Last issue, we noted that inquiries mailed to the owners of two ships still listed by the FAA were returned as undeliverable (Pat Ford’s No. 64, N11NC, and Henry Haake’s No. 44 N1216). We have no news at all on No. 64. Our information on No. 44 was somehow incorrect; Henry Haake was apparently an owner of No. 23 (N1216), not No. 44. We don’t know if No. 44 is still owned by a John Hardy of El Paso, TX, the owner of FAA record.

Eight Cirrus pilots convened for breakfast at the SSA Convention headquarters hotel on Saturday, March 2! Fred Fredine, Sandor Nagy, Burt Compton, Stephen Lindenbaum, Bill Hederich, Vinod Sharma, Jim Kellett, and Peter King convened the first ever "TOCA" meeting. We had a great time sharing stories and information about Cirruses.

Fred Fredine generously agreed to provide a videotape copy of "The Sunship Game" to Jim Kellett (which has been subsequently received and reviewed); Burt Compton agreed to seek a translation of that part of Peter Selinger’s book on the history of Schempp-Hirth that dealt with the Open Cirrus; and a collection of $35 was generously donated to defray the costs of postage and printing of this newsletter (it costs about $.75 a copy to print and mail this.) (THANKS!!)

There was considerable interest expressed by the group for organizing some kind of Cirrus fly-in or contest or meeting sometime in the next couple of years. There was talk of doing it at Sequatchie (where so many are already located!) and at Julian, but no decision was reached. Most thought it would make for some great photo-ops...how about a "fleet" of Cirruses all on short final with the chutes out!?! So, from the readers: what’s the group’s feeling about setting a time/place in, say, the fall of 1996 or the spring of 1997 and see how many Cirruses could assemble for a few days of fun flying?

The history of No. 23 is now pretty well in hand! Fred Fredine’s copy of a copy of the videotape "The Sunship Game" shows great footage of No. 23, then owned by George Moffatt, in both Regional and National contests! It’s now owned by a group, Steve Veness (100677.705@compuserve.com), Neil Edwards, and Mike Weston who fly it at Enstone Airfield, near Oxford, UK. (The film also shows No. 4, N1194, then owned by Gleb Derujinsky, and No. 24, N3441, shown crashing on the tape.)

No. 23 was imported into the US by George Moffatt in 1968, and its first flight, of three hours, was on September 20 of that year. George assigned the contest number "XX" ("double X-ray"). On April 27, 1969, the ship was modified to a "B" model by adding wingtips in accordance with factory plans, making it 18.8 m.

Ownership was transferred to Doug Cairns, who didn’t record a flight in it until November of 1970. In January, 1973, the ship was purchased by Kendall Somers (shared with Dan Somers). On August 4 of that year, Dan Somers earned his Diamond Goal and Gold "C" badge. Dan also flew the ship in the 1974 US Nationals in Adrian, MI.

On September 17, 1977, it was sold to Keith Newquist, and on October 11, 1979, it was sold again to Robert Tede (sp?). Ownership becomes a little murky at this point. There is a logbook entry in August 6, 1985 from one Henry Haake, about the time R. Tede apparently stopped flying the ship. However, there are only summary entries in the logbook through 1988, and no entry at all for 1989.

Francis Whiteley <whiteley@greeley.win.net> imported the ship into the UK in 1990. When he purchased the glider it needed a bit of TLC. There was a letter with the documentation. The A&P that had been doing the annuals and maintenance for ten years had written that he would be unwilling to sign it off that year unless more documentation could be supplied on the wing tip mod. The crew that performed the C of A found that none of the required AD’s had been completed. The rudder cables were so badly hedgehogged that they had cut through the plastic tube that runs under the seat pan. In June, 1993, 2/3 ownership was sold to Neil Edwards and Steve Veness (who is paraplegic). They had No. 23 modified for a hand controlled rudder. The airbrake handle was moved to the top side of the rod to make space for the removable rudder handle. In addition, the air brake rod was notched and the handle slide locks with the aid of a spring. The spring creates a rotational pressure to lock the brakes in position. In August, 1994, Francis sold his remaining share to Mike Weston.

In July, 1995 a hinged canopy was fitted, using a DG-100 hinge (rear opening), and a GPS was added to the panel.

