Perfect Paper Airplane Poll: James May -vs- Me! (Top Gear vs AirPigz)

Making the internet rounds is this paper airplane from Top Gear's James May

Please vote now in the paper airplane poll at the bottom of the post!

 I'm happy to see that one of the Top Gearheads (the long hair James May) is getting both himself and paper airplanes some fresh exposure on the internets, but at the same time I admit I'm a little frustrated by it all. Is that paper airplane pictured above a big enough deal for all this attention? Sorry, but I think not. Seems a whole lot more like some sort of publicity stunt to me. Click on James May's ultimate paper plane to go to the post at RadioTimes.com to learn more about it and see the instruction video.

 If you want a paper airplane to really get excited about then we need to talk! I published a post four years ago with video assembly instructions and a pattern that can be printed on your printer at home to make not only the perfect paper airplane, but one that also has the coolest graphics I've ever seen on one. Plus, the design I present doesn't just have upturned wingtips, I've brought you awesome vertical fins that protrude right out of the nifty delta wing! And flight performance? Dude, my paper airplane with Pigged up graphics (and a staple and paper clip) will outperform May's cutesy design every single day of the week. Even more, you'll have to go searching for a piece of that funky A4 paper (8.267" x 11.692") he uses, but with mine, a good ole trusty piece of eightandahalfbyeleven is all you need.

(sadly, my fold-it video has barely over 8,000 views while some of the dumbest paper airplane videos have millions of views... I don't understand this world)

Click the pic to go to the original 12-23-08 post for the AirPigz perfect paper airplane!
 

 Truth is, I hope you build them both. I think paper airplanes are good for kids and adults alike (from non-pilots to jet drivers)... we need more paper airplanes in this world. But honestly, I think I've given the world a much better paper airplane! What do you think? Please vote in the poll below to speak out in the great perfect paper airplane debate : )

Fabulous View Of A Fokker 50 Takeoff In Iceland - mmm... Nice!

 The journey to finding this Fokker 50 takeoff video with the awesome perspective started with a desire to find a great video that showcased the sound of the Rolls Royce Dart turboprop engine. The Dart was a mainstay of many mid-sized prop airliners from the 1950's thru the 1980's... four of them powered the Vickers Viscount, and both the Hawker Siddeley HS748 and the Fokker F-27 were powered by two Darts, and both aircraft were built in rather large numbers back in the day. The Grumman Gulfstream 1 also had a pair of Darts. I was fortunate to get quite a bit of exposure to the G1 back in the 80's and that's where I really learned that the Darts had an awesome ear-piercing sound that I'm sure many people hated. I loved it. A lot! 

 But interestingly, this sweet video of the Fokker 50 departing Ísafjörður Airport in northwest Iceland (shot from up on a hill looking down) doesn't have any Rolls Royce Dart engines in it! The Fokker 50 was a 1980's updated version of the F-27 and one of the big updates was to replace the Darts with Pratt & Whitney Canada PW125B turboprops that put out 2,500 hp each. However, the engines aren't really the point of this 58 second video... it the amazing mountain and waterway setting along with the beautiful view looking down as the airplane makes a gentle turn immediately after takeoff as the gear comes up. Wow!

 Seeing a view like this is exactly the kind of thing that keeps my fire for flying burning nice and bright! And stay tuned, I'll keep looking for the perfect ear-piercing Dart video : )

This screenshot doesn't do this fabulous takeoff video justice... watch the video!

Back To The Future: Read The January 1983 FLYING Magazine (Happy New Year 2013!)

The shape of the future? Bellanca Skyrocket article from FLYING Magazine January 1983

The January 1983 issue of FLYING Magazine is an amazing read!

 When I posted my fantasy TBIRD 6 seater design I knew that it was meant to be the kind of airplane that would be cut from the same cloth as the Bellanca Skyrocket II. Hmm, you aren't familiar with the Bellanca Skyrocket II? There's good news then... FLYING Magazine from January 1983 (30 years ago!) has a great article on that incredible performing 6 seat aircraft. And Google Books just happens to have the entire magazine available online for you to read, just hit this link: FLYING Magazine January 1983 - the Skyrocket article starts on page 46.

