Midwest Wrench and Elbow Bending – Just TWO WEEKS Away

The event page at: http://gpa.grumman-parts.com/events/midwest-wrench-and-elbow-bending-weekend/
is being updated daily with the latest information. On that page at the bottom you can book any spaces you need, there is no fee. Donations at the event. One member just posted a comment about a cheaper rate just off the airport. We are waiting now for the tiedown fees and procedures from the FBO.

We have about 20 folks already coming and it should be a good one. Stay Tuned!

National Gathering – Just TWO MONTHS Away

In just 2 months we will be gathering in Bowling Green, Kentucky for the Third National Gathering. The event details are at: http://gpa.grumman-parts.com/events/2016-national-gathering/ As with any event to book into the event go to the Booking section. This gives us a head count for planning. To keep all money transactions secure, we are selling the tickets and admission tickets for the tours in the Store under the Shop tab.

Our block of rooms will expire June 20, so make your reservations at the hotel by then.  So with a room, a ‘Booking’ and ‘Tickets to Ride’, we’ll see ya’ll in Bowling Green in July.

Technical Director
In an ideal world your would have the best person in every spot, but we do not live in that world. It became evident recently that with the new focus of the GPA we would be needing a volunteer. We really needed the ‘best’ man in this slot, so my ‘best man’, literally, was the guy. The GPA is pleased to announce that Ken Blackman has accepted the role of ‘Technical Director‘. I do not know of a more knowledgeable guru. Ken has probably forgotten more about this line of planes than I will ever know. Let me quote Ken, “If I do not learn something new about these planes everyday, then I probably did not go to the shop!”

Membership List – Online and Secure
We now have a custom member ship page, it is under ‘About‘, and called ‘GPA Lovers‘. You can search by name right now but we are adding search within a radius of a zipcode (and in the future an airport) top help members find members in their area.

In the future we are going to offer a service so that members can locate members away from home that provide a service.

Jump In Membership – 2 Weeks
We got over a 10% increase in membership in 2 weeks by an accident. As part of securing the membership list to just members, we accidental locked all pages unless logged in. Totally, my bad. But look at the result! Last month we were at 603 and now 668.

Finally Out Of Annual (Turned-Restoration)

Newsletter Volume VI, April 2016

Missing Issues, Again?
In a word, Yes. No bones about it, I’m guilty. Let’s see, I used what excuse last time, back in January, “Busy”. I like it, going to stick with a winner. Okay, moving on…

603 Members

We had our 600th member join last night and today, the 6th of April, we have 603. Good job all on getting the word out.

Elbow Bending Event, May 13-15th

Details can be found on the event webpage here at: http://gpa.grumman-parts.com/events/midwest-wrench-and-elbow-bending-weekend/ Notice in the Update the extended time frame for those wanting to go to the Air Force Museum at Wright Pat AFB, less than an hour away.

Also at the bottom you will find the ‘Booking’ Section where you can reserve your place in the event and help us plan on final count. This also serves as a new functional test of the Booking Feature for Events, so we can be sure and work out any bugs. That way, we know what to expect when we open it for the National Gathering in July where money will be used to confirm the booking process.

National Gathering this July

Shop Monkey Tales

Well it is not only a new year for all of us, Welcome 2016, it is also the Chinese year of ‘The Fire Monkey!”

Shop Monkey was recently asked during his annual, where he keeps his spares, he replied, “Over in Roscoe’s Hangar!”

First and Last Cheetahs

We have two members that have the first Cheetah off the line AA5A-0001 and another member who has AA5A-0900, the last Cheetah produced and is the proud owner of a special placard the factory installed for this last cat.

Guru GA7 Help

Last week we received a help request through the website under ‘Guru Help’ The owner had a GA7 that had been damaged in wind. Message got forwarded to Ken, who reached out to the FAA Inspector and owner who were very happy to get the call since no one had been able to help them. David Fletcher had a spare rudder skin and other tooling to assist, so we’ll mark that down an another big win for the GPA.

Accident Reports

Actual Traffic Accident Reports

Many years ago, in a city far, far away, I worked for an insurance company, first in IT, then in sales, who published this list of an actual customer statement about an accident. It was picked up by a newspaper and published nationwide in the 1970’s. Yes, I am that old. Many false starts till I discovered airplanes.

“It Happened This Way”

“The other car collided with mine without giving warning of its intention.”
“I thought my window was down but found it was up when I put my hand through it.”
“A pedestrian hit me and went under my car.”
“The guy was all over the plane. I had to swerve a number of times before I hit him.”
“I pulled away from the side of the road, glanced at my mother-in-law and headed over the embankment.”
“The accident occurred when I was attempting to bring my car out of a skid by steering it into the other vehicle.”
“I was driving my car out of the driveway in the usual manner, when it was struck by the other car in the same place it had been struck several times before.”
“I was on my way to the doctor’s with rear end trouble when my universal joint gave way causing me to have an accident”
“As I approached the intersection, a stop sign suddenly appeared in a place where no stop sign had ever appeared before. I was unable to stop in time to avoid the accident. ”
“The telephone pole was approaching fast. I was attempting to swerve out of its path when it struck my front end.”
“To avoid hitting the bumper of the car in front, I struck the pedestrian.”
“My car was legally parked as it backed into the other vehicle.”
“An invisible car came out of nowhere, struck my vehicle, and vanished.”
“When I saw I could not avoid a collision, I stepped on the gas and crashed into the other car.”
“The pedestrian had no idea which direction to go, so I ran him over.”
“I saw the slow-moving, sad-faced old gentleman as he bounced off the hood of my car.”
“Coming home, I drove into the wrong house and collided with a tree I don’t have.”
“The indirect cause of the accident was a little guy in small car with a big mouth.”

The Most Stolen Hose

This particular hose is blue. It started life a few weeks ago as a lifetime teflon, steel braided 2000 psi fuel or oil hose to go on a customer’s Grumman. Part of scheduling for a one-plane shop is to have all needed parts on hand ahead of time, since hoses like this one, need a week or so lead time to be fabricated, then shipped from Herber, in California. To help our customer keeps their bills low, we ask that they pay for the hoses when they arrive. So a nice pile of 6 new hoses has been waiting for this Friday when the plane will come in and they can be put on. But one hose, AE1014035G0160, was not to remain with his siblings. Instead he was stolen out of the pile and out on a Traveler. So a replacement was ordered, and put in the pile. Then this newest hose (a 16 inch hose in the #6 (11/16 th wrench size) ) committed hari kari by installing itself on a needed Tiger. So another hose is ordered. Believe it or not, when it arrived it went right onto a Cheetah. But finally, the last replacement is in, and in the pile and the boys are bringing in their girl this Friday. Please don’t tell them about all of this.

Members Search

We have some initial functionality in a members search. If you go to: http://gpa.grumman-parts.com/members/ You can search members in a number of ways.
More functions to come as they are suggested. FYI

The $400 Muffin

Today I got to eat a beautifully baked, homemade blueberry muffin, flown 388 nm, a ‘pearl’ of a muffin. Baked in Maryland, eaten in Ohio, and all part of getting a new Grumman owner, his first plane.

