Manawatu Microlight Club Newsletter for 8 December 2011
www. manawatumicrolightclub.org.nz/
In this issue
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First of articles on Peter Dunnings Zodiac build. Looking forward to this series of articles, and
will be following with interest arrival of aircraft, test flying progress, and seeing Peter finally
at the controls of his project. One of our club members Mark Dean tackled something
equally impressive with his Sonerai built from plans in his single garage we really do have
some freedoms in the aviation scene in this country.
An article from the Cullivers. Who else do you know gets an invite to inspect one of the
worlds largest cargo planes while it unloads the long awaited NH90 helicopters. They didn’t
get to fly it though wasn’t for lack of trying.
Update photos from Phil Buddings re power project. Nearly about to rock and roll. Take the
time to bale Phil up for a look while the cowls are off , in the flesh every detail of this project
is a work of art.
An article from the editor enjoying a day with friends in the jetboat.
Editorial Comment
Nearly years end with the Christmas party coming up again where did that one go. Your Editor
and President would like to wish all the club members a Great Christmas and of course a
prosperous new year.
Peter Dunnings Zodiac build
In the beginning…….
Part 1
I was first exposed to small plane construction when I was just eight or thereabouts. It was shortly
after I attended that inaugural Wellington airport opening when the visiting RAF Vulcan came close
to disaster on finals during the approach to Wellington airport, way back in the fifties.
The presence of balsa wood and cement permeated my bedroom and ‘octopus’ glue later added to
the mix which my Mother tolerated with commendable patience. It was years later when I turned
50 in 1997 that the once-dormant urge to build an airplane returned, but this time the balsa wood
etc was replaced with 6106-T6 aluminium and the garage ceased to be for automotive application.
So what did it take to move airplane building from the “I wish I had” category to the “By gosh, I did
it” column ?
In the hopes of inspiring just one reader to make the same move, I’m going to describe how it came
to pass for me….
Well I joined up with the Wellington microlight flyers group that year and finally got to fly at
Masterton with the late Paul Havill and his syndicated challenger II ROTAX powered microlight. This
followed an interesting presentation by Rex Kenny on one subsequent club evening which featured a
Zodiac CH601UL being built in Tauranga at that time. I was hooked and this precipitated intense
activity researching kit airplanes on the market !
Several features at that time drew me to the Zodiac. Firstly, the HD variant of the CH601 could take
stresses almost double that of factory-built Cessna’s, and additionally it followed conventional
aircraft in that it is made of durable aluminium. Those large chunky wings may result in a reduction
of speed, but it more than makes that deficit up when it comes to climb and short-field
performance. Throw in the excellent visibility for good measure, along with the ‘claimed’ short build
time and the decision was complete for me.
So you may now ask…what does it take to undertake building an aircraft (for the first time) for
recreational purposes ? Well, I’d suggest that you ought to have had at least some experience in
building something. As a kid I built radio kits and three houses as an adult, later. Having an interest
in how things fit together , along with a taste of assembling something, are good indicators that you
can get right into building an airplane (in my view). The more exposure, interest, and curiosity you
have, the more eagerly you will look for ways to customise and improve on the airplane you’re
constructing.
Launching the Project
Willing helpers on ‘kit arrival day’.
My first step was to unpack and
inventory all the sheet metal,
formed parts, and plans etc. The
12 X 4 table I had built prior to kit
arrival in the garage, left just
sufficient room for me to walk
around. On it I built the three
components of the tail assembly,
the wings, the centre section, and
most of the rear fuselage.
The table had been carefully set up.
I still have the cut-off scraps from forming the rudder. The all-flying rudder took approx. 10 hours
to assemble after which I had the most wonderful structure I had ever witnessed – an extremely
strong air foil that only weighed a little over a kg. It became a hint of the elegance and integrity of
stressed aluminium skin construction that ultimately characterised the whole plane. ie
When completed it would weigh approx. 300kg which included the 100HP engine etc.
Throughout the building process I paid considerable attention to detail – far more so than necessary
- driven by pride in whatever level of craftsmanship I was able to muster. For example I carefully
filed and sanded the corners edges of every metal piece, and afterwards treated the result with 2
pot primer. .. Over 90% of those corners & edges etc are forever hidden, but I have the satisfaction
of knowing they were done right. NB. This is not to say that all my work was flawless, but when I
made an error I agonised over it and resolved it either by confirming that it was very minor (eg
uneven spacing between rivets) or correctable by making a replacement part ! The kit Supplier also
stated that I was not building a 747 and this tends to put things in perspective (despite going to bed
knowing something you did could have been done a little better !)
