Woodwork courses with Dudley Pattison near Swindon on Tuesday 22 Feb and Tuesday 22 March, also £120. Keep an eye on the LAA website for announcement of new courses. www.laa.uk.com

Yes, after no less than three Tour cancellations over the past couple of years, we are going to have another attempt at an LAA Scottish Tour in 2022. It takes place from June 22-29 and a provisional agenda is 22nd overnight at Breighton / 23rd overnight at Perth / 24th overnight Glenforsa / 25th fly up the Great Glen and overnight TBA / 26th overnight at Perth / 27th visit Museum of Flight (fly in or drive) / 28th Meet the LAA Day and fly-in at Perth / 29th depart for home.

Further details in the December issue but if you would like to join us or be kept informed of developments, please register your interest with neil.wilson@laa.uk.com

LAA HQ Christmas closing LAA will be closed for the Christmas / New year period from midday on the 24 December until 0900 Tuesday 4 January. We would like to extend our very best wishes for a Happy Christmas and a prosperous, healthy and safe New Year to all our members and their families.

Contents

Letters

Letters We are always pleased to receive your letters and feedback. Please email the editor at ed.hicks@laa.uk.com

Remembering Mignet

Sir: I was concerned to read the letter from Malcolm Rogan on page nine of the November issue of Light Aviation regarding Henri Mignet for, while I am sure it was not his intent, his words may mislead those to whom the full story of post-war home-built aviation is perhaps less than clear.

Nobody disputes the fact that home-built aircraft have always existed in America, and the US regulators have long been both amenable to their existence and tolerant of their presence.

Men like Ed Heath were successfully selling plans for aeroplanes in the distant days of the 1920s and equally people were building and flying successful home-made aircraft from Texas to wherever…

However, things in Britain were very different. Apart from the fact that the enthusiasm for home-made aircraft was extremely restricted, more by cultural differences from our transatlantic cousins than anything else, the concept of amateur-built aircraft barely existed here. Not without due cause was the weekly magazine The Aeroplane to write, in the early 1930s, that home-made aircraft were effectively illegal in Great Britain.

The birth of a home-building aircraft movement in France in 1934 was thus of some significance. The laissez-faire attitude of the French authorities admitted home-made aircraft unreservedly and the pioneer of that new approach, Henri Mignet, was quickly elevated to international status.

In Britain, our newspapers were quick to report that ‘all over France (possibly an exaggeration) people were building aeroplanes in their attics, garages and gardens’. This lit an unsuspected blue touchpaper in the hearts of enterprising Britons, who had been weaned on the more genteel activities of fretwork and tin-soldering projects so freely promulgated in the pages of popular magazines such as Work (a mid-Victorian launch) and F J Camm’s Practical series.

What was happening in that land of 300 varieties of cheese quickly overspilled into Germany, Belgium, Holland, Italy – and inevitably crossed the Channel to Britain, thanks largely to the enthusiasm of Stephen Appleby.

Henri Mignet’s Flying Flea now sprang up all over the land and our authorities had no alternative but to create legislation to admit the

things alongside the Hawker Harts, Avro 504s and Handley Page Hannibals. Of course, Mignet was no more than an amateur. No aerodynamicist, he could not identify that his successful creation was due to his personal experimentation and a deal of luck. So long as others created identical clones of his specification, they were on safe grounds, but the slightest variation could release a cascade of problems, the most dramatic of which was identified (incorrectly) as control-reversal where pulling back on the stick increased the lift on the rear wing and pushed the nose down.

Whereas most aircraft had performance tolerances formed like a broad inverted U, Mignet’s creation was more of an inverted letter V on the peak of which one might balance. But one minor change and you entered the realm of aerodynamic instability.

How should we review Mignet today? The news item on Bill Cole’s HM.293 (October issue) was perhaps over the top a bit, while Malcolm Rogan’s letter was a touch too dismissive. No, Mignet may not have been a great aircraft designer, but his contribution was far, far greater. He did something nobody else had done, he sowed the seed of home-built aviation into the quiescent hearts of Brits who were enterprising enough to want to do their own thing.

War years put the brakes on development and risked pushing aside all that progress that men like Erik Addyman and Appleby had built on Mignet’s shoulders pre-war. And when our first Minister of Civil Aviation, Lord Swanton, took office in 1946, he had to be educated that there was a dormant movement afoot.

It would take a decade of stalwart efforts by men including Bert Waterhouse, Ted Felce and Bob Parker before we had a workable Permit to Fly scheme. Which is why those of us in the know see Henri Mignet as a formidable influence behind where we are today.

And let’s not forget that the framework for certifying airworthiness for home-built aircraft was created by the French and adopted by us. It’s easy to forget how much we owe to our friends across La Manche!

Yours sincerely, Arthur W J G Ord-Hume (founder member: ULAA).

Left A pre-war Flying Flea.

33| LIGHT 8 | LIGHTAVIATION AVIATION| December | January 2019 2021

Letters

Oshkosh 2022 anybody?

Hi Brian, I am planning to go to Oshkosh in 2022 and am in contact with a UK travel agent who has organised these trips many times in the past. The agent has an excellent reputation (from LAA members) for arranging flights, ground transport, accommodation… everything.

So, is there anyone else who would like to go to Oshkosh next year? It would make sense to go as a group, if possible, rather than lots of individual solo visits. I’m happy to collect any names and details and present them to the agent for him to work on.

I also intend to visit Old Rhinebeck, and the museum(s) in Washington before coming home. Everyone can plan their own agenda, but it makes sense to optimise the basic travel arrangements for Oshkosh, re flight, ground transport, accommodation etc.

Please feel free to drop me an email if you are interested. bmaviation@hotmail.com Brian Mellor, Leeds.

Above The famous EAA gateway at Oshkosh, who fancies a trip in 2022?

Clacton’s RNAS base in WWI

Hi Brian. It was a little surprising that Martin Ferid’s consummate erudition omitted some of the most interesting history of Clacton. The WWI RNAS seaplane base was located between two piers, neither extant, operating as a substation to that of RNAS Grain, from 1914-1916. By the autumn of 1916, the complement was three aircraft and two officers and its HQ occupied a Martello Tower.

Admittedly, there is no visual evidence remaining, except the Martello tower, but in his peripatetics, Martin will have passed the plaque on the seafront (see right), commemorating Churchill’s unplanned arrival by air. Winston’s passion for aviation is well-known, but perhaps less so is the amount of flying training he undertook, at Eastchurch and Sheerness, although he never gained his pilot’s licence.

As his wartime duties increased, he was persuaded to stop, following some pressure, particularly from his wife, Clemmie.

As First Lord of the Admiralty he oversaw the establishment of the Royal Naval Air Service in 1914 and is credited with coining the word ‘seaplane’.

As far as I know, the little aviation museum at Clear Point keeps its focus on WWII. Others may not find this interesting, but I do, and thought it worthy of mention!

Fly safely, fly lots.

Nic Orchard.

Above The plaque in Clacton commemorating Sir Winston Churchill’s landing.

Oldest LAA airliners?

After reading the latest LAA magazine I would like to correct the comments made on the transition of two DH 84’s onto the register. Lovely, exotic machines, yes, but I am surprised by your statement that this is the first time the LAA has been responsible for ‘airliners’.

I registered my 1920 three seat Avro 504L, registration G-EASD, and it was displayed at the Rally this year with a great deal of information.

Both the original airframe and engine logbooks confirm all flights except test or positioning were carried out carrying passengers, freight and/or mail.

G-EASD operated continuously from 1920 until Dec 1927 as a commercial aircraft, used initially by Eastbourne Aviation Co. Ltd in U.K. then by George Spaak, Bergvik Anhallit in Sweden. It is thus the UK’s earliest remaining, and we believe, the world’s, oldest commercial aircraft. It represents the tentative beginnings of the airline industry we know today.

Geoffrey New.

I totally agree with Geoffrey. G-EASD is a remarkable project. A true piece of aviation history.

When it flies, the aircraft will represent an important part of our heritage, something which Geoffrey’s display boards at the Rally demonstrated. It was fascinating to see its story of passenger carrying, both here in the UK, and on floats and skis in Sweden.

I have to say though that while the Avro is truly historic, being pedantic I don’t think we can say it is a complete aeroplane just yet, whereas the two DH Dragons are very much going concerns. Additionally, while the Avro was a derivative of the WWI training type, the Dragons were purpose-built people carriers, but it is accepted that both designs served their purpose well as pioneer passenger carriers.

The thought of G-EASD, perhaps in formation with G-EBHB, G-ADEV and G-EROE, all on LAA permits, making up an Avro 504 four ship is a dream to savour. I for one can’t wait!

(Steve Slater) ■ December 2021 | LIGHT AVIATION | 9

Project News

Projects which inspire others to build their own aircraft Compiled by Mike Slaughter

Project News T here is a healthy number of New Project registrations again this month, made up primarily of the usual suspects, but less common these days is a new Europa start, along with another KFA Safari, interestingly the latter is reviewed a few pages further on in this issue.

There are a good number of aircraft ready for that all important first flight in this month’s Cleared to Fly list. Not only are they new builds but, in some cases, it’s an ‘orphan’ aircraft’s first flight courtesy of an LAA Permit to Fly. The LAA fleet not only grows from new builds but also older aircraft that make the transition from a CAA CofA, or is imported and does not meet the criteria for a CofA, to a Permit to Fly. Sometimes these are well known types migrating on mass, or they can be one-offs, one such individual is the Pilatus P3 G-BTLL, seen below.

G-BTLL (s/n 323-5) Pilatus P3-03

By Russell Dagles

B

uilt in 1956 and operated by the Swiss Air Force until its disposal, Lima Lima, as she became in the UK, sat in a couple of hangars for nearly 30 years due to a paperwork problem. The CAA were not keen to give her a ‘ticket’ and the PFA at the time were unable to deal with such a heavy aircraft. Moving forward, the LAA is now able to adopt more vintage aircraft and the possibility arose for the Pilatus to gain a Permit to Fly. She was re-assembled, overhauled and flown at Guist, in Norfolk, on 15 October in the hands of John Baker and is now firmly in the LAA world.

Right The P3 on her test flight with John Baker at the controls. Photo: Mike Page.

10 | LIGHT AVIATION | December 2021

Stephen Foreman and his wife have built what they believe to be the last Zenith CH-601-HDS kit produced by the American kit manufacturer Zenair. I’ve flown in a couple of 601s and seen a fair few more, but I never realised the difference between the HD and the HDS variant. The HDS is the speedwing, which I’m told adds 15-20mph over the thicker wing HD model, 110mph at 4,800rpm has been suggested as the economical cruise. It's only the outer wing panels that differ between the HD and HDS and they can be interchanged. The 601 kit is not highly finished and does require ‘building’, even so, the pandemic restrictions gave the couple the opportunity to largely finish this aircraft in a little over one year.

To get in touch with Project News, and tell your story, report a milestone or just to send a picture, email: projectnews@laa-archive.org.uk. Please share your story!

Project News

G-CLLN (PFA-047-11340) Pietenpol Air Camper

By John Scott

M

y Air Camper was first registered as a project with the PFA in 1989 but soon after was abandoned. In 1995, I was looking to build another aircraft following the successful completion of a VP1 (which is still flying) and the inevitable motor bikes.

Peter Sturgeon, the VP’s Inspector, suggested that I might be interested in a stalled project he knew of, with very little work having been done on it. There was an impressive bundle of spruce and a PC60 GPU (ground power unit) engine which had been converted for aircraft use.

The deal was done and after negotiating with Jim Wills for

Above Alan James preparing for that first flight.

Photo: Daniel Scott Below Left to right: Builder John Scott, test pilot Alan James and Inspector Peter Sturgeon.

Photo: Daniel Scott

a set of his revised plans, Peter Sturgeon agreed to be the Inspector and the build began with wing ribs and a stack of metal fittings.

After 25 years of sporadic building, G-CLLN moved from workshop to hangar. Thanks go to Peter for his encouragement over the years and to the LAA which has been very helpful, especially with clearing the engine and its installation. Permission to test fly was given and Alan James of G-BUCO and the Pietenpol Club, kindly agreed to conduct the first flight which was successfully carried out on 16 September.

December 2021 | LIGHT AVIATION | 11

Project News

G-CLZA (LAA 162-15679) Zenair CH-601 HDS

By Stephen Foreman

H

aving built and flown a Zenair CH-601-HD for 10 years (selling it in 2014) my wife and I began thinking of building another CH-601, but this time with the tapered wing. On checking Zenair’s website it appeared that the HDS kit was still available to purchase and Zenair agreed to manufacture, what I believe to be, its last HDS kit. It is now focused upon manufacturing the 650 model but, at the time of writing, the first UK example is yet to be completed.

In April 2020, after a few weeks’ delay, the kit arrived in the UK and was soon being delivered by Metal Seagulls, who spent the day with us carrying out the inventory, a great service. Once again, our house was filled with sheets of metal, raw stock, canopy, wheels, brakes, gear legs, etc., and the shed came to life again.

Although at the outset I had no particular timescale in mind, with two lockdowns, building progressed faster than expected and by May 2021 the majority of the build had been completed. The 601 HDS kit does not come matchdrilled, plus you are required to fabricate quite a lot of the parts from raw stock, although in most cases parts are cut roughly to size for you to finish off to the correct shape and dimension as per the supplied drawings. As a shed dweller I am happy to spend my time fabricating, drilling thousands of holes multiple times, taking the work apart for deburring and etching, and then puzzling my way through reassembly, and finally riveting.

I am also fortunate that the build process is very much a team game with my wife, who has always been involved in both the building and paperwork. She enjoys setting out rivet lines, helping resolve the occasional problem and fettling pieces of metal, but still refuses to wield either the drill or riveter!

Our grateful thanks go to John Cook, our Inspector, who was always available to carry out inspections at short notice, and to Gary Johnson who has an HDS and provided valuable help via Messenger whenever called upon, and also offered to come and help if I got really stuck.

Once the detailed build paperwork had been submitted to LAA Engineering, there was an anxious wait but after a few weeks and a few queries, Jon Viner issued the authorisation to test fly the aircraft. A big thanks also needs to go to the LAA admin team (especially Adele, whom I

12 | LIGHT AVIATION | December 2021

Above The very smart Zulu Alpha completed and test flown. Photo: Stephen Foreman Below left The fuselage is built onto the wing centre section. Photo: Stephen Foreman Below right Stephen was able to accommodate the fuselage with one wing rigged. Note tapered outer wing section. Photo: Stephen Foreman

regularly emailed) who always dealt promptly with all correspondence and paperwork, despite the difficulties caused by the pandemic.

As I had experience flying the CH-601-HD, I applied to carry out the test flying myself with John Cook, and this was approved by the LAA. This was a first for me, to complete the build and be able to test fly our aircraft. There was a certain amount of nerves before the first flight and I have to make special mention of John Cook's help in this regard. His extensive flying knowledge and experience of multiple light aircraft types meant I learned more speaking to him prior to the first flight and flying with him during the test flying programme than I have learned in 25 years! His relevant knowledge of light aircraft, especially LAA types, is exceptional. Flying some of the first hours on the aircraft with John not only made the test flying process safer, it was also immensely educational and enjoyable.

For us the HDS has a good cruise speed and range, so is great for visiting airfields but is also a lot of fun to fly locally. It’s a very solid and well-mannered aircraft. However, like the HD, the undercarriage is a little agricultural and for the short duration between landing to rolling to a stop on grass you do feel a little shaken, though not stirred!

Project News

G-CLFD (PFA 179-14726) Brandli BX-2 Cherry

By Ray Rawles

Above An early trial fit of the main components showing the mix of wood and blue foam.

Photo: Ray Rawles

Above The control system and the retractable undercarriage mechanism.

Photo: Ray Rawles

T

he Brandli BX-2 Cherry is a design from Swiss, Max Brandli, circa 1979. At first glance during construction it looks like a conventional wooden aircraft, but it is of wood / composite construction. It has a pretty conventional looking wooden box fuselage with a stub low-wing centre section. The wooden wing panels, that detach glider style, use some blue foam ribs and a glass fibre covering. The design features a manually retracting undercarriage and a forward sliding canopy and LAA examples can use either a Continental C90 or a Rotax 912 ULS engine My plans-built example, G CLFD, has taken 14 years to complete. I purchased the plans in July 2007 from Max Brandli and the project was registered with the then PFA. It has been an interesting build. Max was a brilliant designer, and the drawings are very detailed, but they are in German, however partway through the build the plans became available in English on a CD, which was a great help. Mike Fountain built the first BX2 in the UK and Dave Roberts the

Above The finished aircraft ready and waiting for its maiden flight. Photo: Ray Rawles

second, they have both been a great help.

I am really pleased with the way it looks. My Inspector is Mike Smart, who has been a great help throughout the build. Foxtrot Delta has a Continental O-200, Talos Avionics EFIS, a Funke TRT800A transponder and a Yaesu FTA550 handheld radio, which I will replace with a panel mounted radio in the near future. The build was done in my extended garage but space was a problem. The tail surfaces were built first and stored in a spare bedroom, the main structure of the wings came next and finally the fuselage.

Bill Brooks flew it for the first time at Henstridge Airfield on 26 October, the LAA 75th anniversary Fly-It day; he was very happy with the stability and handling. What an amazing feeling to see it leave the ground, there are a few snags to sort out, hopefully they’ll be knocked off shortly. I cannot thank Bill enough. I would also like to thank my wife, Heather, for her encouragement, extra pair of hands and patience throughout the build.

