Flight TestingA forum for test pilots, flight test engineers, observers, telemetry and instrumentation engineers and anybody else involved in the demanding and complex business of testing aeroplanes, helicopters and equipment.
I'm in the middle of a programme looking at control (primarily pitch) forces in production/line fixed wing aeroplanes. The current (admittedly rather basic) handheld instrumentation we have isn't doing a particularly good job of resolving some fairly small control forces (which tells you something in itself of-course!).
Can anybody point me at what is available on the market, if anything, that is quickly installed in an uninstrumented aeroplane and will give a good indication of control forces. Ideally I'm looking for something that'll resolve, and ideally down to around an ounce or so / 0.02daN ish but the smaller forces (and chunkier cockpit readout!) the better.
Olly - many thanks, I've sent them an Email and am waiting to hear back.
Gerz - that's exactly what we are using. The problem with them however is that they're generally only readable to about 1/4lb and also that they tend to be relatively long and thin which is difficult in a small cockpit.
Problem with all of those I think JimJim is that they're relatively long - much like the fishing scales which I'll admit to using at the moment. With a relatively short movement that inevitably exists between body-sticktop-instrument panel, that tends to make them unworkable once you're into larger stick movements.
The items at BDN, which is I suspect is what Hello1 is using, whilst incredibly old, were great because they had little depth, sitting fairly neatly between the hand and the control plus a display on top, where you can see it quite readily whilst strapped in properly. A serviceable one of those with a good scale, or better still an updated one with a digital display allowing greater resolution and range would I think be the perfect solution for uninstrumented aeroplanes (I suppose I could get really greedy and hope for a data logger as well!, but for manual testing in uninstrumented aircraft not really essential).
G
N.B. Rich, don't knock wooden pleasure devices - I've had much fun flying many of them.
Not aviation kit and I'll need to do a bit of digging, but some people I'm involved with were developing a system for measuring the force applied to dental tools as a training aid. If memory serves it was a piezoelectric set up which fitted into the drill or scaler handle. I'm sure that something similar could be rigged to log data to a pda or similar.
About 1.5in long, with a strain gauge type readout mechanism (you'd need to buy the readout device separately - would be easy to get the datalogging capability, too). Up to 20lbf, $90.
Linear Mode
