World Wide Web Woes

On my way back to the north of Germany, I took a small detour to the south to visit Hans v.d. Linden, yet one more ‘Hans’ that feels compelled to build an RJ.03 IBIS homebuilt airplane.
Hans v.d. Linden is a Dutchman, just like the other two who build an IBIS, but in his case he never lived in The Netherlands. He lives in a small town west of Cologne - Germany.
He has been sitting on his build license for a couple of years and only recently started to assemble the first components, some of which turn up on this page.
Checking out his workshop - located in a cellar - a myriad of parts and small sub-assemblies could be found. The last couple of months he really pushed his project forward.

This is one of the lower fuselage semi-frames. The big hole in the middle is where the stick torque tube goes through, to end up at the flaperon mixer in the rear. Hans v.d. Linden has most of his fuselage frames ready for assembly, but other sub-assemblies currently take up too much space to be able to start the fuselage assembly. Hans v.d. Linden will be able to assemble his fuselage in his cellar based workshop and get it out in the open as well

The firewall consists of a laminated arch, some internal bracing and a layer of plywood on both sides. The hollow spaces in between the plywood coverings is filled with Styrodur foam, which improves rigidity and also provides for a bit of soundproofing.

This is the lower part of the starboard winglet, the part that contains the directional spoilers that are activated by pedals.

Keeping current on a C-172

It’s almost two years ago that I wanted to take a Cessna 172 Skyhawk up for some traffic patterns at EDXR to keep current on the type.
I preflight the plane, start the engine and let Rendsburg Information know that I intend to shoot some traffic patterns.
There’s an ultralight airplane in the run up area adjacent to the threshold of active RWY 21, still warming up his water cooled Rotax engine. Apparently this is going to take a bit longer, as the pilot kindly suggests that I use the runway to taxi to the engine run-up area for RWY 21. I gladly accept his offer, release the brakes and let the engine rev up a bit to get us rolling. Shortly thereafter we’re at the engine run-up area.

While I check my engine and clear the rest of my checklist the ultralight departs. In retrospect, I should have taken a minute or so to monitor his climb out. Instead I continue with the things a pilot does to get ready for departure…

Taking off…

After lining up I jot down the take-off time and check the gyro compass one more time; then I gently push the power lever forward. After releasing the brakes the C-172 rolls forward, slowly at first but accelerating quite nicely. RPM max is there, oil pressure is still in the green, the airspeed indicator is alive so I continue with my take-off roll. At 55 kts I rotate. The plane continues to accelerate and rolls on its main gear for about a second and a half, then we’re airborne.

… and getting back on the runway in one piece

Just when I tell myself that it’s nice to be back up here, visibility reduces dramatically. The altitude at that moment is a bit over 300′. Forward visibility is next to nil and I’m trying to make a futile guestimate as to what kind of ground visibility might be left.
I realise that I’m on instruments now and that flying any lower is not really an option. I push the timer and decide that very moment that I will be flying timed legs back into the traffic pattern, one minute on a continued runway heading, after that another one-minute leg 90° to the left, then one more 90° turn to the left and a one-minute leg should get me back to the traffic pattern. Good that there’s virtually no wind today.

