Most of today was spent researching, planning and ordering materials for the “blended winglet” modification I want to do on the wings.   What is it?    The blended winglet design was first introduced to the canard community by Jack Morrision on his E-Racer about 3 yrs ago.  A beautiful plane which was later destroyed in a fire.    Jack is working on a new plane which looks just as incredible!  His a very innovative guy!

The blended winglet is the latest “craze” in the canard community.  Once you see on on a plane, you’ll know why and will have to have on. 

 The interesting thing I found out from the ordering/research,  is that  if you were building new wings from scratch the blended winglet would only add about $50 or so to the cost of each new wing.    It makes the wings look much sleeker, reduces drag, and provides a real and permanent speed improvement.

In a retrofit situation, the rebuild will cost around $250 or so (less epoxy) per wing.  As I proceed into this phase of the project, I’ll refine the numbers for a more accurate cost of the mod.

I spent some time working on the fire suppression system.  Had to scratch my head a few time on exactly how it was to be done.  As usual, I give myself a seemingly impossible challenges for which in the most part can eventually be worked out.  After an hour or so of fitting, I was able to solve the problems such as routing of the discharge line, activation cable, mounting, having access to the spar wing bolts, viewing the tank level,  etc.  The bottle will limit the storage capacity of the spar area, but if I need more baggage space for a trip,  I can put on some of  beautiful carbon graphite baggage pods P1 Cmposites is now building.

 The cable is routed through a soda straw to allow it to be removed.  I need to go the movies shortly as I find they have the best straws for glass work.  I usually grab 3 or 4 at a time.  The straws are really long and have a large diameter t0 guzzle down those super sized drinks you have to mortgage the house to buy (along with the popcorn).

After the plane work I tested out the next phase of my grease car project.  The filter system I made out of  some bag type filters I purchased at Duda Diesel.  Buying this kind of filter (bag type) is much cheaper than buying cartridge type filters.  For this test I have a 1 micron filter (size of bacteria)  which is smaller than the 10 micron filter in the car.  Worked great!

I am finding I hate the filter and pump stuff in the shop.  The next step is to buy 2 plastic 50 gal drums ($20 ea)  and install a underground pipe line from the front driveway to the back shed (the pipe is free) and move all the filter/storage crap to my shed.   I’ll have to disassemble my cart, but I can reuse all the hardware. 

 Then I’ll just pump the dirty oil from the drum in the truck  (via the pipeline) to the shed , filter it, store it,  then pump the clean oil back to my driveway (via the same pipeline) and into the car.   Clean, neat and out of sight when not needed.  Sweet.

This afternoon while emailing DURING A THUNDERSTORM, my computer crashed….  Big time crashed.    I know,  you have always been told turn off all your electrical stuff during a storm.  I THOUGHT I was protected with a UPS and an isolated system, but no, a big crack of lightening,  computer crashed and next thing I know there was the “Hard disk not found” during boot up.  Yikes! 

As recommended I had made a “Recovery Disk” (imagine that)  when I installed the operating system and as annoying as the daily backup is (slowing down the computer) for some reason, I had let it run to completion this morning.   I booted up on the recovery disk, had to do a complete re-image of the computer “C” hard drive (from this morning’s back up) and wala! the computer is working perfectly again.   I keep all my data on the “D” drive (a second drive)  so I didnt lose a single file.   Windows 7 is terrific in my book!   Now I just need to turn off my computer during the next storm.

I had the fuel caps engraved.  Actually they look very cool.  I’ll paint the lettering a suitable color when the plane is painted the plane in Calif.    Polished up and lettered I am sure they will look great!

Disassembly of the plane to prepare it for painting continued today.  I have a huge pile of parts now.  I want to weigh everything added to the plane (such as the heating system) to see how much my work affected the weight of the plane.

The HID landing light installation gave me a bit of trouble. At first, I didnt think it could be installed.  The HID bulb is much taller and a little larger in diameter by 0.015″.  Doesn’t seem like much but the bulb would not sit flush to the bracket . 

Careful, extensive filing and bending of the aft brace bracket was required to get it installed.     The HID light is incredibly bright and requires much less power than the standard 150 watt ligth that was installed. 

Installation of the Halon fire suppression system was stared.  If a fire is sensed in the engine compartment (there will be an alarm on the EFIS),  the pilot can pull a handle on the dash which will flood the engine compartment with halon and quickly put out any potential fire.

I had a little time during the week or so of not working on the plane to work on some fun projects.  I finished a roll around fueling station for my waste oil car.  It is a complete system for pumping/filtering waste oil for the car.  I have already come up with another plan to pump the oil from the drive way to a shed, filter it, and pump it back to the driveway for distribution.   This part of the project will have to wait until after the plane is completed.

 The canard is painted, balanced and assembled.  Ready to install.  I am now working on the fuselage removing all interior components to prepare for painting on the exterior and interior of the plane.

I thought you might like to see the work progress on the new Boeing 787 Dreamline plant being built at our airport.  You can see two DreamLifters (converted 747’s)  parked on the ramp which are used to carry components of the new plane to and from Charleston.  Eventually the entire plane will be built here.

HUGE hangers/work areas are being built to assemble the planes.  They are even moving the airport perimeter road  to accommodate the construction.

At our latest EAA meeting this week,  we welcomed a new canard owner to Charleston.   There are now 5 builder/fliers in the area.  3 longez’s and 2 cozy’s. 

Ed (the pilot in blue) recently flew his plane from Washington state to Charleston.  He had lots of problems and adventures on the trip and his presentation was most entertaining.  I ended up missing a Spoleto performance which turned to be one of the most talked about show of the season. 

