cliff

We won our zoning hearing. We should be closing on the airport on October 31st if there are no more problems.

I have a 180 and I love giving rides. 3 weeks ago I flew 2.8 hrs of rides at the Lazy B airport annual picinic. The neighbors eat up that stuff. You can make friends quickly with a simple trip around the neighborhood. 

Neighbor day picinic and plane rides are on my list of future events.

Tonight at 7pm is the zoning meeting for the exemption use of the airport. I am hoping for a decision in our favor. The Pennsylvania Department of Aviation is sending a representitive to the meeting to answer any questions that the zoning board or neighbors may have about the airport use. My tax dollars are finally  being put to good use. I'll fill you in later.

Young and dumb, full of piss and vinegar. My entire life was aviation driven. Built and flew model airplanes since the age of 6. took hang gliding and flying lessons at age 14, Started skydiving at age 16, Got my first ultralight at age 18, and continued with all the for mentioned activities, except hang gliding,  until today at age 52. I have done way too many stupid things, should have been dead several times, just had an engine out landing on Sunday. By the grace of God I am still alive. So many of my friends didn't make it. I have lost dozens and dozens of friends to aviation related accidents. Most completely avoidable. I try to learn from all their mistakes and misfortunes. I have become very saftey conscience in my later years. I don't like being around reckless people, my old heart can't take it anymore.

The  Sea to sky stripper  is eco friendly. The rinse water doesn't need to be captured and sent off to hazardous waste people. The paint  waste needs to be filtered out of the water. The leftover stripped paint is taken by the hazardous waste company. All my spraying is done in a filtered paint room using epa approved exhaust filters. If you are stripping  and painting your own plane {not for profit}  The rules don't apply to you , other than rinsing stripper and sludge into a wet lands and other stupid things people have done like, overspraying the neighbors cars,boats,swimming pools etc etc etc. Use common sense, and think about how what you are about to do could impact your neighbors and enviroment and you will be fine. Don't flush chemicals down the toilet, don't spray next to a neighbors house on a hot summer day who has their doors and windows open, Don't dump chemical waste in the gutter, etc etc etc.

I go to a few fly ins each year, I have been attending the one at Foot Light Ranch for many years. The problem I have with an open invitation fly in is, there are so many Yahoo pilots out there that can cause ,at a minimum a nuisance and at worst a fatality. If I get the airport, I will have an invitational fly in to get the neighbors aquanted with my flying buddies and how we operate. Possibly give rides. throw some burgers on the grill and get to know the neighbors while they have a good time and get to know us. I have seen to many crazy things happen at fly ins to just invite the general flying public. I am a prety good judge of character and I haven't heard any yahoo pilots on these forums yet. You guys know the types I am talking about. 

Where are you at with this project? If you haven't installed the tail feathers yet, I would definetly strip and paint the plane properly. Use Sea to Sky hydrogine peroxide based stripper. It works great and doesn't burn your skin like the old stripper did. An easy way to apply it is to spray it on. I have an expensive stainless steal air driven pump with a wand sprayer and 50' hose. I can cover an entire airplane in less than an hour. Since you are only doing 1 airplane you can use a shutz gun, which is an auto undercoating sprayer, costs about 25 bucks. It will take you alot longer to spray your entire aiframe, but it beats the hell out of brushing it on. I use a shutz gun for stripping small parts and touchup stripping after the overall strip is finished. DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE STRIPPING PROCESS. It isn't that bad of a job.  I enjoy it , it is a mindless simple process in which you see gratifying results very quickly.  With a good helper I can strip a plane in a couple of days. Prep, dent repair , and all the rest is where the time can build up. If you decide to take this route I will gladly answer any questions you have to the best of my knowledge. Good luck.
 
Cliff

We had one move up from Baltimore MD to our current airport in Dover Pa. She KNEW that she owned the airspace above her property to infinity. She called the FAA for months everytime an airplane took off or landed from the airport. Finally the FAA had a talk with her and informed her that she bought a house at the end of a runway that had been there for 20 years and that she had to stop wasting their time because they had to answer every call they receive. We nick named her the Baltimoron. She eventually ended up getting a divorce and loosinfg the house, which was promptly bought by a local pilot at half it's previous sale price. Ain't Karma a bitch.

Allonsye,
 
  The airport is Circle W airfield  designator PA72 in East Berlin PA. It is between Gettysburg and Harrisburg.  My father flew skydivers from this field from 1966 to 1974. Then in 1990 a freind of my Dad bought the field and we both based our planes there until his death in 2008. The airport went up for auction and was sold to a father and son who wanted to open an 1/8 mile drag way. That didn't go over to well with the neighbors and after a 2 year battle with the zoning board and the neighbors, the father and son gave up and put the property back up for sale. Now the father has passed on and the son is ready to put this whole thing behind him and move on. It was their dream to own a race track together and now it is my dream to put my business on the field. It really sucks having your future decided by others. I am praying that the neighbors will see how little impact, if any, my business will have on their lives. There a a bunch of hard working ,good, red blooded americans in this neck of the woods but, there can always be a turd in the punch bowl who doesn't want to see anyone else prosper. Hopefully there isn't a turd in my punch bowl.

