Tiger Moth
Tiger Moth
Per Ardua ad Astraeus
Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: UK
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What is your opinion about that plane and learn to fly on it?
Cannot help with locations.
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Canada
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As an owner of a DH product with two sets of wings I would sugest. {regretfully I might add} that you try the UK for Tiger Moth training, if you contact the DH Moth club they can point you to schools operating Tiger Moths. Much as we would like to welcome you to Canada, due to our climate my toys are staying in a heated hangar till about May of this year, however in the UK you can fly most days of the year, yes, it gets a bit cool in a Tiger in a British winter, but nothing as bad as here, {this morning, minus twenty nine at my place} On top of this, although we have some very fine re -builders in Canada, most of the technical support to keep these aircraft flying is in the UK, in fact Im on my way over to learn all about keeping Gipsy engines turning. If you do learn on a Tiger you will develope hands and feet skills which will serve you well no matter what you fly in the future, good luck!
In Australia the climate is conducive to making face freeze not an issue.
There is also a lot of fascinating country to see.
No better way than by Tigerschmitt.
If you have time to spare.
And if your kitty is sufficient
why not learn on a Citabria with Jim Drinnan at Camden
just out of Sydney
then pick up your own DH82A?
several of which are always in Aviation Trader
for 80 to 100 G oz dollar.
if you decide to visit the wise, I mean wide, brown land
I would be happy to introduce you to a few
Tigerschmitt owner / operators
and a few Czech pilots too
ex FSO Griffo here on proone
he's got one too.
as I did once upon a time
Everything in their favour that posters here
have said is true
what the author of the following little
satirical piece has to say is very funny but absolute bollocks
THE ABORTION CALLED THE TIGER MOTH
I've plenty of soul, just no patience for that horrible abortion of an aeronautical design, the DH82. It's all well and good to BE FLOWN about Byron Bay in one, but to BE THE ONE FLYING is an experience I wouldn't wish on my mother-in-law or my worst enemy, which ever one happened to be standing closest.
I list only some of its foibles as a complete list would do your head in.
1. The engine's upside down, which is a bad place to begin the whole design process for a start. Open the tap and it makes more noise than horsepower.
2. The glass wasted on the joke of a windscreen would have been put to better wartime use making storm doors for submarines, where they would have been found infinitely more effective than they are as windscreens on Tiger Moths. A louder, draftier, more uncomfortable place cannot be found in all aeronautica.
3. The ailerons are misnamed. They should be called "Adverse Yaw Generators" because that's all the confounded use the blessed things are. Either that or the ones on the example I flew were reverse-rigged.
4. The designer of the trim system deserves a special place in purgatory for this nasty little device. The trim control is notched, not smoothly adjustable, which means you set the power setting you want, find the trim notch closest to that, then fiddle about with the throttle for the entire rest of the flight futilely fighting to find the exact point of trim - never have I been so utterly and needlessly distracted by so necessary yet so useless a contrivance as that rig!
5. To top it all off, the harness was invented by Harry Houdini in his early years as an INscapologist when he thought the crowds would pay to see him get INTO impossibly difficult and complex webbing and knots. I had an easier time learning to tie a bowline on Helsal in a Force 8 than I did trying to understand the Cat's Cradle that is the harness in a Tiger Moth.
Other than that, they're fine machines and every aviation museum and aeronautical university should have an example of one - so they can be studied in excrutiating detail as examples of every single thing NOT to do in designing an aeroplane.
Did I mention too that I'm not particularly fond of these things?
There is also a lot of fascinating country to see.
No better way than by Tigerschmitt.
If you have time to spare.
