Sounds like the fun stuff is just beginning!
I just put in my order for my Nieuport 17 kits, so I hope I have as much fun as you seem to be have had with the build process. I enjoyed this project thread and being reasonably close hopefully will see your bird sometime!
Any time you're in the Birmingham area let me know and we'll meet at the hangar!
Much like getting one's pilot permit, getting the pink slip on the completed airplane is just a license to learn.
The opinions and statements of this poster are largely based on facts and portray a possible version of the actual events.
Video of today's flight, which was just a run around the patch:
The camera was pointed backwards so I can see just what the heck is exactly going on back there - how much rudder versus wheel with the springs, etc.
I was up at the airfield at 0600, hoping to catch the predicted one mile an hour winds and partly cloudy skies. I found overcast and a 1200 foot ceiling that dropped to 500.
It finally broke up at around 1030, but it went along with a jump in temperature, so I was getting "variable" gusts and thermals as soon as I took off. I suppose I could have muscled through the turbulence, but I was getting grumpy at having to wait to fly and just decided to come about and land.
Video is a good tool for figuring stuff out after the fact, that's for sure.
CloudAhoy said my climb rate was between 350 and 400 feet per minute (I wasn't exactly flying a precision profile), which is okay, I reckon.
A few side notes:
Yes, I was in fact smiling on take off. And no, I was most definitely not smiling on final.
Yes, I know I need to run the goggle strap under the head set. At least my underwear were under my pants!
The opinions and statements of this poster are largely based on facts and portray a possible version of the actual events.
It reminds me of some other American who had a passion for aviation and started making movies ...
"Dart"?Originally Posted by Frank Giger
Ron "Wojo" Wanttaja
It's actually funny.
When I first started flying sims online, I wasn't exactly the best at it. Most often in simulated combat I'd wind up either getting shot down or spinning out. I made a comment over comms that I was doing another "dirt dart" when asked how things were going and the tag stuck.
I've used that nickname online for so long that when I was at Gardener a few years ago someone called out for me by it and I actually responded to it.
"Dirt Darts" are what we used to call anything that helicopter pilots would punch in flight during sling load operations if they began to produce oscillations. Seeing a 155 towed howitzer punched from 1,000 feet AGL is something to behold.
The opinions and statements of this poster are largely based on facts and portray a possible version of the actual events.
First slips today. Wowser, she'll slip right down onto a pie plate if one really cranks it - which I in all honesty didn't. I just wanted to see what it felt like, and I'm at that part of my testing program. Pretty soon I'll hit my milestone for stalls.
One of the camlocks for the cowl at the bottom came loose and I kept hearing a buzzing noise from it in flight. No way to know what it was, and at 2,000 feet AGL I couldn't exactly jump out and see what it was. The plane was flying great otherwise, so I just headed back to the barn to figure out what it was. Since I went a little camlock happy (I have two more than most folks do) there was no danger of the cowl coming off, but from now on I'll be triple checking them as part of pre-flight.
I'm just going to have to accept sensitivity to turbulence as par for the course in this plane. Today wasn't bad - just a little nudge here and there to keep me honest, not like the last flight where I was getting punched - and I really enjoyed going around.
I also got closer to nailing down my fuel useage. Looks like 3.5 gallons or so an hour. That gives me a solid half hour reserve if the bobber hits the bottom, which is what I wanted, as I marked my stick at about a half gallon above the reserve neck of the tank as "empty."
Still working out approach speeds, bringing it down bit by bit. I've sorted out that my stall speed is around 35 mph, but I'm a cautious fellow and using a bunch of that humongerous runway to float down for landings. While I prided myself in sticking three pointers in a Champ, my little Babette just whispers in a firm voice "wheel landings, my love" on final. Speaking of which, here at the ten hour mark I feel like the plane and I are really speaking the same language to each other, and while I never felt uncomfortable behind the stick, it's becoming even more of a pleasure.
The only thing I have to watch is the old warning about free-flying rudders: she'll enter into a slip little by little, so gently that one won't catch what's going on by feel alone. The tendency is to adjust for the roll with the aileron in the opposite direction with a tiny bit of pressure....cross controlling is a bad thing (or so I read in a book once), and a glance a the ball every minute or so is now rote.