 I won't tell you much about the Skyrocket II because I want you to read that very interesting article about it. But I will tell you that the airplane was powered by a 435 hp Continental engine and had a cruise speed over 300 mph! The Skyrocket II was the future back in the late 70's but possibly because it just sounded too good to be true, it never made it into production. (here's an AVweb article from Oshkosh 1999 about a more recent attempt to market this incredible airplane - scroll down to the article)

Burt Rutan back in the day: from a must-read article in FLYING Magazine January 1983

 How about a fascinating article on Burt Rutan from 1983 with text and pictures by Peter Garrison? It starts on page 60 and gives some great history on Burt's earlier work. I learned something that I don't remember ever knowing... that  the Scaled Composites was originally just called 'Scaled' and it was actually an acronym for: Scaled Composites: Advance Link to Efficient Development. I love learning these kinds of details! It's a great article for anyone interested in the amazing aeronautical career of Burt Rutan pre-Voyager, pre Boomerang, pre-SpaceShipOne.

 And there's a whole lot more in this January 1983 issue of FLYING Magazine... from an extensive article on the AT-6/SNJ/Harvard WWII trainer (page 36) to a fascinating accident account of a Rockwell Commander 700 crash that claimed six lives very needlessly (page 74). From an article on how modern airplanes were mostly just old airplanes made slightly different (page 52) to a boatload of small ads in the back for what was then a booming Ultralight marketplace. It's all fascinating to see... article after article that you are likely to find interesting in the January 1983 FLYING Magazine!

 So start your brand spanking new 2013 off with a trip 30 years back to the future! Click the cover pic below to go to the Google Books online archive of the magazine, and Happy New year!

Click the pic to go to the Google Books archive of FLYING Magazine January 1983

Would You Please Buy Me An Airplane? (Support AirPigz Today!)

VW powered Nieuport 11 replica homebuilt for sale on barnstormers.com - $8,900

Use this donate button to support AirPigz and help me buy this airplane!

($220 in donations as of 3:59pm EST on 1.13.13)
 

 This might be preposterous (btw, that's the first time I have ever spelled out preposterous in my life!) but I'm asking you to consider supporting AirPigz today with a least a $10 donation (or more, or much more if you are willing and able) so I can buy a very inexpensive flying machine. A great example, and one that I would absolutely consider if it's in good airworthy condition, is the Nieuport 11 replica pictured above that I found on barnstormers.com last night. It's a VW powered homebuilt with 160 TT and is available with an asking price of just $8,900. Just $10 from about 1,000 AirPigz friends gets me back in the air! I floated this idea on twitter and facebook last night and raised $50 already... so maybe I'm not so crazy afterall for asking : )

 But why would you give me money to buy an airplane? Good question, and I'm glad you asked. Well, I have a list of reasons starting with the fact that I'm four years into running AirPigz.com and the total amount of revenue thus far is around $1,000. That's pretty sad. And there are many reasons for it... but it isn't because I haven't been working hard! It's also not because I don't have a pretty good sized audience... I am now solidly over 50,000 page views each month with 25,000 or more unique visitors each month. It's taken quite a while to get to that level, but that's a pretty good aviation audience for a one-man operation. Seems like a small donation to support the one-man-show efforts here at AirPigz isn't really so preposterous! (you paid how much for that fancy cup of coffee?)

 Btw, this might be a good time to point out the CoolPix category here on AirPigz which includes a rather big collection of large images (many now also available in 'desktop image' sizes) - some are historical images, but many are photos I've captured and made available here for you to enjoy at no charge.

A weathered AirPigz logo and web address would look perfect on this Nieuport replica!
 

 I have spent an unbelievable amount of time developing this website as a fun and interesting outreach, and as an entertainment tool for aviation. But the ads you've seen here on AirPigz (except for the book ads like the one currently at the top right) have been just me trading promotion or service with other avgeeks. The book ads are a good idea, but so far the revenue there isn't enough to cover my $20/month blog platform fee. And, in the last 18 months, my day job as a ceramic tile and hardwood/laminate installer has picked back up to the point that it's about all I can do to keep the quality content showing up here 5 to 7 days a week. There's not much time left for figuring out the enigma of generating internet revenue. Most all of my day-job income is still going toward undoing a pretty severe financial crisis that occured in 2008/2009... I'm still on the deep stall side of the power curve!

