Experimenter

May 2013

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/126719

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We had loaded the airplane and were about to take it home, when Greg said that he had seen a plane "that looked just like this one" in an aviation magazine. He compared the N-number on the moldy-looking plane we had bought to the one in the article, and that's when we discovered that we had the original prototype of the Pazmany PL-4A experimental aircraft from 1972. Holy Toledo! Greg and I decided to hold off working on the airplane until we got the FAA's blessing on the paperwork, which took much longer than we expected. Three solid months of research and continued communication with the FAA was invested before it said that I had accomplished what we'd set out to do: I had provided enough information that it would legally register the airplane to me. Even better, it would allow the airplane to retain the original N-number, serial number, data plate, and builder's name: Ladislao Pazmany! Success! Time to Start Working The new registration is dated August 2011, and it's hard to describe how excited and relieved we were. Now that ownership of N44PL was established in my name, Greg and I could get to work, which comprised laying out the sequence of steps we'd take in doing the restoration and laying out our goals for the project. They included: 1. To restore this historically significant experimental aircraft to its original 1972 configuration. 2. To deconstruct every part, assembly, and component to determine if it was safe to reuse or was to be replaced. 3. To use as many of the original components as possible to help retain the character and legacy of the original aircraft. 4. To restore the airplane to flying condition, not as a Ladislao Pazmany Ladislao "Paz" Pazmany, EAA 2431, was born in Hungary but grew up in Argentina. Enamored with aviation from an early age, he built models and began flying gliders when he was 15. After obtaining a degree in aeronautical engineering, he worked wherever engineering jobs were available in the unstable economy that prevailed in Argentina at the time. For nearly a decade he designed aircraft, pipelines, high tension power line towers, suspension bridges, chemical and hydroelectric plants, was an instructor at an aeronautics school and worked as an auto company draftsman — sometimes holding as many as three jobs at a time! He designed the PL-1, which flew for the first time on March 23, 1962, made plans available to homebuilders and wrote the book Light Airplane Design --all of which allowed him to start his own business and devote more time to lightplane design and development. In the late 1960s, the Nationalist Chinese Air Force acquired plans to build a version of the PL-1 to serve as a primary trainer. That prototype flew on October 26, 1968, and an additional 35 aircraft were started that year. Meanwhile, Paz had designed an improved version of the PL-1, the PL-2, and the first one flew on April 4, 1969. In the early 1970s Paz began work on the single-place PL-4, and the prototype was flown on July 9, 1972. Plans were made available for each of the designs and they are still being built today. In May of 1956, Paz and his family moved to the United States and settled in San Diego, California, where he went to work for Convair. The following month he attended his first EAA Chapter 14 meeting. At Convair, he worked on the F-102, F-106, and other projects…and, along the way, obtained seven patents for inventions ranging from aircraft thrust reversers to emergency natural gas shut-off valves that activate during earthquakes. In the 1970s Paz created and for several years conducted the Pazmany Efficiency Contest at Oshkosh, which gave EAAers one of their first real-world evaluations of homebuilt performance. In the early 1970s Paz became the chief engineer for aviation legend T. Claude Ryan's Ryson Aviation Corporation and designed the Ryson ST-100 Cloudster, a beautiful powered sailplane that was formerly introduced to the flying world in early 1977. The work Paz did designing the Cloudster's landing gear led him to write the book, Landing Gear Design for Light Aircraft, which has become the standard work on that subject and is on the shelf of every aircraft designer today. Concurrent with his full-time employment, Paz devoted his spare time to his first love, personal aircraft. Pazmany, who was inducted into the EAA Homebuilders Hall Of Fame in 1997, passed away in 2006 at the age of 82. EAA Experimenter 13

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