ungee B ord CThe Voice of the Vintage Sailplane Association
Volume 39 No. 4, Winter 2013 $10.00 U.S. Vintage Sailplane Association A Division of the Soaring Society of America
1 Bungee Cord • Winter 2013 VSA News and Updates
VSA Treasurer’s Report Donations to the VSA We are gradually growing again, thanks to several We would like to thank D G Airparts, Inc. and members getting a new member to join, but also Daniel Rihn for their generous donations to the through Bob Helland’s efforts requesting renewals VSA. • Mary Cowie in a timely manner and contacting lapsed members to renew. VSA members receive four issues of Bungee Cord each year, so your “ending date” will reflect the VSA Quilt Raffle issue which is the last The VSA’s 40th Anniversary Quilt Raffle will due on your present begin at the SSA 2014 Convention in Reno. We membership: i.e., will display it there and sell raffle tickets. This Spring issue 04/01/14; awesome piece of glider memorabilia was designed Summer 07/01/14; Fall and made by Dody Wyman, the brain behind this 10/01/14; or Winter idea. What a nice way to celebrate forty years of 01/01/15. Check VSA’s existence. Raffle tickets can be purchased your Bungee Cord mailing envelope to see your for $5 or five for $20. You can also mail a check expiration date. If in doubt, contact me or your to VSA, 31757 Honey Locust Rd., Jonesburg Director to check your renewal date right from the MO, 63351, but add a note that this is for the database. Just ask! • Mary Cowie quilt. Please provide a phone number or e-mail address, so that we can notify you if you are the winner. The drawing for this very special quilt will Donations to the VSA Archive occur in June 2014 at the Lawrenceville, IL, 40th VSA is especially grateful to the US Southwest anniversary gathering. • Mary Cowie Soaring Museum for loaning their collection of drawings, photos, letters and reports to the VSA, so that they could be digitized and preserved. These scans are now part of the VSA Archive. The originals, along with digital copies of all the material, have been returned to the museum. VSA would particularly like to thank the volunteer staff at the SW Museum, George Applebay, Kathy Taylor, Bob Leonard, Pete Pankuch and Gene Tieman for making this exchange possible. The VSA would also like to thank Dan Rihn for providing digitized drawings for the Rigid Midget to the VSA. This is an important American glider. Doug Fronius had the original drawings (which however were in very frail condition) in his collection. He allowed Dan to borrow them Dody Wyman working on the quilt project. for scanning. So the VSA thanks Doug for his cooperation and help as well. Special thanks also go to Tom King, John Mills Jim, and Ted Teach who donated various documents Today, I received the latest Bungee Cord and was and drawings (including the Fauvel AV-36) to the quite pleased (as well as informed) with the LO VSA Archive. 150 piece. I knew Harald and Svend pretty well If you know of material that would be desirable - both gentlemen of the highest order - and Jon to archive, please contact Neal Pfeiffer, the VSA Slack. I am renewing my membership for another Drawing Archivist, or Lee Cowie, the VSA General year, just because of the magazine. Archivist, so that arrangements to evaluate and • Eldon “Gene” Hammond scan can be made. • Neal Pfeiffer
Winter 2013 • Bungee Cord 2 2014 Glider Calendar Take a look at the cover of this calendar from Japan, showing Burt Compton flying his colorful ASK-13 over Harris Hill at the last IVSM. Vincenzo Pedrielli from Italy submitted this dramatic photo! If you are interested in a calendar, please contact Mr. Yasuhiro Yama at
Women Soaring Pilot Association Raffle The 2014 WSPA raffle will feature a wire sculpture created by George Popa. Raffle tickets will go on sale on 1 January 2014 and the drawing will be held during the WSPA seminar in July. Raffle tickets are $5.00 each. To order tickets, please contact Frauke Elber at
Dear Jim: This is to let you and VSA members know that we will have a nine-day RC soaring event next year at Montague, CA (7 through 15 June). I’m calling it The Montague Glider Festival. Because this will be a great time to host a vintage glider meet, full-scale vintage/classic sailplanes are invited as well. Hangars and tie-downs available. We have plenty of space for visiting sailplanes at two airports, at Siskiyou County Airport (KSIY) and Rohrer Field (Montague Soaring). More information will be available at the Reno convention. • Dean Gradwell
The VGC’s 40th Anniversary Book. Published by the Vintage Glider Club, Ltd., printed by EQUIP Werbung & Verlag GmbH, available from Paul Remde
3 Bungee Cord • Winter 2013 Oktoberfest at Chilhowee. Wolf and I just spent a week at Chilhowee helping Sarah and Jason Arnold around the airport and with the Oktoberfest activity. At this year’s Oktoberfest we had more vintage gliders than at the vintage meet last May. The star this time was Dick Butler, who attended not with the Concordia but the Sisu, formerly owned by A.J. Smith. • Frauke Elber
Wolf Elber photos.