New Projects If your aircraft has been featured in the New Projects list, please let Project News know of your progress at: projectnews@laa-archive.org.uk n Van’s RV-12iS (LAA 363A-15789) 11/10/2021 Mr D Rix, 5 Branwell Avenue, Guiseley, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS20 9FD

n Europa XS Trigear (LAA 247-15793) 19/10/2021 Mr P Matthews, Castlemead Cottage, Biddenden Road, Sissinghurst, Cranbrook, Kent, TN17 2AB n Sling 2 (LAA 399-15791) 11/10/2021 Mr M Dutton, 2 Tylers, Sewards End, Saffron Walden, Essex, CB10 2LN

n KFA Safari (LAA 402-15788) 7/10/2021 Mr A Blinch, 82 Sompting Road, Lancing, West Sussex, BN15 9LD n Van’s RV-8A (LAA 303-15792) 19/10/2021 Name & Address held by LAA Engineering n Sling 4 TSi (LAA 400A-15790) 11/10/2021 Name & Address held by LAA Engineering

Mr James Chapman, Peckhams, Poling Street, Poling, Arundel, BN18 9PT n G-PKSE Jodel D112 (s/n 1765) 27/10/2021 Mr Kevin Dermott, Aztec, Unit Z, Tidy Industrial Estate, Hassocks, BN6 8SG n G-CINX Van’s RV-7 (PFA 323-14412) 11/10/2021 Name & Address held by LAA Engineering n G-FFFF Zenair CH-750 (LAA 381-15485) 8/10/2021

Mr John Bate, 93 Lindsay Park, Burnley, BB10 3SQ n G-CLLI DHC-1 Chipmunk 22 (s/n C1/0508) 12/10/2021 Name & Address held by LAA Engineering n G-CLYN Zenair CH-750 (LAA 381-15722) 15/10/2021 Name & Address held by LAA Engineering n G-IIIM Starduster SA100 (s/n 4258549) 16/2/2021 Name & Address held by LAA Engineering

Cleared To Fly If your aircraft has featured recently in the magazine and has subsequently completed its maiden flight, Project News would like to hear from you at: projectnews@laa-archive.org.uk n G-BTLL Pilatus P3-03 (s/n 323-5) 6/10/2021 Mr Russell Dagless, Holly Hill Farm, Holt Road, Guist, Dereham, NR20 n G-JIMC Van's RV-7 (LAA 323-14996) 19/10/2021

December 2021 | LIGHT AVIATION | 13

EC review

Electronic conspicuity – and how to use it!

I

Neil Fraser explains EC’s foibles and advises plans for when you have a potential conflict…

have been investigating, using and reporting on Electronic Conspicuity (EC) for nearly four years and have notched up more than 150 hours air use of various gadgets. My experience of the traffic information from my EC has on the whole been good, and I have even experienced a couple of real traffic alerts. However, while they have woken me up, they also demonstrated to me that I was not as familiar with my traffic display as I should be, and I had no real plan of how to deal with the more challenging traffic conflicts it may identify. So, in this article I take a more in depth look at EC displays and possible pilot reactions to traffic alerts from them.

The CAA says it is embracing EC for the future of airspace

Below The CAA’s latest Clued Up publication.

management. It has published several brochures, which include slogans such as ‘see and be seen and share the air’, the latest of which is Clued Up future vision (Picture 1) which can be found on its website as CAP2000 and was handed out at the LAA Rally. In it, the CAA encourages us all to equip ourselves for our own good but talk about ‘sharing the air’ without any explanation of what this might really mean to us in terms of freedom or restriction. My own expectations of EC and indeed the CAA’s future vision, if taken literally, depend on EC devices working effectively together as a system, not individually.

Before EC can really contribute to a safe and capable aviation infrastructure that permits ‘sharing the air’ the CAA must resolve the interoperability challenge of the disparate standards – ADSB, PAW and FLARM – about which they currently sit firmly on the fence. However, the politics and difficulties over beacon (EC out transmitter) standards have been debated interminably elsewhere, so let’s move on.

Traffic avoidance only becomes a serious problem when two aircraft try to occupy the same piece of airspace.

Thankfully such events are few and far between, but it is a risk we all take when we fly. As an American pundit put it, ‘today we depend on big sky and small airplanes for our air traffic safety’. However, as the public airports in the UK continue to grab more of our airspace (seemingly unaware of the CAA’s ‘share the air’ and EC policy), that big sky is getting smaller and the traffic density higher. The CAA, it’s procedures, regulations and our training as pilots, address avoidance of traffic conflict to try to minimise this hazard, but are they moving with the times? With the advent of Electronic Conspicuity many of us have invested in EC devices to reduce the risk further, and it certainly adds another string to the bow of collision avoidance. Is it just a question of putting a beacon in your aircraft to be able to ‘share the air’ safely, or is more required to reduce the risk?

Conflict prevention: The Skyway Code

1 14 | LIGHT AVIATION | December 2021

To help us avoid conflict the CAA has published rules condensed into a readable form, the Skyway Code (CAP1535). This includes (VFR) rules for avoiding and resolving traffic conflict including directions of flight at altitudes above 3,000ft, flight along line features (roads / rivers etc.), priorities and procedures around aerodromes, passing and conflict avoidance manoeuvres. Mutual compliance with these rules goes a long way to mitigate the collision risk, but maybe now is the time for it to include EC.

EC review EC displays, what do they tell us?

Alert

2

Above FLARM LED display / Power FLARM receiver showing traffic 0.5 miles ahead.

3

Above SkyDemon display / Sky Echo receiver showing aircraft landing at Gloucester. First stage of warning (Yellow). Own Aircraft at airfield perimeter.

Detection and avoidance: Pilot training

As trainee pilots we were taught to look out and to scan the sky for traffic, and were advised that peripheral vision (in healthy eyes about +/- 60°) may alert us to high contrast or moving objects without having to look straight at them. Even if our eyesight and scan is perfect, does what we can see from our cockpit scan cover all the directions from which conflicting traffic may arrive? The answer is: No. How much you can see will depend on how you scan, your peripheral vision, glasses, aircraft structural clutter, the sun and even your hat. My normal visual awareness seems to be about +/- 90° from side to side, and +/- 30° up and down except directly in front of the aircraft which is limited by the panel to near horizontal. That gives me less than 25% coverage of the total sphere around me. That’s for me and my RV-6, but all pilots and aircraft types will vary.

Below Garmin Aera 660 / GDL50 receiver showing traffic in circuit around Henstridge airfield.

Own Aircraft just landed.

EC: No blind spots

Effective EC can eliminate the blind spots, but to benefit you need to be equipped with EC-in, which consists of an EC receiver and an EC display. Sometimes the receiver is part of a beacon (a transponder or other EC-out device), sometimes separate. The display can be part of your portable navigator (often connected by Bluetooth or Wi-Fi), in a panel instrument, or embedded in your glass cockpit display. The EC-in device measures your own position, height, speed etc., then compares it to the received position data from other aircraft. For those aircraft that are transmitting EC in a format that you are equipped to receive, they can’t hide – there are no blind spots. But, if their beacon is not compatible with your EC receiver, your EC-in will not detect them (this situation will remain until the interoperability issue is resolved). If, however, it is interoperable, does EC-in change our approach to traffic avoidance?

4

Firstly, EC-in can alert us of a potential traffic conflict. Some devices generate an audio alarm for traffic within a predetermined time or distance range. This is by far the best way as you don’t distract yourself or become fixated with an extra scan item. Others place a traffic message on the EC display screen that needs a (albeit basic) scan to pick up.

Traffic is represented by symbols or pointers and that which may become a problem is often highlighted by a change of colour. Others are reliant on you interpreting the traffic display as part of the scan to spot a potential conflict.

Traffic displays

Although most traffic displays have some unique individual features, they fall into three general categories.

• The clock display (Picture 2), comprising illuminated compass points indicating the horizontal direction of the closest or most threatening traffic. These are augmented by other information including the height (here presented as angular) and range of the traffic relative to you. Good for initial alert and guiding visual scan, but less good at providing spatial awareness of conflicting traffic and its relative motion to aid resolution.

• Map displays (Picture 3) superimpose traffic on a navigation map in the form of symbols or pictograms augmented by text and arrows. Traffic status or possible conflict can sometimes be indicated by symbol colour change and augmented by a warning message either on the screen or in audio form. The display can be either north up or track up depending on your navigator map setting.

Maps in north up mode are not very intuitive when used to determine avoidance manoeuvres and, regardless of orientation, the clutter of other map symbology detracts from their effectiveness.

• Radar or PPI (plan position indicator) (Picture 4) displays are normally tracked up and have an otherwise uncluttered screen. They display symbols or icons representing the position of nearby traffic and often include other information such as aircraft id, height, direction and climb / descent trends.

It is also possible on some to adjust the range and height band to further declutter the screen. I find these the easiest to interpret.

As usual in the chaotic EC world, not all symbology depicting an item is the same and not all displays are compatible with all the EC-in receivers, resulting in confusion and variation in effectiveness of use.

However, in its Clued Up brochure, the CAA has at long last started to recognise this. In its short section on human factors, it emphasises the need to understand the limitations of your EC device. This is currently a very December 2021 | LIGHT AVIATION | 15

EC review

5

6

16 | LIGHT AVIATION | December 2021

EC review important statement hidden away in an obscure paragraph and I wonder when that is going to get into the Skyway Code or training syllabus…

Display, its capabilities and limitations

First, it is important that the text and symbology you will use to identify, and perhaps resolve, a conflict is large and uncluttered enough to read and interpret in the active cockpit environment. For me, many of the display devices fall at this hurdle but, if you can see and read it clearly, are you fluent with what the display format, symbols, colours, arrows, pointers, numbers, and text actually mean? Much symbology is built around FAA TIS B Icons (Picture 5).

Others use aircraft outlines, triangles etc. to represent traffic. Colour or filling often denotes proximity, range or threat level, with yellow the normal threat warning. However, each product seems to have its own interpretation of which details are a subject in their own right, and many symbols have annotations providing further information. For example, height data is relative to you and is generally (but not always) in hundreds of feet + if above, and – if below.

Accuracy

Left top (pic 5) Typical TIS B style symbols. The white arrow outline represents an aircraft travelling in the direction of the arrowhead. If filled, it is the first warning of ‘concern’ and the yellow circle the second. The square is an aircraft on the ground Left (pic 6) A traffic icon with trend data.

The target aircraft is depicted flying north but due to the combined motion, its relative position is moving to the southwest. The dotted line is a position trend, not a heading.

All of the above possibly sounds comforting, but how accurate are EC displays? For EC to work properly, all EC devices must use the same height standard for both their receiver and beacons – but they don’t. While most devices use pressure altitude (1013.2 hPa), some use GPS altitude.

If, for example, an EC-in receiver used GPS altitude, but the

beacon in the other aircraft used pressure, and QNH was 990 hPa, the reported traffic height separation could be incorrect by 800ft!

At the moment EC-in devices don’t seem to recognise and report the difference, so there is no way of knowing if both aircraft are using the same altitude standard but even with compatible standards, certified altitude encoders are allowed a +/- 200ft tolerance and certified GPS +/- 300ft, so there still could be cumulative errors of as much as 400-600ft. A target reported as -3 (300ft below) may indeed be below and therefore no threat, or could well be at the same height and a collision risk, you just don’t know for sure.

Normally the height data within the same standard is quite accurate but be cautious with how you interpret such information and apply a tolerance before you use it for an avoidance manoeuvre.

Position data for EC is always derived from GPS but is also subject to errors. Data from some GPS devices and EC Beacon messages include accuracy information on the position message, but it’s what an EC-in traffic receiver and display does with that data that is important. Most do nothing and display the position as transmitted, however erroneous. Some do suppress really close data (that could be misinterpreted due to position errors) but on what basis is not obvious. The position accuracy of a certified GPS receiver can be +/- 0.05 nm (300ft) and as always with two measurements (one for each aircraft) the worst-case cumulative error must be considered. In other words, the position you have displayed for the traffic could be as much as 600ft away from where it is indicated to be – an aircraft that looks as if it is going to pass close by on the right could well do so on the left. Accuracy is a key limitation to be considered when using EC displays particularly when monitoring close or level traffic (Picture 6) where a small position error could be fatal. Be cautious.

Understanding if traffic is climbing, descending or horizontal manoeuvring is vital in managing conflict. Some displays have information to help you identify this (Picture 7).

For example, a symbol annotated +7 might indicate 700ft above descending, safe at the moment but an impending level conflict. Some displays include vectors (direction of travel), but make sure you understand exactly what they are depicting. Some may be the last reported GPS heading of the traffic, others are averages of the last few minutes and of course, the aircraft may be manoeuvring (e.g., gliders). Some also have a similar-looking relative position trend display – it is displaying the relative motion of the two aircraft but is tagged onto the other aircraft and it predicts how the two aircraft will move relative to one another over a given short period. It is easy to misinterpret if you are not on the ball.

One of my biggest disappointments is user handbooks.

Many lack clear data on exactly what displays are showing.

How can we be expected to interpret displays if we only discover some functions in the air (as I have done, and I was looking for them)? This problem includes some major equipment manufacturers which should know better. So, look at the actual display and check that you understand all its features before you have to depend on it.

Traffic conflict resolution: Should we use EC data to help?

Position error. The RV-6 is obviously close at two o’clock, slightly high, but look carefully at the EC display in the RV-8 (bottom left) which shows it at five o’clock below. At short range position information is not reliable, even with good GPS data.

7

This is aviation and we are safe because we follow well-thought-out and tested procedures, don’t we? If we have an EC traffic advisory message, audio warning or have discovered a potential conflict in our scan, and we have assessed where it really could be, what do we do? We are told (mostly in the device manufacturer Ts&Cs) that EC is December 2021 | LIGHT AVIATION | 17

EC review

8

they miss you or do you turn left (or climb or descend)?

That is something that may stand a better chance of getting you out of the way intact but risks the wrath of the Skyway patrol. Who knows? Will we ever get well-thoughtout and tested advice or procedures for flying with EC? Don’t hold your breath. In this risk averse world, I don’t think anyone is going to be prepared to accept the liability for providing such advice. It’s up to you, the pilot, what you do with your EC. Are you prepared?

EC alert plan

9

Above ‘Catchup’ (on a clock display) showing traffic 0.2 miles behind and level. The red LED indicates it of concern, but no more information can be gleaned from this display. just an aid to the visual scan and, once alerted, to look out visually for the reported traffic. Once we have it in sight, the Skyway Code tells us that if we need to manoeuvre to avoid it, we do so to the right. Well, that covers 25% of the big sky, what do we do if, for example, EC flags up traffic catching up from behind? (Pictures 8 and 9). It’s not simple. We need to have thought it through and prepared a reaction before it happens.

We are told not to use EC data as primary data for manoeuvre decisions so, do we ignore warnings of traffic we can’t see because of a legal caveat in the handbook, or do we do something about it? Before you condemn this as an unlikely scenario, have a quick look at CAP 707 which contains deconfliction advice for air traffic controllers who are managing just such catchup / climb / descend conflict situations routinely. It points out the final responsibility for aircraft safety lies with the pilot. These days GA is a mixture of 40-140kt aircraft all following narrow routes around and between various chunks of restricted airspace. We are following VFR corridors, VRPs, or are transiting choke points, so catchup is an increasing hazard. If the crew of the catching aeroplane see you, they should follow the Skyway Code and pass you to the right. If they haven’t seen you and don’t, (Picture 10) there is a collision risk. If you turn right, as implied in the Skyway Code, you could jeopardise their avoidance manoeuvre if they make one, and a simple procedural situation has just become dangerous. So, do you just sit there, do nothing (as convention implies) and hope 18 | LIGHT AVIATION | December 2021

Above top (pic 8) ‘Catchup’ (on a radar display) shows traffic .5 mile behind. The yellow dotted trend line indicates it is closing fast on a conflict course due to intercept in just over 30 seconds.

Above right (pic 10) ‘Caught up’ shows an alarming situation of impending conflict, but picture 6 shows what actually happened, a pass to the right. It could equally have been a collision, you just can’t tell from either display type. As well as position errors, the scale of the symbols is misleading. You have no idea whether the pilot behind has seen you. What would you have done?

For your own preservation, when you get an alert or find a conflict, it is important that you have thought it through and planned what to do next.

Perhaps you should develop a small EC warning procedure and ask yourself, ‘where is the threat and could I see it? Yes or no?’ If yes, look for it, if you see it forget EC and follow the Skyway Code.

If no (e.g. it’s from behind catching, above descending or below climbing) don’t bother looking for it visually, that is survival time wasted.

Have a plan or strategy and react to the potential conflict as soon as you can, rather than waiting to see how it develops.

In deciding what to do, remember the accuracy issue. Is the traffic exactly where it is reported by your display? Think through a few examples and prepare your plan. What you definitely shouldn’t do is have this quandary during the minute before potential impact. If you have EC, plan and prepare for such eventualities in advance.

The real point of this article is to suggest that if EC is to be successful, we all need to think through what we will do if we encounter a traffic conflict. We should prepare ourselves to react smoothly and efficiently to our EC traffic warnings, however they are presented, rather than have to react as a crisis looms with no plan.

EC is no longer just a cockpit toy, but an important safety tool and it is going to become more important whether it is for sharing the air, avoiding UAVs, allowing access to some future airspace or just as an extra pair of eyes. As the CAA says, it is important that we all understand its capabilities and limitations rather than fly around kidding ourselves it is a super accurate radar. It is not and using it as such is not safe.

This article is not intended as a tutorial or product review but more to prompt thought and perhaps debate.

Let’s have some feedback on this through the LAA forum under Electronic Conspicuity. (https://phpbb. lightaircraftassociation.co.uk) All the instrument illustrations are real, captured in the air. Thanks to Ruth Kelly, Clive Davidson and Patrick Carruth for help with the flying and photographs. ■

10

AGM

Headset review

LAA AGM 2021 Brian Hope reports on this year’s LAA Annual General Meeting…

T

he 2021 AGM of the Light Aircraft Association Limited took place on 24 October and for the first time featured a joint in person and virtual presence. Attendance in the Sywell Hangar 2 conference centre totalled 42 people, with 37 ‘attending’ virtually via Zoom. For a first attempt the system worked fairly well, although we apologise to those on Zoom who had problems with sound quality.

