Thanks, Jeff.  Actually, Tracy and I concluded that with cores of rotary interest forming in various parts of the country (Texas for example), that folks no longer had to travel across the continent (to Sun & Fun) to find rotary fliers.   At one time, Sun & Fun (perhaps Copper State and Oshkosh) were about the only places to find flying rotary aircraft, but that is no longer true.

 

But, it is nice to meet fresh faces and installations – I mean looking under the cowl of the regular 4 or 5 gets a bit boring after the first 5 years {:>).

 

2010 will  the 15^th year since Tracy Crook started his rotary Odyssey – and blazed the path for the rest of us and I was thinking it would be nice if next year we could amass a number or rotary powered aircraft at Sun & Fun.  Be good press to have 10 ( or more)  rotary aircraft filling the first 2 or 3 rows of auto alley there at Sun & Fun.

 

I certainly understand that unlike myself, most folks continue to have to keep food on the table and roof over the head by being gainfully employed which certain eats into project time.  I continue to be employed (as the COO (chief operating officer) of the small LLC which the wife is President), but compensation sucks {:>) so while employed – just not gainfully.

 

In any case, we really do have a great time – the only meeting that has exceeded it is of course the Rotary Round up at Shady Bend in the fall.

 

Ed

 

 

Hi Ed, I can understand your disappointment on the lack of flying rotaries at SNF. Apathy or lack of participation is very common in most clubs; usually there are a handful of people who “drive the bus” while the rest enjoy the ride. If I lived about 600 miles closer, was retired and had about 100 hours on my rotary installation there may have been some fresh BS around the camp ground … keep driving the bus Ed, maybe in a year or two …   Jeff

 

 

Great weather at Sun & Fun after running a gauntlet of two squall lines across Northern Florida on Monday on the way down.  Attendance seemed to be down a bit, but saw a number of old friends and made some new ones.

 

First morning, I thought Tracy and I would be the only rotary powered aircraft on “Auto Row”, but Bill Eslick and his wife  Linda showed up and the Chuck Dunlop flew his yellow bird in from Arizona.  So we ended up with 4 rotary powered birds and one Subaru installation that started out as one of Eggenfellers  FWF units and got extensively modified including the owner (Larry) own gear box design.  He also removed the two GM cores that were up front (similar to mine but that had no ducting on the Eggenfeller installation) and placed a huge radiator back of the engine.  Apparently it was working OK.

 

I think there were a couple of Corvair engines in some Kr2 aircraft, but that was about it.

 

The Cozy Girrls were there with their products tailored for the canard birds and an very nice  aluminum bezel (goes better with glass cockpit styles than my “steam gauge” format) which remotes the display and control buttons of my EFISM unit.   Ed Klepeis was there with his fine looking radiators and other components.  Ed’s been suggesting I should exchange my old GM cores for some of his fine radiators, but I keep resisting as long as the cores keep doing the job.  So I kept a close eye on Ed to make sure he didn’t approach my aircraft with an ice pick {:>}.

 

As some of you know, I got dragged over to the “dark side” and got talked into designing a monitor for the Emag/Pmag electronic ignition system.  Got to demonstrate it to the Emag guys and they were favorably impressed, so it looks like right now me and my partner will be the first ones to have a unit on the street.  But, I’m sure the EFISM big guys won’t be far behind.

 

I guess the only thing a bit disappointing is that after 10 years, we still don’t have more of the flying rotary’s show up.  But, certainly trying to make it here from California and other distant places given the distance and weather can be problematic.

 

Its not that I’m getting tired of seeing the same faces, but would be nice to see a “second generation” of 3 or 4 installations sitting along side us old guys with our old mounts.

 

In any case, the bull sessions were great and we had our own little camping area were most of us were able to camp out.

 

Hope to see more of you there next year.

 

Ed 

 

Ed Anderson

Rv-6A N494BW Rotary Powered

Matthews, NC

eanderson@carolina.rr.com

http://www.andersonee.com

http://www.dmack.net/mazda/index.html

http://www.flyrotary.com/

http://members.cox.net/rogersda/rotary/configs.htm#N494BW

http://www.rotaryaviation.com/Rotorhead%20Truth.htm

 

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