OT[1]: Aerobatics

****. Me.



I do not expect this man to die from old age...


[1] Although there are a couple of bikes in it.

 

Bloody hell, that is some fancy flying. He is one of the best in the
world but it only takes one tiny mistrake .......
Balls of steel.

 

He does deliberately what you do inadvertently? He must have semi-circular
canals of pure brass.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, platypus

<G>

I would do any one of those (inadvertently, or advertently) precisely
once. Followed *very* shortly thereafter by a *very* loud bang.

Indeed. I wonder if he's *ever* been sick?

 

This guy did. Die of old age that is.





Mind ewe - his son did not.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, bod43

Indeed. :^(

Reading about Mark Hanna, I was reminded of the story of Neil Williams.

Now, if you're looking for a man with huge great hairy balls, there was
one.

One day he was flying a Zlin aerobatic aircraft when there was aloud
BANG! and it all went pear shaped.

Oh look, this is long, but he tells it *so* much better:

"The reason for the sensation of being pulled to the left was very soon
apparent. Although the left wing was flying more or less level, the rest
of the aeroplane was rolling left around the failure point. At this
stage there was some degree of control over the aircraft, which was by
this time beginning to lose height. I throttled fully back to reduce
speed and thereby reduce the flight loads, but this caused the nose to
drop further. Dihedral was increasing steadily and the roll and yaw to
the left were becoming progressively more determined. Full power was
then applied in an attempt to get the nose up, but this had no effect at
all on the situation. By this time the aircraft was outside the airfield
and losing height fast. It was my intention to try to keep the wings as
level as possible and to try to achieve a shallow flight path with the
intention of arriving, if possible, right way up in the most convenient
field available. It was, however, apparent that if control was being
lost at that rate, it would have gone completely before reaching the
ground. In fact all control was finally lost at about 300ft, 91m.

At this stage the aircraft had turned left nearly 90° from its original
heading, and was banked 90° to the left (at least the fuselage was). I
thought the wing had folded to about 45° but it was probably less than
that, if one takes into account the fright factor. Full right aileron
and rudder were being held on and the throttle was wide open as the bank
reached 90° left and the nose finally dropped. The sideslip was very
high, and the instinctive reaction to pull the stick back only worsened
the situation. I had heard a report from Bulgaria some years ago where a
top wing bolt had failed on an early mark of Zlin whilst under negative
g and that the aircraft had involuntarily flick rolled right way up,
whereupon the wing came back into position, and the aircraft was landed
by a very frightened, but alive, pilot. I had guessed by this time that
a lower wing bolt had failed and that I was faced with a similar
situation, albeit inverted.

It seemed that if positive G had saved the Bulgarian, negative G might
work for me. In any event, there was nothing else left to try. I
centralised the rudder, rolled left and pushed, still with full
throttle. The wing snapped back into position with a loud bang. which
made me even more concerned for the structure. Immediately the negative
G started to rise and the nose started coming up. Altitude was very low
by this time and I had no instrument readings at all. For just a moment
I thought I was going into the trees, but then the nose was up and the
machine was climbing fast, inverted. I was just beginning to think that
I might make it after all when the engine died. I checked the fuel
pressure - zero. A check around the cockpit revealed the fact that the
main fuel cock had been knocked off. This could possibly have been the
result of the jolt which accompanied the initial failure. I think I was
probably thrown around in the cockpit and may well have accidentally
knocked the cock then. I selected reserve fuel and almost immediately
realised that this position would take fuel from the bottom of the
gravity tank, which was of course now upside down. I therefore
re-selected main tank and after a few coughs the engine started and ran
at full power.

Inverted circuit
I was quite low again by this time and initially started to climb
straight ahead. I then turned back towards the airfield and continued
the inverted climb to 1OOOft, 305m. By this time, the remainder of the
team had been very quick off the mark and had alerted crash facilities.
I throttled back to conserve fuel as I knew the gravity tank was only
good for about 8 minutes safe inverted flight. I then turned the
aircraft in steady flight and held the stick between my knees (no
aileron trimmer) whilst I used both hands to tighten my shoulder harness
even more. Had a parachute been carried I would have climbed as high as
possible and used it.

I then considered using undercarriage and/or flaps, but rejected both.
Flaps were no use to me whilst inverted, and I could not fly right way
up anyway. Also if only one flap extended it would cause an immediate
loss of control. The undercarriage required more thought. If I could
make an inverted approach with a last minute rollout and if the aircraft
arrived on its wheels damage might be minimised. However, if the gear
fully or partially collapsed the aircraft might turn over. Also, and
this was the biggest argument against, the Zlin undercarriage usually
extends with a fairly solid thump.

I did not know exactly what damage had occurred and I was concerned in
case the strain of lowering the wheels might remove the wing altogether.
It was just as well that I left thewheels up, because the failure was
not the wing bolt after all, but in the centre section inboard of the
undercarriage leg.

I also considered four possibilities for landing, namely, inverted
ditching, deliberately crashing inverted into trees to take the impact,
inverted crash-landing on the airfield, or an inverted approach with a
last minute rollout and hope for the best.

