Experimenter

December 2012

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.

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"Some have even gone down to 500 x 5, but I think the airplane retains more of its retro look with bigger tires. Sort of like an old 1930s free-flight model. Because it's so light, it doesn't need very much in the way of tires or brakes, so lots of used ones could be sourced cheaply." The plans clearly show a door on the right side, which Don said is just there as an option and not really needed. "The door can be on either side of the cockpit or it can be eliminated completely. Crawling in the window is no problem. But the door makes it much easier, and it can be flown with the door left off and the side open, like a Cub." The wings are classic fabric wing construction identical to any number of wings, except the ribs are made from ¼-inch Marine plywood. They can easily be band sawed and sanded in stacks and the internal cuts made with a jigsaw. However, they absolutely scream to be made on a homemade router table after making up a master pattern out of hardwood or ¼-inch Masonite. (Birch or oak from Home Depot would work, too). Te Headwind in the photo above uses a spring gear and direct drive VW, while the Headwind below uses the rubber wafer damped gear. Its Maximizer-reduced VW has a higher thrust line, which produces the diferent nose profle. Bill said, "You can jigsaw them out and do them all in a long weekend. However, Don's son, Bill, and a friend have set up a CNC router to make them for a good price. Their e-mail is pwr985@hotmail.com." In keeping with the search for economy in construction, Don said, "Although spruce is best for the spars in terms of weight, you can also use Douglas fir, and in the drawings I clearly say what to look for in terms of grain lines per inch, run-out, etc. A really good source for spar material is 'porch stepping,' the straight grain fir they specify as being good enough to make stair steps out of." One of Don's professed frustrations is that more people haven't used VW engines using his Maximizer belt-driven reduction system. Don said, "A lot of Headwinds are flying with stock, or nearly stock, VWs, and they fly really well. However, I originally designed the airplane around a VW with my Maximizer belt reduction system on it. VWs are tiny engines and get their power with rpm, not displacement, so they need to turn up fairly high. They can't do that, of course, with a long propeller, which is much more efficient, so I designed the Maximizer system to let them turn up but swing a bigger prop at a slower rpm. I was really happy with the way it worked, and the airplanes performed great. But I was never able to get the units produced in quantity. Today, someone could take my drawings to one of those online CNC operations and get the drive pulleys turned out relatively inexpensively." As it happens, the majority of the Headwinds built use either a direct-drive VW or the old, reliable, and readily available Continental A-65. They are heavier, and a little bit of beefing up is required of the forward fuselage bay; but apparently they really do the job, and midtime engines are generally available for $5,000, give or take. Bill Budgell has an A-75 (an A-65 turning up another couple hundred rpm) in his airplane, and he said, "I routinely get a solid 900 to 1,000 fpm climb, and the takeoff happens before you're ready for it. Maybe a 200-foot run. I'm cruising at 92 mph at 4 gallons per hour, and the airplane is surprisingly solid in flight. In a lot of ways, it's a Champ. Very easy to fly." EAA EXPERIM ENTER 19

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