Movie and a story (or three) night

Farewell to the Sun n' Fun Air Ops Shack

 It was old, it was tired. It leaked when it rained, baked us during the show, froze us in the morning, and we often wondered if it would fall apart just being moved from storage to the flightline. And the more beat up it got the more we loved it, like a great old pair of favorite sneakers your companion kept trying to sneak into the trashcan when you weren't looking. 

But for many years, The Shack was the home of our Air Ops crew at the Sun n' Fun Fly-in & Air Show, and you never knew who you'd run into inside. Here's a movie and a story of some of the good and bad times we went through. 

 As Jimmy once said: You had to be there.

Behind the Rope Line. A Day in the Life at Sun n' Fun Air Ops. 

I Wish I Was Doing That. A pilot/writer at the end of the Shuttle program.

Long story, but I ended up covering the final two Shuttle missions as a full-on journalist, and by being a polite pain in the arse I ended up in the group standing near the VASI for the final landing of the program. I was told to stay out of the way of the real journalists, which I was happy to do, I just could not believe I was there. Thank you, NASA PAO and the NASA Security team for allowing me on the bus. 

I was sweating bullets because my video camera would not focus, luckily it kicked in right at the last second. I kept looking up at the sky expecting to see the nav lights of Atlantis until I realized Duh... it doesn't have any. Kind of a bummer but understandable that NASA took the first landing opportunity in the pre-dawn, they just wanted to get it on the ground and over with, but it also robbed everyone of seeing that magnificent sight one final time.

If you listen closely you can hear the commentary and rush of air as Atlantis goes through the pre-flare, flare, and landing. 

 

 Yes, I sound a little... exuberant in the video. Do you blame me? 

 

I'm no Gordon Baxter, but it is fun to scratch the old writer's itch and get something out. Even better when it's published:  University of Rotax. One builder's lessons to learn before maintaining a Rotax 914.

Cool down

 First, many thanks to Bob Grantham and Derrick Aubuchon for their blogs, they've helped immensley.

Second, when it comes to the radiator DO NOT follow the LSX/LSA manuals. As usual, what I did is proprietary to Jim Ratte, so support your local SeaRey Specialist and throw some money for tech support Jim's way ya cheap bastards!

Occam's Razor. aka, learn from my mistakes.

 

I was having a bit of trouble getting the wires to stay in the rectifier plug last night, the connectors kept getting pushed out when I tried to insert the plug. I carefully opened the connectors up with a small screw driver, but didn't want to go too far and have too loose a connection. Good time to walk away for the night. 

 

I called Jim this morning and expressed my hate of fast-on/never-off connectors.

Jim: Did you put them in the correct way? Which side is the round part on?

Me: Yes, with the round side to the left.

Jim: Wrong. Look inside and you'll see the ridge the little tab hooks into.Turn them around call me back.

Got back to my hangar this afternoon, pulled them all out, (ok, they pretty much fell out), looked inside the connector with my borescope. Shit.

 

Reinstalled them, and *click*. Perfect fit, and the plug went in on the first try.

 

sigh.... 

 

Me: You were right. 

Jim: Ask me how I know.

 

This is how they should look. Flat part left, round part right. 

 

 Better to find out now than force something and have it fail later because it was improperly installed.

Up and Down

 Up: Harbor Freight motorcycle jacks lift her up to swing the gear.

 

 Down: Road trip to the Mothership (Lockwood Aviation in Sebring, FL) for refresher training on the Rotax engine.  Read about it here: University of Rotax. One builder's lessons to learn before maintaining a Rotax 914.

Medusa uncombed

 We're working on her, but all the wiring is proprietary to Jim Ratte, the SeaRey Specialist, so I can't show you how or what we've been doing, sorry. 

If you don't run your engine within 12 months of delivery the warranty is void, but can be extended if certain procedures are followed. The wood 2x4 gives me leverage to do the prescribed procedure. 

 

From high to low....

 Long time ago I put some Keelguard on her, turned out they had a bad batch and it started peeling off. Good news was that they sent me a replacement Keelguard for free, bad news was that I had to get rid of it all. 

Tried it by had with a plastic scraper for a while, but quickly tired of it.

They also recommend a fancy spray to remove the glue, or MEK, or acetone. I used one can of the $23 fancy spray, then used acetone. The fancy spray said it was "extremly flammable", and one whiff told me I needed to use it outside. Should have saved my money, the acetone took the glue right off. Waited for a couple hot days so the glue would be softer, then went at it. Even with a face shield and safety glasses I did get a bit of the fancy spray in my eye once, glad there was a hose nearby to give it a good long flushing out. I can see clearly now, the crud is gone....

Then it was time to reapply the new strip.

The compound curve at the front tip gave me trouble on the first one, so I vacuum bagged this one for a few hours.

Hanging it up...

 It's time.

 

 For once, weighing more than the engine came in handy. Gotta work on that, though. 

Another day of playing "How long can you hold your breath?"

About 30 minutes later...

Do SeaReys dream of blue skies and what's out there? OspRey does. 

 

You never forget your first...

It's been..... almost 50 years. I was a kid dreaming of the sky. I can't believe she'd just appear one day on the ramp at my airport. 

 

Hello, old friend. You're as beautiful as I remember. 

 

 

Fueling around

Starting to work on the engine, I quickly discovered the muffler needed a diverter welded on it. A call to Jim, and it was on the way for a Florida vacation. 

