Hatz Biplane Association

This afternoon Hatz #532 took off from Lawrence Municipal Airport and flew for and hour before returning to land. The Lycoming 0-320 with a Ed Sterba 74-54 wooden prop cruises around 98 mph at 2300 rpm. Not too sure on that because I was dealing with a lot of thermals so that may be a little on the high side. The oil temps started out around 190 but climbed to about 220 towards the end so
I may need to put a lip on the bottom of the cowl like Jeff did since I am not running an oil cooler at this point. Hopefully I won't need too but we will see. Used to flying faster planes so when I slowed up to 60 knots on final i thought I was falling out of the sky but then over the runway of course the plane did not want to land so i bounced it and went around. Next one was better. Overall othr than a vibrating wire on the left side in steep climbs it worked out well.

Great news!

Hey... would that be Lawrence, MA? I'm going to have to come up and give it a look!

Way to go!!!! If your wire keeps giving you problems, just loosen jam nuts and drop the leading edge a little bit. GOOD LUCK !!!!!!!!

Yes Doug it is Lawrence Mass. I work a week on and get a week off for Netjets so I am gone every other week but pick a day and I will let you know if I am home or not. Love to show it you.

Sorry I guess it was Steve G who put the lip on the bottom of their O-320 open cowl.

I put a lip on mine, but not by adding metal. I used a slightly rounded bucking bar and a hammer to flare it out. It was the first time I've ever done metal work like that but it turned out nice. Didn't take but maybe half and hour and it was ready for finishing out. I will need to use a bit of filler and sanding to smooth out the very small divots, but the final paint will not show any.

Just an idea you might consider...

Congratulations John!

I was up to Lawrence Airport several weeks ago to visit Mickey Ricard...he told me you were almost done! Boy, you've come a long way...great job!

I still have S/N 205 out at Orange, MA. I had Doug up for a visit (he's a good guy!). I hope we can get together sometime!

Vic

Thanks Vic for the well wishes and letting us crawl over your airplane. I got some great ideas on how it should all come together such as extending the removable metal side panels on the side so i can service the brakes. I remember what you went through. If Fact I bought the brakes off Mickey. He weighed the plane too. He's been a lot of help when I had doubts. Hope tomsee you soon.
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Put a lip on the bottom cowl and flew 532 again. Hard to believe an inch of aluminum would make that much difference but it kept the oil temperature at a steady 195 F. Can't beat that. Have to see what happens in the summer but for now it works great. Still breaking in the engine so flying around circles over the airport and keeping it above 75% power so I don't glaze the cylinders so only got 2 landings in so have to stick to calm days until i get enpugh time on the engine to try some light crosswind work

Looks great! May I ask where you got your logo decal?

Steve G