Pitts special doing aerobatics, evening May 5th 2014

[davecessna]

I heard a Pitts special doing shenanigans in the Ottawa-area last night around 7:30PM, any of you guys? I know there are a couple of you who fly Pitts in that area. I nearly asked the guy if he knew who Colonel Sanders was, but it sounded like he was out of range by the time I worked up the courage.

I was the happy little 152LR going to Kingston.

[pdw]

That would've had to be near Smiths Falls.

[Colonel Sanders]

v4 in the DR109:



What a roll rate! Interesting landing, too.

[kamikaze]

"That would've had to be near Smiths Falls."

There's also one that flies out of YND ...

[cgzro]

I fly out of YND and I was up Monday night near Thurso and over YND but YND is not on
the way to Kingston from Ottawa unless you get seriously lost !

I'm guessing all 4 Piits in the Ottawa area
were up Monday after the crap weekend we had!

[Colonel Sanders]

4 Pitts in the Ottawa area

5, I think. 4 x S-2B and 1 x S-1T.

Kenny sold his S-1S.

[cgzro]

We need to get them all up again for some formation.

[Colonel Sanders]

We can try May 24/25 @ CYND:

[swervin]

CS do you have a PIREP on the 109. I always liked the looks of it. I had plans for the 107 years ago but didn't get far with it...

[Colonel Sanders]

If you think of an Extra 300 with a
wood wing, that costs 1/4 as much
you're in the ballpark.

I haven't flown it enough to poke
in all the corners (eg tumbles) but
the impression I got was an awful
lot of bang for the buck. Incredible
roll rate. Pulls G like a bandit without
any complaint.

And I will say, "interesting" landing.

Between the nose and the wing, you
are completely blind in the three point
attitude, at least from the back seat.
The impression I got was a whiff of
WWII fighter-ish. Terribly nostalgic.

Combine that with an elevator that
was much more effective than I
expected at slow speed, and I suspect
99.999% of pilots would find their
first landing "interesting".

Mind you, I didn't get any dual or read
up about it on the internet or anything -
I just jumped in and went. It had a
pumped-up parallel-valve 540 which is
very much an old friend. 3-blade counter
weighted MT prop with slightly fatter blades
for the 310hp - another very old friend.
4130 tube frame fuselage - 40 years flying
those. The wing was a work of art. People
don't believe it's wood.

[swervin]

Sounds great. It's too bad the plane never really took off. Very few have been built. There is a new seller of kits and you can now get plans for it as we'll at http://www.ashcraftaeroworks.com/

Is the one you flew Canadian or US registered?

[Colonel Sanders]

To the best of my knowledge, there are only
two DR-107's registered in Canada, and no
DR-109's, but it's hard to be sure because
of the nearly unlimited artistic creativity
expressed by builders when it comes to
manufacturer and model names at registration
time.

[5x5]

It's a small and funny world sometime. My buddy and I met Todd Ashcroft, the designer of the DR-109, on a bench in the shade (of course) at Oshkosh last year. Very interesting guy with lots of cool stories.

I always strike up a conversation with anyone I sit down near because everyone at Osh is passionate about aviation and even if they aren't a pilot will always have some interesting connection to flying. It's one of my favourite parts of the whole event.

[Colonel Sanders]

Todd Ashcroft, the designer of the DR-109

Uh, no. He might be the current torch
holder, but Dan Rihn (son of Dick Rihn)
was the designer of the DR-107, DR-108
and DR-109. Talked to Dan at Osh a couple
times, back in the 90's.

DR-107 was plans from Spruce, wing kit
from Bill Scheunemann and fuselages from
either Doug Dodge (who thinks I am the
anti-Christ, maybe he's right) or Roger Rourke.
It was the single-seat 4 cyl "teaser". I
bought plans and a wing kit for the -107,
never got around to building it. A friend
of mine is now, 20 years later, which is nice.

The DR-109 (two-seater) was supposed to
be the "cash-in" - economical Extra, with
Doug Dodge selling the fuselages, and BillS
selling the box-spar wings. No plans. But it
didn't work out that way. You can get plans
now, I think.

There were never the number of DR-107
and DR-109's produced that were expected.
I don't think anyone ever built a -108.

The IAC was expecting so many DR-107's
to be built that they created it's own contest
category. That never panned out.

[5x5]

thanks for catching me on that. Looking at his website now I'm recalling he had designed and was building his own creation he calls "Peaches" and that he was selling the 109 kits. I guess I just assumed he'd also designed the 109.

Always good to learn more of the story.

[Colonel Sanders]

I'm looking forward to making friends with
both the -107 and -109. Too bad there aren't
any ICAS ACE's in Canada - it would be nice
to add them to my SAC.

It's funny - I talked to TC, they say there are
too many ICAS ACE's in Canada, and we don't
need any more. I can't find any. I used to
fly one up from Florida every year for my
renewal, but he's dead now.

[swervin]

Is the 109 based in Smith Falls?

[Colonel Sanders]

Not sure where you're based but feel
free to stop by CYSH - just give me a
heads up.

[swervin]

Thanks for the offer Colonel. I'll try doing that sometime this summer. I live at CMA2. It's not far from Smith Falls.

[jamesel]

I guess it shows how important airshow aerobatics is to TC, if they would consider 4 ACEs sufficient for all of Canada. John Mzarek in BC, Bill Carter & Ken Fowler in AB doesn't leave much for the rest of the country. I imagine it will stay cheaper to import an American!
(Rob Mitchell only does Jet/Warbird evals)

[Colonel Sanders]

Scratch lives in BC last I heard, so that
makes 4 ICAS ACE's for BC and Alberta
and none for SK, MB, ON, QC and the
east coast.

Funny how TC tells me that we have "too
many ICAS ACE's". I don't think they are
terribly concerned with the tens of thousands
of dollars that they regularly cost me. One
might even suspect that was rather the point.

ICAS's recent rule changes requiring you NOT
to use the same ACE makes the problem worse.

[Pop n Fresh]

There's lots of places to make noise upside down around here, as long as the cows don't get all riled up. Just stay away from the new houses built by the airport.

[Colonel Sanders]

Neat view of the airport:

[B52]

What sort of Helmet is Eric wearing in the pitts pics?
My David Clark keeps coming off.

Is it http://www.aircraftspruce.ca/catalog/av ... lmets2.php
or are there other options?

[cgzro]

I recently mounted my Telex 50d earcups and boom mic in a bonehead slydive helmet.
I tried lots of other helmets but in the S1 there was no room. In the B you can wear Hgu though.