Vintageav8r
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- Sep 8, 2014
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Everyone needs a biplane at least once during their life. So when a chance to purchase a Smith DSA-1 Miniplane fell in my lap, I jumped at the opportunity. Many of you will recognize this as the one previously belonging to esmokeshop . He was very reluctant to sell. But after many weeks of hounding, flattery, shamery (is shamery a word?) and any other tricks I knew, he finally caved in. Before he could change his mind and with a very thorough condition inspection, and a few repairs, I flew it to its new home. And what a surprise that was. Nothing Ive ever read or heard about this airplane prepared me for how it really behaved both in the air and on the ground. Having only flown this one Im not qualified to make blanket statements. Nor can I put words together in an entertaining way like Bud Davidson. But, I can say that Ive never flown a better behaved airplane. It does exactly what you tell it to do RIGHT NOW without any delay or hesitation. It will do what is asked of it immediately and seemingly with ease. (Just be careful what you ask it to do!) Now this is gonna be fun.
It does have a few issues. And these will be worked in the months ahead. The major ones, like the broken tail wheel mount, have already been repaired. It will need new covering on the fuselage at some time in the not too distant future and perhaps a little engine work due to setting for awhile. Because of a previous repair, the landing gear will have to be rebuilt or replaced. But thanks to an earlier posting by race38 I have enough of the gear drawings to know what Frank Smith intended. (It would be great to find a complete set of original drawings.) By all indications this was at one time someones pride and joy. So, in my mind, I can look past its flaws and see a well built little airplane underneath just waiting to come out and shine again. It has a carbureted O-200-A with (I think) the flapper valve and sleeve inverted oil system with a smudge pot on the firewall ending with a case vent at the tail. Ill know more when I get a bore scope in the oil tank. It has two fuel tanks plus a header tank under the main tank that looks to be for inverted flight. According to the logs it originally had a C-85 and Im guessing a dash 12J. The main fuselage tank is marked as holding 12.5 gallons and this was confirmed during the fuel ops check. The aux tank is in the center section and is marked as an additional 10 gallons. So it holds more fuel than the average Mini. As soon as the FAA in Oak City does the registration thing, Ill request the CD to find out more about N138L. In the mean time it will be getting a good cleaning and cosmetic repairs. And it will probably get a new interior/seat as well. The rest will have to wait until some other projects in my stable are completed or sold.
Its been said before in other posts, but the knowledge and the way its so freely shared on this forum is nothing short of amazing. It would really be great if someone knew more history of this SMP. Well, thanks for reading.
E
It does have a few issues. And these will be worked in the months ahead. The major ones, like the broken tail wheel mount, have already been repaired. It will need new covering on the fuselage at some time in the not too distant future and perhaps a little engine work due to setting for awhile. Because of a previous repair, the landing gear will have to be rebuilt or replaced. But thanks to an earlier posting by race38 I have enough of the gear drawings to know what Frank Smith intended. (It would be great to find a complete set of original drawings.) By all indications this was at one time someones pride and joy. So, in my mind, I can look past its flaws and see a well built little airplane underneath just waiting to come out and shine again. It has a carbureted O-200-A with (I think) the flapper valve and sleeve inverted oil system with a smudge pot on the firewall ending with a case vent at the tail. Ill know more when I get a bore scope in the oil tank. It has two fuel tanks plus a header tank under the main tank that looks to be for inverted flight. According to the logs it originally had a C-85 and Im guessing a dash 12J. The main fuselage tank is marked as holding 12.5 gallons and this was confirmed during the fuel ops check. The aux tank is in the center section and is marked as an additional 10 gallons. So it holds more fuel than the average Mini. As soon as the FAA in Oak City does the registration thing, Ill request the CD to find out more about N138L. In the mean time it will be getting a good cleaning and cosmetic repairs. And it will probably get a new interior/seat as well. The rest will have to wait until some other projects in my stable are completed or sold.
Its been said before in other posts, but the knowledge and the way its so freely shared on this forum is nothing short of amazing. It would really be great if someone knew more history of this SMP. Well, thanks for reading.
E
