Jcomm, I had the good fortune to have trained in the RCAF at a time when the last of the big single pistons were still around, used only in second line units and non front- line duties mind you, they could be a handfull on T/O but nothing to compare with an 81 year old British single I now fly for fun. To begin with the fin/rudder combination is way too small, the aircraft does not have diferential brakes as most from this period have been rertofited by now, the tail wheel has no locking system {we intend to install one this Winter} and is free castoring, combine this with 80% of the mass being aft of the main gear and one has an aircraft which would like to "swap ends" every landing, on top of this being British, the prop, thus the T/O swing are backwards to us on this side of the pond! As with most aircraft from this period it was designed to land into wind on a grass field, however our present home airport has very limited grass area, so the briefing I recieved from a very experienced owner of one of this make was"dont even think about flying from blacktop if the cross wind is over ten knots", a point driven home last week when we stayed on the blacktop but it was a close thing indeed!We are building an RC model of this aircraft, would love to put it in a slow speed wind tunnel and see what is really going on, by the way, one cant use the "wing down" method in a cross wind, the bottom wing is too close to the ground, the mass balences on the ailerons show much evidence of past scrapes, all in all, the most humiliating aircraft to land and handle on the ground I have ever flown, but lots of fun, what is it? Its a DH 87B Hornet Moth, not a fire breathing Sea Fury as on might think from my previous ramblings!
Last edited by clunckdriver; 31st Oct 2014 at 16:05.