Started in november1981, the
building of the Orion G-801 was spread over 12 years since we wanted to preserve
family life over everything else. Knowing nothing about composites, we arrived
in
Brienne (near Troyes) with a team of
good friends and a lot of courage and with the necessary tools that Jean
Grinvalds had told us to bring along: scale, scissors, a lot of brushes
and a special roller to get the bubbles out.
The remainder: glass tissue and resin was available through him.
We had building licence # 16 but we were the #4 to use the fuselage
moulds and #8 for the wing. The training went at a good pace and we progressed
rapidly (I still remember that we heard the Orion flying overhead and we all
went outside with our brushes in the air, when we came back, there was an
indelible mark on the top of the fuselage after the resin set suddenly and the
brushes were shot).
The meals taken at Miss Foucteau’s restaurant will always be remembered by those who lived
these heroic times and the many trips back and forth from the Croix Blanche Hotel to the
hangar, in the middle of the night, to check if the heater was working properly or to check
if the hangar wasn’t on fire.
The big event of the opening of the mould’s did bring its lot of adrenaline when the master of
ceremony, Jean Grinvalds, started to bang on the mould with a big
mallet and we saw (in disbelief) the
white "egg" being sucked inside, we thought that everything was broken
!!!
To make
a long story short, after a week of hard
labor, we
were able to drive back to
Normandy
.
Just to see the many surprised faces on
the roads, it was worth it, especially these "gendarmes" who were ticketing a poor driver
and we just could imagine the first one saying: “ Did you see the airplane?” and
the other slashing back: ”Stop drinking mate!!”
Once home, we had to start making all the metal parts that were
necessary to assemble the beast.
Months passed with the
realisation of the wing (one week in Brienne) and stabilizers plus all the
different composite parts (another week in Brienne). But that was fast compared with
what was laying ahead of us.
During the building we always applied two main
rules:
the 80/20 rule:”80% of the work
takes 20% of the necessary time and 20% of what’s left to do takes 80% of the
time”.
Then the other rule: ”Maybe I am lucky to be going so
slowly….because I might be going in the wrong direction
!”
Meanwhile, it was necessary to start looking for an engine,
which required a small “tour de France” of the airfields during our vacations
(with the children) to finally find our happiness in Lognes (east of
Paris ): a run down Lycoming IO 360 which at the
time cost us just"peanuts".
But of course, it was necessary to overhaul it completely (disassembling
and reassembling by changing all the necessary parts in such
operation) and we owe a great lot to our friend Michel for his priceless assistance
.
Our "bibles" during all this adventure was, without any doubt,
the Tony Bingelis books , they were full of humor and priceless advices. It was at that time
also that we started our various visits to
OSHKOSH
, SUN & FUN and other RSA Fly-Ins:
impossible to circumvent the "Meccas" for the homebuilders that we were. It is
there that we befriended so many marvellous people who will certainly recognize themselves through
these pages.
What took the most time,
was making the mechanical parts, were they done by ourselves or in workshops, the blank
assemblies and the adjustments, the localization and purchase of the raw materials,
instruments, etc...
It was mainly necessary
to learn to be patient and to know to sort out all the overheard
informations, sometimes coming from people who believed they held the truth and
this is why, in our hangar, one can read a panel with these words:
" Those among
you who think they know everything... annoy those of us
who are
certain". Main landing gear Box
Great
moments:
the final assembly of the fuselage and the wing, the
correct
working of the manual and electric landing gears (without forgetting the correct closure of
the gear doors; and there, it wasn't easy!), flaps and ailerons working in
the right directions, the instrument panel, the electricity (we owe a lot to our
friend Helmuth Reichert) and especially the first start-up of the engine
and finally the last visits by GSAC (French FAA or CAA) approving the work done
and getting the authorization to carry out the test flights.
When visitors came to the hangar and asked when that would
fly, the invariable answer was: "Tuesday 4 p.m! "Thus, on a beautiful Tuesday at
4 p.m., all being checked and being re-checked, the wind being calm and having
told the tower of my intentions and in the presence of a few close relations,
the ORION G-801 F-WJDL rolls towards the runway and to the holding point 13. The
checklist is calmly done (it is not the time any more to wonder whether all
was well done?). I got the OK, from the tower, to
take-off.
I progressively pushed forward on the throttle, the F-WJDL
kept track without effort (undoubtedly the rear propeller, and its gyroscoping action), acceleration
was frank and suddenly the Orion jumped in the air as if it was
in a hurry to join the "blue yonder", I slightly pushed forward , without any sharp
motion, I applied the brake on the wheels and retracted the gear, reduction of the MP and
adjust the pitch (the numerous ground tests made it possible to hone my routines) and
suddenly happiness rushed over : “I AM FLYING A HOMEBUILT
AIRCRAFT COMPLETELY MADE WITH OUR OWN HANDS”, the
feelings in these moments are beyond description, so much goes through the head
and at the same time it is absolutely necessary to be vigilant.
Apart from a bothersome problem with an unrolling trim,
the ORION behaved very well, I reached altitude and engaged in
some right and left turns to better feel the airplane and then
I made one or two stall approaches to figure out what my approach speed will
be and I decided that 70 kts to start would be fine, then I returned towards the pattern
for a landing; I prepare the Orion for landing: reduced power, adjust the pitch, 10° of flaps
and gear down, everything checked, I got the flaps fully down and I realized that,
once established on its glide, the ORION gives the impression to be on tracks. The
approach is done without problem (while remembering not to raise the nose), the
main wheels touched first then the nose wheel, straight on the axis (always the
gyroscope behind, I suppose!), I cleared the runway on the 06/24 and I am joined by my
"fine team" to share our joy!!! FAAAAABULOUS!!! The job is done. We are SUPER HAPPY,
our Orion flies and very well at that.
Some time later, it's the reception of the CNRA and our final
call sign: F-PJDL (F for France (mandatory), then P for Pat and
JDL for my initials).
We accumulated nearly 300 flying hours when, on a beautiful saturday
of February 1999 as we were flying peacefully with my son, Patrick as a passenger, suddenly
we felt something abnormal (a little bit like a frozen carb, but my engine has
injection) then it was emergency: the engine stopped and we are gliding only
1500 feet
from the ground, all goes too quickly: the ploughings,
the high tension wires, I just had time to tell the tower about our miseries
and our position then it was the crash landing ……
Notice the cut
wing
Much easier to work on
But I could not imagine then, that it would take 5 years to put the ORION
back in the air again, and if it
wasn’t for the tenacity of an American friend, Bill (we reach for
perfection.....and we attain it), who remained at our home that summer until the Orion flew again,
I think that I would still be tergiversating. But what a "renewed" joy when the
"Delta Lima"got the OK from the tower to take off that day!!!
The Phoenix was raising from the
ashes.
friend, Bill (we reach for
perfection.....and we attain it), who remained at our home that summer until the Orion flew again,
I think that I would still be tergiversating. But what a "renewed" joy when the
"Delta Lima"got the OK from the tower to take off that day!!!
