Second time around.

So, in my last post I put the comment, "And once again, I'm embarking on a journey to build a flying aircraft."  Yep, this isn't my first attempt, although the first one was basically youthful dreaming.

Back in the 1980's I worked at the Museum of Flight in Seattle.  Someone had donated a collection of sad looking parts that were supposed to be a helicopter.  The MoF had little interest in the project and it was stacked behind the Red Barn under a tree and pretty much ignored.

After a year or so I approached the MoF about taking on the project myself, transporting the collection of pieces home and restoring the helicopter to its former glory.  They seemed eager to get rid of the "wreck" so I got the go ahead fairly easily.

The aircraft was the Monte Copter Model 12, not really a household name.  

A local Seattlite by the name of Maurice Ramme believed the simplicity of "cold-jet" rotor tip drive technology would make the dream of "An aircraft in every garage" a reality.  The exhaust of the engine is routed up through the rotorshaft and out the tips of the rotors.  This eliminates the need for a tailrotor as there is no torque being applied to the main rotor.

He built the Model 10 as a proof of concept vehicle.  The Model 12 was more refined and designed to test various engines.  Originally with a single O-290, 135hp piston engine, and later (as seen above) with two 160shp turbine engines.  The end result was supposed to be the Model 15 Triphibian, an helicopter with wheels and a hull for water operations.  It's Seattle after all, everyone has a boat!

Of course I thought I could restore the aircraft to flight... How hard could it be?

So I spent a summer cleaning parts and researching the design to find out as much as possible.  Never was able to find any plans or drawings though.  But that was a moot point, by mid-summer my father informed the family we were moving back overseas and there was no way he was paying for storage of the Monte Copter.

Back to the MoF it went.  They found a Boy Scout Troop that was interested in taking on the project, but when I returned from overseas, they couldn't find any contact info for them.

So now it's 2013 and I have the Acro Sport project kicking off.  Made me wonder what ever happened to the Monte Copter Model 12.  The Internet is a wonderful tool, a quick search today found this picture from 2010.

Both the Model 12 and the Model 15 are at the Classic Rotors helicopter museum in Ramona, California.  From the picture, not much has been done since I last saw her.  But I hope they do finish the restoration of such a unique aircraft.

A special kind of insanity

Lots of aviation activity this last week, three days of aerial event meetings in a row. All of them are struggling a bit with this sequestration crap, the loss of US Military support really hurts the bottom line. The average air show spectator comes out for that high tech hardware, 2013 is going to test our ability to make these events attractive for Joe Q. Public.

The weather was good enough to fly to at least one of the meetings. It was a nice break in the work day.

So, a few weeks ago I'm reading through Biplaneforum.com, like I do on a daily basis, and in the classified section is a guy selling a few sets of airplane plans, one being an Acro Sport II. So I think to myself, "Hey, that'd be cool to have those plans just in case I want to build an Acro Sport!" (That's how I ended up with my Pitts, Sonerai and Fly Baby plans...). So I post on the board, "Are the ASII plans still available?" That's when it started...

Yes, they were available, and minutes later I get a private message from another forum member, "Are you thinking of building an Acro Sport?" Loaded question. "Why yes I am." Which is followed by a picture from him of a welded up fuselage sitting on gear and he wrote something like, "Let's make a deal!" And a deal was made...

So, now I have a set of plans and fuselage sitting in my hangar next to the Wolf Pitts. And once again, I'm embarking on a journey to build a flying aircraft. The journey will not be swift, cheap or easy, but it will be gratifying.

Let the insanity begin...

Busy Weekend

Last Friday after posting here I headed on down to Renton airport to continue the dis-assembly of Double Eagle.  The group made a lot of progress over the weekend, getting the damaged gear off, and a temporary set installed, removing the wing and clearing the area for the welder to do his magic on the fuselage.

I met with the welder this morning, it's going to be a bigger job than hoped to fix the left side tubing.  He's bringing another experienced aircraft welder to the airport this weekend, hopefully we'll have an assessment thereafter on time and expense.

The gear will be shipped out this week once Grove confirms they can fix our set.  And we will be dropping off the wing with our A&P on Wednesday.  There still are a lot of items to do for the condition inspection, so we'll be busy for a while.

So the middle of last week I get an email from my friend Jerry asking if I would be willing to fly is Cessna 172 from Boeing Field to Ephrata to pick him up after he drops off his Extra 300 there for the season.

The weather was predicted to be beautiful, his Cessna just had all sorts of new electronic goodies installed and I really didn't need to be in the Eagle hangar all day... 

...So off I went!

 

The Northwest just rocks when the sun is out!

 

I enjoyed playing with the new Aspen and Garmin equipment.  Now that we have decided to upgrade the panel of N2134Y, perhaps I should make some suggestions.

One last thought, on Friday I got on my soapbox about the pending tower closures.  I received a couple emails from that post, one criticizing my point and saying other funding sources weren't an option.  In this morning's aviation press I see an article about the Texas Department of Transportation having made the decision to fund the towers in their state that are on the chopping block.  Yes, it is possible to keep the towers open, if the desire is there.