When you buy a plane remotely these days you have two basic options: Go and fly it home, or have it delivered. With insurance requirements, weather, timing, instructors available, it usually pays to take the second option.

Jonathan Pearl, who introduced himself, last week on the gang, took delivery of his first plane today, the personal Tiger of John Sjaardema of Excel Air Services. It all came together at the last minute and was executed successfully. Jon basically got his plane delivered for fuel in his new plane and the chase plane to return the pilot to his home field. Basically the Grumman family stepped up and helped a new family member.

For this solution there were two scenarios. First, a pilot local to Ohio, chases to Maryland, grabs the pilot and brings him back. The other option is to have a plane waiting at the delivery point, to bring the pilot home and then dead head back (for fuel of course). The weather window figures into this as well as available pilots. In option 1, chase plane and delivery plane set out, delivery, and return in this case, 5 hours. If option 2 had been executed, then it would have been 6 plus the 3 return. Also choice of aircraft had to be weighed. Tiger preferred, but we ended up using a RV8 (due to wind) since the 6-cylinder Tiger was not available. 30 knots of winds can play with a taildragger on landing at home. Plus the delivery pilot has a say in who he has to ride with.

We had a few twins offer help, and one jet jock. I realize that the offer to pay for about 7 hours of flight fuel is a big plus in the world today. Folks away from the area also offered if we would pay their airfare to us and home, plus since they were CFI’s, would have to be paid per hour to fly. One gentleman wanted first class airfare. Remember our mission was to help a new Grumman family member get his plane at the least cost. Heck, if I am going to pay someone to fly a customer’s plane, then it is going to be me. The truth is that I usually do not get to this often.

My personal thanks to Scott (retired corporate pilot) for chasing Matt (Shop Monkey) and getting bounced around to help Jon get his new plane. And let me not forget Mrs. Pearl for the muffin!

So how much did it cost in fuel you ask? Read the title.

Editor?

Want the ultimate power in the universe? Okay, who doesn’t, care to be editor? Details within.

Hot Forum Topics

Recent great additions are:

<div class="wpmlposts"> <div class="wpmlpost"> <h3>Future Tiger Owner</h3> <p><small>Posted on April 6, 2016 by Bryan Turner</small></p> <div class="wpmlpost_content">

Hey, New Guy here. Thought I would stop by here first and introduce myself. I got my Private in 2013 and have about 350 hours mostly in Cirrus SR22. Prior to that I was in a Socata TB9 and I started in a 172. I have gone through just about every possible plane and the…

Today, while checking all the paperwork on a new customer's 160 HP 2-Seater, I found a problem with the installation of the SA2477SW STC. Seems item number 6 (of the mandatory changes that goes with the STC, not just the bigger engine, but the oil cooler, relays, etc) was not done. This is the installation…

Hi Gang: Sometimes even bad happens to A&P types. Wednesday I had a short flight, went to Lincoln Park Airport, NJ (N07). Flight totally uneventful, landed, uneventful, had lunch eventful - Very Good Crumpled Blue Cheese Hamburger. Went back to the plane and when I pushed the GO Button - Totally Uneventful! No spinning of…

Wisdomism

This shop can fix almost anything, but it cannot fix STUPID!

Just my thoughts for the day……
Roscoe
Yankee Aviation

Newsletter Volume VI, April 2016

Missing Issues, Again?
In a word, Yes. No bones about it, I’m guilty. Let’s see, I used what excuse last time, back in January, “Busy”. I like it, going to stick with a winner. Okay, moving on…

603 Members

We had our 600th member join last night and today, the 6th of April, we have 603. Good job all on getting the word out.

Elbow Bending Event, May 13-15th

Details can be found on the event webpage here at: http://gpa.grumman-parts.com/events/midwest-wrench-and-elbow-bending-weekend/ Notice in the Update the extended time frame for those wanting to go to the Air Force Museum at Wright Pat AFB, less than an hour away.

Also at the bottom you will find the ‘Booking’ Section where you can reserve your place in the event and help us plan on final count. This also serves as a new functional test of the Booking Feature for Events, so we can be sure and work out any bugs. That way, we know what to expect when we open it for the National Gathering in July where money will be used to confirm the booking process.

National Gathering this July

Shop Monkey Tales

Well it is not only a new year for all of us, Welcome 2016, it is also the Chinese year of ‘The Fire Monkey!”

Shop Monkey was recently asked during his annual, where he keeps his spares, he replied, “Over in Roscoe’s Hangar!”

First and Last Cheetahs

We have two members that have the first Cheetah off the line AA5A-0001 and another member who has AA5A-0900, the last Cheetah produced and is the proud owner of a special placard the factory installed for this last cat.

Guru GA7 Help

Last week we received a help request through the website under ‘Guru Help’ The owner had a GA7 that had been damaged in wind. Message got forwarded to Ken, who reached out to the FAA Inspector and owner who were very happy to get the call since no one had been able to help them. David Fletcher had a spare rudder skin and other tooling to assist, so we’ll mark that down an another big win for the GPA.

Accident Reports

Actual Traffic Accident Reports

Many years ago, in a city far, far away, I worked for an insurance company, first in IT, then in sales, who published this list of an actual customer statement about an accident. It was picked up by a newspaper and published nationwide in the 1970’s. Yes, I am that old. Many false starts till I discovered airplanes.

“It Happened This Way”

“The other car collided with mine without giving warning of its intention.”
“I thought my window was down but found it was up when I put my hand through it.”
“A pedestrian hit me and went under my car.”
“The guy was all over the plane. I had to swerve a number of times before I hit him.”
“I pulled away from the side of the road, glanced at my mother-in-law and headed over the embankment.”
“The accident occurred when I was attempting to bring my car out of a skid by steering it into the other vehicle.”
“I was driving my car out of the driveway in the usual manner, when it was struck by the other car in the same place it had been struck several times before.”
“I was on my way to the doctor’s with rear end trouble when my universal joint gave way causing me to have an accident”
“As I approached the intersection, a stop sign suddenly appeared in a place where no stop sign had ever appeared before. I was unable to stop in time to avoid the accident. ”
“The telephone pole was approaching fast. I was attempting to swerve out of its path when it struck my front end.”
“To avoid hitting the bumper of the car in front, I struck the pedestrian.”
“My car was legally parked as it backed into the other vehicle.”
“An invisible car came out of nowhere, struck my vehicle, and vanished.”
“When I saw I could not avoid a collision, I stepped on the gas and crashed into the other car.”
“The pedestrian had no idea which direction to go, so I ran him over.”
“I saw the slow-moving, sad-faced old gentleman as he bounced off the hood of my car.”
“Coming home, I drove into the wrong house and collided with a tree I don’t have.”
“The indirect cause of the accident was a little guy in small car with a big mouth.”

