Early Bird Jenny makes her debut!
Our May 15 dinner program featured DAF speaker Rhon Williams, who presented details of his epic 13 year, very fulfilling, incredibly complex journey building a 2/3 scale Early Bird Jenny biplane from scratch. When Rhon began this project in 2002 at Compton Airport, it was a group project, but as time went on it basically became his solo project. It was completed in 2015.Rhon has spent 6,200 hours of his time on the project so far. Rhon was constantly challenged figuring out what parts to use and how to find them. In many cases, he made his own parts.
The Jenny's 3 cylinder engine is adapted from a Geo Metro car.
Rhon learned to create prototypes of structures, get them right, and then build tools from these prototypes to build the airworthy parts installed in the aircraft. Rhon had to develop skills in woodworking, sheet metal, welding, fabric covering, painting, and all other skills required to scratch build from plans. He took weekend classes through EAA to gain some of the skills needed. His EAA friends helped with everything. Rhon noted that this kind of project makes you lucky.
Rhon's perseverance paid off on December 30, 2015 at Chino Airport when he flew Jenny for the first time, 100 years after the 1st Jenny flight!
The Early Bird Jenny cruises at 65 mph, rotates at 50 mph, and stalls at 45 mph. Not much difference between those speeds! The Jenny currently is based at Compton Airport and can fly without restrictions. Kudos to Rhon's wife Vickie who was an enthusiastic supporter of his endeavor over the years.
A special thank you to Rhon for sharing with us the details of his extraordinary accomplishment in a well documented presentation which allowed us DAFers to understand so much of his journey.
Animals, mountains now planes. DAF go to KSBA
On Saturday April 13 Del Amo Flyers landed at Santa Barbara Airport for a wonderful lunch at the High Sierra Restaurant, soon to be Flightline Restaurant. The sky was blue, and the weather could not have been more perfect. There were 35 people and about 10 airplanes for the lunch fly in. The High Sierra Restaurant was tastefully decorated with aviation memorabilia. The restaurant was smart and had the DAFers separated from the main dining area. To our advantage, this allowed the DAFers to socialize with all who attended. Signature FBO was very welcoming to all the planes. They had a few combinations of discounts for the FBO landing fees with receipts from High Sierra and fuel. And, the fuel price was reasonable to start with.
Thank you to Linda Howard who made this a great lunch fly in.
FAST TIMES AT RENO-STEAD
Our March dinner meeting featured DAFer Skylor Piper who shared with us his journey of preparing to compete and some of his adventures while competing in the Reno National Championship Air Races, which takes place every September at Reno-Stead Airport. His preparation included attending the (required for new competitors) four day Pylon Racing Seminar (Rookie School) held every June at the same airport.
Skylor's entertaining presentation included the history of the race, descriptions of the seven race categories and visuals of the four different race courses. The race footage he shared was amazing, not surprising as this aviation event is billed as the World's Fastest Motosport. His amateur built-experimental aircraft, a Van's Aircraft RV-8 has reached an impressive speed of 235.876 mph while racing there! We also learned about how he preps his plane for the race, including the removal of excess weight and drag. He enjoys the competitive environment and has even taken first place in the 2016 Slalom Match Racing event! A big thank you to Skylor for his informative presentation.
We wish him a terrific 2019 racing season!
More than just Pokin' around Lompoc
One would think a winter flight to the central coast in a year dominated by clouds and rain would be gray and windswept, with opportunities to practice IFR procedures or drive wet roads and add an extra layer of warm clothes to fend off the elements. But as we all know, DAFers are resourceful and adapt to what nature throws at them. So when a dramatic change in the winter weather forced seventeen DAFers to fly VFR through bright, cloudless skies to reach Lompoc (KLPC) for our March Fly-in, they rose to the occasion. Undaunted by temperatures in the lower 70s and light breezes in Lompoc, some drove through emerald-green hills to walk along the wide beaches at Jalama Beach, climbed to vistas at Lookout Point or visited period-dressed docents at La Purisima Mission and learned about eighteenth-century mission life. At one point on Saturday, they did retreat inside to taste wine at two wineries in the Wine Ghetto, but only to comply with laws on public drinking in an industrial park.
Weather was not the only unexpected aspect of the trip.
Unexpectedly, we were offered dinner in a private dining room Friday and again for Lunch on Saturday! The intrepid group adapted quickly to this good luck. And even though we had accidentally booked dinner Saturday at two restaurants 20 miles apart, the folks at the Italian-family-run La Botte were gracious and served us a delicious meal.
As further evidence of the agility of DAF members, a few who could not make the full weekend, flew out to join us in Lompoc. Mitch and Vince flew out for lunch Saturday and then Peter and Mitch (with copilot Jan) flew out again Sunday to have lunch with the Lompoc expedition stragglers and enjoy the continuing perfect weather.
The tally was 7 planes (one twice), one car, 17 Dafers, two wineries and a lot of fun exploring the area. Thanks to all that came and showed how resourceful and adaptive DAFers are and how we strive to make the best of our opportunities.