BD-4 BUILDERS NORTHWEST

NEWSLETTER

Issue 9, December 1985

Dear BD-4 Builders and Owners,

The summer fly-in time is over and most of us are probably trying to get. the vacation and gas bills paid . The kids are happy to have a few weekends off (from fly-ins) so they can play with their friends. I have to admit that I've also had my fill for awhile. At the last fly-in I didn't even look at all the airplanes - only the BD-4s (what I call useful aircraft).

CAFE 400

I've received many calls and letters recently and everyone thinks the BD-4 was short changed in the CAFE 400 coverage. I have a hit of heart-burn about that too - especially the part about "super modified" HD-4. The airplane was carefully faired in as all airplanes should be. and the only modification was the windshield. They could have at least: called for same information on the airplane. I suppose a BD-4 doesn't bring in much advertising money and so is ignored.

I plan to fly the CAFE 400 again in 1984 to show that 1983 was not a fluke. I get the feeling that they think we somehow cheated. Rutan was heard to mutter something about seat width requirements (referring to my back seat I suppose). He is also trying to get a special Exhibition Class so he can race by himself?

Mike Smith turned in a dazzling performance in his 6 place Bonanza Gut I was told over a year ago that he had the engine reworked and gets about 15% better efficiency than normal. He has high compression pistons which got him into a detonation problem going around the second pylon. I thought he was flying a certified aircraft? class.

A fun experiment for the EXPERIMENTAL class would be to have an adjustable spark advance for when running in a lean condition. The flame front travels slower in a lean mixture so an advanced spark will give more torque. Tests by Machen Inc.  show up to 20% lower fuel burn. With a 15% lower fuel burn, the BD-4 would beat Mike Smith's 6 place - a real accomplishment. If anyone has specific information or methods, please write something on it for the newsletter.

I have been trying to get some BD-4 flyers to enter the race this year so we can take all 3 top places in the 3 or more category. Any BD-4 should be able to beat the 1.9 million or so set by the Defiant. Do some numbers:  fill the airplane with 30 - 35 gallons of gas, figure passenger load allowable (experimental gross weight is set by the builder, I flew at about 2270 lbs.) and fly a 400 statute mile course doing three climbs to 6000 ft. and descents to 500 ft. to simulate the pylon turns. Compute your score by taking: cabin payload X average speed in statute MPH X miles per gallon. Climbs should be 65 to 70% power and 130 MPH, cruise at 60% power and descend at 30% power and 600 ft/min. If you get 18 MPG, 155 MPH, and 700 16 passenger load (200 lbs./seat is maximum allowed), you get almost 2 million points!

If anyone is really interested - write me a note and I will copy all of last years material and send it to you along with other useful information.

OSHKOSH LBF 500

The LBF is more of a speed race rather than the CAFE 400'5 "how well does your aircraft carry passengers" theme. I considered running in the LBF this year as it was the first year that 4 place aircraft were allowed. The late entry fee and logistics stopped me. The LBF requires that you get to Fond du Lac and then 2000 miles from home, drain all your fuel.

Gene Selchow flew the LBF this year with his 180 HP, 29 foot wingspan BD-4. He flew as a 3 place airplane because the back seat is narrower than allowed in their rules. He could have flown as a 4 place but would have been allowed less fuel (192 lbs.) than a 4 place (204 lbs.) and would have to prove a sustained speed of over 190 MPH to qualify. Last year Lopresti of Mooney fame flew a Mooney 201 and didn't quite make the 190 MPH mark. For some reason he didn't race this year. Gene completed the race but exceeded the time allowed (3 hrs., 5 min.) and had excessive fuel burn (over 168 lbs.). Gene's BD-4 does not have a full set of fairings yet or a curved windshield. His long wings might help a bit in the CAFE 400 but I think they would hurt in the LBF as speed is more of a factor. Gene says he intends to continue to clean up 375BD and see what he can do next year. He has generously offered his logistics support (read ground crew and gas cans) to help me if I want to race next year. I intend to be there

Gene, thanks.

If the BD-4 can make 190+ MPH at 75% Gower (10.5 GPH), it would have placed fifth or sixth in the overall average speed (Lowers competition), a second or third in the economy race (Baker competition), and sixth in the fastest lap (Falck competition). Can a BD-4 do it? I don't think mine is far from it. Most of us don't have very good low level, high power numbers on our aircraft - maybe Gene will write a report to tell us how it was?