The Most Stolen Hose

This particular hose is blue. It started life a few weeks ago as a lifetime teflon, steel braided 2000 psi fuel or oil hose to go on a customer’s Grumman. Part of scheduling for a one-plane shop is to have all needed parts on hand ahead of time, since hoses like this one, need a week or so lead time to be fabricated, then shipped from Herber, in California. To help our customer keeps their bills low, we ask that they pay for the hoses when they arrive. So a nice pile of 6 new hoses has been waiting for this Friday when the plane will come in and they can be put on. But one hose, AE1014035G0160, was not to remain with his siblings. Instead he was stolen out of the pile and out on a Traveler. So a replacement was ordered, and put in the pile. Then this newest hose (a 16 inch hose in the #6 (11/16 th wrench size) ) committed hari kari by installing itself on a needed Tiger. So another hose is ordered. Believe it or not, when it arrived it went right onto a Cheetah. But finally, the last replacement is in, and in the pile and the boys are bringing in their girl this Friday. Please don’t tell them about all of this.

Members Search

We have some initial functionality in a members search. If you go to: http://gpa.grumman-parts.com/members/ You can search members in a number of ways.
More functions to come as they are suggested. FYI

The $400 Muffin

Today I got to eat a beautifully baked, homemade blueberry muffin, flown 388 nm, a ‘pearl’ of a muffin. Baked in Maryland, eaten in Ohio, and all part of getting a new Grumman owner, his first plane.

When you buy a plane remotely these days you have two basic options: Go and fly it home, or have it delivered. With insurance requirements, weather, timing, instructors available, it usually pays to take the second option.

Jonathan Pearl, who introduced himself, last week on the gang, took delivery of his first plane today, the personal Tiger of John Sjaardema of Excel Air Services. It all came together at the last minute and was executed successfully. Jon basically got his plane delivered for fuel in his new plane and the chase plane to return the pilot to his home field. Basically the Grumman family stepped up and helped a new family member.

For this solution there were two scenarios. First, a pilot local to Ohio, chases to Maryland, grabs the pilot and brings him back. The other option is to have a plane waiting at the delivery point, to bring the pilot home and then dead head back (for fuel of course). The weather window figures into this as well as available pilots. In option 1, chase plane and delivery plane set out, delivery, and return in this case, 5 hours. If option 2 had been executed, then it would have been 6 plus the 3 return. Also choice of aircraft had to be weighed. Tiger preferred, but we ended up using a RV8 (due to wind) since the 6-cylinder Tiger was not available. 30 knots of winds can play with a taildragger on landing at home. Plus the delivery pilot has a say in who he has to ride with.

We had a few twins offer help, and one jet jock. I realize that the offer to pay for about 7 hours of flight fuel is a big plus in the world today. Folks away from the area also offered if we would pay their airfare to us and home, plus since they were CFI’s, would have to be paid per hour to fly. One gentleman wanted first class airfare. Remember our mission was to help a new Grumman family member get his plane at the least cost. Heck, if I am going to pay someone to fly a customer’s plane, then it is going to be me. The truth is that I usually do not get to this often.

My personal thanks to Scott (retired corporate pilot) for chasing Matt (Shop Monkey) and getting bounced around to help Jon get his new plane. And let me not forget Mrs. Pearl for the muffin!

So how much did it cost in fuel you ask? Read the title.

Editor?

Want the ultimate power in the universe? Okay, who doesn’t, care to be editor? Details within.

Hot Forum Topics

Recent great additions are:

<div class="wpmlposts"> <div class="wpmlpost"> <h3>Future Tiger Owner</h3> <p><small>Posted on April 6, 2016 by Bryan Turner</small></p> <div class="wpmlpost_content">

Hey, New Guy here. Thought I would stop by here first and introduce myself. I got my Private in 2013 and have about 350 hours mostly in Cirrus SR22. Prior to that I was in a Socata TB9 and I started in a 172. I have gone through just about every possible plane and the…

Today, while checking all the paperwork on a new customer's 160 HP 2-Seater, I found a problem with the installation of the SA2477SW STC. Seems item number 6 (of the mandatory changes that goes with the STC, not just the bigger engine, but the oil cooler, relays, etc) was not done. This is the installation…

Hi Gang: Sometimes even bad happens to A&P types. Wednesday I had a short flight, went to Lincoln Park Airport, NJ (N07). Flight totally uneventful, landed, uneventful, had lunch eventful - Very Good Crumpled Blue Cheese Hamburger. Went back to the plane and when I pushed the GO Button - Totally Uneventful! No spinning of…

Wisdomism

This shop can fix almost anything, but it cannot fix STUPID!

Just my thoughts for the day……
Roscoe
Yankee Aviation

Missing Issues

Let me just start with, “It’s been busy of late!”

Little did I know that the June Newsletter would be so far in the rear view mirror! So here it is, 3 and a-half hours from the new year and I am cranking this is as hard as I can.

Sorry for the delay but a lot has been going on. We had our Second National gathering in Cody along with a surprise wedding. We held the Seminar in Chandler for Wrench and Elbow Bending and as Luann says, “Roscoe went to Phoenix for 4 days, and came home and spent 2 days on the website!”

I wonder if we have a budding editor out there?

Flying on one mag (It happens to the Best of Us)

Even with checklist use occasionally something will sneak by and hopefully it is small and not life threatening. Two of our local members told this story at a recent hangar dinner. Plane was going up to just do some routine flying, exercise the engine, warm up the oil, etc for about 30 to 45 minutes.

Plane is pulled out of the hangar, pilot and co-pilot get in, off they go. They depart into the wind only to return a moment later after one brief circuit. They pull off into the run up area, and then take off again. Seems on the first takeoff, the mags were on only one of them and the owner noticed a miss he did not like so they came back and pull into the run up area to troubleshoot. When they got to mags, it was evident.

Fly Safe!

Membership news

As of this edition we stand at over 525 members. One of the things discussed in Cody at the membership event was that most would prefer to have active and engaged members. We’re off to a good start. Let’s keep it going strong. Thanks to everyone that contributes in seen and unseen ways.

Next National + Oshkosh

It is still 7 months off, but they will go fast. Our next national gathering will be held in Bowling Green, Kentucky just prior to Oshkosh so we can group fly up there the day before it starts. Details and information can be found here: http://gpa.grumman-parts.com/events/2016-national-gathering/

You and Your Mechanic

So in preparation for next month’s ‘Wrench and Elbow Bending’ Maintenance Seminar, find and work with a good local mechanic to keep your plane in top order.

http://www.avweb.com/news/savvyaviator/190057-1.html
Here is what Mike Bosch has to say:  http://www.avweb.com/news/savvyaviator/190057-1.html

Let me quote.
With the cooperation of your friendly neighborhood A&P, there’s almost no maintenance task you can’t do. Here’s what FAR 43.3(d) has to say about that:

A person working under the supervision of [an A&P] may perform … maintenance, preventive maintenance, and alterations … if the supervisor personally observes the work being done to the extent necessary to ensure that it is being done properly and if the supervisor is readily available, in person, for consultation.
In other words, you can do anything that your A&P will let you do (and agrees to supervise and sign-off). In this context, “supervise” means whatever your A&P says it means; the reg says he has to be available for consultation, but that doesn’t mean he has to watch your every move or breathe down your neck. As you earn the trust of your supervising A&P, he’ll probably let you do more and more of your own work and simply drop by to inspect it once you tell him you’re done.
How do you earn your A&P’s trust? Keep in mind that he doesn’t expect you to be an expert — in fact, coming across like a know-it-all is a good way to scare off your mechanic. What’s most important is to demonstrate to your A&P that you know your limits, and that he can trust you to stop and consult with him any time you’re not absolutely sure of what you’re doing. Exhibit a careful, conscientious and humble approach, and your A&P will probably give you lots of latitude.

