Enter the Short Wings

Enter the Short Wings

PA-15, PA-17 VagabondIn 1947 it was Panic City in every airframe manufacturing plant and the order came down from Piper management to build the cheapest, two-place general-use airplane they could and to do it using nothing but materials already on hand and as little of that as possible.

For that reason everything about the PA-15 Vagabond was made smaller and simpler. They even went so far as to use military surplus mag switches. The wings were minimized (six feet shorter), as was the fuselage, which gave birth to the short wing Piper.

The name “Vagabond” is applied to two different Piper designations, the PA-15 and the PA-17. The airplanes are nearly identical and are almost naive in their low-tech approach to flight, but they are great fliers. The differences between the two included adding a right side control stick in the –17 as well as replacing the –15’s ultra-simple, rigid landing gear with a more conventional bungee system. Originally equipped with the 65 hp Continental, many are seen with 75hp or 85 hp engines, which greatly improve the climb performance.

PA-16

ClipperWhere the Vagabond started the short-wing ball rolling, it is the Clipper, produced only in1949, that set the shape of things to come. A true four-place airplane with a right side door for the front and a left side door for the back, the little bugger moved right along on 115 hp. It still had sticks, rather than control yokes, and got most of its performance out of its light weight. These are great buys because all but the super-restored birds sell for $16-$22K and a few even drop below $15K. PA-20 Pacer

This is the Clipper gone one better. The engine became a 125 or 135 hp 0-290 Lycoming and the sticks were heaved in favor of a pair control yokes. The airplane grew flaps and Piper layered on some cosmetic cockpit treatments that gave it a more finished look. With its short fuselage and higher-than-a-Cub touchdown speeds, the airplanes rapidly gained a reputation of being a little quick on the runway, but these days that doesn’t seem to be a problem—each year dozens of Tri-Pacers get a “nosewheelectomy” to make them into Pacers because of their sporty appearance and handling.

The Pacer never got the 150/160 hp Lycoming of the Tri-Pacer so they are a little underpowered when loaded to gross, but that’s as much a function of the environment, as the airplane: short wings don’t like high density altitudes.

PA-22

Tri-PacerThe Tri-Pacer is a solid, easy to fly airplane that in the 150-160 hp versions actually is a pretty good four-place airplane, although the backseat is a little small and dark. Their reputation is one of being fast on final, but that’s not true. Yes, it is much faster than a Cessna but no different than a Cherokee. Also, it’ll work out of a shorter field than many would believe. It’s a solid 125-130 mph cruiser with the bigger engines and if the air is even remotely smooth, you can put your hands in your lap and watch the countryside go by. $18-$25K buys all sorts of Tri-Pacers and none of them will disappoint so long as a thorough pre-buy inspection is done.

PA-22-l08 Colt

The Colt has to be one of the least known contemporary airplanes built. Essentially, a stripped down, two-place Tri-Pacer it is the Vagabond of the 1960’s. In fact, it flies a lot like a Vagabond and is just as much fun. It has to be an exceptional Colt for it’s price to be over $18K and you see them all the time in the $12-$14K range. Being a fabric airplane and one that isn’t too popular at that, you can expect the lower range airplanes to be pretty doggy. The Colt’s 108 hp, 0-235 engine is a solid motor that with minimal care will run to TBO, so you can buy a Colt with a mid-time engine, fly it for a bunch of years and sell it for what you paid for it after flying its wings off. Summary-Do a careful inspectionAll high-wing Pipers have steel tube airframes that are 40 to 60 years old and this is something to consider when buying one. If they were well taken care off, age is of no consequence, but the rag and tube Pipers all sat around as derelicts at some time in their lives. During that period of time moisture was continually trying to convert them to ferrous oxide. When doing the pre-buy inspection, hire an expert in the type to do the work.

The usual places for rust are at the rear of the fuselage in the taildraggers and inside the doorframes and in the strut carry-through in the belly of nose draggers. Also, these kinds of airplanes have lived in the land of the field mouse for decades and nesting mice can cause more damage then flying can. So, when you decide you can’t live without a high-wing Piper, try to find the best one available, or at the very least, do your best to determine the true condition of an airframe before buying it. There is no substitute for paranoia, when buying any airplane but on high-wing Pipers it will really pay off.

Piper High-Wings

This gives some of the history behind the shortwing Pipers.

http://www.airbum.com/articles/ArticlePiperHighWings.html

"...and in the begining, there was the high wing Piper and He looked down and said...yeah, that's good, really good."