I was just interrupted by a phone call from Lloyd Brekke from Florida. For those of you new to the BD-4, Lloyd and his wife Janice worked far Bede for a few years. Lloyd now works for Piper Aircraft. Lloyd's BD-4 has a turbo-charged Lycoming IO-360, conventional gear, a new type of fiberglass wing, and the straight backed and wider rear cabin. Lloyd called to let us know that he is thinking about running the LBF 500 next year (Gene, can your ground crew support 3 BD-4's next year?). He said his knowledge of low altitude speed and fuel burn is lacking and he intends to run same race laps to see what happens. We are both wondering how fast the straight-aways have to be to make up far the losses in the pylon turns? That 190 MPH average is not easy to get.

Lloyd has a wider rear cabin, so he might get the full 204 lbs. fuel allotment rather than the 192 I would get. It should be a lot of fun to have 3 BD-4's in the same race.

EAST COAST MEETING

I recently spent six, weeks in Baltimore, MD area while on hoeing business. The Westinghouse company is making a radar for the B-1B bomber avionics package and I monitored the initial operating tests. BD-4 builder Dave English from College Park, MD calls and writes me regularly so I visited him while in the area. Dave set up a get-together with a few of the BD-4 builders in the area. Present were: Dave and Kendra English and family, Earl Levers and son Fran, Harry Felmey, John Raffensparger, Austin Perry, and Roger Mellema. We had a great time bragging about our projects and inspecting Dave's BD-4.

Harry Felmey and Earl Levers are partners on BD-4 # 267 (N267EH). It has a Lycoming O-360, a constant speed propeller, and tri-gear.  They should complete it pretty soon. Earl has designed some state-of the-art panel features for it. arid promised to write an article for a future newsletter.

John Raffensparger has # 643 and has been flying for awhile already with a Lycoming O-320, a Sensenich 74 DM 62 propeller and is now converted to a tail-dragger. John scrapped the original wings and built up metal wings following the BD-7 wing plans. Maybe John will write up some comments about this new wing? John owns a metal fabricating shop and is looking into bending up some of the harder pieces like: large tail spars, landing gear box, fuselage side channel, etc. Maybe John could send me an approximate price list?

John invited me to drive over and go flying but I was called back to Seattle that weekend. Sorry about that John!

Dave English's BD-4 is coming along nicely and he hopes to fly within a year. He has a Lycoming IO-320, constant speed propeller, glass wings, and tri-gear. He has a vary full panel and a very complete interior. He plans to install a curved windshield before he makes up a kevlar cowling of his own design.

Austin Ferry's BD-4 has a Lycoming O-360, constant speed propeller, tri-gear, and glass wings. He is about 80% done and has wiring, instrument panel, engine hookup, and finishing details yet to do.

Thanks for the hospitality Dave and Kendra!

CONSTANT SPEED PROPELLERS

Many people have asked about the care and feeding of the constant speed propeller. By my numbers, most BD-4's have a constant speed propeller of the Hartzell variety. This discussion will also be of help to BD-4's with fixed pitch propellers if they have a manifold pressure gauge.

A constant speed or variable pitch prop will enhance aircraft performance in these ways:

1. Full rated RPM can be obtained at take-off. This maximizes HP for take-off.
2. At high cruise altitudes and speeds, the pitch can be made coarse to allow full throttle operation. This allows you to maximize the available HP at altitude.
3. The engine can be set for best economy. This is usually relatively high power and low RPM.

The constant speed propeller is a lot nicer than a variable pitch propeller as it stays at the pilot set RPM no matter what the speed of the aircraft (within reason), or the engine power (within reason). The constant speed propeller pitch is controlled by engine oil of varying pressure. The prop governor is an oil pump that boosts the engine oil pressure to a higher level. This pressure pushes the blades to a coarser pitch against a spring that tries to keep the blades in fine pitch. The boosted oil pressure is fed to the prop through the center of the crankshaft. As the RPM tries to increase (aircraft in a dive), the prop oil pressure is boosted higher which causes a coarser pitch, which keeps the RPM lower - presto constant speed.

The constant speed propeller is really a blessing except for a couple of things:

1. It is heavy.
2. It is expensive.
3. It allows you to abuse your engine by causing it to be "lugged  down".  This means high power generated (high manifold presserure) and low RPM. This is like accelerating your 280 ZX from 20 MPH in high gear.  This causes excessive engine stress and shorter Time Before Overhaul (TBO). 