Southwest Wrench and Elbow Bending Seminar
If you have not heard about it yet, there is a great event coming up the first weekend of November at Stellar Airpark in Chandler, AZ. Located outside Phoenix it should be a great event. Tips on working on your plane, hardware basics, troubleshooting, and discussions will all be part of this event. Come and join the fun!

And fun it was, indeed. See all the details here at: http://gpa.grumman-parts.com/events/southwest-wrench-and-elbow-bending-weekend/

The next one is scheduled for May, 2016 at KHAO. As we found out at the first one, you can plan the topics you will cover, but scheduling them is pure fantasy. You just have to take them as they happen. Details can be found on the Gathering Pages.

Website

We have made a lot of changes to the website in the last few months and it is finally nearing final shape.

We do a lot to protect your privacy on this site so we strive to keep out the bad guys. So far no one has made it in. Some of these procedures cause some of the members a few problems in the early days. If you try to log in with an invalid username, you will get locked out for 24 hours. Spammers create accounts with robots, then they try and harvest the accounts days/weeks/months later. Since they have not really created a valid or approved account, they fail.

The pages have been redone to present the maximum amount of info in the smallest space. We hope you like it. Suggestions are always welcome.

The menus have been gone through and now we have many sub menus to help you navigate to the topic or info you want in the fastest fashion. We also designed in three ways to get at any critical info based on user preferences.

A few months ago we added a donate button to the pages and it works. Before the button was there let me thank Mr. Ray Towes, one of our first Canadian members, who made the first donation before it was on the web. Mark and Kelly Matthews made the first button donation. Thanks to all who have.

We now also have a store front under the shop page and you can buy our gear there.

Events are now completely automated. This means that when you, as a member, create an event, it will show up in the upcoming events, be displayed when current, and moved to the historical pages after the fact. So create an event in your area. As always, holler if you need help.

We just recently added 4 new CFI to the CFI page on Bondline. Thanks for stepping up to the plate all of you that helped with this.

Rigging Tools Project

If you think Grumman parts are hard to find, try and find a set of the rigging tools we have to have to properly rig our planes. Every shop today does not rent or send the tools out, since many folks just failed to return them and let the deposit go for payment.

This was the inspiration that began the project, to get one good example set (this part is done), make drawings, then duplicate them and sell sets of the complete 4-seat rigging tools. Estimated price for a set is currently being worked on and pricing is being checked on for 2,5, and 10 sets. I know of one shop in Mississippi and one in Australia that are waiting for them. Holler if you might be interested.

Latest info is that we have a water jet/laser shop picked out. Going to make each set complete for the 2 and 4 place planes. We are trying to keep the cost to about $500 a set. This means rental sets might be available again. Stayed tuned for updates.

Maintenance Tip

Save your old ELT batteries which expire, they still work for a number of projects. They can be used for a portable supply of ships power when testing flaps, installing a new JPI instrument since you do not need the plane’s power. They provide enough power to run the electric fuel pump if you need to pump fuel out of the plane and into containers, or the other way. FYI.

The Longest Short

A Navigational Guide to tracing a short in the Navigation Light Circuit.

Electrical shorts are a pain in the butt. We all know that and we all know why. Yet, every so often you get surprised. Here is the case of an everyday 1977 Cheetah. New owner goes to fly at night, nav lights do not work. Tracks down a fuse at the airport, gets it in, still no lights and a blown fuse. Okay, no night flying tonight.

So the process of tracking it down starts. Try another fuse to see if the problem fixed itself, yes, hope does spring eternal. Okay, another dead fuse. Off come the wingtips and the tail cone. Down come the sump covers. With the wingtips and the tailcone off, we put a ohm meter on the lights, they are okay, so we take an expired ELT battery and test each light, they all shine.

Now disconnect the molex connectors at each wing root. This isolated the nav light circuits into the wings (each separate) and the fuselage. So we put an ohm meter on the fuselage and get no short from power to ground. Next the left wing gets checked, it is okay. Right wing, okay it is here somewhere.

The short actually turned out to be in the two insulated connectors on the inside of the bulkhead feedthrough located on the outboard rib. They had been rubbing and finally got welded. That explains the dead 30 amp slo-blow fuse we found in the glove box.

Critical Insurance Terms
by Vivian Hibbler, Aircraft Marine

There are many terms in your insurance policies which may be difficult to understand. This is nothing new, of course. Following are just a few which are the most common:

SMOOTH LIMITS – Nearly all policies on single engine aircraft are written with liability limits of $1,000,000 per occurrence with passengers limited to $100,000 each. This means that you have $1,000,000 available for the entire claim, but the passengers cannot receive more than $100,000 each. For those pilots who are more experienced, and if the planes are not over a certain age, the “smooth” limit is available. This means that the cap of $100,000 per passenger is removed. There remains only one limit on the policy of $1,000,000. This means that you have the entire $1,000,000 to cover a claim with no caps on any person or thing. Any amount can go toward one or more passengers or persons on the ground or property. If you only had one passenger that was seriously injured, that one passenger could collect the entire $1,000,000. This $1,000,000 can be split in any way. The entire claim cannot go over $1,000,000 however. These smooth limits are available not only for $1,000,000, but for $2,000,000 $5,000,000 or more. Understandably, the premium goes up accordingly.

BREACH OF WARRANTY – Your insurance policy is a contract between you and the insurance company. If you do not comply with the conditions of your policy, it will be voided. If your plane is financed through a financial institution, the bank or credit union will want some guarantee that if you do void your policy and have a claim, that they will be paid regardless of whether you may have voided your policy or not. This is what the Breach of Warranty endorsement states – that the insurance company will pay the balance of your loan even if you do void your policy. Nothing will go to you, the insured, however. One stipulation of this endorsement is that it will pay only up to 90% of the insured value. So if you have a loan and need this endorsement, you will have to insure your plane for a value that is higher than the loan, at least at first until the balance decreases. If you insure your plane at the loan amount, the bank will not accept your policy because they know that their guarantee would only go up to 90% of the insured value.

PER PASSENGER vs. PER PERSON – Aren’t these the same? Somewhat, but not entirely. When your policy states liability limits of $1,000,000 Per Occurrence with Passengers limited to $100,000, it means passengers only will be limited to the lower amount. Persons on the ground are not passengers. Therefore they come under the $1,000,000. If your plane caused severe injuries to someone on the ground, they could collect the entire $1,000,000 since they were not a passenger. Be aware that some policies (none that we offer) do come with limits of $1,000,000 per occurrence with persons limited to $100,000. If your policy reads like this, all people are limited to $100,000, not just the passengers. You might want to check your policies to see how they read.

A Tale of Two Cheetah Owners

We have had in the last 6 months 2 different Cheetah Owners (one from Colorado and one from Ohio) both give up aviation and buy and move aboard their own catamaran. Getting out of the rat race and enjoying a much simpler life. Our best wishes to them both and if I get any updates I will post them here and on the forum. If you want you can follow their blogs here:

http://thisratsailed.blogspot.com/ (Mike and Anya Boyd)
http://www.serendipity2.org/ (Keith and Terri Fuller)

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:

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!

