Sentimental Journey

Last week my friend Scott and I made the trip up to Lock Haven , PA for the 75th Anniversary of the Piper Cub at the Sentimental Journey Flyin. This was my first trip up to Lock Haven and I give this flyin two thumbs up. We met at JGG for a planned takeoff at 8 AM, unfortunately we lost our 3rd plane at the last minute when the Vagabond dropped out. We left on time and flew direct to KCJR Culpepper, VA at 1500 feet in perfectly smooth conditions, a 10 knot headwind made this the longest flight of the trip.  With only 12 gallons and the C90 engine my range was the limiting factor on the trip. We decided to stop at Hagerstown , MD for fuel mainly because there were not any better options.  This also keeps you clear of P80 small and large and out of the newspapers ! We called ahead and the tower promised no problems.  The owner of Rider Aviation rolled out the red carpet and even gave us a great deal on fuel. Here is a shot of the Cubs if front of the FBO.

The flight up to Lock Haven, PA was uneventful and we landed right at 01:15. It started to get a little bumpy at the end and my butt was a little sore. 4 hours is just about right for a Cub day trip.
This flyin is small enough to enjoy with out too much walking but large enough to keep your interest with a lot of activities and flyouts. There was a different contest each day with spot landing, flour bombing and a poker run. They also had a flyout to a different airport each evening , it was cool to see a gaggle of Cubs headed off just like a gang of bikers! Here are some selected shots to give you the feel of the event.

Here's a J2 that flew continously.

Here's a beautiful Bird CK.

Here's a beautiful Kinner Sportster.

Even Aeronca's were welcome.

And Taylorcrafts.

This is a Clip wing Wag Aero Cubby, it has the PA11 cowl and the PA18 balanced elevators. I wanted to talk to the owner but never found him by the plane.

On Friday afternoon a cold front moved through and we had a light rain shower for about 15 minutes. It then cleared out and cooled off for a beautiful evening of flying. We departed Saturday morning and had tailwinds all the way home. We made the same stops as the trip up. On leaving CJR Scott and I climbed to 7500 feet and rode home in smooth, air conditioned comfort ! Here are a couple shots.

Here is my panel, you can see my new JPI digital tachometer at the lower left.

Just on top of the building clouds and turbulence.

Safe at home back in the hangar. Overall a great adventure.

100 hours

Last week I spotted this really cool Funk project on Ebay.

I have always liked the Funk, this is a B75L with the geared Lycoming GO145-C3 engine. Beyond odd ball, but right up my alley ! Check out the metal in the cowling.

You would think it would be updraft cooling but it's not. Air goes up, turns 180 degrees then exits at the back bottom of the cowl.  This project just happened to be right across the Delaware River from my friend Dave's airstrip, so I decided to fly the Cub up for a look/visit. Friday was forecast to be clear with some gusty winds so I left early to beat the turbulence. I left at 8 am and went direct to St. Marys MD 2W6 , I only made 55 knots on this leg. I then shot through the gap between the restricted airspace and the 30 mile ring. I climbed to 3500 feet for this over water leg and made better speed with almost a direct crosswind. I landed at Delaware Airpark 33N right at 11:00 , the crosswind landing was a little bouncy, but we got down in one piece.  Here is a shot of Dave's Cub and mine at 33N.

  
We are parked into the wind, you can see the trees that made that right crosswind interesting ! We spent a couple hours looking over the Funk and other airplanes he had for sale , then we had an excellent Crab cake sandwich at a place called Sambo's. It was right on the dock and you could watch them unload the catch while you ate! It took all the will power I had to get away with out making an offer on the Funk, just too many projects. We left and made the short flight across the river to Dave's strip 7NJ9. Here the wind was down the runway but with the trees close on both sides it was still challenging to get er down. We got the airplanes together for a group shot.

You can see the narrow runway behind the planes and the trees that make it interesting. Here are Dave's Cub and Pitts S1C , his friend's CASA Jungmann and my Cub. In this shot Dave's hanger / shop is in the background.

The next morning I got up early to beat the turbulence on the way home. I took off at 7:45 , climbed to 2500 feet and flew all the way to St. Marys without one bump ! Here are a few shots, say are you sure you torqued those rod bolts?

Over the Delaware river.

The tach reads 100 rpm fast, so about 2275 rpm, 95 indicated, GS was 78 knots at 2600 feet to go over some class D airspace at Dover. Oil pressure runs about 35 psi and the temp is about 150 it was cool in the morning , the heater is on ! The g's are from bumps during taxi. Here's my new fuel gauge, 10 gallons remaining.

Here I am crossing the Chesapeake Bay you can see the LNG facility and storage tanks. I have never seen a ship off loading. You can see Patuxent River  NAS in the background.  It was nice of them to leave a little gap for aeroplanes to get through.

My fuel stop is just ahead at St. Marys County, MD.  I love credit card fuel, that way I'm only a bother to myself for  5 gallons of fuel ! The flight to JGG was just as nice with just a little turbulence about 30 miles out. The Cub ran smooth the whole trip, and we turned 104 hours on the tach.

Carwil Type 61

This post will illustrate the differences between the Carwil Type 61 bubble face compass and the more common Airpath bubble face compass. This information is from my 1940 issue of the Airplane Parts and Supplies Catalog No. 101. It appears that the Carwil came first and the Airpath was a later improved model. Here are some pictures from the catalog.

  
Here is the description from the catalog that explains the different models.

I will show some of the differences between the Carwil model and the Airpath. Many of the parts are the same with the biggest difference being the front face appearance. I think this is a 60C even though the name plate says Type 61.

  

Here you can see the unusual compensator , it uses thin rod magnets inserted into drilled holes in a clear plastic block. It uses tiny brass doors to keep the rods in place. If anyone has any instructions for this procedure I would love to see a copy. Here is another shot with the unit removed.

You can see the little doors and the rod magnets.  Now here are a few shots of the later Airpath Compass you can see the difference in the front face.

The top of the back case also has a flat area that the early model does not.

The compensator from the later Airpath is much improved. It allows a much finer adjustment of the magnetic fields.

This side is for E-W adjustment and the other side compensates the N-S direction.

You can see that the later model is much longer and thicker than the original model. I have seen these ground down in a lame attempt to fit the early case. It does not work well.   The front plate is held to the compensator assembly by two small drive screws, then held to the compass by one small screw. I have sen these read Carwil, Airpath, and Taylorcraft.

When I did a Google search for Carwil Type 61 nothing came up maybe this will fix that! If I have time this week I will post some pictures of my antique compasses !