Light Turnout in the Dead of Summer – 52 in attendance and 40 breakfasts were sold.
Call to Order – President Dick Keyt called the meeting to order and recognized the breakfast crew led by Paula Houston. Dick sought out the guests in attendance. Chris Valero is a former US Navy plane captain who served on three aircraft carriers from 1980-1984. He retired from US Airways Aircraft Maintenance department.
Project Reports
Super Cub – Charlie Kearns is making good progress reinstalling the panel and engine baffling.
Lancair Legacy – Dick Keyt is a bit exasperated with the challenges of redesigning and building a new air intake and plenum chamber. He did “show and tell” on a piece of art, Y duct for the inlet. He 3D printed the male mold and was able to extract it from the inside resulting in a clean fiberglass part.
Upgrading Cessna 172 – Bob Butt is doing repairs on the rudder, installing new transponder, and upgrading the power distribution to circuit breakers. As he described it when start working on one thing it ends up rippling into a whole lot more!
RV-7 – Greg LeCrone is back at it having driven the first rivet in three years.
Safety Minute
- Charlie Kearns described how he lost airspeed on the G3X due to plug in pitot tube as he was preparing to land. He was able to land successfully because he was so familiar with his Bonanza sight picture for approach and landing. He recommended pilots train with airspeed covered up and “feel the airplane”.
- Dick Keyt discussed a similar scenario with an electrical failure landing without landing lights and cockpit lights. Another situation where flying by feel was critical to the safe landing.
- Ed Askins warned of the increased dependence on the ADS-B “Fish Finder” and the need to keep the head out of the cockpit for that Cub with no electrical system (and possibly no radio) working the pattern.
- Dennis Finley described a surprising aircraft roll off that occurred while flying over the Wolf Hollow power plant. The steam emanating from the plant can generate large thermals. It was also mentioned that birds are known to use those thermals to gain altitude and provide an additional threat to aircraft.
September Fly-In –Greg Walker reported that the Fly In committee continues organizing and holding to the date of September 23rd. Bill Eslick had a bunch of color flyers printed that are available for distribution to area airports. Greg emphasized that since the chapter is doing the food prep and food service, we will need a lot of volunteers in that area. Fly In leads should be finalizing their roster of helpers over the next month. Greg requested for members to sign up even if an unforeseen circumstance causes you to cancel. Bill Eslick is also seeking donations for the silent auction Fly Mart – start cleaning out those hangers! This is a big moneymaker for the Fly In.
Featured Speaker – Following a short break, VP Bob Pastusek introduced Tim Kurcz for a follow-up performance from the April Meeting. He graciously filled in for the planned speaker who cancelled. This month’s topic was “The Technology of Sealing Threaded and Flanged Systems” based on his decades of experience at Loctite and building engines.
Tim started out describing the purpose of a gasket:
- Seal flanges in complex assemblies
- Fill surface irregularities / resist motion
- Resist solvent / fluid / gas @ pressure
- Allow easy assembly / disassembly
He then listed the chemical sealing types:
- Solvent based
- Anaerobic
- RTV Silicone
- Two component / catalytic
Tim described the difference between hard and soft joints and the design considerations to combat the various stresses to the flange joints such as Shear, Flexure, and Differential Thermal Expansion. He prefers the Anaerobic seal as it takes best advantage of inner space and has an order of magnitude higher pulling strength. He recommended that when applying a chemical seal that the flanges get torqued immediately after application to avoid surface curing.
Tim noted that the Lycoming and Continental have taken different approaches to replacing the old school silk thread lining the flange. Lycoming’s Service Bulletin allows a chemical sealant as replacement for the silk thread, whereas Continental took the “Kitchen Sink” approach recommending Silk string and a chemical sealant.
Tim gave a quick peak at several documents that contain lots of detail on the sealing methods and technical data. These are available to chapter members on the website via a new Members Only page:
We would like to thank Tim for sharing his extensive expertise. He is more than happy to provide specific advice for any chapter member’s project.
VMC/IMC Club
In the interest of time and the hanger heating up, Bob Pastusek quickly introduced the question of the month for both the VMC and IMC club.
When arriving at an uncontrolled airport that uses the standard left traffic pattern, can
a pilot of an airplane decide to use right hand traffic in order to improve safety? Answer: The audience generally agreed it would be acceptable if the reason was truly safety. The answer from EAA National followed the literal FARs/ACs except if the pilot was declaring an emergency which seems a little extreme.
What is the standard format for the sequence of information provided in an IFR clearance? Answer: Best remembered using the mnemonic CRAFT.
- Clearance limit. The end point of the clearance—often the destination.
- Route. Particularly in busy airspace such as the Northeast, this may be different from what you filed.
- Altitude. The initial altitude. ATC may also inform you when to expect an altitude change, but you’ll still need a separate clearance when the time comes.
- Frequency. Tune to this frequency upon departure.
- Transponder. Your transponder code. Squawk this code the entire IFR flight—no squawking VFR until you cancel IFR or close your flight plan.
Bob also mentioned the application process for any Pecan pilot wanting to use the 0TX1 GPS approach. You must have an approved application before legally using the approach.