And if your kitty is sufficient
why not learn on a Citabria with Jim Drinnan at Camden
just out of Sydney
then pick up your own DH82A?
several of which are always in Aviation Trader
for 80 to 100 G oz dollar.
if you decide to visit the wise, I mean wide, brown land
I would be happy to introduce you to a few
Tigerschmitt owner / operators
and a few Czech pilots too
ex FSO Griffo here on proone
he's got one too.
as I did once upon a time
Everything in their favour that posters here
have said is true
what the author of the following little
satirical piece has to say is very funny but absolute bollocks
THE ABORTION CALLED THE TIGER MOTH
I've plenty of soul, just no patience for that horrible abortion of an aeronautical design, the DH82. It's all well and good to BE FLOWN about Byron Bay in one, but to BE THE ONE FLYING is an experience I wouldn't wish on my mother-in-law or my worst enemy, which ever one happened to be standing closest.
I list only some of its foibles as a complete list would do your head in.
1. The engine's upside down, which is a bad place to begin the whole design process for a start. Open the tap and it makes more noise than horsepower.
2. The glass wasted on the joke of a windscreen would have been put to better wartime use making storm doors for submarines, where they would have been found infinitely more effective than they are as windscreens on Tiger Moths. A louder, draftier, more uncomfortable place cannot be found in all aeronautica.
3. The ailerons are misnamed. They should be called "Adverse Yaw Generators" because that's all the confounded use the blessed things are. Either that or the ones on the example I flew were reverse-rigged.
4. The designer of the trim system deserves a special place in purgatory for this nasty little device. The trim control is notched, not smoothly adjustable, which means you set the power setting you want, find the trim notch closest to that, then fiddle about with the throttle for the entire rest of the flight futilely fighting to find the exact point of trim - never have I been so utterly and needlessly distracted by so necessary yet so useless a contrivance as that rig!
5. To top it all off, the harness was invented by Harry Houdini in his early years as an INscapologist when he thought the crowds would pay to see him get INTO impossibly difficult and complex webbing and knots. I had an easier time learning to tie a bowline on Helsal in a Force 8 than I did trying to understand the Cat's Cradle that is the harness in a Tiger Moth.
Other than that, they're fine machines and every aviation museum and aeronautical university should have an example of one - so they can be studied in excrutiating detail as examples of every single thing NOT to do in designing an aeroplane.
Did I mention too that I'm not particularly fond of these things?
Last edited by Fantome; 22nd Jan 2014 at 14:53.
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Canada
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Fantome, given the temps that Aus has experienced of late I dread to think of the rate of climb in a fully loaded Tiger Moth, {not to mention "running on" during shutdown} its bad enough out West in Canada given the elevations and Summer temps, also I would have thought that an "upside down" engine would fit right in dununder!
The "Wind in the face" feeling was precisely why I wanted to fly in an open cockpit aeroplane
Precisely
Flying in an open cockpit is a wonderful experience that makes you want more and makes you prepared to put up with all the inconveniences. I've had the pleasure of flying three different types - Tiger Moth, Stearman and a Schweizer 1-26 with a "sport canopy".I'm retiring later this year and I have an opportunity to buy a share in a Yak 52 or a Stearman. I think I'll have to go for the Stearman! Flying the Yak with the canopy open is just not the same.
well clunk me ol' canuck . .. . .. you pick your days of course
heat waves and fires and Melbourne lately 41 three days running
6 above the last record top
but you come back a week later and it's all mild summery and balmy
just like in Edmonton in hot summers, in OZ thousands of EATS
went through the hoops at places some old vets long after the war used
to say 'hot as the hobs of hell'
that's what the late Harry Purvis said of Nhill in February of 1941
short grass strips can look deceptively long , the far end hardly visible shimmering in the heat haze
but. . . let not the unfamiliar be deceived or mislead. Here there is
a wealth of lovely spots you can meander off to and put down right by the beach. Old Bar near Taree is a prime example. Or the strip at the far north end of Fraser Island. Then you've got at least half a dozen choice Barrier Reef islands to pick from. Brampton is a bewdy. Or was.
