Steve and Lee Ann Carlson

Team 35 at Recklaw

Miriam Talley, Jill and Lee Ann Carlson

I have many things to tell you about this month, from this month’s program, to first flights, to fly-ins, to new project launches.

Our presenter this month is our own Deck Yoes with a program called “A Non-pilot’s View of Carrier Operations.” This will be preceded by the culinary musings of Robert Edwards and Jeorg Thees. Just watching these two in the kitchen will be worth the price of the meal.

Last Thursday, 16 October, my daughter and I flew down to SAT from Boerne Stage. We parked at the Sino Swearingen ramp to witness a company first. Serial number 003 had its first night flight. This was the third first for our company Thursday. Earlier in the day, serial number 004 had its first flight, so we now have two test articles in the flight test program. We also received our first Type Inspection Authorization, another significant milestone on the road to certification.

Another Recklaw has come and gone. This was my family’s third year of Recklaw and each one has been unique. Our first trip to Recklaw in 2001 was in the aero club Warrior. The weekend was fantastic with over 300 airplanes in attendance. We were struck by the efficiency of the operation as planes were parked wing tip to wing tip down the 4000 ft. grass runway and into two large fields at the southern approach. Last year we were impressed by how long low ceilings and rain can last. About eight airplanes snuck in under the scud. Pilots are a resourceful lot, though, so in addition to enjoying an intimate gathering in the hangar hosted by the Masons, we also toured the Texas State Railroad’s restoration yard in Rusk.

This year we were trying to get an airplane to fly and on Saturday we nearly convinced ourselves that if we could just sneak out there, Sunday would be bright and sunny. The weather guessers really missed this one. While Friday was a great day for the beginning of the fly in, things went downhill from there. Saturday we drove out there, chasing the rain showers all the way. The road never dried, but we were never rained on, either. We arrived at the Flying M and found the grounds were well soaked, but as usual, the event was well organized and everyone was there to enjoy airplanes and a fair bunch of them showed up. It was not packed like 2001, but there were probably 150 planes in all. The Masons put on a great Saturday night feast with dedicated volunteers from one of the area chapters serving it up. Sunday morning was a good solid pancake and egg and bacon breakfast followed by more heavy showers until about 10:30 or 11:00.

There was a fair turn out from San Antonio this year. I heard that the Lou Mason and Don Staats clans were around early Saturday, and then when we got there we found the Talleys, Bob Cabe, Brad Marcum, and from Zuehl, Dave Caffey, Gayle Ketchum, and Joe Long. Most of you know Dave Caffey as the people mover coordinator for SWRFI this past May.

This year we were determined to ride in the trains we had seen the year before. Our tickets were for the Rusk train leaving at 11:00. Fortunately the rain quit by the time we were at the station. We enjoyed a scenic ride behind Diesel-Electric power from Rusk to Palestine and back. The steam power we were anticipating was broken down and will be for a while. The crews on the train were friendly and warm to our wayward pilot group. They made us feel like one of the family. This is a definite must-do trip to add to your list.

Now, for the project launch. 21 October marks the receipt of plans and therefore the official beginning of our new airplane. It started long ago of course, but the immediate launch went something like this. It was two weeks ago when the EAA chapter members began stirrings about Mark Brown's airplane. He designed the Starlite many moons ago, before the Pulsar. The design and tooling for the Pulsar were sold and the kit is still being produced, but he kept the plans and tooling for the single seat Starlite and allowed as how a few folks going in together could get a flock of these planes together fairly cheaply and quickly. I mulled this over a bit and then reported back to "the one who lights my life". I said that this would be a fun project for us to have. She said how many seats does it have? I said one. She said no. And so, we're building a Cozy. This is a four seat derivative of the Rutan designed Long EZE. It is moldless foam core composite with an O-360 on the back end. It builds in chapters and you're pretty well done by chapter 24. The first three chapters are education and test pieces to build experience and confidence in the materials before making any flying parts. The expected timeframe is three to five years. And so the keel is laid...

Our shed has been improved to enable the garage to be emptied. We saw Brad Doppelt’s project after the meeting last month and have a generous offer of a tour of Jon Farr’s Cozy at Boerne Stage. We have been reviewing the plans, the bill of materials, and the CAFÉ report which is available online from the EAA website. After the shed is complete, we will build the workbench using a good tip from Brad Doppelt on getting it level.

It may be true to say this project has been aborning for a long while, as I went to Nat Puffer’s Cozy forum and took the composite workshop at Oshkosh, but it took my wife and her ability to ask the important questions to make the decision easy.

Steve Carlson
Veepguy