Having ruined two HS-7 ribs last night, tonight’s task was to rebuild them and drill them properly. The trick, which several good friends from EAA chapter 32 pointed out to me, is to draw a line down the middle of the flange on the rib. Then I can assure that the line is visible through […]
Building Brackets for the Anti-Servo Tab
I have spent the last three sessions (spaced out over more than a week, since rehearsals for Nunsense took priority over the BD-4C for awhile) building the brackets which will attach the push-pull rod to the anti-servo tab on the trailing edge of the horizontal stabilator. If that’s all gobble-de-gook, never mind. Just read on and […]
Building Small Ribs
Santa Claus, in the guise of Roger the UPS Man, brought me two big boxes of Bede BD-4C pieces on Friday so I was finally able to start construction of my plane. I quickly learned that there is a world of difference between assembling pre-made parts, which I had done in September when I spent […]
Heads Up, Doc!
Added November 6, 2011: Since sending a copy of this letter to the doctor, I spoke with his office manager and him, receiving both a good explanation and sincere apologies. I have returned to his office for my FAA medical exam and had a delightful experience with everything running on time and like clockwork. Dear […]
Good Bye Arrow. Hello BD-4C.
My Piper Arrow is gone and my Bede BD-4C kit has started to arrive. I flew the Arrow from St. Charles County Smartt airport (KSET) to Mansfield Lahm Regional Airport (KMFD) on Saturday, delivering it to Jim Bede Jr. as my last flight. I could not have asked for a better trip. With cool temperatures and […]
Need Gas? Help Yourself.
This is a sad indicator of how tough times have become for some people. Our garage was burglarized recently and the only item taken was the gasoline can. Not tools. Nor the radios out of the cars. Gasoline. The sad part? This is the second time that we have been victimized in exactly the same […]
First Workbench
Today was workbench day at the Zemon’s. I built the first of two 2′ x 5′ workbenches that I will use for my BD-4C construction. Believe it or not, this is the first real work table that I have ever had. This is a relatively small table but should be just right for my space, […]
Bede BD-4C Construction: Day 3
Friday morning was set aside for installing the skin on the inboard end of the right wing, which includes the fuel tank. There were a few prep steps remaining because we simply ran out of time on Thursday afternoon. First, I shortened the fuel pickup line and drilled a new fuel strainer in the end. […]
Bede BD-4C Construction: Day 2
Steve and Rob are slave drivers and, I have to admit, I like it that way. With two of them, a whole airplane in front of us, and only a couple of days of my time to spend at Bede Corp., they have kept me more than busy. Yesterday was for big stuff, assembling the […]
Bede BD-4C Construction: Day 1
I spent the day at Bede Corp, helping construct the wings of my Bede BD-4C. For a complete newbie like me, it was quite the experience and I sure learned a lot. For instance, assembling the wings is pretty straightforward if you have done it before and have all of the jigs, clamps, and tools readily at hand. […]
An Open Letter to Netflix: Don’t Separate Netflix.com and Qwikster.com
Reed, Thank you for the explanation. I have been a Netflix subscriber since June 2002 and I did feel offended by the large price jump in my plan (2 Blu-Ray discs + streaming) I believe that you are making a mistake in dis-integrating the Qwikster.com and Netflix.com sites. My family receives great value from the […]
Hot Starting a Fuel Injected Lycoming Engine (IO-360)
The fuel injected IO-360 Lycoming engine in my Piper Arrow has always been difficult to start when it is hot but I finally found a technique that works quickly and reliably.
Bede BD-4 vs. Piper Arrow
I was curious about how the Bede BD-4 stacks up against the 1968 Piper Arrow, size-wise, so I made a 3-view of the BD-4 from the overview drawings and copied the 3-view from the Arrow’s manual. This post has two large images so click through to my web site. The pictures won’t show up on […]
Coming Soon: My Bede BD-4C Kit
If you know me at all, or have read even a bit of my blog, then you know that I fly a Piper Arrow and am pretty darned happy with it. The Arrow is a great travelling machine for Candy and me. It is fast enough to make cross country flights reasonable to large parts […]
Another Boundary
I just realized that I created another boundary in my life and have been happily living with it for quite awhile, maybe a year or more. I like boundaries; they keep me sane and productive. For instance, I have two email addresses and I never use my personal address for business or my business address […]
Missouri Teachers Challenge Facebook Ban
Good news: The Missouri State Teachers Association (MSTA) filed a law suit on Friday challenging Missouri Senate Bill 54, also known as the Amy Hestir Student Protection Act. The MSTA has asked the court to block implementation of the law pending a review of its constitutionality. In addition to the problems that I cited in […]
Do You Ctrl-F?
Do you get an F, er, do you get a Ctrl-F? To be more precise, do you know how to use Ctrl-F to find a word on a web page or within a document? It seems that the vast majority of people do not. According to Dan Russell, a search anthropologist at Google, 90 percent […]
Bad Policy: Forbidding Social Network Contact Between Teachers and Students
Missouri is in the process of implementing a particularly bad law, forbidding contact on social networks between teachers and students. Formally, this is Missouri Senate Bill 54, the Amy Hestir Student Protection Act. The aim is laudable: protect vulnerable kids from predacious educators. Unfortunately, the law as written, and as being implemented by the school districts, […]
AirVenture 2011
If you like things that fly, get thee to Oshkosh, Wisconsin for AirVenture. Here are some of the photos that I took this year. (Click through to the photo album for larger images or if you cannot see the slideshow here.)
When the Weather Cooperates
When last I wrote about weather, I had cancelled my flight to Oshkosh, Wisconsin because of thunderstorms between home and my destination. I speculated that there was a small chance that the storms would move east, allowing me to fly later in the day. As it turned out, that was exactly what happened. In this […]
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