I am 40 years old married with two boys.
I was born in early 1961 and with in three weeks had already had my first
airplane ride in a Piper TriPacer. By the time I had turned six,
my father (a captain for American Airlines) started taking the time to
teach me how to fly. Legs not being long enough at 6, I had to wait
till 7 before I could land the 58' Cessna 172 with out assistance.
From 7 to 16 years old I had mainly flown Cessna 120s, 140s, 172s, 182s,
195, 310's, and an old Twin Bonanza. Switching from airplane
to airplane through those years, I would often hear dad's remarks, "I know
you haven't flown this airplane, but you're the pilot, make it do what
YOU, want it to do!" Dad, not being a licensed flight instructor,
finally gave me to an instructor when I was 16 and he soloed me 45 minutes
later! An got my Private license just a few months later.
Leaving high school, I went to collage with
no plans to fly for a career, and received my B.S. degree in Professional
Medical Microbiology, also fulfilling the requirements of Pre-med.
Leaving collage, with a knowledge of a certain deadly little virus, and
a little disillusion with the Med. school application process, I turned
my sites to get paid for playing! This may also be said, Flying for
a living.
Working as a computer operator at night, I
then plunged into getting my ratings at a local flight school during the
day. With in a year I had achieved my SEL, Instrument, MEL, Commercial,
and instructor ratings. I then left my good paying job to build time
by flight instructing, and flying anything that people would let me fly.
After receiving my ATP rating in 1988 I got hired by the local commuter
airline, American Eagle. About a year later my Flying buddy, and
mentor, my father died in a PA-12 accident. Just over a week later
I walked into his chief pilots office at American Airlines, and stated,
"If I can't have his pay, I want his job!" About 7 months later I
was in school and have been with American ever since. For them,
I have flown the 727, and F100, and am now Captain on the F100.
The early years at American I spent a majority
of my time on reserve, and spent a lot of time at home trying to find something
to do with my time. I finally decided to build or restore an airplane
in my garage. After many phone calls and a few visits to local airports,
I found the project I now fly. I chose it for many reasons, including
the price, size, strong, fast, and cheap to feed. Just the fact that
I can get in a little plane, fly at 150 mph, on a VW engine, burning about
3.5
gallons per hour that only cost me about $7000 really appeals to me.
I, for some reason, have always been fascinated with small airplanes.
No interest personally in the Ultra light scene, though a few of them do
get my attention.
I really can't add much to the history of
the design beyond what the information package can tell you. I do
remember as a kid seeing the new design sitting at Oshkosh, in what I always
recall as the Monnett green he was famous for back then. I understand
that the airplane was originally tagged with the name "Spitfire" probably
due the similar shaped tail section. It was built to meet the Formula
"V" racing standards. The only other design at the time in the class
was the Steve
Wittman "Witt V." When asked why he put the wing as a mid wing,
he answered, I liked the way it looked on Steve's design!
My Sonerai I, was sold as plans serial number
0080 in 1972. Not being a welder myself, I was happy that this fellow
did a majority of the welding and actually had the fuselage attached to
the gear. Wanting to see progress, he built up an engine and hung
it on the airframe and did some test runs. Information from the fellow
that built the prop for him, tells me that the builder then had a lapse
of judgment. He jumped in the bare fuselage, no wings and no fabric,
and went "Sailing" down an
alley and hit a grove of plum bushes! For reasons unknown, he
then sold the project to another individual. This fellow built some
wings for it and had an equal stroke of genius! Having wings, but
no ailerons, or fabric on the fuse or tail section, he went out for high
speed taxi tests! A wing lifted and with no way to bring it back
down, the opposite wing dug in and cartwheeled the innocent but well intending
airplane. Taking the wreckage back home, he hoisted it up in the
attic
over his garage, and closed it in. I don't know how many years
it was actually there, but somewhere in the late 80's, it was sold to an
individual who had the ability and judgment to finish the project.
He threw out one of the wing panels and rewelded several areas on the fuselage.
His needs changed so he ended up selling the project to myself in December
1991.
I picked up the airplane and headed home.
On the way home I also picked up a VW engine from a local junk yard (not
recommended). I studied all aspects of the aircraft and engine, and
decided what I would keep and what I would not keep. I ended up throwing
out the other wing, and everything on the engine except the case, and the
rocker arms! I disassembled everything on the fuselage and checked
for rust or any bad welding. I did do some rewelding of a few joints,
and had to do some other work on the canopy structure and some mounts for
the stringer attach points. I have learned by now a acceptable level
of welding through this experience. I then sanded the fuselage, primed
it with a epoxy primer, and assembled it with new hardware.
