You know, the most visitors I get (about 1,000 per day now) are finding my page HERE .
My main passion and project is now: Ultralight
HELICOPTERS -and- TURBINE engines!
The easiest way to see what I'm up to is to:
Google: larrys jet -or- larrys turbine -or- larryCanFly
My turbine is a page with info specific to my favorite gas turbine engine.
June 2009, I received an email saying:
"I used one of your videos
to reinforce to my kids how patience, never quitting, and working hard pay off
---it's all because you stated you've been working on it for over 10 years.
The funicular is also a neat item that you've worked on for years.
My kids thought they were cool things--and it helped reinforce a positive lesson."
I say: Thats great to hear - your very kind comments REINFORCE me!
I think it's good for kids to have dreams and goals. I've
dreamed of flying like a bird since I was 6, now I'm 60, and finally
after a lifetime of dreaming, saving, and working at it, my dreams are coming true:
flying my own helicopter from my own land.! See: youtube.com/LarryCanFly, thanks!
What's new: July 31st,2007, yikes another year has gone by. Todays question:
Can I reduce the weight of my ultralight by replacing the 3 pound 5 gallon plastic fuel tank with a fuel cell (rubber bladder?)?
I found a company on-line that says: "If you are just thinking about fuel cells for your project, we can give you some ideas to get you started. Call on us to get it done right the first time." Wow, ... I'll call tomorrow!
This sticker has been in the window of my gas-turbine-turboprop-amphibious-ultralight-aircraft since Sun-n-Fun 2005. I'll update this page tomorrow with the answer to my super-lightweight-5-gallon-jet-fuel-tank question. Answer: "No"... it was a pretty dumb question. 3 pounds is not very much. The folks at Eagle Fuel Cells (800-437-8732) were just great and very helpful but they make serious fuel cells for serious applications like military helicopters! My application is just too off the charts strange - geesh, you'd think I'd have figured this out by now. ... it's lonely being out over the edge all the time.
News: Sept 27th 2006, ... first flight of gas turbine
turboprop amphibous ultralight from (and to) the river that flows
through Pfrancdom was a total success!
Sorry no video of the plane yet, but here's an old video taken by Larry, Pfranc of NY, of me starting the engine INDOORS!:
It was a beautiful perfect landing - from the left (west) with touchdown right about where the nose is pointing. (and just to the left behind those trees lives Pepper. Pepper loves flying and let me cut down a bunch of her trees so I'd have a little more room.
I'm sure glad I got a couple of hours of water landing training
flights in Florida a few months ago. Also, talking with other Aventura UL owners on-line helped a lot!
(see - I'm crazy but not stupid - yet anyway.)
News: Sept 8th 2006, I took off from the river that flows past my home here
in the woods of Oregon in
my new amphibious ultralight aircraft with
gas turbine turbo-prop jet engine attached (click here for photos), wow because I didn't mean to
take off! I landed - in the river - AND both me and the aircraft are OK!!!
I did not intend on flying that day, ugh. I was not ready and the
plane was not ready by a long shot! I just wanted to learn
how to step taxi and navigate in the river.
I had only 1250 feet of narrow tree lined river between rapids and rocks and I used it ALL!
And more than half of that was in the air. One take-off (by mistake) and two landings, the
first was a big very scary bounce, but I got the nose down avoiding a stall and managed to
set her back down into the water and stop before hitting the rocks! Whew - man, that was fun.
Maybe I can excape winning the Darwin Award
after all since I'm really old and had a vasectomy? Maybe not. Or maybe us old guys get a free pass to
do really stupid things and get away with it? Or maybe hours of water landing training
in Florida last year and a hundred hours flying ultralights over the last 20 years helped too?
--- I'm not braggin' on you I'm just trying to say to you: don't try this at home, like
the MythBusters
say "We are professionals, we know what we are doing ...". It just doesn't seem fair,
some people get away with doing totally crazy things while others end up hurt or dead
just crossing the street.
I get away with being nuts (so far anyway) but that doesn't mean you can - well unless
you are really old and shooting blanks.
I get email from kids all the time asking "larry help me build a jet engine ....." and my
answer, if I answer at all, is always; "get your dad or a relative to help". I'll talk to
dad's helping their kids with a father-son project - but not the kids.
News: May 2005, I finally put a brake on my propeller and it worked! It's a
HAYES disc brake made for a bicycle and it stops my 72 inch diameter IVO 3 blade prop
on my 86HP gas turbine engine. How strange is this?
More about my prop brake here.
News: 10/04; Another amazing flight in another L-29, this time
for free! AND, I got to sit in the front seat, start the engine,
and piloted it for two hours!
Two takeoffs, two landings, a loop, a bunch of rolls, from here
to Camarillo,California with Scott!
News: On June 30th, 2004 I piloted a military jet! A L-29 Delfin.
Jack Kilpatrick owns it (and he also owns the Redding Jet Center).
He let me fly it for 55 minutes! I did a LOOP,
a 5.5G turn, 5 rolls, and went over
400 miles per hour! He did the first landing to show me how and then
let me take it around the pattern and land it!!! I
recorded the track on my Garmin geko 301! The loop confused it! (more>>here)
Homemade FUNICULAR
down to the river, (AKA lift, elevator, moving deck)... spell FUN - I - C - U - LAR(ry)
My factory made
85 horse power Gas Turbine Engine. ... which I want to put on my ultralight. --- On 5/17/03 I started the engine
the first time while attached to my modified GT-280 (same as GT-400) with HiMax wings!
