Brad Stiefvater's C-II
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Over the past 10 years I have used my Challenger for Search & Rescue Missions , damage assessment (tornado) , flood watch, missing persons, evidence search in murder cases and bad guys hiding from law enforcement.
A few months back I was searching for a felony rape suspect hiding in a pheasant hunting preserve . When they went to make the arrest he ran. I was called in to help the search. We had about 20 officers on the ground. I flew for an hour and came up with nothing. I then picked up an officer with a handheld thermal imager. I told him when we went up that it might not work looking through the tinted lexan .I was right it did not.
This got me thinking about a solution. Well ,we got a new remote thermal imager unit. (Same kind the Boarder Patrol and the big city Police Depts. Use) It is designed to be mounted on a vehicle . It is a revolving turret type camera with 360 rotate and tilt. It is operated from inside the vehicle with a joy stick and 7 inch monitor. We designed it to be transferable from a vehicle to the Challenger . I mounted the camera on a pod that I built on the side of the fuselage and put the joy stick and monitor on the back of the front seat. This makes possible for the back seater (we call him my weapons officer) to view and operate the camera. Sunday I did the flight test with the camera mounted (its kinda big) I was worried about the air flow on the tail control surfaces. The test showed no bad effects. I loaded up my weapons officer and gave it a try. I went to 1000' AGL and the unit works great from the air. It picks up heat signatures from the human body or even small objects very well from 1000' AGL..
This unit is owned by my Department and lets just say it doubles the value of my Challenger when I mount. We will be using it on a vehicle in total darkness, but day time operations we will go the air with it.
Vortex Generators
2001 Memorial Day Fly-in at Salem, SD.
I had an extra Kevlar BRS bridle that I cut up and used to safety all
4 of the wing attach points ( ronys and bolts). I really do
not think Its something anyone has to do. I have 850 hours in my Challenger and
never had a problem. I believe they are perfectly safe as the are, with a good
inspection program of course. So You say then why did you do this???
After all the posts about rony brackets and an bolts I just had the stuff laying
there and decided to see if it could be done.
I cut the ends off of my damaged wings (the droop tips Plus 12 inches) I
added this to the clipped wing after removing the bow tips( Approx 1.5 ft.). So
what I really did here was just replace the bow tips with another 12 inches
of wing and droop tips. My actual over all wing span is still the same as
the original Clipped wing.( just added a little more lifting surface) I
did consult with Dave At QCU before I started this mod.
8/5/00 A sudden severe storm takes out brad's plane and hangar. :>(
Up above the clouds.
Creighton, NE Fly-in with Chan and J.D.. 6/18/00
Brad and Chan Shippy get together.
Brad just installed fiberglass gear legs, and he's enthusiastic about the results.
Custom nosegear suspension
The instructions pages are full size for clarity. Any questions, e-mail Brad
Manual Disc Brakes