 I'll happily answer any questions you have about my financial situation, but mostly I'd like to ask you to consider making a donation to support the quality avgeek content that I put out on a consistent basis... and if enough money comes in from this request to buy an airplane like this cute little Nieuport 11 replica, then you can feel good about putting a passionate avgeek, who has worked hard to bring the best of avgeekery to you, back in the air again. (I have about 1,000 total time but haven't been current since 1995)

Thank you for considering my request : )

Short Story: How Big Would A Ford Tri-Motor Be If You...

(click pic to enlarge) 1929 Ford Tri-Motor N414H at NAHI 2012 in Reno last September

 This is the first post in a new and occasional series called 'short story'. None too surprising, these will be short little stories that hopefully are bigger on interest and intrigue than they are on words. Here we go...

 I was incredibly fortunate as a teen to get to know Chuck LeMaster from Ottawa Kansas, a man who had a very interesting life associated with several unique aircraft, including at least two antique Ford Tri-Motors and one of only two modernized Fords known as the Bushmaster 2000. In 1976, when I was 15 years old, Chuck offered me the chance to go along and help his crew as they journeyed to the Dayton Air Show and then Oshkosh '75 to sell rides in his fabulous Ford 5-AT Tri-Motor, N414H.

(click pic to enlarge) Corrugated aluminum skin: Ford Tri-Motor N414H at NAHI 2012
 

 It was late July and we were at the Dayton Air Show as a steady stream of people stood in line to buy their tickets to ride in this grand ole antique aircraft. The Dayton event was a little different crowd than we'd have at Oshkosh. There were more general public people at Dayton, many who just had a very passing interest in aviation. As a crewmember who did whatever little tasks were needed, I spent most of my time during operating hours answering questions for the people in the line and keeping them moving to the point where they would empty their wallets.

 When you deal with several thousand people over a busy weekend airshow you wind up interacting with all kinds... and you hear all kinds of questions. Good questions, bad questions, and for me, at least one that I'll never forget. One woman in line was very serious when she wondered just how big a Ford Tri-Motor would be if you flattened out all the corrugations in the metal skin! We'd definitely never heard that one before! It was actually an interesting question, the kind a guy like me with a slightly twisted mind actually found pretty interesting. Even more interesting to me that it came from a woman. I give her high marks for really getting a grip on what that metal skin looked in cross section : )

(click pic to enlarge) Just how big would she be if you flattened out the corrugations?!
 

 I never took the time to figure out just how much taller the fuselage and how much longer the wings would be if you could flatten the ole girl out. Most likely I never will. But I will never ever forget the most interesting (and odd) question asked about N414H.

 I'll add that the very first entry in my very first logbook is for 5.0 hours of dual received (Ford Tri-Motor introduction xc) from Dayton Ohio to Oshkosh Wisconsin on 7-26-76 in N414H. The entry is signed by CFI Charles A. LeMaster. Wow... Thanx Chuck, I'll never ever forget that either!

NOTE: N414H is the only Ford Tri-Motor in the world you can get type rated! Learn more at FordTypeRatings.com

CoolPix: Piper Cub Perfection At Oshkosh 2012 (With Desktop Sizes)

(click pic for hi-res)  A J-3P (Lenappe radial engine) and a J-3C at Oshkosh 2012

 I propose a challenge: take any two Cessna 150's and position them however you like and then take your best picture of the two of them together... then put a hi-res version on the internet for the world to see. Will heartbeats quicken? How many people will say 'wow' in their head. How many will say 'wow' out loud? I suspect not very many. I say this not because I dislike the Cessna 150, it's a wildly acceptable little airplane. I say this because airplanes from the past had a passion and a love for flight engineered into them, and it's rare to find that today.

 I think this CoolPix image of the somewhat rare Lenappe radial powered Cub painted black and yellow with the iconic all-yellow Continental A-65 powered Cub in the fuzzy background makes my point. That image borders on art. But it's not almost art because I captured a phenomenal image but because those airplanes are just beautiful to look at. As wildly acceptable as Cessna 150's are, they are not very often described as beautiful to look at.

 I figured a nice avgeek reminder of the warmth of summer, the awesomeness of Oshkosh, and the beauty of the Piper Cub might be a really nice little pick-me-up for anyone experiencing some winter-like weather right now. As we look ahead to 2013 and set our sights on Spring getting back here so we can have more chances to get in the air, I hope this picture will help some of you realize that old-school airplanes like the Cub do more for the heart and soul (and stick and rudder skills) than our modern airplanes do. To push that idea even harder, I've made this image available in four of the most common desktop sizes so you can put it on your computer to help you get thru the winter. Enjoy : )

Two Piper Cubs at Oshkosh 2012 desktop pix:

1920x1080
1366x768
1280x800
1024x768

For more Cub love, check out airpigz.com/blog/category/cub

Video: Stinson 108, GoPro HD, And Some Ice And Snow!

