The bottom line is that all of the RV line of aircraft fly very fast, and they are very hard to slow down, and in that respect their flight characteristics are very similar to a Mooney. I was fortunate enough to fly in a Mooney M20J during my commercial instrument training in college, and I have also experienced a multitude of other aircraft that have given me an appreciation for the term "high performance."
Anyway, the bottom line is that whatever you do, you cannot stop flying while you are building, so you have to find a balance. As such, I have decided that now is the time for me to pursue my tail wheel endorsement. I made this decision just about the same time that 2 days worth of absolutely severe weather hit the Denver area, with unGodly amounts if hail, wind, and tornadic activity, all taking their toll across the entire metro area.
I decided to join a local flying club at Centennial Airport, one that I had actually been a member and instructed at many years ago. Aspen Flying Club currently has a Citabria for rent, and I decided to take advantage of that. The bad news is that I always wanted to join to get access to several other Cessna and Piper aircraft, but as it turns out the airport got hit heavily by the hail, and several of the club aircraft, which are all tied down on the ramp, got damaged by the hail. The good news - the Citabria was under a covered parking area and did not get damaged. SO I am in luck as far as tail wheel training is concerned, and I am very happy about that.
Why am I doing this? Well, I am still at a point in the build where I can remain undecided about building a nose wheel or tail dragger airplane, which is an option for most the Vans RV aircraft designs. I do not ahve to commit to this until I am ready to order the fuselage kit. The main reason is that the landing gear location and design is different between the two types of aircraft, so once you start working on the fuselage you have to know which one you want.
I am using the tail wheel endorsement to help me decide which way I want to go. Here are some of the pluses and minuses of going either way:
Tailwheel
Pluses
Cool factor - looks neater and more nostalgic, especially if building a WWII look alike like me.
Clearance of the prop tips from the ground is exceptional = opens up landing at grass or other soft fields.
Allows different sizes and choices of prop and engine - moreso that nosewheel airplane.
Better ground handling
Easier to enter/exit the cabin and aircraft (No additional foot step weldment required)
More difficult to inspect under the wing at critical flight control attach points
Minuses
Requires constant stick and rudder skills to keep from groundlooping during landing
Forward visibility during initial takeoff and finl landing phase is almost nil
Difficult to tie the tail down securely
Nose over and flip over potential if breaking too hard or a brake locks up
Harder to take off and land in cross wind conditions
May be more difficult to start due to angular differences of fuel tanks, gravity working against you, and more dependence on fuel pumps working correctly.
Nose Wheel
Pluses
Forward visibility always during take off and landing
Better cross wind handling on take off and and landing due to shorter moment between center of gravity/lift and the location of the nose wheel compared to same with a tail wheel (longer moment)
Fuel tanks level - easier starting at all fuel levels in the tank
Forward CG forces nose to come down onto nose gear and angle of attack of wing to reduce, aiding in landing stability (tail wheel down forces the wing to go to a positive angle of attack).
Shorter moment of nose wheel results in less sensative steering control (can also be a minus)
Minuses
Less cool factor than for a taildragger RV, but in my opinion it will look cool either way
Harder to enter/exit the cabin. Big drop off the back wing, and must only load one person at a time or airplane tail will strike the ground hard.
Prop is much closer to the ground - limits prop sizes and choices, and potential for prop strike is increased.
Vans nose wheel design on their "A" model aircraft has been under some scrutiny, and is considered a weak point in their design by some. This is due to a number of accidents that appear to have involved a nosewheel collapse to one degree or another.
My personal thoughts on this go back to my opening paragraphs about level of skill and ability. Throughout my flight instructing career, I have yet find a private pilot with the takeoff and landing skill and precision experienced by those that continue their training for a commercial pilot certificate. Therefore, private pilots without the benefit of this additional level of skill and training are much more prone to performing bad landings where the nose gear can experience a large degree of punishment. I think that many of these nose gear failure incidents in RV airplanes can be at least partially, if not entirely attributed to improper landing technique by the pilot. Proper take off and landing technique should significantly reduce, if not entirely eliminate all nose gear failure episodes in RV airplanes IMHO.
