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Thread: Gabriel Nderitu has a Dream

  1. #11
    FlyingRon's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ron Blum View Post
    Clyde Cessna crashed 12 times before he flew. Where would we be without his determination?
    Clyde's major problem was the lack of piloting skills rather than a viable aircraft.
    Mine is still a better comparison. Langley through two aerodromes into the Potomac nearly killing the pilot on the second attempt and the Aerodrome had a better chance of flying than this Kenyan contraption.

  2. #12

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    I agree that Clyde had a flyable airplane (Bleriot), but Langley never put his life on the line to fly his own design as most of the others did ... with many paying the ultimate sacrifice for doing so. Regretfully to some extent, we will never know the answers to a lot of questions about that period of aviation ... especially about the relationships between inventors and their individual thoughts about flight and about each other.

    I applaud Gabriel for living his dream. Yes, someone could donate an airplane to him, but what would he learn from that? If we don't learn the "Why things work that way?", how can we improve on them and challenge the norm? The Wrights are even quoted as saying (and I won't get this exactly correct) something to the effect of "You can sit on the fence and watch birds fly all day, but until you attempt to fly yourself, you will never learn."


    Go, Gabriel, fly ... safely.

  3. #13
    Mayhemxpc's Avatar
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    How about start by giving him a copy of NAVWEPS?
    Chris Mayer
    N424AF
    www.o2cricket.com

  4. #14

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    All the "Flying and Glider Manuals" from 1929-1933 are good and available from EAA inexpensively.

  5. #15

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    Fascinating story. After reading this thread I followed the story link. Then searched for more info, videos of past attempts, ect. Mr Nderitu is a college-educated adult fluent in English who makes his career in the IT field and who lives in the same town as an EAAer who's dedicated to publicizing a safe, simple, low-cost, proven, homebuilt, keep-at-home aircraft - and who is willing to help him. Puzzling why Mr Nderitu hasn't availed himself of the abundant information potentially available from just that local source. After all, the Clutton FRED website, this forum, and many other EAA assets are accessible without EAA membership. Hmmm - how can we help, how can we help?

    http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-813147
    Last edited by Mike M; 08-30-2015 at 02:16 PM.

  6. #16

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    Pietenpol

    Any basic aerodynamics books and building books.

    I would chip in some money.

    I think I have seen reports of similar attempts in Afghanistan, China, and some guy in Russia flying his homemade helicopters.

    I think he is on Facebook, I am not so cannot check his progress.
    Last edited by Kim; 09-24-2015 at 08:54 PM.
    Minnesota

  7. #17
    cluttonfred's Avatar
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    As I said before, I live in Nairobi and will be here through summer 2016. I am not going to organize what to donate, but I would be willing to receive whatever is donated and make sure it gets to Mr. Nderitu, even sending a picture of him with the donations. I have a military/diplomatic mailing address, so there would only be U.S. domestic shipping involved. Personally, I would suggest any and all of the these off the top of my head:


    • A Flying and Glider manual set.
    • A copy of Kitplane Construction
    • The Bingelis book set
    • One or more simple aircraft plans sets for inspiration or to actually build from: Pietenpol, Volksplane, Texas Parasol, FRED come to mind.


    PM me if you'd like my mailing address, glad to help.

    Cheers,

    Matthew

    PS--For any EAA staff reading this, perhaps EAA could donate an EAA membership for the Sport Aviation subscription, or at least a stack of back issues?
    *******
    Matthew Long, Editor
    cluttonfred.info
    A site for builders, owners and fans of Eric Clutton's FRED
    and other safe, simple, affordable homebuilt aircraft

  8. #18
    MADean's Avatar
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    Matthew,

    Check out "Copyright free aircraft plans" at yahoo-groups. They have plans for all sorts of aircraft. Some are complete, others are not. And all are free.

    https://ca.groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/cfair/info; https://ca.groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/cfair1/info; https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/cfair2/info; https://ca.groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/cfair3/info; https://ca.groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Cfair4/info

  9. #19

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    Matthew,

    Not sure what you all consider a 'set', but it looks like a lot of these books are available on abebooks.com, some at very reasonable prices.

    I could:
    -order a few of the books
    - have them shipped here
    - then ship them to you
    OR
    - send you (Matthew) some money (paypal), how far would $30 go??
    - you order them and have them shipped to your address

    Second option is easier for me.....
    Minnesota

  10. #20

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    3rd option is I order some books and have them shipped to YOUR address. Let me look into if abebooks allows that
    Minnesota

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