The old rule concerning variable pitch props is "never run over square".  This means more maniflold pressure (in inches or Hg) than RPM (in 100's of RPM).  This will ensure that you never "lug" your engine but neither will you get good gas mileage.  The power curves for the Lycoming O-360 engine (figure 1) show that for 65% power (look at lower left set of curves) several combinations of manifold pressure and RPM can be used.  20.6 inches and 2700 RPM is a good setting and will give a 10.0 GPH fuel flow. A setting of 24.2 inches and 2000 RPM (8.9 GPH) will give the same cruise speed and will save you 1.1 MPH.  You will be able to feel your engine "lug" and may be uncomfortable with that. If you look at the slope of the 65% curve you will see that it gets quite flat in the lower RPM range. If you were to use 22.6 inches and 2200 RPM, the fuel flow would only change by 0.1 GPH.  This would keep your "spread" between manifold pressure and RPM low and will extend the life of your engine. For cruise at 7000 ft., I usually run 22 inches (indicated) and 2100 RPM. I said "indicated" because it has to be corrected for temperature variation from the standard. To determine the true power (and so fuel flow), follow the solid lines an figure 1.

1. Locate "A" on the full throttle altitude curve for a given RPM (2100) and manifold pressure <22 inches). "Full throttle" refers to the maximum manifold pressure possible at a certain altitude on a standard day (a good check to see how much pressure lass you have because of your carburetor air system).
2. Locate "B" on the sea level curve for RPM and manifold pressure and transfer to the right to "C", the Horse Power (HP) line.
3. Connect "A" and "C" by a straight line and read HP (12U) at the given PRESSURE ALTITUDE "D".
4. Modify HP at "D" for variation of air inlet temperature T (50 deg. F) from standard altitude temperature T (50 deg. F) by the formula:   (HP at "D")   X   (460 + Ts)/(460+T) = actual HP ("E") = 117
   
5. Transfer "E" to the RPM on the sea level curve ("F").
6. Transfer "F" down to the RPM on the lower curves ("G"), which are the fuel consumption curves.
7. Look to the right to determine GPH (8.9)

This seems like a long process but if you do it a few times, it's not too bad. I've gotten to where I don't have to draw lines anymore.  With the above numbers, I can get about 190 MPH for a MPG of about 20.

Notice the areas on the figure (large dashed lines) that indicate the manifold pressure/RPM combinations that can cause engine damage. Actual operation of a constant speed propeller is simple:

1. Look at manifold pressure only when handling the throttle (left knob, left gauge).
2. Look at the RPM only when handling the propeller control (right knob, right gauge).
3. Use full forward (minimum pitch) for take off. You should get. 2700 RPM by the time you are at 20 - 30 MPH.
4. Always pull back the throttle (lower manifold pressure) before you reduce RPM (pull nut. propeller control) .   
5. Don't change RPM abruptly as it causes a lot of stress on the  system.
6. Always increase RPM (push in the propeller control) before pushing in the throttle (higher manifold pressure).
7. Full prop control out (low RPM) in an "engine out" condition as it reduces drag and so extends your glide.
8. On downwind, push the propeller control in (maximum RPM) so you will have full power if a go-around is needed. With propeller control in, I have to adjust throttle to about 2200 RPM to maintain level flight at about 100 MPH.

One of the weird things that has happened to me and many others when they first use a constant speed propeller is that you can't get the airplane to come down for a landing. When you get across from the end of the runway when using a fixed pitch propeller, you normally pull the throttle so that the tachometer reads about. 1500 RPM. Constant speed pilots develop a habit of looking at their manifold pressure when changing power and so pull the throttle to 15 inches rather than 1500 RPM. Only this once you should look at RPM when handling the throttle. I usually use 1500 RPM and 80 to 90 MPH until on final and then pull to idle and 80 MPH. At the 1500 RPM setting, the manifold pressure will read at the very low end of the scale.

