By Kenneth Florence, EAA 1509968
This piece originally ran in the June 2024 issue of EAA Sport Aviation magazine.
In March 2024, I purchased a fine example of a Leonard Milholland-designed Legal Eagle XL. Three weeks earlier, I had bought the plans for the airplane but then found this existing one for sale for less than the raw materials to build one from scratch.
Back in 1983, when I first became a private pilot, I was fascinated with the then-new Quicksilver MX. Well, 40 years later, after several certificated airplanes, my mission has become to experience the simple joy of flight again, and an ultralight vehicle became more appealing. Without the need to travel distances, and having sold my last four-seater when the third child was born, my mission is reduced to that. But when I say reduced, I say that from a perceived myopic perspective of others. The simple joy of flying is what drew me to pursue aviation in the first place. So instead, I feel liberated to just go fly when I want to.
I started the half-VW 37-hp engine once before I concluded the deal, and have now run it once since I bought it two weeks ago. Of course, I am on a hangar waitlist and considering just getting 10 acres and a barn.
A few days ago, I took my 18-year-old son to my storage unit “hangar” to show him the bird. The prior owner/builder was meticulous, and to protect the propeller tips and exhaust stacks, he crafted little tennis ball protectors to slip on the tips and end of the stacks, respectively.
Well, in popping those off, I noticed one of the tennis balls from one of the exhaust stacks was half-full of oil. My spirits went from “high flight” to “auger it in.” How could this be? The engine oil was so clean and clear, and the engine only had about 90 hours on it. How could that oil get there? My mind raced about head gaskets, and I felt out of sorts — anticipating a prompt engine teardown and rebuild.
So, still dazed, but just to salvage the day, I proceeded to describe the airplane, controls, and engine to my son. By then, he had figured out that something was wrong with the airplane, Dad, or both. Anyway, as I was starting to describe one of the more unusual features of the airplane, a simple air show-style smoke system, and tracing the oil line path for my son, I suddenly realized that the oil in the tennis ball was mineral oil for smoke. My new acquisition was just fine! The mineral oil is pumped to the starboard exhaust stack to make smoke, and that was the one with the tennis ball half-full of oil. The realization came as an eye-opening, aha moment. The lightbulb had finally turned on.
You see, when I got the airplane a few days prior, but after the last time running the engine, I had my wife sit in it, and I recalled how she had hit the smoke switch inadvertently. I had to come up to switch off the whirring pump motor. (It has separate battery power.) I did not think anything about it at the time, but it turns out that is what half-filled the ball with oil. What a relief!
I figured this out after a few minutes while my son was standing there. It sure seemed longer. So, after pausing and tilting his head, he reflected that it’s a great feeling when he discovers a big problem but then it immediately solves itself. This incident provided the greatest swing in emotion for me in a long time, and I am not really an emotional guy.
Anyway, regarding my plans for the airplane, I have ordered a PSRU redrive to experiment with the 627-cc BSV 23 Vanguard V-Twin. While I am working on that, I want to fly the Eagle using the half-VW. So far, I’ve gone over every inch of the airplane. I sure was surprised when I found a significant amount of oil in a place I did not ever expect to find it.
Ken Florence, EAA 1509968, has been a pilot since 1983, and his newfound mission is “seat-of-the-pants/pure joy of flight” flying. After acquiring a set of plans for a Legal Eagle XL, he found a fine flying example for less than the cost of materials for his scratch build. He has already ordered a PSRU and plans to experiment with future oriented industrial v-twins.