Hangar Echoes David and Vicki’s RV-10 ly the cabin structure. Van has refined his kits over the years, By Michael Stephan but being one of the first to build a new model still has its dif- ficulties. In the wing kit, the spar center section is included Our chapter is lucky to have one that will be used to build the of the first RV-10s being assem- wings. But, to have it built into bled by two of our younger the quickbuild fuselage, which Chapter members. David and David and Vicki opted for, it must Vicki Jones have been members be sent back to Van’s. When the for nearly two years now and are fuselage arrived a few weeks ago, already working on the fuselage very much delayed by the dock- of one of the first RV-10 quick- workers strike in California, build fuselages delivered. David and Vicki realized that the Being married and working spar center section was not the on a project together seems like a one that they had sent back. It was recipe for disaster, but this pair from someone else’s kit. has personalities that really compliment each other. Vicki Rightfully concerned, they loves the building and David can’t wait to fly it. So together brought it to the attention of Scott Risen at Van’s who after there is the push to move the project forward quickly and doing some research and talking to the engineers told David with great workmanship. David is an IFR pilot and Vicki is and Vicki that it would be OK to use. Interchangeable parts finishing her IFR training. They have a Piper Warrior at of this type are rare in the airplane kit industry. I guess if you Grand Prairie, but will say goodbye to it once the RV-10 is can make thousands of rivet holes exactly match in an air- ready to fly. frame, then I guess you can do it for the spars as well. I guess So far the tail and wings are complete. The tail kit is a lit- we won’t know for sure until they actually mate the wings to tle different than most in that it includes the tail cone of the the fuselage. fuselage as well. So the fuselage portion of the kit is basical- Continued on page 5 February, 2005 Volume 36, Issue 2, Page 1 Chapter 168 Information By Michael Stephan Feb 1st Chapter Meeting Feb 8th Board of Directors Meeting The February The BOD meeting will be held on eb. 8th at the Farmers Chapter meeting Branch Manske Library at 7:00 PM. The minutes from the will be on Tuesday January BOD meeting recorded by John Peyton are as fol- February 1st. It will lows: be held at the Farmers Branch • Directors in attendance: Michael Stephan , David Cheek, Library, located on Monroe McDonald, Don Christiansen , Sam Cooper, Don the northwest cor- Wilcox, Jerry Mrazek, Ron Bonnette, John Peyton, Clay ner of Webb Chapel Romeiser, Bruce Fuller. and Golfing Green •We discussed the upcoming event calendar: Dr. The meeting • The February meeting will feature Dan Shoemaker fo the will be held in the Nation Weather Service. auditorium and will • The February fly-in will be to Stevenville (SEP) for BBQ begin at 6:30 p.m. at the Hard Eight. Meet at 11:30. and finish by 9:00 • The March newsletter will be folded at Brad and Deia p.m. Roberts' house on Febb 22. The next month will be the The Speaker for this meeting will Dan Shoemaker of the Mesquite Flight School. National Weather Service. Dan is a forcaster, and will show • David Cheek and the incomeing Vice President, Ron us what is involved in developing aviaiton weather forcasts. Bonnette, dicussed upcoming apeakers. Understanding the forcast is good knowledge for making the • Michael Stephan gave the Treasurer's report for December proper “go-no go” decisions. He is also a proficient hang- and the end of year report. 2004 ended with positive cash glider pilot. So if you are interested, you might be able to slip flow. in a few of those questions as well. See you there. • New Board members were discussed. • It was decided to accept an offer of a free RV Story DVD. Feb 5th Chapter Fly-In • The subcommittee on alternative meeting places reported that Dallas Public Library branches have meeting rooms This month's fly-in will require some flying. We are going to available for one to two hours at $25.00 and three hours at Stevenville (SEP) for lunch at the Hard BBQ restaurant. We $45.00. The subcommittee was instructed to continue the have tried the Hard Eight two times before, but came up search. snake eyes both times. Since the third time is a charm, we • The Board then discussed the details of transfering the task should have no problem. of data base