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.

Hot Forum Topics

Recent great additions are:

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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.

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