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!
