[Swiftwater Gazette] Sound Ex

[Brad Haslett]

Bill,

There's two 1 quart cans of sound deadening paint on the shelf at the
hangar you can have. I decided not to use it because it subtracts
another 3 pounds from the useful load of 51V.  That may sound trivial
but my 'ole gal' has gained quite a bit of weight over the years and
every little bit counts. She's sporting a new set of Goodyear
FlightCustom III tires that I'd like to exchange for the cheapest
thing on the market.  They're heavy as hell.  Beechcraft used "tar"
for the lack of a better description for insulation in the 50's and
60's.  They coated the belly skins to stop "oil canning" - that's the
aluminum skin flexing from temperature changes and making loud popping
noises.  The "tar" stuff collects fluids over time and gets "gooey"
(as well as creating a fire hazard). It took me a gazillion man hours
to clean it out and a $300 Dave Clark headset and a DVD player (which
51V came with installed) cures the problem for the future. The 727 was
bad about "oil canning" with loud pops in the sheet metal that you
could hear over the whistling from the cockpit (I'm convinced Billy
Boeing was deaf).   The DC-10, for all its faults (most of which were
cured in the first 500 fatalities, including the guy cooking a goat
with a Bunsen Burner on the way to the Haj), was damned quiet in the
cockpit. Every Boeing jet leaves the factory "industrial strength"
with the noise you usually associate with industry.

If you and I want to get serious about noise, we need to travel to
Westphalia and find out how they made the VW diesels so quiet.  Even
with the hood raised, she's quiet and smooth.  Forget Germany, let's
go to Korea.  Our Hyundai trackhoe is so quiet while operating it is
almost a hazard. I've walked-up on Gary before, thinking he was at
idle and smoking, only to be almost smacked-down because he was just
contemplating his next move.

Brad


On 12/8/09, Bill Effros <bill at effros.com> wrote:
> Sound Ex looks like the same kind of stuff Sound Down makes.
>
> Sound Down used to go to boat shows with a motor that sounded like a car
> shredder inside a doghouse-sized box lined with the top of the line
> soundproofing material.
>
> Are you old enough to remember Senor Wences on the Ed Sullivan Show?
> The head in the box?  "alright?" "alright!" Slam the box shut--no sound.
>
> Well their demo was like that.  When you shut the box you were sure they
> had automatically turned off the motor.  So they would let you crack it
> open just a little bit to hear the motor was still making that same
> horrible loud noise.  One of the great all-time carnival demos.
>
> The lead lined stuff works so well it's probably illegal.  It's in a
> different category than the lighter stuff your plane can lift.  It's so
> heavy it's amazing.  No problem for boats, homes, portable generator
> enclosures--except to the extent it will probably double the weight of
> that generator.
>
> Keep me posted -- have you tried the spray on paint that converts sound
> to heat?  It works, but nothing like the lead -- which, as you already
> know, is the only thing that can protect Superman from Kryptonite!
>
> B.
>