Next in line for building was the assembly
of the tail feathers. Having completed
the rudder, I had experienced most of the
processes required to build the entire
plane (or so I thought !) – drilling, cutting,
laying out, riveting, use of clecoes, priming
etc. There was far more ‘character-building’
stuff to follow !
Directions for kit planes can vary between
Manufacturers I was told. The kit manual
I had to work with could only be described
as ‘adequate’ although in more recent times
they have reverted to CAD drawings, the
latter of which provide pictorial views of details as they become pertinent in the building process.
The drawings became the dominant source of information, rather than the sequence manual. The
internet also was a source of supportive information too. But I digress…next came the wings
The wings provided a significant challenge
In that they required electrics to be fitted:
Trim, strobes as well as the leading edge
wing tanks. Sourcing the assembled tanks
proved to be the best way forward and
simplified construction as well.
For cable ducting I used flexible, fire-resistant
19mm tubing…very effective.
The full length ailerons had to be pre-warped
prior to fitting to the wings and as they are
hingeless (outer skin flexes)and they are
bound to be a topic of future discussion.
More in Part 2 ….
Cullivers Article
Working in our yard, as I now have a job (!), we hear the aircraft coming & going at Ohakea all day long. The air
trainers we hardly notice. The new Augusta helicopters are wonderfully quiet. There's little better than hearing the
putter-putter of the Tiger battle against a 2 knot headwind. Even the Spitfire came & beat up our strip last week.
But yesterday a jet was coming in that didn't sound familiar. I watched to see what would appear. Pondering
slowly on finals for runway 09 was an Antonov 124. I rushed into the house, yelled "Antonov" & the whole family
piled out onto the patio to watch the lumbering beast.
Later that evening, after a baby panic & rush to Palmy hospital (no dramas or worries, just a slightly elevated
heart rate they wanted to check - another week to the due date), we got a text asking if we would like to go see
the Antonov. - Too right!
It is certainly a big aircraft, probably the biggest yet to get into Ohakea. It's almost as big as Sarah's bump!
Standing in front of it was amazing, almost as great as standing in front of the Antonov, watching the turbine
blades freewheeling in the breeze. It (the Antonov, not Sarah) had 4, yes, 4 nosewheels . We ran out of fingers
and toes to count the main wheels, and that included the babies fingers & toes as well.
The 17 Russian crew members, on their first visit to Manawatu had brought their fishing rods from Russia for the
purpose of fishing on the Wanganui. I think biosecurity wasn't happy. And a couple of minibus loads of grumpy
Russians weren't that impressed by the Manawatu, either. I got the feeling they'd rather get John Cleese to
deliver the next NH90's! No sign of them having to pay their $5 departure tax.
Sarah & I stood by as they extracted the step ladder, entered the belly & fired up the APU so we could see inside.
The inside is simply cavernous. With 2 large 10 ton cranes running in the roof. It is all as you would expect from a
soviet era cargo plane. Functional and strong. I wonder how many cans of bug spray bio-security used up. It
does make me laugh. All the russians had to have all their bags x-rayed etc. But we, along with numerous others
simply climbed on & walked around it. It was a great photo opportunity, with even the Spitfire making the trip
across the apron to get it's pic taken next to the leviathan.
The steps up to the cockpit were even steeper - hardly ideal for a 9 months pregnant woman. But Sarah wasn't
going to let steps put her off.
The flight deck was like the rest of the plane - massively functional. The 6 crew consisted of pilot & co-pilot. An
ancient Garmin 420 GPS was crudely strapped to the glare-shield. 2 outboard motors faced the windscreen for
some reason. The 2 navigators & 2 engineers sat behind the pilots. No glass screens or state of the art
electronics in this aircraft. The upside was that we were allowed to sit where we wanted, take pics etc to our
hearts content. The whisky compass was a N hemisphere one - though I can't imagine the russkies worrying
about that.
All the instruments were in russian, with a couple of paper conversion sheets for feet / meters / knots / km/hr
were sellotaped here & there. We didn't see anything labeled as an auto pilot, but with 17 crew, maybe they
simply take turns. But there again, it may simply have been in russian. But which crew member would control it,
who knows?
It is simply amazing to be in a cockpit of a plane that is stationary on the ground, and yet be far higher above
ground level than we usually fly over the fence on landing! We were almost at the same level as the control
tower!
After the flight deck tour we got the tour of the avionics bay.
I think this was a radar box of some kind, but it might have been an atomic bomb, a coffee machine, or a Russian
version of an ELT, for all we knew. There was also an upside down periscope in the avionics bay for checking the
cargo deck in flight as only the flight deck / avionics is pressurised.
There were 17 crew members, so I presume 3 crews with a spare. They spend most of the year living full time on
it! a couple of bunk beds & a small kitchen, not dissimilar to a super-tub with a hot plate catered to their needs.
