Hear Ye!

April, 2006
No. 467

FROM THE PRESIDENT
By Bob Sudermann

It should be spring, the calendar says so, but so far there has only been
one really good day and I had chores to do. When I say only one really good
day, I mean weekend day. I still work. (Rats.) But I can smell it: those
warm and breezy spring weekends, the smell of castor oil, and the sound of
the engines. OK, so I am getting a bit antsy to get the season started.

I want to give a special thanks to Brad McManus and his wife Lois for
allowing us to hear first hand his experiences as one member of the Lost
Squadron. Larry Scaggs, Perry Lawrence, my wife Angela and I had dinner
with Brad and Lois prior to the meeting. We asked some of the same
questions you posed during his presentation. By the way, Glacier Girl will
be at the Mid Atlantic Air Museum WWII air show June 2 through June 4 in
Reading, PA.

We had a number of new members join in at the March meeting along with a few
show-and-tell items. Rob Caso brought another one of his designs, which I
tried very hard to get added to the raffle. Art Rothstein showed his
scratch-built and modified Super Kaos. Tom Burns brought a piece of his
current project because he needed some assistance with the retractable nose
gear. What better way to get help but from 60 or 70 self- proclaimed
experts. If you could not recognize Tom's creation, it was the center
fuselage of an OV 10 Bronco. Thanks to everyone for bringing there
projects.

The BOG has set June 10, 2006 (rain date, June 11, 2006) for our Spring Fun
Fly. We are looking for a volunteer to act as overall coordinator. Let me
know if you would like to help.

Safety Topic

Although the Field Management Guide does not require it, we strongly
recommend the use of a restraint while starting you engine. This could be
one of the fabricated systems or as simple as a rope (of sufficient
strength) wrapped around the tail and staked to the ground. It could also
be another member or members holding the craft from behind the engine. As
the season starts to get busy, slow down and think for a minute; it could
save your aircraft.

Remember - Fly Safe and I'll see you at the Field.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GLOBALFLYER
Submitted by Gerry Cavanaugh

The following is the report from one of the certifying officials of the
GlobalFlyer flight duration recently completed. It was forwarded to me by
Kris Maynard, a personal friend that happens to be the Chief Instructor for
United Airlines on the 777.

Greetings all!

I promised to get back to you with a report on my experience as one of two
Official Observers responsible for certifying the World Record attempt by
Steve Fossett. So here is a re-cap.

The GlobalFlyer was supposed to take off from Kennedy Space Center on
Tuesday, February 7. We headed to the Space Center in order to arrive at
4:00 AM. The temperature was marginal at 51 degrees F. The crew wanted no
higher than 52 degrees, as this is the temperature at which the engine
produces 100% power. The take-off was to occur on RWY 33. There was a slight
wind from the south and I asked if repositioning the aircraft for more
favorable winds was an option. I learned that it was definitely NOT an
option because, when fully loaded, the gear is very fragile and that they
simply do not move the aircraft once it has been fueled - it had been
staged about 25' from the threshold for 2 days, and that was where it was to
remain until launch. This gear is engineered to be just barely adequate for
handling 22,000 pounds at take-off weight. The entire aircraft is so fragile
that it was originally certified for only one take-off in its lifetime at
gross weight. The tires have had all but 1/8 inch of tread removed. This
allows them to fit into smaller wheel wells, which, in turn, allows for more
room in the main fuel tanks (for fuel). We took this opportunity to place
seals on the Geo-tracking devices that would provide us recorded evidence
that the flight took place within the rules.

Our first assignment on this morning was to record the official weight of
the aircraft, the fuel, Steve Fossett and any gear loaded aboard. We took
our weight data and the aircraft was ready for the next step in launch
preparation. This is when a fork lift pulls around to the nose of the
aircraft and, with the help of a special attachment, the front wheel is
raised. Up until this point the aircraft's nose wheel has been setting on 2
rigid foam blocks and the front wheel scale. This had the effect of keeping
the airplane in a wings level and parallel to the ground configuration to
facilitate fueling. Once the tanks are full, the nose wheel blocks can be
removed and the aircraft sits in a nose-low position. If you look closely at
GlobalFlyer you will see that there is a tiny bubble canopy on top of the
fuselage. This is actually Steve's viewpoint for takeoff. As the speed of
the airplane accelerates during the takeoff run and as rotation starts to
occur, Steve changes his line of sight from the canopy to looking out the
two portholes on the side of the fuselage. There are no windows on the
aircraft for forward viewing (think Spirit of St. Louis).
When the forklift lowers the nose wheel to the ground the aircraft's posture
becomes an incline - high in back and low in front. The reason for this
on-ground profile boils down to weight saving measures. A shorter and
smaller front wheel means less weight for sure, but it also means it can be
retracted into a smaller wheel well and hence allow for a smaller
aerodynamic profile at the front of the aircraft. A couple of things now
happen. First, any air bubble in the tanks works its way to the high point
at the back of the plane. A few more gallons of precious fuel can now be
added. Second, gravity allows fuel to flow forward in the tanks (creating
that air bubble in the back) and as it does there is some stress created on
the fuel tank bulkheads. It was a seal in one of these bulkheads that
ruptured on Tuesday, springing a leak. It wasn't a severe leak and, for a
moment, the crew even considered continuing with the flight. But it was
located in a position where it was dripping on the left main wheel, which,
as I mentioned earlier, becomes quite hot during the take-off roll. In the
end, Steve said, "Let's scrub it for today and repair the leak, regroup, and
come up with another launch date."