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…

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!

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.

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.…

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!

Mogas for Tigers

From the ‘Grumman Gang’

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Todd Petersen has expressed some
interest in the “Kickstarter” approach to funding a mogas STC for Tigers
and will be meeting with me later this month at Oshkosh. In an attempt to
gauge interest in the STC, I’ve created a one question survey. If you’re at
all interested, please take a second to answer the survey question:

Take the Mogas Survey Now.

Thanks,

Steve Sokol

Tales From the Bent Side

by Garner Rice

• Have a valve wobble test.
• Don’t crash your plane
• Cheetahs don’t float
• Don’t do drugs
• Don’t look like a drug runner
• And, don’t get shot retrieving a plane

Jim Bede – Gone West

Forums

Forums are now available to all members on all the pages. This last week we had the following great additions:

Anyone have an electronic copy of checklists and/or the POH for a Traveler? I just got checked out today in my FBO's 1974 Traveler that they have on leaseback, but the airspeed indicator and all the V-speeds are in MPH...was hoping to do some more studying before I take it out again on Saturday. If…

Does your canopy stick a bit (or a lot) on opening or closing? Sometimes in cold weather it takes 2 hands to do the job? If you answered yes to either of these, then your canopy rails and tracks need some love. Many folks spray these tracks with WD40 and they work great for a…

Ny pre SN 640 AA5 had a nose strut replacement some 40 years ago. The new strut provides greater prop to ground clearance when taxiing, but cause the nose to sit slightly higher. Does anyone know if the fiberglass gear legs are the same length for all the AA5 series, or if the nose fork…

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.

Cody Happenings

Supporter and Advertisers

[wpmlfield name=”email”]Newsletter Volume III, June 2015

Third Time is the Charm

We are still searching for our final format so we hope you enjoy these trial newsletters until we settle somewhere down the airway. As always, your comments and suggestions are welcome.

Cody (Just 12 days)

Our second national gathering is rapidly approaching and is begin in under two weeks. The deadline for our block of rooms expired on May 25th. You can contact the hotel here: Click Here for Blair Hotels.  A good alternative is the WigWam motel.

For those planning or thinking about attending here is the general schedule:

Wednesday: Arrival day, night party by the cabins.

Thursday: Lunch. Maintenance Seminars at the airport.

Friday: BBQ Lunch with Western Theme Costume Party that continues through the Night Rodeo.  Cody Nite Rodeo adults $20 Child $10

Saturday: Afternoon Group Discussions. Hotel Dinner (http://gpa.grumman-parts.com/events/) $35 per person.

Sunday: Departures

We hope this has wet your appetite and that you will make plans to attend. The cost will be minimal for this event, just enough to cover the group meals and the rental van. Consider helping with your rental car for transport. Fees yet to be determined.

The Passing of Herb Hortman

Herb Hortman, 57, of Doylestown, an airplane pilot and president of Hortman Aviation Services Inc. in Northeast Philadelphia, died Sunday, May 17, of a heart ailment at Doylestown Hospital.

Mr. Hortman succeeded his father, Norman, in running one of the oldest flight schools in the region. The school has been in continuous existence for 35 years; it has been based at Northeast Philadelphia Airport since the 1980s.

Dozens of Mr. Hortman’s students have gone on to professional aviation careers, mimicking their teacher, who was an international airline pilot.

Born in Trenton, Mr. Hortman began working in the aviation business as a teenager and went on to earn private, commercial, instrument, flight instructor, and airline transport licenses.

When an aircraft dealership in Bucks County closed in the early 1980s, Mr. Hortman bought the business and moved it to Northeast Philadelphia Airport. He also ran a charter air taxi service there.

“His true love was flying, but he also loved training pilots of the future,” said his wife, Maggie. Of the hundreds of pilots he trained, many are now flight instructors, and corporate and airline pilots.

“Herb always put teaching first,” said Mr. Hortman’s friend John Morris. “At any time he would leave his desk to give a tip to a new student or to boost the confidence of a rookie instructor.”

One of Mr. Hortman’s students, Maggie Froman, became his wife. Besides his wife, he is survived by a daughter, Meghan; a son, Herbie Jr.; three brothers; a sister; and nieces and nephews.

Services were Friday, May 22.

Donations may be made to the Hortman Children’s Education Fund, Citizens Bank, 559 N. Main St., Doylestown, Pa. 18901.

Here is the History of Hortman Aviation in a nutshell:

Hortman and Hortmont Aviation Services Inc.

Here at Hortman, we have an excellent tradition of producing safe pilots with a well-rounded understanding of Aviation. Hortman Aviation was founded by the late Capt. Norman Hortman (TWA 1938 – 1972) in the early 1940’s. The Hortman family has a rich aviation back-ground starting with Norm, his wife Yvette (Flight Instructor, ATP), his brothers Herb (USAF Pilot), Robert (Flight Instructor, Crop Duster), and his sons Norman Jr. (Delta B737- retired), Herb (Captain Major US/International Air carrier B 757/767), Walter (Corporate pilot – G-V), his daughter Jeannine (corporate flight attendant) (student pilot) grandson Norman 3rd (Norman Jr. son) (Captain Major US / International Air carrier B737), granddaughter Paige (Walters daughter), (USAFR KC-10), and grandson Cameron (Walter’s son) Regional Airline F/O, and Maggie Hortman (Herb’s wife) (USAF C141 / TWA, Major US / International Air carrier B757/767 F/O).

Training at Philadelphia Northeast Airport provides us the opportunity to teach in a complex airspace system that gives our students the experience of working with Air Traffic Controllers without being over-whelmed. Many students don’t receive this in their training and as a result are apprehensive of using the many services and the added safety ATC provides. The school is a CFR Part 141 / 61, CDMS 796C, M-1 Visa School. We are approved for Veterans Educational Benefits. Offering an Associate Degree with Philadelphia Community College and a Bachelor Degree online with Utah Valley State College. Housing is available locally. Please contact us to discuss your housing needs.

We have a wide selection of aircraft models from Piper, Tiger, Grumman and Cessna. We have our own Maintenance Department to take care of the school, charter , and private aircraft. The list goes on and on. Our sister company, Hortmont Aviation Services, Inc., is an on-demand charter company servicing the continental United States, Canada, and the Caribbean. Hortmont Aviation Services operates the Citation V, Citation CJ3, Cheyenne III and Navajo Chieftain. We would be happy to provide a charter quote. To sum things up, you have chosen an excellent path to fulfill your dreams of aviation. Should you have any questions or concerns please stop by my office or contact me.

Sincerely,

Herb & Maggie Hortman

Shop Monkey Tales

Our first tale will be, how we got the name ‘Shop Monkey’. There is usually one in every shop. Heck, they even have their own jokes!

The Shop Monkey

A man was in a pet shop in Winchester looking at animals when a Chief Petty Officer from the local Naval Air Station entered and told the shopkeeper,

“I want a Shop Monkey, please.”

The clerk nodded, went back to a cage and returned with a monkey. “That’ll be $1,000, Chief.” The Chief paid and left.

