What oddballs have you flown or been flown in?
Mary,
Now you've reminded me of an hour in one at Jack Brown's.
As they pumped the float bilges, I remarked that the climb performance had been less than startling and it was pointed out to me that I should have tried it before they had the bigger engines fitted
I'd recommend that as a way of passing the afternoon on an Orlando nightstop.
I pitched up said I knew nothing about floats and did they have an 'Idiot's Guide' I could read. They did and twenty minutes later I performed my first ever landing on water. (I wasn't in the Aden Argosy
)
the J3 on floats
As they pumped the float bilges, I remarked that the climb performance had been less than startling and it was pointed out to me that I should have tried it before they had the bigger engines fitted
I'd recommend that as a way of passing the afternoon on an Orlando nightstop.
I pitched up said I knew nothing about floats and did they have an 'Idiot's Guide' I could read. They did and twenty minutes later I performed my first ever landing on water. (I wasn't in the Aden Argosy
)
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Lightning Mate
Def: "Oddball" - Out of the ordinary; one of a kind...
quod erat demonstrandum
Quote:
T5 Lightning at Wattisham.
What's oddball about that cyclic?
T5 Lightning at Wattisham.
What's oddball about that cyclic?
quod erat demonstrandum
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Hello Basil - yep, Jack Brown's, and I got the rating but they wouldn't let me go by myself! you had to buy your own.
Apropos of pumping out the float bilges, it was something overlooked by Sir Francis Chichester (The Lonely Sea and the Sky)...the aircraft just got heavier and heavier until they came to grief....
Apropos of pumping out the float bilges, it was something overlooked by Sir Francis Chichester (The Lonely Sea and the Sky)...the aircraft just got heavier and heavier until they came to grief....
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Strange machines wot I flew
At RAE Bedford we had an odd one, supposed to be a Nimrod AEW developer with a radome at the front but forgot the one at the back. Big stability problems, hours and hours of droning arround over three years then someone said this is a waste of time and we scapped it
As a passenger, a Carvair from Southend to Rotterdam as a 10 year old kid. I had good view of the left wing and was very "impressed" to see large ball of flame emit from the exhaust of the number 2 engine everytime the pilots throttled back.
But on this thread I am most impressed by all the exotic gliders mentioned. Nobody yet mentioned the Schweizer 2-33, which is a real dog.
I wouldn't classify the 2-33 as exotic or even oddball. 579 were built between 1967 and 1981.
I agree with you about it being a bit of a dog. However, it was very good at what it was designed for - teaching students to fly and preparing them for flying a 1-26. Too easy to fly and too forgiving though. Pilots in my club had to graduate to a Blanik for many flights before they were ready to transition to a more exotic single-seater.
The thing I remember most was the stark contrast between the roomy, comfortable front-cockpit and the cramped "monkey-cage" for the instructor in the back.
Avoid imitations
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Re Ercoupe (not Aircoupe):
They did, they had no rudder pedals!
Just checked my (now falling apart) first logbook from 40 years ago. The one I flew in (on 10/8/73) was G-AVTT, made by ERCO in 1947. According to G-INFO it was de-registered after it was "temporarily withdrawn from use" - eleven years ago!
On the same day I flew in G-AIZY, an Auster Autocrat, with the ill-fated Cliff Barnett, who had not long previously put his reputation on the line by sending me on my first solo in a Cessna 150. Cliff was tragically killed in a flying accident in a twin engined aircraft some years later; I believe it crashed into a hangar at Hannover after a mid-air collision.
At least they have a nice comfy footrest that doesn't move about
Just checked my (now falling apart) first logbook from 40 years ago. The one I flew in (on 10/8/73) was G-AVTT, made by ERCO in 1947. According to G-INFO it was de-registered after it was "temporarily withdrawn from use" - eleven years ago!
On the same day I flew in G-AIZY, an Auster Autocrat, with the ill-fated Cliff Barnett, who had not long previously put his reputation on the line by sending me on my first solo in a Cessna 150. Cliff was tragically killed in a flying accident in a twin engined aircraft some years later; I believe it crashed into a hangar at Hannover after a mid-air collision.
Last edited by ShyTorque; 16th Mar 2013 at 00:21.
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RNZAF: DC3, Strikemaster and TA4K Skyhawk.
Skydiving: Cessna 150, 152, 172, 180, 182, 185, 190, 206, 207, 208, 402. Cherokee 6. De Haviland Domine, De Haviland Drover, DC3, De Haviland Caribou. De Haviland Twin Otter, De Haviland Beaver. Piper Cub.
Air Transport: Hercules, 707, 747 and 767.
Training: Messerschmidt Bolkow Blom and Piper Tomahawk plus a couple of Gliders.
Bell Jet Ranger and Long Ranger. Chinook.
Total of 29
Plus a Casa. 30 total
Some more: Boeing 717, 737, UH1H Iroquois and a Banderante.
Total 34
Skydiving: Cessna 150, 152, 172, 180, 182, 185, 190, 206, 207, 208, 402. Cherokee 6. De Haviland Domine, De Haviland Drover, DC3, De Haviland Caribou. De Haviland Twin Otter, De Haviland Beaver. Piper Cub.
Air Transport: Hercules, 707, 747 and 767.
Training: Messerschmidt Bolkow Blom and Piper Tomahawk plus a couple of Gliders.
Bell Jet Ranger and Long Ranger. Chinook.
Total of 29
Plus a Casa. 30 total
Some more: Boeing 717, 737, UH1H Iroquois and a Banderante.
Total 34
Last edited by R J Kinloch; 16th Mar 2013 at 04:44.
