In this issue:
Tues. July 12, 7:00 - Board Meeting at the Hangar or Birdcage Lounge
Sat. July 23, 9:00 - Plane Wash & Barbecue
Tues. Aug. 9, 7:00 - Board Meeting at the Hangar or Birdcage Lounge
Sat. Sep. 10, 9:00 - Plane Wash & Barbecue
Thurs. Sep. 22, 6:30 - General Membership Meeting at Plymouth Library (*)
Tues. Oct 11, 7:00 - Board Meeting at the Hangar or Birdcage Lounge
Tues. Nov. 8, 7:00 - Board Meeting at the Hangar or Birdcage Lounge
(?) Sun. Dec. 4, 5:30 - Holiday Party at Atlantis(?) in Livonia
* The Plymouth District Library is located in downtown Plymouth, one block North of Ann Arbor Trail, at
223 South Main Street
Plymouth, Michigan 48170
(734) 453-0750
We will probably have the meeting room that is on your left on the main floor just as you come in from the East entrance.
Dave Norton has resigned from the Club. We wish him well for the future and thank him for having been part of our Club.
Chris Jones, who has been waiting for an opening in our membership since last October, has now joined the club. We hope to have some background info on Mr. Jones in the next newsletter. Welcome, Chris!
Dion Zammit gave an extensive description and analysis of his recent experience with fuel exhaustion at the General Membership Meeting following the plane wash on Saturday, June 11th. Here are the essentials:
When Dion departed Willow Run, he visually observed both tanks to be filled nearly up to the filler neck, even though the log sheets showed 0.4 tach hours since the last fill-up. Upon arrival in Dayton (Wright Brothers Airport), he asked for just 10 gallons to be added (5 in each tank) in anticipation of having three passengers in order to stay below the gross weight limit. After adding this fuel, Dion again visually verified fuel quantity and saw about 0.5" above the tabs in both tanks, which corresponds to at least 18 gallons in each tank. After the three passengers (one of them being a pilot too) got in the plane, they took off from Wright Brothers. The destination was Palwaukee airport, just north of Chicago. Dion climbed to 10,000 feet using the left tank. After one hour of flight, he switched to the right tank. Just before passing Joliet, the right tank ran dry unexpectedly at 1:27 of cruise flight using that tank. Dion immediately switched to the left tank and normal engine performance resumed. At that time, the gauge on the left tank showed about 15 gallons remaining, as observed by both Dion and the other pilot. In retrospect, this reading was probably faulty. About six miles from the destination airport, the left tank ran dry. At that time the gauge was still showing 10 gallons. After briefly establishing that power could not be restored, and after evaluating several possible landing sites, Dion saw a new straight road that was not being used. It was 1800 feet long. He stopped at 300 feet from the end. Dion credits all his previous flight instructors for his success in focusing on a safe landing.
Pre-trip calculations implied that there should have been 3.8 hours of fuel on board upon leaving Dayton. The flight plan for the trip to Palwaukee was for 2:42 of flight time, leaving more than one hour of reserve. The actual trip time was such that both tanks ran dry 2:52 after the wheels-up time in Dayton (75% of the calculated endurance time).
Archer Recovery and Re-assembly
After Dion Zammit made a successful emergency landing six miles from Palwaukee airport on May 15th, the FAA inspected the aircraft and declared that they had "no problem" with allowing it to be taken off from a nearby athletic field. However, the city of Vernon Hills did not grant permission due to liability concerns. Our insurance company asked that we use a recovery team that they would recommend. Dave LaPointe took time to join Dion in Chicago to help facilitate in the recovery details. Several days later, the Archer arrived back at Willow Run via truck and trailer with its wings and elevator detached. Further delays resulted from the insurance requirement to get two reasonable quotes to do the re-assembly. As of this writing, that contract has been awarded to Solo Aviation from Ann Arbor. They are projecting that the Archer will be returned to service by June 18th.
The Archer right tank gauge is being fixed. The float fell off of the supporting wire.
The Warrior compass is off by about 8 degrees at West and East. Paul Fortino plans to try to adjust the compass. If this does not prove feasible, then we may consider purchasing a vertical card compass instead.
The C-172 fire extinguisher is showing low charge. Since this type of extinguisher is not manufactured anymore, we would have to pay about $800 to replace this item with its modern equivalent. Since the other two planes do not have fire extinguishers, we may not get a replacement.
Solo Aviation is getting the contract to re-assemble the Archer following its recovery from Chicago.
Here are the statistics for May 2005:
|
(Total HOURS) |
54115 |
43755 |
33149 |
All Aircraft |
|
May 2005: |
26.3 |
15.9 |
23.1 |
65.3 |