middle. Importantly, note in Figure 4, that the drain is in a "raised" portion of the center of the bowl: that's right, it's not ex-actly at the lowest point in the bowl. This allows any water to accumulate in the bot-tom (against the steel) and NOT drain out when you sump the gascolator. As you might expect, Cessna wants a fortune for re-placement bowls. Ac-tually, I think I've de-termined that Cessna has a contract with the vendor (Parker) which says Parker will sell parts ONLY to Cess-na, not to an overhaul shop, not to an owner, ONLY to Cessna. And Cessna will gladly sell to owners for an

astro-nomical

price. The new bowls are stainless (guess

Annual Time for the

Wallet Weevil

As I write this, the 310 is in Tom's hangar getting its annual physical. Typical items for inspection: 24 inspection panels on the Leading Edge, 14 inspection panels along the trailing edge, the fairings, access plates, battery box, cowls, everything has to come off so Tom can look at them. Having finally found a source for gascolator gaskets, we bravely removed the bowls to clean and inspect. On this airplane, the gas-colators are integral to the fuel valves: all one unit located in the wing leading edges, and the bowls are steel. Figure 1 shows the view from the top of the wing showing the valve. Figure 2 is the gascolator and drain from the bottom. Re-member from your

flight training: what's the purpose of the gascolator? To trap dirt and importantly water that might ap-pear in the fuel. Well, the previous owner seemingly never drained the water from the gascolators. What happens when water and steel spend a long time together? That's right: rust. Figure 3 shows the stuff Tom got out of the bowl. Yup. That's a pile of rust (we checked it with a magnet). Worse, Figure 4 shows the bowl after cleaning. See that re-ally bright spot in the corner: that's light shining through a pin hole in the steel bowl.

This is a steel bowl with a flange around the top and a drain in

the

P R E S I D E N T ’ S C O L U M N

J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 3

V O L U M E 1 5 , I S S U E 1

I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E :

P R O G R A M :

S H O W A N D T E L L

2

G U E S S T H A T A I R -

P L A N E 4

P I E T U P D A T E 9

E D I T O R S C O R N E R

E A A N E W S

1 0

L A S T M O N T H S

G U E S S T H A T A I R -

P L A N E A N S W E R

1 5

W A N T E D 1 6

S P E C I A L P O I N T S O F

I N T E R E S T :

Meeting is January 28 at

7:00 PM

Show and Tell

THE SLIPSTREAM

THE NEWSLETTER OF GREEN RIVER EAA CHAPTER 441 KENT, WA

January Meeting:

We'll see project progress from Roger, Jake, Craig (hint, hint).

Bring your project pieces, pictures, stories; share what you've

got.

W H E R E D O W E M E E T ?

2013

OFFICERS

President:

Brian Lee

(253)-639-0489

Vice-President:

Tim Shaver

Secretary:

Jake Schultz

Treasurer:

Steve Crider

Tech Counselors/ Flight

Advisors:

Brian Lee

(253)-639-0489

Dave Nason

Jonathan Lee

(253) 508-1376

Newsletter Editor:

Roger Schert

(206) 713-9910

windridershaman@gmail.com

Page 2

J A N U A R Y P R O G R A M

Meets 4th Mondays 7:00pm

17605 SE 288th PL, Kent

The Mellema Hanger

Parking

Crest Airpark

Show and Tell

P R E S I D E N T S C O L U M N C O N T I N U E D

they figured out the rusting problem some time ago). Hopefully by the time we meet, I'll have a used replacement bowl on the air-plane and be flying again. For my contribution to the show and tell, I'll bring the old bowl. Fly safe.

Brian

Icing: Be scared.

