dope sheet
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DOPE SHEET
FOR 62 YEARS — THE NEWSLETTER OF
CHAPTER 13 OF THE EXPERIMENTAL AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATION
SERVING SPORT AVIATION IN THE DETROIT AREA
Volume 62 Number 7 website: EAACHAPTER13.ORG July 2017
July Regular Meeting No Presentation
As is customary, no speaker has been scheduled for the July meeting. With Oshkosh-AirVenture, Young Eagles, the Chapter Picnic and the Dawn Patrol up-coming in July there will be a number of things up for discussion. A sign-up sheet will be passed around showing all of the items needed for the picnic. You know the drill. Come early and you can give us a hand with the set-up. Clean up assistance will also be needed. Re-member to bring your lawn chairs, and desserts are always welcomed, in addition to your chosen sign-up item(s). The Dawn Patrol has been a popular event for the Chapter. As a result it has served to bolster the Chapter’s treasury. (Everything helps.) So be on hand to give what ever assistance may be required. Have breakfast, observe the aircraft that fly in and check out the Radio Control Club display. If you have a vintage vehicle or any other item of interest, bring it along for show and tell. Peter Dugdale will be looking for volunteers for key positions. Let’s make it a quality event for our visitors. Ed
June Presentation Review B-25 Sandbar Mitchell
Submitted by Bill Appleberry
For our June meeting EAA Chapter 13 was very fortunate to host the return of Patrick Mihalek and Todd Trainor. Pat and Todd first visited our Chapter in November of 2013 to report on the beginnings of their Museum, the Warbirds of Glory and of the recovery of a B-25 Mitchell bomber from the Alaskan wilderness.
When he was a teenager Patrick had a dream of someday restoring a B-25 bomber and seeing it re-turned to the sky. That dream saw Pat through col-lege at Western Michigan University where he stud-ied aviation maintenance technology. Once out of college he started his own aviation maintenance busi-ness, Legend of Aces. Patrick specializes in main-taining and restoring vintage war birds. In his spare time (even during college) Patrick would read all he could about B-25s and their collective history with an eye toward finding a restorable airframe.
REGULAR MEETINGS
1ST
Thursday of Each Month
Our regular meeting place is Ray Community Airport, in the Chapter #13 hangar (#304) located on the Northeast corner of the field. The address is 59819 Indian Trail. Meeting time is 7:30pm to 10pm. Burgers and dogs are available for a donation be-tween 6:30 and 7:30pm.
Bill Appleberry
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EAA Chapter #13 Officers President Rex Phelps
586 918 3838 [email protected]
Vice President Mike Fisher
586 995 2753 [email protected]
Treasurer Steve Greene
586 864 2815 [email protected]
Secretary Cliff Durand
248 853 0232 [email protected]
Newsletter Editor Tom Vukonich
248 794 3784 [email protected]
Asst News Editor Bill Appleberry
586 530 6387 [email protected]
Web Site Manager Carol Lynn
313 613 9038 [email protected]
Tech Counselor Bob Hunt
248 563 0927 [email protected]
Tech Counselor Ron Walters
248 435 0441 [email protected]
Tech Counselor Chuck Valade
586 707 4032 [email protected]
Young Eagle Coord Dennis Glaeser
248 953 0374 [email protected]
Building and Grnds Pete Dugdale
586 463 6906 [email protected]
Chapter Calendar 2017
July 6 Regular Meeting* 7:30-10 pm
8 Ch #13 Picnic 12:00 Noon
9 Young Eagles Sunday 9A-2PM
15 Dawn Patrol See Poster Pg. 9
24-30 AirVenture Oshkosh, WI Aug 10 Officers’ Meeting** 7:30 pm 12 Young Eagles Saturday 9A-2PM Sept 7 Regular Meeting* 7:30-10 pm 10 Young Eagles Sunday 9A-2PM 14 Officers’ Meeting** 7:30 pm *All Regular Meetings (not all are listed) will have a pre-meeting Bar-B-Q/Setup that starts at 6:30 pm. **Officers’ Meetings are normally held the 2nd Thursday of each month, in President Rex Phelps’s hangar, 420C.
