PLANE-ON-A-POST
POP GOES YOUR YOUNG PILOT CANDIDATES By David Newill It is a great day at your Young Eagles flying event – lots of teenagers – several planes – and good weather, but there is clearly a restlessness among some of the parents and even a few of the waiting teens! What are they going to do while plane after plane takes one or two teens or a teen and his adult up for 30 minute rides? Having a POP might help the waiting crowd and capture a few “not so sure” younger pre-pilots. What is POP? It is a Plane-On-a-Post trainer. An ultralight type airframe, sans engine, balanced on a simple, steel pipe frame allowing the young pilot of this craft to “fly” as they pivot about in all axis when the breezes encounter control surfaces. Quickly, teens take to “Windjamming”, turning the airframe from one heading to another, pitching up and down, rolling left and right. A POP is very easy to build and, as it is not an “airplane”, could be owned by one or more EAA chapters or flying clubs. Since it is always “grounded”, it is a perfect club or school project; a build-and-notfly trainer, allowing for mistakes and corrections during construction and assembly, as well as learning some of the arts of airframes. It could provide the needed activity for the yet-to fly students at your youth event. So onto our story of our POP. When the American GEM [Ground Effect Machine] Youth Flight Training System project started in December 2017, we discovered we needed a pre-flight step before putting teens into an actual aviating machine – solo! – as has been done in Europe and Russia for over 20 years. Simultaneously we discovered that, while the local airport was positive to our ground tow line and short tether system to propel the GEM machine, and a “nearby” high school wanted the program as well, the simple act of getting teens to-from school and airport was incredibly challenging! We needed a solution to overcome the economics of transport and bureaucracy of schools and it had to be portable. Hence, Plane-on-a-Post or POP was invented. This non-flyer is easily transportable and offers initial stick-and-rudder experiences at an incredibly low cost! It is something that nearly any EAA Chapter, or group of
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small Chapters, flying clubs or schools, could quickly assemble and use at their various events and programs. From study of the European systems, the American GEM team had a good working definition of what was needed: current production, established company, cage enclosed pilot frame, robust, ultralight glider. The Kolb Aircraft Company, LLC’s Firefly looked promising! In addition to our baseline GEM requirements list, it has a simple folding wing configuration – meaning we could quickly “hangar” in an enclosed trailer or shipping container, no flying wires to rig, was USA built and well supported! Even better, for the POP, the design has a main structural element – a 2" steel tube – at the top of the fuselage cage –from the wing mount structure back to where the engine would go on a powered Firefly. We were blessed to discover an older Kolb Firefly for sale that was within our budget and driving range so off we went to acquire it. Being big boys with a new (to us) toy, we soon had the little bird’s skeleton re-assembled and began a few needed repairs. Bending aluminum tubes, drilling out rivets, and building to Kolb plans convinced us that this is a project nearly any High School AeroSTEM class could attempt. And our choice of Kolb was a good one as we got excellent parts support from their Kentucky factory. EAA Chapter # 67, Noblesville, IN took our American GEM team under their wings and taught us how to cover – sharing a wonderful spray booth and equipment as we worked a Stewart Systems and water-based paint finish onto our bird. [EAA Chapters are great helpers!] Water based covering is pretty easy (latex house paint!) and has no fumes to worry about. You can even do it with foam rollers! This is a real advantage for a school program with no spray booth. Now for the POP! We did several experiments with ball-pivot mounts, height of mount, width, bases, etc. The current configuration is made from 1" black steel threaded pipe supporting a 1-7/8" trailer ball on top, fitted into a 2" ball receiver – inverted mount – on the main structure tube of the Firefly. The fixed position – indoor use – bases are 4' long, 2"X 10"s with pipe flange fittings. For our school based outdoor location, we are fortunate to have a permanent pole base position (former basketball post mount).