Coupled to this were around 70 postal/proxy votes, meaning around 150 members engaged directly with the AGM. It is a pity that more of the membership don’t take an active interest in the running of their Association but, taking a more positive spin, maybe that is because we are generally happy with the manner in which it is run.

The day’s business

The two Motions, both relating to the time period required for Motions to be submitted prior to the AGM, the adoption of the 2020 Statutory Accounts, and the election of Just Audit as auditors of the Company, were passed comfortably.

The Lois Parker Trophy for distinguished service in an administrative function, was presented to Harry Hopkins for his 30 years’ service as founder and past chairman of the Gloster Strut, work at the Rally, RV Squadron member, Executive Committee member of the PFA and former board member of the LAA. 2020: Alan Nixon, for his long service and support for the LAA NE Strut.

20 | LIGHT AVIATION | December 2021

The result of the board election saw the re-election of Dave Millin, Marcus de Ferranti and Eryl Smith, plus the election of previous members John Brady and Brian Davies, and new members Christopher Holliday and Ian Sweetland. This is good news as it means we now have a full complement of Board members, as for the past couple of years the board has had only seven members.

For anybody who wants to read the Chairman’s Report, the Treasurer’s Report or the CEO’s Overview, they can be downloaded from the LAA website at www.laa.uk.com .

Presentation of awards

The presentation of well-deserved LAA Service and Rally winners’ awards, presented by LAA Chairman Tim Hardy, was actually made prior to the AGM business.

Because last year’s AGM was restricted to a Zoom event, 2020 Service Award winners were unable to receive their awards, but the recipients’ names will be included on the engraved trophies, and are included in italics at the end of each award.

Malcolm McBride received the Frank Hounslow Trophy for service to LAA in engineering. For over 10 years he contributed his in-depth Safety Spot articles in the LAA magazine explaining the causes of failures and constructive information. 2020: LAA Inspector Dave Allan, for his engineering support to Vale of York Strut members.

AGM Rally Trophy winners included

The President’s Joystick for services to the Rally was presented to Sean Cantwell, a long term LAA Rally volunteer, who always joins in with every part of the pre-rally build up, as well as assisting with car parking duties and other areas.

The Pete Clarke for a major contribution to flight safety goes to Paul Fraser-Bennison, Chris Thompson and the Rally A/G Radio Team who, within just six weeks, put together a team of A/G radio staff to provide a radio service which safely supported the arrival of 700+ aircraft at the 2021 LAA Rally.

2020: Tim Palmer for his flying and coaching videos on his much watched ‘Jodel Flyer’ YouTube channel.

The Faulkner-Bryant Shield for the most active Strut or person within the Strut system went to Tony Palmer, for his work with the LAA Southern Strut as an inspector and aircraft restorer, for his fly-ins at his Palmer’s Farm air strip, and his support for Bristell owners across the UK. 2020: Anne Hughes, for her work with Struts4U in the magazine, her Strut Celebration publication and LAA online young people’s art competitions during lockdown.

The Air Squadron Trophy for the best plans-built went to Richard Teverson for his Isaacs Spitfire G-CLMC.

Geoffrey Leedham won the RAA Canada Trophy for the best kit-built aircraft, his Kitfox Mk7 G-CLML.

The Albert Codling Trophy for best part-built aircraft went to Richard Vary for his plans built Nieuport G-CLPN.

The Europa Trophy went to Alan Twigg for his Europa Motor-glider, G-GIWT, the first to be completed in the UK.

Glen Molloy collected the Roy Mills Trophy for Best Classic with his L18C Piper Cub, G-BJTP.

The Roderick Turner Award for the person who has contributed most to Flying for Fun was for 2021 awarded to Eryl Smith, for his work as chairman of the LAA Rally Committee. 2020: Neil Wilson for his leadership of the Wessex Strut, planning LAA Tours, magazine photography and much more!

John Brady and his Inspector, Alan Hartfield, collected the Nowicki Trophy for best Van’s and also received a Commendation in the Best Kit built category for the Van’s RV-8 G-RUVE.

December 2021 | LIGHT AVIATION | 21

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Above Jon has over 30 years of experience within the Aviation fuels & lubricants business, holding senior positions in business development and supply chain with Shell Aviation, Menzies Aviation and Fuel Proof Ltd. His experience and depth of knowledge in Aviation fuels is a key element of PUMA’s strategy to expand its presence in the UK and Ireland. Please feel free to contact Jon to discuss your requirements and how PUMA Aviation can help you improve the on time supply of Avgas and UL91.

Ongoing commitment to the General Aviation sector

As the largest Avgas producer in Europe, we are committed to delivering the highest quality products to the GA community, not only across the continent but also across the globe.

For more information, please contact: Jon Worsley, Aviation Manager. Telephone 01204 493301 or mobile 07985 152 920. jonathan.worsley@pumaenergy.com www.pumaaviation.com December 2021 | LIGHT AVIATION | 23

Coaching Corner

Airprox – Coaching the ‘almost’ Corner… collision!

Pilot Coaching Scheme Head of Training, David Cockburn, highlights Airproxes and CO poisoning…

T

he UK Airprox Board has recently published its annual report for 2020 (www.airproxboard.org.uk/ home/ ). As always, the document makes interesting reading, and it includes links to notable individual reports which the board produced on incidents that took place during the year.

Below Safety Sense Leaflet 13, downloadable from the CAA website.

There were a large number of airproxes involving uncrewed air vehicles, mainly with commercial air transport aircraft. However, the vast majority of aircraft-to-aircraft airproxes involved General Aviation aircraft. Indeed the report found that ‘90% of all risk bearing aircraft-to-aircraft events involved a GA sports and recreational light aircraft’ (sounds a lot like us!). At the risk of over-simplifying the report’s conclusions, I thought it worth mentioning some which I think are relevant to LAA operations. After all, a ‘risk-bearing airprox’ is a mid-air collision which was only just avoided.

Ninety-two percent of all aircraft-to-aircraft events took place in Class G airspace but since ‘our’ flights tend to remain outside of controlled airspace, that is not particularly surprising. Neither is the fact that most of ‘our’ airproxes occurred below 3,000ft. I was interested to note that more occurred between 1,000 and 1,500ft than in any other height band – I wondered if these were around the circuit, where several mid-air collisions have occurred in recent years. Indeed, one of the highlighted reports included an aeroplane joining the circuit, and another involved a high-wing aeroplane climbing into a low-wing aeroplane already in the circuit. Probably only a minority of us fly regularly in busy circuits, but that should encourage us to be extra careful when we do. Know where everyone else is in the circuit before joining it, report your position and intentions accurately and clearly, and never trust the other pilot to get out of your way!

Gliders

Other highlighted reports involved gliders coming into conflict with powered aeroplanes. Gliders are difficult to see, especially if coming towards you.

However, we can reduce the risk of collision by staying away from, or at least concentrating our attention towards, parts of the sky where we should expect them to be. Launch sites are obvious places, and the pilots tend to look for thermals just upwind of them, but gliders often travel long distances from base, using thermals up to the base of (and sometimes inside) cumulus type clouds. If flying on a day with cumulus clouds in the sky, I’d check very carefully before flying under one, and certainly I’d avoid flying close to cloudbase. Also remember that gliders use ridge and wave lift, often barely moving across the ground just upwind of the ridge itself or of any orographic cloud (wave updrafts are not restricted to days with lenticular shaped clouds).

24 | LIGHT AVIATION | December 2021

Coaching Corner EC devices

Hopefully, many of us have taken advantage of the subsidies given towards the carriage of an electronic conspicuity device. If you haven’t done so I recommend you consider it, and as Ian Fraser mentions in his article on page 14, understand what it is telling you and plan how you would avert a potential conflict. And of course, we must remember that these devices will only advise of aircraft that are fitted with transmitters compatible with our receivers (and are switched on). One of the highlighted reports involved an aeroplane fitted with a device intended to warn of conflicting gliders, but there was apparently no warning given of the glider with which the aeroplane nearly collided.

‘See and avoid’ is still the main (and in many cases the only) protection against a mid-air collision. Keeping the eyes outside the cockpit as well as scanning frequently and in little ‘saccades’, focusing for a couple of seconds on a series of 10° sectors along the horizon and above and below it, is still the best method. Much more detail on the subject, including the suggested scan patterns illustrated (above, right), is contained in the CAA’s Safety Sense leaflet 13, Collision Avoidance available on its website www.caa.co.uk/safetysense.

As a final thought on Airprox, it seems the Board had identified some pilots who appear to have flown deliberately into conflict with another aircraft despite having visually acquired it. Deliberately flying into conflict was assessed as a causal factor in 21 of the airproxes involving the GA community. I hope, and expect, that none of these pilots was a LAA member, but it does suggest yet another threat the rest of us should be aware of.

Helicopter rotor turbulence

Hopefully we are all aware of the advice that the rotor downdraught from a hover-taxying helicopter can affect a light aeroplane out to a distance of three times the rotor diameter. However, an incident recently reported to the CAA suggests that the hazard may be encountered at a greater distance if the helicopter is upwind of the aeroplane, as the surface wind can be added to the rotor downwash velocity. In this particular case, the combination of downwash and wind was blowing from the rear quarter, and the aeroplane was blown onto its downwind wingtip.

Hopefully, helicopters give our light aeroplanes a wide berth, but if we know one is planning to pass by, it might be advisable to ensure we’re pointing into wind before they get close.

Above top Side-to-side scanning method. Start at the far left of your visual area and make a methodical sweep to the right, pausing very briefly in each block of the viewing area to focus your eyes. At the end of the scan, return to and scan the instrument panel and then repeat the external scan.

Above bottom Front-to-side scanning method. Start in the centre block of your visual field (centre of front windshield); move to the left, focusing very briefly in each block, then swing quickly back to the centre block after reaching the last block on the left and repeat the action to the right. Then, after scanning the instrument panel, repeat the external scan. cockpit, or receive a warning from an alerting device, we should adopt the following drill: 1. Fly the aircraft – trim to a safe speed.

2. Get fresh air into the cockpit – turn off the heater, open ventilators and try to direct the air at the pilot’s face. Many windows have rotating scoops to do that, but a roll of paper to direct air flow can serve.

3. Head for a safe landing site – consider a long runway because the poison will affect your flying ability.

4. Call an Air traffic Unit and ask for help – the poison will affect your thinking so let someone else assist.

5. Watch out for indications that leaking exhaust may damage other systems.

6. After landing, see a doctor, but don’t drive; it takes a long time for CO to work out of your blood.

It is vital to remember that any warning device has a limited lifespan. The ‘black spot’ cardboard ones last only a few months, and the electronic devices lose their sensitivity after a few years (typically five to seven) but check them in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions and ensure that you have protection from this silent killer. ■

Carbon monoxide warnings

Recently, the CAA invited pilots to join a trial in the use of electronic carbon monoxide detection devices.

Interestingly, the latest listing of occurrence reports includes three in which one of these devices has alerted the pilot to the presence of an increasing amount of CO in the cockpit, in every case early enough to allow the pilot to act before any serious effects were felt.

The July 2017 issue of Light Aviation included an excellent article by Doug Blair, entitled The Canary and the Silent Killer, which can be found at https://tinyurl. com/4ww5by8 and I encouraged the carriage of a warning device in the April 2020 issue. It may, though, be worth repeating some key facts.

The most likely obvious symptom of carbon monoxide poisoning itself would appear to be a headache, although the smell of exhaust gases is often a good indication that CO may be present. If we have any suspicion of CO in the

Above Domestic CO detectors are a popular choice as they are generally low cost (around £20). This FireAngel CO-9D device, which is 120mm x 74mm x 40mm deep, runs for seven years on its lithium battery.

December 2021 | LIGHT AVIATION | 25

Flight Test

Safari… so good Francis Donaldson flies the interesting new KFA Safari, which debuted at the LAA Rally…

Pictures: Neil Wilson 26 | LIGHT AVIATION | December 2021

Flight Test

B

ack in December 2019, just a few carefree months before the world was turned upside down by Covid-19, we at LAA Engineering found ourselves in the position of dealing simultaneously with two new kitplane designs from South Africa, both based a few hours’ ride from Johannesburg Airport. I had already seen a certain amount of emailed paperwork, but in a world as yet untroubled by ‘red lists’, ‘green lists’, or all the other accompanying travel paraphernalia of the pandemic, what better way to learn about the new types than to jump on an aeroplane and go and see the factories for myself?

The Safari, featured here, is a tough, load-carrying high-winger produced both as a kit and, for those countries that allow it, a ready-built aircraft. The Safari’s typeacceptance in the UK is being pursued by Dover-based LAA member Graham Smith, whose previous experience of importing the popular SportCruiser and Groppo Trail kits will no doubt stand him in good stead. Graham has a strong track record in having overseen these types through the LAA process and supporting customers in the field with sorting out the problems inevitable in any kitplane build. He has also made a point of promoting kitbuilds at the budget end of the market, and had sold a good many SportCruiser kits into the UK during the heady days when they were made by CZAW and, for a year or two, sold like the proverbial hot cakes.

Budget pricing

Above The Safari certainly sets a tough bushplane image.

While the price of kitplanes has followed a relentlessly upward trend since the epoch of the SportCruiser and Trail, in the Safari, Graham saw an opportunity to once more bring a kitplane to the market that could be built for a more modest outlay. It is a traditional kit that would actually need a fair bit of work to finish, including building the wings from their component parts and, once the airframe was fully equipped, covering the whole thing with fabric and applying the paint job. But for those for whom assembling high quality components would be a pleasure rather than a chore, and who are prepared to learn a few new skills along the way, this might just be a way of bringing another tranche of kitplane builders into the fold who might otherwise have found the bottom line simply too large an outlay for the family finances to swallow.

Petit Airfield, the home of Kitplanes for Africa, or KFA, turned out to be a modest looking grass airfield set amidst scrubby farmland, with a cluster of hangars ranged alongside a single runway more than 1,100 metres in length.

In the drizzly conditions of my visit, it felt like a home from home, patterned after any number of our UK aerodromes – until, that is, it was pointed out that its elevation is more than 5,000ft asl!

In fact, had I gone over to South Africa in search of sunnier climes and an escape from the UK’s autumnal dreariness, I would have been disappointed – the rain pelted down on all but the last day of my four-day visit.

Disappointingly for all, the driving rain meant that while the

trip gave me a chance to go over the design details and see the build process, there was no possibility for an in-flight evaluation. As it turned out, it wasn’t to be until two years later that I got my first chance to try out the Safari in the air or write it up for Light Aviation.

Kitfox on steroids

Seeing the Safari from a distance, you could easily mistake it for one of a number of clones of Dan Denney’s Kitfox design – itself a dolled-up re-hash of Dean Wilson’s original and inspired Avid Flyer of the mid-1980s. But coming up close, you’d surely recognise this newest addition to the LAA’s fleet as a Kitfox on steroids – a bigger, beefier, and many will be glad to hear – roomier aircraft altogether, but still a recognisable offshoot from that illustrious bloodline of tube and fabric STOL aircraft. The Safari’s max gross weight in the UK is to be 700kg, though in South Africa, where the type has been in action for almost 10 years now, it’s cleared to 750kg under the local airworthiness rules. That’s very nearly twice the weight that the original Avid Flyer operated at!

Conventional construction

The Safari has a welded steel tube fuselage, undercarriage legs and tail surfaces. Unusually these days, for the sake of economy and ready availability, seamless mild steel tube is used throughout, rather than the ubiquitous 4130 chromemolybdenum variety, although KFA boss Stefan Coetzee is quick to point out that the most well-known light aircraft of all time, the Piper J3 Cub, also used mild steel tube in the majority of its construction, and for exactly the same reasons.

The Vee-strutted wings are built up with accurately pre-cut wooden ribs glued onto a pair of aluminium alloy tubular spars, with an internal truss of diagonal bracing tubes to brace the wings fore-and-aft. The flaperons, of composite construction, are hinged below the wing in so-called ‘Junkers’ fashion, so that they act almost as independent aerofoils rather than affecting the rear contour of the wing itself. The lift struts attach to the fuselage directly below the wing’s rear spar attachment to facilitate folding the wings rearwards for storage, although this does involve a certain amount of disconnection of the flaperon controls and removal of a rear decking piece to make room for the wing roots to swing round and in.

The undercarriage is bungee-sprung, the bungees acting upon the centre of a substantial welded steel tube truss running the width of the fuselage, underneath the legs of the crew occupying the side-by-side configured cockpit.

Large bush-style wheels and tyres are generally fitted to emphasise the Safari’s off-airport bushplane pretensions, but I was happy to see that this had not been carried to the extremes sometimes seen.

I can’t see the point in dragging performance-sapping jumbo truck size tyres through the air, or worrying about the four-figure cost of their replacement should they get irretrievably damaged… not to mention the difficulty of dealing with the massively lop-sided elephant should one side get a flat.

December 2021 | LIGHT AVIATION | 27

Flight Test Aerodynamic fences

The visual distinguishing features of the Safari, apart from its size, include a pair of aerodynamic fences on the upper wing surface, roughly at midspan and running chordwise.

These are normally fitted to help control an aeroplane’s wing drop at the stall, by delaying the spread of the stalled region from the wing root out to the tip area, or to generate a vortex that will act in a similar fashion. Similar fences – or are they endplates? – are also fitted to the outboard ends of the tailplane, just inboard of the aerodynamic balances which dominate the outboard section of the elevators. I haven’t managed to ascertain whether they are to improve elevator effectiveness, or to change the pitch stability characteristics, or to change the elevator’s hinge moment characteristics (all of which in combination go to make up the aeroplane’s ‘feel’ in pitch). They certainly imply that the Safari’s evolution has included significant development flight-test work – and they undoubtedly make a good talking point.