The recent edition of the Twin Cessna magazine includes an arti-cle by a contract pilot who owns a Cessna 340 (turbocharged, pressurized, certified for Flight in to Known Icing (FIKI)), and is based at Boeing Field. He offers some great advice that we all should pay attention to. The article says:

"Airframe ice buildup in the Pacific Northwest can rapidly overpow-er the de-icing and anti-icing systems and climb capability of any

Page 3 V O L U M E 1 5 , I S S U E 1

Figure 1: Gascolator

valve

Chapter 441 is fortu-

nate to have three

tech counselors.

Feel free to call Brian

(253)-369-0489 , or Dave Nason any

time. You don’t need to wait for some

significant milestone in your project.

Remember, this is not an “inspection”.

The shop doesn’t need to be cleaned

for a visit. All are quite used to looking

at pieces, parts, and assorted bits, and

will be happy to answer

questions, offer advice,

and generally talk about

projects, building, flying,

T E C H C O U N S E L O R S A N D F L I G H T A D V I S O R S

Page 4

DISCLAIMER: The “SLIPSTREAM” Newsletter is published as a clearing house for ideas, opinions, experiences and member information.

No responsibility or liability is expressed or implied. Anyone using or purchasing parts or product is doing so at his or her own risk, and is

without recourse against EAA Chapter 441 or any officer's) thereof, in whole or in part. Any material published herein may be reprinted

without permission. Please credit the original source of the material and/or the original print source.

G U E S S T H A T A I R P L A N E

This months entry:

Go to Page 15 for

the answer to last

months airplane

Page 5 V O L U M E 1 5 , I S S U E 1

P R E S I D E N T S C O L U M N C O N T I N U E D

turbocharged piston powered airplane, two engines or not."

The article goes on to provide advice for negotiating the ice-laden clouds over the Cascades, and especially significant, if the wind is out of the West at altitude.

Figure 2: Gascolator from below

Page 6 V O L U M E 1 5 , I S S U E 1

W A L L E T W E A V I L I N S P E C T I O N C O N T I N U E D :

Figure 3: Rust!

Page 7 V O L U M E 1 5 , I S S U E 1

W A L L E T W E A V I L I N S P E C T I O N C O N T I N U E D

Figure 4: Post cleaning condition Note the pin hole!

Page 8 V O L U M E 1 5 , I S S U E 1

P I E T E N P O L U P D A T E :

Hello EAA 441,

Over the December break I had planned to work on the Pieten-pol… and I did – sort of. I re-ceived my new bench-mounted Nicopress tool and practiced making swages. Next I posi-tioned (VERY CAREFULLY) the horizontal tail and back-drilled the mounting holes. It’s tricky because after it is drilled, well that’s where it’s going…! I also drilled the holes (again tricky) for the bolts to hold the elevator bell crank in position. It’s tough-er to drill a hole right down the center of a tube than one might think.

One area of my shop that had been getting to be a mess was

the makeshift overhead rack for “long” tubing, wood, etc… I built a rack a couple years ago but it was rickety and I decided that this break was the perfect time to replace it with a new version. What I ended up doing was a simple loop of electrical conduit that is lag-screwed into the joists above the ceiling. I was able to re-load the rack with much of the same stuff that had been there before, yet it is a cleaner setup.

One last area that was getting a bit out of control was my movie storage. From time-to-time I like to have movies going in the background and I have gath-ered about 350 movies which

were outgrowing all my places to store them. I modified a set of racks from a video store that went out of business by making the shelves deeper. Now I can store TWO ROWS of movies on each shelf with room to spare. BTW, I like VHS since I normally watch movies (background compan-ionship) which I have seen many times. In this way I am not distracted too far from my Pietenpol adventure. (If I get too bored, I have another 300 DVD movies upstairs…!) Any-one want to watch “The Great Waldo Pepper” one more time…!!

