Enjoy our first newsletter which we will be sending out once-a-month. It will feature what is going on in the GPA as well as what is happening on the website and the embedded forum. Please contact us if you have any articles, information or help that you want to share. (Editor).
Events
It is starting to be Spring in most of the United States and that mean flying season for most of us. Time to pull out our planes, clean them up, and fly them around.
As you can see, it is early April in 2015. The Grumman Pilots Association will be 1 year old this June and right now we are at 300 plus members in 8 countries. Good Job all. Let us all work to get the word out, think of yourselves not as members, but Ambassadors!
With flying season coming into full swing, please consider hosting a GPA event in your area and creating it on the website. Holler if you need any help with this, Event Help.
Second National Gathering
Our second national gathering will be this June in Cody, WY. There is a lot of fun planned for this event.
If you even think you might attend, then call the Blair Hotels (link on the Cody webpage) and reserve a room in our block (Group ID = GPA). This block will be released May 25! It would be better to reserve and then cancel penalty free 24 hours prior than to wait and not have a room.
Schedule and menus are going to be determined this weekend so check the webpage for the latest news. We are going to the Rodeo one night and the ‘Recreational Aviation Foundation (RAF) will be giving us a talk. Ken Blackman will have some fun parts to show you and expect lots of face time in the cabin public areas after hours.
Forums
Forums are now available to all members on all the pages. This last week we had the following great additions:
<div class="wpmlposts"> <div class="wpmlpost"> <h3>No Mess Oil Changes</h3> <p><small>Posted on April 3, 2015 by Jeff Johnson</small></p> <div class="wpmlpost_content">
Hate dripping oil during a filter change on your nice clean engine compartment? Love Chinese take out? What do they have in common? Take a look! Trim the tray as shown and it slides right under the filter and adapter and catches all the mess. Enjoy!
</div> </div> <hr style="visibility:hidden; clear:both;" /> </div> <div class="wpmlposts"> <div class="wpmlpost"> <h3>Fuel Tank Drain Lines</h3> <p><small>Posted on March 10, 2015 by Tracy Norris</small></p> <div class="wpmlpost_content">
After purchasing my AA5A in June of 2013, I noticed water pooling around the fuel tank filler caps. Attempting to clear the drains with a thin piece of flexible wire worked for the right side drain, but not the left. Brought in the A&P and had him have a look and he couldn't clear the…
</div> </div> <hr style="visibility:hidden; clear:both;" /> </div> <div class="wpmlposts"> <div class="wpmlpost"> <h3>Engine Data Management</h3> <p><small>Posted on March 21, 2015 by Jim Freeman</small></p> <div class="wpmlpost_content">Does anyone on the forum have an engine monitoring instrument in their aircraft? I've been looking at JPI's EDM 700 lately, and just wondering if anyone had any insights. Thanks!
</div> </div> <hr style="visibility:hidden; clear:both;" /> </div>This small sampling is just to tease you. Log in and come on in and read and post your issues, or help others with theirs. This is what community is all about.
Members in the News
Anne Marie Radel and Margaret Viola are the only Grumman in the Air Race Classic this year! We are Racer# 24, Team Flying Tigresses! We are also raising money to donate to the scholarships for women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math)- the great news about this program is that the scholarship recipients can have a mentor at Virgin Galatctic/TSC. Also, the program has no overhead costs so all the monies go directly to the scholarships! Blog with us and race along with us at www.teamflyingtigresses.com. If you’d like to donate, go to www.gofundme.com/sixeasy. Also here is a link to an article about us: http://www.voiceofthevillage.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/4-1-15,-Voice-of-the-Village—April-2015.pdf
Michael Scherer, Ft. Meyers, Florida, one of first members, lost his battle with cancer. Mike gave much of himself to the the passion of Grummans and he will be missed.
Operational Tip
Earlier this month we had a forum topic on the mismatch of flaps in our four-seat planes. It covered the bad things that can happen to your plane and how to go about fixing them.
<div class="wpmlposts"> <div class="wpmlpost"> <h3>Excessive Flap Movement</h3> <p><small>Posted on March 7, 2015 by Jeff Johnson</small></p> <div class="wpmlpost_content">
The 4-seat airplanes in our line are getting to be 40 years old. About half of the ones that come into my shop have excessive play in one flap as compared to the other. It does not matter what position your flap is in, but move one flap as much as you can both ways.…
</div> </div> <hr style="visibility:hidden; clear:both;" /> </div>Related to that is the issue of putting flaps down at the top of the white arc. Safe, yes, and legal, but that air pressure will bend the flap just a bit. Since the aileron torque tube goes through the flap which has ribs made of honeycomb, it is possible to get wear on the aileron torque tube. Here is what that wear looks like: 
Remember you only have 0.030 inches of wear to work with.
Best advice, slow down and then put the flaps down as slow as you can. This will save a lot of wear on the plane and give you years of faithful service, not to mention saving some big maintenance bills. For most of us, we slow down and enter downwind at 90 knots. By the end of downwind we have slowed to 80 and add 1/3 flaps. Turn base and continue to slow and at 75 knots we add another 1/3 flaps. Finally on final, we can gauge whether we need the last 1/3 or not to make the runway and have our airspeed well under control for landing. One last thing (as Ken would say), if you have to go around, be sure and pick up those flaps since the prop wash will really bend the flap and one may stick coming up (probably the right one), don’t ask us how we know
Additionally, if you have had SI 61-01 applied to your plane (AMOC for the AD 79-22-04, the repetitive aileron AD), then you will not be pulling the ailerons and specifically checking for this wear which was a little known part of that AD. So if your plane has had this AD cancelled via this AMOC, then you need to schedule say every 500 hours, pulling you ailerons off and looking for this wear.
Guru Advice
Try making a long cross country flight (preferably in unfamiliar territory) using nothing but dead reckoning and a paper chart (or road map) for navigation. This is the stuff that will keep you alive (and your passengers) when things quit working. When I fly, as long as the engine keeps running and the wings stay on, I’m good.
Ken Blackman
Air Mods N.W.
guru@airmodsnw.com
425-334-3030
First Use of ‘Aircraft On Ground’ (AOG)
We recently had our first use of ‘Aircraft On Ground’ a stricken bird stuck in Tennessee late at night, February 10th. Aircraft was not charging and needed the pitot heat for an IFR flight of 2.5 hours back home. With a bit of trouble shooting it was tracked down to the alternator. Contacted a member in the area who provided a hangar for the plane so it could be worked on out of the weather. The gurus who get the aog emails were able to troubleshoot the problem and get the bird on its way home the next day. Nice ‘perk’ for the GPA!