Cub to Colt and all the Rag- and-Tube Wonders Inbetween
Back in its high-wing days, pre-1963, Piper Aircraft really only designed one airplane, the J-3 Cub and even that wasn’t a new design. Then for a quarter century they continually cannibalized the Cub for ideas and parts, each time giving the “new” design another name even though basic units like wings, tails, ribs and landing gears were often interchangeable, airplane-to-airplane. Old Bill Piper couldn’t see designing a new part when something they already had on the shelf would work just as well.The Piper family tree evolved in a very linear fashion with just one major branching-out taking place in 1948 when the PA-15 Vagabond came out. That fork in the road gave birth to two distinct families of Piper high-wing airplanes—the clan of the Long Wing and that of the Short Wing. It could logically be asked exactly what the definitions of Long and Short include.

It’s pretty simple—Long Wing Pipers all had wings a shade over 35 feet long while the Shorties ran a little over 29 feet.

Regardless of which clan and airplane you’re discussing, however, until the end of the Piper high-wing dynasty, none of them strayed far from the formula laid down by chief engineer, Walter Jamineau, with the J-3.-Steel tube fuselage-Bungee sprung “V” gear-Fragile aluminum ribs made of riveted-together “T” shaped sections-Trim via screw-jack moving forward edge of stabilizer up and down-Steel, sealed struts

In the Beginning All Wings were Long

J-3 Cub

Although other engines were offered in the J-3, the 65 hp, Continental A-65 became the engine of choice and it made the J-3 a huge improvement over earlier Cub variants. On 65 hp, the airplane flies well, but the 85 hp conversions make a real airplane out of it. With a touchdown speed a little over 30 mph, the airplane is the standard for simplicity both in flying and in maintenance.

One maintenance item worth noting, however, are the original expander tube brakes that can cost a fortune to overhaul. Also, most post-war Cubs have aluminum wing spars, not wood, and that’s worth paying a premium.

With a 75 mph cruising speed, the Cub isn’t going to take you very far very quickly, but you’ll enjoy every second of it. The front seat is a little cramped and blind while the back seat is more or less comfortable with great side visibility. The airplane is made for sunset cruising with the side door open. The Cub is one of the most expensive two-place classics you can buy, which is a function of its popularity. It’s hard to believe it takes $20K to get into the game and even harder to believe we’re seeing restored specimens fetching in excess of $40K. Since the airplane will fit into the new Sport Pilot category, the prices will just keep going up.

J-4 Cub Coupe.

The J-4 is, a side-by-side Cub. Period. Everything else is the same. The engine was cowled in an effort for more speed, but they didn’t get it. It’s still an 80 mph airplane, but, like the Cub, it’s only burning a little over four gallons an hour. Although the Coupe appears the same as its peer group, the Luscombe, Aeronca Chief and Taylorcraft, there’s one major difference (besides being slower): the visibility is much better. The wing is mounted just a little higher and it really improves the way the cockpit feels. J-4 Cub Coupes have never been as popular as the J-3 and assuming both airplanes are the same quality, the J-4 will usually be priced a solid 20% lower than a Cub.

J-5 Cruisers

The J-5 Cruiser clan can be a little confusing because Piper used the same airframe and gave it two designations, J-5A, B, and C and then PA-12 Super Cruiser. In any case, the airplane is sometimes referred to as a “Fat Cub” because of the way the fuselage swells out as it passes the pilot to accommodate the supposedly two-people wide back seat. It was Piper’s attempt to build a three-passenger airplane and they came close, as long as the back passengers are slim of butt and like each other a lot.

The J-5 moves the pilot to the front seat and jacks him up a little so he or she can almost see over the nose on the ground. Also, because the fuselage widens out, the shoulder/fanny room for the pilot is almost excessive—quite a shift from the tight-as-Spandex Cub. This is a real Big Guy airplane that changed quite a bit as it matured. J-5A – 75 hp Continental, open cowled engine with the landing gear bungees hanging out in the wind. Wings and tail are pure Cub. Flies two people fine, but three on 75 hp is stretching it.J-5B – Same as above but with 75 hp Lycoming, which is not exactly a powerhouse.

