Entered on the web page at the request of our good
friends, "The Copelands".
From: "CHARLES W. COPELAND"
To: Jerry Sjostrand
Subject: Have Saw, Will Travel
CBROS is fortunate to be close enough to his home base to be
visited fairly frequently by Jerry Sjostrand, who is usually good for lunch, but always
ready to share the latest information, gossip and techniques relating to the EXPRESS and
other topics of world import, but this time was different. When he climbed out of his
airplane I noticed he was carrying a battery powered saber saw and a shop coat. When
questioned about this strange behavior he mumbled something like, "I came to
work". Not wanting to look a "gift horse in the mouth" we went to lunch.
On our return to the hangar we learned that Jerry was
planning to cut a BIG HOLE in our fuselage, explaining that if you ain't got a baggage
door, you ain't "----- ". Actually, he didn't say that exactly, but he has been
trying to convince us that a baggage door was a necessity rather than a "trick"
for a long, long time (we were really waiting to see if his tail was going to fall off)
but he decided that the time had come to move far enough forward with the door to prevent
us from ignoring his suggestion or turning back. So, after much "eyeballing" to
get the door pattern in just the right place, he just said "stand back", put on
his shop coat, picked up his saw and proceeded to cut this BIG HOLE in the side of our
fuselage, just behind the right rear window. Not leaving anything to chance he got us busy
removing some of the foam around the perimeter of the "door" and the
"hole", and went ahead and filled these areas with resin, milled fiber and
cabosil mixture while we cut strips of peel ply as directed. So now we have this BIG HOLE
and a door - all we have to do is find some gate hinges and figure out some kind of a door
knob and we will have our baggage door/escape hatch, as Jerry knew we would all along.
To paraphrase a greatly loved poem: "…..and he said
with a laugh as he flew out of sight, (in his EXPRESS with a baggage door) merry baggage
door to you - now please, let's don't fight" A word to the wise: If Jerry shows up at
your place in his shop coat, carrying some tools - you could be in for it! Seriously,
there is no other builder out there who has spent anywhere near the amount of time on
OTHER PEOPLE'S airplanes, including factory prototypes, as Jerry has. He is a great asset
to, and greatly appreciated by, the EXPRESS Community. Thanks, Jerry. (A more technical
documentation of the door installation will be furnished in a later issue)