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Old 28th Nov 2002, 14:23
  #18 (permalink)  
fobotcso
 
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18 Greens, to tell you about Cam "K" would be to destroy your innocence. An explanation will rival the spiral staircase in an explanation without the use of hand gestures.

The ratio of stick movement to tailplane movement was non-linear and also varied with the height and airspeed. With such a short stick travel because of the cramped cockpit, and to ensure that sufficient tailplane movement was available at low speed whilst not leading over controlling at high speed, Q-gearing (that's "Q" as in ˝rho x v˛) and Cam "K" were developed. Cam "K" was the final success after a succession of Cams were tried.

The Gnat also had Folland's own version of an Ejection Seat, known as the "Folland Humane Killer" simply because the safety/disarming mechanism was a handle that pressed on the back of the pilot's head when safe and that the groundcrew could reach to rotate sideways to arm the seat.

The raising/lowering mechanism of the seat pan had a habit of not locking the seat pan although it felt as though it had. Some pilots who ejected had severe thigh injuries when the seat frame went up the rails while they stayed still in the unlocked seat pan until the pan reached the bottom of the range of adjustment, started to move abruptly and hit them hard under the thighs.
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