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P I E T E N P O L U P D A T E C O N T I N U E D :

Page 10 V O L U M E 1 5 , I S S U E 1

P I E T E N P O L U P D A T E C O N T I N U E D , E D I T O R S C O R N E R

Here is how I lag screwed the conduit “brackets” to the ceiling rafters. I located and drilled the 1” holes) from the crawl space - keeping the bit right next to the joist. I only drilled part way through and fin-ished drilling the hole with a spade bit from below – to make a cleaner hole in the ceil-ing. Attached is a simple cutaway drawing of how I attached the conduit loop.

Jake

Editors Corner:

January is about 2/3 done and with the new year comes resolutions. I am pretty bad at keeping reso-lutions, but I try any way. Though I have to remem-ber my favorite Star Wars character saying “No! Try not. Do, or do not, there is no try.”

I do want to complete my Easy Eagle, but I have let myself get sidetracked by other projects and thought. I have wanted to de-sign my own aircraft for so long, I just need to do it. I have been revisiting my Aero-

space Engineering and studying airfoil design. I want to take the Guppy which was an ultralight version of the Sorrel Hiber Bipe and make a two seat 100-125 HP version of it. Needless to say this will be a long time ef-fort. I am also wanting to rebuild an Aeronca 11AC. When I as a teen, my dad bought me an Aeronca 11AC project as a High School graduation gift that I was to rebuild. Unfortunately it lan-guished while I was at college and some of my dads friends started on rebuilding it before it

was lost in a hanger fire.

I did eventually own a flying 11AC and I had in-tended to keep it and eventually rebuild it, but a chance to upgrade to a Stinson (moving took the cash) and a move to San Diego interfered with keeping that Chief. Aeronca Aircraft hold a special place in my aviation heart.

The one I let get away.

My Easy Eagle has languished a little over the last couple of months and I am not going to re-

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E D I T O R S C O R N E R C O N T I N U E D , S T R O M B E R G N A - S 3 C A R B U R A T O R

peat the excuses today. I plan on bringing at least one of the ailerons to the next meeting for Show and Tell.

I am a member of the Aer-onca Aviators Club and I was reading an article about Stromberg Carburetor's in the most recent issue of their newsletter, The Aer-onca Aviator. I made contact with the writer and asked him for permission to include any articles he could offer. I am including at least one article in the next several Newsletters for your enjoy-ment.

STROMBERG NA-S3

CARB. UPDATE

CLEAN FUEL ??? IMPORTANT –or- NOT ???_______ There are thousands of old airplanes flying of many as-sorted brands many of which are 60 or 70 years old. These planes, like the hu-man body, get old and frag-ile and a lot of attention is needed to keep them healthy.

Almost all of these “old tim-ers” utilize a small four cylin-der Continental or Lycoming engine with a STROMBERG Carburetor doing the fuel delivery. Almost all are fed with a “gravity” fuel delivery system.

The STROMBERG is a fine little unit when maintained properly and kept clean. Fuel leaks and drips are of-ten associated with a STROMBERG carburetor. These problems come with age and deterioration and require service to keep them running properly. Fuel drips and leaks are always blamed on the STROM-BERG but they can be from several other sources.

Too high a float level can occur with a worn out needle and seat causing fuel to drip out of the main discharge nozzle in the center of the venturi or sometimes out of the float bowl vent port which is a little drilled open-ing in the lower casting about 1/8” below the parting surface. This area of drip is most likely to occur on a “tail dragger” rather than on a tri-gear aircraft. STROMBERG Service Bulletin #73 covers a fix for this problem but is very rarely performed on most STROMBERGS. When complied with, a 1” yellow dot is painted on the float bowl to identify being done.

The fuel needles in STROM-BERGS vary in design and have changed thru the years. The first design in 1935 was a stainless steel needle with a brass seat having a sharp edged nee-

dle contact point. The nee-dle was crudely machined and was hard to lap – thus- it dripped. The second gen-eration was a “neoprene” tipped needle which rested on a round edged brass seat and truly did an excellent job of stopping the drip. This came out in 1943 after the war. It worked well back them but not now.