Today I'm working on the PWM Atmel AVR throttle control FADIC.
I've always wanted to design, build,
and fly jet aircraft!
-- so finally I did.
I started flying ultralight aircraft in 1986. By 2003 I finished my
gas turbine turboprop ultralight and flew it! Yeah! Me. Stupid, poor, larry.
So far everyone seems to like hearing and seeing it.
Next step - Amphibious turboprop ultralight! I bought a Aventura UL 11/04
and plan on flying it from the factory in Florida across the USA to my
home in Oregon before March 2005. I'll use a 447 or equiv.
Update: It didn't happen. The plane wasn't ready when we got there and just as well because
I wasn't either so we trailered it all the way home. Total trip time: 40 days, and over 8000 miles.
I did get some water landing training while in Florida, met some great people (wish I had contact info)
and we took our time and saw the USA, even New Orleans - before Katrina! Yeah, most of the
time life sucks, but sometimes it's really cool. And you really never know when it might be until it is.
Next dream = FANJET Amphibious ultralight: Fanjet UL.
November 2004.
The first time I read this old photocopy of this
old letter I thought it was a joke, but it was no joke.
Turned out to be
very real, and amazing, and really makes you think
about what it must have been like back then, when
men were fighting for the USA. I'm talking about this
form letter from about 1944. I transcribed it
so you can see what I mean.
The words in CAPS were the filled in fields.
I'm doing this for my across-the-river-neighbor,
(10/7/1923)
81 year old Helen Jacqueline (Pepper) Janicki,
Cleveland Ohio, Las Vegas, Grants Pass Oregon, in honor of
her late husband Earl Benjamen Janicki who was a Navy pilot in
air group eleven in "the big one" WWII, Pacific. I noticed one of the other groups had an
Admirl McCain in charge so thinking maybe he was related to John McCain I sent an email to the US Senator, and I got this email back!
Pepper is alive and well - AND has running water now
after doing without for over a year, fetching water from
the river! Thanks to a very generous local well drilling company,
Quinns Well Drilling! ... Bob Quinn and his team are "the greatest!".
He gave her a well worth about $7,000 --- FOR FREE!!!! Totally free.
---- GOD bless you Bob Quinn ----
Update: On10/05/2009, Pepper died, at her home. Born (10/7/1923).
Please contact me if you are related to Earl or Pepper.
I was helping Pepper for about 10 years with my pages here
trying to help her connect with friends from the past. I was
her (her Google man). She'd call all almost everyday
and ask me to search for things, it was kind of fun. I had a
page that listed lots of information so it could be found by
people googling "pepper" or themsleves. So when
she died, I continued using the page to mabye help her still.
My error was not remembering that most people value their privacy and
sure don't need me publishing everything I learn about them,
or Pepper - regardless if I think it would help find more good information
for Pepper. She's gone and so I have to think of all her
friends and relatives now. And do what I can for them.
But I finally figured out that this is not cool. The people who can
help her now, like her sister, and her sisters attorney, and Earls
relatives (even though they gave me permission), most
likely would like privacy, ... I would. So unless there is
information you wish me to publish, and ask me to,
I'll assume you would not, and I won't.
Oh, one more thing! Pepper lived like a pauper, she smelled and
looked, and lived like a homless baglady in a falling down dump.
Several people could see beyond it all and helped her the
best they could with no expectation of any return, actually
they helped knowing it could come back at them in a negative way.
It turns out she
had over $3 million cash and US savings bonds
hidden in the house, over $1.2 million in bank accounts around town, and
realestate in 3 states worth many more $Millions. Total: About $8 million,
estimate $6 million after taxes and expenses.
--- surprise!
She left no will, no kids, only hier is an older sister with alhzmires in Ohio - that we know of.
If you have a claim against her estate, a 4 month clock is running.
You must contact her attorney before times up. The clock started May 1st!
Mayday! Mayday! So deadline is what? July 1st? 2010.
--- mybest, larry, 5/19/2010.
What's new: July 31st,2007, yikes another year has gone by. Todays question:
Can I reduce the weight of my ultralight by replacing the 3 pound 5 gallon plastic fuel tank with a fuel cell (rubber bladder?)?
I found a company on-line that says: "If you are just thinking about fuel cells for your project, we can give you some ideas to get you started. Call on us to get it done right the first time." Wow, ... I'll call tomorrow!
This sticker has been in the window of my gas-turbine-turboprop-amphibious-ultralight-aircraft since Sun-n-Fun 2005. I'll update this page tomorrow with the answer to my super-lightweight-5-gallon-jet-fuel-tank question. Answer: "No"... it was a pretty dumb question. 3 pounds is not very much. The folks at Eagle Fuel Cells (800-437-8732) were just great and very helpful but they make serious fuel cells for serious applications like military helicopters! My application is just too off the charts strange - geesh, you'd think I'd have figured this out by now. ... it's lonely being out over the edge all the time.
