ETLB Squawk Forums — Archive

Since Avenger never goes anywhere I thought I'd leave a note about yesterdays great adventure.

I've been meaning to fly down to Zuehl Airport (1TE4) from Kittie Hill (77T) (Leander, TX) to see a bunch of guys I've been reading about on the Texas Parasol group on Yahoo.  I called ahead to a guy I had never met named Doc Harr who has been more less the test pilot for a bunch of TP's and other planes.  He claims to have had 26 forced landings back in the day (early 80's) before anyone knew enough to tame the mighty 2 stroke. I headed out sometime after 10 AM against a 15-20 mph headwind with lots of haze and low ceiling.

77T Kittie Hill

77T 25 Miles NW of Austin to 1TE4 15 miles E of San Antonio

1TE4 Zuehl Airport

Here is what I went to see.  Texas Parasol evolved from a plane called a Chuckbird designed by Chuck Beeson. The Texas Parasol plans were drawn by Richard Lamb and he eventually posted them free on the internet after many plans were sold.  One of the reasons Chuck put the plans in the public domain was that people were copying them and selling them all over the world and he could not stop that from happening, so to stop the theft he placed them in the public domain.

When I arrived @ Zuehl about 11:30 ish I was too early for my noon meet with Doc so I meandered over to meet Sonny Mosel who lives on the field and owns 2 variants of the Texas Parasol and more or less an original that he (Sonny) had designed which is actually a shoulder wing with shortened wings that is pretty fast I hear. Sonny did use the TP's signature aluminum angle construction with aluminum tubing spars.( Sorry got no photos.)

When Doc arrived he and Sonny  talked about how the guys Chuck Beeson, Doc, and Sonny all met early in life while they were involved with model airplanes and Chuck was tinkering with real airplanes, homebuilts, rebuilds, refinishing.  Reading between the lines I believe that all there aeronautical engineering came from their early RC days.  I was later told that one of Sonny's TP's actually had an airfoil copied from a Senior Telemaster RC airplane.  That particular plane was set up like a free flight model so that it was stable and could fly hands off except to correct for turbulence.

To be continued

The guy I bought my mini max off of, had one of these, he couldn't keep up with me at all in my mini max.  

Flying is not how fast you get there but the joy you have making the trip. That's why planes like the Max and the parasols get more smiles to the gallon. lol

Gary

Ive never heard of this aircraft...it looks like a beauty.

Any one on the board know more about them..?

regards Arthur

Ive never heard of this aircraft...it looks like a beauty.

Any one on the board know more about them..?

regards Arthur

Quoted from Peteohms Since Avenger never goes anywhere I thought I'd leave a note about yesterdays great adventure.

I've been meaning to fly down to Zuehl Airport (1TE4) from Kittie Hill (77T) (Leander, TX) to see a bunch of guys I've been reading about on the Texas Parasol group on Yahoo.  I called ahead to a guy I had never met named Doc Harr who has been more less the test pilot for a bunch of TP's and other planes.  He claims to have had 26 forced landings back in the day (early 80's) before anyone knew enough to tame the mighty 2 stroke. I headed out sometime after 10 AM against a 15-20 mph headwind with lots of haze and low ceiling.

Zuehl eh? I learned to fly out of Horizon (74R). Bought my first plane (11AC) at BAZ. Then flew it to WA state. Small world...

Everything you would ever want to know is on the yahoo group:  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/texasparasol/

Quoted from Arthur Withy Ive never heard of this aircraft...it looks like a beauty.

Any one on the board know more about them..?

regards Arthur

Arthur,

I Googled Texas Parasol and got a bunch of web sites to look at. The plans for the airplane were made public domain by the designer and you can download the plans for "free". Hard to believe. I did the download but haven't had time to look at them closely. Dayflyer said the Max is faster but you get to see more going slow. LOL.

The web site I used was   home.earthlink.net/~cavelamb/parasol/htm

Gary

oh now Duct Tape.... I felt the knife going in and then the turning of the blade.  Just got home today from Abilene Tx.  Will be in Tyler next month to party with the Texas shriners... how far are you from there?  Last weekend I took the southern route to protect Ks from the huns... flew down to Okla and then along the boarder to Harper Ks and back up to Kingman Ks to fuel.  Ran into my instructor there and we took his warrior up to do some recon.  Flew back to Selby with only one kill and sad to say it was a hun in a kitfox..... they are everywhere.

Well Avenge man I guess you do fly a bit.  Tyler is a bit far for a short meet.  It's doable as long as your buying a steak dinner.  I know about you Shriners.  Party!  My Father-in-law was a Jester.  He had a great time.  

Pete

Quoted from Peteohms Well Avenge man I guess you do fly a bit.  Tyler is a bit far for a short meet.  It's doable as long as your buying a steak dinner.  I know about you Shriners.  Party!  My Father-in-law was a Jester.  He had a great time.  

Pete

I will be there for a week... I have to install some camera's, Mic's and a new recording system for the interview rooms at a child advocacy center and then the shrine thing starts on Thurs I will be headed back to Kansas sometime on sat.  I am averaging about 100 hours in the air a year which isn't bad.  I must admit I put more hours in with the max then I do with the Taylor craft but I fly further with the tcraft in less time.