Liking to work with a torque wrench, I then
tore down the engine and found that nothing was really usable in side.
One rod had come loose, and had pretty well self destructed, and was only
about one thread from throwing itself through the engine case! The
fellow that sold me the engine, agreed that it was basically trash, got
me a rebuilt crank and set of rods, and I bought the rest of the parts
from Steve Bennett at Great Plains Aircraft supply. Everything is
stock in this engine except the cam supplied by Great Plains. The engine
was built as a 1600cc to fit within the specifications for the Formula
V racing. Though I had no intention or racing the aircraft, I wanted to
meet all the regulations so that if the airplane was sold to someone that
did want to race, it would be ready. I had all the internal engine
parts
balanced at a local racing shop before assembly. This makes for
an extremely smooth running engine! For ignition I have a Slick 4316
mounted the back of the engine, using the Great Plains mag adapter off
of the crank. I have the stock Sonerai intake system, again from
Great Plains, that has a Posa Super carb for carburation.
I mounted the engine for the first and final time only about 4 months after
the project arrived home. A fuel system was devised and a few test
runs
were made. Getting used to the Posa carb took some time,
but now I can generally get the engine started by about flips of the prop.
About here I let the project flounder for
about 3 years. Buying and rebuilding an old house, moving, having
two kids really took a lot of time away from important things like airplanes!
After the second, was born, Mother in-law in the house, I retreated out
of the house to the garage for about 8 to ten hours a day! I was
bound and determined to get this thing finished and flying!
One thing about the plans from which I was
building was that there is very little information in there other than
drawings. So a lot of time was spent just making decisions.
In fairness I just talked to Steve, at Great Plains who now sells the plans
for the Sonerai series of aircraft, and he says that there is now a better
set of instructions that come with the plans. About 8 small paragraphs,
and 6 "construction photo's" was all I got on mine. They assumed
you knew things like, fuel
runs down hill and requires a valve, and filter. They assume
you know where the engine is mounted, plumbed baffled and wired, and how
to make and attach a cowl, how to mount a canopy etc. A lot of outside
reading was done by myself to support the project. Nothing really
hard, but you have a real desire to do it right the first time! Could
save you a lot of money and heart ache at a later time!
According to the racing rules the Sonerai
I requires a wing mod that was actually designed as a beef up on the sonerai
II wing. Again wanting the airplane to be able to be raced I spent
the time doing these modifications to the wing spars. I bought a
set of stamped ribs from Great Plains, built a jig in the garage and Turned
out two airworthy wings in a matter of 6 weeks! The spars are built
up from a .040 aluminum channel, and 1/8" aluminum straps. Held together
with AN-3
bolts and AN bucked rivets. The skins and ribs are made of .025"
aluminum, held in place using a "commercial Cherry" pop type rivet.
All skin rivets are flush rivets, requiring an enormous amount of time
spent using a dimpler. I invested in a pneumatic rivet puller, drill,
and about 450 1/8" clecoes for the wing assembly.
As each wing was finished, I ran over and
placed it in the spar carry through box, so I could see a if it now looked
like an airplane! Wings clamped in place I hooked up the ailerons and controls
to establish that the system could be rigged with out any built in problems.
While getting up the nerve to do the final installation of the wings, I
went from the spinner to the tail wheel checking every bolt, nut, washer,
cotter pin, etc. .to make sure they were all installed correctly and safetied
to meet the FAA's specification for the coming inspection. At this
point I must have replaced at least half of the hardware, but felt good
about the results.
Feeling good about the project is very important
to it's completion, and flying! If you do something during the construction
that is less than best, it will always be in the back of your mind, and
start to build a mistrust of the airplane, and if flown, you may never
reach a comfort level to where you will really enjoy the airplane.
There were several places on the airplane that would "pass", and that
were probably safe, but I knew they could be done better. So I made
the effort to go back and do it best, instead of good enough!
I finally gathered up all my bravery, and
decided to do the final, permanent wing mounting! This involves drilling
the main spar while it is being held in alignment. One wrong turn
of the drill here, and you're about to have to build a new wing!
I first pilot drilled the holes and pinned them with a small bolt and for
the tenth time, checked the alignment. I then went back and enlarged
the holes one step at a time until they were to where I could start using
the hand reamers to size the holes for the taper pins that not only hold
the wings in place but transfer all the wing's loads to the spar carry
through structure. This process took me about 2 days for a total of 6 holes.
Once finished I installed the taper pins and snugged them down. This
was probably the most significant point of the construction process.
When those pins seated, the "project," suddenly became an airplane!