Meanwhile I make a call to the departed ultralight to check whether he left the traffic pattern or not. He did… which is good - at least so for me, as now I don’t have to worry about that one in the pattern. I keep my speed down at 80 kts, so that the one-minute legs don’t take me too far from the pattern downwind leg entry point.
For safety reasons I let the plane climb a bit higher and level off just shy of 400′. Anything above that reduces ground visibility to the extent that I wouldn’t be able to make out the runway when on my downwind leg. The IO-360 is purring nicely, which is comforting.
The three one-minute legs take me to the pattern downwind entry all right, which was nice as I hadn’t seen the field the prior three minutes. I report entering downwind and announce a full stop. No point in shooting more patterns in these murky conditions.
During the downwind leg I get a call from a pilot flying east of Rendsburg city, asking me what the weather is like at the airfield. Apparently he doesn’t like what he sees in front of his windshield. I tell him that I aborted my plans and that I’m flying downwind at half the normal pattern altitude. Somehow this puts him off and he decides to remain clearly east of the airfield.
Abeam the threshold of RWY 21 I set the plane up for final, better get that out of the way early today. As I expect to lose visual contact with the field again, I decide to repeat the three one-minute legs, this time to get lined up with the runway. In this instance, there’s also a canal (parallel to the runway) that I can use to help me to determine when to turn to final - or rather to signal that I’ve turned a bit late.
After my turn to final, I could not see the runway just yet, so I decide to initially descend to 200′ only. With full flaps at 80 knots, I flew with a high drag / high power configuration so that I would have the option to either retract the flaps for an easy and safe go around procedure or to just cut the power to get a viable glide path onto the runway. The one minute legs indeed put me in a good position for a landing, so fortunately there was no need for a go-around.
After I tucked the Cessna Skyhawk away I made a stop at the airport restaurant, ordered a cappuccino, blew off some steam and thought about what the heck just had transpired….

Lessons learned:

• Weather forecasts sometimes don’t correlate all that well with what’s really happening out there. Based on forecasts I had expected to find a cloud base at around 1200′ with moderate forward visibility; not good by any standard but adequate for some local traffic patterns - or so I thought.
• Ground visibility during the car drive to the airport was rather good. This seemed to confirm the weather forecast - which lulled me into a false sense of security.
• The information from the plane flying east of Rendsburg suggests that the lower cloud base and reduced visibility might have been a local issue only.
• The departing ultralight would have given me a visual cue about the current cloud base altitude, had I taken the extra minute needed to monitor his climb out.
• If birds don’t fly, neither should I…

Getting back up to steam is often difficult for various reasons (or excuses ). To lower that threshold, I decided to take on the construction of the new type IBIS canard wing tips as these parts are small and rather easy to build.
The old canard wing tips were sort of round. The new variant looks like a wedge if you like, feathering to the outside and thinning to the rear to end up as thin as the canard wing trailing edge.
The new wing tip is supposed to reduce drag. What it doesn’t do is to produce any lift - contrary to the old wing tip. To make up for the reduced lift production, the normal rectangular canard wing plan form is extended by 2 centimeters on each side. This is done by adding a 2 centimeter foam section as well as a fifth canard wing rib.

Why did I decide to build the new type canard wing tip? Granted, less drag is always nice, but for me aesthetics was more important. In my eyes, they just look much better. The complete canard wing construction - including that of the canard wing tip - is documented on my IBIS canard wing contruction page. Check it out to learn more about building techniques, tools and materials used, etc.

Ferrying Europa G-BWON to The Netherlands

A couple of weeks ago my brother Marcel purchased a Europa Classic Tri-Gear, registered as G-BWON.
In the weeks leading up to that purchase, I was involved from afar, evaluating a lot of pictures, email statements from the prior owners, etc., trying to fill in the blanks for Marcel. In the end he went ahead with it and decided to purchase the two seater.
Shortly thereafter Marcel called me to ask what I thought about the weather for the coming weekend. Initially I was a bit apprehensive, but more in-depth analysis that was confirmed by evolving forecasts during the following day made the two of us agree about this window of opportunity.
Early Thursday evening I jumped into my car and arrived at Marcel’s place around midnight. Meanwhile Marcel scrambled for his gear and arranged for us to fly to East-Midlands the following morning.

As Marcel already published his narrative of our aircraft ferry adventure, I’ll restrict myself to some background information here. There’s no point in publishing the same story twice, is there?