The glider retains its original gel-coat, uncrazed. The Schempp-Hirth UK distributor told the current owners to never remove it; it yellows, but doesn’t craze. The glider now carries an outer coat of Imron over the decidedly cream colored gel.

See the enclosed "status sheet". We’ve made considerable progress since January in tracking down ships, and now can report that, of the 31 Cirruses imported into North America, three have been destroyed (No. 58 [N158MM and/or N158WT]; No. 54 [N8514]; and No. 74 [N240F]); the status of two is uncertain (No. 28 [N413MD] and No. 44 [N494ES]); and eighteen are in active service.

Also, two ships have changed hands in recent weeks. Tom Priestley sold No. 81 to James Spelman in Boulder, CO, and Charles Mueller sold No. 70 to Gary Nelson in Wauwatosa, WI. Welcome, Gary and James, to the select ranks of Cirrus owners!

Fred Blair owned N158WT (No. 58) during 1987 and 1988. He had an incident in August,1988 when he encountered some extremely severe turbulence on the leading edge of a squall line North of Lubbock, TX and the tail broke off, just in front of the horizontal stabilizer. He bailed out OK and the ship landed across the road from him. He subsequently discussed the incident with Dick Johnson, who was exploring reported problems of high speed tail flutter; Fred allows that his situation was generated at low speed but in extreme turbulence. (The ship was NOT one of the VTC variants, by the way.) Craig Freeman, of Odessa, TX currently owns the remains of this ship.

...by Charles Mueller (No. 70, N8145)

While first gaining an understanding and familiarity of my open Cirrus I often went to new soaring sites to try my 'luck' at figuring out local conditions. On one such occasion in 1983 I was at Airsailing Gliderport, about 30 miles north of Reno, Nevada. Airsailing has a field elevation of about 5,000 feet.. I was not used to high desert soaring and had not really thought about the altitudes I might be operating at. Consequently I did not open the oxygen

bottle valve before launch, as I now routinely do on all flights. Thermal conditions were good and I was soon pushing through 12,000 ft as I worked my way along the local peaks and ridges. At 14,000 ft I was becoming very uncomfortable about not having supplemental oxygen.

To turn on the oxygen I needed to reach over the spar to the aft compartment where this ship's bottles are mounted. Loosening the shoulder straps, I found, did not provide enough slack to allow me to reach the valve handle. My next plan was to glide out into a valley were there was little thermal activity and smooth air, trim for stable flight, unbuckle the seat belt, then turn around and open the oxygen valve. Simple. Yeah, right. And I did that, aware of possible hazards and choosing to accept them. A hazard that I was not aware of was the possibility that the leg strap of my personal parachute could snag on the Cirrus's drogue chute control knob causing it to deploy the chute. As I did my cockpit maneuvering I was also pushing on one of the rudder pedals which gave the ship a moderate yaw, but the flight stayed stable so I thought little of it.

On getting resettled in the cockpit again, and happy with the desired supply of oxygen, I noticed I was in some rather strong sink. Returning to the closest ridge I found what felt like good strength thermals, but it was difficult to realize altitude gain in most of them. This was just the opposite experience of what my flight had been for the last couple of hours when strong thermals had allowed me to gain nearly 10,000 feet and travel many miles from the field.

Then I noticed the blue drogue chute knob in the aft position, and I started to piece together the actual sequence of events. I also realized my situation of possibly losing the chute if I released it miles from nowhere or even landing out in a rather desolate area. Preference was to not spend my time hiking that day. I decided to work thermals as best as possible as I headed back to the field, and to release the drogue chute when it looked like I was getting too low to make it home easily. Then I would drive back to see if I could locate the released chute.

Fortunately, thermals were strong and frequent enough to allow me to return to the gliderport. This would make it easy, I thought. Just overfly the field, release the chute, land, and with a short walk I would be reclaiming the chute.

When over the field I found the chute would not release. The release worked okay on the preflight, but not when I needed it. As might be imagined, I landed very soon. There was no other traffic to contend with since everyone else was still comfortably soaring miles from home. An inspection of the release mechanism after landing revealed no apparent cause of the refusal to release.