So, I signed up at the club today, and it also turns out that the EAA-owned B-17 Flying Fortress, Aluminum Overcast, is in town this week to support the Rocky Mountain Aerospace Museum. Unfortunately, the folks on the ground really messed this one up as well, and did not put the aircraft in a hangar when the hail arrived either. The B-17 has cloth aileron, elevator, and rudder surfaces, and they were all damaged beyond reasonable repair. The aluminum skins were also damaged, but not nearly to the extent of the control surfaces. Here are some pics of the damage:
And I thought my ailerons were big - holy cow!
And here is the aluminum skin damage all over the airplane
Now if you are like me, this is just nothing less than very sad to see. Why did they leave it outside? As far as I am concerned, screw the business jets and protect the heritage of our past to the Nth degree. These eloquent pieces of machinery protected and served our country jsut as much as the service men and women did, and they deserve just as much care and attention again IMHO. Truly ashame that this happened, adn if this was due to decision or lack of decisions made by our own local FBOs, then shame on them.
Now, having said all that, the good news is that EAA knows how to ahndle these situations, and much to my surprise, when I arrived, I learned that EAAD had already transported two new ailerons and two new elevators all they way from Oshkosh to Denver by ground transport shown below, and they had already removed the damaged ones adn mounted the new ones in place. Truly spectacular!
Nice to see my annual EAA dues put to good use. SO the word is that they will have to finish installing some spacers and hardware and reconnect everything, get it inspected, and they expect to have this all done in time for flights to be conducted by next weekend. Ground tours are still being conducted, adn the min event is open to the public through tomorrow at Signature FLight Services Hangar on the south side of the airport. You can fly the B-17 on MS flight simulator (I crashed the first couple of times but eventually got the hang of it - very cool). Hangar Dance is this evening - wish I had someone to go with. SO the airplane will be here through next weekend - if you are local you should definitely come out and see it - maybe even sign up for a ride. There is much more to see and do, especially for the kids.
Here is a picture show of some of the other attractions:
I really like this next one. Don't forget to click on each of the pics to get a larger resolution image with much better detail. :)
As a final thought, at one point I was just standing under the nose of the B-17, when I noticed something odd. On the bottom of the clear nose cone, sitting in what appeared to be a puddle of water, I found a rubber ducky just sitting there looking, well, ducky I guess. Never expected to see that. Right at that same moment, a gentleman by the name of Mike Niles from Bomber group 490 that flew as a bombradier during WWII in the B-17, asked me if I knew anything about the Norden bombsight. (He thought I was staring at the bomb site, and I did not have the heart to tell him that I was staring at a rubber ducky sandwiched in between the plexiglass and the frame of the airplane.
Can you see the duck?
Anyway, as I have written in previous posts about similar encounters I have had when speaking with several other veterans, I became absolutely fascinated by all ythe stories he was telling me. But before he started on those, he told me that the bomb sight that is installed on aluminum overcast is pretty close to the actual real thing. He explained how the course correction and other sight alignment knobs worked, adn explained to me in detail how the ahnd off between the pilot and bombradier was performed in preparation for and during the bomb run. Absolutely fascinating. We must have spoken for about 25 minutes before e begged off saying "I am sure I ahve bored you to death already," to which I replied - "Absolutely not!It is the details about how some of this was done that I have always yearned for, and evey opportunity I get to speak with someone that is willing to tell the stories and divulge some of that detail is what I long for." Then I thanked him for service, shook his hand, and we parted ways. As I walked away I could not help but get the same feeling that I have had many times before during similar moments, that this was probably the first and the last time I would ever get to speak with this gentleman, and how truly blessed I am for having had the opportunity to do so. God bless our servicemen and women.
I will divulge more of the stories from Mr. Niles in future posts, as they are quite fascinating. This one has become long enough that I should probably close for now and go get some dinner. More rib work scheduled for this evening hopefully.
No comments:
Post a Comment