J-5C

– A 1942 redesign of the airplane resulted in dramatic performance increases as the result of drag clean-ups including moving the landing gear bungees inside the fuselage and putting a full cowl on the much more powerful, 100 hp 0-235 Lycoming (basically the same as in a C-152). The cruising speed was increased to a solid 95-100 mph and the ability to carry three people became a reality. Only about 35 J-5C’s were built before the war changed priorities, but the Navy bought about 100 J-5C’s converted to ambulance duty under the military designation of HE-1. J-5s have lagged far behind the Cub in price (hasn’t everything?) but they are quickly closing the gap because so many have been re-engined with bigger (150 hp being the most common) engines and outfitted for bush duty. When a larger engine is coupled with the Cruiser’s wide fuselage, you have a perfect platform for utilitarian flying.

PA-11

For some reason the PA-11 never had a cute name of it’s own, possibly because it is nothing more than a J-3 with either a 65 hp or 90 hp Continental enclosed in a nicely streamlined cowl. The PA-11 is considered by many to be the ultimate pure Cub because with the big engine, it has terrific performance and cruises 90-95 mph, which is lightning quick compared to a J-3. They are commanding Cub prices-plus and they are worth it.PA-12 Super CruiserThe Super Cruiser is a post war refinement of the J-5C. Structurally, the major change was replacing the low carbon steel tubing in the fuselage with chrome-moly but the marketing department got in the act and gave the airplane a greatly redesigned cockpit and instrument panel. All sorts of minor refinements made it more finished looking, plus they moved the front seat back a few inches, which made the front pit positively roomy. Here too, big engine conversions can drive the prices up to $35-$40K, but figure on the mid-twenties for a good airplane.

PA-14 Family CruiserThe first serial-production, four-place Piper, the Family Cruiser took the J-5 concept of widening a single seat to 1 3/4 seat and applied it both front and rear making room for two skinny people to fit up front and in back. The airplane is pure Cub in everything it does but it has 115 horses to play with. Few of the airplanes were built and they are dearly loved by those who own them. Again, you see a lot of them all bushed-out with big engines, flaps added, fat tires, etc. None of them are cheap, since they start at $20-$25K.

PA-18

Super Cub First of all the PA-18 is out of sequence, but it is definitely of the long wing variety and, if there is an airplane as legendary as the J-3, it is the Super Cub. This is the very definition of utility and it is also the last of the long-wing Pipers. In it’s earliest configurations it had 90 hp and no flaps and the only thing that separated it from the J-3 and PA-11 before was that the wing attach structure was moved from over the pilot’s head to the outside of the fuselage giving more head room. The 125 and 135 hp Super Cubs are well respected airplanes and hover in the $35-$45K range while the most common150 hp version with big flaps, can cost anything from $45K to $150K with several custom built examples hitting $250K (really!). The airplanes hold their value so well because they do their job so well. At 105 mph cruise they are leisurely cross-country machines, but they are the airplane of choice for the utility pilot.

Tri Pacer fly in

Carolinas Chapter of the Short Wing Piper Club

These are a few fabric Piper aircraft out for a weekend get together.

Our Chapter is dedicated to flying Mr. Piper’s airplanes in the Carolinas. Shortwings are generally accepted to be the Vagabonds, Clippers, Pacers, and Colts, but we welcome all flying machines.

http://www.carolinashortwings.org/

Looking down from space station

A magnificent moonlit Aurora light show out over Antarctica


Night lights of Italy

(Sept. 20) -- NASA is famed for its expensive, complicated, high-tech gadgetry, but lately, some astronauts have been resorting to a very down-to-earth medium of communication to share their magnificent views of space with the rest of us earthlings. Just check out the Twitter feed of astronaut Douglas H. Wheelock (@Astro_Wheels), commander of joint U.S. and Russian Expedition 25, the latest rotation of crew on the International Space Station. Beginning Wednesday, Wheelock and his fellow five astronauts will be taking control of the ISS and snapping what are sure to be even more incredible pics of the Earth and the cosmos. Already, he's shared images of the aurora australis from the window of the Russian Soyuz craft that is transporting the astronauts to the station. Of course, as alluded to above, Wheelock and company are hardly the first astronauts to use the microblog to dazzle the public when it comes to space vistas. NASA's Mike Massimino (@Astro_Mike) is credited with being the first to tweet from space on a mission to the Hubble Space Telescope back in spring of 2009, although because of technological constraints, he was unable to tweet in real time and instead had to go through the somewhat cumbersome process of sending an e-mail to Johnson Space Center on the ground, which then posted his tweet to his account. That process hardly curbed astronauts' overall inclinations to tweet, though. Just take a gander at Japanese native Soichi Noguchi's feed (@Astro-Sochi, notice a pattern?), which includes its own set of spectacular space photos. Fortunately, earlier this year, NASA upgraded its software to allow for instantaneous, real-time tweeting, allowing those on the ground to see immediately what's going on up above (just the way the service was meant to be used). Until the new pics start coming in from the ISS, enjoy this gallery of all the best of the ones that have landed so far.