Old school tech

At the time when I visited KFA’s works, I had already met Stefan at AERO Friedrichshafen where he’d taken me round a Safari on static display. On meeting him again, and being shown around KFA’s hangars, it was obvious that Stefan is very much an old school boss, with a firm hand on every aspect of the establishment, from the gang of African fabricator/welders creating the fuselage frames in a rather dim backroom workshop to the ‘front of house’ design office and their records of past load tests and development modifications. In the assembly area, which was clearly their showpiece, a couple of Safaris under construction shared floorspace with kits being readied for delivery and an example of the smaller Explorer model that the Safari had been developed from.

While wing ribs and sheet metal parts were apparently being made by contractors using CNC equipment, the steel tube fuselages were constructed in an entirely traditional fashion using just saws and round files to prepare the steel tube pieces ready for installation into jigs, where the sub-assemblies would be welded before coming together in the single fuselage jig. Watching this in progress, it struck me how this was probably exactly the same way that so many of the fuselages for the early Kitfox and Avid kits had been made too, before the days of fancy CNC tube cutting machines. And with such a ready workforce to hand, and a relatively small throughput of aircraft, this may still be the most cost-efficient way to do it. Having said that, KFA’s output would be the envy of many other kit manufacturers – its website describing how, since 1993, it has produced over 300 of their first model, the Bushbaby, followed by 186 of the Explorer and 110 of the Safari.

912 ULS with aftermarket turbo

The factory tour gave an opportunity to see the interesting range of powerplants that KFA endorse, mostly Rotaxbased. I was able to see and be briefed on a new installation of the top-of the-range 915iS being finished off, and also a VZ Power 912 ULS that’s been modified to add a turbocharger, complete with automatic wastegate system which, like the 915, uses a pneumatic control rather than the 914’s electrical servo to moderate the boost pressure. This boosted 912 ULS conversion is the engine fitted to both of the first pair of Safaris being built in the UK. KFA has adopted this 135hp VZ conversion as a potentially cheaper alternative to the 914, involving fitting lower compression pistons, twin electrical high-pressure fuel pumps and a fuel pressure regulator. The fuel pressure 28 | LIGHT AVIATION | December 2021

regulator must be adjusted to give a fuel pressure between 3.6psi to 5.5psi, relative to the inlet manifold pressure. The standard Bing carburettors have to be modified to cope with the higher fuel pressure by replacing the float bowl gaskets with a rubber seal to prevent them from leaking.

The fuel pressure gauge has to be the more expensive differential pressure type to monitor fuel pressure relative to the intake manifold pressure, as a standard fuel pressure gauge measuring pressure relative to atmosphere would not display meaningful information.

Unlike some other turbo conversions, the VZ conversion doesn’t include welding the sections of the 912 ULS’s multi-piece crankshaft together to prevent it twisting out of alignment at maximum torque – KFA claims that providing the engine’s boost is limited to give no more than 135hp, no slippage will occur. Cooling, it seems, is no great problem given that the turbo boost is only intended to be used for short periods, to get out of a very short strip, and over the trees, for example, rather than for continuous use, or even to equal the 914’s five minutes maximum of turbo-boosted power.

In this turbo installation, the wastegate’s pneumatic control automatically limits the manifold pressure to 38 inches of mercury, so there’s no need to worry about the risk of over-boosting the engine. The adjustment is very simply made by altering the length of the pushrod that connects the wastegate to the diaphragm type pneumatic actuator. In the cruise, KFA suggest throttling the engine to a manifold pressure of between 30 and 34 inches Hg. The turbo’s bearings are fed with pressurised oil from the Rotax’s standard oil pump, which diverts some of the oil feed from the engine oil gallery, causing a small reduction in the oil pressure, which the factory suggest you can compensate for by shimming the oil pressure relief valve.

An additional scavenge pump is added to return the oil from the turbo to the oil tank – the Rotax 900 series engines rely on crankcase pressure alone for scavenging the regular oil system.

Fuel system

The Safari’s fuel system uses a pair of clear fibreglass wing tanks, mounted in the wing root, so that the content level of the tank is visible from the cockpit. On demand, LED lights in the wing roots can be switched on to better illuminate the gently heaving fuel level. The feed from these tanks is from their rear inboard corners, so prolonged steep descents with a low fuel level can cause a temporary interruption in fuel flow. To deal with this, KFA have a header tank located on the floor in the forward fuselage, also of clear fibreglass construction, mounted in between the P1 and P2 rudder pedals. The header tank feeds the engine via twin pumps plumbed in parallel, each with an external non-return valve to prevent back-feeding. The two electric fuel pumps must be wired into individual circuits i.e., one pump runs off the battery and the other runs from the alternator. A relay connects the two circuits which can be switched off to prevent both pumps being put out of action should one pump short-circuit. A high-capacity Bosch F-2161 fuel filter is fitted, and it’s recommended to change the fuel filter every year.

Individual shut-off valves control the flow of fuel from each wing tank to the header, while a third shut-off valve allows the pilot to isolate the header tank feed from the engine in the case of an emergency, such as an engine fire.

It’s recommended to fly with both tanks and both electric pumps selected when below 1,000ft. The top of the header

Above Note wing and tailplane fences, and vortex generators.

Right Schematic of the complex fuel system.

Flight Test

tank is vented back to both wing tanks via a tee piece, while return fuel from the pressure regulator is fed back to the header tank. As many of the early Kitfox owners found out, this arrangement relies on gravity to flow from the wing tanks to the header tank, so the proper ‘run’ of the feed pipes is important to avoid any airlocks that might disrupt the flow and allow the level in the header tank start to fall. Should this happen, a low-level sensor positioned near the top of the

header tank will trigger a warning to the pilot that he needs to take action to get the fuel flowing again – change tanks, most likely – or give him plenty of time (around 10 minutes) to find a friendly field and make a power-assisted precautionary landing. There’s a press-to-test button to make sure the low header tank fuel warning light works before take-off, which is an important part of the run-up checks. Speaking of checks, there’s a drain connected to the base of the header tank which is useful, as any water from either wing tank will collect there eventually – it’s recommended to check the water drain prior to the first flight of the day using a fuel sampler.

An important element of the turbo’s fuel system is the fuel intake manifold, which is provided with five connection ports, to accommodate the pressure sensing line from the pressure regulator, both carburettor overflows and a VDO temperature sender – the fuel intake temperature must be monitored. While it should normally settle at about 40°C, if the temperature rises to over 60° then the engine is likely to stop without notice, due to fuel evaporation.

One or two mods

After I returned from South Africa, and having thrashed out an agreed way forward for the technical submission and load testing or calculations that we would need to see presented, we agreed that Graham and serial LAA homebuilder Dudley Patterson could be issued project numbers and build packs for a pair of Safari projects on the strict understanding that, as with any new type that’s still under evaluation, the issue of a Permit to Fly would be dependent on the submission being provided and all found to be in order, as well as, of course, successful flight testing.

For Graham, the risk was all part of the challenge of getting December 2021 | LIGHT AVIATION | 29

Flight Test

a new type cleared, while Dudley, with an empty workshop to fill, saw the Safari as just what he needed and just had to be part of the action.

Graham noted a few tweaks which he felt were necessary during his build, to suit the normal LAA protocols, and when Ben Syson and I visited Graham in the summer of this year to see his finished ‘UK prototype’, resplendent in bright yellow finish, we found a few more things that we felt needed attention. The aileron pushrod in the cockpit ran fore-and-aft alongside the port seat, but rather than being straight, like most push-pull rods, it had been designed with a double bend in it to give clearance to the obstruction created by the bucket part of the seat. This lack of straightness made the pushrod too liable to bend for it to meet the very severe control system test requirements that apply nowadays, so Graham fashioned a guide plate out of nylon that would be introduced as a required LAA mod, which would restrain the pushrod in its attempts to bend sideways under load. We also went to some lengths to make sure that the pilot’s right foot (or the P2’s left foot) couldn’t get caught between the inboard edge of the toe brake and the front end of the centre console, where we were concerned it might otherwise cause a control restriction.

Approval to fly in time for the Rally

Happily, despite some of the KFA submission still being incomplete at that stage, we were able to get Graham’s Safari cleared for test flying on LAA’s ‘B Conditions’ (colloquially known as a Permit to Test, although these are no longer used) in time for it to be able to make the trip up to the LAA Rally at Sywell, albeit with some additional restriction on the Vne pending the completion of the outstanding stress items. Dan Griffith, LAA’s Chief Test Pilot, is the project test pilot, and is working his way through the schedules as time allows, insofar as is possible with the present limited envelope. However, ever curious as to how a new type will perform in the air, I was also privileged to fly the aircraft with Graham during a late September introductory hour-long getting-to-know-you session from Turweston’s grass.

30 | LIGHT AVIATION | December 2021

Above top Generous aerodynamic balances. Note baggage bay door.

Above Graham Smith standing by the Safari highlights its size.

I shan’t dwell on the outside appearance, as Neil’s photos do very adequate justice to that aspect. It’s big, when you get up close, so you climb up into it, rather than, as with its 1980s ancestors, just opening the top-hinged door, sitting down backwards on the seat and swinging your legs in. Once seated, I found that I could just about see directly forward over the nose, which was unexpected, given the relatively long cowling – that sleek entry and small spinner certainly helps minimise the amount of landscape obscured. With Graham and me on board, both being, shall we say, of a fair size, the cockpit was wide enough that we weren’t rubbing shoulders or short of knee room. I still had a couple of inches of headroom, too, and could look out horizontally sideways through the side windows – on some high wingers you find your head alongside, rather than below the wing root, feeling very blinkered in turns. The skylights in the Safari’s roof panel also help, although if it were mine, I’d be more inclined to make the whole top transparent and add a sliding fabric blind to keep the sun off when necessary.

The door latches convincingly with a pair of linked shoot-bolts at the front and rear, so there’s no fear of the door opening in flight – unless you want it to, of course,

Flight Test and this is permitted, for that open-air experience, provided you keep the airspeed below 70kt or 80kt with the doors removed.

The Safari’s controls are standard for this class of aircraft, with a central plunger-type throttle and toe brakes. A couple of large fuel valves are fitted either side of the throttle, their positioning certainly helps you keep fuel management in mind – Graham advises flying on one tank at a time to keep the tanks levelled manually by switching over every half hour. Alternatively, you can fly on ‘both’ but as with most such systems, they won’t necessarily feed equally. Electric pitch trim is controlled by a rocker switch on the panel, the familiar accompanying Ray Allen type trim position indicator being located alongside. Unusually, the manually operated flap lever (in reality, for drooping the flaperons) located centrally between and in front of the seats, has no conventional gate providing different flap settings, instead you can select any position between zero and full flap at will, relying on friction to keep it where you set it. With the flapperons being aerodynamically balanced, unlike with plain flaps there’s no great force required to deploy them, otherwise this arrangement wouldn’t work.

First-class placarding

What particularly caught my attention after strapping in was Graham’s eye-catching, not to say striking placard set, which he had had specially laser-cut, thanks to a work contact. Colour-matched with the aircraft’s paint scheme, these placards and labels are nothing if not clear, and a definite aid in rapidly identifying what’s what in an unaccustomed cockpit – and, I suspect, pulling or pushing the right thing in an emergency. We tend to treat placards and labels as if they were somehow an afterthought, but this

is a mistake – especially with the complexity of instrument panels nowadays and the regrettable lack of standardisation about layouts and operating procedures. The choice of wording of the labelling of a switch can make all the difference between a safe flight and a tragedy. On one occasion I had to abort a flight during the run-up checks because it wasn’t clear which position of the fuel selector corresponded with which tank, and there wasn’t enough pipework visible to identify how it had been plumbed. Full marks to Graham for bucking the trend with some really effective labelling, custom-made for the Safari.

Graham had impressed on me that the turbo’d 912 ULS was powerful, but that since he’s optimised the set-up it was very sweet to operate. The aeroplane was fitted with an inflight adjustable electric Ivoprop propeller – one of those ones which, to change pitch, twists the blades along their length using internal torsion bars, rather than twisting the whole blade about pitch-change bearings built into their roots. But Graham had found that once set to give 5,700rpm at full throttle for take-off, the cruise rpms were pretty much spot on at a reduced throttle setting without the need to fiddle with the prop pitch, so a cheaper fixed pitch prop would match the torque curve of the blown engine in the Safari airframe perfectly adequately.

Time to fly

Still slightly warm from Graham’s flight over, the turbocharged 912 ULS started on the first press of the button, its reduced compression compared to the normally aspirated 912 ULS making it seem super-smooth, like the 914. The start-up procedure involves remembering that there are two electric fuel pumps to test, and a mental note to be made that switching off BOTH pumps in flight will result in an

Right Beefy structure and plenty of window area.

Far right A busy engine bay with an aftermarket turbo.

Below Nicely turned out panel and explicit placarding.

December 2021 | LIGHT AVIATION | 31

Flight Test all-too-instant silence. Otherwise, and apart from the novelty of seeing manifold pressures up to 38 inches, it’s standard 912 procedures – the wastegate’s automatic controller sees to all that, and you only need to watch out for any signs of overboost indicating the control system has malfunctioned, such as from a stuck wastegate for example. Should it overboost, you need to throttle back smartly to bring the manifold pressures back under control – especially with that press-fit crankshaft! There’s a warning light that’s triggered if the max boost pressure is approached or exceeded.

Manoeuvring the aircraft on the ground, it seemed a little ponderous at first in responding to jabs of the rudder and toe brake to steer around corners, until Graham pointed out that I wasn’t managing to get the steerable tailwheel to break out, which as it was set up, required absolutely maximum rudder travel. Even resting the ‘other’ foot on its rudder pedal was seemingly enough to keep the rudder from full deflection and prevent the tailwheel going into caster mode. It’s certainly an important reminder of how sensitive these tailwheel units can be to their set-up – another LAA’er has since been showing me how he had to alter the cam on his tailwheel unit to make it less prone to breaking out when he didn’t want it to – just after touchdown in a crosswind. I can’t help wondering how many expensive incidents may have been triggered by a tailwheel unit being not quite set right during the check flight, when ‘I can live with that’ may so easily herald a disaster later.

Taking off, I found the engine accelerated very smoothly on opening the throttle, with no alarming surge from the turbo boost coming in – everything seemed very controllable and the Safari was up and away almost before I had reached full throttle. There was no problem keeping straight or with a lot of ‘right foot’ being needed in climbing away at 60kt. The Safari felt very responsive, particularly in roll, and with the mechanical flaperons reset to zero, and powered back to a relaxed sounding 5,200rpm/32 inches Hg, wound its way quickly to 4,000ft, averaging something in the region of 1,000ft/minute.

Speed stability

On the way up, inducing gentle speed variations by ten knots above and below the trim speed showed that she was very respectably speed-stable for this class of aircraft – on many you’re hard pushed to feel any significant change of stick force over quite wide changes of speed. Likewise, experimenting with the rudder showed that she was convincingly directionally stable with feet on, returning promptly from an induced yaw on centring the pedals, and slowly, but nevertheless surely, the yaw diminished ‘feet off’ on release.

Up and away, Graham had warned me that I might find the Safari over-sensitive in roll, but I found it typical of the breed of aircraft with full span flaperons, i.e. a powerful control giving very good roll authority. As with other similar flaperon equipped types, because of the narrow chord of the control surfaces and multiple friction-inducing hinges, they don’t have a tendency to self-centre for angles less than about 1/3 deflection. Consequently, after making any small roll input you have to put the stick back to the centre yourself rather than just giving it a nudge and then letting it neutralise by itself. This can initially give an impression of over-sensitivity but it’s something you very quickly learn to accommodate and no longer notice.

Where the roll control was unusual was that there was very little adverse yaw, thanks no doubt to the very generous amount of differential action used in its flaperon control system – in other words, when you move the stick to either 32 | LIGHT AVIATION | December 2021

Above Sleek cowling aids forward view.

side the up-going flaperon moves through a much greater angle than the down-going one. The lack of adverse yaw is particularly noticeable at high speeds, when you can fly the Safari into and out of banks with no co-ordinating pedal input at all, without sending the skid ball more than a balls-width off-centre.

The lack of flaperon self-centring after making a small roll input means you don’t learn much from the standard ‘stick release in a sideslip’ lateral stability test, as releasing the stick in a sideslip resulted in the stick staying where it was put (or returning very slightly), which held the depressed wing down despite the countering effect of the deflected rudder.

However, manually centring the stick in a sideslip, or testing entering and recovering from turns with rudder action alone, showed that the Safari does have positive dihedral effect (a measure of lateral static stability). Like similar flaperon equipped aircraft, the lack of aileron self-centring need not be a problem for a day-VFR aeroplane, though the tendency to chase the horizon would likely create a significant extra workload if trying to fly on instruments in IMC – but of course, that isn’t what something like the Safari is about.

With the flaperons lowered to provide a flap effect, there’s a slight nose down trim change and as with most flaperon systems, a reduction in roll authority and increase in adverse yaw effect. But in the Safari, these traits are not marked and even with full flap and at speeds approaching the stall, there’s plenty of roll authority available providing you remember to use your feet to keep things co-ordinated.

Flight Test A nice stall

Wings level stalls, whether power off or power on, and carried out with flaperons either up or down, produced benign and generally wings-level stall breaks, only showing her teeth by dropping her nose and right wing more sharply if one abused the situation by heaving the stick to the backstop after the nose had started to drop.

Positive action to unload the wing at this point instantly arrested the roll-off and got us flying again. Noted stall speed was 36 knots with full flap.