NEW BD-4 FLIES

Scott DeGaynor has been working hard rebuilding a BD-4 the last couple of years (he's the one crawling around in the dirt under the BDs at Oshkosh to see haw it's all done). His HD-4 has a Lycoming O-320, glass wings, constant speed propeller (extended six inches forward), and a long pointed cowling. Hugo Schneider gave Scott some dual in his BD-4 and then they flew together in Scott's during the first test flight. Scott has about 7 hours on the airplane now and is very happy with it. He says it stalls about 3 MPH under the book numbers (61 and 67 MPH) arid has had it up to 175 MPH. He is a bit disturbed by the high cabin noise level and plans to wark some on that. Scott plans to put a curved windshield on it as the present one is already crazed. It sounds like he will also redo his cowling. The high cross-country speed must have him excited as he is already talking of coming out to Seattle. Scotts son Jonathan says they are going to clean it up enough to beat my BD. Lets see - I have 15 (at 75% power) more HP so:  

Therefore my speed at Scott's 180 MPH indicated will be:

The extra 15 HP (at 75%) that I have will give me 7 MPH extra. So he has to have: 

Well, keep working an it!

FUNNY BUSINESS

Steve Mahoney wrote to let us know of a new product. Offered for sale is a device for owners of production built aircraft who are too embarrassed to be seen an such poor performing airplanes. All that is necessary is for them to slip on this cover and their airplane is instantly disguised as a fast . . . well known for high performance . . BD-4. In this way they can feel comfortable about attending air shows and other air events incognito (figure 2).

Steve also found out how to get the Scott Tailwheel to work better with the BD-4. Most of us have trouble getting our tailwheel to free swivel easily. It takes full rudder and brake to get it to kick free (this is a function of how stiff your steering springs are). There is a longer pawl that can be purchased from Scott that allows the wheel to kick free sooner. The part number is 3219-1, and the price is $12.50. It can be purchased from All-Aircraft Parts, 16673 Roscoe Blvd., Sepulveda, CA 91343, Phone 213-894-9115.

BD-4 VERSATILITY

A friend called recently to talk about buying a BD-4 advertised in the paper. He said that the guy had 2 partially completed BDs and an amphibian BD-4 which is about to fly. I immediately thought he meant a BD-4 on floats and told him about the builder in Canada who was killed trying to do that. He said he thought this one was different but wasn't sure. Bill de Prosse, Concord, CA wrote and sent pictures of his Amphibious BD-4 (figure 3). A fiberglass hull was constructed and bolted under the fuselage and the engine is mounted above it's normal position. It is a Lycoming O-360 with a constant speed propeller. The airplane weighs 1500 lbs. with a 700 lb. useful load. The tail is modified to a "T" configuration to keep the stabilizer up in the prop blast. The gear rotates forward to retract. Bill says that if it doesn't float, he will remove the hull, put the engine where it belongs and have a regular conventional gear PD-4. Bill should be testing the airplane about now. He has promised to write an article for the newsletter.

CURVED WINDSHIELD

Several BD-4 builders have asked about the curved windshield I made for my airplane. I have someone to make them now and he will make up as many as we have deposits for by Jan 30, 1984 The price is $190 for the 3/16 inch plexiglas and $170 for the 1/8 inch. You can choose clear or light smoked Plexiglass. Bede's original front window was about 3/16 inch. I have a 1/8 inch window on my airplane now and have had no problem but a bird strike or whatever might change my mind. The window will be boxed in a large wooden crate and shipped the cheapest way. The windshield will be shipped FREIGHT COLLECT and will cost $30 to $75 depending on the distance shipped.

Figures 4 and 5 show how I fit my window. T tried to get it made so it would wrap around to the door frames but it gets too many wrinkles in it when it is formed. The windshield now fits from the original windshield angle forward. It might work to bolt the windshield on the sides of the angles - the enact dimensions of your airplane will decide this.  

I didn't have to change my cowling except to cut it out where the windshield would fit over it and then drill for the fasteners. The rear of the engine is a little harder to work on but mostly because you can't look down from the top anymore. The vacuum pump is really the only thing hard to work on and I plan to swing my engine mount out a little way if I have trouble.

NEWS BITS

Tom Olson, 1911 Northbrook Dr. N.E., Cedar Rapids, IA 52402 has purchased Scott Zimmerman's BD-4. This BD-4 is a 180 Hp, taildragger with a constant speed prop. Scott has the airplane mostly done so we expect to see Tom at Oshkosh '84 ??

Paul Kaufman, Traverse City, Mich says he is retiring for good in January - he even bought a retirement home already. Paul's BD-4 has been a long time a'coming. Best of luck in your retirement, Paul!

