"Have you finished building a Limited Pennyplane yet, (with innovations)
Gary Hinze?"
No, I have not built anything yet. Several other things have required my
time. I have collected the Pennyplane kits that I have and downloaded plans
from the Internet. Dug out some reference materials to reread; Gitlow,
Williams, Barker and Coslick. I have given some thought to propeller design. I had
some ideas of how to make a true helical pitch prop, but my research on
props has convinced me that helical pitch is not the best. I am not sure what is
the best distribution of pitch, need to do a lot more research and thinking.
My prop making methods can accommodate any pitch distribution, though, so
that work was not wasted. I developed a blade plan form that is hard to
believe, it looks like a jib sail with rounded corners. I have opened two lines
of investigation into finding a method of measuring propeller efficiency,
beyond the one I mentioned before that does not work. Spent three evenings on
one without reaching a conclusion. I think it may not work. The other is a
practical test method that should be easy to put into practice, but requires
construction of a family or families of propellers to test individually. It
does not give a numerical value for prop efficiency, but allows comparison and
selection of the best. My last project took the propeller as given. In
this project, the propeller is an essential part of the development program. My
flying night has been taken up getting the kids class up. I will have to
back off on my involvement there. I probably should build an airplane and
begin glide tests while working on the propeller design. I can get something
done on CG, attack angle, sink rate and pitch trim so the plane will be ready
when the props are ready for testing. Unfortunately I have unavoidable
commitments that will take up a lot of my free time. I expect to be subpoenaed for
deposition next week in a complicated wrongful termination case and will be
working with the attorneys to negotiate a settlement agreement, if possible.
This means reviewing a ton of paperwork, preparing documentary evidence and
developing a negotiation strategy.
Gary Hinze
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Received on Sun Apr 29 2007 - 01:43:02 CEST