• Interesting photo

    From Angus Mcleod@VERT/ANJO to Digital Man on Saturday, February 12, 2005 19:59:00
    Have a look at this

    http://www.barbadosrc.org/gallery/show_image.php?image=bs.wr1.jpg

    once-in-a-lifetime photo of the BrightStar! :-)


    ---
    þ Synchronet þ Made of wood and glue, but mostly glue!
  • From Digital Man@VERT to Angus Mcleod on Saturday, February 12, 2005 20:49:37
    Re: Interesting photo
    By: Angus Mcleod to Digital Man on Sat Feb 12 2005 07:59 pm

    Have a look at this

    http://www.barbadosrc.org/gallery/show_image.php?image=bs.wr1.jpg

    once-in-a-lifetime photo of the BrightStar! :-)

    When did *that* happen?

    digital man

    Snapple "Real Fact" #108:
    Licking a stamp burns 10 calories.

    ---
    þ Synchronet þ Vertrauen þ Home of Synchronet þ telnet://vert.synchro.net
  • From Angus Mcleod@VERT/ANJO to Digital Man on Sunday, February 13, 2005 08:22:00
    Re: Interesting photo
    By: Digital Man to Angus Mcleod on Sat Feb 12 2005 20:49:00

    Have a look at this

    http://www.barbadosrc.org/gallery/show_image.php?image=bs.wr1.jpg

    once-in-a-lifetime photo of the BrightStar! :-)

    When did *that* happen?

    Yesterday afternoon. :)

    During the first flight, I was stretching the aircraft a bit, and having
    fun. I tried the snap-in-a-vertical-dive manoever to see if I could get
    it into the inverted flat-spin, but that didn't work. When I pulled out
    of the dive (going fast, downwind) the engine was throttled back, and I
    turned back upwind and opened the throttle, but the aircraft continued to slow. By the time I realised it was 'dead-stick' I was in the wrong part
    of the sky to attempt a notmal landing. Up that end the trees have been
    going wild in thw last year and I didn't want to do the 'right' thing and ditch, so I turned for a downwind landing approach -- my first ever. The
    wind was blowing a bit, so I mis-judged the approach altitude and instead
    of landing downwind, it flew smoothly down the length of the field at
    about 6 feet height, and straight over the normal approach area, to land
    in the top of a wild tamarind.

    A small branch punched up through the bottom of the wing near the center, right through the wing-sheeting. Fortunately it missed the ribs and all
    other structure, leaving a hole about 1"x1/4" in the bottom and a
    pin-prick at the top.

    I fueled up for another flight.

    Same as before, with the BrightStar hauling around the sky and me having a load of fun, but this time I was trying knife-edges. That is when you fly with the wing vertical like so | which of course, aircraft really aren't
    built to do. You roll onto one side with ailerons, and apply opposite
    rudder to keep the nose up. It depends on good rudder response and power,
    but the BrightStar doesn't (didn't) have a lot of rudder! Aircraft have a tendancy to want to roll out of the knife-edge, either to roll right over
    on their backs or to roll right-ways up again, so you are keeping them up
    with the rudder and throttle, and maintaining the vertical orientation of
    the wing with the ailerons. I've not been successful with this before
    because the BrightStar has a high-dihedral, flat-bottomed wing which
    makes it want to roll out of the knife-edge, and a small rudder which
    isn't really effective enough to keep the nose up when the wing is doing
    no work.

    Anyway, after several attempts, it suddenly clicked and I was doing some
    nice, clean, knife-edge passes, with the throttle nearly *wide* open and nearly full rudder both being constantly adjusted, and constantly
    adjusting the ailerons too, to keep the knife-edge vertical. The guys
    were going "Wooot! Show us how!" and similar stuff, and I was happy.