The vintage meet Marita and CB lodged in at Massey Chestertown and “It was a dark and relaxed with some local stormy night” — and sightseeing. In the day — and another night. As a matter of fact it meantime Paul and Lee visited the US Naval Test was about four dark and stormy days and nights Pilot School, after which they were pressed into in a row thanks to an old fashion Northeaster service to retrieve a ‘new’ Schweizer 1-23H from that settled in over the mid-Atlantic States for the New Jersey to add to a growing collection of 1-23s Columbus Day weekend and effectively wiped out at St. Mary’s County airport. This proves again the Fall vintage meet at Massey Aerodrome. With that VSA people are always up for an adventure the forecast being simply “no flying” and having and pretty flexible when it comes to unpredictable no other scheduled activities arranged, meet weather options. organizers attempted to call everyone who had Massey remains a very vintage glider friendly site expressed an interest in coming and wave them with a newly acquired Cessna 182 tow plane and off before they made the trip. ample outside tie-down space awaiting the vintage A few dedicated souls decided to come anyway glider enthusiast. They have added a Schweizer and enjoy a long weekend on Maryland’s Eastern 1-26 project to their recently completed 2-22 and Shore. They included Marita and CB Umphlette are looking forward to a successful 2014 soaring from Virginia, Mary and Lee Cowie from St. Louis, season and hopefully less rain in October! and Paul Rabourn from Kankakee, IL. • Rusty Lowry
Winter 2013 • Bungee Cord 4 The Schweizer SGS 1-23 Project of 2011, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Paul F. Bikle’s world record altitude flight. Simine and Jim: Center Auditorium. Featuring Speakers Einar I was quite surprised, and very honored, to receive Enevoldson, John Bikle and Hugh Bikle. the very first VSA Journalism Award. Thanks for the Bungee Cord write-up with the photo of Rusty Lowry 50th Anniversary Static Display of N91893, 25 presenting me the plaque that goes along with the February 2011. The restored Schweizer 1-23E was award, while I was seated in the famous Schweizer rigged and placed on static display by the Bikle 1-23H “eBay Glider”. It brought back great memories family. NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, Hangar of the Schweizer 1-23 Project of 2011. 4802, Edwards, CA. So many people helped with the various parts and NASA Television 2-minute Video Feature - pieces, and many may not know the extent of what Bikle Altitude Record, NASA - This Week @ NASA, was created in that effort, or more importantly, 11 March 2011.
5 Bungee Cord • Winter 2013 V-Tails everywhere. Matt Gonitzke photos.
8 th Wichita Vintage/Classic Regatta This year’s Great Plains Vintage Regatta was held the evening cookout was our own Charles Pate at the Wichita Gliderport, northeast of Wichita on receiving an FAA Master Pilot award for more 20-22 September with more than a dozen vintage than 50 years gliders in attendance. of flying and Friday began slowly, with much catching up dedication to amongst the attending pilots. Dave Schuur general aviation. from Illinois trailered Harry Clayton’s new-to- Saturday’s him Laister LP-49, and Harry was hard at work festivities with several helpers fixing minor things hoping began with a to fly it. But a thorough check for corrosion safety/airport prevented it from flying. Hank Claybourn came familiarity from Oklahoma City without a glider but lent a discussion, hand or story wherever needed, and so did Paul followed Rabourn from Illinois. Tony Condon pulled his by several newly acquired Fauvette glider project from its presentations, Charles Pate receiving the FAA award. trailer and did a first assembly to check it out. including Paul Rabourn photo. It was neat to see it along with Matt’s SH1 and SH1 Austria John Wells’ modified Schweizer 1-34R, each with a restoration by Matt Gonitzke, wizard-of-wood V-tail. There were a number of flights in the local Harry Clayton’s report on his various projects, 2-33 and Neal’s Ka-2b. Jim Short and Bill Jokerst and Dave Schuur’s discussion of the repairs from Lawrenceville, Chad Wille from Iowa, Dave to the IOC’s Olympia. The soaring forecast was Ochsner from Michigan, and locals Bryan and promising, with lift to ~5000’ MSL. Jerry Boone Charles Pate all made flights. They were not long flew his Duster ABB, capturing some great in- soaring flights, but fun ones under blue skies and flight videos with his GoPro camera, Matt flew the early evening glow from the sun. Highlight of his SH1, Dave Schuur flew Harry’s Standard Cirrus, Tony Condon and Wick Wilkinson flew Wick’s 1-26, Chad Wille flew Tony’s NG-1, John Hardy his Ka8 and John Wells his 1-34R. Dave Ochsner flew Neal Pfeiffer’s Ka-6BR, Jim Short the Ka-2b, and Neal flew his own Ka-6E. Nearly everyone flew at least one hour, but no one ventured too far from the gliderport, as good lift wasn’t widespread. The grill was lit after the lift abated and everyone enjoyed brats and burgers. Sunday brought high winds, resulting in no flying but lots of glider disassembling. Everyone, particularly the northerners, enjoyed the nice fall weather, and we all look forward to next VSA Brains at work. Jim Short photo. year’s Wichita vintage meet. Matt Gonitzke
Winter 2013 • Bungee Cord 6 Your Projects A Brand-New BG-6 Ross Briegleb and his son Kenny showed off their stunning BG-6 utility glider at the Memorial Day 2013 vintage sailplane regatta at Tehachapi, CA. At that time the plane was almost ready to fly. Now Ross reports that this BG-6 has flown and all went well. Ken forwarded photos from the very first takeoff and landing on Saturday, 9 November 2013. Ross intends to write an article and send it along with some construction pictures for a future issue of Bungee Cord. This particular ship is the last of its type, built in the Briegleb factory. According to a company flyer, the Briegleb BG-6 proudly wears her Type Certificate No.6 and her Josh Knerr photo. Production Certificate No.21.
The wings and fuselage of this particular glider had been partially built by employees working at Gus Brieglieb’s factory in the late 1950s. Ross put in about a thousand more hours to complete it. All the work, from start to finish, was done using original drawings. Ross assigned SN 36 to this ship, because he did not know how many BG-6’s were ultimately built from the numerous sets of plans sold by his father Gus Briegleb.
