Everyone I’ve talked to lately seems to only be concerned about the weather. I’m not just talking about my pilot acquaintances, but non-flying folks as well! Unfortunately, the flying and non-flying people have had very different opinions about it. Non-pilots love the warm, sunny conditions we’ve seen. It has to be one of the warmest Decembers on record. Pilots, on the other hand, have hated it. All I’ve heard is how windy it’s been! Okay, non-pilots have noticed the winds as well, but it doesn’t seem to be as much an issue for them. I had ten days off over Christmas and the only flyable days seemed to be the couple of days I spent at the lake. The rest of the break was spent hoping the winds would calm down enough to fly.

Fortunately, the Christmas break wasn’t a total aviation loss. I spent a lot of time working on the Buttercup. With the AME license and other distractions out of the way, I was able to focus on the project that’s been languishing in the garage for the past three months. I had a number of drawings to design after my educational talk with the Buttercup’s designer (okay, the Buttercup’s reverse engineer), Earl Luce, this summer. The major changes I’m incorporating are the mass and aerodynamic balances on the elevator and ailerons.

This has meant redesigning the wing tips. Wittman’s original Buttercup was a work in progress which was finally solidified when he died. Over the years he used the plane as a test bed for a number of designs which were later incorporated in his newer design, the Tailwinds. The wingtip was one of the last changes where he removed the normal type tip for a 3’ long, double tapered design which greatly increased take-off and climb performance without reducing the cruise speed. To incorporate this change, he designed it out of steel so that it could be easily slipped over and bolted to the existing spar stubs. The resulting setup looks a little disjointed. I’ve made some changes so the tip looks like its part of the wing, rather than something stuck on after the fact.

In all fairness to Earl, his objective was to build a replica of the Buttercup in its final design iteration, not to improve upon it. However, he has a lot of good ideas that he’d like to incorporate in future projects. I was lucky enough to spend a couple of hours with him this summer and get some great ideas! With all that done, I’m now starting in on the final assembly of the wing by cutting spars and building the last eight ribs.

Another change I’m incorporating is electric flaps. As much as I like manual flaps, the flap lever on the Buttercup sits directly behind the center mounted stick. This led to the unique stick design which extends from the center stick, over the pilot’s right leg then down in the center. This allows you to fly with the left hand and use the flap with the right. Using an electric flap actuator from the Vans RV series, I’ve removed the lever altogether and lightened the structure slightly. This will allow me to use the center stick without the extension with the throttle mounted on the left of the panel (with a second on the far right for the co-pilot … maybe).

To say the least, I’ve become quite excited about the project again and have gone back at it with a renewed sense of vigor!

With all this energy and vigor, I was all set to spend this weekend in the basement working on the wings when an amazing thing happened… the winds stopped! Well, they may not have stopped, exactly; but they were quite light! This led to a fantastic day of flying today (January 7th). With all that warm wind recently most of the fields were bare and dry so off we went to Linden for lunch. Later we headed to the new North 40 strip just northwest of Olds followed by a nice sightseeing cruise to the west over Sundre before returning for circuits in Carstairs. Considering the chatter on the radio, it sounded as though most of the club’s members were in the air today.

See you all on Wednesday!