Vol.3 No.10 I October 2014 The Spirit of Homebuilt Aviation I www.eaa.org Gary Green’s GA-11 A Homebuilt PA-11 New Engines at Oshkosh 2014 Turbos, Diesels, and More! Wonder!One Week 2,500 EAAers help build a Zenith CH 750 Cruzer EEAAEXP_Oct14.inddAAEXP_Oct14.indd 1 110/20/140/20/14 22:45:45 PPMM TOWER FREQUENCY EAA, We Are Builders BY JACK J. PELTON BUILDING OUR OWN airplanes was a founding activity of think back a few years and you can see how far we EAA. But we build so much more. And it is building, main- have come. taining, restoring, and preserving that separates EAA from And we build airplanes. Construction of the Zenith kit other associations. during the week of Oshkosh by hundreds and hundreds of Our most impressive building is, of course, our world volunteers created new excitement for so many. The proj- class museum. There is no better collection of important ect was dubbed the One Week Wonder, but it was not really private and sport airplanes. And our Eagle Hangar honors a wonder. I never doubted for a moment that the project all who served with an impressive display of World War II would be completed, engine run, and airplane taxied before airplanes and artifacts. the end of our convention. Pioneer Airport is the active component of our museum. All of this activity goes back to our founder, Paul Pober- Its hangars and turf runway accurately re-create a typical ezny. Paul’s founding belief that he repeated over and over airport of the golden age. We restore and maintain dozens is that good things happen when we put our hearts, hands, of important antique airplanes and regularly fly them off and minds to work. Pioneer’s sod. We put our hearts to work through programs such as And we build reminders of the dedicated and vision- Young Eagles that shows youngsters the thrill of fl ight. We put ary people who have made EAA possible. Every year some our hearts behind honoring those who came before by keep- of their names are added to the Memorial Wall to remind ing both their memories and the airplanes they fl ew alive. those of us who remain of their lives and contributions to We put our minds to work creating new and innovative EAA and all of private aviation. aircraft. We use the same talents to restore and preserve Our largest building efforts are the hundreds of acres historic airplanes or to create replicas when no original ex- we need to conduct our annual fly-in and convention here ists. And we employ our intellectual power to successfully at Oshkosh every year. Oshkosh is a very special event, and advocate for policies that are fair to private aviation and to only purpose-built facilities could accommodate thousands make flying available to the greatest number of people. of airplanes and hundreds of thousands of people. But none of that really matters until we actually put our Every year we invest in improving the AirVenture facili- hands to work and build something. No airplane design has ties. This year one of the most important improvements ever mattered until someone built the first example. And no was new specifically designed workshop buildings where amount of speechifying or selling has swayed opinion and people can learn the basics of aircraft building such as moved aviation forward until people could see and fly what welding and fabric covering. we are talking about. We also build more camping facilities and amenities Paul had it right. We need to use our minds and hearts, for the growing number of thousands who spend the but in the end using our hands to actually build is what pulls week of Oshkosh camping. Growth in camping is so strong everything together. That’s why we build so much at EAA. it’s almost impossible to keep up with demand, but just It’s in our DNA. 2 Vol.3 No.10 / October 2014 Photography by Jason Toney EEAAEXP_Oct14.inddAAEXP_Oct14.indd 2 110/20/140/20/14 22:45:45 PPMM Vol.3 No.10 I October 2014 CONTENTS Features EAA PUBLICATIONS Founder: Paul H. Poberezny Publisher: Jack J. Pelton, EAA Chairman of the Board Vice President of Communities and Member Programs: Rick Larsen 10 The GA-11 16 One Week Wonder! Editor-in-Chief: J. Mac McClellan Gary Green’s Homebuilt Interpretation of The story behind the legacy Homebuilding Community Manager: the Piper PA-11 Cub Special BY JONATHAN PORTER Charlie Becker BY BUDD DAVISSON Editor: Mary Jones/EditEtc. LLC Senior Graphic Designer: Chris Livieri News Editor: Ric Reynolds Departments Copy Editor: Colleen Walsh Multimedia Journalist: Brady Lane 02 Tower Frequency 08 Flightline Visual Properties Administrator: BY JACK J. PELTON INDUSTRY NEWS Jason Toney Contributing Writers: Charlie Becker, 04 Homebuilder’s Corner 28 Hints for Homebuilders Marino Boric, Budd Davisson, BY CHARLIE BECKER A SIMPLE CLECO HOLDER Dan Grunloh, Richard Koehler, John Mangold, and Jonathan Porter 06 News from HQ NEWS FROM EAA ADVERTISING Columns Display 26 What Our Members Are Building Sue Anderson 2014 Perseverance Awards BY JOHN MANGOLD Mailing Address: P.O. Box 3086, Oshkosh, WI 54903-3086 Phone: 920-426-4800 30 Under the Cowl Fax: 920-426-4828 Engines at Oshkosh 2014 E-mail: [email protected] BY MARINO BORIC Website: www.EAA.org Need to change your address or have 38 Ultralight World other membership questions? AirVenture 2014 … Call 800-564-6322 (800-JOIN EAA). BY DAN GRUNLOH EAA® and SPORT AVIATION®, the EAA Logo® and AERONAUTICATM are registered trade- 44 Homebuilders’ How-To marks, trademarks, and service marks of the Rigging Tricks Experimental Aircraft Association, Inc. The use BY RICHARD KOEHLER of these trademarks and service marks without the permission of the Experimental Aircraft As- sociation, Inc. is strictly prohibited. 46 Homebuilders’ Photo Essay Fun in the Homebuilt Area BY CHARLIE BECKER On the cover: Sean Elliott and Charlie Becker f y the One Week Wonder. (Photography by Jason Toney) EAA Experimenter 3 EEAAEXP_Oct14.inddAAEXP_Oct14.indd 3 110/20/140/20/14 22:46:46 PPMM HOMEBUILDER’S CORNER Charlie and Tracy Buttles fl ying the One Week Wonder after completion of fl ight testing. With the new FAA Additional Pilot Program, two pilots onboard during fl ight testing is now an option. The Additional Pilot Program Another option for fl ight testing your homebuilt BY CHARLIE BECKER SINCE THE BEGINNING of the modern homebuilt movement with hope you all know, more than 2,500 EAA volunteers helped the formation of EAA in the early 1950s, fl ight testing of experi- build a Zenith CH 750 Cruzer, known as the “One Week mental amateur-built (E-AB) aircraft has always been limited Wonder,” during the week of EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2014. to a single-pilot operation during Phase 1 fl ight testing…until The other recently completed Zenith was a CH 750 STOL now. The FAA just recently fi nalized a new advisory circular, that was built by your EAA staf members and was certifi - AC 90-116, that will allow an additional pilot to be on board dur- cated on the Saturday before the start of Oshkosh 2014 (we ing fl ight testing. This AC represents the culmination of more jokingly refer to this aircraft as the “One Hundred Week than a year of joint work by EAA and the FAA to provide an Wonder”). Unfortunately for our EAA team, even though optional path for fl ight testing a homebuilt. we knew it was coming, we did not have the option of using You may be asking yourself, Is this a good idea? EAA this new AC for our fl ight-testing program. I am absolutely believes it is, and that it will reduce E-AB accidents. Acci- convinced that it would have been benefi cial to the transi- dent data has shown that loss of control is the main factor in tioning of other test pilots into the aircraft. Instead of simply about one-third of all fl ight-test accidents. It is the number trying to describe how the aircraft performs, I could have one controllable factor in fl ight-test accidents. By adding a had someone in the right seat to guide me along. Also, as we “qualifi ed pilot” to the early fl ight testing, we will be bringing got beyond the “proving it can fl y” stage, it would have been in someone who is current, experienced, and fundamentally extremely valuable to have a second safety pilot on board to knows how to fl y that specifi c design. help with the fi ne-tuning of the glass panel. The hurdle to qualify as a “qualifi ed pilot” is a high stan- Finally, I want to commend the FAA, specifi cally Mark Gi- dard; as it should be. There is no point to adding a second ron of the Flight Standards Division, for turning this idea into person to the fl ight-testing scenario if he is not going to bring a reality. The National Transportation Safety Board got this something to the party. With a seasoned, experienced pilot on ball rolling by making a recommendation to examine home- board to help manage pilot workload and act as a safety net built fl ight testing in its 2012 study on amateur-built safety. for the builder pilot, we are confi dent that lives can be saved. However, without Mark’s commitment to this project, the AC Some people will point out that adding a pilot goes may not have happened.