The weather

The weather pretty much developed as we had expected. It was a bit colder than I fancy, so my not flying and hanging around at Tatenhill Airfield while Marcel got his training was somewhat testing.
Almost clear skies, good visibility and almost no winds were with us well into next day’s ferry flight, up to our approaching the Belgium coast. Here we needed to descent to remain in VMC, also we had to dodge some small cumuli. It was a sight to behold…

Tatenhill Airfield (EGBM)

Tatenhill Airfield is a former bomber training airfield that was built early on in WW-II. It is located in the vicinity of Burton-on-Trent.
Of the three standard RAF intersecting runways, 22/04 and 17/35 have been closed down. These are currently used to park aircraft. On one of these G-BWON was parked when Marcel took possession of her. The remaining runway in use is 26/08.

Tatenhill Airfield is slated for a major upgrade in the coming years. This is nice for all airport users, not just for the helicopter ambulance service that was based here recently - they are still housed in what at best could be called a makeshift barrack.
Local gossip has it that when Princess Ann had commuted in for one of her appointments in the region, she needed to visit ‘the ladies’, only to find that the flush wasn’t that royal at all. The gossip goes on to state that the development plans gained momentum after she informed her mum about the local situation.
Is this a fact or merely local folklore? I haven’t got the foggiest, but I reckon that this bit of gossip will not be forgotten anytime soon. I for one can confirm that I have seen better and cleaner airstrip lavatories. Anyway, unlike the gossip alluded to above, this will be a thing of the past before too long…

Manston Approach / Manston Radar

UK as well as European pilots (yes, this distinction is intentional, I will keep thinking about it this way until the UK also joins the Schengen-Agreement…) informed us that we would want to forget about London Information for crossing the Channel and rather contact Manston Radar for flight following. According to the reports, this unit is much more in tune with general aviation requirements and also has shorter communication channels with rescue services should we need those. Needless to point out that we heeded this advice.
Manston Radar had a lot of traffic on their frequency. When Marcel managed to squeeze his call in between two others, Manston handled communications very efficiently. After stating our intentions, we got a transponder code from them and the instruction to report leaving the coast. After that coast-crossing call we were instructed to report the FIR boundary, that was all.
We crossed the channel at the highest available VFR flight level, which initially was FL055. Later on we could have step climbed a bit higher, but in the end we didn’t.

EHMZ - Midden-Zeeland

That day EHMZ was PPR, which was a measure to be able to inform visiting pilots about the airstrip being rather wet and somewhat soggy. Also, we were told not to touch down on the first 150m (450′). I don’t know why this information was not simply published with a NOTAM instead of making the strip PPR.

Whatever, with this prior knowledge, using EHMZ for a refueling stop was not too much of a problem. Friends of ours from the Rotterdam area had rented an airplane to meet us at Midden-Zeeland. Unfortunately, they had to return before we had a chance to shake hands. Their gesture was appreciated a lot by both of us.

Welcome at EHHO - Hoogeveen

This strip was in much better shape than EHMZ, so touching down there was even simpler.

By now Marcel was fiddling with the electric trim switches on the stick and the power lever without even looking at them, occasionally checking the panel for proper manifold pressure. He was settling in all right.
We were greeted by friends and family. Some of our nephews were present as well. On this cold day they had to wait a bit longer than originally intended due to our initial delays. It was great to see so much interest in Marcel’s endeavors!

Some ferry flight statistics

• We took off from Tatenhill very close to maximum take-off weight. The plane nevertheless climbed well over 700 fpm.
• Most of our flight across the British countryside was at appr. 2500′, an exception being the time we were creeping under the north eastern part of London Standsted CTA. Here we flew a bit below 1500′. An overhead ‘heavy’ illustrated why flying that low over there is a good thing.
• From Braintree onwards, we step climbed where airspace restrictions permitted this, ending up at FL055 when starting the Channel crossing.
• Tatenhill to Midden-Zeeland took a bit under 2:30 hours
• Midden-Zeeland to Hoogeveen took some 1:10 hours.

Mission accomplished

In closing I’d like to thank Graham Singleton and Bob Hitchcock for our many interesting and spirited talks. Especially talking to and getting to know Graham, whose aviation history goes back to before when I was a teenager glider pilot, was very special.
Andy Draper, formerly employed at the Europa kitplane factory and currently with the LAA, has my deserved gratitude as well, not only for training Marcel the way he did - all of us learned valuable lessons that day.

