MythBusters and Australia

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It's time for another MythBusters moment for Belite Aircraft!

Airing in Australia today -- "Duct Tape Plane" featuring Belite Aircraft!

We've developed a great contact in Australia helping us represent our aircraft -- Peter Harlow @ Silverwings Aircraft.

I so enjoyed my time with Kari, Grant and Tory at MythBusters.  I thought you'd like a few more MythBusters pics.

Many people don't realize that the airplane I used for this episode had our base 28HP engine.  It looks like and performs like it had a lot more HP, but it didn't.  Credit our great wing, light design, and awesome 'real' airplane characteristics. 

Belite's Ultralight Aircraft at MythBusters.

Another thing that is hard to appreciate is just how much time it takes to make good television.  This particular episode took the better part of 3 weeks to film.  I wasn't even there during the last week of filming.

Grant, Kari and Tory work on the Belite ultralight aircraft, after some duct tape has been applied.

The attention usually goes to the hosts, but there are lots of folks behind the scenes who make it happen.  Each episode needs a producer, a director, at least two cameramen, a soundman, and more.  Then there's the outside riff-raff (like me) who help facilitate.

The first camerman sprints away from Tory and Grant

Since I had my experience at MythBusters, they've had quite a bit more fun.  And an accident (or two.)  The same trio I worked with (Grant, Tory, Kari) where the ones who sent a cannonball very accidently through a house near the Alameda bomb range.  Not Jamie or Adam.

Speaking of Jamie & Adam, I never had the pleasure of meeting them.  We were given a very nice tour through their facility before they showed up.  I suspect they are slightly tired of the fan attention.

My shop manager, Gene, was able to join me at MythBusters as well.  He helped ensure that everything was put together correctly, and got to help and observe in several different ways.  I couldn't do Belite without Gene, and I appreciate him deeply.

Here's Gene, sitting in the airplane.  The plane appears to be missing its wings in this shot:

Gene in a Belite Ultralight Aircraft at MythBusters

One reason our plane has been so successful is because the wings fold easily.  When Kari found out how easily the wings folded, she started dancing spontaneously, while Grant, Tory (and producer Eric Haven) looked on:

Kari Byron dances by Belite Ultralight Airplane

I hope you enjoy the episode, "Duct Tape Plane", on MythBusters.

Hasking and other Reflections on Fatherhood

Please note: James' blog has moved to a Wordpress site. To access it, please visit http://jameswiebe.wordpress.com/. All posts have been transferred to the new site, and all new posts will only be accessible via Wordpress. Thank you for your interest!

Hasking and other Reflections on Fatherhood

© 2012 by James Wiebe

All rights reserved

A Crying Man in the Parking Lot

The man in the parking lot of the movie theater is sitting in the driver’s seat of a red Acura, and he is heaving and sobbing and shaking in a way that expresses the deepest kind of Pain.  His torso is curled forward, and his head is down, almost between his legs, From the crooked angle of his body, he is seeing just the bottom of the steering wheel, and the dirty carpet. 

He had made it from the front door of the theater across the parking lot, to the car, making small talk with his wife about the movie they had just seen, but grieving over what he had felt.  Before the movie had started, they had discussed taking in two movies in one evening:  back to back, a rare treat for this couple.  But that idea had died, in fact it had been killed, while they were walking out of the Cineplex.  

(They had been in The Balcony, mind you, to the right of the main entrance.  Stadium love seating with Restaurant service, to your seat, while watching the movie.  Dolby and THX sound.)

He had made it to the door of the car.  He had been able to unlock the car.  He had been able to sit down.  He had been able to place the key into the ignition, and even to turn it.  He noted that the car had started.

But then, as the motor started and idled, muscles in his face began to contract, short tight ones, along the sides of the jaw.  Other muscles in his gut turned to knotted cords of tension.  They were very tight, and then they were even tighter.  Liquid flowed out of his nose, but oddly, very few drops from his eyes.

His larynx tightened as well – breathing turning to a heaving or a hasking; and his eyeballs were pushed by the blood pressure of the emotion to the front of his eyelids.  In the midst of his enormous pain, he wondered if the eyes could be damaged by so much tight heaving, hasking, pushing, sobbing, hasking.

The wife of the man was making a heathery crying of her own, just like the animal mother of a severely wounded cub – why is the cub so hurt? – will the cub stop hurting?  – What can I do? – How can I soothe? – What light sounds can be made that will ease the pain?  Can I stroke your back? – Her hand gently and very carefully moved up and down his arm and shoulder, and just across the top of his back, and then back down.  Sending a signal through his hurt, that love was there, it was very much there!, and that it was waiting for him to come back out, and that love was there.

How to laminate carbon fiber to plywood

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In our Belite ultralight aircraft, we occasionally make and use a carbon fiber / plywood laminate.  This makes a very nice looking and strong panel, yet is very thin.   It is capable of holding a lot of load when suspended across a frame, for instance, a seat bottom.  (Double sided applications would probably be used with other cores than thin plywood.)

I recently made some of this magic thin carbon fiber / plywood.  I documented the production steps so you can see how we do it.

In order to do this, we'll use some thick beveled glass, tacky tape, a vacuum pump and some vacuum tubing, bagging film, peel & ply film, fluffy cloth padding, epoxy, and of course, -- carbon fiber and plywood.