June Presentation Review (Cont)
In their first visit they recounted the story of how they found the Mitchell bomber in Alaska and of its subse-quent recovery. The owner’s (Edgar Thorsrud family) had refused to sell any part of the aircraft or authorize any salvage operation over the years. When Patrick contacted them and told them what he wanted to do with the aircraft they sold it to him for one dollar.
This month Patrick talked about the progress on the original recovered airframe but he spent more time talking about the museum and it’s youth programs. Warbirds of Glory Museum was established to achieve three goals that were equally important to both Todd and Pat; Preserve WWII aviation history, honor our veterans, and mentor our nation’s youth. When they got the remains of the B-25, Sandbar Mitchell, back to Brighton Airport they founded the Warbirds of Glory Museum and got started on their programs.
Their first youth volunteer was Logan Kucharek who participated in the original recovery. Over the years there have been 35 youth volunteers in the program. These youth are given the opportunity to learn history through hands on participation. They are learning modern computerized skills such as drawing (CAD), machining and 3D printing (CAM), database manipula-tion and spreadsheets for inventory and cost analysis. They also learn teamwork, time management, and pa-tience. One of the benefits these kids receive is an interactive classroom CAD training class taught by Mr. Jon Benavides a professional CAD design engineer in the Aerospace Industry. Currently there are 10 youths in the mentorship program that are actively vol-unteering on the B-25 restoration.
These youth learn to drill out rivets and disassemble aircraft subassemblies. All parts are cleaned in-spected, looked up in the original B-25 factory drawing package, identified and stored in numbered bins. All of the original drawings are redrawn in CAD software so that they are brought into the “digital world”. Todd and Pat now have taken advantage of Solidworks Software’s relationship with the EAA and their digiti-zation process is moving into the 3-D world.
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June Presentation Review (Cont)
Todd and Pat put together the first “Crowd Funding” appeal for a museum project when they were first working out the logistics of the original recovery op-eration. They have helped other World War II Mu-seums put together successful crowd funding appli-cations for their own projects. As an example they helped Mid Atlantic Air Museum put together a Kick-starter Campaign to fund wing spar work on their P-61 Black Widow project.
As word of their restoration project spread they be-gan hearing of other B-25 derelict aircraft airframes, parts and pieces. They learned of a Russian lend lease aircraft that was damaged on landing in Nome, Alaska and was abandoned in place. They were able to acquire what was left of that aircraft. Word came of a pilot canopy section for sale in a consignment store in Kansas City, Kansas. They were able to purchase it. It was a new assembly (never flown) and apparently had spent its life as a doghouse on an Indian Reservation. Pat and Todd learned that one of North Americans engineers was Native American. It would seem likely that he ap-propriated it for a Secret Project.
They learned of a B-25 that crashed in Italy during the war. When they contacted a local Italian Avia-tion group to learn more about that particular B-25 they were put in touch with a local man, a Mr. Pio Legher who had actually witnessed the crash dur-ing the war. Not only was he still alive, (he’s 101) but he had also recovered as much of the wreckage as he could at the time, carrying the pieces back to his barn. He is donating portions of a Bell, M-9 tail turret assembly to the project (he is disassembling it and mailing the pieces to America).
Patrick talked a mile a minute for 48 minutes.
(He promised to keep it under an hour although he said he could go on for 4 hours non stop). Clearly, Pat is a walking, talking encyclopedia on B-25s and it’s obvious that he and Todd love vintage aviation and paying it forward. Since Todd was a mentor for Pat, I guess in Todd’s case he is paying it forward forward (forward-squared?). Certainly, Todd is a mentor’s mentor.
Like I said, Chapter 13 was very fortunate to have the Sandbar Mitchell crew back for a riveting eve-ning.