Harry Crawford, Fort Pierce, FA wrote to let us know that he is again working hard on his BD-4. He is replacing all bushings in his control column with ball hearings. He also ran his rudder cables through pulleys.

Tony and Jan Barker from Queensland, Australia wrote to say they need a set of plans and also want to know names of anyone who has or makes some of the parts. They are going to build from scratch.

Melvin Friesen, Medicine Hat, Alberta is looking for spars for his BD-4. We had better hurry and find him some as he is threatening to use 2 X 6 hoards! We still don`t have an order going but Jim Bede and a couple of other people are looking into it. YOU could use American Yankee/Traveller spars - several people have done it and it looks like it is working just fine.

Jim Tinsman sold his HD-4 to Dave Arnold, no address as yet.

Warren Stewart, Bellingham, WA is interested in plans and parts for a BD-4.

 NEWSLETTER DUES

Mast of you have sent your $5.00 in - Thank You!  Those of you who have, should have an * in front of your name on the mailing label. Those of you who paid once way back when but are now getting their last issue, have a - in front of their names. Those who have never paid have nothing in front of their names. If my records are wrong or you need copies of old newsletters, please let me know. By the way, Newsletter #6 does not exist.

TELEPHONE #

I will be working in a different building starting the first of the year so the 206-655-6900 number will no longer be good. I will get the new number into the next newsletter. BD-4 ARTICLE by JOST WALLIMAN Maur, Switzerland


Hello Roger and hello to all BD-4 fans,

For a number of years, I gave been receiving, in regular intervals, the BD news letter from Roger Mellema and Hugo Schneider. Needless to say that they are always eagerly awaited and read with great interest. I think it only fair that I should contribute to the two men's effort and write of the experience I had so far building my BD-4.

Right. now I am sitting in the shade of a holiday house on the Balears (Spain) overlooking the calm blue sea of the Mediterranean with nothing else to do but sleep, swim, read and write.

My actual home is a small village outside Zurich (Switzerland) where, in the garage below our house, my BD-4 waits to be finished. Only the distance from here (Spain) to home (Switzerland) stops me from working on the plane and gives me time to write these few lines.

My wife Yvonne (with great patience for my hobby) claims that the first thing in my life is the aeroplane, then my business and third herself and, while I hate to disagree with her, I leave it that way and start with:

No. 1 - my BD-4

In 1978 I ordered a full kit - paid 500 dollars more than the actual agreed price and finally more than 6 months later, received about 2/3 of the stuff in various deliveries. Here in my small building essay I will only mention the details which vary from the original BD design. I would mention that BEDE never delivered the full size drawings so I had to enlarge some drawings out of the book. "Build Your Own Airplane". This book was given to me by a friend of mine who bought it in New York. Don Hewes gave me his book on the modification he had made on his BD-4. I followed all his advice regarding strengthening of structure and undercarriage. For easier measurement and work all figures in inches had to be transferred into metric.

FUSELAGE

My BD is a taildragger.

Two more BD-4s were started in our country some years ago but never finished. One of the builders had made a jig to assemble the fuselage which I was able to burrow and that made things so much easier. Work on my BD started in Sep. '78.  Different to the original design are my doors which are of the uplifting type ( similar to the Piper Cub but in one piece). The doors are hinged with piano hinge to the horizontal beam underneath the cabin wingspar. The doors are held open by gas shockers like on uplifting rear car doors. The door frame is made out of T shaped Alu-bars and it is much lighter than Bede's steel frames.
Access to the luggage compartment is on the left side of the fuselage and also opens upward. Although the opening is obstructed by a diagonal bean, access and sealing against water is easier. Sidepanels on both sides of the fuselage from the doors to cowling are removable for better access to pedals and instruments. The same applies to the panels in the area of the tailwheel steering and elevator connections.

About. mid fuselage I have a 5' inspection hole to keep an eye on  control and trim cables.

The rudder pedals are out of a wrecked Cessna 150.

Seats are light weight car bucket seats with head rests. They of course needed a special design for mounting which at the same time gave a neat solution for fixing seat belts and shoulder harness.

I made my own wheel pants in fiberglass with incorporated landing lights which I think look rather attractive.