The crew was able to quickly repair the fuel leak and the launch was
rescheduled for Wednesday. I got to sleep in an extra 30 minutes Wednesday
morning, as we didn't need to start re-weighing the GlobalFlyer until 5:00
AM. Everything went very well. The temperature was about 5-6 degrees
colder than on the previous day, and the wind was 8-9 knots out of the
northwest - basically right down the runway. Once we had full tanks and had
weighed the aircraft we were required to place seals over the fuel tank
access points. Only 4 of the aircraft's 17 fuel inlets needed official
seals. This is due to the fact that the remaining fuel inlet access points
all require a special fuel nozzle with a very tiny tip that slips into the
tank opening. When fueling is complete in that tank, the cap (which is
slightly countersunk below the wing surface) is placed into position and
then modeling clay is used to fill the holes. A wetted finger is then used
to smooth the surface of the clay presenting clean aerodynamic flow over the
wing. The crew actually forgot to bring clay along with them and someone had
to run to Wal-Mart the day before launch and purchase some. For the trivia
buffs out there, the clay color used was blue. It is of interest to note
that the special fuel nozzle which, by the way, was a work of art, was
crafted by Scaled Composite employee, Mike Melville - Space Ship One pilot
and America's first civilian astronaut.

Things happened pretty quickly after the nose was lowered. We all shook
hands with Steve and he climbed in the airplane. It does require some effort
to get everything else he needs in the cockpit and get him strapped in. But
once that is done the engine is fired up. The engine started and ran for a
few seconds and then Steve shut it down. That was not a good sign and we all
figured we were going to scrub again, but after a few words with the
crew-chief the engine and the hatch was placed into position. We were
required to place a seal over this hatch as well.

My colleague and I were then driven to the 10,000' point on the runway as
this was the calculated lift-off point and one of our jobs was to start the
clock at the instant the main wheels lifted off. We were well off to the
side of the runway and Steve approached us and then went passed us more like
he was driving a truck instead of getting ready to fly an airplane - it just
didn't look like it wanted to assemble the appropriate amount of lift. This
was a very serious moment because those main wheel tires get very hot during
the take off roll and a blowout is the number one fear on take-off. But
Steve was well past the point of making a no-go decision. He would now not
be able to stop the airplane prior to running off the end of the runway - he
had to get the nose up.

As the aircraft went by us without yet becoming airborne I watched its
progress through my binoculars. I could see the left tire was kicking off a
black dust of debris that I thought could possibly be rubber. I became even
more concerned about the possibility of a tire blowing. At the 11,500'
marker the wings finally rose into the air and we all felt relieved. Just at
the same moment, however, Steve hit some birds. They were black-bellied
plovers and do not weigh much. I picked one of the two "victims" up and
would estimate that it weighed about the weight of a couple of decks of
cards. Had one been ingested into the engine intake, however, we would have
witnessed a disaster.

During climb out GlobalFlyer once again lost fuel through the vent system.
This time, however, only 750 pounds were lost, vs. the 2800 pounds last
time, but it was still worrisome. Here is another bit of trivia about the
fuel. JP-4 was used because of its non-gelling properties in cold
temperatures. This particular fuel is no longer manufactured. It so
happened that NASA had a bit on hand and that the US Air Force museum in
Dayton had just de-fueled a plane that was about to go on exhibit and was
willing to sell it to Fossett. The price? $10/gallon. The specific
gravity of this fuel was 6.33 pounds/gallon and the airplane was filled with
18,263 pounds. That equals about 2885 gallons. Steve also purchased the
tanker truck used to transport the fuel. You think your fuel bill has been
high lately?

The Virgin Atlantic and GlobalFlyer crews, along with one representative of
NASA and the NAA observers, departed for London.