I stepped back and realized that I now, no longer had a project that someday
might fly, I knew that I now had an airworthy airplane that just needed
some fabric on the fuselage!
For covering the fuselage and tail section,
I decided on the Poly Fiber covering process and began obtaining
materials. The most important asset was their covering manual.
With my back ground in model airplanes I had an idea what I was up against.
Using the manual, and obeying its every direction I encountered no surprises
and or problems. Considering it was my first attempt at covering a full
sized airplane, I was satisfied with my best efforts.
Before painting the wings, the heads of the
pop rivets needed to be filled to keep water out. This is accomplished
using a "bondo" product. The bondo type filler should not be used
to achieve or to obtain the perfect airfoil and finish. Yes, this
could be done, but you are just adding needless weight! If you worry
about how perfect your wing is, just go out and study some of the factory
planes out there. You'll gain more performance and speed in this airplane,
by being light, than by obtaining the perfect contour! Not having
a great imagination, I couldn't decide on a trim paint job for the airplane,
so I just had a friend cut some colored vinyl to place on the nose and
tail. Before I got the canopy permanently mounted I ended up dropping
and breaking it! Instead of buying a new one, I just cut off the broken
parts and made it an open cockpit. Later this turned out to be a
good thing, since there was no way I could have worn my helmet during the
initial test flights
with a closed canopy.
The big day finally arrived. The FAA
came for the inspection required before flight. I had the airplane
assembled in the garage with plenty of room to walk around it for inspection
purposes. After all the lost sleep worrying about what he was going
to get really picky about, he merely said that "it looks like you're going
to have a lot of fun with this airplane!" Paper work completed, he
headed on his way, only asking that I, as a courtesy, call and tell him
how the airplane was
doing. Later that day the airplane was disassembled and moved
to the airport where it's first flight would take place. At the airport
the airplane was loosely assembled so I could do a quick engine run.
That I did, and even jumped in and taxied around to let the airplane move
for the first time under it's own power! I was excited, mom was scared!
After some final adjustments and inspection of the
final installation of the taper pins, and flight controls, I started and
headed out to the runway. I won't get into the debate here about
weather to high speed taxi test, or not, but I did. I mainly did
to make sure I was capable of controlling this airplane, more than whether
the airplane was fit for flight. Running up and down the runway,
I was never given the feeling that the airplane was unfit to fly.
Running at 60 or so miles per hour did destroy my old tail wheel.
The replacement has been in place for the last 70+ hours with out problem.
After two sessions of taxiing, no more than 15 minutes each, I only had
one thing missing in my comfort. With better than 10,000 hours experience,
and 3000 hours in tail draggers, I only had about 2 hours in an airplane
with just a stick for control! I found myself having to consciencely
place the stick in the proper position and felt that it may slow my reflexes
to anything that I might be up against in the first few flights.
A friend stepped in and sent me off in his J-3 cub to build my confidence.
I did several landings and a bunch of "dutch rolls" until I could keep
the ball centered with little effort.
On the ground in the Sonerai, I now had no excuses.
Airplane and pilot were ready. I got the airplane running down the
runway at 70+ mph and pulled the stick back expecting to fly, but the tail
wheel hit the ground and we continued rolling down the runway! I
quickly made the decision to abort since it did not leap into the air.
Before my hand could actually move the throttle, a bump in the runway raised
the airplane up and enough angle of attack was achieved, and we went
airborne! A quick rock of the wings to make sure I had control
and I then left it alone to climb out on it's own. I proceeded to
climb in a figure 8 pattern over the airport. I leveled off about
1500 feet since I was concerned about the CHT's. The airplane was
flying well and predictably. Roll control was quick with much authority!
Rudder and elevator were light and quick also. Flying round I determined
it was flying in a nose high attitude and I was concerned that it was not
allowing the best airflow through the engine inlets. Throttle
back to about 2800 rpm the engine cooled off to an acceptable level to
allow me to get more comfortable with the flight characteristics.
Dutch rolls, slow flight and stalls gave me no surprises, so I now had
to start thinking about landing. Dad always said that the one time
you will loose you engine is when you make power changes! So as you
could imagine I tried to make as few power changes as possible. Even
then I
wanted my energy as high as possible to assure making the runway if
the engine did fail for some reason. Considering this I ended up
crossing the fence at about 110 mph! After floating about half of
the runway, I came to a rest at the far end amidst the slowly growing crowd
of onlookers. A quick thumbs up from me was followed by a round of
applause from the people, seen not heard, and I whipped around the airplane
and headed for the hanger.