Ken Briegleb photos.
7 Bungee Cord • Winter 2013 Dean Gradwell from Oregon reports that his TG-4A with its new flying surfaces is looking better and better every day. Dean’s goal is to display the completely assembled glider in an uncovered stage at the SSA convention at Reno at the end of February 2014. Here are two photos taken a few weeks ago. Look at all that new wood!
Sports canopy anyone? November I installed it in the Wabash Valley Club’s Ka-8, and tried it out. It performs wonderfully. Pilots of the 1920s and 1930s were wild for fresh Wind flow is minimal, air. Most cars were with no backwash open “Touring” style, on the shoulders and airplanes had open or in the eyes. Sink cockpits. People knew rate seems as low as what motorcyclists know with a closed canopy, today, that being out and the fun factor is in the breeze is simply priceless. great fun. Schweizer manufactured an optional Many old gliders open canopy for their listed their records on 1-26, and Schleicher the fuselage side, so offered plans for an open why not do this here canopy on its Ka-8. as well? After all, Karl Striedeck flew a Ka-8 I found an uncompleted for 767 km in 1968. frame at Lawrenceville in What, you didn’t June, and brought it to know a Ka-8 could fly that far? my shop to build the open canopy version. In mid- Chad Wille, St. Croix Aircraft, Corning, IA
Tony Condon from Kansas provided a brief report on progress toward restoring and recovering the Ames Soaring Club’s Schweizer 2-22 from Iowa, which he discussed in detail in the last Bungee Cord. With Matt Gonitzke’s help, the left wing is almost entirely primed “with only a few runs”. The attached photo of the wing shows their progress.
Winter 2013 • Bungee Cord 8 Bernie Harrigan from Wisconsin writes that he is making good progress on his newly acquired Schweizer 1-19 N91808 and that the wing repairs are nearly complete. He still has lots of sanding and varnishing to do but expects to be covering “before we know it.” He also mentions that the ship’s somewhat “worse-for-wear” enclosed trailer is also making progress. We hope he can join us and fly the ship at the VSA 40th anniversary party at Lawrenceville, IL, next Father’s Day weekend (June 2014).
Grunau Baby Restoration source of expertise. As the logbooks were not shipped with the glider, its history was pretty much guesswork until a team from Germany arrived here to assist with a WW2 fighter project, bringing the books along. The glider is a Grunau Baby II, Werk-Nummer 030 340, built in 1942. It will have its glazed canopy replaced with an open cockpit cover. The question is whether to modify the existing cover or build a new one. The KTFC is also looking for plans for a ground/launch dolly. Work has begun with stripping off the fabric; so far the structure seems in very good condition. As other restorers know, there’s a lot to be done Preliminary fitting in Fighter Factory Hangar. Wedged before flying. sawhorses provided a temporary brace until George Robert “Boom” Powell Kickhofel (facing camera) built a clever fuselage support. Greg Reese is helping. And yes, that is a Curtiss Jenny in the background.
In the last issue of Bungee Cord we mentioned that the Virginia Beach Military Aviation Museum (MAM) in Virginia had acquired a Grunau Baby. In an unique arrangement, half a dozen members of the Tidewater Soaring Society (TSS) formed the “Keep Them Flying Club” (KTFC) to do the “grunt work”, thus assisting the technical staff of the Fighter Factory (the restoration and maintenance branch of the MAM) in restoring the glider to flyable condition. We have plenty of space in a GB in its allotted spot in The Fighter Factory. An added heated hangar. An additional aid to restoration benefit is that visitors ask about gliding in general, so fliers is the nearby Fighter Factory staff, an immediate for SSA, VSA and TSS are available.
9 Bungee Cord • Winter 2013 Trailer “Trash” It was a beautiful day in St. Louis when the call came that a tornado had blown through the airport of the Wabash Valley Soaring Association. After my original panic that one of the glider hangars might have been demolished (fortunately it wasn’t), I discovered that a glider trailer should be tied down in three places: the tongue, the rear and the axle. But, if the neighboring trailer isn’t tied down correctly, then . . . Now we need to decide what to replace and what to change for the better while everything is wide open. We can’t procrastinate much longer if we hope to travel to vintage glider meets in 2014. Mary Cowie
Winter Flight Instruments Now that winter is here (no pun intended!), many pilots will utilize the time to overhaul their gliders and also take a critical look at their instrumentation, which may not operate as perfectly now as in the past. If instruments were made by the Winter Company, it is easy to ship them to the factory in Germany to be overhauled. Winter can also change the calibration units, for instance from meters/second to feet/minute or from miles an hour to knots. They also have various instrument faces, so ask what is in stock. We have shipped several instruments to Winter in the past few decades and were always happy with Contact information: the results. Gebr. Winter GmbH, Brothers Eugen, Heinrich and Willi Winter formed Hauptstr. 25, D-72417 Jungingen, Germany. the Gebrüder Winter Company in October 1931. Phone: 011-49-7477 262; Their goal was to design, develop and build
Winter 2013 • Bungee Cord 10 A Rotisserie for Gliders Not everyone has access to fancy equipment to rotate the glider when working on it, but everyone surely would like to have something to help keep the glider in a rotated position. So Neal came up with a “rotisserie” design that you can build from plywood, to make hard work of sanding, etc. much easier. The drawing below shows how to make a wooden ring from a single 4x4-foot sheet of plywood. Six 120-degree segments may be cut from the sheet with material left over to build a roller base. The segments are glued together in two layers so that they overlap by 60 degrees. The layers are shifted slightly in the figure to highlight each ring. The resulting ring has an outside diameter of about 54” and inside about 48”.