Many months later I was talking with a fellow soaring pilot that had years of experience flying with and using drogue chutes. Then I gained an understanding that the vertical stabilizer and rudder act as an airfoil when any rudder deflection in involved. This is what gives us the side force that helps us control yaw. As with any airfoil that is providing lift vortices are being shed at the ends of the airfoil, so the rudder can create a pair of vortices too. The bottom vortex is right where the Cirrus's drogue chute is located.

If the drogue chute is opened when there is rudder deflection the chute will tend to roll along its longitudinal axes as it deploys. In my flight, the chute opened okay, but was evidently somewhat rolled as it deployed, and probably even unrolled some as I worked my way back to the field. But enough twist remained so that the chute's attach ring would not slide from the release mechanism when I tried to release the chute. Later I verified that this would happen if the shroud lines were under tension and had only 1 revolution of twist in them. The shroud line swivel was not free enough to allow the lines and attach ring to straighten out.

So what do I do differently now? First the oxygen bottle is always turned on before I've pushed to the launch line. (I've also developed the habit of always using oxygen for at least the last half hour of the flight, no matter what the altitude, so I'll be as alert as possible during landing.) The second thing I now do is lift my feet from the rudder pedals as I deploy the drogue chute. I enjoy using the drogue chute, it's a fun way to land. And on one occasion it was needed when I landed out on the crest of a small hill, since it kept me from over shooting the available open landing area. But it's definitely more fun when I open it on my own terms.

Can anyone help Dan Hatfield (No. 65, N8168) in his search for data on airfoils? His e-mail query follows:

From: "Hatfield, Daniel V" <HATFIEDV@ofc002.sce.com>
To: "Jim Kellett (CIRRUS)" <jkellett@shentel.net>
Subject: cirrus wing airfoil

Date: Wed, 10 Apr 96 13:34:00 PDT

My references show that the wing airfoil is a Wortmann FX-66-196/161. Can this be confirmed? and if so, does anyone have the coordinates for this airfoil to allow making a sanding template?

The following VERY INTERESTING report comes from Charles and Kris Yeates, in Canada. Might want to read this with care! As these birds get older, I think we can all expect to find things that need doing that aren’t intuitive, and certainly not "in the manual"! Thanks in advance to Charles and Kris for sharing this important report!

Date: Wed, 27 Mar 1996 16:32:15 -0400
To: Jim Kellett<jkellett@shentel.net>
From: yeatesc@ra.isisnet.com (Charles Yeates)
Subject: Re: Small World..

>Hi Jim

Dick and I spent two hours last Monday replacing the tow-release cable on our Open Cirrus, SN 77. We twigged to the need for this during the winter while refinishing the scratched underside of the fuselage nose. While the fuselage was upside down, we decided to remove the landing gear and Tost hook for general inspection. All appeared OK but while reinstalling the Tost, we pulled the release cable an inch or two toward the wheel-well and noticed a smidgen of rust powder come out of the plastic guide tube.

On reflection later we decided the prudent thing to do was replace the cable. This has been done. We laid the fuselage on its side and went at it. The critical part was ensuring the correct cable length allowing for the bits around the thimbles. One end you can do before feeding the cable from the cockpit around the pulley and into the guide tube. The other end has little working room, as you will find out. One needs the dexterity of a violin virtuoso when replacing sleeves, bolts and safety nuts at each end -- particularly the cockpit end.

We suspect that over the years a wet wheel has regularly tossed water down the guide tube (perfectly placed to receive it).

It was well worth the effort!! The original cable appeared good at both visible ends but the in tube section had corroded to the point that many metal strands had broken. I would expect that a break under load could easily have happened. This would have been of little consequence on our winch launches because of automatic back release but on aero tow?? -- not to be imagined.

We replaced using a 3/32 stranded cable that has a 1200 lb breaking force.

We will be reporting this to Schempp Hirth as a matter of course. Any other owners find this??

Charles & Kris Yeates
Halifax, NS, Canada, B3M 3G7
 
 

Thanks again to all who have provided information to share or contributions to defray the expenses of this enterprise! It appears that we have more than enough interest to continue this effort. Your stories to share, short biosketches about yourself, information about maintenance, ideas about a meeting, or any other stuff are earnestly solicited.