Experimenter is a magazine created by EAA for people who build airplanes. We will report on amateur-built aircraft as well as ultralights and other light aircraft.
Issue link: http://experimenter.epubxp.com/i/254584
16 Vol.3 No.2 / Februar y 2014 SPORT AVIATION PIRATES The build went smoothly. Craig's day job involved work- ing with his hands, and he carried that skill over to the Sport Cub. The project was completed in three years at Craig's two to three days per week pace. Craig wanted to come up with a theme for the airplane. "It's a Cub, but it's really a Cub that's been modified and improved—it's been pirated," he explained. "That's where we came up with the name, the Pirate Cub." The Gainzas had worked with graphic artist Craig Barnett on the Lan- cair paint scheme, going through hundreds and hundreds of designs. Craig called Barnett and told him they had a new plane, and Barnett devised a Pirate Cub logo that would be used again and again: on the airplane, on the blanket the Gainzas spread on the ground for watching the air show, and also on hats. Surprisingly, Barnett got this logo right on the very first design. He also devised the graphic design for the entire airplane. Sandy had declared that the airplane would not be Cub yellow. Once the Pirate Cub was completed, it was time to get it registered as an E-LSA. This part of the process did not go well. "One thing we learned was to never use the word 'kit,'" Craig said. "What we might call a kit in the E-LSA category is more accurately called an unassembled aircraft." Craig said that the FAA's "allergy" to the word "kit" is because E-LSA registration is very dif erent from experimental amateur-built aircraft certi- fi cation. "With E-LSA, you have to conform to what the manu- facturer has done. That's taking parts and putting it together just like they [the manufacturer] meant for it to be put together. The experimental amateur-built category allows modifi cations all the way through the process." Once an applicant uses the word "kit," then the implication is that the builder might have made modifi cations along the way. This is not allowed under E-LSA regulations. Another registration challenge was that the FAA representative tried to convince Sandy that the E-LSA category of airplane no longer existed. Fortunately, the Gainzas were able to educate the FAA. Even though the Pirate Cub was built for Sandy to fly and she has almost 1,000 hours with a commercial rat- ing, the Gainzas decided that a professional pilot would flight-test the tailwheel airplane. "Airplanes need to be respected, just like people," Craig said. They selected Pete Zaccagnino, founder and president of High Performance Aircraft Training . Zaccagnino has flown more than 250 first flights of homebuilts and gives training either at his loca- tion in Florida or at the customer's airport. The Pirate Cub only required 5 hours of flight testing because of the E-LSA certificate. Sandy reports that Zaccagnino's methodology was very rigorous and organized. He completed the testing in two days and then started training Sandy to fly the Pirate Cub. Sandy had prepared to fl y the Pirate Cub by fl ying other taildraggers: two dif erent types of Citabrias, an original Cub, and a Husky. When she fl ew the Pirate Cub, she found that the control inputs were easier than the other planes, and "It was almost impossible to stall. If you do, it's a nonevent." The responsive controls give the airplane a quick and easy recovery. "It fl ies beautifully." Craig loves fl ying with Sandy. "Windows open, doors down—it's such a nice feeling," he said. "She's happy fl ying the plane. I'm happy that she's happy." But Sandy cautions, "The main thing you have to watch out for when you're new to it is ground looping and accidents on the ground. It's not the fl ying—that's not complicated—but land- ing it is another story. I feel like I have a lot to learn on that, how to do it correctly." Sandy has landed in conditions with a crosswind component of around 10 knots, but she said that anything over 5 knots is an adventure. Sandy fl ew the Pirate Cub to Oshkosh solo. It was a "Lind- bergh moment" landing at AirVenture. Sandy had plotted her course from northern California so as to avoid the high moun- tains and to land at small airports without much crosswind. The airplane's 260-foot landing distance and 310-foot takeof roll made even those small airports look big. The Pirate Cub's maximum useful load of 500 pounds allowed the petite Sandy to carry enough baggage for the trip to Oshkosh. A 38-mph stall speed takes a lot of worry out of the landing experience. The fl ight from northern California took 24.1 hours—not bad for an airplane with a no-reserve range of 315 miles that cruises at 97 mph. Sandy and Craig had very dif erent motivations for par- ticipating in the Pirate Cub project. Sandy said she wasn't interested in building an airplane at all until the couple were halfway through the Lancair build. Although she helped a little with the building, the fl ying is the exciting part for her. Craig is the opposite: "Flying is the icing on the cake, but building is the cake." Lynne Wainfan is a private pilot. Along with Barnaby Wainfan and Rick Dean, she helped built The Facetmobile experimental plane, which Barnaby designed. An aerospace engineer and former manager at Boeing Space, Lynne now teaches at California State University, Long Beach. Photography by Michael Steineke E A A E X P _ F e b 1 4 . i n d d 1 6 EAAEXP_Feb14.indd 16 2 / 3 / 1 4 3 : 1 5 P M 2/3/14 3:15 PM