Bob Michener Page

	Bob Michener flying his Pioneer II Circa 1977

August 11, 2003

Jim and Matt,

Gosh, I've been keeping up with your flying exploits. I'm so envious of what you are doing. It's exactly what I needed back in the '70s and '80s. Jim was stuck in Mich.City and he was busy with other things when I did fly from there. I spent about 10 ground hours for every air hour just to make sure everything was double-covered. Are you finally getting some air time, Jim?

I'm glad that Matt and Mike are able to confirm so many things I experienced thro their replication when no one would believe me. It's just terrible that you don't have a bigger weight and throw. Some of the items are (if you haven't seen my SOAR'n'DIPITY newsletter) are:

1) I first experienced zero airspeed when I was in a sideways movement even if it wasn't a formal sideslip. The yarn was horizontal.

The stall with stick full back without dropping a wing is impossible according to the Genius from Capistrano. His book larnin' didn't allow for it. I suspect that the elevator is not strong enough to get the nose high enough to do a good stall. I would porpoise a little if the weight was off.

I did you one better in my critical test to put it into a spin. I banked it over at 60-deg.(probably only about 45 but felt 60), and when it was circling, I pulled full back on the elevator. It stayed in a standard circle with no breaking or speeding up, and came out when I kicked in rudder and dived.

The time I stalled in from 200' AGL, the ship felt like a flying carpet and I could not believe I was on the ground except for the broken canopy and all the cornstalks.

I think my C.G. calculation are the way to go for establishing the point. Then I found Jim's recommendation of a butcher scale in the nose an EXCELLENT, QUICK, AND FOOLPROOF way to determine each flight's adjustment.

I always used a short (20') bridle and never had any problems, even when one side came loose a number of times. I did not tie the bridle onto the tow rope ring being fearful of Jim's early experience when he had to unhook his safety belt, stand up in the cockpit and reach down to release on the outside.....! This may explain much of the instability you found?

I found early on that at 65-70 MPH, I could keep the towplane in sight easily as you may have seen in my newsletter. At 55-60 which towpilots would use naturally, I had trouble looking over the I.P. I did not like the 75' towlines as it really tossed me around (in the slipstream). So I got my own 200' line and had no trouble ever. The towlines are always shorter than is claimed, I found by measuring.

I am perpetually green with envy!

Bob Michener