|
 Approximately
a year ago my little Red flying machine was completed and test
flown. I cant say that I built this little bird as it was my brother
who built it as I was in
South America
working at the time.
The aircraft were built with the intention of flying around
Australia
and this is still on the cards although it will
be postponed a little while as I am currently in
Africa
working on a construction project.
So
as a test of the type of flying that we are going to have to be
doing I decided that before I was going to leave for
Africa
I was going to do what I think will become an
annual migration north from
Brisbane
where our birds are based up to
North Queensland
. Originally
I was going to head off on my own until my friend Mario Mayerhofer
had to ferry flight an Xair up to Innisfail, just south of
Cairns
. So
we decided that we would take off and do the trip together.
Overall
statistics of the trip, from the GPS, was 1600 nm with about 12
takeoffs and landings, 25 hours total flying time and some pretty
amazing scenery.
I
can honestly say that the performance parameters of this aircraft
are exceptional and when you really need performance is when she
shines. As an example I
was coming in to land at St Laurance which is right on the River
Styx, in central
Queensland
, that is not a joke either, and after a 3 hour
leg was looking for the airfield. It is a small strip about 300m cut
between some trees and it was on a long coastal plane before this
river. Having never
flown into this strip before I had to hunt around for 10 minutes
looking for the strip. Bearing
in mind it was about
3 pm
and the wind was getting up to 30-40 knots at 35
deg C , from the tops of the trees it was closer to 40 than to 30,
but upon overflying the airfield I realized that the wind was a
perpendicular crosswind and this was going to be very un fun.
The landing was interesting to say the least, coming in with
a lot of rudder and dipping my left wing into the wind took a bit
off the wind flow however upon getting below the tree line there was
a lot of turbulence on my right wing due to the rotor effect.
To say that I didn’t waddle around trying to land this bird
would be an understatement. I
was flying with no flaps as I normally fly with no flaps, not for
any reason but because I like too.
So three times I try and put her on the ground and three
times the turbulence chucked me around and I couldn’t level her
out in order to really power back.
I like bringing her in at about 3000 revs to give you a
little bit more maneuvering power, ( I have a sweet Rotax 912, 80 hp
up front) and it helps overcome the dragginess of the bird.
Anyway after three times trying to level her wings and take it down
I realized that I wasn’t going to put her down with that kind of
cross wind component flying clean. So I did a go around and powered
out and into the breeze and then tried the whole thing again.
To say that I wanted to get on the ground would be the
understatement of the century so coming into land I put out half
flaps and brought her in. This
approach was the same although I did a short steep base and a
shorter final with the half flaps this is quite achievable and bled
of the airspeed quite quickly. I
was about ¾ rudder and dipped my wing into the wind and watched out
for the turbulence. At
about 3 m above the ground after being chucked around, I just leveled
the wings nose up a bit, cut the power and hung on.
At this stage I just wanted out of the aircraft.
She held her nose up and came down with a soft bump and I was
alive.
I was expecting the gear to rip off and to be honest didn’t
care about that as I just wanted to be on the ground.
This wasn’t the first time I was amazed at the performance
of the aircraft but it certainly was not the last.
Taxiing up to the parking area, there is nothing at this
strip not even a dunny, I found Mario and his mate there with big
grins on his face and I got a couple of ribbings but my bird was OK
and I am here to tell the tale.
Apart
from this little excitement the other things that happened were
getting stuck in a BAD leeside rotor with 1800 ft /min sink rate and
then climb rates. At one
stage this turbulence was that bad that I let go of the throttle and
held onto the handle and hang on.
Being snapped to 60 deg bank 4 times in opposite directions
sequentially by
turbulence going over a hot ridge at 2 pm when it is 35 deg c
heading into the previously mentioned 40 knot wind.
You know you are having a good day flying when you have bad
bruising on your guts from the harness and your head has hit the
roof a couple of times. What was the maximum negative G loading
again?
I
also had to a hot and heavy takeoff into a 30 knot wind when it was
33 deg c on an unserviceable runway with small trees about 60m as
the alternative was a take off with a perpendicular crosswind, not
something that you want to do on a really hot day.
That was quite interesting as it was make or break time and I
only had one shot at that one.
The engine was quite warm I had a full load of fuel and about
30kgs of baggage. Jam on
the brakes half flaps and hit the gas and call rolling.
Give her 30m and then pull up and hope you don’t hit the
trees.. After that
take off, I have no idea why I got to about 400ft, on a full power
climb out and then all of a sudden stopped climbing and she started
floating down like a duck coming into land.
As I was taking off into the wind I knew that once I turned
out of the wind I was a goner and would lose what ever airflow I was
getting over my wings. So
I just held her nose up and watched the trees, I was under 500ft so
my training took over and looked forward for somewhere to land and
then seeing no where I just held her nose up and kept floating down.
After a while whatever down draft I was caught in subsided
and that trusty VSI got to neutral and then back up to 500ft and
with only 200 ft to spare I was happy to be alive, again.
So
that was the unfun stuff that happened on the trip.
The fun stuff was pure flying at its best, empty skies, very
few people on the radio and flying over gods back yard.
What a blast… After
doing 25 hours inside 5 days, with one day rest in the middle I
really felt I got to know my bird and the sky.
If you are going to do some serious long distance flying then
you need that extra 5-10 knots of cruise.
My bird cruises at about 60knots depending on how many revs
you squeeze into her. With
Avgas the Rotax 912 is a sweet sweet engine.
All up it was a pretty amazing vacation and I cant wait to do
it again. The long
range fuel tanks make all the difference and I would encourage
everyone to put them in their birds. With Avgas and the long range
tanks could fly for 5.5 hours with an hour to spare.
That is a long time and my longest leg was 4 hours.
At the end of 4 hours you are ready to get out but it is
better to have options.
But
the thing that struck me the most about my amazing little bird is
that she gives you options. When
the pucker factor is off the scale and you are in conditions that
don’t give you lots of options the performance envelope of this
aircraft gives you those options.
Options in aviation are the kind of things that when you
really need them you REALLY need
them.
A
couple of other things that happened were a couple of hot with the
wind landings with a crosswind
component that were also unfun.
But
apart from the bad stuff the pictures and the experience were beyond
words. There is a whole
lot of clean sky in
Northern Queensland
with not many people flying into it.
I can't wait to fly around the land "down under" in
my little 701 with my brother, which will happen when I finish this
project, as I have the perfect plane for bush flying.
I have to express my deepest gratitude to my brother for
building me my little plane and thanks to Zenith for making such an
amazing bird.
|
