pmccarthy

This post was six days late.

I landed my PA-28 today in a crosswind and remarked that I would be hopeless in a tail dragger, barely competent now after many hundreds of hours.

Aviataion Classifieds listed 30-40 aircraft just a couple of years ago. It is down to 13 today on a steady trend. It will be gone entirely within months if this trend continues.

You were conned, as I am sure you know, the SE5A did not have a rotary. But I am still envious.

All good, but remember being overweight is not a choice. I would be RAA tomorrow if my wife and I, luggage and fuel, would fit 600kg MTOW.

The next day but one I flew back to Kirkuk to collect my kit, and, if possible, my motorbike. This presented a bit of a problem but eventually we solved it by removing the wheels and stowing them in the rear seat, then we roped the frame of the machine to the Scarff gun mounting above the seat. I was about to rope my roll of camp kit plus one suitcase to the bomb racks, when I was asked to fly back as escort to Cordingley, who was returning an aircraft to Baghdad for a change of engine. The engine of Cordingley’s aircraft was slowly leaking water from a defective cylinder water jacket, so would in consequence need careful ‘nursing’ on the flight, so I offered to take his kit in order to minimise the weight in his Bristol. As my rear seat was full of motor bike, Cordingley’s kit had to go on my third bomb rack. When eventually ready for flight, my Bristol Fighter seemed festooned like a Christmas tree. Most of the bike was ‘outboard’ above the fuselage, a large suitcase under the bottom centre section and two valises containing camp beds, blankets, etc, beneath the bottom planes. Such was my profound faith in the flying qualities of the Brisfit, that I did not really anticipate any serious difficulty in flying to Baghdad with this untidily disposed load. I should have known better. That take-off was a shattering experience. I had taken the precaution of taxying well beyond the normal boundary of the airfield before turning into wind, but when I opened her up the machine ran on and on, without gaining speed, and showing no immediate inclination to leave mother earth. I eventually reached the end of the take-off area, well clear of the further boundary when, in desperation I yanked back fairly sharply on the stick. The machine responded valiantly and staggered into the air, the turbulence caused by the dangling baggage setting up violent buffeting around the tail. Well, it was one thing to get airborne but quite another to gain some altitude. It seemed quickly evident that the 275 hp of the Rolls-Royce Falcon engine would be severely overtaxed in attaining either speed or height. I finally managed a very wide gradual turn to the south not daring to throttle back, and decided that any attempt at landing back at Kirkuk would risk a serious crash. There was nothing for it but to head for Baghdad, with my airspeed indicator registering between 50 and 60 mph. Every time I eased the stick forward to gain a bit more speed, we just went down hill. The aircraft just scraped over the Gebil Hamrin and two and a half hours later, still flying at full throttle, I found myself at 1,000 feet over Baquba, thirty miles north of Baghdad. As the fuel was practically exhausted and with a wide expanse of level desert below, I made a fast approach with plenty of engine and returned to earth without further trouble. I contacted Baghdad and a supply of fuel arrived late in the evening. Thus ended a rather stupid episode. When I got back to base the following morning, I found that Cordingley had had an uneventful flight back but could not understand why he had seen nothing of his escort. — My Golden Flying Years: From 1918 over France, Through Iraq in the 1920s, to the Schneider Trophy: From 1918 over France, Through Iraq in the 1920s, to the Schneider Trophy Race of 1927 by D'Arcy Greig,

Takeoff out of that gully would be a challenge for a prototype.

I want one but that extra 5kg makes it impossible.

Have seen some crazy looking ones in the USA. Makes you realise that there is more to flying than performance.

For some reason this was the most appealing of all the planes that Biggles flew.

I landed a Cherokee at Alice once had guns pointed at me. It was just after the famous hijacking in November 1972. Perhaps they are still nervous.

Even 50kg increase would make a huge difference in useability. New designs don’t have to deliver 760kg MTOW just increase it to whatever stall limit applies within the new envelope. Minor wing design changes or trade-offs including vg's will determine what is possible.

The best example is the J230. It is a strong capable airframe and could immediately be transformed from a marginal load carrier to a very useful machine.

That is good lateral thinking.

When 760kg comes along it will make a huge difference. We will be able to develop safer planes with a useful working load capacity. I look forward to it.

I’m happy to say that I took the photo myself.

Granddaughter was copilot but it is a tiring job,

Santos Dumont is correct. It is the Skonkwerks 24 Bis, a tribute to Dumont.

So how about this for an easy one?

OK, 11 days have passed, it is a Hanriot H110 from France, 1930.

Nearly three years ago now. The agreement is that it never flies again.

Bloke walks into a Caltex station with a BP mower fuel can and says “ Can a BP”. The attendant replies “ I don’t know but fish can fart, I've seen the bubbles”.

I flew a bubble canopy for five years and was very happy with it in all weathers. It can be hot on the ground, but is fine once you are up and flying. I would be more concerned that it had a good rollover bar built in.

The word deflection would be more appropriate than lift. Many control surfaces have no significant aerofoil , but can be considered as flat plates. So they produce forces due to deflection of the airstream and drag.

I understood that you needed to train in rag and tube types to be allowed to fly them under RAA. If you train in the high performance types you have to do extra training to fly something like a Drifter. Has that changed?