Above: Neal Pfeiffer sanding the nose of the Ka-6BR fuselage, held tightly in position in a ring, similar to those used in the Schempp-Hirth factory. Right: The Ka-2b is shown installed in a wooden ring or "rotisserie" with additional supports made from 2"x4" lumber. Artwork supplied by Neal Pfeiffer.
11 Bungee Cord • Winter 2013 SH1 Austria Restoration In early 2012 I seriously looked for my first glider, as I would soon have my glider add-on rating. My original plan was to buy an airworthy glider that didn’t need much work. But then Tony Condon persuaded me to buy something needing some work so I could have a better performing glider for less money. I felt comfortable with this, as I have been building and repairing things since I was old enough to hold tools. However having just moved to an apartment in Wichita, this didn’t seem like a practical option. Tony countered my arguments of not having the means to move the trailer or a place to work with “but I have a truck and a garage!” I will probably be forever in debt to Tony for graciously allowing me to take over his garage One interesting thing I discovered was a bunch of for many months. dates, signatures and other things handwritten in German in various places. In the interest of It is probably safe to say that neither of us knew preserving those, I masked off a couple on the tail what we were getting me into when I bought a root rib and false spar ahead of the aileron before Schempp-Hirth SH1 Standard Austria from Steve painting. Since the factory filler on the mostly Leonard in March 2012. It hadn’t flown since plywood-surfaced wings was not completely intact, 2004 and the tail needed new fabric. Six weeks I decided to fill and sand until the wings were nice would be needed to recover and paint the tail and smooth again. After applying three tubes of and the glider would be ready once I finished my West System 410 micro balloons, nearly a gallon rating. of West System epoxy, and about 80 or so hours of However, what began as a simple tail recover job sanding, I was finally happy with the smoothness turned into a full refinishing project. of the wings. I used three pieces of 2”x2” square As best I can tell, the glider was last painted extruded aluminum tubing for sanding blocks, in the late 1970s and the finish had become one about four feet long, one about two feet long, extremely brittle. Large sections of paint on the and one about 14 inches long. I mixed up the wings and fuselage had cracked and started to fall epoxy, added micro balloons, and tried to spread off. The glider, however, had almost no damage it as evenly as possible over the entire wing. I then to the wood; only a small piece of plywood on one would sand each wing with the four-foot sanding of the tails needed to be replaced. Wanting to do block, moving the block at a 45-degree angle to things right, I decided to strip both wings of all the length of the block, while trying not to spend layers of paint (at least three!), plus some really too much time in any particular spot. I would strange white filler. Most of May and June was continue sanding until spots of plywood started spent removing old paint with chemical stripper. to appear through the filler. Then, more filler was added to each low spot and the process repeated, using the shorter blocks to sand off high spots between two areas that were correctly contoured. Eventually, all of the low spots were gone, and the wings were nice and smooth. An experienced wooden glider restoration expert in our club warned me not to try to turn it into a glass ship, and I tried my best to disregard his advice. There are a few defects here and there, but for the most part, the results were great. The wings are much nicer- looking than those of many other wooden gliders I’ve seen. Numerous dates and signatures are written on the structure. Winter 2013 • Bungee Cord 12 After the filling and sanding, I applied some Stits Unfortunately I ran out of paint two weeks before EV-400 epoxy varnish to the exposed wood on the rally. the wings and control surfaces. I was very lucky This gave time to determine what to do with to have a nearly 50-year-old wooden glider with the seat belts; they were original and mounted essentially zero water damage, and I wanted to rather strangely, with two bolts going through make sure it would stay that way. Surprisingly, holes punched in the belt webbing itself. After none of the wood on this glider was originally contacting other Austria and SHK owners, I varnished at the factory. Tony and I assembled determined that no two of these gliders left the the wings to the fuselage for the first time after factory with the same seat belt mounting, or so the varnish had cured, and we temporarily it appears. I had my belts rebuilt by Wag-Aero to reinstalled the ailerons to check the deflections, match pictures from another Austria. The belts as any adjustments would be far easier before weren’t ready in time for the rally either, so even the fabric would hide the control linkages again. if the painting was done I still wouldn’t have been This check is rather difficult on an Austria, as able to fly it. But attendees could see the ship the deflection is measured with respect to a point at Tony’s pre-rally cookout, and I discussed the floating in space behind the trailing edge of the restoration work at the rally. aileron. At this point, I wondered if I’d even be able to The deflections appeared to match the fly at all in 2012, as there was only one month specifications within the margin of error of our of soaring left. Further complicating things was measurement method, so we proceeded with the my decision to begin night classes to obtain my fabric covering. We used Superflite 2.7oz. certified Airframe & Powerplant mechanic certificates’ fabric and the Stewart Systems STC for the fabric in addition to working full-time during the day. recover. All of the non fabric-covered parts were The night before my classes started, Tony and I also painted with the Stewart Systems paint. It is finished painting the wings, and I spent the next expensive and a bit tricky to spray, but it seems to couple of weekends getting the Austria ready for be pretty durable. I had some orange peel issues, its first annual inspection in years. We re-weighed but from a certain distance it looks great. it and discovered that it was nearly 15 pounds The new fabric was installed with much help lighter after the wing and tail refinishing! from Tony and Harry Clayton. Without their help Then all the local towplanes were down for the tails never would have looked as good as maintenance, but another club member offered they do. The seam at the tip is nearly invisible. his Cessna 172. Since Tony is a far more After a series of late nights, several coats of experienced glider pilot, he did the first flight. EkoPrime were applied to the wooden parts of the He landed after 12 minutes grinning from ear to wings, and EkoFill to the fabric. It was now mid- ear. I then took three tows, staying up for half September, and I had hoped to unveil the Austria an hour on my longest flight, with no good lift on at the Wichita vintage rally in late September. this late October Partway through the paint and filler removal process on the wings. day. It was so wonderful to finally fly it after spending nearly 350 hours refinishing the wings and tails. It handles quite nicely, and the cockpit is very comfortable in comparison to other gliders I have flown. In early January 2013 we returned the Austria to Tony’s garage with the intention of refinishing the
