Tinworm-wings

Sunday, 19 February 2012

My most challenging landing ever

I probably shouldn't have flown at all today (probably should revise the cross-wind quadrantal rule) but if I had sensibly aborted I would have missed an exciting flight, which took me over an interesting windmill (must photograph it from the air soon) on the way to Fram castle, which I skirted again.

But for the first time ever I had a hairy take-off, and the landing was easily the most challenging, most scary and undoubtedly most skilfully executed of any that I have ever done. The problem was that the wind was a North-westerly blowing around 17mph abeam when I landed on the East-West runway. So I crabbed sideways up the runway, nose into wind, keeping power on, then dropping straight at the last minute. Crikey, I was glad to be down after that, I can tell you!

I took off with a 14mph crosswind, which I really shouldn't have attempted. I gather my aircraft's limitation is 11mph! I am an idiot, I know...but it was exciting.

Wednesday, 15 February 2012

Quantum Leaper nearly done

(click image for larger slideshow)

With the wheel retracted, the trolley sits flat on the ground. Wind the handle anti-clockwise to raise the trolley on the jockey wheel gear.

Here we see the trolley raised for manoeuvring.

Successfully loaded 250kg on to the Leaper. Finishing touches left to do. Time will tell whether it is capable of moving a load, but as it has only cost me a couple of weekends and a free load of scrap steel, if it fails it will have been a worthwhile experiment anyway.

Wednesday, 8 February 2012

Right, but for 7 nuts and bolts to hold it all together, I have finished my Quantum Leaper....and, on the whole, I am rather pleased with it. But of course I haven't tested it yet....so it may be a complete flop. I haven't even erected it anywhere yet - Not got anywhere dry, which is big enough.

Will keep you posted.

:)

Monday, 30 January 2012

lifting hangar trolley

I am working on something a bit exciting....a trolley to lift and move my Quantum in any direction in the hangar. Think of a trailer as an isosceles triangle. Then put a jockey wheel at each corner. Roll the trike on, then wind the jockey handles and the whole load will lift off the ground. Then castor the load to where you want it and put it down.

My welding will be the weak link, I think, but I haven't done too badly. I have made the base and ramps for the trike's rear wheels and the first of the outriggers (above)

Sunday, 15 January 2012

Yesterday I took up my first ever non-pilot passenger, Darren. We flew out over Framlingham Castle. A superb flight. He certainly seemed to enjoy it.

Click image for a scroll-able, blown-up slideshow

Darren, above, took the aerial shots.

Nb. A friend just asked whether I had intentionally left the trimmer completely wound off, but it is misleading in the pictures because the little brass nut which used to indicate trim would not grip and had slipped on the cable, so had to be removed. Until I replace it, I do trim, now, by judgement alone (winding it all the way off, then centralising it). Opinion differs, however, as to whether the changing of the trim on the Quantum makes much difference anyway.

Sunday, 8 January 2012

Arrival

Click on image above and scroll through enlarged slideshow.

Photos by Carl Wildon.
Thanks mate.

Mission accomplished!

The flight went absolutely fine. It took about 45 mins. It was uneventful, to be honest. I could see the field from a long way off but ran parallel to it for about ten minutes to avoid busting Wattisham airspace, only turning in North of Debenham, where I dropped to 900' to slip under the NE panhandle; though now I believe Wattisham prefer approaches from the East, which I will do in future.

I approached on long finals (straight towards the hangar, which is at the East end of the runway) then buzzed the hang gliders on the ground, having just seen one of them being launched in front of me. I waved at the ground and circled left and came in quite tightly, landing in the middle of the runway...then scooting back to the hangar to make room for the glider coming down.

Near the hangar, as I taxiied in, I saw Carl, who had been snapping away. I look forward to his shots, soon to appear on Facebook. I will download them and post them here. The hang glider pilots are a friendly, inclusive bunch. I also met the Chairman, Glen Reid, who flew-in in a light aircraft. Turns out he knows Mike Farr, who I went to school with! I met Mike again in 2001 at Davidstow, when he instructed there. Small world, flying.

I think I am going to like Mendlesham.

............................................

