On Tue, 06 Jul 2004 16:55:41 -0400, Matt Whiting
wrote:

Badwater Bill wrote:


Mr. J.Muretta did what I would call a overview article. Not wanting to
carry on but if you or your friends are under 200 lbs and want to fly
in the plane we offer to have you bring your own GPS and come fly with
us anytime so you may draw your own conclusions.

Jess Meyers
Belted Air Power

That's a bummer. I still weight 225, although I'm down from 235 and
working towards 210. I don't think I'll ever see 200 again... :-(


Matt

Ahh, don't worry about it Matt. Come in the late autumn and they'll
download some fuel so you can fit your fat ass into it. My fat ass
test flew it for a long time and I weighed 230 when I did it.

In fact I talked with Jess last night and I think I'm going back on
the insurance. I'll take you for a ride when you come.

During flight-test, when I needed a data collector, I took Tom Jones.
Tom is a giant man in spirit but only weighs about 130 or so (that's
why the puke won so many motorcycle races in the olden days).

In fact Bill Harold and Tom are about the same size. Dr. Harold or
Tom easily fit into the thing with my gelatinous, bloated, fat ass in
the left seat. I'm sure that you'll fit fine.

Come on over here when the temps go back down and we'll get you up
even if I have to fly it.

Now, that's a concept. Here's the question:

Are YOU willing to fly with BWB as PIC? Do you have the guts? Do you
have the stamina? Hell, I might go berserk and take you to Miami on a
test flight....or maybe Costa Rica. Can you accept what might happen
to you? Are you The Man?

Only kidding. I think you are serious and you should examine this
firewall forward. I'll tell you one thing however, don't change any
of it. Build it just like Jess and Tom and Bill tell you to build it.
If you are a tinker-er and you want to screw with things, this is not
it. IF you build it as they tell you to build it, most likely it
will work fine. Don't modify anything. Go by the plans. They've
spent years perfecting all this stuff. Don't put your opinion into
the loop.

I say this because we've seen the whole spectrum of builders. I
talked with a guy today who's helping me with my Legacy. He told me
he overheard a conversation at Osh last year when a builder cornered
Burt Rutan and Mike Melville between booths as they were going to
lunch.

The guy asked his question of them both and Burt shook his head no,
"Build it exactly by the plans."

Then the guy says, "But if I cut this piece and do that what will
happen?"

Burt said, "Don't do that. Build it by the plans."

The guy came back with another question, sliding around the first
question with another concept and Burt said, "Build is EXACTLY as the
plans say to build it."

Then the guy stopped and thought for a moment and had another come
back, "What if I cut the skin and put in some foam and then E-glass it
to conform....."

Mike jumped in at that point and said, "Build it exactly as the plans
say to build it."

Then both Burt and Mike walked away knowing they had an idiot on their
hands.

Tom Jones heard Burt say to another individual, "Look you can do
anything you want to do in this category and go fly it. However, if
you modify it in any way that is not in accordance with the plans,
then it's YOURS, it's not my design."

I'm in a good mood tonight and I'm sort of philosophical while I'm in
this "Good" mood, so I'm going to give you guys some advice.

Don't ever modify anything from the plans if you build a kit or a
plans-built airplane. You don't know what the designer has done to
keep weight to a minimum and allow maximum strength for given part,
like a wing or a tail, etc. Don't modify anything. It's all been
CAD-CAM designed by computers and you don't have the thousands of
dollars (or hours) available to you to check all the scenarios of your
modification.

Another thing. If you strengthen a certain area you transfer load and
stress to that area. That is complicated to explain but let me try
just briefly. If you fix a 6 foot 1 inch diameter balsa-wood dowel to
a bench by clamping it's end to the bench, you might be able to put a
1pound weight out at the other end and the thing will flex and bow and
carry that load. This is because you are using the entire piece to
carry that load. If you clamp the same piece of wood so that only 4
inches protrude from the bench and you put a 1 pound weight on it, it
will shear off at the point where it meets the bench.

This is what happens when you abitrarily strengthen a certain area of
a wing or any other part of an airplane. You concentrate the loads to
that area.

Think of it this way: A willow bends in the wind. If you tie it down
a foot from the top of a branch, the wind might shear if off.

So, in building a homebuilt airplane, all this comes into play. Don't
second-guess what the computer calcs have done. Don't shore up one
area because YOU think it's weak there. It may be designed to be weak
at that position.

Harmonics is another issue. If you change things, you change the
resonance frequencies of the structure. That's the last thing you
would ever want to do.

So, BWB's advice for the day it DON'T CHANGE A ****ING THING. Build
the thing exactly like the designer and kit manufacturer tells you to
build it. After you build 50 of them then you might have a right to
have some input.

BWB