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Spring 2009 Recreational Aircraft Association Canada www.raa.ca The Voice of Canadian Amateur Aircraft Builders $6.95 Keith Weston's Barnett Gyro Gary Wolf COMMUNICATIONS BREAKDOWN run the forums any longer. office address in the Rec Flyer. RAA had some problems with We were dead in the water for Once your status report has communications this winter with awhile – with no magazine and no been received and fees paid, all both the magazine and the email email to let you know about the chapter events promoted as RAA forums. Dave Evans of our Barrie problems. Fortunately member events will be covered for $5 mil- chapter paid a surprise visit to the Clare Snyder was able to convince lion premises liability under the hospital for a bypass. Since he heads his provider to allow him to donate RAA blanket insurance coverage the crew at Barrie who handle the his bandwidth (and time) to host that RAA Canada purchases from mailing of every issue of the Rec both forums, so we are back on AIM insurance. Every year there Flyer we definitely had a prob- the internet. If you wish to be sub- are some chapters that ignore the lem, but not as serious as Dave’s. scribed to the lists, and we encour- request for a status report and their To give Dave time to recover we age you to do this, please send an membership would have been decided to combine two issues into email to [email protected] and liable if there were a claim. Make the large Spring issue you are now put “RAA” in the subject line. certain that your chapter is not one reading. Dave has now recovered, of these. he and the Barrie chapter crew are back in gear, and you are reading CHAPTER STATUS AND INSURANCE 406 ELT POSTPONED AGAIN – the results. In the past week the Most chapters have now had INDEFINITELY? Barrie chapter made a donation their annual elections so it is time They were supposed to have of $2000 to RAA Canada to assist to send in your status reports, even been required on February 1st, but with the costs of publishing of the if there have been no changes to the date was postponed because magazine. All RAA members owe personnel. The required names are Parliament was prorogued. 406 these fellows a large thank-you. those of the President, Treasurer, ELTs are a hot potato that could RAA has two email lists for and Secretary, plus any two other alienate voters if there were an its membership. The National is named members of the chapter. election so it is likely that we will a forum used by many members All five must maintain continu- not see the document signed for to discuss aspects of building air- ous National membership for the awhile. craft, and for general social pur- status to be valid. In the interim the regs still poses. The Announce is a one-way If your chapter is one that does require that Amateur Built aircraft list used by the Board to make not require National membership carry a 121.5 ELT that has had its announcements of events, changes as a condition of chapter member- annual checkup. There will no in Transport Canada policy, and ship, you must also collect and longer be satellite monitoring of other news items. send in the $15 fee from each non- these units, so you will be relying For many years member Rob National member. You may mail on overflying aircraft to hear the Schieck has been donating internet the information and cheque to signal. Transport’s current buzz bandwidth and his time to main- Marina at the office address. Alter- on 406 ELTs is that pilots have the tain these lists, but recently his natively the status report may be option to install the units if they internet provider was bought out emailed to [email protected]. You feel that they need the extra secu- by one of the majors. Email forums may pay the fees by credit card by rity. In areas near the border we attract a lot of spam so the new phoning Marina at 1-800-387-1028 might be able to get by, but pilots provider was unwilling to let Rob or you may mail the cheque to the in the North will not have many continued on page 36 The Recreational Aircraft email: [email protected] tion of the magazine is to promote education Association Canada www.raa.ca and safety through its members to the general 13691 MCLAUGHLIN ROAD, R R 1, The Recreational Flyer is published bi-monthly public. Opinions expressed in articles and Caledon, Ontario L7C 2B2 by the Recreational Aircraft Association Pub- letters do not necessarily reflect those of the Telephone: 905-838-1357 lishing Company, Brampton Airport, Chelten- Recreational Aircraft Association Canada. Fax: 905-838-1359 ham, ON L0P 1C0. The Recreational Flyer is Accuracy of the material presented is solely Member's Toll Free line: 1-800-387-1028 devoted to the aerospace sciences. The inten- the responsibility of the author or contributor. features 4 Keith Weston's Barnett Gyro Story and Photos by Gary Wolf ...................................................4 Sebring 2009 by Wayne Bezner Kerr .................................................................8 Engine Cooling Story and Photos by Wayne Hadath ..........................................12 The Gravity Of It All by Joan Cox ................................................................................16 12 Jack Shurey's Fleet 80 Story and Photos by Jack Shurey ...............................................21 Registration Letters by Gary Wolf ..............................................................................23 Transition by George Gregory / Photos by Terrafugia, Inc. ........................24 21 From the President's Desk by Gary Wolf ........................................................................ 2 Across Canada: Chapters in Action ........................................ 18 Technical Stuff Airsoob Angle of Attack Indicator.................................... 32 Fuselage Longeron Forming Jig / David Westridge....... 33 Canopy Tips for RV Builders / Terry Elgood .................. 34 Fuel Tank Modifications / Richard Suttie ........................ 35 New Products............................................................................. 36 Classified.................................................................................... 38 24 New In Canadian Skies ............................................................. 45 On the Cover: Keith Weston's Barnett Gyro. Below:Terrafugia's Transition takes off. Photo courtesy Terrafugia Inc. Terrafugia, Inc. Terrafugia, Kieth Weston's Barnett Gyro By Gary Wolf We have all seen the tiny classified ad in Popular Science, the rently flies one with the rope launched Bensen gyro- his own Zenith copter, and most of us filed it in the “to do” 300, but his new toy is the list, then went on with life. Keith Weston, Barnett. now president of the Collingwood RAA Keith’s latest gyro is a Subaru powered chapter, was a young country boy back then 2 place Barnett J4B2, an aircraft that is both and his hobbies included jumping old cars simple and sophisticated. Keith chose the over ramps set up on hay bales, and learn- Barnett because of its inherent stability and ing to drive cars on two wheels. He was good safety record, and because Barnett intrigued by the ads and decided to build was able to supply every part if necessary. a gyro. In the early seventies Keith built Keith elected to build most of the parts him- his first, a Bensen with plywood skinned self, buying only the gimbal head and the rotor blades and powered by a McCulloch aluminum rotor blades.A gyro is at heart 2 stroke drone engine. a very simple machine. There is a forward Keith taxi tested the Bensen but never horizontal member to support the crew, a flew, probably not the worst choice one rear horizontal member to support the tail could make. Later he bought a single place and main gear, and a vertical member to Barnett JB4 from a friend who had lost his carry the engine and the rotorhead . The medical. The JB4 was powered by a Conti- Barnett uses small diameter 4130 tubes nental 65, and Keith flew it for several hours welded together into a spaceframe. Keith over a couple of years. Lest you form the gas welded his own fuselage with all tube opinion that only daredevils fly gyros, Keith joints internally drilled to form one con- has owned Cessnas and has flown many tinuous chamber, then pressurized it with conventional aircraft. He built and cur- nitrogen. A pressure gauge on the panel 4 Recreational Flyer Spring 2009 verifies that no cracks have developed. In a gyro the main rotor is not powered, Mechanical so it is at all times in autorotation. Forward motion is provided by the engine and turbulence is pusher prop. Because the engine does not power the main rotor, there is no need accommodated by for a tail rotor to provide yaw control. Yaw control is achieved by a conven- the flexing of the tional rudder. The main rotor does not have a swash plate, so the blades have a main rotor and the ground adjustable pitch adjustment and are firmly bolted to the center hub. The result is a very hub bar pivots on a spindle shaft which passes through the gimbal head, and this smooth ride gimbal head is attached to the masthead. The gimbal head allows the spindle shaft to pivot fore-and-aft, laterally, or a combination of both via a mixer similar to the mechanism used for flaperons on con- ventional aircraft. The mixer is controlled by a conventional stick with conventional inputs, fore-and-aft for pitch, and left-right for roll. Rudder pedals control yaw. There is no elevator but there is a horizontal stab to counter pilot induced pitch oscillation. Keith’s first flight in this aircraft was in May of 2002, and he has now logged over 135 flight hours. The Barnett is a work in progress and until this year it flew as a bare frame.

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