As in the climb test, the aeroplane proved pleasantly speed stable both in the cruise configuration and in a simulated approach, the trimmer allowing the aircraft to be trimmed in the cruise with a few jabs on the panel mounted rocker switch. At the mid cg position tested, full up trim was needed to trim for the approach at 60kt, with full flap and approach power, so that a slight residual back stick force was needed to maintain the recommended 55kt, perhaps indicating that a small adjustment of the trim tab range of movement will be needed to comfortably accommodate the full range of cg positions.

Winding the Safari round in continuous steep turns showed that the aeroplane has quite high stick force per g for this class of aircraft – meaning it would be difficult to overstress it inadvertently, and there’s no feeling of it being over-sensitive in pitch despite the rather impressive looking end-plated tailplane / elevator combo.

Good to sideslip

The combination of the fairly weak directional stability, powerful roll authority and plenty of fuselage side area makes the Safari very comfortable in an intentional sideslip, where a 30° wing low attitude can be held with ease in straight flight, and a great deal more in a sideslipping turn. Given the relatively small amount of flaperon deflection in the ‘flap’ mode, which doesn’t give a huge increase in the flapped rate of descent, sideslipping is certainly an important feature in the Safari’s repertoire where the mission involves approaching over tall trees and then getting down and stopped in a short distance.

With the boosted 912 ULS, the Safari is a lively performer, quick off the ground and climbing strongly with the engine buzzing away reassuringly smoothly. The engine is a pleasure to operate, and feels very willing throughout. On Graham’s installation, the oil pressure is comfortably in limits and the temperatures are also running cooler than standard – he’s only seeing a cylinder head temperature of around 88° to 90°C, (the maximum is 115°).

On the take-off run and in the climb the engine settles to 5,800rpm, and just above the treetops we throttled back

to 32 inches and an rpm around 5,200, which yielded a climb rate around 1,000fpm. Once at cruise altitude, throttling back to a manifold pressure of 29 inches the rpm settles around 4800rpm and indicating 85kt. At 2,000ft it cruises comfortably at 85kt burning 20litres/hr.

To understand where this performance sits in relation to other 912 ULS powered aircraft, it’s important to keep in mind that this is no lightweight microlight – with a max loaded weight of 700kg it’s a lot more aeroplane than a 450kg microlight. With an empty weight of 405kg, and a fuel capacity of 125 litres, the Safari can carry two crew each weighing 86kg, a hefty 37kg of baggage, and full fuel (90kg) and remain within its legal ‘max gross’. That’s enough fuel for five hours’ flying, with reserves – and carrying camping kit…

Amiable and well-mannered

Overall, I found the Safari an amiable, well-mannered and thoroughly tractable aeroplane which did what was asked of it uncomplainingly, and would clearly be a great deal of fun to fly, particularly in a backwoods type of environment where its STOL performance and big low pressure tyres would really come into their own. The VZ Power turbo conversion of the 912 ULS was a pleasure to fly behind, the low-compression pistons taking away all the harshness of the standard 912 ULS. Flying locally from Turweston’s bowling-green runways, I felt a bit like mum doing the school run in the 4x4. The Safari would be just the job for off-airfield flying in the wilder and more distant parts of the country, but equally at home in the more gentle surroundings of the farm strips of the Home Counties. ■

KFA Safari Specifications General characteristics

Cockpit width: 1.194m Total length: 6.415m Wingspan: 9.34m Wing Area: 12.1 m² Height: 2.625m Empty Weight: 390-410kg MTOW: 700kg Rate of Climb: 1300ft/m Stall Landing config: 42kt Stall full flap: 40kt Cruise @ 75% power: 110kt @7500ft VNE: 126kt Engine: 100 /135hp Rotax 912.

W: https://www.spriteaviation.co.uk/ E: graham@spriteaviation.co.uk

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Flying Adventure

Next stop France…

Martin Ferid takes a trip to Lydd, in the Garden of England, which is full of history and charm – and only a hop and a skip away from the Continent…

A

s this year comes to a close, thoughts will be turning optimistically to next year and the season ahead. As a launch point to the Continent, Lydd is ideally situated, and it has the benefit of the fuel duty being deducted at source, which easily offsets the £22 landing fee. I guess you could say that for me this is very wishful speaking for 2022 as I recall that Sian and I once dropped into Lydd to refuel around lunchtime and arrived in Switzerland in time for dinner.

After two long seasons with precious little overseas touring, I am desperately hoping next year we can get back to something like ‘normal’.

Whatever way you look at it, the self-proclaimed London-Ashford Airport remains in the middle of nowhere and is primarily used as a stopping off point, on the way to or from somewhere else. The wacky marketing is naturally aimed at the corporate market and requires imagination on an epic scale, as Lydd is a good 1½ hours away from London by public transport, and is actually far closer to France than London.

That said, I’ve always found the reception staff and refuellers friendly and helpful, and Lydd Aero Club, under the directorship of Roy Panniers and Bill Vidal, is always welcoming to all who pass through their doors. Lydd Air

36 | LIGHT AVIATION | December 2021

Above Lydd Airport is on the coast, so relatively easy to spot.

continues to offer its charter service, albeit that the Le Touquet shuttle is on a more ‘on demand’ basis these days.

And TG Aviation and the Search and Rescue Helicopter also relocated to Lydd with the closure of Manston.

Until recently, most visitors ate at The Biggles Café but it has since closed and the management is actively in search of a new operator. It was always adequate, but more of a cafeteria than a restaurant, with a popular Sunday carvery.

I hope that the new incumbent has a vision and a flair for food to create a ‘proper’ restaurant, making it a desirable destination in its own right. French airfields fill their restaurants by providing good food for people to enjoy while watching the aircraft come and go, both inside and on the terraces. Little known is that the airport actually owns the adjacent golf club, making it a good choice, not only for a round of golf but also a pub-style lunch. 01797 320808; www.lyddgolfclub.co.uk.

Due to its coastal location, it should be easy to spot, as the green fields of Romney Marsh transition into the blue of the Channel. But, apart from frequently being windy in hazy conditions, the runway can prove to be more than a tad elusive in the reduced visibility.

As a tip, locate the Dungeness power station and look for what is locally known as ‘the pepper pot’ that sits near one end of the runway.

Flying Adventure rich and famous, as they could simply motor onto the aircraft, get whisked off to France and motor off again in the blink of an eye.

In the original book version of Ian Fleming’s Goldfinger, Auric Goldfinger and his car travelled from Ferryfield to Le Touquet aboard a Bristol Freighter, although in the screen version that was altered, and he went from Southend to Geneva in an Aviation Traders ATL-98 Carvair.

One of the things that I particularly like is the nonstandard join, as it feels intuitive, simple, and mitigates the risk of collision. (1,500ft in the overhead, then a diagonal to 1,000ft to intersect the join between the crosswind and the downwind legs and, Bob’s your uncle!).

Unfortunately, if you need to land as a result of a weather diversion, it still remains one of only four airfields that refuse to sign up to the Strasser Scheme, although I can attest to the fee being of little importance after a fraught Channel crossing when your mettle is being tested and terra firma beckons. At the rate that we are losing airfields, we have a vested interest in Lydd’s success, although they should do all they can to make GA welcome, which hasn’t always been the case. Lower landing and parking fees would surely attract more weekenders, generating more income in real terms, while creating a buzz at the same time. After a recent meeting with the new manager David Hainsworth, I was told that there are plans afoot, but no details were forthcoming. There is no way of knowing whether those plans will be geared towards attracting GA or continuing to chase other forms of revenue.

Dreaded drones

In the last couple of years, Tekever AR5 Evolution Mk2 drones have been based and operated from the airport, with at least one reported incident in an approach to land.

Their introduction created some pretty draconian crossChannel airspace restrictions, initially up to 3,000ft and later to a more reasonable 1,500ft.

Channel crossings can be pretty strenuous for pilots at the best of times and whoever designed the confounding segmented restrictions to accommodate unmanned drones should try a little VFR cross-Channel flying.

Whatever the perceived benefits may be to somebody sitting in a warm office, let it be known that drones and aircraft don’t mix, and they should be kept low-down and well out of our way and not the other way around.

Silver City

The airport opened in 1956 as Lydd Ferryfield when the Lympne based Silver City Airways expanded its aerial car ferry services. It provided links to Le Touquet, Calais, Ostend, Cherbourg and Southampton throughout the 1950s and 1960s. By the 1970s, unprecedented competition from the roll-on, roll-off ferries made operations unviable. It must have been a spectacular period for the

Lydd Village

Above Lydd village has the usual services for sustenance and a bed for the night.

Below Silver City operated Bristol Freighter car ‘ferry’ services in the fifties and early sixties.

Photo: Wiki.

Unless you plan to spend a few days in the area, Lydd village is where you’re likely to spend the night, especially after a diversion. The walk takes around 40 minutes, where you’ll find a hotel, Airbnbs, a couple of pubs, a curry house, a kebab shop, a Chinese and fish & chips. Don’t expect luxury, but given the circumstances, a roof over your head and any food will seem welcome. As they say, any port in a storm.

Lydd Town Museum documents the area’s history and is open in the afternoon with no formal entry fee, although donations are welcomed. Guided walks around the village are available for £2. 01797 366566, The Old Fire Station, Queen’s Rd, Lydd, Romney Marsh TN29 9HL theromneymarsh.net/lyddtownmuseum.

The village has a carnival held on the third Saturday of June. It was established in 1868 and, apart from the war years, has taken place annually.

Due to the ever-constant threat of invasion, there has always been a military presence in the area. The garrison was extended in WWI with the construction of metal huts, giving it the name of Tin Town, by the locals.

A bed for the night

The George Hotel is probably the most convenient place to stay in the village. Rooms cost around £50 per night and they have their own reasonably priced restaurant with live music on Sunday afternoons. 11 High St, Lydd, Romney Marsh TN29 9AJ 01797 321710 thegeorgehotel-lydd.co.uk/

Out and about

Brenzett Aeronautical Museum is a small museum at nearby Ivychurch. Although it’s only 10 minutes in a taxi, the colubrine route by Nos 11 bus takes an hour.

Ivychurch Rd, Brenzett, Romney Marsh TN29 0EE 01797 344747 www.rmwcollection.co.uk/ New Romney is the headquarters of the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch steam railway line that runs from Dungeness through to Hythe. 01797 362 353 rhdr.org.uk/ December 2021 | LIGHT AVIATION | 37

Flying Adventure

Above right Rye’s St Mary’s Church Tower with its reputedly oldest working clock in the country.

Below Delightful Rye, an unspoilt gem of a town and well worth a visit.

See also The Romney Marsh Wartime Collection rmwcollection.co.uk/ For bed, food and drink, try The Ship Hotel around £85 for a double room, 83 High St, New Romney TN28 8AZ 01797 362776 the-ship-hotel.co.uk/ Dymchurch is about 20 minutes by car and 40 minutes by bus (103). The high Street houses Tower No 24, the best surviving example of a Martello Tower built to greet the anticipated arrival of Napoleon and the French. A total of 74 were built between 1805 and 1812, although only three are open to the public. This particular example has been restored to its original state, complete with 24 pounder muzzle-loading cannon, fireplaces, window openings etc.

Hythe is about an hour away on the same 103 bus with a creepy and rather macabre attraction within the Crypt of St. Leonard. The medieval church houses an ossuary, with the UK’s largest collection of human bones and skulls stored in a 13th-century extension.

Camber Sands, with over two miles of beach and dunes, is less than 20 minutes away in the other direction, buses 102 or 11. It’s very popular with Londoners during the summer months. Another means of getting around is E-bike Hire Camber Sands, which costs £30 for half a day, rising to £48 for a full day. 123 Lydd Rd, Camber, Rye TN31 7RS 07960 587482 ebike-hire.com/ Rye is Lydd’s best-kept secret and the jewel in the crown, situated just over the county border in East Sussex. If you haven’t visited yet, it is ideal for two couples or a small group of friends, as it ranks as one of England’s prettiest and unspoilt towns. It retains much of the vestiges of its medieval charm, with narrow cobbled streets, halftimbered houses and historic architecture.

Parking meters have just been introduced, although traffic lights are seen as a touch radical and at present a step too far. Its name is thought to have come from the old word ‘rie’, meaning ‘embankment’ and medieval maps show the town as an island on a large embayment, providing a safe anchorage and harbour. It was made one of the Cinque ports by Edward the Confessor, giving it special concessions and privileges in return for supplying ships and men in defence of the realm.

The other side of its close proximity to France was the

lucrative smuggling of wool to the Continent and contraband in the form of tea, lace, tobacco and alcohol into England. The smuggling cabal had bootlegging off to a fine art as, with the setting sun, the vespertine light signified the start of clandestine activities on an industrial scale. If you have trouble tracking their steps, fear not as there have been numerous sightings of revenant, shadowy figures from the past in the local alehouses and dwellings, and they may well pay you a visit themselves.

Some of the residences were designed with penumbral underground passages linking one another, providing secret hiding places and escape routes, making it more of a way of life. Given enough time, try one of the guided walks ryehistorywalks.co.uk. The 102 bus will get you there in a little over an hour and a taxi in about 20 minutes.

St Mary’s Church Tower is said to have the oldest working clock in the country on its turret. If you’re fit enough, climb the stairs to the top for some lovely views of the Kent and Sussex countryside.

Lamb House is a National Trust property and known as the ‘writer’s house’, which included writers like Henry James and EF Benson. West St, Rye TN31 7ES 01797 222909 nationaltrust.org.uk/lamb-house Jazz Festival There is a week-long jazz festival in the summer, a fun time around every street corner and a must for jazz lovers. ryejazz.com/

A bite to eat…

Mermaid Inn, hotel and restaurant was rebuilt in 1420 and is regarded as one of the best symbols of Rye. Serving traditional English fayre, it's expensive but a must-visit, if only for a drink. 01797 223065 mermaidinn.com/ Webbe’s at The Fish Café, for the best seafood in the area 01797 222226. Tower St, Rye TN31 7AT www.webbesrestaurants.co.uk Rye Waterworks Micropub is a quirky converted ex-public toilet serving local ales, ciders and food etc.

Tower Street, Rye TN31 7AT ryewaterworks.co.uk/ 38 | LIGHT AVIATION | December 2021

Flying Adventure Ypres Tower / Rye Castle Museum contains local weapons and artefacts dating back to the times of William the Conqueror. Rye TN31 7HE 01797 226728 ryemuseum. co.uk/ypres-tower. You can sit in the Gun Garden below and have a picnic or lunch in the adjacent pub, The Ypres Castle Inn yprescastleinn.co.uk Newenden is a small hamlet not far from Rye and sits on the River Rother. It’s a truly picturesque place where rowboats can be hired, and camping is available. It also has its own restaurant and a regular boat service along the river to Bodiam Castle 01797 253838. bodiamboatingstation.co.uk/.

For a drink, food or a room, just walk across the medieval style sandstone bridge, built-in 1706, to the White Hart, a lovely olde worlde pub thewhitehartnewenden.co.uk/.

The place is enchanting in itself but a must for cricket lovers, many of whom follow the sport with religious fervour. According to legend, and duly corroborated by Wisden Cricketer’s Almanack, it is accepted as the birthplace of cricket or ‘creag’. The first known reference to the game was on 10 March 1301 whilst King Edward I was visiting the then-thriving port. His accounts show a sum of money drawn for his son, the Prince of Wales (later Edward II), to play at Newenden, the next mention not appearing for another 250 years. The Newenden Cricket ground is opposite the pub and the club were unbeaten league champions in 2021.

All in all, the remote location of the airport and lack of easy access have always been Lydd’s nemesis. Buses are intermittent and just the walk from the terminal to the bus stop takes 20/25 minutes. The best value taxi found locally was Lee’s Taxi’s 07824 171778. For an idea of costs, it’s about £8-10 to New Romney and £20-25 to Rye. Nowadays, Lydd is in a position to forge its own destiny as there is plenty to do and see in the area, although it really needs a reasonably priced car hire service, its own shuttle bus and a decent restaurant to make it a more convenient place to visit. Then, who knows, it may well thrive once again.

Finally, for the concluding issue of yet another bizarre year, I’d like to wish those who follow this monthly rendition a very Happy Christmas and, given the current conditions, a healthy and prosperous New Year for 2022. l Just in case you’ve missed it, this is Brian Hope’s last issue as editor after 20 years in the job. He’s going into semi-retirement and getting involved with the training

courses side of things within the LAA. Cut his veins and he’ll likely bleed W80, and my guess is that his pulse rate works on the Otto cycle.

I’m sure that he has inspired countless people over the years, including myself.

I’d like to wish him luck and an enjoyable semiretirement, not only on my own behalf but on behalf of the whole readership and look forward to seeing him and his Jodel on our fly-outs throughout Europe and the UK. Good luck and best wishes, Brian! n

Above Picturesque Newenden, home of cricket and a pleasant boat trip to classic Bodiam Castle.

Touring with Martin…

Martin Ferid is a Class Rating Instructor / Revalidation Examiner, specialising in advanced tuition and confidence-building flights in your aircraft throughout Europe and the UK. These adventures can be taken as simple day trips or a few days at a time.

Browsing through the ‘favourite destinations’ on the website below should inspire tyro and experienced pilots alike. For amusement, try the ‘bit of fun’ section on the ‘contacts’ tab. For a confidence boost, a biennial flight, or for some long-distance flying, we can make it fun too!

Email: lightaircrafttraining@yahoo.com Tel: 07598 880178 Website: lightaircrafttraining.co.uk

Thanks!

À bientôt Brian!

W

Steve Slater pays tribute to 20 years of sterling service by LA’s retiring editor…

e have to admit to some ‘smoke and mirrors’ here. Myself and editor-in-waiting Ed Hicks have unashamedly stolen a page of Brian’s last edition as editor to pay tribute to a man, who frankly is a bit of an LAA legend, and certainly one of the Association’s hardest-working contributors.