AKflyer, Thanks for the words of encouragement. We will see what the zoning board thinks of my plan.

Ser# is 110 and yes it origionally had a Cyuna on it. My profession is painting with 3 years of commercial art at a vo-tech school as a teenager being my only formal training.. I can lay out some pretty decent paint schemes and do decent custom paint work but my business partner of the last 12 years is a world class airbrush artist who makes me look like an amature. together we come up with some pretty neat stuff. I like clean simple lines on high wing taildraggers but I am not apposed to some wild schemes on other aircraft type. If you google search images of Raeford Aviation Twin Otter you will se a paint scheme that I was commisioned to design. I didn't do the actual paint work because my current facility can only handle a Cessna 206 or smaller airplane. I am pretty computer illiterate and we don't have a web site but if you Google search images for Custom Painting By Cliff and Skip, you will see a few pictures of some of the stuff we have done.  I am currently jumping through the hoops of the local zoning board to get a zoning change for a 34 acre private airstrip to move my business into. The zoning hearing is on the 8th of October. If we are granted the zoning change needed to run my paint business at the airport, I will be closing on the property on the 31st of October and starting up grade construction to the hangar/pole building that same day. I will be able to paint planes with up to a 48' wingspan and a taill height of 11' 10".  The runway is about 3000'  in total length but has displaced thresholds only giving it an official length of 2200'.  I can probably trim some trees and end up with 2600' when the airport is reinspected by the state .  If anybody needs anything painted I will be happy to do it for you. I am going to need all the work I can get to pay the mortgage on this property. I am scared shitless and excited at the same time, I am going from having next to no debt , too being in BIG debt and I ain't no spring chicken. By the way thanks Akflyer for posting the pictures and the picture of my brother and I is right after our first flight together in the Avid (I'm the fat guy).

Thanks for the responses, but the axles aren't for me. They are for my buddy who bent an axle this weekend and only has a cell phone for accessing the internet. I will pass along the info and if you have an axle please contact Paul at his email address. I will recomend that he calls Matco.  Thanks, you guys have all the answers.

They got the new engine on yesterday. Now the cowl needs modified to fit around the C box. i had to work so I haven't seen it yet. I am getting ready to load up all my fiberglass stuff and head to the airport to see what I can do to make it fit. I'll butcher something together.

No problem. I woke up to an email mess and I was hoping I didn't spread it to you.

AKflyer, My email was hacked last night. Did you get my pictures?

It is now 2:43pm, My phone is smashed against the wall and laying in peices, I thought I knew how to send email from my phone. 1 hour and 1 minute of complete frustration and I have no clue if I sent a single picture. This new technolegy is sure hard on my old brain.    PS just kidding about the phone. 

akflyer, I attempted to email pictures  to you at 1:42pm. let me know if you got them. 2 pictures before the wings went on and 1 picture of my brother and I after our first flight together. I'm the fat one.

Paul,  Nice looking plane. I would like to post a picture of ours but I have very little computer skills. I have pictures on my phone and I know how to text or email from my phone, if one of you guys want to post them for me I could send them to you. I need to get my grandaughter over to the house for some more computer lessons.

My brother ran all new fuel lines, oil lines, throttle cables, and radiator hoses to the existing engine. Only thing they need to do, hopefully, is change the engine, which has the Cbox already installed, and install the prop. I was thinking it might take a while to get the engine, prop rpm and soforth tuned correctly. I guess time will tell. 

We  have a  tiny tach and a rotax tach and the tiny tach reads 200 rpm less than the rotax. My brother is pulling the engine on Saturday. two of the airport guys are going to help him, all three are mechanicis by trade,and one guy has a fair amount of 2 stroke knowledge. They say if they don't run into any problems , they can have the engine swap done in one day. I am NOT a mechanic and can't see how they can get everything done in one day. Have any of you experienced guys changed an engine in one day?  Also, we bought a complete fire wall forward  (582, C box, and 3 blade powerfin prop) off  a kitfox IV. We sent the engine and gear box to rotax Rick for overhaul and never changed anything on the prop. If the Kitfox owner had the prop set right what are the chances that it will work as set with the overhauled engine? We can't find any markings on this Powerfin prop to tell us what model it is, Does any one know where the model number might be found or how to tell which blades we have. From the pictures on the powerfin website it looks like either a B or E blade. Thanks

Wel I am sorry I wasted your time, My brother has decided to swap the engine with the zero time one. You all gave me good advice but he said he will feel better with an engine of known  origin hanging off the front of the plane he is finishing his  light sport training in. I support his decision and we may need more advice on setting this engine up. Thanks again, Cliff

I am not sure of the make and model. It looks like a tooth pick next to this three blade we have. It does turn up the correct rpm. Next time I am at the airport I will get the prop info off it. I do have another 2 blade in my shed that is the same kind if I can find it.