13 Bungee Cord • Winter 2013 The fuselage was broken in a bad land- out over 30 years ago, and whatever filler was used was tough to remove. Very, very carefully I sanded most off, leaving behind only what I knew didn’t contain that badly deteriorated white lead filler. After spending far more time than planned removing old paint, I began filling it all back in much the same manner as I did the wings, using West System epoxy and micro filler. I bought a 3-piece “Ultimate Flex Sander” kit from Eastwood (Item #20328Z) that included 15”, 21” and 27” adjustable-stiffness sanding blocks, enough 120, 220 and 320 grit Progression of the paint removal process with the Peel Away 7 stripper, sandpaper to do an entire 15m glider. with some VERY careful sanding here and there. The nearly $300 cost of the sanding fuselage before the 2013 soaring season, or at least that was the goal. I removed the main wheel and tail wheel and made some wooden stands to elevate the fuselage such that the underside was no less than 2½ feet off the ground. This worked, but if I ever do this again I’ll make a rotisserie. I decided to try some different paint stripper on the fuselage; the KleanStrip I used on the wings worked fine, but it was messy and required a lot of safety equipment. Also, it was not safe to use on Fuselage after peeling off the masking tape from the stripe and N-numbers. fiberglass. Since the forward half of the fuselage on the SH1 is fiberglass, I needed to block kit was well worth it, as it worked great for find something else. Fellow VSA member Pete von both the straight and compound-curve surfaces. I Tresckow used Peel Away 7 on his Ka-6 fuselage, am very happy how smooth and nearly ripple-free so I bought a sample can from the manufacturer the fuselage now is. to try it. This stripper is much nicer to use, it is In much the same way that I filled and sanded the safer and more environmentally friendly. It only wings, I applied filler to the entire fuselage, then has a slight smell (which is not unpleasant) and sanded it down until wood or fiberglass was about won’t burn your skin or clothes if you brush up to poke through, then kept filling in low spots against it. It is applied and covered with a special and pinholes and sanding them down. Mixing the paper for 24 hours, allowing you to theoretically last few coats of filler a bit more runny helped ‘peel away’ layers of paint. This actually works to fill in the pinholes and made for less buildup to some extent, depending on the type of paint. The sand off. This is where the rotisserie really would outermost paint layer on the Austria came off with have been nice, as I spent much time on my back the paper, but we tried it on the 2-22 that Tony is on the ice-cold garage floor, sanding above me, refinishing and it wouldn’t touch the Aerothane. getting covered in dust. Finally in early May I My advice is to buy a sample can first. The gallon was satisfied with the fuselage and sprayed all cans of Peel Away 7 don’t come with anywhere exposed wood and original filler spots with Stits near enough paper, but ordinary wax paper EV-400 Epoxy Varnish. I hadn’t done a good job seems to be an acceptable substitute. Numerous sanding the wings uniformly with 320-grit-paper applications were required; I think I used about a before priming, so I made sure to do better with gallon and a half of stripper on the fuselage. the fuselage. I sprayed the entire fuselage with
Winter 2013 • Bungee Cord 14 Stewart System EkoPrime, sanded it smooth with vintage. The stripe and SH1 under the canopy 320-grit paper, and then added a coat of EkoFill were last-minute ideas. I played with the masking to the fiberglass portion of the fuselage and tape for the stripe until it looked right and then tailcone per their refinishing manual. I’ve found sprayed the paint. For some reason the Sea Blue the EkoFill sands strangely on hard surfaces, Metallic paint sprays much easier than the white. and I had to touch up some areas where I sanded It was easy to get a nice, even coat without orange through it and then peeled up the edges. Stewart peel. I will also note that anything more than System Randolph White was applied as the base N-numbers should not be attempted in 95-degree color of the fuselage to match the wings. I learned heat; the required 4 cross coats each tacked up in a few more things about the Stewart System about 2 minutes. I was going as fast as I could to paints, namely: get all of the coats of paint for the N-numbers and a) Make sure the viscosity cup is calibrated stripes before the preceding coat became too dry. before each use. Water should run through in In addition to refinishing the fuselage, I had to 14.5 to 15 seconds. I had a disaster the first work on the instrument panel. That is another time I tried to paint the fuselage because the story. hole in the cup was restricted. Finally I trailered the glider to Sunflower for a b) Using the gun Stewart Systems recommends weight and balance at the end of June. is helpful. I bought a DeVilbiss FinishLine 4 All along I had hoped to fly the Austria in the gun to do the fuselage. When the directions Region 10 Low Performance Contest hosted by are followed it works great. our club, but with each passing weekend it looked c) There is a fine line between applying not more unlikely. I missed many weekends for enough and too much paint. I found that various reasons, and then lost another weekend applying more than I thought was needed when I had to sand off my first attempt at painting provided a smoother finish. There are a couple the fuselage. Despite all of this, I flew the Austria of spots where I crossed the line and got a sag. on 29 June, and then flew five consecutive days to d) When removing masking tape after spraying prepare for the contest, including a 100km flight trim colors, wait a little while, but not too and a 4.2-hour cross-country flight, my first “real” long- it makes it easier to clean up the little cross-country flight in a glider. strings of paint that result when you remove We had only one contest day due to weather, but I the tape. A rag dampened with isopropyl flew in it and was very happy to do so. I am pretty alcohol will remove the strings and other areas comfortable in the Austria and have really enjoyed where paint seeped under the tape at this flying it. Now that I’ve spent 550+ hours restoring time. As long as you don’t get carried away it, I hope to fly it at least that many hours before with scrubbing, the base coat is not damaged. I move on to something else. As of this writing, I decided to use 12-inch N-numbers, even though I’ve put 15 enjoyable hours in the Austria and am the FAA only requires 3-inch numbers, but I think looking forward to many more. the larger numbers look better on a glider of this Matt Gonitzke
My first flight in the Austria after completing the fuselage restoration: happy to be flying instead of working on it.
