I have just returned home from an enjoyable 2 hr flight from Tampa to Charleston, SC.   190 mph at 6.3 GPH at 11,000 ft.  You really have to love these canards! 

I flew down to Tampa on Friday to spend the weekend with Jerry Schneider and witness the birth of his new canard, “Web Slinger”.    

What a great experience.   Jerry’s cozy has some very unusual and interesting features.    It uses an Aero Canard turtle back which significantly increases the headroom (front/back seats) and extended strakes.    The belly NACA scoop feeds large tubes which provides air to a down draft cooled engine, oil cooler and the FI system.  It has an IO320 with a controllable MT prop, a motorized forward opening canopy, electric nose lift, etc.  Overall Web Slinger is a very unique and interesting plane.

Vance was kind enough to fly out from Houston for the test flight.  A smart move by Jerry as for the last few years he has spent all his time building.   We stood around watched and cheered.   A couple of bottles of champagne were opened to commemorate the occasion.

Web Slinger flew very well but ran a bit hot which is a problem that plagues a lot of new planes.   Jerry, welcome to the Hot Engine Club.   Your new trouble shooting membership will only last for a year or two so have fun while you can!

Vance and I spent the weekend with Jerry and Debbi and I can tell you Jerry was one happy and certifiably crazy guy.   Is Elvis alive well?  YES, he lives at Debbi’s house!   Debbi loves Elvis Presley and she has a well outfitted Elvis Room, so Vance had the pleasure of sleeping with a life sized Elvis watching over him this weekend.   Jerry loves Spider Man and wore his SM shirt all weekend (or should that be his S&M shirt?).  He hardly had any sleep this past week because he was so jacked up about Saturday’s flight.   He told me this morning, he finally had a good nights sleep (which I guess is either the relief of a great first flight or a direct result of all the beer we drank at the Oktoberfest).    Thanks Jerry for a great weekend!   Folks, if Jerry and Debbi ever offers to visit you, take them up on it!  You’ll be in for a crazy good time.

Vance showed me a new free website he is using for flight planning.  It is called Nav Monster  ( www.navmonster.com ).  What a great find!  I fly a lot and usually rely on lots of different websites to gather information.  By far, this is the best one I have every visited.  It actually gathers info from my favorite websites, organizes the data and presents it all on one page.    I thought it would be good to share something new with the group.  You too might find it useful.    Thanks Vance.

 Congratulations Jerry!!   Your hard work has crafted a unique and different kind of canard.  Looking forward to seeing you again at the next fly-in with your new bird.