And then, of course, there is Marcel to thank as well! Being invited for the ride to support finalising a process that was spread over a couple of months will remain a very very special event for the rest of my life. Perhaps one day he’ll be my safety pilot

Flying Dutchmen on the Internet

A couple of times a year, a group of flying Dutchmen who also maintain a blog about their aviation related hobby meet face to face, traveling to these meetings by air, preferably as pilot-in-command. The next meeting is scheduled on Sunday December 28th on Stadtlohn / EDLS.

Eight Flybloggers blogs

Meanwhile our group has grown to eight pilots, so it is about time that I include links to their aviation blogs as well. Starting from today, you’ll find a special link category “Dutch Flybloggers” in the right margin of these pages. Although I currently don’t live in The Netherlands myself, I was born and raised there, so I still qualify to be included into this list Please be aware of the fact that most of the Flyblogger adventures are published in Dutch.

The next hangout for the Dutch Flybloggers

Zenair CH-601 XL saga continues

From the LAA (former British PFA) website, which is an update that was published on December 5, 2008:

“The CAA issued an MPD on 24 November 2008 formally grounding the CH601-XL in the UK, following the LAA’s earlier advice to owners. LAA Engineering continues to be fully involved in pursuing a resolution to this issue and is working to that end on a daily basis.
LAA Engineering has recently managed to make contact with the Dutch accident investigators and has started getting some information relating to the accident there. Similarly, links have been established with Zenair Europe as well as the NTSB in the US, who are investigating other accidents involving the type. Reviews of the structure have raised some queries and LAA is working closely with the other parties to establish whether they might be contributory factors.
It is hoped that any areas of concern can be rapidly addressed so that members can get back in the air as soon as possible; although this is likely to be dependent on modifications being proposed to address any areas of concern.”

Zenair CH-601 XL mods address areas of concern?

The assessment contained herein which states that modifications will likely be necessary to address ‘areas of concern’ shows that the issue is not simply a matter of tightening up some control cables and inspecting some rivets in strategic locations.

As promised in a previous report about this sad matter: I’ll keep you posted….

…but there’s no need to make your project any more expensive than it needs to be, right?

Aircraft aluminium required

For the controls actuation of my IBIS canard project I needed some aluminum tubing in several sizes, with a length of up to 1.80m / 6′. Also some solid round aluminum rod and flat bar was needed to machine additional parts for the control system.
Checking the Aircraft Spruce & Specialty Co.’s website, I determined that this would cost some $264.50, excluding shipping, customs, VAT and the like. Hans Holsink was on a business trip to the USA and offered to pick up my order. However, learning about the package size the two of us were concerned about him taking it with him on a normal passenger flight. For this reason I decided to have it shipped to my doorstep instead.
Since AS&S also work with international representatives, I decided to give the local (German) representation a chance. On November 13 I emailed a request for a quote after having had a talk with him on the phone. Lo and behold, on November 28 I indeed received an email back, one that flabbergasted me by quoting a sum of €458 for the very same parts, alas still excluding shipping and VAT, the latter currently at 19% in Germany.

Comparing apples with apples

Needless to say that - after recovering from this shock - I took the more direct route. So what did I end up with, cost wise?

• The materials still cost $264.50
• Shipping that awkward sized package from the USA to Germany took another $97.51, raising the total AS&S bill to $362.01
• Import duties were €7.11
• VAT at 19% was €55.79, meaning that customs must have converted the $362.01 AS&S bill into €293.63
• Even when shipping was already payed for, FedEx still added €10.00 + €1.90 VAT as a handling fee, presumably for doing the customs & VAT declarations.