The most incredibly high-tech Mission Control I could ever imagine was
already set up and functioning when we arrived in London. The NASA fellow
was amazed, if that tells you anything. There were a dozen crew stations -
each with a keyboard and three flat-screen monitors. Each station had one
screen that tracked Steve's flight path overlaid on a map of the earth. This
map also illustrated the areas of daylight and darkness and pegged the exact
location of the sun over the earth's surface. A data box near an icon of
GlobalFlyer indicated the current groundspeed and altitude of the airplane.
The other two flat screen monitors at each station reflected other data
needed by Mission Control crew members such as weather, fuel burn, air
traffic control contacts, engine telemetry, geo-tracking readouts and a
complete record of the position of every switch in the airplane. Mission
Control Director, Kevin Stass, was in frequent contact with Steve via
satellite phone. This, for me was one of the really fascinating aspects of
my observation experience because at times I was actually able to hear
Steve's comments about the flight. I happened to be in Mission Control when
Steve was experiencing severe turbulence over southwest China and can tell
you that he was extremely close to bailing out.

GlobalFlyer's wingtips deflect an unbelievable 11 feet upwards during flight
when it is heavily loaded with fuel. One can only imagine what they were
doing in this severe turbulence. It was probably a good thing that it was
nighttime and Steve could not actually see the punishment the wings were
taking because he very well may have bailed out. Once a wing snaps off, the
aircraft would, of course, enter into a spin and centrifugal force would
have made it nearly impossible for Steve to extricate himself from the
airplane. He was wearing, during this turbulence, two parachutes and a
bailout pack of supplemental oxygen with survival gear and a personal ELT.
Very bulky - and it would be quite difficult in even ideal conditions for
him to fit everything out through the small door opening. But, can you
imagine jumping out at 48,000' into minus 60-degree temperature? The thought
was terrifying to me and those present in Mission Control at that moment
were suitably concerned. It was, along with the takeoff at Kennedy, a
critical moment in the mission.

Throughout the next couple of days I spent as much time in Mission Control
as possible. I did not have any official responsibilities at this time and
am grateful to the staff for allowing me to be there and witness the
historic flight from that perspective. My last official duties on the flight
would be to observe the time of crossing the Shannon, Ireland VOR waypoint,
observe the landing, remove the flight data recorders and check the seals on
the flight recorders and fuel tanks. A few hours from projected landing,
Mission control was moved to the tower at Manston, England Kent
International Airport. I was in the tower to observe the landing and my
colleague was on the ground to be in position to remove the cockpit seal
upon Steve's arrival. Shortly after Steve passed Shannon and entered over
landfall of England he began his descent. It was at the moment of a power
reduction during descent that the generator failed. I was present in the
tower when this happened. Jon Karkow, the airplane's chief designer walked
Steve through a series of emergency procedures and diagnostics, but nothing
was working and Steve was getting very concerned. Steve's wife, Peggy, was
present and Jon reassured Peggy that everything would be fine. He told her
the engine is running, Steve had enough electrical power remaining from his
battery, the aircraft was flyable and that there was an airport nearby where
Steve could safely land. Steve declared "Mayday" and proceeded to land at
Bournemouth, England, airport. A direct phone link was created to the tower
at Bournemouth and we received confirmation that Steve was safely on the
ground. No cheers went up at Mission Control at that moment, but there was
a uniform sigh of relief. We found out shortly thereafter that both main
tires blew as the aircraft landed.

Even though Steve did not make his planned landing point he did establish
the World Record for Distance Without Landing. The official rules state that
the Finish Point must be established in writing and approved prior to the
flight. Steve had the foresight to declare Shannon VOR as his finish point
for the record. His official record, once approved, will reflect the time
and mileage from Kennedy to Shannon. That was enough to surpass the record
held by Voyager and established in 1986 (plus a 1% margin requirement) and
of the Breitling Orbiter (1999). Had Steve not declared Shannon as a
finish, he would not have achieved the record.

I can tell you that the flight from Kennedy to Shannon will be credited for
approximately 26,000 statute miles. The official record will state the exact
distance. The time to Shannon was somewhere in the neighborhood of 76 hours
and 55 minutes.

The significance of record observers is that we provide evidence to the
world that this was a legitimate record-breaking performance, the aircraft
did not stop at any time nor was it refueled in flight. It was a monumental
honor for me to be a witness to this moment in aviation history and the
question comes to me, "When will this record be attempted again?" If that
day comes I hope I'll be there to observe.

