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  1. #10
    rwanttaja's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Al Burgemeister View Post
    I find it interesting that there are no Dyke Deltas listed and yet there were a number of them each year at AirVenture. Might there be other low-number models missing from your list, Ron?
    Hundreds, if not thousands.

    Every homebuilt in the registry is a unique airplane; the builder is allowed to name it whatever they wish. This tends to stymie attempts to automatically count aircraft types. To a computer, a "Smith Lancair 4" is NOT the same as a "Jones Lancair IV", and if you try catalog them, you get a lot of one-count aircraft types.

    Here's just the first page of my list of EAB aircraft in 2020. Notice the variety of types, and the different ways they're designated.
    N-NUMBER
    Regyear
    MFR Name
    Model Name
    SERIAL NUMBER
    MFR MDL CODE
    YEAR MFR
    1001A
    2019
    GUTZMAN CHARLES W
    FALCO F8
    CG3
    0566069
    1001W
    2019
    CANON BRADLEY E
    RV6
    60208
    05620P0
    2006
    1001X
    2019
    BRUCE RYAN
    LANCAIR IVP
    LIV-459
    05626CO
    2012
    10026
    2019
    STEELE GUY P
    RANS S12XL AIRAILE
    01020939
    05614K1
    2002
    10027
    2019
    GORDON RONALD A
    RANS COYOTE S6-ES
    1295910ES
    05603D0
    1996
    1002C
    2019
    DERREBERRY ROGER G
    X AIR F
    1001
    059006Q
    2005
    10039
    2019
    GRADY WILLIAM T
    RV-6
    22275
    05603DY
    1997
    1003Z
    2019
    GOOD G C/GOOD M J
    KITFOX SERIES 5
    S-95060136
    05603DZ
    1997
    1004Z
    2019
    HILAND SPORT
    MS-2
    RGH-1
    05601NB
    1963
    1005
    2019
    JAMES SNIDER
    SUPERSTOL-XL
    JA478-12-15
    05638F6
    2019
    10059
    2019
    LONG DANNY P
    CHALLENGER II LSS
    CH2-0507-LSS-0130
    05627TK
    2009
    1005C
    2019
    MCNEILLY JAMES T
    LITTLE WING 3
    01
    05614K3
    2005
    10066
    2019
    CREIGHTON G DEWAYNE
    FLIGHTSTAR IISC
    324
    05611Z0
    2001
    1006Q
    2019
    PRISELAC
    SKYBOLT
    PS-1
    0565572
    1979
    1007
    2019
    BOWERS R J/BOARDMAN D A III
    MURPHY MOOSE
    130
    05617KU
    2005
    1007P
    2019
    BRYAN COURTNEY
    PHOENIX SL
    101
    05613TP
    1986
    1007Y
    2019
    LOBERGER JIM
    QUICKIE Q2
    2202
    05645QW
    1008Z
    2019
    PSOTA
    MINIPLANE
    1
    83501JH
    1961
    10091
    2019
    HENDRICKSON CARL R
    CHALLENGER II
    CH2-0803-CW-2358
    056203C
    2007
    1009G
    2019
    LEE JIM R
    CURTISS ROBIN
    1
    05614K4
    2003
    1009Z
    2019
    WHITTMAN TAILWIND
    W-8
    DG1
    97902YS
    1963
    100BU
    2019
    DORNIER
    BU 133
    19
    2999006
    1997
    100C
    2019
    WRIGHT BEAUMONT B
    LANCAIR IV P
    LIV-032
    056064Q
    2001
    100CD
    2019
    HOWELL CHARLES N
    COZY
    183
    05616GT
    1994
    100CS
    2019
    SCURLOCK DONALD CRAIG
    CHALLENGER II
    CH204951324
    05902GY
    2007


    This means each type needs its own search filters to not only find types that match, but to weed out types that DON'T match but have similar names. DonN's search for Wittman W10s is a good example...it got 103 hits for Wittman W10s, but also a batch of hits for Agusta AW109SPs (W10 buried in the name), DJI SW 1000 drones, Virus SW100s, etc.

    I'm guessing Don eliminated them manually...easy enough to do, with a one-time ~120-row result. Not so easy when you're trying to find the results for ~60 different aircraft types, and you rerun the same search in January of each year!

    Developing new filters, especially for rarer airplanes, is an adventure. Search the database for "Dyke Delta"? 13 hits. But then I notice that many owners use variations of "JD-2" as a model number. Add that to the search terms, and pow...three more hits.

    But one is a Stewart JD2FF. Is that a Dyke? Looking online, no: It's a Foo Fighter. So modify the filters so the plane is excluded.

    So...15 Dyke Deltas in the 2020 registry. But three are not listed as having Experimental Amateur-Built certification. So the official number, per my original table, would be thirteen.

    It's actually kind of fun to do, a bit of detective work. But it's NOT fun if you're trying to chase down dozens of rarer types with awkward type names. So I go for the lower-hanging fruit; aircraft with many examples, or classics with unique names like the Volksplane.

    The advantage is, the filters get saved and copied from year to year and don't have to be re-developed. And I've got the system automated on my PC; it takes me only 3 mouse clicks to invoke all the filters and generate the totals for ~60 homebuilt types.

    Ron Wanttaja
    Last edited by rwanttaja; 01-10-2020 at 01:21 PM.

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