The surprised man asked the shopkeeper, “That was a lot of money. Why was that monkey so expensive?” The shopkeeper answered, “Because a Shop Monkey can park, fuel, and service naval aircraft, conduct required ground ops testing, rig aircraft flight controls, and is trained in carrier flight deck ops. He’s worth it.”

Now interested, he spotted another monkey with a $10,000 price tag. “What? A ten grand monkey? What can it do?”

“That’s a Maintenance Supervisor monkey. It teaches aircraft maintenance, supervises corrective and preventive maintenance programs, supervises crews of maintainers, and do all the paperwork. A very useful monkey, indeed!”

The guy found a third monkey with a price tag of $50,000. “Holy cow! What’s a fifty grand monkey do?”

The shopkeeper sighed. “Actually, I’ve never seen him do anything except drink beer and play with his pecker, but his papers say he’s a pilot!”

Okay you get the idea, can’t swing a dead cat,….

Some of you have met Matt Wing at Hogan Field, he is the ‘original’ Shop Monkey.

Some time back last year while Matt was working in the shop learning about the various systems in a Grumman, his wife asked what did you call a mechanic while he was learning his trade. It really depends on the shop, so I told her where I learned under Jon Maestre, you were a goon. Here, I’ll get one of my goon to do that. Lynn was not happy with the term ‘goon’. Over in the corner of the hangar were some yellow scaffolds used during hangar modifications and Matt was climbing up them to see the progress. “I suppose we could call him a ‘Shop Monkey’!” Thus was born the shop monkey. A logo was shortly thereafter stolen from some image library on the web, and the rest is history. Enjoy this brief piece of it.

Membership

As of the end of May, we stand at 368 members. Not bad for a group not yet hitting the one-year mark! Although it is hard to beat a free membership, we do new things things to attract and reach new members.

Maintenance tip – Tiger Lord Mounts

Question:  What is the procedure for placing the spacers between the engine mounts and the engine on a AA5-B?

Answer: The aluminum spacers (that seat into the dynafocal ring cups) are unique for the Tiger and Cougar. The top ones mount on the aft side of the cup and the lowers go in front. The AA-5 series Maintenance Manual shows them this way for BOTH the Tiger and Cheetah (also Traveler) but they are entirely different and all four go forward of the mount rings.

This is just one of the very confusing things that are out-right mistakes in our manuals. This is another reason for making sure your mechanic (or shop) is really familiar with the aircraft. Those of us that are know about these goofy problems and work around them.

I assume this answers your question but another thing to mention is the ridges on the outside of one of the two pads, in the Lord Shock Mount Kits, are installed on the aft side of the top mounts and the lower sides of the bottom ones. The reason for this, and the positioning of the spacers, is the engine is pulling forward on the top mounts and pressing backward on the lowers. (The J-9613-59 kits have the three ridges where the -49s only have one diameter step down on this pressure pad. The other pad, for both, has no ridges or step. The -59 is a better vibration isolator than the -49 and is called out for 1977 and later Tigers (AG’s included). Though the ’75 & ’76 specify the -49, I suggest stepping up to the -59s even though they are more expensive.

Yet another tip to mention is there must be at least one alignment washer between the shock mount and the engine. The manual says “A/R” (as required), and you will usually have to add a second washer to a couple of the positions to get the spinner correctly aligned with the nose cowl. This is a “trial and error” operation so expect it. We start with the washers reinstalled just as they were on the previous installation but new mounts may make it different. (That is unless they were really done wrong.)  BE SURE to make notes of where these washers are positioned before the engine is removed.

Ken Blackman – Guru

Hot Forum Topics

Recent great additions are:

The American Aviation 2-seat variations have a very robust fuel tank setup. The fuel is actually carried in the aluminum spar (very safe place for it) so crash ruptures are quite rare. That with the visual sight fuel gauges make for a nice system with no electrical problems. However, I digress. Take the tank itself,…

It is not often that there is time or the will to completely reburbish the main landing gear down by the tires. First you have to take it all apart, remove the steel plates, remove the big bolts, drop the shims, remove the attach plate for the main fairing float plate, remove the spindle. Then…

A Cheetah with the normally horse powered engine came in and he was running Mogas in one tank and 100LL in the other. This is since we are near the time when winter fuel is in the tanks of the gas stations and we have a few warm days (it was 75 F here today),…

Again just a few tidbits to tease you to come on in and replay or post your own. Let us know if we can help make this happen.

Garner Tales

For over 25 years I have talked to Garner about parts. So have many of you. An age has passed in our small world. With such a following I told Garner to write me an article about his retirement adventures. If he did not send one I would make something up!

Hello all,

I hope that everyone is having a good time flying. Over half my life I have been involved with the Grummans and those that live and breath avgas. It was quite a transition starting phase two of my life. My official first day of retirement was February 2. Waking up at the habitual time was a habit I really wanted to break. Then it started to hit me. I dont have to be anywhere at any time. Stress played its hand in my mental attitude as well. I did retire with a plan and mission. The second week of February I left home headed for my parents outside of Houston. I loaded food, tools, supplies and my Bible, to start my mission. I spent two weeks, working 10-12 aday and back home I went. Recouping for a week, I went back for another couple weeks of physical and mental strain. My plan was to do this as long as I could afford to and spend time with my ageing parents. Well plans change. Someone once told me that if you want to see God frown, then sin. If you want to see God smile, then obey His commandments. And if you want to see God laugh, then make plans of your own.

After a little over month, my wife’s health to a turn to the side that we had not planned for. I was in my best interest to stay close to home and keep a close watch on her. I tend to get on Minnie’s nerves from time to time, so she suggested that I find something to do. Togetherness can be overrated and being exiled from the kitchen was inevitable. The kitchen is where she keeps the knives anyway.

Comfort Texas is a small town with a large percentage of the population in the golden years. I have for quite a while helped some the the widows in our community doing chores that they just are not capable of doing.  Minnie would sit and visit, while I would do yard work or handyman stuff for them. Still, being on a very tight budget, I thought getting a part time job would help the negative cash flow be not so negative so fast.  So I set my parameters. Must be close by. Must be fun for me. And must be part time. After waiting for three weeks for that close, fun, part time, job, I believed I hit the jackpot.

Now this is where the “Garner is a Bandido” rumor started. On the downwind leg to Boerne Stage airport is a Harley dealership. I responded to an ad for a part time porter position and they called me within 15 minutes. I explained that I do like to ride and do have some spare time. I also let them know that I did ride a Honda. (thank you Roscoe) There was a pause and the guy said that’s ok because Hondas are a stepping stone to a Harley. He said that eventually I would buy a Harley. I just told him he didn’t know my wife. 30k for a motorcycle! Boom boom, out go the lights!

The interview went well, except they wanted me full time. I told them that it was going to be part time or no time. That evening, I was talking with Minnie and I knew I was well qualified to wash, detail, and ride motorcycles, but I didn’t think that I would fit in with the Harley crowd. I had short hair, no piercings, and no tattoos, I just wasn’t sure if this Baptist deacon could blend in very well.(Disclaimer: Some of the tattoos, multiple piercings were tastefully done and extremely attractive. But I still aint going to punch extra holes in myself!)