15 Bungee Cord • Winter 2013 Gliding History We had financial limitations, as well as In the mid 1980s Ernest Schweizer, eldest of the three Schweizer Brothers, minimum equipment, Chief Engineer and retired President of Schweizer Aircraft Corp., began a draft of the gliding design philosophy and history of the company he co-founded. so we had to design Grandson Kyle Schweizer recently discovered this unfinished first-person in a way we could manuscript and thought Bungee Cord readers would like to read Ernie’s own fabricate. Our budget, words. This is the first of two installments. including the shock cord, was about $200. Most of the metal Design History and Philosophy at fittings were cut and Schweizer Aircraft Corporation formed by a local sheet Part 1: The First Decade: Learning to Fly. metal shop, which also did some welding It all began about 1929, in the Lindberg era, when on the fittings. A few my brothers Paul and Bill and I became interested fittings were made in flying and aircraft. We formed a model airplane from a discarded kick club. The average age of the members was about Ernie Schweizer in 1937. plate from our father’s Fred Loomis (NSM) photo. 15. While model building was interesting, we restaurant in New York kept looking for ways to fly since powered flight City. We bought hardware, steel tubes and wire was beyond our reach financially. Around that from Karl Ort, a famous junk man, who had lots time there was a sudden rise of activity in gliding. of supplies from World War I and the late twenties. The National Geographic magazine had a great We made pulleys from shoe sole leather riveted article on gliding in Germany in 1929, and other between two aluminum discs. Control wires were magazines also gave coverage. single strand hard wires, but we used short pieces We decided to build a glider and started a search of stranded cable where the wire ran over a pulley. for the necessary information. No plans were Our model airplane club was called the Mercury available, but we gathered enough information Model Club, so the first glider was designated to cover the typical configuration. This began our HG-1. Being optimistic we set up a design original design effort. identification system, which is still in use today. The design was rather crude. My engineering Thus our first glider became the SGP l-l. knowledge was limited to simple mechanics in My father had a restaurant in New York City high school physics. Information on ribs was easy and came home only one day on weekends. He to obtain, and the spars were Sitka spruce, which considered bicycles too dangerous. So we kept the we felt was the only material to use for wing spars. 1 glider project a secret from him. He first saw it Ribs were made of white pine with / mahogany 16 when it was ready to fly and did not stop us. plywood for gussets. We used casein glue for all the structure. We were concerned for safety and since we had no instruction, we read up on how to fly a The fuselage was made of aircraft grade Sitka primary glider. We were lucky and had relatively spruce and birch and some ash. Some of the few accidents. Only four or five members made plywood used on the forward fuselage was enough contributions of work and cash to get commercial and proved not to be resistant to flying privileges. Some were, we felt, too young to water, resulting in various problems. The typical fly. There were two brothers in the group. One was glider in those days used hard wire for wing conservative in his flights and the other was less bracing, sometimes only single wires. Good so and needled the first “Come on-pull it up”. He airplane practice called for two wires, as the single did, stalled it and hit the ground, breaking off the strand wires were prone to sudden failures at front part of the fuselage and damaging both wing the terminals, which consisted of loops and wire tips. He was not seriously injured. We learned that ferrules. We used single hard wires in the internal the glider would fall-off in a stall. It was repaired drag bracing which was less critical. We decided to and we continued flying. The big problem was the use struts for the wing bracing, because they were shock cord launching system that soon used up more reliable and made assembly much easier. all the volunteer manpower and our field was too We also admired the efficient Bellanca Airplanes, small for anything but short straight flights. using airfoil struts, so we made our struts as airfoil sections. Our first flights were made without About a mile and a half away was a farmer’s field, the airfoil fairing, which was added shortly which was occasionally used by barnstormers. thereafter. We received permission to use this; we repaid the
Winter 2013 • Bungee Cord 16 compared with the SGU 1-3, which we started in 1931 and flew in 1932. In 1930 I started engineering at NYU and Paul started in1931. I promptly bought a book on airplane stress analysis by Alexander Klemin. We applied this engineering knowledge to our design work. We started the much better engineered SGU 1-3 in 1931. Its span was about 35 feet, braced by steel tube struts. It Members of the Mercury Model Club and their first glider. had a basic primary fuselage Schweizer Archive photo. faired with wood and tubular members and fabric covered. The 1-3 flew very well and we operated it farmer, Les Sebalt, by helping him hay. To move using regular auto tow and made our first 360° the glider to the field we built a two-wheeled cart flights around the field, still with no instructions. using old motorcycle wheels. We had to push it The 1-3 was turned over to the Hudson Valley by hand since no one had a driver’s license and Glider Club, formed about 1935. It made a lot of we had no car. The day after Thanksgiving 1931 training flights, but due to some unusual flight we went to fly. The wind was very strong with a characteristics it was christened the “Brick”. The full crosswind so we flew across the field. On one airfoil was a Durrand 24 propeller section, a 15% flight, Paul got too slow and stalled. He hit the airfoil with no curvature on the lower surface. It ground in a pile of debris but was unscratched. had a very high lift coefficient and was reluctant Over the winter the glider was rebuilt, and to get to stall. Our student members could level off 10 more performance we enclosed the fuselage. It or 15 feet off the ground and still make a soft made quite a few flights, but we gave up flying it landing. If the student came in high the glider was after two encounters with the stone wall at the end aimed at the ground, it landed and did not float. of the field. As a result the club flew it for quite a few years When we got our driver’s licenses and a Model with no incidents. It proved to be a good trainer for A Ford, our