The Flight of the Microlights
(Page 4 of 5)
November/December 1979
By Jack McCornack
As it turned out, our group made pretty poor time during the first week after leaving Oshkosh. For one thing, the weather turned really rotten. When bad squalls came up, we had no choice but to land in a convenient field and sit out the storms. We spent a lot of time hiding under our plane's wings, while hailstones fell all around us, with nothing better to do than exchange long and detailed observations about how much fun we weren't having.
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Another factor that helped hold us back was my jury-rigged alcohol fuel conversion. It seemed that the engines would run beautifully with the throttles open, but that the jetting wasn't right for low-power flying . . . and idling was out of the question altogether! Since we normally run at low RPM while we're cruising, the engines would sometimes quit and (surprise) we'd find ourselves piloting gliders! The Pterodactyls soar about as well as do hang gliders, so such malfunctions weren't a danger. They did, however, contribute to our slow pace.
Despite such hassles (which we worked out with a little fine carburetor tuning as we went along), a rather remarkable concept began to filter into my brain as the miles went by: The fuel I was flying on hadn't depleted any nonrenewable resources. It was actually nothing more (or less!) than solar energy ... converted to sugar by plants and then to alcohol by yeast! The money that it cost went-in part-to the farmer who grew the grain . . . instead of to some foreign oil magnate. And, better yet, my exhaust consisted of water vapor and carbon dioxide . . . I wasn't doing the earth or the sky any harm by flying!
We found that a lot of the people we met on the ground were enthusiastic about homebrewed fuel, too. Lots of folks have developed pretty strong feelings about the gasoline shortage. In fact, there are even people who think that big business and big government are hindering development of alternate power sources . . . I don't know where anyone gets such crazy ideas ....
I do, however, know that aviation provides a great means of advocating our independence from petroleum fuels. Flying still has a little of its original magic about it, and it sure does get attention. What better answer could there be to the "experts" who' say that ethanol fuel "works in the laboratory, and in 30 years might be a practical source of energy" than to fly away . . . with the alcohol - sweet exhaust scent providing ample proof that the home-brewed power source works just fine right now!
After the end of the first post-Oshkosh week, Paul had to head home and get back to work. He said he'd had a good time, but it's too bad that-just after he left-the weather turned nice . . . and I got the carburetor sorted out to the point where, except for getting slightly fewer miles per gallon, my plane ran as well on alky as did Keith's on gasoline. We brightened up considerably and got back into the spirit of barnstorming.
"WRIGHT" WE ARE!
Our rough flight plan called for us to turn left at Tennessee, then follow highway 40 into North Carolina. And, since we were pretty close to MOTHER's hometown of Hendersonville, we decided to drop in for a visit. After getting directions to the Eco-Village (where MOTH. ER's August seminars were underway), we buzzed right on over.
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