Well they hired me despite all my deficiencies. Unloading brand new Harleys and doing the first test drive was a real buzz. After the first company meeting where I introduced myself and a little history, I was approached by one of the managers about moving into a full time sales position. Again I had to explain about the difference in part time and full time. Why would I want to sell overpriced parts to an unnecessary means of transportation. (Again)

By the first months end, I had ridden over 250 different motorcycles. New and used. Beaters and beauties. If they started, I rode them. Once the bike went through service, it would come to my area for cleaning. It was common to have a Bandido Harley come through.

LET ME MAKE THIS VERY CLEAR!

It was NOT me that scratched in the gas tank of the Bandido Streetglide “Jesus loves the Bandidos, but loves the Cossacks more” I don’t know how that got there. And that is not why my Harley career ended.

My part time was encroaching dangerously into full time and I was not having the needed time to help some of the people in the community that I wanted to. So I let Harley know that I would have to leave, but if they got into a pinch, they could call me and I would be more than happy to to come in and help out. I was just not able to commit to a set schedule at this point in my life.

Before my two weeks notice was up, Minnie was hospitalized, so the free time was well spent with her. She is recovering, but is scheduled for surgery later this month. I am keeping extremely busy in my so called retirement. I am on call for several of the finest people I have ever met. The youngest is 75 years and the oldest is 96 years young. The 96 year old is sharp as a tack and she will watch me work. “Garner, you missed that Hackberry” She is all together, but when it comes to pulling weeds in her flowerbed, I’m her guy.

I still get call from some of you, and occasionally they are not aware that I don’t do airplanes anymore, but enjoy them nonetheless. I try as best I can with their technical questions, but as far as sell them parts, well you know the story. As I pull weeds, clean a gutter, or am driving Miss Nita, I get distracted when I see or hear a horizontally opposed bopping in the sky and wonder who they are and how they are doing.

Every day is a new day and I take it with gratitude.

Garner

Wisdomism

I heard a pilot remark the other day, “I am proud that I have never violated a FAR in 30 years of flying!” As he walked away, under his breath you could hear, “As the FARs stood in 1912.”

Just my thoughts for the day…… Roscoe

Yankee Aviation

Malone Air

Malone Air recently bought a Grumman Cougar and also many spare parts. This was from a gentleman in Florida who was sticking parts trying to get the Cougar line back in production. So, if you need Cougar Parts, or know of a Cougar for Sale, contact: s

Malone AirCharter, Inc.

Sterling Flight Training

904-425-0325 (p)

904-642-0994 (f)

mbartle@maloneaircharter.com

Next Month Teaser

Reviews of Cody, Editor’s report, Membership report, Website Report, and much more.

Second Endeavor

We are still searching for our final format so we hope you enjoy these trails newsletter until be settle somewhere down the airway. As always, your comments and suggestions are welcome.

Cody

Our second national gathering is rapidly approaching and is scheduled for next month. The deadline for our block of rooms expires on May 25th. You can contact the hotel here: Click Here for Blair Hotels.

For those planning or thinking about attending here is the general schedule:
Wednesday: Arrival day, night party by the cabins.
Thursday: Morning brief by the Recreational Aviation Foundation RAF which is a volunteer group dedicated to preserving remote airstrips around the country. Lunch. Maintenance Seminars at the airport.
Friday: BBQ Lunch with Western Theme Costume Party that continues through the Night Rodeo
Saturday: Afternoon Group Discussions. Hotel Dinner (if enough folks) if not we invade a restaurant.
Sunday: Departures

We hope this has wet your appetite and that you will make plans to attend. The cost will be minimal for this event, just enough to cover the group meals and the rental van. Consider helping with your rental car for transport. Fees yet to be determined.

Logo Needed

The Cody Logo Contest will be ending soon, winner get a full set of clothing! Submit your entry to Cody Logo Contest.

Membership

As of the end of April, we stand at 330 members. Not bad for a group not yet hitting the one-year mark! Although it is hard to be a free membership, we do several things to attract and reach new members.

Every month, Mark Matthews (Grumman Gang), send me a list of all the Grummans in the US that have changed hands. We take that list and and send them a letter telling them about ourselves, the advantages of membership, suppliers with the GPA discount, how to join ther Grumman Gang, and a link to Bondline. We also ask them to join.

This is how it came to be that we found the folks in the next story.

AMT School

Down in Bolton Mississippi, there is a community college, Hinds Community College. This establishment has an Aviation Maintenance Technology department which uses the John Bell Williams Airport to teach both pilots and mechanics.

The flight school bought a Cougar (GA7) and that is how we sent them a letter. A few weeks later I was contacted by one the AMT instructor to see about renting or buying the 2-seat rigging tools. I suggested he try Fletchair. I got an email a few days later that that was not going to work. I explained that I had lost a set and spent over a thousand dollars to replace it so I did not loan them anymore. I did agree to make paper tracing of all the rigging tools, photo them with rulers for reference, send tracing of the jack pad and other tools to the school for them to copy.

In return we picked up all the instructors and this crop of students as members. If I ever get back to my old stomping ground, I might just have to stop by and see the operation. It did give me a nice warm feeling knowing that these young mechanics in training are learning on a Yankee!

Maintenance tip (gear redo)

Right now I have a Tiger in my shop that the owner is getting ready to sell. Part of this process is a complete replacement of all main hardware, new glass, new interior plastic, upholstery, carpet, and windshield.

You can see a shot of the main gear in one of the forum posts. The original rim was bead blasted, primed and painted inside and out, new through bolts, nuts and washers to hold the rim. New brake disc, new tire, tube and all of the landing gear was disassembled , bead blasted, primed and put back together with all new hardware, adel clamps and a complete caliper rebuild.

The engine has about 200 hours since overhaul (all new components). The paint has been polished out so it will give the new owner a good solid plane while they decide on a paint scheme. The current owner plans on flying it out to Cody and then on to the Oregon to visit friends before flying it back to the Midwest for sale. That should shake any gremlins out of the engine and systems.

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Recent great additions are:

<div class="wpmlposts"> <div class="wpmlpost"> <h3>Fuel Tank O-Ring Replacement</h3> <p><small>Posted on April 28, 2015 by Jeff Johnson</small></p> <div class="wpmlpost_content">

The American Aviation 2-seat variations have a very robust fuel tank setup. The fuel is actually carried in the aluminum spar (very safe place for it) so crash ruptures are quite rare. That with the visual sight fuel gauges make for a nice system with no electrical problems. However, I digress. Take the tank itself,…

It is not often that there is time or the will to completely reburbish the main landing gear down by the tires. First you have to take it all apart, remove the steel plates, remove the big bolts, drop the shims, remove the attach plate for the main fairing float plate, remove the spindle. Then…

A Cheetah with the normally horse powered engine came in and he was running Mogas in one tank and 100LL in the other. This is since we are near the time when winter fuel is in the tanks of the gas stations and we have a few warm days (it was 75 F here today),…

Yankee Firewall Extrusion Corrosion

Last year Ken had a Yankee that came into his shop with an interesting problem. The bonded extrusions that hold the engine mount has severe corrosion. So Ken did what Ken has done many times, figured out a repair for the customer and filmed the entire repair process. This DVD was then sent to me, Yankee Aviation, for digital mastering and conversion. We also tried to edit out all the mechanics bad words, but some will get by.