Let's start with a nice sheet of beveled plate glass.  We've cleaned it thoroughly (I mean it, thoroughly!!!) and have lined the edges with tacky tape.  It has been waxed, then the glass has been sprayed with film release, and I've run some plastic vacuum tubing along one edge, secured with tacky tape as well.

Warning:  carbon fiber and epoxy and glass can be nasty stuff -- always use breathing protection, along with protective gloves.  Use these instructions, as always, at your own risk.

Let's get going...

Plate glass, cleaned and prepared for use.

Mile High

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This morning, I'd had no hope for flying today.  I called the airport weather line, and it reported that the wind was gusting to 26mph.  In a crosswind, making takeoffs and landings insanely impossible.

Come along with me, I have a story to tell.

I had wanted to fly this plane today:

Yellow Ultralight Aircraft from Belite

So, I went about my work in the shop, and felt badly that I couldn't fly due to the crosswinds.

Afternoon crept around, and another phone call to Jabara weather showed a much more favorable wind:  crosswinds had reduced to 15mph.  Improvement, for sure, but still well above my limit of 7mph crosswind.

Another hour later, and the winds were down to to 8mph.  With the ability of our huge grass runway to angle into the wind, either on takeoff or landing, I was now safe to fly.

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The gas tank was not full, but I didn't care.  I wasn't planning to fly for more than a few minutes.  I wanted to check out some engine mounts that I'd been experimenting with -- which type would produce the smoothest engine, in conjunction with the new, amazing propeller we'd been trying out?

Last week, I'd tried the new propeller/engine combination for the first time.  On another aircraft, it had produced some fairly eye opening takeoff and climb performance, as documented in this video:  (Click on the picture, and go for a ride!)

Belite Ultralight Aircraft takeoff video

(Click on the CAPTION, and the video will load and play....)

Today, I was trying the same propeller/engine combination on the yellow aircraft, along with some slightly different engine mounts.

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I'm off the ground easily and quickly, and the altimeter has passed 3000 feet in the climb.   (Ground level is 1400, so I'm plus +1600 over the ground...)  I'm kind of amazed that I'm not cold.  I have just my winter leather coat on, a hat, and some good gloves.  Normally, for winter flying, I wear coveralls.  But not today.

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And now the altimeter has reached 4000 feet above sea level.  The views are beginning to be a bit surreal:  Jabara airport is now a long ways below me to the west; I can see Hawker Beech field to the south, and Benton (Stearman Airport) is just 4 miles to the west.

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Still climbing; the altimeter passes through 5000 feet.  I no longer am doing anything other than having a good time.  For some reason, the idea of climbing is just a lot of fun.

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The views are very, very good.  I am able to take off my gloves, and retrieve my phone from my pocket, and take some pictures:

Hawker Beech field to the south (left of center in this photo)

Jabara airport to my right

Looking towards the southeast

I keep considering the feel of the engine.  It sounds strong.  I make a note of the squawks to be corrected before customer delivery of the airplane, later this week:

  a)  the control stick is a little right of center in straight flight -- adjust rod end bearing setting to fix
  b)  (maddening)  the EGT/CHT is inop -- must fix!!!
  c)  midrange roughness in engine -- adjust belt tension to ensure no slippage and adjust carburetor mixture
  d)  the floorboard is made from beautiful stained wood (hey, we've always done it that way) but I've decided to change this airplane (and all future airplanes) to aluminum, for safety sake.  The muffler is below the engine and ahead of the floorboard, so putting in a floorboard firewall seems like a good safety idea.  We have some 2024 clad aluminum for this application.
  e)  the brake cable on the left side is skewed.  It needs fixing.
  f)  the radio still does not have the antenna installed, and needs to be tested thereafter.

I think I'm forgetting one squawk, but I wrote them all down and gave them to Gene after the flight.  

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While the ground winds were 6 knots when I took off, I can tell that the winds aloft at my altitude are very fierce, yet very smooth.  I am pointed into the wind, yet I am hovering in place over my home field.  My ground speed slows to literally 10 knots.  (With a slight bit of work, I could have moved backwards.)  (And this is really no big deal.  I've done this kind of thing before in other aircraft.  I remember hovering over a wheat field many years ago, in a Cessna Cardinal.)

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The altimeter has reached 5,200 feet ASL.  Just about one mile above sea level.  While I'm nowhere near the maximum ceiling of the aircraft, I'm running out of time, gasoline, and warmth.

I've been higher in a Belite before, but this flight was a little better documented.

Do you remember my old blog post,  What Altitude Did James Reach...?  I certainly flew higher that day.

Panel of Belite Ultralight Airplane at 5200 ASL!

Time to go down.

One more picture of me ---

James in Belite Ultralight Aircraft, really really high off the ground...

Really time to go down.

I push the nose over, and the airspeed indicator shows 70 mph.  (Redline is 80mph.)  I put in a couple of notches of flaps, and it helps reduce the fairly significant elevator forces, as the plane does not want to go down.  Of course, I work in some power reductions.

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And I land.  Back on the ground.  Gene comments on how I'd been a hovering spec in the sky.

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I've been recording the flight on GPS Essentials, on my DroidX phone:

The proof is in the flight profile.  Climb to 5200 feet; ground speeds below 10mph (and nearly 100mph); turning into the wind and with the wind.  Climbing at a steady rate of about 180fpm. 

(looks like someone made a move in Words with Friends)

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Thanks for sharing this flight with me.

James Wiebe, @jamespwiebe on twitter, please follow me
James is the EAA 2011 August Raspet recipient