You can find more information on the Sandbar Mitchell at these web pages:
https://www.warbirdsofglory.org/
http://www.warbirdsnews.com/category/warbird-restorations/b-25-sandbar-mitchell
https://www.moosepeterson.com/blog/sandbar-mitchell/
http://www.legendofaces.com/
Submitted by Bill Appleberry
Chesaning Aero Invitational: Howard Nixon Memorial Airport (50G)
Chesaning, MI
Date: July 07, 2017 - July 09, 2017 Time: 06:00 PM - 01:00 PM
Location: 205 S 4th St, Chesaning, MI 48616
Grass Roots Pilot Fun Day/Camp out. Fixed wing, ultralight, PPC, PPG, RC, if you fly it, bring it! Com-petition events scheduled morning and evening, demonstrations mid-day, camping Friday and Satur-day nights, bonfire and potluck dinner Saturday Evening. Dawn Patrol Pancake Breakfast Sunday morning.
Contact: Jeanne Brubaker Phone: 989-513-2871
Email: [email protected]
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Post #13 Explorers Report
Submitted by Marla Smith
Hi Tom,
I'm sorry that I didn't get photos of our gyroscope meeting or the Young Eagles day. I need someone to follow me around to remind me to do things like that!
Marla Aviation Explorer Post #13 Update June 1st - The Aviation Explorers met in the terminal where they learned about gyroscopic instruments. Doug Conciatu brought gyroscopes and also had some old instruments for the Explorers to open up and examine, making it a good hands-on learning experience. After our meeting in the terminal we joined the Chapter for the B-25 Sandbar Mitchell presentation. Both presentations that evening were very informative!
June 10th - The Aviation Explorers were invited to help out at the Young Eagles rally. One of the Ex-plorers (Eli) was able to be at the rally and there was a great turnout of kids for airplane rides so it was good Eli was there to help. Mark Fullmer had Eli out on the ramp for a while, giving him a new ex-perience at Ray Airport.
The Explorer Post meets on a different schedule in the summer than during the school year. There are no third Thursday meetings in June, July, or August. Instead, the Explorers will help out on Young Eagles days, getting some great experience at the airport.
Young Eagles Report June 10, 2017
Submitted by Dennis Glaeser, YE Coord
We had an amazing turnout of kids – not so much for pilots… We flew 63 kids with 4 pi-lots. I’m glad Bob Mahieu was flying the 172! The ground crew told me they had to turn away at least 50!! They stopped taking signups at about 11:30 due to the length of the wait list. In order to maximize the flow, for a while, the pilots just stayed in the plane and the ground crew brought the paperwork to the plane for signatures! Dave Nellis did the logbook entries for the kids since the pilots didn’t have time. He gets the ‘writer’s cramp’ award. Tom Hoover did the cooking and had to work through issues with the grill. (Nothing is ever easy!) And of course, Tom Vukonich was there to take pic-tures. The experience and ingenuity of our ground folks shined through – again!! Julie Rouse, Paul Kahler, Dave Nellis, Allen Numerick, Vern Lancaster, Bill Appleberry, Lorne Minor, Chuck Valade, Mark Fullmer, Eli (Aviation explorer), Marla Smith (my apologies if I missed someone) Here is the breakdown for our ‘ironmen’ pilots: Doug Conciatu – 10 Pete Dugdale – 12 Dennis Glaeser – 13 Bob Mahieu – 28 The next event is the day after our Chapter Picnic. I will be twisting arms to get more pilots… Thanks, Dennis
Dawn Patrol: Ionia County Airport (Y70), Ionia, MI
Date: July 22, 2017 Time: 07:00 AM - 11:00 AM Location: 468 E. Sprague Road, Ionia, MI 48846 Joint us for a Fly-in, Drive-in Breakfast. Warbirds, Vintage Aircraft, Fixed Wing. Helicopter and Biplane rides available. Early morning Balloon Launch. Shuttle Rides to the Ionia Free Fair throughout the day.
Sponsored by: School of Missionary Aviation Tech-nology
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Eagles Program, be sure to visit these areas if you attend.