This video lived for 6 months at : http://www.yankee-aviation.com/docs/Yankee%20Extrusion.wmv
It is a big file, 636 M, plays for about 37 minutes, and uses a lot of my server space. I finally removed it to conserve on space but then received a call from a mechanic in Florida who had just this issue on a Yankee in his care. So the video was uploaded again for his use. Eventually it will move to a GPA server as part of the consolidation of information. Just another example of the Perks of the GPA.

Wisdomism

Just remember the old saying;  “If you have to crash land, do it straight
ahead and try to only hit cheap things”

Just my thoughts for the day…… Ken Blackman
Air Mods N.W.

On the other subject, there is no minimum imposed at Air Mods N.W..  Small
orders are a problem for us, as with all small outfits (or large ones for
that matter).  The time it takes me to process an order (find the part, pack
it, do the invoice, run the credit card, etc.) makes it a losing proposition
as the average to accomplish this can easily hit a half hour.  Our shop rate
is $82.00, making that time worth 41 bucks and the profit on an O-ring may
be a few pennies at best.  If someone calls and orders one lo priced part, I
will do the  order and thank them for their business.  I chalk it up to
hoping they will deal with me when they need something else (of more value)
down the airways.  Much of the time the shipping costs is more than the
part(s) which costs the customer.  When I make an order from a supplier I
try to think ahead of any other products I may need from them and combine
the order to save me shipping costs and be kind their bottom line as well.

Even if I don’t have a minimum order, it is appreciated if it is more than a
couple of bucks.  The total really needs to be at least $25. Or more to make
it work out in our favor.  Never the less, I don’t do minimums because I
don’t appreciate it when it imposed on me although I understand.  Really,
what bites harder, is when a customer calls for advice on how to do a job,
sometimes asking me to talk their mechanic through it (who they’re probably
paying to talk to me) using parts they bought from Aircraft Spruce or
somewhere else.  This is where “consulting fees” can come into play.  Some
customers offer to, or insist on, being billed for this kind of service and
it is really appreciated.  It’s all in “consideration for the other guy”
that this concept falls into.  (BTW, how much free advice would you expect
from a lawyer or other professionals?)

Please don’t confuse the above with the time I (and many others) spend on
the Grumman Gang, AYA “Ask the Experts”, or the new GPA Forum.  This is time
I choose to spend, trying to help and protect people and airplanes.  Yes, it
is nice when this leads to sales and I do admit I get back something from
doing it that can’t be priced.  It all fits into the mix.

<img src=”http://gpa.grumman-parts.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Grumman-Bird.png” />

Hello to all Grumman American type owners and GPA members.

First, let’s agree that we have one common bond….. (well that could be considered a play oh words….) which is a love for a strangely constructed “bonded” airplane that was the brain child of one “Jim Bede” back in the early 1960s. The BD-1 that became the American Yankee, and descendants through the AA-1 series, AA-5 Series, GA-7 Cougar and then the AGAC and later Tiger Aircraft, LLC “Tiger” all contain the “glue” that Bond” our people together.

Through the last 50 years since the first significant article on the “Yankee” appeared in Flying Magazine, (June, 1965 issue) our airplanes remain a subject of controversy around airport coffee shops and places where pilots gather. Almost any one who has been really exposed to the wonders of these aircraft had, no doubt, rose to the defense of these fantastic planes. This love for a machine, that borders on obsession, is what causes the owners and lovers of them to crave fellowship with others of the same mind and the need to share experiences and passions with each other. Sharing information on parts and maintenance, flying tips, and so on are all part of this common bond.

Nearly 40 years ago a small group of owners and pilots got the idea that there should be a “club” for these airplanes. Unknown to these original 4 owners in Seattle, WA, there was a group of a few owners in Texas that were getting together for formation flight practice and fellowship. Another group in San Jose, CA were getting together and joining with a flying club (affiliated with a Dealership) for fly-ins and fly-outs in Central California.. Others around the US and Canada were either meeting with others or seeking to do so, The word was passed through direct mail and magazine articles and, soon, the official formation of the American Yankee Association came about.

What the organization’s concept was, and what it started out as, went pretty smooth for a few years then, as happens with most organizations, some members felt things were not being done as should be and “power plays” began to surface. Call it growth or evolution, things were changed as the group evolved and those who made many personal sacrifices during the formation were demonized and pushed out. By the end of its first decade of existence, it was hardly recognizable beside the original concept. This tended to repeat itself about every 10 years as leaders were pushed aside as new ones rose to power, This has continued to the current day.

Now, with quite a large number of our ranks of owners and pilots has elected to not participate in the infighting and politics of this organization, wished to become affiliated with a new organization that was spawned by the idea there could be a group that would be run by all volunteers and would operate strictly on the donated funds of members rather than collect dues. It would maintain a serious website offering complete maintenance and operational information material and grow to offer and provide the greatest possible support for its members. This organization was “unofficially” begun in June of 2014 with its inaugural gathering at Rough River Falls, KY. 39 members attended this gathering and shared some very good fellowship, food, drink, and were able to compare airplanes and ideas. Since then some 300 + members have joined and much progress was made to get everything up and running.

WELL….. things were looking up and plans were being laid for the first actual “gathering” to be in Cody, WY for the last week of June, 2015. A sudden move by one of the founders resulted in a “rift” in the organization with mud being slung, claims and accusations being made, and it just, basically, undermined the whole program. My personal feelings were (initially) of the nature of; “WTF happened?” I really don’t have the desire to jump on a burning ship but I feel a fire hose is seriously needed here. After talking with all parties involved, and with my Wife, my initial urge to “bail out” has subsided to my more natural desire to try to salvage the effort and build something I would really like to see succeed.

With all that said, I want to urge all of you who have wished to affiliate with the Grumman Pilots Association to join in a united front to make it happen. The website, which is really the center of communication, is being changed somewhat and the reason for the rift in the first place has been re-structured. The Forum part of the site will be a part of the basic website and every effort made to “uncomplicated” it’s accessibility and simplify using it. Frankly, I was not able to grasp what was going on with the forum as the previous administrator had built it. I’m very good with the airplanes and their care and feeding but really suck in the computer savvy department. I know many of you are really up on the latest technology but I don’t “Tweet, Twitter, or Twat” and will probably never embrace any “social media”. Yep, I’m proud to be a Dinosaur in this current world. All I want to do is enjoy these great airplanes and the fellowship of the fine people who feel the same.

I am urging all of you to stay among the ranks and step up to help make this takeoff and climb to altitude. There will be turbulence and foul weather along the way but if we stay on course and avoid crashing into a mountain, I am sure we will all be winners. Please, just don’t make the mistake of letting politics and petty rivalries screw up something good. If you want to fly, get involved, take an effort to make situations better, not destructive.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and please take it for what I intended it to be, a chance to make something good for the advancement of the aircraft we all love. Let’s “bond” like our airplanes. The only intention here is to help each other.

Ken Blackman