I just got back from the EAA in Oshkosh and am fired up on experimental airplanes. That is what this blog is about.
I fly a Supercub on floats and am into free wheeling flying which is the only place today where one can really feel free. You can hop from lake to lake and in some cases fly into lakes that have no roads and no people. That type of freedom is very hard to find today. Ocean sailing is another place where one can find this type of freedom. I know because I used to own a Passport 42 that gave me and my wife freedom that few have ever enjoyed.
The point that I want to make is that out in my barn I have a Spratt flying boat with a VW engine that is all taken apart and is worthy of a first class restoration. It came to me by a very round about course and I know that it was built in Alaska of all places. I have a great appreciation for the early people in aviation who would be today the technical giants like those in Silicone Valley. This flying boat is very different from any other airplane that I know of. It does not have the normal type of controls, like ailerons, rudder and elevators. It has wings that can be independently manipulated. That is all, plus engine speed. When you visualize a person flying this flying boat, you can see how a person could change the angle of each wing in such a way as to be able to go up and down and turn. If you look at a bird flying, this is a little of what they do, only they have a tail that they can also modulate.
My next move is to see if I can find some place where this plane could be displayed for the public to appreciate. It is so different that most people would not believe that it ever could have flown. I think it could inspire young people to think bigger than the small square electronic boxes that they play with 90% of the time. Spratt was a real person who, in his time, thought out side the box while most people today don't seem to even consider thinking out side of the box.
The other observation at the EAA was that most of the visitors were a little long in the tooth. I saw very few young people. The few young people who I did see were younger than school age. Most people do not know that the electric car was invented several years before the first powered airplane. Today people are all excited about the electric car or a self driving car when they have no idea that airplanes have been self driving (flying) for at least 50 years. There is no free'r feeling than being at the controls of a small plane flying over the country side at 1,000 feet and watching the world like a bird. Most people have no idea of how clear the view is. You can see all kinds of details, even wild animals on the ground. I can even read road signs on many of the country roads.
The big question is, "What is it going to take to wake people up to this exciting world of flying?" It might be the sight of a plane like this Spratt flying boat and realize that it actually could fly.
I fly a Supercub on floats and am into free wheeling flying which is the only place today where one can really feel free. You can hop from lake to lake and in some cases fly into lakes that have no roads and no people. That type of freedom is very hard to find today. Ocean sailing is another place where one can find this type of freedom. I know because I used to own a Passport 42 that gave me and my wife freedom that few have ever enjoyed.
The point that I want to make is that out in my barn I have a Spratt flying boat with a VW engine that is all taken apart and is worthy of a first class restoration. It came to me by a very round about course and I know that it was built in Alaska of all places. I have a great appreciation for the early people in aviation who would be today the technical giants like those in Silicone Valley. This flying boat is very different from any other airplane that I know of. It does not have the normal type of controls, like ailerons, rudder and elevators. It has wings that can be independently manipulated. That is all, plus engine speed. When you visualize a person flying this flying boat, you can see how a person could change the angle of each wing in such a way as to be able to go up and down and turn. If you look at a bird flying, this is a little of what they do, only they have a tail that they can also modulate.
My next move is to see if I can find some place where this plane could be displayed for the public to appreciate. It is so different that most people would not believe that it ever could have flown. I think it could inspire young people to think bigger than the small square electronic boxes that they play with 90% of the time. Spratt was a real person who, in his time, thought out side the box while most people today don't seem to even consider thinking out side of the box.
The other observation at the EAA was that most of the visitors were a little long in the tooth. I saw very few young people. The few young people who I did see were younger than school age. Most people do not know that the electric car was invented several years before the first powered airplane. Today people are all excited about the electric car or a self driving car when they have no idea that airplanes have been self driving (flying) for at least 50 years. There is no free'r feeling than being at the controls of a small plane flying over the country side at 1,000 feet and watching the world like a bird. Most people have no idea of how clear the view is. You can see all kinds of details, even wild animals on the ground. I can even read road signs on many of the country roads.
The big question is, "What is it going to take to wake people up to this exciting world of flying?" It might be the sight of a plane like this Spratt flying boat and realize that it actually could fly.