 Since there's a little snow in the air in my neck of the woods (northern Indiana) and quite a bit of it on tap for the northeast, I thought a nice little ski-flying video would be appropriate. After turning over a lot of youtube rocks I finally found one I felt was well worth sharing. It's of a 1948 Stinson 108-3 being flown in Wisconsin back in February 2012.

 When the lakes freeze over and then get some snow on them, you often wind up with some great winter-only airfields to play with that have some really long runways!. I remember being a teen back in the mid 70's and getting the chance to hop the frozen lakes of southern Wisconsin in a friend's Aeronca Champ... this is an unusual and very satisfying way to fly.

 I highly encourage you to ride along on the Stinson in this video. Be sure to select the HD playback quality and go fullscreen if you want the best experience. You get a couple different views of the Stinson from the GoPro, and the airplane's shadow has been used to great effect in several of the scenes. I never knew a Stinson's shadow could look so cute! The best of the video comes after the first minute so don't give up too soon. You also get a well done synth music background for the journey that I felt actually worked quite well with the visuals.

 This video definitely makes me sing: Let it snow, let it snow. let it snow!

Video screenshot of the shadow of the Stinson-on-wheeled-skiis looking very cute!

Merry Christmas From All Of Us At AirPigz.com!

 Oh wait, there is no 'us' at AirPigz it's all just 'me', but that's perfect... instead of some mushy Happy Holidays or even worse Season's Greetings, I can easily, with great confidence and pleasure wish you a Merry Christmas!

 And when you get a Merry Christmas from me, you're getting a this-is-the-day-we-set-aside-to-acknowledge-the-birth-of-the-Savior-of-mankind. Yeah, Christmas really is all about Christ to me. I can't make it that way for you, but I'm sure not gonna hide the fact that this is exactly what it is to me.

 To me, flying is a creation of God, and the opportunity to see His green Earth from the sky is an incredible blessing. Far more important is the reality that God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to carry the penalty for the sins of those who will put their trust for salvation in Him and Him alone. (He is risen, He is risen indeed!)

For a little something extra, click past the jump for the poem: Twas The Night Before Jesus Came

Click to read more ...

Video: Early Christmas Gift from Slick - Don't Stop The Aviation: GoPro 2012

 'Slick' is back again already with another must see video. He's mixed some sweet GoPro footage from fun-flying a Mini-Max, a Piper Clipper and his single place Pitts together in what makes a really nice early Christmas present for avgeeks. He's titled it Don't Stop the Aviation: GoPro 2012. Before I say anything else, when you start the video don't get confused thinking it's a swanky Audi commercial or a Top Gear segment, that's all part of the video... you know, the trip to the airport part! Just sit back and enjoy 6 minutes and 22 seconds of three very different airplanes that all just drip the AirPigz tag line: LOVE TO FLY.

 And if you missed Slick's recent return to video editing (due to some time off from the Navy) then be sure to check out SlickHutto Takes A Spin Back In The Video Saddle... 2012 Fort Worth Air Show - you'll also finds links in that post to his ultra fab Oshkosh videos from 2009 - 2011. 

 I'm compelled once again to say what I've said when I've posted his other videos: thanx Slick : )

Screenshot showing the GoPro view of Slick rolling his single place Pitts Special

Wright On! Caption Contest #79 Has A Winner

 The number of captions and people voting were down a bit this time around... do you think the last minute Christmas shopping rush had anything to do with that? Ha! I was way ahead of the curve this year and got all my shopping done well over a week ago! (what the heck?)

 Anyway, there were indeed captioners and voters to make this fun little avgeek game come to life, and 'Steve' came out on top with the caption above. Congrats on the winning effort and I hope you've got plans to be at Oshkosh 2013 to fetch up your tasty bacon sandwich prize!

 This is the last caption contest of 2012, but there'll be another before long as we steam our way into the new year. Thanx again to everyone for playing along - it just wouldn't be any fun without you : )