By (USUA #A86096)

With the first of May, good flying weather has returned to the east coast, and lots of folks are out flying. None of these activities has had time to hit the newsletters however, and they still reflect plans for the future and a few maintenance considerations.

Skip Little, president of the Middle Tennessee Ultralight Group writes of his discovery of the Stewart Systems process for painting airplanes. He is quite impressed with the system as he writes "There are no solvents of any type used, the entire process through weave fill is water borne. Absolutely no vapor, solvents, fire hazard at all, just the slightest aroma in the closed shop." He promised to bring back more info on the system from his visit to Sun-N-Fun and we hope that he does mention what he learned in his next newsletter.

The Sunrise Serenade, Newsletter of the Albuquerque Ultralight Association announced that two of their members, Jeff Gilkey and Rick Cooper, have set off on a flight to Santa Teresa, New Mexico. These cross country airborne explorers have posted a detailed account of their trip at www.jeffsflightlog.com for those of you who would like to share in the experience.

That same newsletter brings to our notice the need to pay attention to every aspect of maintenance and pre flight checking of our aircraft. Quoted are three anecdotes where overlooking a small detail or assuming that something had been done ended in some unplanned landings. In the first instance, a mechanic, apparently, drained the oil from an aircraft, and was called away before he had a chance to replace the drain plug and the oil itself. The owner arrived with some friends for a ride and was able to get about a half a mile from the airport before the oil starved engine seized up, resulting in an unplanned landing in a cornfield. (Aren't you supposed to check the dip stick before you crank up the engine?)

A similar fate befell an RV-3. The pilot/owner had spent most of the day waxing his airplane before taking it for a spin. The post accident investigation disclosed that a mechanic had drained the oil and then left the airplane unattended. All the time spent waxing the plane was wasted when the pilot neglected to pull the dipstick prior to launching. (My dad always impressed upon me that checking the dip stick of any engine before starting it was a good habit to get into 'cause even expensive tractors can leak oil over night.) It was reported, however, that the wreckage looked very shiny.

The third event had to do with the ailerons being rigged backwards during a complete maintenance. This was noticed when the pilot tried to correct a roll to the right only to discover his actions increased the roll instead of correcting it. Landing an airplane when the controls are reversed will make for a very interesting day if you are lucky enough to realize what is happening before you roll the airplane to a point of no recovery. Again, a good preflight will include checking the control surfaces for "free and correct". Why anyone would take off in an airplane without checking that he/she can move all the control surfaces and that they move in the right direction is hard to understand. But it does happen. It doesn't take much time to grab the stick or the yoke and wiggle it fore and aft to make sure the elevator is free and moving in the right direction. Next a simple move right and left while looking at the ailerons, will verify that the ailerons are actually moving and in the right direction. (Remember with either a stick or a yoke, when the control is moved, the aileron that your thumb points to should be deflected upwards.)

Having nothing to do with maintenance, the Shenandoah Flyers of Greenwich, Ohio are planning open houses at their home field on June 7, 14, 21 and 28 where they will be offering free popcorn and soda while they show visitors what a great facility they have, and maybe even offer a ride in a light sport aircraft. I would guess that they are hoping to interest some of these visitors to join their club, and we are wishing them the best of luck in this endeavor.

The folks of the Mason-Dixon Sport Flyers of Kralltown, PA are looking forward to the 17th Annual Father's Day Fly In at Shreveport North. If the weather holds as it has for the last week, in the neighborhood of 150 airplanes of all types and sizes are expected. This year they have added a new wrinkle. They will be raffling off a chance to ride as co-pilot in a Ford Tri-Motor which will be visiting at a local airport the following weekend. If the lucky winner is a pilot, he or she will be allowed to pilot the airplane for part of the time and log some "trimotor" time in their log book. This is not an easy thing to accomplish these days as only 199 of these "Tin Gooses" were produced during the period 1926 to 1933 and considerably fewer of them are still flying today.

That about wraps it up for this issue of Around the Patch. All of you out there remember the "Prime Directive" - HAVE FUN! But please do it safely - a good preflight is your best insurance, and costs nothing.