Two problems came up with the neoprene design. One is that, after 50 or 60 years in use, the rubber “age hard-ens” and becomes quite brit-tle. These rubber tips will easily crumble if you squeeze them with a long nose pliers. How safe is that?

The second is that when ex-posed to auto fuel containing “ethanol”, the needle can swell up and cause fuel flow problems and even stop fuel flow completely. STC’s have come out allowing the use of auto gas and they stipulate the there must be NO ETH-ANOL in the fuel being used. WELL, where do you find auto gas today without 10% “ethanol”??? A few not so bright folks have tried using the E85 auto gas in their plane. WOW!!!

The answer is GET RID OF THE NEOPRENE NEEDLE.

In the middle 1960’s, a new

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S T R O M B E R G C Q A R B U R A T O R S C O N T I N U E D :

V O L U M E 1 5 , I S S U E 1

needle was developed for the automotive market called “DELRIN”. It is a white plastic injection molded needle and used the round edged brass seat. It is supposed to be im-pervious to the exotic auto fuels we see today. It also had to be lapped to provide a leak free seat contact. STROM-BERG Service Bulletin #ACSB-84 covers it’s installation.

Today, there is still a supply of late style, well machined stain-less needles and brass seats but they are becoming hard to find. These needle & seats are pretty good but need to be lapped with a very fine lapping compound to mate the contact area to prevent leakage. Some folks attempt to lap these nee-dles with “engine valve lapping compound” with disastrous re-sults. They end up destroying the contact area and leaks re-ally occur.

Still, the Delrin and stainless steel needles occasionally will still slightly leak after proper lapping has been done. It is very poorly understood why this happens. It involves the clearance between the outer diameter dimension of the nee-dle and the inner dimension of the bore in the brass seat. There has to be .006” to.008” clearance between the two. WHY so much clearance??? With a too tight of a clearance, a small speck of dirt could be-

come lodged between the nee-dle and seat jamming it either open or stuck closed. An acci-dent waiting to happen. Then there is a possibility of a small speck of dirt getting under the needle/seat contact area…Because of this, it is extremely difficult to get a 100% leak free condition when using the plas-tic or stainless needles.

The safe and positive cure is to turn the fuel selector to the “OFF” position at the end of every flight. Also, keep the fuel selector in the off position when the plane is parked in the hang-ar.

SO NOW, you remove the car-buretor and send it in for an overhaul to get it safe and op-erational again.

You get it back and re-install it on the engine. WOW, no leaks…it works great (for the first 2 or 3 weeks). Then, here comes that darned fuel drip AGAIN… WHAT HAPPENED ??? DIRT- BUT FROM WHERE

Dirt or foreign material got “back” into the carburetor after your costly carburetor overhaul was done. You blame it on the carburetor overhaul company…RIGHT… WRONG

Where did the “dirt come from??? Several areas. Dirt can come from the fuel delivery truck or the fuel farm. Dirt can

come from a deteriorating inter-nally rusted (ternplate steel tank) or corroded gas tank. Dirt can come from an old dried up. brittle fuel hose going from the gascolator to the carburetor which is breaking down internal-ly and should have been re-placed at the time the carb was overhauled.

How did the dirt get into the newly overhauled carburetor? It is a little known fact but the screen in the gascolator is only a 60 x 60 mesh screen, fairly coarse. The “rocks and boul-ders” get strained but dirt small-er than 60 x 60 will go right thru the gascolator screen down to the carb. The gas also carries the crumbly rubber parts that came off the inside of that old dried out fuel hose.

Now, the little finger strainer / filter inside the float bowl of the STROMBERG is supposed to catch all this trash…right…WRONG AGAIN… The finger strainer in the STROMBERG is also only a 60 x 60 mesh screen just like the one in the gascolator. The fine stuff pass-es right thru into the float bowl getting into the idle circuit, hi-speed circuit and possible the needle & seat contact point.

