I'm on a slight pause right now with my building activity. This weekend I spent two full days learning how to do basic composites and repairs in a class put on by EAA SportAir http://www.sportair.com/. We spent most of our hands on training building a composite canard (small wing). This is my second such class put on by SportAir and have been pleased with the instruction. The first being "RV Assembly" out in Watsonville, CA, which taught basic sheet metal skills for the RV. I really enjoyed learning how to make plastic 'toys'! Not sure if building a composite airplane is in my future but I do think I will enjoy doing small projects for the RV.
I know, I know...you might say, wait a minute, you're building an aluminum airplane why are you learning composites?? And that is a legitimate question to be sure. First, I have always enjoyed the concept of composites. I took a Mechanical Engineering elective during my undergrad degree called "Composite Laminate Analysis". The class essentially consisted of writing a Fortran program to analyze stresses on composite laminate structures. On top of the fact, my first homebuilt love was the Glasair III, which is a sexy composite airplane and more recently admired the Lancair Legacy. It really is hard to argue with the clean airframe and strength that a composite airplane offers.
Lancair Legacy racing at Reno, pretty plane indeed!
A practice 'fillet' excercise.
This was our canard (small wing) that we built in class.So that was part of my inspiration to take this class, but the bigger reason was the fiberglass included on my RV. The empennage tips, the wingtips, wheelpants, the cowling and skirt around the canopy all are fiberglass. Since I really had no practical experience with this, I wanted to add another 'tool' to my arsenal. And I gotta say, mission accomplished, I now feel very comfortable working with composites. Bottom line is, its not rocket science and all of the above mentioned parts are not 'structural' and mostly cosmetic so my layups dont have to be perfect to achieve my desired results. I'm not doing a wing spar here. I am actually quite excited to use my new found skills, all kinds of custom mods for the plane are bouncing around in my head!! :)
On a seperate note, RIP Patrick Swayze, who died Sept. 14th from pancreatic cancer. I very much admired his work. Shamelessly I have to admit I really enjoyed 'Dirty Dancing' and 'Ghost'...but also the less popular movies 'Point Break', 'Red Dawn' and the 'Outsiders' (pictured).
Come to find out that Patrick also had an aviation tie, he and his wife were both licensed pilots and owned a Beechcraft. They used this aircraft to fly into California for his chemo treatments.
None of us know how long we have in this world and Patrick, at the relatively young age of 57, was certainly taken early--the only thing we can control is how we live it. Make your days count. Blue skies and tailwinds brother...
I did not know that about Patrick....intersting.
ReplyDeleteyup, me neither until recently...very cool though
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