. Pete Dugdale reports that he and Jim McDan-iel scraped and painted the peeling paint on the outside of the Chapter hangar. It appears that more than just paint will be needed to properly fix the exterior of the hangar in the future. Pete plans to investigate the choices available.
. What no Chairman! Pete reports that no one has stepped forward to chair the Chapter Picnic. This is a popular event that draws many members every year. Good weather is certain, so we will organize the event by e-mail. Bring what you brought last year. The picnic will be held at the Chapter 13 hangar this year.
. The Dawn Patrol according to Pete will be held as scheduled. Those members organizing the event are putting a lot of time and effort to make this a memorable event. Show your support by attending and enjoying a great breakfast and many displays.
. The Chapter newsletter has displayed many items on the back page for sale. If you sell an item, please let Tom Vukonich know it has been sold so that he can delete the item from publica-tion. He will usually run the item for sale for two months and then automatically delete the informa-tion. You will find a new addition to the list of personnel that work for the Chapter. Carol Lynn, our Webmaster will now be on the listing direc-tory.
. We have not heard anything as yet as to 100th Anniversary plans for Selfridge Air Base. Dick Green will be investigating. If you fly in to Oak-land Pontiac Airport Dennis Glaeser reports that 27L is closed. Doug Conciatu thinks it may be connected with some construction on an adjoining taxiway, but he can’t say for sure. If everything else fails, read your NOTAM.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:14 p.m.
The next board meeting is scheduled for August 10th 2017
Note: It is customary that because of Air Venture there is no board meeting in July and no general membership meeting in August. In September the Chapter resumes normal meeting schedules.
Respectfully submitted:
Cliff Durand-EAA Chapter 13 Secretary
/Ray Airport
Officers’ Meeting Minutes for
June 8, 2017
Submitted by Secretary Cliff Durand
Members and guests at-tending the board meeting: Rex Phelps, Mike Fisher, Tom Vukonich, Bill Ap-pleberry, Dennis Glaeser, Pete Dugdale, Dick Green, Bob Mahieu, Marla Smith, Doug Con-ciatu, Dave Nellis, Cliff
Durand.
. Cliff Durand read the meeting minutes for April/
May 2017; the minutes were accepted as read.
New Business
. The Treasurer report was submitted by Steve Greene via e-mail as follows: Starting Balance: $15,797.46, Credits: $554.00, Debits: $230.95, Ending Balance: $18,120.51, Special Expenses: None, Petty Cash: $200.00, Membership for 2017: 98, Membership for 2018: 4, CD: Steve indicated that the second instrument will be created by the end of June. Steve’s report was accepted.
. Upcoming speakers: Our next speaker will be in September. He is a product of the Young Ea-gles Program; His name is David Fatell who now holds a commercial pilot’s license. He will be pre-senting his story.
. The Chapter 13 Explorer Scouts will have the summer off and will be returning in the fall begin-ning with a membership drive reports Marla Smith. The post is also looking to purchase a whiteboard for use in their presentations. The board will be paid for by the Chapter and will be shared use for both the post and the chapter. Eli-gible persons for the post membership are ages 14 to 21 years. If you know a young person that might be interested, have them contact Marla Smith. There will be a final report on post activi-ties until fall in this issue of the newsletter.
. Dennis Glaeser reports that there will be a Young Eagles event June 10th. With the promise of good weather he hopes the event will have great attendance. Dennis also pointed out that there will be four places at Oshkosh this year that will showcase the 25th Anniversary of the Young
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Dave Shirey’s Helicopter Story
“The Trip”
Five years ago I got the idea to get my helicopter li-cense, just as a way to get some excitement in flying after fifty years.
I also had the idea to build a Ro-torway Helicopter kit.
Mark Fullmer helped and over the next year and a half we built a very nice helicopter. I hired the factory pilot to help with the final assembly and the test flying. But, due to electronic problems that did not work out. After he left Mark figured out what the problem was and everything started working -- every-thing but my brain!
On that fateful day, the weather was not right and I didn't think things out. I just hopped in and tried to hover. That lasted about six sec-onds and over I went. Shortest flight ever.