The last seemed to hold the best chances for survival, but I then
decided to experiment to see which way was the best to rollout; if the
rate of fold of the wing was sufficiently slow it might have been
possible to exercise some control over what was obviously going to be a
belly landing (I hoped). A rollout to the left was attempted, and the
wing immediately started to fold, with the result that the inverted
flight was quickly re-established. The rollout to the right was not
investigated, as the left wing was obviously being weakened by these
manoeuvres. Also the supply of adrenalin was getting rather low by this
time.

A wide inverted circuit was made for the grass strip parallel to runway
23. As the crosswind was insignificant this afforded the best approach,
clear of buildings and balloons. The threshold was crossed at 112
m.p.h., 180 k.p.h. at about 200ft, 60m with the throttle closed. Petrol
and switches were left on in case it was necessary to overshoot; also
the canopy was retained, since I did not want my height judgement
affected by slipstream. The possibility of a jammed canopy was
considered, but the hood is very light, and I felt that I could break my
way out if necessary. A slow inverted flare was made and the aircraft
was levelled as near to the ground as possible.

Low, low rollout
As the speed fell to 87 m.p.h., 140 k.p.h. a full aileron rollout was
made to the right, and just a trace of negative G was maintained in
order to hold the left wing in place. The aircraft responded well to the
controls at this stage, but as it approached level flight the left wing
started to fold up again. The nose was already down as a result of the
slight negative G, and subsequent examination of the impact marks showed
that the left wing tip touched the ground during the roll, although this
could not be felt inside the aircraft. As the wing folded the aircraft
hit the ground hard in a slight nose down, left bank attitude. I
released the controls and concentrated on trying to roll into a ball,
knees and feet pulled up and in, and head down protected by arms. I had
a blurred impression of the world going past the windscreen sideways and
then with a final jolt, everything stopped. I released the harness,
which had done a very good job, and then found that the canopy had
sprung 6in, 15cm open and jammed. I didn't bother to investigate this,
as the petrol tanks had split! I gave the canopy a resounding blow and
it flew open first time. I felt mildly surprised that everything was
still working as I evacuated the area, and having decided that the
aircraft was not going to burn, and having also collected some semblance
of breath and composure, I returned to the aircraft and made all
switches safe. The crash services were on the scene very quickly, which
was most encouraging. Fortunately they were not required."

Like I said, monstrous great hairy balls. What a shame he flew into a
hillside not too long thereafter.

 

Aha. I know you're keen on Manatees, and/or Dugongs, but how do you
feel about Narwhals?

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/484667

"Watch this movie"
--
| ___ Salad Dodger
|/ \
_/_____\_ GL1500SEV/CB1300SA-9/CBX1000Z
|_\_____/_| ..99843../..00000.../..32117.
(>|_|_|<) TPPFATUICG#7 DIAABTCOD#9 WG*
|__|_|__| BOTAFOT #70 BOTAFOF #09 PM#5
\ |^| / IbW#0 & KotIbW# BotTOS#6 GP#4
\|^|/ ANORAK#17 IbB#4 YTC#4 two#11
'^' RBR Clues: 00 Pts:0000 Miles:0000

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, SD

I should be grateful I had the speakers turned off, yes?

 

Ooh no. You *need* the speakers on.

It's not the least bit irritating or catchy.
--
| ___ Salad Dodger
|/ \
_/_____\_ GL1500SEV/CB1300SA-9/CBX1000Z
|_\_____/_| ..99843../..00000.../..32117.
(>|_|_|<) TPPFATUICG#7 DIAABTCOD#9 WG*
|__|_|__| BOTAFOT #70 BOTAFOF #09 PM#5
\ |^| / IbW#0 & KotIbW# BotTOS#6 GP#4
\|^|/ ANORAK#17 IbB#4 YTC#4 two#11
'^' RBR Clues: 00 Pts:0000 Miles:0000

 

That's from his write-up in Flight International in 1970. He wrote a
slightly different version as the last chapter in 'Airborne'. The Heinkel
crash was in 1977.

 

<mega-snip>

"Also the supply of adrenalin was getting rather low by this
time."

No shit.

 

Nothing quite so exciting for us but might have been for my 17 year
old nephew who just few solo (PPL) for the first time last weekend.

That must be a spooky moment when the instructor gets out and tells
you to do a circuit all on yer own! At least when riding a bike for
the first time you can just stop. ;-)

Q for those who fly. Would you notice, as in would the plane feel
different with just one (and light at that) person compared with two?

T i m

 

indeed

 

It really depends on the aircraft. I did my first solo in a Grumman AA5A and
I really didn't notice much of a difference. One up in the Slingsby Firefly
though was much more noticeable.

 

Ah, thanks. I'll ask him what he was in at the time. I think it might
have been Piper Cherokee of some sort.

T i m

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Andrew998

In a Cessna 152, without my lardy instructor, it was *very* noticeable.
:^)

 

That's what I was wondering. ie, This lad not only had to contend with
being in control of an airplane on his own (the psychology bit) but
one that may actually also be handling differently (the mechanical
bit).

The weird thing for me, in a logical progression sense is that he's
not even had a driving lesson yet!

T i m

 

One of the things that was said to me, back around the time of my first
solo, was that the landing will be one of my best, because the plane will be
the lightest I've ever flown it. In the case of a C150, someone like Nigel
would make up around 15% of gross weight of the aircraft.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Bear

Remind me to crash on your house one day.

 

Unless the rules have changed[1] you can get a pilots licence at 16.

[1] When I were a lad yadda yadda yadda.