Thruster Aerobatics

[Barefootpilot]

Some brave person in the UK performing aerobatics in a T-300. You can see in the way he flies it has is pretty experianced in Aero's but this is still just an accident waiting to happen!

 

Recreational Flying - Thruster Aerobatics

 

Adam.

 

 

[Guest Michael Coates]

This is something that SHOULD NOT be tried at home !!

 

I wonder if he is still flying ?? or has he been grounded ??

 

 

[thommo]

The thing is that they are strong enough to do this sort of thing.

 

 

[Guest brentc]

I don't know about strong, but rather, lucky the wings didn't fall off. That being said, it's not doing anything that any other aircraft can't do and by the way the pilot needs some aerobatic training.

 

 

[Guest High Plains Drifter]

Apart from the high speed passes I didnt think there was much stress to the airframe...then about minute 5, whoa - some lessons needed methinks.

 

Nice color coded flight suites - is it a Thruster pilot thing ? (wheres the evil smilie?)

 

 

[Flyer]

A bold pilot indeed. :confused:

 

Should make a nice hole in the ground when he augers in....:sad:thumb_down

 

 

[Guest TOSGcentral]

I personally do not think that is very clever at all! I have two areas of concern.

 

 

The Thruster is strong – in some regards – but it was not designed for aerobatics. To give you an idea, I am currently undergoing research to emulate the UK 450 kg MTOW of the T600 for our Oz TSTs, T300 and T500 types.

 

 

This involves entirely internal sleeving all wing spars, beefing up all the bracing cables and double wire bracing the tail unit – that is just to get an extra 50 kg on top of our existing 400 kg MTOW. The aircraft in the film was built to 380 kg MTOW!

 

 

Of considerable concern is the torsional tolerance of the Thruster wing. I have been able to get no data on that at all and I have really looked over the years. There is not very much inside a Thruster wing. While the wing design is very clever it was designed for a purpose and what you saw on the film was not the purpose!

 

 

The rolling manoeuvres and torsional events (eg the spin recovery) are, frankly, irresponsible and foolhardy.

 

 

The other area of concern is people watching this movie will consider the aerobatic restriction on the Thruster (like all ultralights) is a lot of garbage and just ‘regulation’. So it is OK to go and aerobat them when nobody is looking – basically because they have seen one perform these antics and not break up. That begs the question of how close that aircraft came to breaking up – or how weakened it has become and when will it break up?

 

 

Not happy!

 

 

Tony

 

 

[Barefootpilot]

I agree Tony I did think about not posting the video for those reasons but I thought it was worth a look. Here is another video for anyone thinking of giving it a go.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPbhQS6IljU"

 

Adam

 

 

[Guest TOSGcentral]

No Probs Adam,

 

My negative comment was not about you posting it but what happened. In fact your posting on this forum enables safety comment - whereas the U tube voyeurs may get an entirely different perspective!!!

 

I think this also underlines the thought processes of some of our armchair pilots out there who want this and that in a regulatory sense and ignore real life activity of human beings that could destroy an entire movement so rapidly moving out of sound technical control because it has neither the money nor manpower to supply that commodity - yet ever seeks more!!!

 

A couple of real life examples:

 

Back in the '60's there was a World Gliding Championships in S.America. One team entered a Skylark 3 (18 mtres of wood aircraft) which was a 'hot ship' of the day.

 

Unfortunately UK was going through a phase (or Slingsby who built the aircraft were) of making 'unspinnable' gliders. This involved building in a huge amount of wash out wing twist to reduce AofA at the tips. That was fine for usual speeds but in this case - finishing a race and wanting every second - the aircraft was overspeeded.

 

The outer wing panels twisted forwards and downwards, then broke off. I saw the movie footage and it was grim and very quick. The pilot did get out (at 400' by parachute) and survived.

 

We actually made some mileage out of that in standards training at the National Gliding Centre. If we spotted a guy getting a bit gung ho we invited him to just go do a simple loop in a Skylark 3 BUT look out at the wing tips during pull-up.

 

Not one of them ever got over the top - normally you are looking forwards and upwards for the horizon - not at the wings. At just loop speed and the G forces the veiw of those wings twisting and bending down was terrifying so they eased off rapidly on the stick pressure.

 

Naturally that incurred a few extra hassles but the Skylark3 is in fact very benign and will either pull through from slow speed or has a huge rudder so you can wing over to avoid the tail slide!

 

A very cruel (and slightly risky) way of hammering a point home. But those were early days and I sometimes wonder if they were not wiser than some of the crap that is spouted these days so knowingly?

 

Tony

 

 

[Guest High Plains Drifter]

...this also underlines the thought processes of some of our armchair pilots out there who want this and that in a regulatory sense and ignore real life activity of human beings that could destroy an entire movement so rapidly moving out of sound technical control because it has neither the money nor manpower to supply that commodity - yet ever seeks more!!!

Worth repeating methinks :thumb_up:

 

...those flying suits tho - do they come standard with every Thruster? :devil:

 

 

[motzartmerv]

That second one looks like a partnavia??

 

Not much to say that others havn't already, a temporary citizen..

 

About the red suit.....he will look great when they bury him in it.thumb_downthumb_down