I decided on the Longer wings of 14 panels each. As a place in a hangar :is hard to fired and very expensive, it was a must for nee to have a towable aeroplane. For that. reason the wings have to come on and off quite frequently. Thinking of the many dents pushed into the wings while handling them and how much easier they spring back to the original shape on an epoxy wing compared with the Alu-wings, made me decade on the epoxy wings. In each wing I have opened up four panels as fuel cells. To prevent the panels from bulging once filled with fuel, I glued an extra rib in the center of each fuel panel. To produce the necessary ribs I made a mould using one of the end ribs supplied by Bede as master. For glue, the same epoxy resin was used as for fabricating the ribs. To assure good bonding I added strips of fiberglass on both sides of the reinforcing ribs at the same time as glueing the ribs in place. With the fuelcells stiffened up like that it was easy to put in all the necessary fittings like fuel cap, drainvalve etc. before assembling the wing. With all panels prepared like that I sanded carefully each panel where glue was later to be applied. I then masked off the sanded areas with mashing tape (about 3/4 of an inch), including the holes for the wingspar. After mashing, and with all fittings in place, the fuelcells were painted inside and on the outside facing the next panel, with a resin called Epoxy-Flexible. This is a resin used to seal small household tanks for any kind of fuel. After the second coat had dried, the masking tape was peeled off. To glue the fuel panels to the spar and to each other, Proseal was used. The rest of the wingpanels were glued with the 2216 3-M product.

Our FAA people require that all wings on homebuilts are to be static load tested.  So before starting the second wing I wanted to know whether the job on the first one would withstand their test. I. made up a jig to bolt the wing horizontally to a concrete wall. As weight we used sacks of fertilizer (40 kg each). After 1450 kg (3197 lbs) we had to stop as the jig on the wall started to bend. With all the weight on, some nasty folds appeared on the upper wingsurface right next to the four fuelcells fuelcells did not distort at all. Satisfied with what they had seen, the FAA experts gave the green light to start the second wing. promising that finally they would like to see 1700 kg on each wing to release the aircraft far a max takeoff weight of 2000 lbs. After all the experts had left, I wondered whether my fuelcells were really not leaking and I filled the tank with 100 lt. of fuel (Max. Cap.). I left the fuel in the wing for a few days. Over all the time not a single drop appeared anywhere.

With the quick drain valve the wing was empty in less than 10 minutes. WING DISMANTLING DEVICE To pull the wing on or push it off the center spar I am using a 1/2" threaded spindle which I placed right in the center of the cabin and wingspar. It can be operated with an Allen key in the cabin (over an angle-gear). Once pushed off the renter spar, the wing folds like the original one.

FLAPS AND AILERONS

As Bede never supplied the skins for flaps and ailerons, I had to think of a means, to bend my own, which is not easy on an ordinary bending break. I decided to bend and rivet the skins over a 2" dia. tube (the same type of tube used for the pushrod for the elevator). Instead of wooden ribs I made ribs of .025 Alu which were riveted to the Alu-tube. The thing worked out quite nicely and compares about the same in weight as Bede's design.

Right now I am working an the cowlings (not supplied by Bede) far which I have made a mould.

CARRIER

To take my BD to and from the airport I have to make a carrier. For a couple of dollars I bought an old Pick-up with front wheel drive (easier to lengthen chassis and modify aft of the cabin). The carrier has to be finished before next winter as the plane has to get out of the garage before next snowfall. I am tired of my wife complaining that she had to get into a frozen car every morning during the last five winters besides me having to shovel the car clear after every snowfall!

To sum up my building activity over the last five years, I can say plenty of sweat and tears but great fun. I wouldn't lake to have missed a bit (except I could have done without being cheated by Mr. Bede jun.).

I keep all the receipts for what ever is involved with my BD-4 but I am scared to add them all up. I probably would find that I could have easily bought a secondhand Mooney or Piper and I would be flying a long time ago. I am also scared of the total sum because if Yvonne sees it she might ask for the equivalent in fur coats!

Had I not worked many nights on the plane I probably would not have missed the TV series Dallas or Denver, but I am sure I would never have had the pleasure of the ever present help and assistance of my friend John Greenland nor would we ever have met our American friends Peggy and Don Hewes, not to forget all the rest of the interesting people like Roger Mellema and Hugo Schneider.

My HD will be flying next year (at least I have been saying that every autumn for the last. three years!).

One thing for sure it will be the only flying BD-4 in Europe!

My family and I wish you and yours a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. May the New Year briny you safety, few cross winds and happy flying.

Roger, Verla,               Michelle, and Kelly                                                  Mellema