EAA Chapter 25

On September 26th, Jim Koepnick, EAA Sport Aviation photographer, visited Osceola’s Simenstad Municipal Airport to complete a series of ground and aerial photographs of Dick Navratil’s new Pietenpol. Photo 1, EAA’s Cessna Centurion, was piloted by Janet Davidson, who flew over with Jim from Oshkosh for the afternoon. It was perfect fall weather for the activity.

Dick had just completed a few modifications after his first two days of test flying. After shooting some photographs on the ground and going through a pre-flight briefing on flying “photo formation”, the two airplanes took off for a 45 minute aerial shoot.

Of course the beautiful pictures you see in Sport Aviation may look easy to shoot, but the only thing that makes it easier is the removable photo door on Photo 1. In this case, the Pietenpol only does about 65 mph, so the Centurion was flying close to stall speed the whole time. Then the photo plane had to be up-sun, fly at different altitudes for different shot angles, and worry about how the subject airplane looked against the background of the terrain. Watching Jim and Janet in action  showed how hard they work to get such beautiful results.  And those results included an array of beautiful shots against the fall colors and lakes of Wisconsin. Look for a feature article by Jim Busha in an upcoming issue of Sport Aviation.

Dick Navratil took to the skies in his new Pietenpol on September 22nd. Dick’s flight marks the fifth airplane completed and flown by Chapter members in the last year!. The airplane, powered by a Rotec R-2800, has received much attention from both the engine manufacturer and EAA Headquarters. EAA’s Sport Aviation Magazine is also planning an upcoming article.

Dick says, “The plane handles very nicely, and I’m happy with it so far.” After an initial oil leak problem during taxi tests, Dick was able to correct the problem and clean up the airplane for his Saturday test flight. “I went out to repeat the high speed taxi tests, and had an open mind as to the aspects of flying. I couldn’t have asked for a nicer day with a 12 knot wind almost straight down the sod runway at Osceola. At about 50 mph I expected the plane to want to just lift off and climb, but that did not happen. I had to apply some back pressure and it lifted off smoothly.”

Dick was impressed about the rate of climb in his new airplane, too. He identified some other squawks, and plans another test flight this week. Congratulations Dick!

The House of Representatives has voted to pass it’s version of the FAA Reauthorization bill, by a vote of 267-151.  The vote came after the Ways and Means and Rules Committees had quickly acted on the bill.

Over in the Senate, encouraging news comes from the Finance Committee, which has approved its own version of the FAA bill, which excludes user fees as provided in the earlier S 1300. Full Senate action is perhaps several weeks away.