THE SOLUTION

When you spend your hard earned money getting a quality carburetor overhaul, don’t stop there.

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S T R O M B E R G C A R B U R A T O R S C O N T I N U E D , F A A D E C I D E S H A N D F L Y I N G I S B E N E F I C A L , E A A N E W S

V O L U M E 1 5 , I S S U E 1

1) Clean and flush, or possible replace a deteriorating gas tank.

2) Replace that old crumbly rubber hose with a high quality braided stainless steel/Teflon lined fuel hose.

3) Order and install a new gascolator with an extremely fine filtering screen that will trap all of the contaminants.

One of these sources for an ex-tremely well built, STC-PMA’d gascolator is to order from :

STEVE’S AIRCRAFT 15373 Jones Road White City, Oregon 97503 541/ 826-9729 www.stevesaircraft.com

Stainless / Teflon hoses can be ordered from a number of hose companies listed in Trade-A-Plane.

So, to sum it up, when you get your carburetor overhauled, don’t stop there… Do the com-plete job and install all the parts listed above. Pretty reasonable and affordable “life insur-ance”…..

Any questions, give me a call at 708/267-7111

BOB KACHERGIUS “THE STROMBERG SPECIAL-IST” Uni-Tech Air Management Sys-tems, Inc. “Specialists in the Overhaul of

STROMBERG NA-S3 Aircraft Carburetors” 13221 Windward Trail Or-land Park, Illinois 60462 708/267-7111 E-mail uni-tech@earthlink.net

Hand Flying Beneficial:

FAA decides practicing hand-flying is a good thing

On the 4th of January, FAA released a Safety Alert for Operators (SAFO) to advise all aircraft operators (including large transports in commercial operation) that continual use of automated systems (autopilots, auto throttles) does not reinforce a pilot's knowledge and skills in manual flight operations, and could lead to degrada-tion of the pilot's ability to quickly recover from an un-desired state. Operators are encouraged to practice man-ual flying.

So practice is still a good thing.

EAA News:

Burma Spitfire Search: Crate Found, but Contents

Obscured by Muddy Water

January 9, 2013 - A team of researchers attempting to uncover dozens of buried Spitfire fighter planes in Bur-ma announced Wednesday

they had located a large crate, but that muddy water prevented them from identi-fying its contents. Project leader David Cundall de-scribed the development as "very encouraging," accord-ing to a BBC report.

To read more Click Here.

FAA Still Reviewing EAA/AOPA Medical Certifica-

tion Exemption Request

January 10, 2013 - The EAA/AOPA medical certifica-tion exemption request, for which the public comment period closed in September, remains under review by the FAA as part of what's com-monly known as the "quiet period" prior to a final deci-sion by the agency.

The FAA is sifting and cate-gorizing more than 16,000 comments regarding the ex-emption request - nearly all of them in favor of proposal. The number of comments to a single request is nearly unprecedented in the agen-cy's history and will take more than the usual time to complete.

While the FAA has never set a timeline for a decision on the medical certification ex-emption request, EAA and AOPA continue to urge the agency at every opportunity to review it as expeditiously as possible, as many avia-

V O L U M E 1 5 , I S S U E 1 Page 14

tors are closely watching the decision to determine their own flying futures.

AirVenture Museum Lecture

Series Announced

The EAA AirVenture Museum will reintroduce its aviation lec-ture series on February 7, with a special presentation on one of the most intriguing aeronau-tical mysteries of the 20th cen-tury: the disappearance of the B-24 bomber Lady Be Good. Presented by Dick Campbell, the lecture will be held in the museum's SkyScape Theater at 7 p.m. and is free of charge to both EAA members and the public. Immediately following the presentation, attendees can experience a beyond-the-ropes museum tour. For more information, please call 920-426-6823.

Austro Engine successfully tested brand new rotary en-

gine AE80R

On the 8th of January 2013 the engine AE80R which is in de-velopment since 2.5 years suc-cessfully performed on the Austro Engine test bench. As a final target it will have a weight of 27 kg with an output of 80 hp (58 kw).