Considering the squawks from the first flight,
there is very little that hasn't been addressed by other builders of the
Sonerai design, and or any VW powered light plane for that matter.
There was a substantial desire for the airplane to nose over in flight.
So, stabilizer leading edge needed to be trimmed to about 1/2" below the
upper longhorn. After several attempts trimming the spacer on the stab,
it now flies hands off when in a normal load of fuel and pilot. When baggage
is carried behind my head, I have a rubber band hanging on the stick that
I can hook on a bolt to give the needed forward pressure to overcome the
slight aft CG movement. People on the ground commented as I
noticed airborne that it seemed to be dragging the tail in flight.
I must have conferred with a dozen people about this problem. I tried
incidence changes, checked weight and balance over and over again.
Then a fellow that makes props, Ed Sterba, said that all sounds well, I
just seem to be lacking power. After a rework of the carb intake
system to guarantee fresh external air from out side the cowling, I had
more power and the airplane flew much better. From here on out, most
of the changes seemed to be centered around the cooling of the engine.
Even today I am in the final battle over this enemy. I am changing
from the pressure cowling to the prescribed "Box Baffles" that John Monnett
recommended from the start. Another problem, I've been having, I
attributed to the short linked design. With all my experience, it
takes all I have to keep that airplane running down the middle of the runway.
Recently I found that the old plans I built from don't offer the new modified
gear geometry. This new configuration is said to be made to enhance ground
controllability. I can't wait to get that change done! I won't
look like such a beginner anymore! I hope!
After about ten hours in the air, I did a
condition inspection and made a few changes. First I installed a
new canopy bubble, and installed the wheel pants. Just adding these
two items has done more for the speed and appearance of the airplane and
any thing else. Giving it full throttle one day I quickly sped up
over 165 mph in a matter of about 5 miles. Engine turning over 4100
rpm, but singing and happy. If I were racing the airplane,
I hear the proper propeller would turn about 4500 rpm and give me better
than 185 mph! My airplane is lighter than the average Sonerai I,
due to the fact that there is nothing on the airframe that was not in the
plans. No electrical system, no interior, very little creature comfort.
I also removed all the wing folding hardware to save weight. I figured
after I put the wings on I'd never take them off unless I had to move it
out of a field after a forced landing. I didn't, as discussed earlier,
spend a lot of time getting the perfect finish on either the fabric or
wings, again to save weight. The airplane seems to stall at about 55 mph
and I have descended at slightly over 200 mph to date. At all speeds
it handles solidly. No feeling of being skittish, or touchy on the
controls. In stalls I can keep the wings level with rudder or aileron
only. I've tried to stall it in a slip but I seem to loose rudder
authority before I actually stall! I'm trying to find anything that
may be dangerous in it's flying characteristics, that might sneak up on
me unexpectedly. None yet.
John Monnett designs his airplanes to fit
a certain niche, and as he says, when you start putting electrical systems,
full flight instruments, interiors, big engines, avionics, etc. . .you're
no longer building one of his designs. He designs for fun of flying.
Not cross country. He likened it to a J-3 cub, with a lot more
performance. When I started on this project, I wanted a fun airplane,
that would meet the design intents of John. Safety first, performance
second, and appearance third. No mine is not the best looking up
close, but it is light, safe, fast and paid for! So if you
wish, "Built as advertised, and thus Flies as advertised!"
I do true 150 mph in my airplane, even though I do weigh, empty, about
30 pounds over the prototype. I have enough useful load and CG range
that If I can fit it in the airplane, I will probably be able to fly with
it. I get about 2 hours cruise on the 10 gallon tank at present.
This of course translates to about 300 miles per tank. when I am
able to lean it out a bit more I should be able to stretch the legs to
about 350 or so with ample reserves. I also
own a 1946 Cessna 140, 180, and a FFP Youngster "V". When asked the
other day which was my preference, I couldn't answer. They all are
totally different airplanes for totally different purposes. I Have
flown both the experimentals in one day to see which appealed to me more.
First the Youngster, I found very fun and maneuverable, with the joy of
the open cockpit and ability to pop in and out of short unimproved fields.
I then jumped into the Sonerai, and headed out. Cruising around at about
70 mph faster than the Youngster, and descending down the runway at 180+
mph and no vibration of any kind, really has a distinct appeal of it's
own. Sorry, I can't chose between
the two of them so I'll just have to keep them both. The only
problem is that I'll have a really hard time deciding just which one to
fly on a given day. I'm sure temperature will have a major determining
factor. Enough talking about it, Let's go fly!
Any questions can be directed to me at my e
mail address jehardy@nortexinfo.net
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