Kindest regards,
Kris Maynard
N4KJ

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

SPRING FOLLIES
By Steve Kolet

Hey, it is almost time for the start of the annual springtime follies at the
Valley Forge Signal Seekers Flying Field. They can start any day of the
week, any flying hour and last until the airplanes are all crashed, damaged,
radios won't work or motors won't start. Want to play? If not, get ready
for the flying season now. Check over your plane(s) carefully. Look for
cracked glue joints, structural breaks, covering damage/abnormality which
may hide damage underneath. Check your pushrods, clevis retainers, servo
outputs, control horns, etc. Go over all the fuel tubing including the fuel
pick up and clunk in the tank. Check your radio, TX and RX batteries-verify
the batteries take charge and put out close to their rated capacity by
cycling them. Make any adjustments to the model trim which you kept putting
off last season. Check your glow starter and 12 volt starter battery if you
use one-charge them up.

Remember that you may be a bit rusty after a winter layoff-even with flying
any of the sim programs. Sims are very useful, but they are not the real
thing!!!! If you think something is not right with the plane on the ground,
don't take off. It is better to be on the ground wishing you were flying
than to be in the air wishing you were on the ground! If you see a piece
shed in the air, throttle back, yell to alert others of the problem and head
for a landing using minimum power and a slightly higher than normal speed.

The first few shakedown flights after the winter can be troublesome. There
have been several articles written in past VFSS newsletters, Model Aviation,
etc. which expand on how to avoid early season problems - might be a good
review. See you at the field!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

VFSS BOG MEETING
Submitted by Steve Kolet, Secretary

March 7, 2006
Meeting opened at 7:00 PM by President Bob Sudermann.
Members present: 12, president, secretary

OLD BUSINESS

1. Fun Fly dates
June 10, 2006.
September 9 or 16, 2006 - pending checks for conflict with Wings and
Limerick Fly-In.
The club needs a coordinator to organize the food, work, etc.

2. Meeting speakers
April - Dean Pappas from the "Lost Squadron"
May - Bob Brown, the AMA District VP
June - Vince Judd will bring his drag racer to the field.

3. New club website
Motion to accept and move forward with developing and using the site made by
Luke Koziol; seconded by Vince Judd; motion passed unanimously. Security
for a "club members only" section is being developed.

4. Safety Coordinator job description status
Steve Kolet briefed the BOG on the progress at this point. He will email
all BOG members a copy of the description/BYLAWS/FMG changes which need to
be considered. Members are to compare the old with the proposed changes and
to provide constructive comments to the committee.

5. Revisit cost control / raising dues
Charge an additional $5 per year for mailed newsletter instead of an email
newsletter. See if a club member can provide printing at a discount and
have volunteers in the club do the emailing as required.

NEW BUSINESS

Rolling - Carl Sutton will be called to see if he will schedule field
rolling.

Portapotty - Walter Pierzchala will be called to see if he will research
costs and schedule delivery, servicing schedule, etc.

All business was concluded and the meeting adjourned at 8:30 PM.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

CLUB CALENDAR

Tuesday April 4 -
BOG Meeting at the Church, 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM.

Tuesday April 11 -
General Membership Meeting at the Church, 8:00 PM - 10:00 PM. Guest
Speaker - Perry Lawrence and Phil Leinhauser will preview a new VFSS Web
Site.

Tuesday May 9 -
General Membership Meeting at the Church, 8:00 PM - 10:00 PM. Guest Speaker
- Bob Brown - AMA District III Vice-President.

Tuesday June 13 -
General Membership Meeting at the Field, 6:30 PM - Dusk. Guest Speaker -
Vince Judd will discuss and show off one of his other hobbies: Drag Racing
(Static Display Only.)

Tuesday July 11 -
General Membership Meeting will be held at the VFNP Welcome Center. Guest
Speaker: Superintendent Mike Caldwell. We will get a tour of the Vault
(artifacts not on public display) and the Visitor Store will be open.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ITEMS FOR SALE

Ideal Beginner's Outfit - HOBBICO Superstar .40 ARF Trainer with OS .40
Engine plus field box, a gallon of fuel, a starter and fuel pump. Valued at
close to $500; will sell all for $350 .
Contact Warren Barrick at 610-361-8828.

OS-50SX - new rings, piston, cylinder liner & both bearings. It's
essentially a brand-new engine. The only caveat is the muffler bolts are
stripped and it doesn't come out. Includes two props. Asking $115.
Call Mat @ 610-935-4487.

April 15 - Airplane Yard Sale - 60 complete airplanes! Various airplane
supplies & motors.
63 Janeway Ave., Moorestown, NJ 08057. For more information, call Gary
Cardamone, 609-238-9262.

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