Brian has been a PFA and LAA member since 1976, a Permit aircraft owner since 1987, on the committee of the Kent Strut since 1989 and has served in a number of Association roles from Vice Chairman to Treasurer, as well as more than a decade as a Board member and, as one of the assessment team for the annual Armstrong-Isaacs Flying Bursaries.

Of course, Brian is best known as the editor of Popular Flying and Light Aviation magazines. Brian was editor of the Association magazines for 10 years on a part-time contract basis before being invited to join the staff as a full-time LAA employee in October 2011.

Among Brian’s many milestones as editor was his first issue, May/June 2001, in the days when the magazine was still bimonthly. Brian worked with John Catchpole and his

40 | LIGHT AVIATION | December 2021

Above The inimitable Brian Hope Photo: Neil Wilson Below From six to 12 issues a year, a new name, different printers and changing designs, Brian has provided a steady steer for Light Aviation

Imax Publishing company to take advantage of computing and technological advances in the print industry which led to production costs being brought down, and under Brian’s tenure, Popular Flying was able to become a monthly magazine from January 2005. Brian also oversaw the magazine’s change of title to Light Aviation in January 2008, in line with the Association name change to the Light Aircraft Association Ltd. There have been other challenges too.

Brian oversaw a move from Imax Publishing to LOOP Publishing in July 2008, and when LOOP went into receivership in December 2010, Brian helped bring Seager Publishing on board to provide the design and print for the magazine in January 2011. Most recently, Brian oversaw a facelift for the magazine with refreshed visuals in 2019, bringing us to the Light Aviation we enjoy today.

Brian’s ‘history’ is therefore shown in some of the magazine covers shown on this page. I’m also delighted that Brian is not stepping away from working with the LAA just yet. While he is handing over the helm of Light Aviation to Ed Hicks, Brian has already started work in a new role as Training Course Co-ordinator. So it’s less a case of ‘au revoir’, more ‘à bientôt’! ■

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And a happy Christmas to all our friends in the LAA!

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Klemm project

Headset review

Vintage fantasy…

Jim Copeman reports on the progress of British Klemm, G-ACXE, a fascinating vintage machine

S

ince the previous report in early 2020 much has happened to progress the restoration of our 1934 British Klemm L25C, despite the interruptions of Covid. In fact, I think I wrote the original article as a way to fill time during the early days of the pandemic…

So, what has been done? Well, you may recall from the previous article that we needed a new combustion air inlet duct and an exhaust system for the Pobjoy engine. The inlet duct was designed from various photo evidence of BA Swallows, manufactured, painted and fitted.

Exhaust ring

The exhaust system for this delightful little radial, as you might expect, is pretty involved, but luckily this was one of the few major items we had a pattern for, a rather holey, rusty and very thin example for sure, but it was an original.

Some months before, we’d had the two half round headers prefabricated by a local welder and bends with 42 | LIGHT AVIATION | December 2021

Above The Klemm nears completion and is seen here less cowling after its first engine runs.

tails made at Pipecraft. The time had come to see if we could join the bits together.

Being a seven-cylinder engine, three cylinders per side discharge into the two separate ring headers, with the seventh ducted as an extra into the left header. This means that the headers have asymmetrical internal pressures, so they are coupled to either side of the inlet casting to allow the pressures to equalise. This was handy in the 1920/1930s as the heat from this flow is absorbed into the casting and thus the inlet charge. Pre-WWII, fuel was very different from today and needed help to vaporise, and this heating of the charge helped combustion.

The total exhaust system has come together very well to produce a neat exhaust ring, in keeping with the period and as near to the original as possible, but with the addition of modern springs to hold the joints together to make it reliable in flight. The exhaust system was completed by my partner in the aircraft, Tony Palmer, including the finer details such as the loops for the retention springs, while I was away in Wales helping on my daughter’s farm during lambing.

Klemm project We then made up two new ignition harnesses and were busy on the engine until we had to stop at the end of March 2020 because of lockdown. During this period the registration letters arrived. All the original lettering on the ‘BK had been brush painted… all rather labour intensive.

So, rather than all the masking tape and paint we had decided to go the ready-made route. We produced a digital file based on old photos and our original paintwork and sent them to a local vinyl specialist, and we were very happy with the result.

One of the first jobs when we were able to return to the hangar in June was to have a go at putting the fuselage letters on and, after some practice, it all worked out fine.

Fuel hoses

All of the fuel hoses had been installed about 15 or 16 years ago, so would be out of date, plus they looked to be hydraulic hoses. As we don’t know the future fuel availability, we went with the highest spec pipe available i.e., ethanol proof J30G9. We pulled out the two fuel tanks and disconnected all the hoses and noted the routes and clips etc. We used eBay to source the hose, although the ½inch ID return pipe from the header tank to the main tank had to be bought separately as we couldn’t find that size in the above spec., but it was ethanol proof and only operates at about two psi max.

The hand-painted main tank had some slight surface corrosion in places, so we cleaned it up, sprayed the bare metal with red oxide and then painted the tank with black two-pack to help prolong its life. After repeating the process on the gravity tank, we refitted the various straps and tanks, and installed the new hoses. This involved crawling up inside a cramped knobbly wooden fuselage, with no room to turn back, you go in forwards and out backwards! It proved to be one of many such trips, but at last the tanks were ready for their first drop of fuel.

Undercarriage tweaks

The undercarriage was still finished in hand-painted grey, which looked wrong, so we removed the left leg and repainted it in gloss black, skinned the brake cable with shrink wrap, and rebuilt the leg. This was a useful exercise as the previous owner, John, had rebuilt them and we had no knowledge of what made them tick. The week before, Tony had been checking out the brakes on the Tiger Moth, and these brakes were identical so we knew how they should be assembled.

The right-side leg fairing had been damaged at some time and had been repaired. This repair had filled the dent but the rivets down the back edge were also submerged in filler, and of course, the whole leg was brush painted in grey. So, we removed the fairing and tried knocking out the dents. As it was not possible to get them all out, we de-riveted it, laid it out flat and put it through the English wheel to smooth it out. In the accident, many years previously, the metal had been torn, so Tony had a go at aluminium ‘soldering’ to repair it, using a zinc/aluminium alloy rod, as it melts at a lower temperature than the parent material. We discussed whether to use filler again to disguise the repair, but I was all for leaving it as a bit of history for all to see… so it was only painted.

Mounting the engine

We seem to make significant progress in steps, and two came in quick succession. First, we moved CXE to the hangar and then, in mid-July 2020, we hung the Pobjoy on the firewall. I’m not sure when that had last happened, but

Above top The portside cowling and the exhaust ring.

Above bottom Starboard side view of engine and cowling.

uniting the engine and fuselage was certainly a very important milestone.

Engine installed, we had the fun part of dressing it up with the controls, prop, spinner, oil tank, magnetos etc., so we got busy working out all the system hook ups. There are two shafts forward of the firewall which control throttle, mixture, and the advance and retard of the magnetos.

Then there are the engine oil lines which go through the carburettor, oil cooler (rebuilt as original by the guy that rebuilds Moth petrol tanks) and oil tank. Plus, there are the three fuel pipes forward of the firewall, all of which now have a fire sleeve over them, and the oil pressure line to the cockpit. All these need wire or pin locking in an increasingly restricted space.

We were making progress but with little evidence. It was a case of much trial fit work, that is, installing the item say, three times, annealing copper washers and gaskets, painting pipes, and finding all the correct hardware, before any final fitting and the wiring of all the bolts etc., and that takes time.

We changed a few things around the oil pump to make it easier to install and maintain in the future, plus as the oil from the lower two cylinders drains to the atmosphere, we December 2021 | LIGHT AVIATION | 43

Klemm project

designed and fitted an oil catch pot using period components. We have also designed and made an oil tank breather.

Just as we were getting going again, Covid returned, and apart from a few disjointed days in November it all came to a grinding halt until spring 2021. Consequently, another seven or eight months were lost, which is why these things take so long…

The first few hours back were basically trying to remember where we were with everything. During lockdown we had ordered some exhaust retainer springs so we could at least fit the exhaust system, and that allowed us to start on the engine cowl sides. Again, we had no patterns and no really definite idea of the originals,

44 | LIGHT AVIATION | December 2021

Above John Copeland (left) and Tony Palmer hope to fly the aircraft in spring 2022.

Below Elegantly folded and ready to hangar.

just a few murky old photos. However, both sides needed hinges, cutaways to miss the exhaust and the magnetos, and some form of locking, so that was a start.

We planned the exhaust tail pipes after extensive viewing of lots of pictures of BA Swallow II’s and the old BK Swallow photos, and followed their ideas. The tail pipes came together well, the pipe to manifold joint is a simple slip joint – a foolproof design, easy to disconnect and copied from the DH 82C in the hangar.

The engine cowl was a major exercise as we had no parts to copy and only a very grainy picture as a guide. We had to design from scratch a simple, light, strong enough, single curvature cowl that looked like it was original but also allowed access to all the bits that needed attention in

Klemm project service. We used ¼ turn cowl fasteners left over from the DH82C project as the start point and then determined where the hinges needed to be. We think it has turned out quite well, but then we are biased…

Engine runs

The 25 May this year was another milestone. The engine installation had progressed so well that before I had to go on another family trip, we thought we’d better attempt to start the Pobjoy. We attached it to the company van and tied down the back, went through the checklist – and it fired on the first pull of the prop. It was the first run of the engine since 1961, and the first time the aeroplane had a working engine since 1939. From 14 unlabelled boxes full of unnamed bits of metal to running at the first attempt, it was an utterly amazing feeling of success.

A video of the engine running is available at https:// youtu.be/uTAi0-b9pm0 but unfortunately it does not show the actual start as there were only two of us – I was doing the swinging with Tony at the controls.

The engine cowlings have also moved on, both sides and the top are done, the right-hand lower panel is complete and we’ve started the left-hand lower one. This is more complicated as it encircles the oil filler cap.

When we ran the engine for the first time, we didn’t get any oil pressure registering on the gauge, so after 10 seconds Tony cut the engine, after all we didn’t want any damage to a virtually new engine. We thought it could be air in the pressure gauge line, so we bled the line and also pumped oil up to the rockers, but still no oil pressure after 10 seconds on run number two.

We then removed the oil line from the scavenge side of the engine and cranked the engine around until oil came out and then reconnected it. We also read the manual, which said that it can take up to a minute for oil pressure to register. We ran the engine again a few days later with Phil Trangmar (our Inspector) and Tony Berryman (test pilot to be) present and ran it for 10 minutes, and had 30psi not long after the start.

We had seen the needle move when hand cranking, so we were confident we had cracked it.

We need to increase oil pressure slightly, reduce the tick over speed and put some gasket goo on the rocker

boxes as we have a slight oil leak from them, but otherwise we seem good to go. We brought the wings into the main hangar and fitted the ailerons, the ‘blocks of cheese’ (the inner wing sections that fold up to allow the wings to fold) and applied the registration letters.

The wing registration letters stand nearly 1m tall, are on both top and bottom surfaces on the wings and cover nearly the whole span. Their location on all four surfaces had to be carefully judged to match upper to lower, while avoiding various hatches, seams and gaps to moving sections. Metre high lettering proved a quite interesting task.

The original ‘British Klemm’ badge that previous owner John Wakeford had carefully saved all those years ago was copied and is now back in position on the fin. Having checked and overhauled all accessible parts of the wing folding mechanism, the wings have been reattached and the folding and latching checked, and we have learned the correct procedure.

We’ve taken a long time checking, adjusting and painting all six hatches on the under surface and now they are nicely painted, in place and fitted with lockable catches. A new hatch has been designed for the fuel filler and contents gauge, which is situated on top of the port wing centre section.

So here we are in late 2021 and much nearer to completion, but with still at least three fairly major bits to do. We’ll try a taxying session soon, plus all the form filling, but early 2022 is looking good…

Postscript

It was suggested we try for a National Transport Trust Award and after a chat on the phone, exchanges of emails, changes to wording etc., we submitted our application.

Then came the good news, we’d won a prize of £1,000 towards the restoration. The prize giving was at Fawley Hill, the late Sir Robert McAlpine’s home and railway museum, and was presented by Princess Anne in October 2021.

If you would like to know more about the Transport Trust visit its website at www.nationaltransporttrust.org.uk and read all about the very worthwhile work it does to safeguard the nation’s transport hardware. It makes for interesting reading. ■

Engineering charges LAA Project Registration Kit Built Aircraft

£300 Plans Built Aircraft £50 Issue of a Permit to Test Fly Non-LAA approved design only £40 Initial Permit issue Up to 450kg £450 451-999kg £550 1,000kg and above £650 Permit Renewal (can now be paid online via LAA Shop) Up to 450kg £155 451-999kg £200 1,000kg and above £230 Factory-built gyroplanes (all weights) £250 Note: if the last Renewal wasn’t administered by the LAA an extra fee of £125 applies Modification application Prototype modification minimum £60 Repeat modification minimum £30

Transfer (from C of A to Permit or CAA Permit to LAA Permit) Up to 450kg £150 451 to 999kg £250 1,000kg and above £350 Four-seat aircraft Manufacturer’s/agent’s type acceptance fee £2,000 Project registration royalty £50 Category change Group A to microlight £135 Microlight to Group A £135 Change of G-Registration fee Issue of Permit documents following G-Reg change £45 Replacement Documents Lost, stolen etc (fee is per document) £20 Latest SPARS – No 17 April 2018 PLEASE NOTE: When you’re submitting documents using an A4-sized envelope, a First Class stamp is insufficient postage.

December 2021 | LIGHT AVIATION | 45

LAA Strut News

I

Struts 4U

by Anne Hughes

n August 1992 a new editor, Roger Jones, took over the editorship of the PFA’s Popular Flying, bi-monthly magazine. The magazine’s regular feature for Struts was headed Strutting Around, and the August magazine heralded a new compiler for this three- page feature.

The new incumbent, who took over from Alan Lovejoy, was Brian Hope who was the chairman and newsletter editor for the Mid Kent Strut.

Brian described himself as an enthusiastic advocate of the Strut system and went on to say, “There are currently 43 Struts throughout the UK, many in a healthy and active state but others are teetering on the edge of extinction.”

At that time about 25% of the 7,000-plus PFA members also belonged to a local Strut. Brian wrote, “A Strut must encompass all the diverse aspects of the PFA membership; builders, owners, armchair enthusiasts et al.”

I would echo Brian’s words from 29 years ago, and also his encouragement to members to visit their local Strut and ‘…if for any reason you are less than impressed, make constructive criticism and volunteer to help!’

Brian was also keen to point out that much of the column comes from the Struts themselves with news of their events, which is often to be found in their newsletters. However, in the early 1990s many of us were just becoming aware of a new machine called a ‘computer’ and few had purchased the space-consuming

46 | LIGHT AVIATION | December 2021

Above Two of the Travel Airs which celebrated our LAA Fly-it Day in Flabob, California.

Below Some of Brian’s Strutting Around columns from the early 1990s.

equipment required to operate the most basic of programmes. Newsletters and communication were still via ‘snail mail’ with the old Banda machine churning out A4 missives from editors which were sent to members. The cost of postage and print limited the length of publications and, in those pre-email days, Brian included postal addresses in his columns for Strut contacts.

During the 1990s Brian was able to continue publishing a list of over 40 Struts and continued to include news from the far north of Scotland to the tip of Cornwall. At the end of 1994 Roger Jones announced that Brian was retiring from Strutting Around, and Eryl Crump took up the reins, followed by Paul Lawrence.

It was in 2001 that Brian took over the editorship of Popular Flying and introduced Strut Spotlight to the magazine. With the era of ‘online’ communication now becoming a familiar and useful method of relaying information, the PFA website now included the Strut lists, formerly published in the magazine.

Brian’s commitment to the PFA/ LAA Struts column continued, with a published list also included from time to time.

In 2016 I suggested that a regular column be reinstated in the LAA’s Light Aviation under the title of

LAA Strut News Struts4U and, after further discussions, it was decided that we would try a new format. Many of the problems that Brian had encountered in the compilation of a regular, but now monthly, feature were still there but, with his encouragement and positive approach, we find ourselves in the sixth year of producing a column designed to keep members up to date with Strut news. With the introduction of online newsletters and email communication many of the problems of 20 years ago have been resolved.

As an editor covering all stories from the LAA, Brian has also fully supported our initiatives in setting up an Aviation Art Contest for young people for the UK which feeds into the FAI annual competition. We were pleased to see Brian arrive at one of our regular Art sessions at the Old Warden Air Show in July 2019 and introduced him to Guild of Aviation Artists member Phil Jackson, who supports us at all these events. It is a credit to Brian’s good humour that he accepted Phil’s offer to draw a cartoon, in public, and the results, as you can

T

Above Aviation artist Phil Jackson’s caricature of LAA’s editor Brian Hope.

see, are on this page. The picture encapsulates Brian’s personality and it was good to be on the other side of Brian’s ever-present camera for a change.

I would like to thank Brian for all his help and support over the last five years since we decided to incorporate the new Struts4U column in the magazine and say what a privilege it has been to follow in the footsteps of such a dedicated editor who once graced the pages with his words in the Strutting Around column. Very best wishes Brian for the future on behalf of all our regular readers.

A number of Struts held Fly-it Day events despite generally inclement weather restricting flying. Wessex Strut’s twinned ‘Strut’ at Flabob Airfield in California had no such problems, however, and flew several vintage aircraft including an N-3N Stearman and several Travel Airs on the day. When lining up for take-off they all said ‘Happy Anniversary LAA’, so thank you to our American friends for joining us on our 75th Anniversary.