flying activity increased. Due to the single place operation at a time when no two-place short field, we continued to use shock cord, but trainers were available. added 100 feet of manila rope on both ends. The Design numbers 4 and 5 were assigned to studies Ford kept going after the glider broke ground so for trainers. These never progressed beyond the that we could achieve longer and higher flights. preliminary stage. There are no drawings, but I On one launch the shock cord finally gave up and I could see it coming back at me. It smashed the nose fairing and the fairing on one strut, but did not hit me. We bought a bargain shock cord from Karl Ort, but after attempting a launch, we had a long cotton tube filled with walnut sized lumps of rubber - this ended the use of shock cord. Our next glider was the SGU 1-2, which had more wingspan but basically was an enclosed primary. Being impressed with the German plywood construction we overdesigned it. It was not flown until 1934 and we were disappointed in its performance The 1-3 at Peekskill. Schweizer Archive photo.
17 Bungee Cord • Winter 2013 found some data and sketches in my old design became available in warehouses. The 1-6 fuselage notes. The SGU 1-4 had a wood 2-spar wing of consisted of an aluminum sheet front structure about 40 feet and wood fuselage. The SGU 1-5 had with enclosed cockpit. The wings and struts were a wood wing of 37 feet span and its fuselage was a attached to this structure by a series of steel tube welded steel tube structure. braces. In the mid 1930s, we were busy getting our The tail surfaces were attached to the aft end of engineering degrees and were short of funds. I the boom and control cables were run through graduated in 1934 and Paul in 1935. Our design the boom. The landing gear consisted of a skid efforts continued. It became apparent to us that and two wheels about a foot apart width-wise wood and glue aircraft designs were not the best and slightly aft of the CG. There was an auxiliary for American aircraft. Aluminum technology was skid further aft. The gear worked beautifully for expanding and we landing and take-off studied it carefully. as no wingtip runner We started design was required. However work using aluminum the ground towing in 1935. We also had characteristics with to find out how to no pilot on board were fabricate aluminum very odd. It waddled structures and acquired right and left like a some equipment duck or penguin so including drill presses that it was necessary and brake and shears to hold the wing tip for and designed a hand- ground towing. operated blanking press The 1-6 was somewhat and a drop hammer overdesigned due to to form curved and our learning process in contoured parts. The metal design. The use of hammer was an iron, 5052 alloy proved quite which we had cast and efficient. Parts could be machined by a local hard formed on hard foundry and machine wood blocks using ¼ H shop. The drive alloy. The leading edge mechanism was built could be formed out of using a retired Briggs ½ H and skins were ½ and Stratton engine H and full hard. The and a Chevy rear axle 52 alloy worked very and brake drums. We well and was fairly also had to contrive a corrosion resistant. foundry to pour lead We had a problem and zinc dies. though one time when The SGU l-6 project The SGU 1-6 at the 1937 National Contest at our St. Bernard dog was started at this Harris Hill. Fred Loomis (NSM) photo. lifted his leg against a time. The availability sheet leaning against of aircraft aluminum alloy in warehouse stock the wall. Alclad alloys were becoming available was limited, but we were able to get very small about then but were still relatively expensive. orders from Alcoa. We were able to buy a tubular Rivets fastened all joints, except bolts were used tail boom and two struts of 53st alloy and about 6 in higher load locations. The Parker-Kalon sheet gauges of aluminum sheet, 52s ¼ hard to full hard. metal screws were used in skin to joints and other Rivets were 53sw and required no heat treat. locations with difficult access. The P.K. screws The SGU 1-6 had a single spar wing with formed were tested in various combinations and were fore and aft ribs. The spar was a formed channel considered satisfactory since little vibration was 1/ involved. We did not have pneumatic riveting with cap strips of 8 x1½ 5052 sheet. The main joint was made by riveting through the leading equipment at that time. edge skin, cap and spar flange. This was a simple The 1-6 flew quite well and was entered in the SSA design, but not very efficient and all subsequent Eaton design competition. We were awarded third designs used flat welds and 17st cap angles, which place at the National Soaring Meet with a cash
Winter 2013 • Bungee Cord 18 on the 1-7 was a fraction of the time. The flight characteristics were quite satisfactory. We concluded that an approximately 10% larger size would have been better. The 1-7 weighed about 225 pounds and with an average pilot, the wing loading was less than 3.00 pounds and with a light pilot about 2.5 pounds per square foot. A The 1-7, dubbed “Pterodactyl”, was sold to the Altosaurus 230-pound pilot had difficulty in getting airborne. Soaring Club. Eliot Noyes and club members. Margaret We made our first sale when the Altosaurus Noyes Knowles photo. Soaring Club in Massachusetts purchased the second 1-7. prize of $300, a great help in our efforts to produce gliders. The 1-6 did quite a lot of flying and several Ernest Schweizer of our group got our C-badges, including Paul and (To be continued) me. The 1-6 was later sold to the Harvard Glider Group. About this time Paul and I founded The Schweizer Metal Aircraft Company. Looking critically at the 1-6 design, we decided that the design was too expensive to get much market, but we had learned a lot in the design and building process. We proceeded with the design of the SGU 1-7. This was a more compact and simpler design. The advantage of the tail boom structure was outweighed by the installation complexities and we were now in a position to produce welded structures. The fuselage was steel tube structure with fabric covering. The wing was a single-spar D-tube structure with higher aspect ratio, braced by a single strut. The spar used 17st extruded cap angles with sheet aluminum web. The wing was fabric covered aft of the spar. The aileron control was differential. The empennage used a trailing horizontal surface, a configuration used in quite a few subsequent designs. The horizontal tail surfaces had a 7-foot span, so were not removed in trailering. The wings were equipped with spoilers for glide control. Drawing on previous structures and experience with the 1-6, the engineering time The restored “Pterodactyl” flies again. Irene Cannon photo.