management from Jerry Mrazek to Clay The Hard Eight is a short walk from the field, but a golf Romeiser’s online application. cart is available for those who want to ride. We will meet at • Nametags for the monthly meeting was also dicussed. the field at 11:30 and walk over together. The BBQ is the Continued on page 4 best, so make plans to attend. See you there. February, 2005 Volume 36, Issue 2, Page 2 A Message from the President By Sam Cooper Jan Collmer delivered a great program at our January Chapter Meeting. The best part was a new video Jan showed us fea- turing in-plane footage of his Fina Extra 300 aerobatic rou- tine. This was about twelve minutes of high level yank and bank aerobatics that certainly helps me understand how much effort the pilot is really exerting. If the video did not convince you, then the average +7g to -3g Jan experiences on every routine sure does, especially without a g-suit! The video also had a nice small synchronized “picture in a picture” showing the routine from ground level to keep the audience oriented. Jan stated that they were still refining the video, hopefully it more popular types were. Without giving away the whole will be available in the near future. story (I want to turn this into a longer article for the newslet- Jan will be returning to the DFW Airport Board at the ter) the most numerous models have been as follows: RV-6 & request of Mayor Laura Miller. As you have probably -6A (15); RV-8 & -8A (7); RV-4 (5); Zenith CH-601 (4); KR- noticed, DFW Airport is completing some expensive con- 2 (3); and Glasair (2). The other 23 first flights were individ- struction projects (new people mover, international termi- ual instances of a huge variety of models. All the major con- nal), but is also dealing with economic challenges (Delta struction types are represented in this set. While most of the withdrawal, American difficulties, Wright amendment chal- aircraft were kits, we also have some plans built completions. lenges). We had a lively Q&A session on some of these Mike Hoye’s Pober Pixie II design (with Paul Poberezny con- issues, and Jan certainly helped me appreciate the magni- sulting) and scratch build project first flown in about June tude of the regional economic impact that is at stake, it is 2000 is an incredible example of the non-kit extreme. While significant. I understand the natural desire to be part of a group building Jan also updated us on the Frontiers of Flight Museum at a popular model, I like to enjoy and celebrate the diversity of Love Field. The museum is doing well, adding exhibits and models our members have completed and flown. We are all display aircraft on a regular basis. It has also very quickly sport aviation enthusiasts. become a popular site for parties and corporate functions. A If you have information to be added to this database of first small group of us visited the museum for our January “Fly- flights, please let me know. I would like to go back further in”, and we enjoyed a tour with a knowledgeable docent. into Chapter 168 history if we can. They have a nice display of aircraft now, but it will expand Remember to participate and enjoy the journey! and evolve over time. In preparation for serving as this year’s Chapter President, I have been thinking about some of the things that we do well and the things that we can improve on as an organization. My personal gut feeling was that one of our strengths was helping each other build and complete our air- craft projects. So, I did some research through my back issues of Hangar Echoes (late 1990 through 2004) to see how many first flights (including major restorations) our Chapter mem- bers have made in this fifteen year period. So far, I have counted 59 first flights by members during this time period. Wow! That averages out to about 3.9 first flights per year! Our best years have been 1997 with 8 and 1993 with 7. In addition, for 1995 - 2002 we had 43 first flights in 8 years. We hit a small lull in 2003 - 2004 with only two first flights, but we should recover quickly in 2005. When I mentioned some preliminary numbers from this research during the January Meeting, I was asked what the February, 2005 Volume 36, Issue 2, Page 3 Chapter 168 Information Continued from page 2 Feb. 22nd Newsletter Assembly posites; sheet metal; fabric; electrical; gas welding; and “What’s Involved in Kitbuilding?” For further details, go to The March newsletter will be assembled on Tuesday www.sportair.org, or call 800-967-5746.