Compared to the AE50R (55 PS Austro Engine rotary en-gine) the new engine has no loss lubrication system any-more which results in an ex-

tremely low oil consumption. A dual FADEC (Full Authority Digital Engine Control) con-trolled fuel injection system will keep fuel consumption on the lowest possible level. The en-gine is designed to power small manned or unmanned aircraft.

To read more Click Here.

For their smaller AE-50R en-gine Technical Data, Click Here.

Gigantic Aeroscraft Airship passes Ground Tests, gets

set for flight operations:

It's a blimp! It's a plane! It's an…Aeroscraft?

The Aeroscraft, a new type of airship said to be capable of vertical takeoff and landing and speeds of over 130 mph, has passed an important round of tests, according to a Jan. 3 statement from maker Aeros Industries.

But don't rush out and try to book a flight. Aeroscraft hasn't flown yet -- these were ground tests, in which the craft floated along the floor like a hover-craft. The tests were conduct-ed at a 500,000-square-foot hangar at the Former Marine Corps Air Station in Tustin, California, an Aeros repre-sentative told The Huffington Post in a phone interview.

Though luxury cruises may eventually part of Aeroscraft's

duties, its primary mission is defense. In 2005, the U.S. mili-tary awarded Aeros a contract to "build a 'hybrid ultra-large aircraft' that could transport 500 tons of cargo at least 12,000 nautical miles," Popular Science reports.

To read more, Click Here.

Enstrom Helicopter Acquires

New Owner

January 8th, 2013 • Posted in Uncategorized

Menominee, MI, January 7, 2013 – As of December 27, 2012, Chongqing Helicopter Investment Co., Ltd (CQHIC), located in Chongqing, China has acquired Enstrom Helicop-ter Corporation, moving from one foreign owner to another. Chongqing is the fourth largest metropolitan area in China. CQHIC is focused on helping Enstrom expand its reach into China and the rest of the world. The number of helicop-ters in Asia represents only a small percent of the number of helicopters in the United States, while Asia has a signifi-cantly larger population and is expected to be a major market for helicopters over the next two decades.

To read more, Click Here.

E A A N E W S C O N T I N U E D ,

V O L U M E 1 5 , I S S U E 1 Page 15

G U E S S T H A T A I R P L A N E

Bleriot III

The Bleriot III was an early French aeroplane built by pio-neer aviators Louis Bleriot and Gabriel Voisin. It was later modified and renamed the Ble-riot IV, but both versions failed to fly.

The Bleriot III was radically dif-ferent from what was to be-came the orthodox design for aircraft, having two large ellipti-cal closed wing cells in tandem connected by booms. A single transversely mounted 24 hp (18 kW) Antoinette engine mounted on the lower front wing drove two tractor propel-lers using flexible drive shafts incorporating reduction gearing to reduce the 1,800 rpm of the engine to 600 rpm. The trans-mission arrangement account-ed for 100 kg of the aircraft's 400 kg weight. The undercar-riage consisted of a pair of long floats under the front wing cell and a third below the aft wing cell. Bleriot and Voisin attempted to fly it from the Lac d'Engheim in May 1906, but the machine would not be-come airborne. To read more, Click Here, Here, and Here,

Crew: one pilot Wingspan: 10.50 m (34 ft 5 in) Wing area: 73 m2 (785 ft2) Gross weight: 480 kg (1,060 lb)

Powerplant: 2 × Antoinette V-8, 18 kW (24 hp) each

Wanted:

Aircraft instruments:

Airspeed indicator (0-150 mph or knots)

Altimeter (Sensitive with Barometric)

Rate of Climb

Aircraft engine:

65 to 85 Hp

(This is a longer term item)

Aeronca 11AC Chief

Roger Schert

206-713-9910