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/271000
24 Vol.3 No.3 / March 2014 A PEREIRA GP-4 So, now the airplane is fi nished. Or close to it. Is it every- thing he hoped it would be? "It's a mover, no doubt about that. On takeof , you need to get the gear up and locked under 100 knots because of the gear doors. Then you're climbing as fast as you want to. It'll touch 2,000 fpm at 130 knots, but I'm usually using a cruise climb of 150 knots, which gives 1,100 to 1,200 fpm, which is plenty. I often just climb until I run out of throttle, which is usually around 6,000 to 8,000 feet, at which point I'll be cruising at 210 knots true or the 240 mph George Pereira said the airplane will do. At that speed I'll be burning 11.5 gph. If I bring it back to where it's burning only 9.5 gph, it's doing 190 knots TAS, which is still pretty fast." Mike said that between the light landing gear, which has springs only, with little dampening, and the airplane's over-the- fence speed of 90 knots, he avoids unimproved runways. "It touches down at about 65 knots, with the fl aps which are split fl aps, at 30 to 40 degrees." Mike is one of the fi rst to admit that scratchbuilding a wooden airplane takes longer than building one of metal or rag and tube. However, he is one of those guys that, when he sees how something goes together and understands the project, he throws himself into it completely. He also said the project was made easier because George Pereira is a really good guy and was always there to answer questions. Plus, there's a really good materials list available, and both Aircraft Spruce and Wicks Aircraft Supply have good materials kits for it. That saves a lot of time and money. When he was working on the airplane, Mike said, "I'd come in at 0600 and leave at 9 p.m., seven days a week, unless I was racing boats or snow skiing. I'd take 30-minute naps when needed, but I was determined to get this thing done in a reasonable time. I didn't want it to be one of those 10-year projects you read about. Dan Hopkins helped me a lot, and he's now building another GP-4 in my shop, put- ting all of the tooling and knowledge that we've acquired to good use." For the record, it took Mike a total of two years to get his GP-4 into the air, although the interior and panel were works in progress for a while. Two years! It's amazing what dedication and talent will do. Oh, by the way, Mike said he no longer has trouble reading. We're not surprised. Budd Davisson is an aeronautical engineer, has fl own more than 300 different aircraft types, and published four books and more than 4,000 ar- ticles. He is editor-in-chief of Flight Journal magazine and a fl ight instructor primarily in Pitts/tailwheel aircraft. Visit him at www.Airbum.com. "It's a mover, no doubt about that. On takeof , you need to get the gear up and locked under 100 knots because of the gear doors." Designer George Pereira has an eye for sleek and aerodynamically clean lines. The result is a cruise speed of 210 KTAS. Photography by Jim Raeder E A A E X P _ M a r 1 4 . i n d d 2 4 EAAEXP_Mar14.indd 24 3 / 3 / 1 4 1 0 : 3 1 A M 3/3/14 10:31 AM