Nice job on directional control Frank!! Could have remained over the runway even if were 2' narrower!!
Nice job on directional control Frank!! Could have remained over the runway even if were 2' narrower!!
My third flight with the bound rudder cable is this month's presentation at our monthly EAA meeting - might as well make something good of it.
The opinions and statements of this poster are largely based on facts and portray a possible version of the actual events.
Today's flight was remarkable only in that it was unremarkable.
Takeoff was what should be normal - no hysterics - and I just flew around for a little less than an hour to monitor temps and pressures, as well as bringing along a little tablet to see what my ground speed was versus indicated.
Zero wind, and the GPS was indicating around 55 mph at cruise (about half throttle, straight and level with no adjustments required to keep it there) while the ASI read 70. It's not the static line, so either it's the crimp in the pitot tube or a bad ASI. Gonna replace the pitot tube next time up the airport.
What surprised me was oil temperatures. It only got up to 180 and stayed pegged there at cruise, dropping when I throttled back to get into the pattern. I guess my baffling and huge oil cooler are doing their jobs (ambient temp was 85 degrees).
On the ground the oil temp sensor is out of the oil, so naturally it went to zero pretty quickly.
Landing was gloriously uneventful. I floated her long down the runway, let the mains kiss the pavement, pulled the throttle back and let the tail come down naturally.
I'm going to validate the weather forecast for tomorrow and maybe commit some more aviation - she's such a forgiving aircraft and a honey to fly!
No video, as I moved the camera to face the instrument panel. Nothing exciting about that!
The opinions and statements of this poster are largely based on facts and portray a possible version of the actual events.
Frank,
This me be premature, but do you find the plane to be what you expected/wanted? The reason I ask is I am absolutely in love with Nieuport, and my trip to OSH this year is with the intent to finalize my project decision. I have yet to see a two seater to get some time in. Lol
I guess more appropriately, you overall experience with support, ease of build, flying experience etc....
Thanks for your time.
Rick
Last edited by wyoranch; 06-10-2016 at 12:09 PM.
I am becoming more enamoured with the aircraft at each flight - she's really surpassed my expectations.
While at times it's felt like I was having to learn to fly all over again in regards to the take off, the rest of the flight profile matches what I wanted and then some.
What I wanted was a very stable, well behaved aircraft in the air that I can cruise at a low speed over field and dale in very good weather for an hour or so, admiring cows and how the sun sparkles on the river. I wanted a dead simple aircraft to maintain as well.
With that mission in mind, it's a perfect match for me. Today I did some turns, up to 30 degrees, and she went through them as if on rails. Ground reference maneuvers were like cheating - though I had to recalibrate my thinking on distances owing to speed. If one wants to do turn about a point, get a little closer or it's a long way around and a very gentle turn.
She doesn't climb particularly fast, but I'm not really pushing for best speeds quite yet - but with the low stall and take off speeds the amount of room required to clear a 500 foot obstacle isn't very far.
Descents, however, are as simple as gently retarding the throttle. The plane is a huge exercise in drag, and the glide angle resembles a rock. If I ever get an engine out I'll be looking at whatever is right below me (much like the ultralight guys do).
I've pretty much greased two landings - my first and this last one. Both times it was under power and flying all the way down, letting the mains kiss the pavement, and then pulling power. A bit different from just chopping the throttle and gliding her down to a three pointer in a Champ, that's for sure.
As for building the aircraft, if it wasn't tube-and-gusset using pop rivets I wouldn't have even attempted it. There are a few skills one must acquire (like annealing), but in the main if one can drill a hole, put a rivet in the hole, put a rivet gun on the rivet and pull the trigger than 50% of it is done. The rest is figuring out the plans and which holes to drill in which order.
Bear in mind my aircraft won't win any awards. I wasn't aiming for perfection or historical accuracy. I just wanted it to be built in accordance with the plans and safe. Pretty was rarely a consideration, though I think she came out looking pretty good. I didn't re-do very many parts of the plane - if it was within tolerance and otherwise okay, it stayed as it was.
[edit]
On support:
Besides the usual builder's groups, Robert Baslee is fantastic at giving instruction, advice, and otherwise helpful observations - he answers his phone and 99.9% of the time can give an answer on the spot. For a guy with multiple degrees in engineering and design he has the ability to convey what he wants to say in simple terms. In my case, very simple terms. He speaks "doohicky" pretty good.
Last edited by Frank Giger; 06-10-2016 at 02:18 PM.
The opinions and statements of this poster are largely based on facts and portray a possible version of the actual events.
what will be your project for next winter ?? we need somebody to tell us stories .
thanks again for the massive info shared !!!
johan
Winter flying, of course!
While it was informative to put the GoPro on a chest harness, I won't be wearing it like that again - between it and the shoulder harness I'm a bit achy this morning.
I forgot I promised to carry the wife around on some errands this morning, so I'll have to wait until to tomorrow to fly again. I'm now getting closer to getting back on track in the test program I laid out, and confident enough to go further afield.
One of the neat things was that after yesterday's flight a fellow showed up to the airport and said my plane looked and sounded really good as I flew over his house. This validated a theory I had that being really exact on the paint scheme wasn't all that important, as from a distance a lot of sins are forgiven!
The opinions and statements of this poster are largely based on facts and portray a possible version of the actual events.
What do you have to do different for open-cockpit winter flying in Alabama...wear socks?Originally Posted by Frank Giger
Start doing Google Image searches on your N-Number, or on key phases like "Biplane in XXXX Alabama". A lot of groundlings take pictures of interesting airplanes and post them to social media. I've found some great action shots of my airplane that way.
Ron Wanttaja
Weather jokes coming from a guy who lives where one can tell the "seasons" by whether the locals are wearing shorts or long pants with their sweatshirts.
And I'll need to fly a bit more out of the pattern for people to take pictures of my plane.
Heck, I need to find someone with a decent camera (or knows how to use one so I can lend them mine) to take pictures of her landing and in flight. While it was very, very, very low on their priority list of things to do as ground support, none of my helpers managed to record a single thing.
The opinions and statements of this poster are largely based on facts and portray a possible version of the actual events.
Which reminds me, it's time to switch from wool to rayon socks with my sandals.
Both those nice pictures of my Fly Baby were taken on final at a local airport. There's some planespotters out there with biiiiiig llenses.
Every year, I publish a calendar of Fly Baby pictures. I once sent some advice for the guys, on how to take good pictures of their airplanes even without arranging air-to-air:
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/.../messages/6326
Ron Wanttaja
Last edited by rwanttaja; 06-11-2016 at 06:34 PM.
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