Categories: all aviation Building a Biplane bicycle gadgets misc motorcycle theater
Fri, 13 Jul 2007
See all the pictures I took in the gallery.
I took the day off from work today, and toddled on up to the Arlington Fly-In, which the promoters claim is the 3rd largest fly-in in the US. Hard for me to know whether that claim is true or not, as this was my first fly-in.
The gates opened at 8, and not wanting to be stuck behind a huge crowd, I arrived around 7:30. This involved waking up at the incomprehensible hour of 5:45 am, but it wasn't so bad, since I didn't comprehend it. I made the trip on the sidecar rig, since the Ninja's down with Idiot Thief problems.
I needn't have worried about the crowd. I have the impression that the crowd was actually unusually sparse. There seemed to be maybe several hundred people there, and I had the impression they usually expect 5-10x that many people. Good for me, but bad for the EAA, I guess.
Beech 18 |
Beech 18 |
Beech 18 engine |
Beech 18 |
Anyway, after wandering past a display of several Beech 18s (my favorite pipe-dream/alternate reality plane), I wandered until I found the biplane section. Unfortunately, there were only a few, and they all seemed to be exactly the same model. I was really hoping to see a variety of different planes up close, but my goal was thwarted. They were all Starduster Toos, which are a pretty plane, but too heavy, and very complex-looking to build.
Starduster Too |
Also a Starduster Too |
Another Starduster Too |
Yet another Starduster Too, this one based in St. Helens |
No, wait, this one's an Acroduster II (closely related) |
One thing I found very interesting is that all these biplanes seemed really small. I'd had this impression that all the biplanes I was looking at were absolutely huge, but in reality they were quite small. It makes sense, when I think about it, but it was a surprising (and somewhat encouraging) realization.
Too soon, the first forum I wanted to attend was upon me. I ducked into an unnaturally dark tent, and listened to an uninspired man talk about tailwheel flying. He had good information, but it was mostly stuff I already knew, so I've probably finished the "ground school" portion of my tailwheel education. Interestingly, he's based out of Scappoose, which is very near my parents' house. Hmmm.... (One of the Stardusters was based out of St. Helens, which is near Scappoose. Double-hmm!)
During the talk on tailwheel flying, the weather decided to assert itself, and we heard rolling thunder getting closer. Then it got really close. Moments later, fat, heavy drops of rain started hitting the tent, and it got even darker as a huge thunderhead must have passed overhead. The rain resolved into a steady patter. The tent filled up with extra people who'd decided that listening to tailwheel droning was better than getting wet. (The guy was actually fine to listen to, but his style of presentation could have used some work.)
Tailwheel man ran over by 15 minutes, but I had some time to wander. I continued along the way I'd been going, and went through all the vendor tents. Nothing too exciting, although I'm sure that'll change (mostly my attitude will change, I mean) if/when I start building.
After the vendors, I found the EAA chapter 84 tent. This was pretty interesting to me because EAA chapter 84 is full of people who are actually building airplanes. Chapter 26, which is the Seattle chapter, and meets at Boeing Field, is full of people who.... meet once a month, as far as I can tell. Chapter 84, which meets in Snohomish, at Harvey Field (likely future home of any biplanes I happen to build), is much more active.
In fact, I met a man named Tom, who's building a Starduster Too (same as all those biplanes I saw out in the judging area), and has been for 15 years. He said he's been at it off and on during that time, it's not as if he's been working diligently for 15 years. He and I ended up chatting about a few things before it was time to excuse myself for the gas welding forum. I wandered over to the tent (conveniently just next to the tent I was already in), but there was no evidence of gas welding.
I asked the person who looked to be in charge whether he would be teaching gas welding, and he said no, the gas welder was off doing something else, and he'd be teaching sheetmetal bending. Dissapointed, I wandered off to find something else to do -- sheetmetal is low on my list of priorities.
The St. Helens Starduster Too |
The St. Helens plane's panel |
And its passenger panel |
The next hour or two consisted of wandering around and looking at planes. I chatted some more with the guy from St. Helens (me: "I'm thinking of building a biplane." him: "Gee, you look sane enough [why would you want to do a thing like that?]").
Next episode: I learn that punching out airplane fabric is harder than it looks.
Posted at 23:59 permanent link category: /aviation
Categories: all aviation Building a Biplane bicycle gadgets misc motorcycle theater