Some of the crew had spent 20 years flying the Antonov 124. The only place we didn't go to was the toilet - an
amazing feat for Sarah at this stage of pregnancy.
Descending the steep ladders again to terra firma & off to the control tower we went to watch it take off. More
steps. We climbed more steps in one evening than in the whole of our time in NZ.
Phillips got the power some update photos for out of towners.
Aircraft detail
Rans S9
ZK KOS
Fully aerobatic
Handling scary
Jetboat article by Ed
Every year the spring equinox arrives it turns people like me into a flight less bird and I get
depressed. So when JBR suggested going jet boating down the Oroua River well I jumped at the
opportunity. Hey I could already picture the scene Dark sunglasses, hat on backwards and the sound
of a 350 chevy engine at full noise could be just as good if not better than doing power on stalls in
the Arrow with boots in the back. John also invited Bill Penman along and he agreed to go Cool. It
was a fairly snug fit in JBR ‘s ute on the way out to the river. We discussed the various launch options
in the light of there wasn’t much water in the river and decided under the bridge at Awahuri would
give us access to launch and enough water unlike the by the freezing works option which we had
already been discarded.
It would probably be fair to say I am bubbling with enthusiasm and keen to help however always the
mind is running a bit faster than usual protecting one self from doing dumb shit in particular news
worthy dumb shit that may end up in the news letter.
Actually now is a good to present in a format for Pilots with relatively short attention spans the
events which ended in Myself and Bill Penman sitting in the dark in Jamie Frecks ute with wet arses
peering out for a couple of headlights towing a jet boat and another tractor.
Some not all of the significant dumb moves
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Nearly burnt out JBRs clutch on his ute retrieving the trailer from the river (Ed)
Took the wrong choice on a river fork 1.5 tonnes of jet boat on gravel shelf couple of
hundred metres from useful river for jetboat (JBR)
Walk back to Awahuri through LIC bull farm (Ed JBR Bill P)
Drive to Feilding still a snug fit we haven’t lost any weight on our walk (Trio)
Arrive at JBR’s place someone on site not happy, something about dinner commitment made
not achievable now (Jane)
Try to start tractor quite some time involved while all jump options tried
Drive tractor Feilding to Awahuri (JBR)
Boat trailer hits fence when Ute and trailer leaving JBR’s (Bill P Ed)
Head off down the river in the tractor with boat trailer behind (Trio)
Tow jetboat off gravel shelf to deep water (JBR)
Try to start jet boat failed (JBR)
Try to winch Jet boat onto trailer failed winch pin holding spline fell in river
Try to get trailer to firm ground tractor stuck detach trailer
Try to get tractor to firm ground-failed tractor stuck minus trailer 50 metres away.
This is when JBR decides to call his long time mate Jamie Frecklington he may have a four wheel
drive tractor around the corner. We are saved but he cannot get here until 7 o clock. What now
another attempt is made to start the jetboat- failed. Lets fix the winch this we managed to do. We
are on a roll now Pull the 1.5 Tonne jet boat against the current to the trailer it would have been a
feat for young fellas and we were really tested to pull that one off however determination and team
work won it over. Winch the jet boat on the trailer Stop Ring Jamie and tell him we don’t need him
anymore. This was the beginning of the down hill slide.
We got stuck quite a few times and JBR managed to skillfully drive out of it using the tractors bucket
to assist but ended up with the jet boat almost floating in the river on the trailer and the tractor
stalled and the river water over the drivers seat then we were buggered.
Jamie and his farm manager turned up as promised just before dark with the four wheel drive
tractor. Bill and I didn’t go back down river this time however apparently JBR had to dive under to
detach the boat trailer during the retrieve.
Finally after what seems like forever is that the sound of a tractor then the headlights yeah and then
the sound of JBRs tractor
I feel very lucky to be involved in the circle of friends I have in the aviation scene and when I look
back at the adventures experienced with JBR Bill and Jamie fishing flying just hanging out.
Back at work next week and during the day people ask “how was your weekend” to which I reply I
“went Jet boating in my mates boat”. Their eyes light up “Jet boating eh”. To which I reply with a grin
“yeah its tough being me”.
Events Calendar.
Christmas do Murrays Irish Bar Feilding 16 December order your meals before 1900
and tell Colin numbers please
New Years day Fly in hosted Athol and Betty Woodville
Committee
First Monday of the month 7 pm.
Getting spare prop for Hanuman
All Club machines flying
Looking for members to step up and fill some of the club positions due to be vacated next
AGM
Peter Gene has resigned from committee and we are looking for someone who will be keen
to keep website updated.