A very Happy Christmas to you all and I look forward to seeing you in 2022! ■

Strut Calendar hroughout the winter there will be a mix of programmes for the Struts, some of whom are returning to meeting in person and others are planning to use the Zoom format.

As Struts often publish programme details very near to

Andover Strut: Spitfire Club, Popham Airfield, SO21 3BD. 1930. Contact: Bob Howarth 01980 611124 / bobhowarth99@btinternet.com : 13 December – Christmas Quiz and refreshments.

Bristol Strut: BAWA Club, Filton, 1930. TBC. Contact: chairman@bristolstrut.uk www.bristolstrut.uk Cornwall Strut: The Clubhouse, Bodmin Airfield. Virtual Zoom meetings throughout winter months. Contact: Pete White pete@aeronca. co.uk / 01752 406660 Devon Strut: The Exeter Court Hotel, Kennford, Exeter. 1930. david.millin@sea-sea.com East of Scotland Strut: Harrow Hotel, Dalkeith.

2000. Contact: inrgibson001@btinternet.com /0131 339 2351.

East Midlands Strut: The Plough, Normanton on Soar. Contact: tonyrazzell2@gmail.com We also have a Facebook group and upload recordings of some meetings where we have speakers.

Gloster Strut: The Victory Club, Lypiatt Road, Cheltenham, GL50 2SY. Contact: harry. hopkins@talktalk.net Highlands & Islands: Highland Aviation, Inverness Airport. Contact: b.w.spence@ btinternet.com / 01381 620535.

Kent Strut: Cobtree Manor Golf Club, Maidstone, Kent. 2.00 . Contact: Steve Hoskins hoskinsltd@outlook.com / 07768 984507.

4 December – Christmas Dinner 27 January – Kent Strut AGM. LiNSY Trent Valley Strut: Trent Valley Gliding Club, Kirton Lindsey. pilotbarry1951@gmail. com http://linsystrut.wixsite.com/website

the date of the event in the winter, it is always best to check with your local Strut to make sure you are up to date with programmes and arrangements. They would certainly love to see you – one way or another!

North East Strut: Fishburn Airfield. Brunch on the third Sunday of each month. 1130-1330 at Fishburn Aviator Cafe. Contact: alannixon297@ btinternet.com North Western Strut: Veterans Lounge, Barton, Manchester, 1930 for 2000. Contact: cliffmort@ btinternet.com / 07813 497427.

7 December – Christmas Dinner and Quiz.

North Wales Strut: Caernarfon Airport, Dinas Dinlle. First Sunday of the month – HEMS Bistro Café. 1300. Contact: Gareth Roberts gtrwales@ gmail.com / 07876 483414.

Oxford Group: Sturdy’s Castle Country Inn, Banbury Road, Kidlington, OX5 3EP. Second Wednesday each month. Contact LAAOxford@ gmail.com www.oxfordlaa.co.uk 8 December – Christmas Meal (pre-booked only).

12 January – AGM. Redhill Strut: The Dog and Duck, Outwood, Surrey, RH1 5QU. Third Tuesday of each month at 1930. Contact: david@milstead.me.uk Shobdon Strut: Hotspur Café, Shobdon Airfield, Hereford HR6 9NR. 1930. Meetings on the second Thursday of the month. Contact: Keith Taylor bushebiggles@sky.com 9 December – A Captain’s Career in British Airways by Catherine Burton.

Southern Strut: The Swiss Cottage, Shorehamby-Sea. First Wednesday of the month 2000.

Contact: Tony Palmer palmersfarm@sky.com 1 December – Christmas Dinner at Tollgate Hotel, Bramber (pre-booked only).

Strathtay Strut: Scottish Aero Club, Perth Airport, Scone. Scone Clubhouse. 07785 244146. keith.boardman@peopleserve.co.uk /

Suffolk Coastal Strut: Earl Stonham Village Hall, IP14 5HJ. 1930. Contact: Martyn Steggalls events@suffolkcoastalstrut.org.uk / 07790 925142 15 December – Chairman’s Quiz and Christmas nibbles.

18 January – Guest Speaker TBC. Vale of York Strut: Chocks Away Café, Rufforth East Airfield. 1900. Contact: Chris Holliday 07860 787801 valeofyorkstrutlaa@gmail.com www.valeofyorkstrutlaa.wordpress.com Wessex Strut: Henstridge Airfield Clubhouse.

Monthly meetings on the third Monday of the month. Local fortnightly Strut walks organised by Wessex Aviators Leisure Klub. Contact: neil. wilson@laa.uk.com neil.harriers@btinternet.com West Midlands Strut: Navigator Café, Halfpenny Green Aerodrome 1930. Contact: Graham Wiley westmidlandslaastrut@ googlegroups.com Stuart Darby stuartdarby134@hotmail.com or visit our website wmstrut.co.uk West of Scotland Strut: Bowfield Country Club, Howwood, PA9 1DZ. 19.00. Contact: Neil Geddes barnbethnkg@gmail.com 01505 612493.

Youth & Education Support (YES): Contact: Graham Wiley gw20home@outlook.com NB: Thank you to all Struts and clubs for getting in touch. Please remember to let me know if there are any changes of personnel or meeting venues etc., and of course, if you have any stories or items you wish to share, I will be delighted to receive them. You can contact me at struts@laa.uk.com.

December 2021 | LIGHT AVIATION | 47

Reminiscences…

Reminiscences and anecdotes…

Francis Donaldson and Brian Hope chat about 30-plus years of involvement with the Association…

H

ello Francis, it’s nice to meet up for a chat about times past. We’ve both been involved in the Association for a long time and, coincidentally, are leaving its employ at the same time. You put your thinking cap on while I make the coffee and let’s take a look back over the last 30-plus years, and hopefully forward to what’s next…

OK, here you go, white no sugar. So, how did you come to work for the LAA – or the PFA as it was then?

Salisbury to Bournemouth, under new management, so it was a natural point for a change in direction. I guess if Barry’s undercarriage legs had cracked, everything might have turned out differently! I was interviewed by another member of the Executive Committee, Tony Oliver, at his house. Presumably there were other candidates, but I never met any. From my recollection Brian, you came onto the Executive Committee shortly afterwards.

Brian: Yes, that’s right. I had joined the Association in 1976 when I learned to fly, and I know from previous chats we’ve had that around that time we were both members of the North Kent Francis: In 1990 I was in touch with Barry Smith, who was one Strut, though never actually met. It was a dozen years later of the PFA’s Executive Committee, because Barry had built the before I was able to buy a Jodel and by this time was involved fuel-injected Acro VW engine fitted to an Evans VP2 that I had with the Mid-Kent Strut (now Kent Strut), and attended the rescued and got flying, together with a chum from work. Barry, National Council as Strut Rep. I was also an active member of who was the UK’s VW guru for many years, had given me a lot the Jodel Club, so got to know the new PFA Chairman, Peter of advice over the phone and talked me through the starting Underhill, who was a founder member of the Jodel Club, and procedure for our long-stored engine. In return I had helped he invited me to stand for him get the aluminium the EC. It was actually a alloy undercarriage little later than you starting legs for his ownas Chief Engineer, in 1992 designed ‘Acro I think, when I got elected Advanced’ to the EC, not through any monoplane bent to particular merit I hasten to shape – I guess I let add; then, as now, there slip that my place of was no great rush from work had a heat members to get involved. treatment oven and However, I’ve never that being close to been one to bitch from Southampton, with its the outside, if something maritime tradition, there you are passionate were engineering about is not running as shops handy with you think it should, it is folders that would laugh far more productive to at bending a bit of 5/8 get involved and see if thick aluminium plate. you can change things Barry sent me his from the inside.

Above Francis in the cockpit of his Pobjoy engined Currie Wot. undercarriage leg as a flat It was when on the blank, I annealed it in the heat treat oven as a ‘homer’, quickly EC that I met Barry Smith and I like to think that we became cooled it in the works freezer then rushed it down to friends and allies, he’s a ‘straight as a die northerner’ and Southampton in the car, surrounded by bags of ice to keep it in was instrumental in ensuring the Engineering Department a soft state for bending. Fortunately, at the second attempt, the transitioned effectively from a single engineer with a outfit I took it to got the bends in the right places and through secretary to a well-staffed team able to cope with a growing the correct angles, and it didn’t crack in the process! demand for its services.

Shortly after, I had a call from Barry saying that the PFA was As the cornerstone of that transition, what had you been looking to recruit a new engineer to work at the Shoreham HQ, doing prior to accepting the challenge? and was I interested? It happened that the aircraft company I Francis: My previous job had been involved in the design of was working for at the time was about to relocate from modifications, certification and flight test on the Optica

48 | LIGHT AVIATION | December 2021

Reminiscences… observation aircraft, after a primer on the shop floor where commercial side of the PFA, and despite the best of intentions I’d been involved with production engineering and there was only so much he could do. problem-solving on the early aircraft builds.

When I started with the PFA, it was as part of a major I had been a member of the PFA since my teens and an commitment to increase staff numbers and employ not only a avid reader of Popular Flying, as well as the EAA mag Sport Chief Engineer but also a Chief Inspector and a full-time Aviation. I had been involved with building a Bowers Flybaby Commercial Manager, so we were able to get much more project at home as well as owning and flying Volksplanes, a done. Shortly after, we transitioned to a non-expiring Permit to Turbulent and Taylor Mono, so in one sense the transition Fly system which avoided having to send the Permits back to wasn’t too difficult. The main challenge, as now really, was to the CAA every year at renewal time, and the savings in CAA deal with the number of Permit to Fly applications and the fees meant we were able to add another key figure to the enormous volume of correspondence of all sorts that was Engineering team, John Tempest. He had recently graduated constantly flooding in, and and, already steeped in all aspects of the number of types of the PFA, joined us as aircraft that we were Deputy Chief dealing with. Requests to Engineer. John’s main bring in new models of interest was in aircraft, queries about design, so we were repairs, mods, flying able to make up for abroad, where can I get lost ground by spruce, complaints about tackling as many new suppliers, glitches during designs as we could, test flights, the lot… One to create as large and chap wrote asking about varied a fleet as making a one-man possible and offer the helicopter – on HM Prison membership a wide notepaper! It seems choice of aircraft types. strange now to think that At the same time, at that time there was no we had the very IT to help us, the most interesting job of ‘modern’ office equipment setting up a whole new we had was a fax machine Above Barry Smith and his superb own design Acro Advanced set of systems and fuel injected VW powered aerobatic monoplane. He was and, prior to my arrival, all procedures appropriate instrumental in Francis becoming the Association’s Chief Engineer. correspondence in the to the growth in the office was handwritten and then typed up by a typist, carbon organisation and moving away from a one-man-band paper and all. My personal PC, with its dot-matrix printer, was arrangement. John’s IT skills brought us the first electronic the first IT we had on site. database which was developed entirely in-house, soon becoming an essential element in tracking the progress of Brian: We’ve certainly come a long way since then, and applications through the system and quickly laying hands computers and the internet have literally changed our lives and on the all-important paperwork. Despite being based in how we work. At that time, I was writing our Strut newsletter Redcar, at the other end of the country from Shoreham, using an Amstrad PCW although I wasn’t then, and still am not, through this period of rapid expansion Barry Smith, as the a lot of cop when the computer decides to start playing up. I unpaid Engineering Director, was our link with the Executive do come from a mechanical engineering background though, Committee as it was then. In many ways, if Ken Craigie, having served an apprenticeship with CAV Ltd., part of the John Tempest and myself were the builders of the 1990s Lucas group, who manufactured diesel injection equipment.

PFA, Barry Smith was its architect.

There’s a degree of irony as at that time my life revolved around motorbikes, but the factory was the former Short Brian: The 1990s were certainly one of the sea change periods Brothers works on the banks of the river Medway in Rochester, in the history of the PFA, as staffing levels rose and kit aircraft where it had built land aeroplanes and flying boats from 1917 became the predominant choice for members, opening up an until 1947, when the by then nationalised concern was easier route to building your own aircraft. From an EC transferred to Northern Ireland. standpoint, with the limited office space available at Shoreham, Aviation came onto my radar when I was in my mid 20s and there was a lot of interest in acquiring a new HQ, the emphasis read an article in a DIY magazine by Alf Knowles about being on owning rather than renting. A number of locations building and flying his Luton Duet. Alf would go on to build a were looked into, including buying a building on Shoreham VariEze and also become Chairman of the PFA from 1989-91, Airport, building something at Long Marston, and a possibility the period we are currently discussing! Which leads me to ask, at Sywell. Barry Smith and I put forward a proposal to buy what had been Optica’s offices on Old Sarum Airfield, but that was what was your brief when you became Chief Engineer? narrowly defeated when put to the vote. This issue would rumble on into the 2000s when we moved to Turweston.

Francis: Back in 1990, there was a rather unfair perception For my part I became a Vice-Chairman and then the that the PFA wasn’t engaging with the new types of kitplane temporary Treasurer, as our long time Treasurer, Laurie Shaw, which were coming out in the USA at that time, and only really took time out to care for his sick wife. wanted members to build the very basic types that had been It was certainly not an easy task as the Rally team was, in around for years. In truth this was quite unfounded, but apart my opinion, overspending on the event and opening the from a brief period shortly beforehand when ex-ARV designer Association up to the risk of financial losses it simply could not Nick Sibley had made a big contribution, there had only been afford. That was something else that came to a head in the one man, FIV ‘John’ Walker on the Engineering staff. John had early years of the new millennium. been trying to look after everything, including running the December 2021 | LIGHT AVIATION | 49

Reminiscences…

In 1995 I had my first crack at editing the mag, producing four issues, June/July to December/January 96 after the previous editor stood down and a replacement was being sought. I applied for the job only to see it go to somebody who threw their hand in within a few months. Coupled with personal issues I needed to resolve, I decided to call it a day and resigned from the EC in 1996.

I know you had your work cut out during this period too Francis, what were your main challenges?

Francis: I’ve always felt that for the staff to be effective in the LAA / PFA Engineering Department, between us we had to have a good grasp of all of the technologies involved in the many and varied aircraft in our fleet. Members ringing up asking for help want to talk to someone who knows what their aircraft looks like, how it’s built and where it fits into the scheme of things. We can’t really empathise with the owner’s problem or offer useful advice unless we have a grasp of all these aspects. Back in 1990, the vast majority of the PFA fleet were very simple aircraft, the typical two-seater being a Jodel or Cub, probably non-radio or with a 360 channel VHF comm and powered by a small Continental engine with a fixed pitch wood prop. There were no RVs, no Europas, no Chipmunks or Bulldogs. Most of the new kitplanes being built were powered by two cylinder two-stroke engines, which were all the rage, having found favour in the booming microlight scene.

It would have been unthinkable at that time that PFA aircraft would ever have a wing leveller, let alone a two-axis autopilot coupled to a satellite navigation system. The number of PFA aircraft with retractable undercarriages and constant speed props could probably have been counted on one hand, and the only automotive engine conversions were VWs. Now of course, there’s a plethora of new equipment coming out all the time and we have 260hp four-seat RV-10s being completed regularly, with instrument panels hugely more capable than the commercial transports of the 1990s. We also have a much wider range of engines including diesels, electronic fuel injection, converted V6s and V8s and a plethora of constant speed and in-flight adjustable props. Trying to keep Right Home of the PFA for 31 years, Shoreham Airport’s Terminal building, PFA being housed on the upper floor, right-hand side.

Graham Newby was the Association’s first CEO and was instrumental in moving the HQ to Turweston. He also invited BH to take on the editorship of the magazine.

50 | LIGHT AVIATION | December 2021

up with these developments has been a challenge, especially where, in many cases, we are dealing with innovations that have no certificated equivalent, so in deciding how to tackle the acceptance process and sensible requirements, we’ve been on our own.

Of course, most of this new equipment is made primarily for use in the US Experimental Amateur-built category, where there’s no requirement for any design investigation at all, and builders are completely free to do whatever they like. Trying to fit this equipment into the UK’s regulated system, even with the relatively lightweight interpretation of the rules used by the sporting associations for Permit to Fly aircraft, finding a ‘middle ground’ that’s not too onerous has been challenging.

In the Permit system, I like to think that by concentrating on the most important aspects we try to provide 90% of the benefit of a full certification programme for 5% of the cost. Part of the reason why we can do that is because we get to fly a lot of the equipment ourselves, and through contact with our members we can keep an eye on how things are going in the field – if problems start to emerge, we can quickly get on top of them by adjusting our policies and advice.

I believe it was in 2001 that you came back onto the scene, how did that come about?

Brian: Well, to be honest I had had enough on my plate to keep me occupied and had no intention of becoming involved again.

My dad had passed away in 2000, I was caring for my mum and still working full-time as a self-employed tradesman in the building industry. Then, in early 2001, the Association’s first CEO, Graham Newby, completely out of the blue offered me the contract to produce what was then the bi-monthly magazine. It was an opportunity I simply couldn’t refuse, firstly it was a challenge I was enthusiastic to take on, despite my only qualification to do it being an ‘O’ Level in English Language, but just as important at the time, it enabled me to work from home a couple of days a week as my mum’s condition worsened.

My first issue as editor of Popular Flying was the May/ June 2001 issue.

It was another couple of years before I finally succumbed to pressure to rejoin the EC, thankfully by then a somewhat less fractious affair to what had been my experience in the past. Roger Hopkinson was by then on board and soon to become Chairman, and over time he introduced governance procedures which greatly improved the manner in which the Association was ordered. It was another stage in the Association ‘growing up’ into a more mature organisation. During this period of course, EASA had come onto the scene, and I recall that it caused more than a few headaches for you guys in Engineering.

Francis: Yes, that was in 2003, and I well remember the day when Graham received a round-robin letter from the CAA saying that EASA was coming into existence in six months’ time, and did we know about it and had we thought about the implications.