19 Bungee Cord • Winter 2013 2014 Calendar of Events February 27-March 1 • SSA Convention June 26-28 • Historic Schweizer Sailplane Reno-Sparks Convention Center, 4590 S Virginia St, Reno, Homecoming NV. Information:
NV, during SSA Convention. Information: Jim Short nd
June 13 • VSA Annual Meeting Lawrenceville-Vincennes Airport during 18th Annual Midwest Vintage/Classic Regatta at 8:30 AM. Information: Jim Short (708) 624 3576 or
The Vintage Sailplane Association is pleased to print notices of events and meets that it receives from its members. VSA does not sanction or sponsor events or meets or accept any liability for them. VSA urges event sponsors and those submitting notices to provide as accurate information as possible and to indicate any restrictions or special requirements regarding participation in their events. Please contact the sponsor with any questions.
Winter 2013 • Bungee Cord 20 Classifieds Visit the 15th National Landmark of Soaring at Marfa in southwest Texas Flying year-round with "slow tows" available for your classic or vintage sailplane!
Marfa Gliders Soaring Center: www.flygliders.com
Call in advance: K & L Soaring, LLC K & L Soaring, NY 14824 224 Cayuta, Route 5996 State (866) 408-1416 Phone (607) 594-3329 Fax
FOR SALE: Niedrauer NG-1. Excellent L/D per dollar, based on Briegleb BG-12 design. All paperwork back to original receipts. See Fall 2012 Bungee Cord. Enclosed Schweizer Trailer. $7000. Tony Condon
FOR SALE: Antique glider winch with flathead Ford engine. Needs restoration. Has new tires, bearings, hitch, so it can be towed. Located Scottsdale, AZ. $2,700. Curtis Clark (602) 710-4494 or
Do You Need Help With Your Glider? Forty-five years experience of building, restoring, and inspecting wood aircraft. Borescope inspections of wooden wings as per British Gliding Association procedures. Annuals to full restorations. Chad Wille, A&P, I.A., St. Croix Aircraft, 1139 State Highway 148, Corning, IA 50841. (641) 322-4041 or
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21 Bungee Cord • Winter 2013 VSA BLUEPRINTS The following drawings are available as full-size custom printed copies from the digitized originals: Hütter 17 (20 drawings)...... $135 Bowlus BA-100 Instructions...... $70 Grunau Baby II (12 drawings)...... $115 Bowlus Standard Design Parts...... $35 SG-38 Schulgleiter (30 drawings)...... $150 WACO NAZ Primary (20 drawings)...... $90 Franklin PS–2 (62 drawings)...... $225 Ross R-3 (13 drawings)...... $135 Bowlus BA-100 Baby Albatross (92 drwgs).. $350 Mead Rhön Ranger Primary (6 Drawings). . . $75 For domestic shipping, including mailing tube, please add $20 per order. Other drawings will be added as they become available. For questions and to order please e-mail Jeff Stringer ta
THE SHIRT FACTORY VSA T-SHIRTS Long and short sleeve...$15-$22 Call forCall print options and size and color availability HATS CONDOR IV POLOS BASEBALL CAPS Embroidered...$30 tore Tan or blue ... $15 POLOS BUCKET HATS Long and short sleeve...$30 Colors: Khaki or faded denim...$15 HOODY SWEATSHIRTS Schweizer Safety
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he APRONS PAST PRESIDENT FOR SALE: Schleicher Ka-8B with Gehrlein-built all metal T Navy with S VSA embroidered Long sleeve, button enclosed trailer. Flying condition, needs paint. Logs available. VSA logo...$17 up, emboidered VSA Asking $7,200. Contact D.D. in NJ. (973) 923-1795. PINS...$5 logo...$35–$37 Leah & Tony Condon MARQUE T-SHIRTS POSTAGE: $6 for first STICKERS shirt plus $2 for each 911 N. Gilman Street Schleicher, Schweizer and Large...$10 additional shirt. No Wichita, KS 67203 Wolf Hirth Small...$3 ea. or 2 for $5 postage for misc items (515) 291-0089 Long and short sleeve CONTACT TO PLACE PLACE TO AN ORDER when ordered with shirts.
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