a riv[e]ting topic (Robert Greenstreet) - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

14 Jan 2007

...

Are you perhaps thinking of the Bede 5?  A friend decided to assemble 
one in the living room of his second-story apartment.  I think he 
ruined the place utterly, what with the swarf from the thousands of 
holes drilled or the broken-off stubs of pop rivets that were left in 
the green shag carpeting, not to mention the oil from the snowmobile 
engine, etc.  I seem to recall that there some problem getting the 
completed craft out of the building...

At the same time, I was building a harpsichord in my third-story 
apartment and while the carpet was pretty dirty from all of the 
sawdust, I think it was salvageable.

Cheers,
Chuck

I think I must be thinking of the Zenith:

http://www.zenithair.com/stolch801/construction.html

It uses what seems to amount to "Cherry" rivets. I've forgotten the details
of the difference between Cherry and CherryMax, but the "Max" are significantly
stronger (and worse to drill out)...

I could have sworn that I had seen a flying example of a 4-seater a/c that looked like the
Zenith, with a big a/c engine providing the power. That was probably at least 10 years
ago...

Good to hear that you got the harpsichord completed, and that it is still playing!

Oh, BTW, one of the engines that lots of people finally settled on for the BD-5 (prop
version) was the 1200 Honda Civic engine (the "49 states" model, not the CVCC).
You've got to have balls to fly the BD-5, especially with a Honda 1200 screaming at
rpm's that it was never intended to run at, especially with high manifold pressure...

Regards,
Robert Greenstreet