It was clearly going to upset the applecart for most of GA, especially the BGA, which had until that time enjoyed selfregulation of all their gliders. Fortunately, homebuilt and microlight

Reminiscences… aircraft were excluded, so it was only our ex-certified vintage fleet that was threatened. Cometh the hour, cometh the man – and PFA stalwart Barry Plumb joined us as volunteer Engineering Director and helped us through the crisis by negotiating with EASA a loophole, whereby existing ex-certified Cubs, Luscombes etc., already on the LAA fleet, could remain with us and continue to be operated under the existing arrangements. This involved not only trips to Cologne to attend EASA working group meetings (pre-Zoom and Teams), but also going through the whole vintage LAA fleet and inventing reasons why each type should be classed as exempt under the somewhat woolly definition of ‘Annex 2’ at that time.

Of the hundreds of vintage aircraft on our fleet, only a handful of types weren’t eligible to stay as they were, and for them Barry negotiated a half-way house Permit to Fly, which carried an EASA logo, but was in fact little different to a regular permit.

Incidentally, Barry also made a big contribution in investigating the criteria for the safe use of unleaded mogas, at the time when ethanol was first introduced.

One side-effect of the introduction of EASA was the downsizing of the CAA staff team at Gatwick, which, along with the CAA’s increasing need for their GA side to cover its costs, has meant that we no longer have free access to specialists at Aviation House. Of course, conversely, over the years we’ve built our own staff up, bringing in Andy Draper as our composites expert, and Malcolm McBride, and more recently Jerry Parr, to look after continued airworthiness. Jon Viner and Ben Syson are on the design side, plus our younger engineers Mike Roberts and Joe Hadley. Equally important to the running of the Department have been our tireless Engineering Administrators, Fiona Storer and Adele Cooney. Malcolm retired earlier this year of course, and Joe is about to depart for a job with the CAA’s GA Unit, but as the number of staff took increasingly more time to manage, we have seen the recent appointment of a full-time Engineering Director in John Ratcliffe.

Brian: Over that same period of expansion, in Engineering, the structure of the Association changed significantly. It had, for most of its life, been owned by Ulair Ltd., of which there were just three directors, so effectively was not owned by the members. Certainly, in my earlier time on the EC, there was occasionally a degree of rancour that at times it was considered that the three Ulair directors ignored EC decisions, but regardless of such angst, it was a fact that the arrangement that may well have served the Association well in its early days, was outdated and inappropriate to its current needs.

In 2007 we became a company owned by the members who, unless they decide to opt out, become beneficial shareholders when they join. It is run by a Board of 12 Directors and was of course, renamed The Light Aircraft Association Limited. The title of the magazine, which had gone monthly at the beginning of 2005, changed from Popular Flying to Light Aviation in January 2008, and I became a full-time employee in 2011.

Despite all the changes, the job of editor remained fundamentally the same – to produce a magazine every month that as many members as possible found of interest, and at the same time exhibited the safety culture required of a responsible

The glass fronted LAA offices at the Turweston HQ, into which the Association mov ed in 2003.

Left Barry Plumb, of BGP-1 Biplane fame, was a stalwart EC member who successfully negotiated with EASA to keep our historic aircraft on PFA Permits to Fly. Association that is overseeing the build, maintenance and operation of light aircraft. It is important that the magazine and particularly Engineering, sing from the same hymn sheet.

It has been great fun, particularly meeting so many interesting and clever people who have been willing to spare me the time to talk about their aircraft and activities. We really are blessed with talent, which is just as well with the challenges we face in the years ahead.

Francis: Indeed, one of the things that’s been brilliant about working for the LAA is the people I’ve met through this job. I never thought I’d get to meet wartime ATA pilot and gliding expert Ann Welch, whose books I had devoured since childhood. Similarly, key figures, sadly no longer with us, including Fury and Spitfire designer John Isaacs, replica builders Viv Bellamy and Don Cashmore, designers Ray Hillborne, Keith Duckworth and Frank Costin. Test pilots including Angus McVitie, Bill Bedford and John Farley, CAA’s legendary Hugh Kendall, Darol Stinton, to name just a few…

But equally wonderful has been to meet so many enthusiast builders, pilots and craftsmen in many different fields. When I went to see one project, after I enquired about a hump-shaped thing in the corner under a dust sheet, the builder admitted that it was an E type Jag body that he’d made – in aluminium – from scratch!

Another showed me how he was building his kitplane in between jobs while fitting out the ferro-concrete yacht that he was building for a round-the-world trip… Whether masters on the drawing board, at the workbench or in the cockpit, the LAA has been a meeting place for many stars, many of whom are still rising, and many of them incredibly modest about their talents.

Working for the LAA has also brought numerous opportunities for interesting flying in a wide variety of aircraft types, in many different parts of the world, visiting factories and chatting with designers. I’m fascinated by the way that different aircraft are designed, how their structures work, and their flight characteristics. When they don’t handle well, it’s been very interesting trying out different ‘fixes’ to correct the problem, and sometimes the owners have been overjoyed how a small ‘tweak’ transforms their pride and joy’s behaviour in the air.

It’s great too to hear a builder’s enthusiasm for their project, and to be able to make their day when their creation gets cleared for flight – nowadays often at the press of a ‘send’ button which brings December 2021 | LIGHT AVIATION | 51

Reminiscences… them their much anticipated ‘paperwork’. Working with a team there’s a lot of interesting developments out there with new of like-minded colleagues equally obsessed with everything configurations of aircraft altogether and the UK’s Experimental aviational has been great too, as has liaising with our Category makes it easier to try really unusual things – more so counterparts at the BMAA’s Deddington HQ, the CAA staff and than in days gone by. At the same time, I want to remain Farnborough’s accident investigator team. engaged with the LAA through a transition period long enough Speaking of which, of course, like any job, it has its to help see through to completion some of the more obscure downsides – the dread of emailed notifications from the AAIB LAA members’ projects which I’ve helped initiate. telling us that someone’s sunny weekend has ended in Between all of the Engineering staff there’s a great deal of disaster. Running an airworthiness system inevitably involves a expertise in pretty much all areas nowadays, which John great deal of responsibility and working as closely as we do Radcliffe and Jon Viner will be ably coordinating. However, with our LAA aircraft fleet, we are often only too aware of the having been in a similar new-starter situation myself back in pitfalls for the unwary. When all’s said and done, flying is a 1990, I know how much time can be saved by a steer here and hazardous sport and many of our aircraft are unforgiving of there as to where to find this or that, or what happened last time mistakes, when compared to the average club trainer. such-and-such was tried. No doubt we’ll see some major As with other sports, like mountaineering or even horse developments under the new team, and with the everriding, to a degree the risks go with the territory. Happily, our expanding LAA fleet, ever more complex aircraft, and record on accident rates has been constantly reducing, but ever-growing expectations. It is inevitable that LAA’s approach every accident brings sadness. The freedoms that the will have to adapt, just as it did in the 1990s.

Association has won over the years to fly bigger and more Writing this during COP-26 it’s obvious that there’ll be advanced aircraft, to fly in more demanding conditions and to significant challenges ahead for GA flying, and longer-term, overfly built up areas without restriction, come through one can only wonder where we’ll find ourselves in a world that’s preserving our technical credibility and stature, as well as our decarbonised and ‘de-fossilised’. News of the first flight in the accident statistics. Steering the LAA ship through the narrows UK using a synthetic 100LL fuel is timely, but I can’t help separating on the one side, member thinking that many in our expectations and on the present fleet will one other, acceptable safety day create a reaction performance and something like when we regulation has been see a 1950s American trickier than landing a ‘gas guzzler’ on our microlight in a howling streets. The field for crosswind, at times. developing a new Of course, we get to breed of recreational know hundreds, if not aircraft is wide open. thousands, of members each year through Brian: I am delighted day-to-day that you are going to correspondence and remain in the wings for phone calls, and it’s been a while to help where great to share news of and when required, their aviation adventures and I wish you well for over the decades, and the future. feel we’ve contributed.

I am leaving Above Like Francis, Brian has unfinished business. He intends When we have to pass happy that the to expand the range of LAA Training Courses. on the news that those magazine has been calculations or worksheets aren’t quite up to scratch, and we well received over the years and that it remains a printed need to make a ‘sorry, but…’ call to a disappointed and product, rather than a digital entity. It also generates good sometimes frustrated LAA member, we usually find that later, advertising income thanks to the support of the industry and any resentment has ebbed away in the joy of getting the the work of our advertising manager, Neil Wilson. I look forward aircraft cleared for flight. to our new editor moving the magazine into a new era, There’s a relentless barrage of letters, emails and phone although hopefully still in a printed format for a few years yet. calls generated by our 7,000 or so members, ever eager for I plan to enjoy my retirement, doing a bit of travelling by information and advice – usually a pleasure to deal with, but road, as well as in the Jodel that I own with a friend. Apart from oftentimes there’s simply not enough hours in the day. trying to get the LAA Educational Courses back up and running, expanding their range where possible, I will simply Sometimes the most tentative of enquiries needs a great deal enjoy being a member rather than be ‘involved’. of thought to craft a proper reply – taking time, for example, to This Association has enabled me, a very ordinary explain to a member why he shouldn’t embark on what he wants to do, because from past experience or some subtlety of working-class Joe, to enjoy the pleasure and camaraderie of personal recreational flying, and I will be forever grateful for regulation, it will all end in tears – or to coin Ken Craigie’s that. I hope generations into the future will be similarly well phrase, become ‘an expensive garden ornament’. served by it, but I am not blind to the challenge that presents.

GA will undoubtedly face increasing pressure from the Brian: Well Francis, I have been privileged to witness the environmentalist lobby. I can only hope that personal flying growth of Engineering, from the one man and a secretary to does not once again become an activity solely available to the what it is today, and it has happened under your guidance. privileged upper classes, reversing the trend of the last 75 You can leave the Association immensely proud of that years of our Association’s proud heritage. achievement. What are your thoughts on the future?

Oh, and thanks for leaving me that last custard cream Francis: After 31 years in post, I’m looking forward to being Francis… you’re a gent. ■ able to get involved with one or two other types of projects – 52 | LIGHT AVIATION | December 2021

Fly-It Day

LAA

75

Fly-It Day

Friendship and flying

A

Members celebrate the LAA 75th Anniversary with a Fly-It day…

lthough 26 October, the 75th Anniversary of the first meeting in a London flat that launched the Ultra Light Aircraft Association, the forerunner of today’s LAA, dawned unflyable in many parts of the UK, members were not going to let the day pass without celebrating such an important event in our history. Space is unfortunately tight here in the magazine, but take a look at the numerous photos and messages of members’ activities around the country at https://bit.ly/30Xpmb6.

Flying Circus

Flying is as much about friendship as it is about aeroplanes, and the Birnie Flying Circus in Scotland represents that so well (above). The ‘Circus’ comprises 12 pilots and one engineer, and operates 13 aeroplanes from three airfields, Easterton, Knockbain Farm and Longside

Below left Ben Fawkes and son Chester flew into Turweston from Hadfield, West Sussex in their RV-7.

Below centre Jeff and Sandra Rooney in their 75-year-old Auster J1/N flew in to Popham.

Below right Graham Wiley and Roy Millington in Aeroprakt Vixxen G-VXXY over Staffordshire.

(formerly RAF Peterhead). Additionally, there are two further aircraft under construction by members, and one on restoration back to flying condition. Four of the current flying aeroplanes are flown on a CofA. This group is possibly quite unique – there is no Chairman, no committee and no fees, just good friends who are passionate about flying light aeroplanes, often in company, and attending spontaneous social gatherings by air whenever possible. During the 12 months prior to the 75th Anniversary, the Circus has flown a total of 752 hours, with members having visited no less than 47 different airfields throughout the UK, from Orkney to the Isle of Wight. On one fly out picnic lunch early in the summer, they managed to gather nine of their aeroplanes at Easter Airfield.

For the 75th Anniversary, flying was out, but the group enjoyed a sit down four-course hangar lunch party for members and wives. Well done one and all. ■

Turweston HQ hosted 45 visiting aircraft and over 65 people throughout the day.

50 | LIGHT AVIATION | October 2021

December 2021 | LIGHT AVIATION | 53

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Classifieds

December

AIRCRAFT FOR SALE

WANTED WANTED. 1972 Piper Cherokee warrior flaps wanted, kite246@gmail.com WANTED. Tipsy Nipper History by Raymond Cuypers. WW1 Elliot or similar style Bubble Cross Level for Comper Swift restoration F-AHNO. SkySport Engineering Ltd. Tel: 01767 627375.

For all display or commercial advertising enquiries please contact Neil Wilson: 07512 773532 neil.wilson@laa.uk.com You can email your classified advertisement direct to the LAA at the following address: office@laa.uk.com Deadline for booking and copy: 16 December 2021 If you would like to place an aircraft for sale advert please see details below: MEMBERS’ ADVERTISEMENTS Up to 30 words: £6; 31-50 words: £12 Up to 50 words with a coloured photo: £45 NON-MEMBERS’ADVERTISEMENTS Up to 30 words: £22; 31-50 words: £44 Up to 50 words with a coloured photo: £60 www.laa.uk.com

LAA Engineering advice to buyers: AIRCRAFT APPROVED? Members and readers should note that the inclusion of all advertisements in the commercial or classified sections of this magazine does not necessarily mean that the product or service is approved by the LAA. In particular, aircraft types, or examples of types advertised, may not, for a variety of reasons, be of a type or standard that is eligible for the issue of a LAA Permit to Fly. You should not assume that an aircraft type not currently on the LAA accepted type list will eventually be accepted.

IMPORTED AIRCRAFT? Due to unfavourable experiences, the purchase and import of completed homebuilt aircraft from abroad is especially discouraged.

TIME TO BUILD? When evaluating kits/designs, it should borne in mind that technical details, performance figures and handling characteristics are often quoted for a factory-produced aircraft flying under ideal conditions. It is wise, therefore, to seek the opinion of existing builders and owners of the type. You should also take your own skill and circumstances into consideration when calculating build times. The manufacturer’s build time should be taken as a guide only.

AMATEUR BUILDING All LAA aircraft builders and potential builders are reminded that in order to qualify for a LAA Permit to Fly, homebuilt aircraft must be genuinely amateur built. For these purposes the CAA provide a definition of amateur built in their publication CAP 659, available from LAA. An extract from CAP 659 reads “The building and operation of the aircraft will be solely for the education and recreation of the amateur builder. This means that he would not be permitted to commission someone else to build his aircraft”. An aircraft built outside the CAA’s definition could result in an expensive garden ornament.

56 | LIGHT AVIATION | December 2021

MISCELLANEOUS Spitfire MK26 TTAF 20 hrs Jabiru 5100 engine, fixed pitch prop. Delight to fly, same handling and evocative shape as the iconic original, but at a more accessible cost. Docile handling characteristics allows any competent pilot to fly. £89,500 ono motivated seller. Contact Iain +44 (0)779259960 or iain@Hutchies.com

FREE. Complete set unused drawings to build all metal Practavia Sprite aircraft, as featured in August and November LAA magazines. Contact Derek 07900 531130 dereke3@outlook.com.

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Wittman Tailwind. Lycoming 290. Total hours 1176, 235 since top overhaul. Permit Fly April 2022. Cruise 130 knots, 23-25 lph. Recent additions: new mags, leads, plugs, starter and battery. Rare, exciting aircraft. Reluctant sale, £22,000. Call Rick 07506 910694.

Emaraude CP301A, G-ASCZ, NO permit.

Inspected 25/9/2021, No Flight Test.

Call Peter Johnson. 01243 266196

PROJECTS Zenair Zodiac 601. Complete airframe kit. Two wing sets, large and small. No engine or instruments. Cost £17,000 will accept £6,500.

Ken 07870 973499.

Medium Hangar Lift by Van Bussel. Dismantled and ready for collection at Wycombe Air Park, Bucks, UK. The lift capacity is 1,500 KG and can accommodate fixed wing aircraft with 2.8M max length of main wheels to spinner (nose wheel), 5.45M max length of tail dragger (spinner to tail wheel) with a distance between the main wheels of a minimum 1.17M to max 3.27M. £10,000. Ed.sale@heligroup.com +44 (0)7823 333361

AIRCRAFT PARTS Glasair II/III extended wing tip fuel tanks kit, complete and untouched and includes all hardware and instructions. Bargain £500 Contact Taff realaero@btinternet.com or call 07590 366112.

Tiger Moth windscreen. Offers around £300.

Pick up in Cambridge or postage of your choice.

Tel: Kevin 07738 718382 Continental A65 engine complete with logs. pulled from Luscombe G-BSNT. Another believed from Piper Vagabond, no logs, bottom end complete and not split but three only cylinders.

Open to sensible offers. Photos available, contact Mike Negus for more information mike.negus8@blueyonder.co.uk

AIRCRAFT AVIONICS Garmin Aera 795 excellent condition and comes with carry case and charger, mounts and all accessories. Bargain price of £500 + postage of your choice or pick up in Cambridge.

Tel: Kevin 07738 718382 Garmin glo and charger, never used, as new £50 + post or pick up in Cambridge Tel: Kevin 07738 718382

SERVICES Design & Stress Analysis Service. Type submissions, modifications, engine frames and general advice. We cover everything from SSDR to A380 :- structures, powerplant (IC and electric) and avionic installations. Contact John Wighton enquires@acroflight.co.uk or call 07770399315.

Light Aircraft Weighing Service in East Yorkshire and surrounding area. For details contact Demraview Ltd. Email: Demraview@gmail.com Mob: 07984 810761.

FOR ALL MEMBERS CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES CONTACT SHEILA

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WWW.LAA.UK.COM December 2021 | LIGHT AVIATION | 57

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