Calamity Jane
Active Member
Hi ya'll! Pretty quiet around here - guess everybody's out making sawdust or sparks 
I don't know how many people wander past this Board everyday but I'm looking for a place to rub shoulders with other airplane builders.
I'm in rural Manitoba, work in the engineering field, and I am getting close to retirement age. I've been around aircraft since I was young, earned my PPL in 1980 (though I had been airborne for years before that :shock: ) About 1976 I bought the wreckage of a 1946 Aeronca Champ (7BCM) and spent 4 years turning it into an airplane again. I sold the Champ and became "inactive" in about 1987 (for financial reasons) although I maintained my contact with the flying community.
After various and sundry projects (1/2 scale steam engine, restoring an old bulldozer, 1/3 scale Civil War cannon) I've started to get the itch to have another airplane.
I have long been a fan of the DeHavilland Gipsy Moth (DH-60) and have a full set of drawings (from 1928). Only recently did I discover an engine in current production that looks enough like the Gipsy engine to be "passable" so I have started playing with the idea of a 1:1 replica of the DH-60 with numerous up-dates (140 HP, modern airfoil, metal spars, 4130 instead of mild steel, ailerons on the upper wing, etc., etc.)
Right now I am just searching for a PC software package (preferrable CHEAP!) to allow me to do performance predictions instead of the old, laborous method of calculations and nomograms. If anybody knows of anything, please let me know.
I look forward to meeting the gang who frequent this Board
I don't know how many people wander past this Board everyday but I'm looking for a place to rub shoulders with other airplane builders.
I'm in rural Manitoba, work in the engineering field, and I am getting close to retirement age. I've been around aircraft since I was young, earned my PPL in 1980 (though I had been airborne for years before that :shock: ) About 1976 I bought the wreckage of a 1946 Aeronca Champ (7BCM) and spent 4 years turning it into an airplane again. I sold the Champ and became "inactive" in about 1987 (for financial reasons) although I maintained my contact with the flying community.
After various and sundry projects (1/2 scale steam engine, restoring an old bulldozer, 1/3 scale Civil War cannon) I've started to get the itch to have another airplane.
I have long been a fan of the DeHavilland Gipsy Moth (DH-60) and have a full set of drawings (from 1928). Only recently did I discover an engine in current production that looks enough like the Gipsy engine to be "passable" so I have started playing with the idea of a 1:1 replica of the DH-60 with numerous up-dates (140 HP, modern airfoil, metal spars, 4130 instead of mild steel, ailerons on the upper wing, etc., etc.)
Right now I am just searching for a PC software package (preferrable CHEAP!) to allow me to do performance predictions instead of the old, laborous method of calculations and nomograms. If anybody knows of anything, please let me know.
I look forward to meeting the gang who frequent this Board