Summing it up: this order cost me €293.63 + €74.80 (VAT, customs, FedEx) = €368.43
Please note that the original quote from the German AS&S representation was €458.00 excluding 19% VAT and shipping. Assuming that shipping within Germany would have been possible for around €14.00 the total cost would have been €559, quite a hefty charge for $264,50 worth of aircraft building materials.

Caveat Emptor

Now, how do you think €368 compares to €559 ? Why must an identical order handled by a local representative be around 51% more expensive?
There are two lessons here: bundle your orders (if need be with other builders as well) to save on shipping costs and order directly. Local reps only add to the bill, very very substantially so…

If you happen to fly and also call an Apple iPhone 3G your significant other, you might be interested to learn that i-hud.com has published a small software that turns your iPhone into a PFD.
This software uses the 3D accelleration sensors and the GPS-receiver that are built into the Apple iPhone 3G to derive the attitude, velocity and direction of the device.
Incidentally - but quite likely not coincidently - the primary flight display data display looks rather similar to what a Garmin G-1000 is showing on much larger displays.
This has me scratching my head in a big way, as it would be a very interesting gadget to add to my homebuilt IBIS canard airplane instrument panel. Ah well, it will still take a couple of years before I come to that and by then even devices like this one will have been improved upon

As you can see, the information is displayed in crisp detail. Likely sunlight will interfere with readability though. The next bitmap shows the Apple iPhone / i-Hud PFD screen content in more detail:

Please note that this software does not use any pressure transducers connected to the static- and pitot ports, so all speed and altitude information that it presents is derived from GPS-data numerically. For these and other reasons, the Apple iPhone 3G running this software is not going to replace any of your other primary flying instruments, but otherwise it would have been a very nice backup device indeed.

According to the ‘Latest News’ section of the British LAA website (Light Aircraft Association, successor to the former PFA) , LAA recommends to the UK CAA that all British registered Zodiac CH601-XL be grounded as well.
According to this report, the affected owners have been contacted directly by a letter dated November 4th, 2008.

Now, this letter is an interesting one, as it references CS-VLA regulations, the European ‘very light aircraft’ category. From a requirements point of view, this category is clearly more stringent than European ultralight/microlight regulations.
And now the worrisome part begins: the Zenair CH601-XL that crashed in The Netherlands was registered as a microlight (Dutch ‘MLA’ category). This begs the question what is being compared with what. Apparently, we now also have to consider certification standards, to which the crashed Zenair CH601-XL’s were certified….

EDIT: The Dutch grounded all CH601-XL’s, irrespective of the category they were licensed in. The Dutch AD mentions both the Dutch ultralight and experimental categories.

According to this Dutch language website the Dutch aviation authorities grounded all twelve Dutch registered Zenair Zodiac CH601 XL aircraft until further notice.

A Zodiac CH601 SL crashed last September in The Netherlands, after one of the wings ‘folded upwards’, killing both occupants. Apparently, research showed that since 2006 at least seven aircraft of this type crashed due to a similar failure mode.

Investigations of these accidents, including the one in The Netherlands, so far didn’t result in determining the exact cause, but according to the above website the Dutch aviation authorities appear to have some evidence pointing to structural deficits…..

We’ll keep you posted on how this issue unfolds…..

EDIT: since writing the above lines I’ve searched the internet for builder weblogs to learn how the wing is constructed. I’m speculating here, but compared to other aluminum wing spar structures I’ve seen, the main spar shear web between the upper and lower spar caps at the wing root doesn’t look ‘over-engineered’. I would have expected tighter spaced vertical compression columns to prevent shear web buckling, especially so in the wing root area.
Other reports speculate that flutter (caused by aileron control cables that aren’t tightened up enough) might have put enough energy into the wing that the spar failed at the wing root. Zenair Europe even put out an AD (Airworthiness Directive) that summons 601XL owners to - among other things - inspect for control cable tensioning and for rivet damage in certain critical areas.
Are these seven accidents caused by spar shear web buckling at the wing root, perhaps by a higher than normal loading induced by flutter? We’ll have to wait until the accident report is released…..