Oh, and an interesting thing happened post-flight. A couple came over to the hangar as I was doing my grinning walk around; they had seen me flying about and drove out the airport to watch my plane! Somebody actually wanted to see my plane flying, come in for a landing, and then see it - weird. Either it's neater than even I thought it was or they saw previous videos of my test flights and were looking to see a wreck!
The opinions and statements of this poster are largely based on facts and portray a possible version of the actual events.
Frank,
Something you might explore as you are sorting out approaches is a steep, power-off (or low power) approach. Like you, my first landings were shallow, flat approaches because the Fokker D.VII has no flaps. This works well for greasing on a wheel landing but does eat up runway if speed isn't carefully controlled.
In the course of practicing engine-out landings (you are doing that I hope) and exploring best glide speeds I've confirmed the Fokker has a steep glide with the engine near idle speed. In other words, if the fan quits the landing is going to occur very near the present location (I noticed your flight over large areas of trees....). The flip side of this 'poor' glide performance is how it allows steep approaches with power reduced. Hold pattern altitude until a short distance from the runway, then pull power, point the nose down, and glide (in my case 45-50 mph) at a steep angle toward the threshold. When over the numbers add a bit of power to break the glide and land....right there. Using the inherent drag of our planes is how we work around the absence of flaps. This steep approach can be enhanced with a slip to landing for an aggressive short field landing which is a good skill to have if landing unintentionally. It can happen......
Glad you are enjoying your new plane!
Last edited by Sam Buchanan; 07-18-2016 at 08:52 AM.
All my power off stuff is at altitude at this point - and you're right, it's a steep glide angle, or at least feels like it. Dumping altitude isn't a problem at all - she slips like a dream.
While the camera makes it look like I'm cornering myself over trees at some points, I'm always careful to ensure there's a landing spot handy - looking left, right, and keeping in mind what I've just crossed over at all times. Of course I mentally slapped my forehead when following the long tree-free area towards Pell City, and wrote it off as a landing area - high power tension lines don't make for good approaches and landings.
The first area I flew to is my designated "try stuff" zone, as it's a huge area of flat fields (well, less bumpy than trees, anyway). That's why I did my first real slips there, and where I'll do slow flight and stalls.
I'm generally a boring kind of pilot, favoring gentle turns and mild flight profiles. The aircraft doesn't mind steep turns or steep climbs, and has tremendous engine response in regaining airspeed. Culver Props sure cut me a good one; I had left it in their hands for pitch as they cut the props for the KC Dawn Patrol's Nieuport 11's and almost all of the other Airdrome Aeroplanes...Aliana was just about giggling when we started talking props and I asked for and got her recommendations (as well as being vague on finish, saying "just make it pretty like all the others I've seen from y'all."), as there are a lot of experts out there who sometimes lecture her about prop making.
On flaps: I hate 'em. In the FlightDesign CTLS they don't really help at all, just making it even more squirrelly, and of course the Champ didn't have any. When I did my biannual flight review it was in a C172, and the CFI is a wise old pilot and allowed me to land flaps up, as I'm not well versed in either the C172 or flaps in general.
The opinions and statements of this poster are largely based on facts and portray a possible version of the actual events.
The phrase I use in the Fly Baby is, "If the engine quits, throw out a brick and fly formation with it."
I tend to fly all approaches power-off just from the training point of view; if the fan ever stops for real, I want to be accustomed to the way it drops. I come in high, of course, and slip it down when the field is assured. Comes down like a shotgunned duck. Suspect the Nieuport (being lighter) is even steeper.
One anecdote: Several years ago, the A&P during my Giger remarked that my Continental's idle was a bit high. He asked if I wanted it cut back to spec, and I shrugged and said "sure."
Took a bit to become used to it... I'd had ~15 years of experience landing that plane with a tad bit of power on it. The reduction in idle speed made a noticeable difference in the "power off" glide.
Ron Wanttaja
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