Jack Wilhelmson (cozy 3), Me, Ed Hensel (longez), and Glen Phelps (cozy 4), unfortunately Tony Cole (longe ez) was out of town for this picture.

Wow, Spoleto has come to an end already.  I had a wonderful opportunity to see a lot of great shows.  Tonight my finale was a ballet “Giselle” performed by the National Ballet of Georgia.   It was excellent! 

Here is some things I noticed tonight.   First there were a lot of really tall people at the performance.  Most of the time I am about average in height to those around me, but tonight I was really felt out of place.   Lot of patrons were towering over me.  Now I know how Dr. Ruth feels. 

For some strange reaion, there were also lots of  ladies at the show, and the average age was much less than at the Beethoven concert.    Young, good looking, tall people go to ballets…  interesting.

I think the reason all the young gals were at this performance was to check out the dancers.    I dont think the male dances know what a “cup” is or maybe they dont even wear underwear beneath there VERY tight and revealing tights.  Talk about tight buns and  packages.

It was hard for me to watch some of the dances without doing some quantifable comparison checking.    I an’t got nothing to worry about for sure….  Of coarse the male lead dancer seemed to have a the largest well  anoyance.     Hum, maybe when you are the male lead, you can stuff more junk down the front of your pants to impress the tall young gals.    Anyway, for the second half I sat up in the balcony, a little further from the stage and really enjoyed the show with a few less distractions.

What I found most interesting was how the performance seemly like a silent move.   I did not ready the program before the show, so I had no idea what the first act was about.    Through the music, pantomiming on stage and facial expression, I basiclly knew  what was going on and upon reading the program during intermission, I was right on.  It was fun and I really enjoy it ..with the exception of the guy thing….

I heard the most fantastic acoustic jazz guitarist tonight.  Julian Lage is only 21 years old and it the “official guitarist” of Spoleto and Grammy nominated and I can see why.    He was on stage with one of his band member, an acoustic bass player who in my opinion was equally as good.  I was fascinated by how the bassist would play cords, pluck the string, slap them and produce wonderful sounds I couldn’t imagine coming from this instrument.   The performers really had a great time on stage, lots of energy and amazing playing….  Most excellent!

Tonights performance was at Gaillard for a symphony.  Featured was Beethoven, Mozart and Wagner.  It was a great performace!  I espeically like the sympyhony #8 by Beethoven as it is not one of his more famous one (like the 7th) and not played as often.  Very good.

This afternoon’s show was an add-on for me.   A few years ago I saw a marionette show of a prince fighting dragons to save his love on stage, and I was offered an opportunity to see Cinderella by The Colla Marionette Company of Italy.  It was terrific.   I was mainly fascinated by the movement, expression and operation of the puppets.  There was a live 6 piece orchestra and about 15 artists who made the puppets move.   I can just imagine the public enjoyment Cinderella being performed like this in the 1700’s and how fancifully it must have seemed.  Like someone today going to a movie. 

Lots of kids laughing, fun music, interesting costumes made this event my favorite so far.     Next year I will plan to see all the productions by this amazing stage company if I can.  After the show, patrons were allowed to go behind stage to see the overall operation.  What fun!

I am presently taking a break from working on the plane so I had an opportunity to get a few projects done around the house.   I wanted to improve my cooking oil system to simply the off loading, filtering and pumping into the car.    Traveling up to Summerville to pick up some more cooking oil, I met Gerheart (a buddy from church) who is my “source”.  Gerheart is also burning cooking oil in his Mercedes car and while closely following him to his shop I  was almost overwhelmed by the strong smell of fryer grease.  I had to back off a 100 ft or so from the car for some fresh air.

He has a small storage/processing  system set up in a storage building facility he owns.  It is a kluge of hoses, pumps, filters and drums, what a nightmare.   As an engineer this system would drive me crazy.  I am sure all this  just evolved over time and while it works,  the system can certainly be improved and simplified.  Using plastic hoses and moving pump hoses between containers just doesn’t cut it with me.     We are planning to collaborate (which probably means, he buys and I do the work) on improving the collection / filtration / storage process as to make it easier on both of us.  Once the improvements are completed, it should make the processing of oil very easy and quick.

The bootie….60 gal of cooking oil.  Now I have to filter it at home…

The cello performance was “Block Ice & Propane” by Erik Friedlander at the Memminger Auditorium at 7 pm.     I was busy in the shop, mixed up my arrival time so I arrived 45 minutes late for my usher obligation.   Fortunately I arrived in time to meet the coordinator before he left and get acounted for as “late” instead of a “no show” (a black mark on my record). 

The artist was most interesting because while he occasionally used his bow on the cello, he mainly plucked it which made the instrument sound like a guitar.  Very interesting.  The performance and cop0ositions were woven around stories of his youth in a multimedia memoir of Friedlander family road trips complete with campers, tourist traps, truck stops, and visits to kooky relatives. 

It was most enjoyable.

Tonight’s show was “Present Laughter”  presented at the Dock Street Theatre  ($40 – $75)

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The historic Dock Street Theatre reopens in 2010 after a three-year-long restoration – how better to commemorate the occasion than with the return of Spoleto favorite the Gate Theatre in an effervescent production of Noël Coward’s brilliant comedy of manners Present Laughter. Elegantly staged and luxuriously costumed, Present Laughter – an absolute sell-out success during a recent Dublin run – is a delight of barbed witticisms, ironic comedy, and, upon occasion, chaotic farce.   Approximately 2 hours, 45 minutes
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This show started at 8:30 pm for and supposedly ended around midnight.  It had the typical drawn out British humor but I was really tired, the ushers had to sit on the floor and I was having a hard time understanding the strong British accent.  I left at intermission with 1.5 hrs to go.