Recently I have had a couple of cases where I used by Robart Incidence Meter for the first time. I have owned it for a couple years, but just never did get around to actually using it. What a waste that time was!

What got me to use it was a friend's new Platt Jungmiester. It was carefully built, and had been checked out visually, but never really measured. It looked good; in fact, it looked super. When it was flown, through, it was instant panic city, a plan that was almost toally uncontrollable in all attitudes. My friend said that he had given up ever getting it back in one piece when the engine quit and the bird just flopped down.

It was a very discouraged friend that called me, and asked if I had any ideas. Since I knew the balance of the plane was very close, the only problem could be alignment, so I suggested that he bring it over and we would use the incidence meter to check everything out. Since this bird has swept-back wings, it is kind of difficult to really ascertain if everything is straight before actually measuring it.

Measuring the bird was a REAL eye-opener! Nothing was off very far by itself, but virtually EVERYTHING was off some, and an analysis of the net effect of all the little mistakes made the plane look as flyable as a potato chip.

Considerable time was used up completely rerigging and straightening the bird, constantly rechecking with the incidence meter, and finally everything looked O.K. I have to admit that since this was the first time that I had actually used the meter, I wasn't totally confident in what we were doing.

The first flight of the rerigged plane reproved an old adage: Build it straight, and it will fly straight! An absolutely holy terror of a plane had been turned into another Falcon. Virtually no trim at all has been required from that first rerigged flight.

The second instance was the first flight of another friend's original 1/3rd size Liberty Sport, a beautiful bird that he had spent the better part of three years designing and building. Since I was to be the test pilot, I wanted this bird to have the best possible chance, and just before the test flight, we went over it thoroughly with the incidence meter. It checked out perfectly, and it flew the same way, completely hands-off the first flight.

The Robart Incidence Meter is now an indespensable tool in my workshop. I sincerely doubt that I will ever again test-fly another plane without first checking it out with this tool, and I recommend it to everyone without reservations. It is one of those items that is beautifully designed for its job, is very easy to use, comes with good instructions, and is cheap to boot.

X-Acto knives, Devcon 5-minute glue, Titebond, Sullivan electric starters for the smaller birds, and Dremel Moto-tools are a highly select group of tools around my shop that I have absolute faith and love for, recommending them without reservation. My Robart Incidence Meter has now joined that group. No serious builder should be without one, and everyone should know how to use one very effectively. A lot of planes would still be around if the incidence meter had been used before they were flown.