Oct 04 2009

Web-Slinger is alive!

 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”.    

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

1 Comment

  • By Alex Becker, October 5, 2009 @ 2:15 pm

    Nick,
    Nice job with the blog and congratulations to Jerry Schneider!

    In case you’re wondering about the Cozy on Jacksonville’s frequency Sunday afternoon, that was me. I sold my Long-Ez (N57AM) and was flying in the Cozy MKIV (N751RC). After spending the weekend at my brother’s home in Fort Lauderdale, we decided to beat the weather and fly back to Charlotte one day early.

    By the way, Rough River was very wet this year. You picked a good year to skip the event.

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