Over the next two years we tried to rebuild, but
really had no interest in doing it a second time. After admitting that we were burned out on the project, I decided to sell. The helicopter idea had not com-pletely disappeared but the desire to build had.
I learned to fly in a Schweizer Model 269 so I started looking for one in the 'For Sale' papers. I found one in Mesa, AZ that sounded good and contacted Steve Langford, my instructor from five years earlier. Steve lives in Mesa so he went to look over the heli-copter and reported that it looked like a good ma-chine. This was last October.
I flew out to Mesa and spent 10 hours with Steve get-ting re-acquainted with flying. I decided to leave it there until I got back from Florida in the Spring.
On May 10th it was back to Mesa. I did not want to fly it over the Rocky Mountains, so Steve got enough time off work to drive a trailer with me and the heli-copter to Scott, Kansas. I picked this field because I was on the eastern edge of the Rockies and the me-chanic agreed to help re-install the blades.
Saturday, when we were ready to fly (Steve wanted
to check me out one more time) the winds were
gusting to 36mph. We agreed I was not going to learn anything in those winds, so Steve agreed to wait until morning to head back.
Sunday, early, we flew. I soloed and got ready to leave when he saw that the booster pump was leak-ing fuel just four inches from the exhaust.
I was the mechanic's day off, but he came right in and pulled the pump. He informed us that the pump could only be repaired by authorized repair stations. He tried to locate help, but on Sunday no one was avail-able. On Monday morning he found a new one in Oklahoma for $1000.00, I said, "Get It!" On Tuesday he had the pump installed by 3:00 P.M., but it was too late to start out. Wednesday through Saturday we had high winds, rain and low ceilings.
Finally, on Sunday morning the winds were gone and the rain down to a drizzle, so off I went.
I made it to Nebraska in three and a half hours and stopped for the night.
Flying the helicopter was very tiring, three to four hours was the most I could fly safely in a day. The trip took three days, probably the hardest flight I ever made, and my only cross country flight by helicopter ever. I have a total of 73 hours and am getting better, but still a way to go before I achieve full confidence.
It's too bad that many of us have to wait until we are
older to afford the time and expense of these kind of
adventures. It would have been a lot easier at 35
than 75.
Photo above: Chuck Valade (L) and Dave Shirey with
Dave’s Schweizer 269
Thanks for sending this article along, Dave. You are
an inspiration to us all. Ed
The Roterway Helicopter
Internet Photo
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Tony Wadrick-Gone West
Anthony E. "Tony" Wadrick, a resident of Livonia, passed away on June 22, 2017, at the age of 91. Tony was the loving father of Jody Preston (Kurt Peters); the cherished grandfather of Hunter Preston; and great-grandfather of Kyis and Izzi Pre-ston. He was predeceased by his loving parents, Teofil and Magdelena Wadzryk, brother Edward John Wadrzyk and loving life partner Ileen Mul-lane. Tony was the uncle of Mark (Jennifer) Wadrzyk and Julie (Robert) Hochstein; great uncle of Lauren Wadrzyk, Molly and Adrian Hockstein and caring friend and neighbor Jim Uchwatt. He loved airplanes, sailboats and snow skiing. Tony will be resting at the L.J. Griffin Funeral Home in Westland (7707 Middlebelt Road at Ann Arbor Trail) on Sunday, June 25, from 1:30 - 8:00 p.m. There will be a Rosary at 6:30 p.m. He will be Instate at 10:30 a.m. on Monday, June 26, at St. Gerald Catholic Church, located at 21300 Farm-ington Road (North of 8 Mile Road) until the time of his Funeral Mass at 11 a.m. Military honors will be pre-sented at the conclusion of the service. Tony's final resting place will be St. Hedwig Cemetery in Dearborn Heights, Michigan. Memorial Contributions may be made to either Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers (PO Box 302 Maryknoll, NY 10545) or Catholic Relief Services (228 W. Lexington St., Baltimore, MD 21201).
