Message-ID: <405EF5D3.1000906@mail.viclink.com>
Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2004 06:18:59 -0800
From: Perry Mick <pjmick@mail.viclink.com>
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win95; en-US; rv:1.0.1) Gecko/20020823 Netscape/7.0
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: Fly Rotary <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
Subject: Contact Magazine Alternative Engine Fly-in
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit


I flew my EZ to the Contact Magazine Alternative Engine fly-in at 
Laughlin NV/Bullhead City AZ.

http://www.contactmagazine.com/roundUp.html

I had heard about it on Canard Aviators, but didn't realize it was also 
a tandem wing fly-in until I arrived there and saw the lineup of 
Dragonflies and Quickies, etc. I think the tandem wing gathering has 
been going on for years and they just combined it with the alternative 
engine thing. But it was a good time anyway, met some fun people. It 
apparently was much larger this year than in the past.

Klaus was there, gave an interesting talk. He asked if I wanted to race, 
of course I declined.

I was the rotary ambassador, since there were no other rotaries there. 
Hopefully I gave the the rotary a good impression, as I won the 
"farthest distance travelled" award (approx. 1000 nm one way). Maybe 
those Dragonflies don't have much fuel capacity?

Met a Cozy builder from Phoenix who plans to install a 13B and Tracy parts.

There were VW parts and Corvair engines. A 400 HP V8 engine producer 
from Arizona. One thing that was interesting to me, was a Corvair engine 
on a test stand, the starter and ring-gear were moved to the front 
(pusher/car) of the engine. I wondered if this could be done on the 
rotary.  It would move the starter/gear closer to the aircraft cg for 
better w&b, and allow the prop end to be made more compact. Maybe this 
idea is only appealing to a direct-drive guy like me.

-- 
Perry Mick
http://www.ductedfan.com


-- 
Perry Mick
Custom Composite Props
mick@bridgingworlds.com
http://www.ductedfan.com