Today would not have been so successful without Darren and Carl. Not only did Darren pick me up and take me to Great Oakley this morning, but he also brought home my kit cabinet and jerry cans. Carl not only brought me home from Mendlesham but also brought me lunch - cheese sandwiches with a rather good relish, and some of Chrissy's cake!

Ground handling (how to store an aeroplane at home and get it to the airfield)

A trial flight in a Thruster, when I was 28, c.1991

I have started to learn to fly before...TWICE! First time round I had just graduated and got a job at an aerodrome in Cornwall, where I earned flying hours by fuelling microlights, giving hourly weather reports to the Met office etc. The weather was bad, so there was little flying to be had...and in the end I was paid with broken propellers and bits of crashed fuselage to hang on the wall. The boss was a great bloke called Ian Stokes, who had brought the Thruster to England. He now runs a small hotel in Africa, which accommodates people doing intensive flying courses there....where students progress will not be hampered by the weather.

Flying Rogues

ten years on from my first experiences at Moorland Flying School (and now nearly ten years ago) the flying school was under new management and my girlfriend and I booked full courses. We both made good progress initially but never felt we were being moved on and had difficulty pinning the instructor down to signing our logbooks. When another instructor signed himself as P1, we got suspicious, contacted the CAA and were horrified to learn that our instructor did not have a current instructor rating, that we had not been insured and that none of our hours counted towards our licences. We were eventually refunded and the instructors were prosecuted by the CAA.

The very sympathetic CAA investigator spoke to the BMAA on our behalf and my hours have been allowed to count (at the discretion of the school). But in point of fact, I flew way over the minimum number of hours subsequently, so it is really quite academic in the end.

Around 2001 an instructor in Norfolk tried to convince me that if I bought his aeroplane he could teach me at a cut rate, as I'd then be using my own plane. Great idea, I thought, except that it turned out that the aircraft in question had failed a noise test and could not be used from the instructor's field. He later admitted that I would have to learn on his aeroplane at the normal rate. He resisted showing me the paperwork, kept avoiding me and eventually, when it was quite clear I wasn't going to buy without the paperwork, told me to F-off.

So far my experience has been that there are a lot of rogues in flying, which is one reason why I was so very impressed by the professional set-up at Sywell.

by air to Africa

My sister and I were lucky to fly many thousands of miles in the 1960s and '70s in many aircraft types, including BOAC VC-10s, Boeing 707s and even a Nigerian Airways Dakota, as our dad (and later our mum) had teaching posts in Kenya and Nigeria. Those were still the romantic days of flying, when passengers walked across tarmac and up steps, rather than walking down the tubes that have turned passenger flying into a mundane affair. (Mind you, aren't take-offs still incredibly exciting!?)

Back then air hostesses GAVE children the sorts of nick-nacks that their parents have to pay fortunes for from the airline catalogue these days; things like model aeroplanes, keyrings etc. We were also given sweets to help us cope with depressurisation. (And they were hostesses, so nobody give me a hard time)

Mum says that I cracked my first joke when I was small, on a flight out to Kenya, when I said, "Mummy, shouldn't there be a wing on this side of the plane too". Apparently I got her with that one.

At Kano airport I remember standing behind an engine and thinking how hot it still was....and then being told that the engine was cold. The heat was Kano. I got a headache and took several days to aclimatise.

The airport perri-ways at Kano were littered with aircraft that didn't make it, including a burnt-out Mig 15. The Nigerian Airforce flew them and my dad played squash with one of their pilots, Ben, at the Kano Club. I recall a Mig fly-past on my birthday. Was it arranged with Ben over a beer? Was it a pure coincidence?

At Entebbe airport (Uganda) I remember climbing down the steps on to the runway and being encircled by soldiers with machine guns, who then went through all our belongings and confiscated my cherished Swiss Army penknife, purchased on one of numerous European stop-overs. That was in the twitchy time after the Israeli hijacking ...and mum had to stifle my protests.

Before my first flight to Nairobi, as an infant, I was scared stiff. I didn't understand that I wouldn't have to sit astride the fuselage, as I did on my pedalcar! In a funny way, I not only overcame that fear but have come full circle; microlighting is just like sitting on that pedalcar......open to the elements - real flying!