http://www.aolnews.com/science/article/astronauts-amazing-twitter-pics/19640834?ncid=webmail

45 years old peasant dreams of flying his own aircraft

45 years old peasant invests 100,000 to realize the dream of flying his own aircraft

http://www.chinahush.com/2010/05/13/45-years-old-peasant-invests-100000-to-realize-the-dream-of-flying-his-own-aircraft/

Last August, Key reported about a home-made aircraft case where a Chinese photographer spent 100,000 yuan to turned his airplane drawing into real thing and made it to 400 meter high in the sky for 25 minutes before it landed safely. This May, a 45 years old peasant also tried to fly his home-made aircraft up. Shu Mansheng, a peasant from Wuhan Hubei Province, used to sat under a tree looking up into the sky and fantasized himself flying like a free bird when he’s little, he’s determined to make himself an aircraft one day. He finally gets to taste his dream, though it’s only for a few seconds.

Officials said that only those with pilot license and qualified for flying should fly, and that Shu’s trial is against the regulation if he try again his aircraft will be taken away. (Source from Yangzhou Evening Paper and sina)

Red Bull Racer 'Skips' On Detroit River

http://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/news/RedBullRacerHitsRiver_202670-1.html

Australian Red Bull competitor Matt Hall narrowly escaped disaster Saturday when he stalled and hit the Detroit River during qualifying for the Windsor, Ontario, race. Video supplied by Red Bull shows Hall's left wing and main landing gear hitting the water coming out of a turn but he fortunately had enough energy to keep flying and was able to recover.

"I felt I was having a fairly good run," Hall said. "I might have skipped twice on the water. It's a very disappointing result for me. It's the motor racing equivalent of touching the wall." Well, if you say so. Hannes Arch won the race, Sunday, and Paul Bonhomme was second.

The "skipping" tore a wheel pant off and damaged a wing but Hall said he'll race again soon. "The main damage is on the right aileron," Hall said. "I think the plane is not that badly damaged. It is going to be a matter of replacing parts." Hall is a former Australian air force pilot who flew combat missions in Iraq with the U.S. Air Force. "Everyone in aviation has been in some fairly tight situations before. I've been in tight situations before. I'm disappointed in myself for putting myself in that situation. We're okay but we'll move on from that. Everything's fine." Britain's Nigel Lamb was first in qualifying.

Balloon over the channel

(May 28) -- All Jonathan Trappe needed to cross the English Channel was an idea, a lot of helium and a slight breeze.

Early this morning, the Raleigh, N.C., native became the first man to travel from England to France using cluster balloons -- a bare-bones mode of flight in which aviators sit in chairs attached to a number of small balloons and control their altitude by popping or releasing balloons.

Trappe took off from Kent in southeast England, according to CBS News, and floated for about three hours before he released some of his brightly colored balloons and touched down in a cabbage field outside Dunkirk, France.

Last month, Trappe soared into history by establishing new distance and endurance records with a 109-mile cluster balloon voyage that lasted nearly 14 hours over his home state.

But this much shorter 22-mile trip across the English Channel carries great significance for the aviator."It is such a classic challenge, isn't it? That iconic ribbon of water separating the U.K. from the continent has called to people for generations, tempting them to cross since long before you or I were born," he wrote on his website, ClusterBalloon.com, before taking off.

"I don't know if it is a siren's song, or if crossing that ribbon of water will be like breaking the ribbon at the finish line," said the pilot, who in order to comply with international aviation laws outfitted himself with a transponder, a radio, an emergency beacon, oxygen, lights, a flotation vest, a parachute -- and little else.

The 36-year-old told Sky News he enjoyed the calm voyage across the storied Channel."It was just an exceptionally quiet, peaceful experience," he said.

Trappe is only the latest in a long line of balloonists to traverse the Channel, starting in 1785 with French balloonist Jean-Pierre Francois Blanchard and American doctor and investor John Jeffries -- whose voyage wasn't as easy as Trappe's.According to the Chicago Tribune, their hydrogen balloon started leaking mid-flight and they were forced to dump all of their ballast -- and most of their clothing -- so they could stay airborne until landing in Calais.