FACTS Born: June 3, 1926
Death: June 22, 2017
SERVICES Visitation Sunday June 25, 2017, 1:30 PM - 8:00 PM at L.J. Griffin Funeral Home - Westland
Rosary Sunday June 25, 2017, 6:30 PM at L.J. Griffin Funeral Home - Westland
Instate Monday June 26, 2017, 10:30 AM - 11:00 AM at St. Gerald Catholic Church
Funeral Mass Monday June 26, 2017, 11:00 AM at St. Gerald Catholic Church
DONATIONS Memorial donations may be made to: Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers
Catholic Relief Services
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OTHER CHAPTER #13 JULY EVENTS
Saturday, JULY 8TH—The Annual Chapter #13 Picnic
This year the event will be held at the Ren Sagaert’s Hangar.
Event begins at Noon. Come early, if you are able, to
assist with set-up. The sign-up list of things to bring will be
passed around at the July meeting.
Sunday, JULY 9TH—Young Eagles Flights, 9am to 2pm
Saturday, JULY 15TH—Chapter #13 Dawn Patrol
Event to be held in the Chapter Hangar #304
At the Regular July meeting we will be looking for
volunteers to assist with set-up/take-down and serving re-
sponsibilities.
All of these activities require your assistance. Please do your part.
JULY 24-30
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7:30a.m. - 11:30a.m.
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Aircraft for Sale Sonex Onex kit, $35,000 OBO
Sonex Onex kit, Tail wheel airframe ~90% complete, spars and center
wing section requires assembly. UL 350IS (130 HP) engine mounted
along with fuel pumps, ignition, and ECM. Requires prop, instru-
ments, interior, and paint. Death forces the sale. Contact Peter Dug-
dale (Michigan), Cell# 586-219-7907.
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Aircraft for Sale Lake LA-4 200 Buccaneer $85,000 OBO
1182 Hrs TT, 58 Hrs SMOH by ProAero, new CW crank (AD), electronic
ignition, new prop in 07, new 5 color exterior paint in 16, high end
dove grey leather interior. Many mods, nose wheel steering, cargo
door, hull plates, 2 puck Cleveland brakes, bat wings, VGs, high lift
wing tips, spinner, bilge pump, glare shield, JPI analyzer, door lifts,
rudder trim, Causely kit, healthy heater, renegade yokes and arm
beams. Always hangared, never in salt, no damage or corrosion. Fresh
Annual. Death forces the sale. Contact Peter Dugdale (Michigan), Cell#
586-219-7907.
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Aircraft for Sale Posted in the Ray Airport Office
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Aircraft for Sale Manta Foxbat
Submitted by Emily Widmar and Posted in the Ray Airport Office
Foxbat Ultra-lite for sale. GREAT condition.
Built and flown by Doug Widmar for the past 30 years, at Johnson
Airport in Smiths Creek, Michigan. Call Emily Widmar at
586-321-8600 for additional information.
The Foxbat was designed to comply with the US FAR 103 Ultralight Vehi-cles rules, including the category's maximum empty weight of 254 lb (115 kg). The aircraft has a standard empty weight of 200 lb (91 kg). It fea-tures a cable-braced high-wing, a single-seat, open cockpit, tricycle land-ing gear and a single engine in pusher configuration. The control system is unconventional and uses a hang glider style control bar for weight shift control of pitch and roll, augmented with wing tip rudders for yaw, acti-vated by hand controls on the control bar. The fuselage is an open frame structure that is attached to the wing via a flexible single point mount, to allow weight shift control. The pilot is accommodated on a sling seat. The landing gear is of tricycle configuration, with a steerable nose wheel. The Foxbat wing can be folded for ground transport and storage.
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248-794-3784
[email protected] Address Service Requested
THE DOPE SHEET
Tom Vukonich, Editor First Class Mail 2961 Secluded Pines Dr Oxford, Michigan 48371
stamp
here
Here is the next in our series “Who’s Building What” in Chapter #13. Shown above is
Chapter #13 Vice President Mike Fisher and his Kitfox.
Send us a photo of you and your project and we’ll publish it here.