That made me tackle something I've been avoiding. It's been over 10 years since I swung the gear and the wheel bearings needed to be greased. The Bellingham hangar had an overhead winch that could lift the entire airplane, there's no way I can rig one up in the new hangar so I finally had to break down and buy some Harbor jacks. BUT, it turns out the gear legs have changed, and the LSX legs are higher than the Classic legs. Even at full extension I needed almost 6" of additional blocks, and OspRey never felt safe when she was jacked up. Good excuse to break down, spend some money, and buy the bigger motorcycle/ATV jacks. She's solid as a rock on them, I can even *carefully* rock her back and forth if I need to apply a bit of effort.

And another miserable job to do. The keelguard I bought was delaminating, turns out they had a bad batch way back when. Good news is they gave me a new roll, bad news is I have to peel it and all the residual glue off. Groan....

 Next came the fuel system. PA uses a filter only, but I wanted a gascolator in my system. As much as I wanted to keep it SeaRey standard, the PA location/system just wasn't going to work for me. 

Luckily, my old friend Ken Berger built a beautiful fuel system so I took his basic design and updated it for OspRey. 

 

 

I also replaced the fuel sump hose. It was 11 years old and rubber should be replaced every 10, so while I had everything apart it was a good time. Getting the old hose off and the new one on was a 3 day process, when I worked my arm down into the sump area I KNEW it was going to hurt but it had to be done, and on the third day I felt the right shoulder go *pop*. I was supposed to start a 6 day trip the next day but that was out of the question. It sucks getting old.

 

Just before I left for this trip the muffler came. Beautiful work.

 

 Miss you, Ken. 

 

 

 

 

 

Medusa

 I'm told all these wires will go somewhere. The question is Where, and How? . 

 

 

Vehicle powered

 New wiring harnesses all hooked up. Still a lot to do, and I know there are problems yet to find, but we're rolling. 

More progress

First, MANY Thanks to The SeaRey Specialist Jim Ratte for standing by all day long while I did this, despite all the preparation it was an all day evolution while unexpected problems cropped up, like not being able to get the engine hoist over or around the shipping crate.   

Rotax, you are GO for docking

We have soft dock. A combination of flop sweat and holding my breath. Don't ask how much money is being held by that crane.

Hard dock.

And a table made from some scrap pieces of the crate and other wood underneath, just in case, so I can sleep at night or while on the road and not worry about the goddamn thing falling over while I'm gone. 

 Panel is labeled, finished, and remounted for final wiring.

Load test (and Ospreys made by frickin' laser beams)

 Lack of posts does not denote lack of progress. 

 

Yup, that will hold ~220# without tipping over. Although the entire load will sit another 2' out. Maybe I better add another couple sandbags, just to be sure....

 

Grrr.. Oh well. Another reason to make panel #??. AFTER she's flying. 

Smoke check: Good

 Powered up the basics, no fancy electronics, just as if she was a steam gauge airplane. One glitch we'll be troubleshooting, but the smoke stayed in.

Still a long way to go, but.....

Paying it back

Time for the annual trek to Sun 'n Fun, paying it back to everyone who got me here. Behind the Rope Line, a Day in the Life at Sun 'n Fun Air Ops.

For the last several years I've been working in the Air Boss Tower, trying to anticipate problems and take a load off Air Boss George Kline. I had been thinking about becoming an Air Boss, but decided against it when I weighed the time required vs my spare time, and I have no regrets. 

Years ago I had trained my backup, LAFFR, who I knew was impatiently chomping at the bit, wondering when the old f---- was going to retire. For some reason, after Tuesday's show I decided I had had enough, and it was time to hand it off. It was a great call. I knew I was burned out, wasn't having fun anymore, and it was Joe's turn.

 

And I went back to working hard, being a line dog.

 

An airshow visitor might go for the planes, but for those of us who volunteer our time, it's about the people. Seeing everyone year after year, accomplishing tasks together and making the show run, talking about it later over dinner, it's why we do it.

It's about talking to Thunderbird 8 and seeing him going nuts over a dog after a long time on the road...

or escorting some parents out to see their daughter in her F-18 for the very first time. She'll always be their little girl.

 

Yeah, we had some shit weather, but nothing like 2011. 

 

A common joke in Air Ops is seeing people come down from Oshkosh to observe us and hearing "That's not how we do it at Oshkosh." While we cooperate and many people volunteer at both shows, there's also a good natured rivalry between the shows. This year I decided to take some inspiration from Chuck Jones and had some stickers made up. 

I will neither confirm nor deny the many places they turned up, but always with the permission of any aircraft owner. I can't show you the really cool ones, but we had fun, and they are legendary. (The EAA booth crew kept finding and taking them off, no matter how creative/sneaky we tried to zap them.)

I didn't know Sun 'n Fun's new boss was from Oshkosh, but he was a great sport about it,

even posing with our Ops Shack poster and his family.

Pilots are cool but without mechanics and ground crew, they're nothing. Thanks to the Thunderbirds ground crew for taking a few minutes at the end of the Sunday show. ThunderShaka!!

And this was something we had done a few years ago, and got to do again. Sun 'n Fun claimed the highest, fastest, and quietest flyby in airshow history when the International Space Station flew by during the night airshow, 254 miles up (Flight Level 13,411) at a speed of 17,500 mph.

Just as the SOCOM jumpers landed the station flew over, and talented photographer Erik Kuna caught it. 

 Sun 'n Fun claims the record!!!

 Pics proved it DID happen

A poignant note, a key member of our Air Ops team missed the show, he's still deployed overseas. Miss you, Booger.