Hangar Flying

Bill,

I did want to add a few comments concerning the Varieze and it's reputation.  I have spent my working life around experimentals and so I have a lot of friends in the industry as well.  When I started talking about flying this airplane I was shocked at the response I got from various people.  Ranging from why would you want to fly one of those???  To "those things are squirrly and dangerous".  I mulled over these comments that came from people I considered experienced and educated on the subject and decided that they were not considering the facts in their comments.  I don't know if others on this list get these kind of reactions and comments from others but it just bothered me.  I was amused by the people I talked with on various subjects like engine cooling or propeller design, who tried to convince me that Burt could design an airframe but he was no engine guy or prop guy or whatever else........Seems to me that I flew this Varieze as a bone stock O-200 powered well built airframe and it worked perfectly.  So how is it that these people consider Burt an idiot on their particular subject.  I don't think Burt has any apologies or excuses to make to anyone.  I just really shake my head at all the bogus information, wives tales and downright lies that are told.  The facts speak for themselves.

3.  I started my pilot preps weeks before by reading the POH fore and aft until I had all the good stuff memorized.  Speeds and emergency procedures getting the most brain space.  A few years back I ferried a Speed Canard from Florida to Maine and in the process of getting checked out in that, flying it around for a few weeks and then doing the ferry, I accumulated about 40 hours in it.  This was my main perspective on what to expect.  I generally have an opportunity to fly various different airframes and true to the Rutan POH, this helped quite a bit as well.  I spent two hours with Steve Wolf in the Pitts S2-B just to get my brain speed up to max.  Although the airplanes a quite different the speeds at which you need to make good decisions helps knock the cobwebs out and had me ready for whatever might happen.  Steve told me a story about building the Gee Bee for Delmar Benjamin that I used for my test flight.  I ask him how Delmar prepped for that first flight, since there was no one around who had flown one.  He said that among other things, Delmar simply sat in the cockpit for hours, hands and feet in the correct places and spent a lot of time visulizing what he thought it would be like.  Taking time to think of emergencies and where he might move his hands to deal with those.  He apparently did this a lot and it helped.  I did the same thing over the course of putting this bird back togther.  When I flew it the first time I felt like I had been in the cockpit for 100 hours.  Everything fell right to hand and my eyes knew exactly where to look for the needed information.

Bill,
There's not a short answer to that.  My preparations came from several different directions.
1.  Airframe
2.  Engine
3.  Pilot
4.  Flight test
5.  Chase pilot

1.--A lot of work happened in a short time.  Being an A&P and IA and having my own shop gives me the advantage of getting this work done in an expedited manner.  Despite this advantage its always possible to overlook something when you are up against a timeline.  For airframe prep's I did two things after I had decided I was ready to fly.  First, I called up a fellow IA who is also an experianced builder.  I had him over for the day, gave him a note pad, pencil and ask him to tear it apart.  He found a few items which I was able to correct, none were safety of flight items but it was valuable having a second set of eyes.  I consider this a must.  Second, I have another IA on the field who is a very critical person and takes great pleasure in finding something wrong with anything, although I do not have a great relationship with this person, I hired him to go over the airframe an provide a report.  Despite his best effort he was unable to provide any safety of flight items, being impressed by my efforts he did not charge me for his time.  With these two inspections done I was satisfied that the airframe was as safe as I could resonably expect it to be.  Of course I had a pitot/static/transponder cert done to be sure those items were ready to go.  Also I used a set of electronic scales to do an accurate W&B, this as you know is CRITICAL.


 

Friends,

Would like to report that Varieze N80SH has returned to active duty.  The Vari was originally built by Seth Hancock who flew it for about 17 years.  Later it was owned by Ron Reynolds of Enterprise Alabama who also flew it for many years.  It suffered a engine out landing and kocked the MLG out.  I found it in a hangar in Zellwood FL where it was being offered for sale.  It looked sad sitting on a little trailer with no gear, the wingtips (lower) ground off, a hole in the scoop (male).  The paint was faded, just generally in sad shape.  I negotiated a price that would be the envy of most any buyer.  I took it home a slid it in the garage where it sat for a year.  I had various other projects going at the time so it had to wait.

Fast forward to April of this year (2011) and I read about the salute to Burt Rutan during Oshkosh this year.  About 10 microseconds elapsed and I decided to get it flying and take it to Osh.  Seemed like a daunting task but I test flew two weekends ago.  Since April 1st I have done the following.

1.  Reinstall the main gear
2.  Paint entire airframe
3.  Build new panel and rewire entire airframe