    Then I had an idea! :-)

    When you have knife-edge flight going well, you can feed in some down elevator, and the aircraft makes a turn. I had it rolled on the left
    side, and fed in some down to make it turn away, with the cockpit on the outside of the turn. So there I am juggling all four main inputs at once,
    and watching her complete a knife-edged circle. A bit shakey, but pretty
    cool for a first attempt! She came right around and back into wind, but
    she was slowly losing height all the way. Need more rudder and/or more power!!! So she finished the turn back into wind, fairly low, with the
    power full on, and I decided to level out and climb for height. I cut the throttle, and rolled her out and... she put the nose hard down and went straight in. :-/

    I fought it the whole way down (about 2 seconds worth) but I *could*not*
    get the nose back up. Rudy suggests that I might have rolled it out the
    wrong way, and come out inverted so when I pulled *up* I was actually
    sending it down. Coming out of a knife-edged turn, the top of the
    aircraft is towards you, as opposed to the bottom in a normal turn. I
    would have had to roll right instead of the usual left. Rudy says I must
    have rolled left as normal. But that doesn't 'feel' right to me. I was on
    top of it all the way round the turn and I don't think I made that
    mistake. Some sort of electronic or mechanical failure would be a
    comforting thought, but I don't believe that either.

    I think I just stalled it. On the knife-edge with no lift, Approaching
    the ground with throttle full on, I cut the throttle, and pulled out and I think the airspeed was too low, there was no residual lift (due to the
    fact I had been flying knife-edge) and I applied a little too much 'up'
    for the airspeed, and she stalled. It would have been no problem a bit
    higher up, but I was low, and couldn't get enough speed to get the nose up before she went in. The throttle was closed, but it was near-vertical and
    the fuse didn't survive it. The wing was undamaged, but the wing was the worst part of that aircraft to start with!

    It was't too hard to find, and we scraped up most of the balsa scraps.
    The engine was buried but I pulled that up like a turnip and the shaft
    still spins. Prop busted of course, and has already been added to our
    Wall of Rememberance. We searched high and low and could not find the
    nose leg and wheel.

    Anyway, it wasn't my favourite aircraft, so I'm not too distressed. The BrightStar first flew on 2nd November 2002, it looks like. 2-1/4 years
    for $188 Canadian. I can't complain. Of course, now I need something
    else, and preferably something fun-to-fly.....



    ---
    þ Synchronet þ Made of wood and glue, but mostly glue!
  • From Digital Man@VERT to Angus Mcleod on Sunday, February 13, 2005 13:33:46
    Re: Interesting photo
    By: Angus Mcleod to Digital Man on Sun Feb 13 2005 08:22 am

    ...

    It was't too hard to find, and we scraped up most of the balsa scraps.
    The engine was buried but I pulled that up like a turnip and the shaft
    still spins. Prop busted of course, and has already been added to our
    Wall of Rememberance. We searched high and low and could not find the
    nose leg and wheel.

    Anyway, it wasn't my favourite aircraft, so I'm not too distressed. The BrightStar first flew on 2nd November 2002, it looks like. 2-1/4 years
    for $188 Canadian. I can't complain. Of course, now I need something
    else, and preferably something fun-to-fly.....

    Glad it wasn't the Fokker or another model you cherish. :-)

    Anyway, it seems that you had a lot of fun with it, so you got your invested time/money's worth of enjoyment out of it. And it sounds like you learned some things along the way.

    digital man

    Snapple "Real Fact" #33:
    Termites eat through wood two times faster when listening to rock music!

    ---
    þ Synchronet þ Vertrauen þ Home of Synchronet þ telnet://vert.synchro.net
  • From Angus Mcleod@VERT/ANJO to Digital Man on Sunday, February 13, 2005 20:35:00
    Re: Interesting photo
    By: Digital Man to Angus Mcleod on Sun Feb 13 2005 13:33:00

    Anyway, it wasn't my favourite aircraft, so I'm not too distressed. The BrightStar first flew on 2nd November 2002, it looks like. 2-1/4 years for $188 Canadian. I can't complain. Of course, now I need something else, and preferably something fun-to-fly.....

    Glad it wasn't the Fokker or another model you cherish. :-)

    Yea -- the Fokker remains a 'special-day' aircraft. Simply put it's a
    PITA to assemble/disassemble, and with my little car, tricky to pack and transport. When we have a big day or a long weekend (like Easter -- four days!) it goes out. At least it now is in good flying trim and no longer scary to contemplate flying.

    Anyway, it seems that you had a lot of fun with it, so you got your invested time/money's worth of enjoyment out of it. And it sounds like you learned so things along the way.

    Oh, I sure got my money's worth, no doubt. And I learned a lot, too. A better aircraft would have allowed me to advance furthur, but hey! That
    will *always* be the case, no matter how good the plane you've got
    actually is.


    ---
    þ Synchronet þ Made of wood and glue, but mostly glue!