RAVEN Project closing - Paul
Raven team members,

It is with great regret that I must announce that the RAVEN Project is
shutting down. The numbers have caught up to the project. There just
aren't anymore resources available to for us to continue. At the end of the
year our lease expires and there is just enough money to cover that debt.
My financial position does not allow me the option of continuing any
further.

The RAVEN will require another $300,000 to complete. There are structural
deficiencies which necessitate making a new set of wings before any record
attempts can be made. Without a new set of wings the chances of flying the
distance is low. Too low to risk.

Interest in the RAVEN Project has been strong world wide. I receive queries
and best wishes daily. Alas though, all support received has been moral.
There have been no offers of financial support. Repeated attempts to secure
major sponsorship and funding have been to no avail.

We will attempt to fly the RAVEN one time before year's end. After the end
of the year, I will do what I can to distribute what ever resources remain.

The lessons learned from the RAVEN will not be lost. Those of you who have
been around from the beginning, know that the RAVEN was to first project of
an educational program that we were putting together. That program is alive
and well. I will continue to grow and expand that program. The program
will have other projects. None of them like the RAVEN though.

Thank you all for your support down through the years. The failures, the
victories, and the just the tenacity to survive. The RAVEN is a sound, well
engineered airplane. We just couldn't build it on the budget allowed.

Paul Illian
RAVEN Chief Engineer

Tuesday, October 16, 2001

RAVEN Status - Paul
Things are moving along quite well. We're on schedule for first flight by
the end of the year.

Propeller testing is moving forward(no pun intended). We set the PTV up at
the Marymoor velodrome last week and with a little bit of tweaking found the
best performance range of the blades. What we'll work on next is balancing
the performance between the two blades. The angles of the two blades differ
slightly.. That means that when the settings are optimized, one of the
blades is biting too much and the other too little. It's a minor change, as
we designed small turnbuckles into the linkage.

Wings:
There're really looking good.

Photos:
The latest batch of photos are on the web site. The stories haven't made it
online yet, but the photos can be seen using searches in photobase.
Speaking of which. With all the volunteers we've had through the years,
we've lost track of some names. Some people I've never met, some that I've
only known first or last names and some that I've lost the spelling.

So, within the photobase keywords, I have added the field "missingname" to
the photo database. If you have a few moments, go into photobase and do a
search on "missingname" (one word) and respond with any information you can
provide. I want to make sure everyone gets recognized and acknowledged.

Pedals:
The pedal system is in final stages of remanufacture. It should be ready
later this week for installation and testing.

Work sessions:
Monday Oct 15 (Today) 4pm - 8:30pm
Wed 4pm - 8:30pm
Fri 4pm-8:30pm
Sat 10am - 2pm

Thursday, September 06, 2001

RAVEN Status - Paul
The repairs to the wing went well. The port wing skins suffered some skin
damage during ground handler training. A wing support slipped out of
position and put too much force on a non-reinforced area. We ended up
replacing a 9" wide by 48" long skin section.

During our flight testing the other weekend, the airplane was reluctant to
fly. It's kind of maddening that one session the airplane will practically
leap off the ground, and at the next session it's as if the airplane is
glued to the tarmac.

From session to session, the only thing that really changes is the wing skin
surface quality. It isn't that we're being sloppy with the wing. It's just
that no one really understands the effects of surface quality at such low
speeds. There are some well respected equations out there dealing with the
effects of surface imperfections on the critical sub-laminar boundary layer.
Pretty much the equations produce a distance. Theoretically, if your bumps
are smaller then that distance, the airflow can't feel them and they have no
effect on the airflow. All I can figure is that we have some especially
sensitive air here in the Puget Sound region.

Anyway, we've spent the last couple of work sessions dealing with the
surface quality of the wing skins. Last Saturday one of the team members
suggested using floor wax on the wings. I went on by the local market and
picked some of the latest hardwood floor acrylic finishing products (New &
Improved) to give a try. Great results! (Thanks for the idea Raye). It
takes a bit of time and effort to apply the stuff, but the results are
worth it. It's good to know that the 4 years I spent in the USMC learning
how to shine shoes is having some payoff.

Last night we worked with the propellers and the PTV. There was a concern
that variable pitch linkage arms were slipping on the propeller blade
shafts. That turned out not to be the case. The twist arms were rock solid
(good job Loren). The problem turned out to be that the propeller drive
shaft was about 1/100 of and inch too large and the displacement piston was
able to rock slightly. This rock allowed for a 2 degree pitch setting
variation between the blades. We just wrapped a piece of smooth tape around
the piston and we were good to go. That took out most of the slop. There's
one more place we need to snug up, but with the first fix we were then able
to get some good speeds out of the PTV.

All and all a pretty good series of work sessions.

Remember, I will be out of town for two weeks. I expect to be back and
ready to go September 23rd.

Wednesday, August 29, 2001

RAVEN Testing on Aug 25th - Paul
We finally got to test the airplane Saturday. We had 8 people show and we
were able to practice removing and stowing the wings a couple of times.

We then assembled the airplane and proceeded to practice moving it around.
This was the first time

We attempted four launch and recovery sequences. The airplane seemed very
sluggish and didn't want to fly. We did accomplish four short hops with a
controlled recovery after each. After the fourth attempt we ran out of time
and needed to take the airplane apart.

The Airplane wing skin suffered some minor damage when one of the wing
supports slipped out of position and overloaded the skin in a small area.
Because of the damage it was decided not to put the wings back into the
Transportor, but to walk them back to Hanger 2.

So the truck showed up on time and moved the empty Transportor back to the
Hanger. We then carried each wing back separately.

Tasks this week:

Today (Wednesday) 6pm --
inspect the wings and start repairs,
set up the fuselage for installing the control system
put the variable pitch mechanism in the PTV

Friday 3:30 -
continue
Saturday
continue

Reminder, I will be out of town September 7th through the 22nd. I'm not
sure if I will have access to my email.

Saturday, August 25, 2001

August 25th testing is on - Paul
As of 6am Saturday morning everything is a go

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