Inverted? Upright? Next you're going to tell us that you like to fly your DH60 inverted a lot. Just to be perverse. Or worse.
heat waves and fires and Melbourne lately 41 three days running
6 above the last record top
but you come back a week later and it's all mild summery and balmy
just like in Edmonton in hot summers, in OZ thousands of EATS
went through the hoops at places some old vets long after the war used
to say 'hot as the hobs of hell'
that's what the late Harry Purvis said of Nhill in February of 1941
short grass strips can look deceptively long , the far end hardly visible shimmering in the heat haze
but. . . let not the unfamiliar be deceived or mislead. Here there is
a wealth of lovely spots you can meander off to and put down right by the beach. Old Bar near Taree is a prime example. Or the strip at the far north end of Fraser Island. Then you've got at least half a dozen choice Barrier Reef islands to pick from. Brampton is a bewdy. Or was.
Inverted? Upright? Next you're going to tell us that you like to fly your DH60 inverted a lot. Just to be perverse. Or worse.
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Canada
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Fantome, I actually lived in Melbourne for a few years, long ago during the days of the "six oclock swill", long gone thank heavens! During my time there there were indeed some beutifull vintage aircraft flying, {much to the distress of the DCA which at the time seemed to be staffed by very unhappy Poms} I must grant you that flying down the East coast at sunset is simply amazing, and the number a VFR flying days makes owning a Tiger, or any vintage bipe a realistic way to travel, would have stayed but it was not to be, still keep in touch with some of my mates, those that are still above ground that is!
Join Date: Oct 1999
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Nothing wrong with inverted engines - I flew behind one (several actually, over the decades) in the dHC1 for well over 30 years.
But he's right about the Tiger's ailerons and the trimmer!
But he's right about the Tiger's ailerons and the trimmer!
Join Date: Apr 2008
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Not the Canadian trimmer. It is smooth as silk. Canopy, heat that works a little bit, wheel brakes on angled forward gear legs, tailwheel, a fuel vent with a cover over it, actual trim tabs, a fixed rudder trim tab, a handle on each lower wingtip for ground help on windy days.
Ahhhhh, it just doesnt get any better than that.
Ahhhhh, it just doesnt get any better than that.
Join Date: Jun 2006
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Jammed Stab, this is why the Canadian Tiger is called a "C" model, the "C" stands for civilized! However the DH which I own has none of these features and is a real bear to taxi in a cross wind, however we are planing a few mods this Winter so as to make returning to the hangar a bit easier.
The affection for a Tiger, that grows and mellows with the years, is vaguely akin to the effect that a Model T Ford can have upon the driver/pilot, not necessarily born when either first took to the open road or up up and away into the wide blue yonder.
Interested in your reminiscences clunck. Will you be paying us a visit sometime?
Have to ask. When you look in your hangar, do you see planes? Or do you see hangers?
(Smartarse he growls, from corner of mouth.)
Wondering whether man-tis is serious, or tyre-kicking? Often you never know.
When you say C model the Motor Falke G model comes to mind. Getting in and out is easier than in other examples of the type as the fuse frame is ten inches lower each side of the cockpit on the G model. Some wag said there you have the geriatric model mate.
Cannot put the hand on an OZ Tiger pic just for the moment. . This one should evoke the odd ahhhh. . .. instead .
gemmutliche
Last edited by Fantome; 23rd Jan 2014 at 19:46.
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: uk
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[quote Cambridge is reasonably close to Duxford where the Imperial War Museum has a spectacular range of aircraft and vehicles to see, definitely worth a visit!][/quote]
Including Tiger Moth flights
Trial flying Lessons in Cambridgeshire & Vintage Flights from £109
Including Tiger Moth flights
Trial flying Lessons in Cambridgeshire & Vintage Flights from £109
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: London
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Did a Tiger flight at Duxford recently for old times sake. Great fun and a good instructor to keep an eye on things. Major failure not pulling back on stick on touchdown. Not needed for fifty years so some excuse.
They have a video on you all the time in the cockpit. Great value for the grandkids.
They have a video on you all the time in the cockpit. Great value for the grandkids.
Join Date: Jul 2013
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At Duxford you can also have a pleasure flight in a de H Rapide, over Cambridge or London. The London flights go right past my workshop and I can recognise the distinct sound of the engines and propellers before I see the plane.