P6E Hawk Replica on our field

My friend (and aircraft mechanic) Keith Roof has just about finished
his Curtis P6E Hawk. Here is a short video I took of a taxi/engine
test:

http://alexisparkinn.com/photogaller...ofsP6EHawk.wmv

(If that wraps funny, try this:
http://tinyurl.com/ytuhym )

(If you're bored, and want to kill the rest of the day, see the rest
of our aviation videos he
http://alexisparkinn.com/aviation_videos.htm . We've got almost 400
of 'em now!)

I've watched this project since it was nothing but a stack of
blueprints in Keith's shop, and I've got to tell you, it's been an
amazing thing to witness. I've seen plenty of RVs, Glasairs, and
LongEZs come together -- but I've NEVER seen a plane that had to be
built entirely from scratch, down to the smallest fitting and rib.
The ingenuity and expertise required to pull this off is just
astounding.

(The engine is a Chevy 350 V8, BTW. It sure sounds great with
straight pipes!)

We're all eager to see it fly!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

On Mar 28, 7:13 am, "Jay Honeck" wrote:
but I've NEVER seen a plane that had to be
built entirely from scratch, down to the smallest fitting and rib.

Cool Beans!

A scratch-built ship will make you want to start drinking. Its also a
good way to loose a great woman and gain 20 pounds. Its amazing just
how much labor and time go into making mundane things like strut ends
and custom fittings.

Harry Frey
Wright Brothers Enterprises

Jay Honeck wrote:
I've seen plenty of RVs, Glasairs, and
LongEZs come together -- but I've NEVER seen a plane that had to be
built entirely from scratch, down to the smallest fitting and rib.
The ingenuity and expertise required to pull this off is just
astounding.


There are lots of guys building Zenith 601s and 701s that are doing it from
scratch. The airframe is just a pile of aluminium sheets and boxes full of
rivets. I couldn't do it as much for the time as the skill required but I've
replaced some screwed up kit parts with ones I made myself. Most builders
have.

That said, it looks like that builder did a wonderful job.

That said, it looks like that builder did a wonderful job.

Keith is an amazing guy. You'd never guess it to look at him, and he
doesn't have an arrogant bone in his body, but he's truly a mechanical
genius. He just sees things that others don't, and can intuit his way
to solutions that elude everyone else.

What makes him so unusual is that he combines this unusual ability
with a humble willingness to help others, and an incredible work
ethic. Not only can he identify problems quickly, he can fix them
FAST. I've seen him fix problems on my plane in minutes (he's our
A&P) that would have taken the corporate shop on the field several
days to accomplish.

He also is the guy who designed and built the "fuselage" for our Kiwi
Flight SImulator. See it he
http://www.alexisparkinn.com/flight_simulator.htm

We can't wait to see his Hawk fly!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

On 28 Mar 2007 06:13:42 -0700, "Jay Honeck"
wrote:

My friend (and aircraft mechanic) Keith Roof has just about finished
his Curtis P6E Hawk. Here is a short video I took of a taxi/engine
test:


Jay:

Great quality video. Can I get you to share how you got such a fine
looking video?

I use a Panasonic MiniDV camera and Adobe Premier Elements software
for my video work but I am not getting as nice a picture as you have
shown.

Here is a link to a page at the New England Model Engineering Society
website You might especially want to look at Rollie Gaucher's scale
Bentley Rotary aircraft engine.

http://neme-s.org/NEMES_2007/nemes_annual_show_2007.htm

Any tips you care to offer will be greatly appreciated!

Errol Groff

Instructor, Manufacturing Technology
H.H. Ellis Technical High School
613 Upper Maple Street
Danielson, CT 06239

New England Model Engineering Society
www.neme-s.org