On my first detachment to Creuil in France, with 74 Sqdn. Flew out in a soon to be 3 engined Argosy, very low as I remember and primed and ready to launch a diesel Houchin off the ramp into the North Sea.
Came back in a rattling Nord Noratlas. Must have been one of the last squadron swaps as they left NATO around `65. Creil was a Force de Frappe airbase then, with beautiful Mirage IV bombers.
Came back in a rattling Nord Noratlas. Must have been one of the last squadron swaps as they left NATO around `65. Creil was a Force de Frappe airbase then, with beautiful Mirage IV bombers.
Without a doubt, the oddest thing I’ve ever flown was a 2 seat Quickie. This is a Rutan canard design, reasonably lightweight and pretty speedy. But rather odd. The low-set canard wing is well forward and includes the main undercarriage in spats at the extreme tips; it also includes pitch control surfaces. The shoulder mounted upper wing is the same span as the canard and sits just behind the side-by-side cockpit, it includes the ailerons. There’s a tailwheel and rather a small rudder.
This particular aircraft had been bought by an RAF pilot who’d decided to get himself a PPL and commute between Cornwall and British West Oxfordshire by air. We went up to collect it from Teesside with a Quickie ‘expert’, the idea being that he would fly back and show the new owner how to fly it and I’d bring the other aircraft back. No sooner had we got to Teesside though, when the expert admitted that he hadn’t flown this version for a long time and would sooner get himself up to speed on the way home solo..... Which led me to wonder about both the ‘expert’ and the aircraft.
Some months later, the owner asked me whether I fancied a trip in it. Of course I accepted – who wouldn’t? So we strapped ourselves in.... My first impression was of the abysmal rearward visibility – almost as bad as the F-35. Anyway, we started up and charged off down the runway – it used up an enormous amount of runway to get airborne, but seemed nice and nimble and we were soon up at about 6000 ft. I then suggested that we should fly a bit lower, as the owner only had a low chart with him (the CAA produced such things in those days). The aircraft rushed about at about 150 KIAS and I thought that the control response was quite superb, particularly in roll. “Is it aerobatic?”, I asked – when I received an affirmative response I tried a barrel roll which went fine. The owner had a go – and promptly fell out at the top! So we just looked at stalling, which was very benign, as were max rate turns.
Then he explained the mysterious lever next to the single, centrally mounted control column. It seems that earlier Quickies didn’t like flying in rain and the canard would lose lift... So rather a lot of ‘up elevator’ was then needed to persuade them to fly level, which made landing interesting as there wasn’t much pitch control left with which to flare the little beast. The solution was a tailplane incidence control (TPI), which included a small horizontal tailplane control surface at the top of the fin. This had a lot of authority, due to the moment arm. One effect of this T-tail was that you could fly straight and level at the same IAS at a variety of pitch attitudes – having set the TPI, you pitched to achieve straight and level, then trimmed out the residual load. But that had the interesting effect of moving the control column neutral point! The owner planned to find the best IAS and TPI combination for economic cruising; however, it reminded me a bit of the Gnat in manual, where you were exhorted to set the Standby Trim so that the control column was ‘load-free / central’. After playing with this device for a while, we returned to the circuit with the TPI set to give plenty of pitch movement available for the flare. TPI nose-up, control column forward and trimmed load-free, but I discovered that the view of the runway was almost non-existent until you were down to about 50 ft! The owner tried a touch and go, but this became a series of lurches across the runway as he was using the control column as well as the rudder to keep straight, putting all the weight on alternate wheels in the process. He then offered me a go and I found it fairly simple, apart from the fact that the only throttle was on his side and the approach speed was about 85 KIAS. After my touch and go, he did the final landing which was fine.
As we chatted in the clubroom, I asked him how he spelled his name for the ‘PIC’ column of my logbook. “Well, I don’t actually have my PPL yet, so you were the Captain!”, he told me.....
Later, when reading up on this aeronautical oddity, I discovered that UK-registered Quickies are not approved for aerobatics.....
An oddball, certainly. But quite a nice little aeroplane really. Although I’d hate to have to force land one with that approach speed and poor view.
This particular aircraft had been bought by an RAF pilot who’d decided to get himself a PPL and commute between Cornwall and British West Oxfordshire by air. We went up to collect it from Teesside with a Quickie ‘expert’, the idea being that he would fly back and show the new owner how to fly it and I’d bring the other aircraft back. No sooner had we got to Teesside though, when the expert admitted that he hadn’t flown this version for a long time and would sooner get himself up to speed on the way home solo..... Which led me to wonder about both the ‘expert’ and the aircraft.
Some months later, the owner asked me whether I fancied a trip in it. Of course I accepted – who wouldn’t? So we strapped ourselves in.... My first impression was of the abysmal rearward visibility – almost as bad as the F-35. Anyway, we started up and charged off down the runway – it used up an enormous amount of runway to get airborne, but seemed nice and nimble and we were soon up at about 6000 ft. I then suggested that we should fly a bit lower, as the owner only had a low chart with him (the CAA produced such things in those days). The aircraft rushed about at about 150 KIAS and I thought that the control response was quite superb, particularly in roll. “Is it aerobatic?”, I asked – when I received an affirmative response I tried a barrel roll which went fine. The owner had a go – and promptly fell out at the top! So we just looked at stalling, which was very benign, as were max rate turns.
Then he explained the mysterious lever next to the single, centrally mounted control column. It seems that earlier Quickies didn’t like flying in rain and the canard would lose lift... So rather a lot of ‘up elevator’ was then needed to persuade them to fly level, which made landing interesting as there wasn’t much pitch control left with which to flare the little beast. The solution was a tailplane incidence control (TPI), which included a small horizontal tailplane control surface at the top of the fin. This had a lot of authority, due to the moment arm. One effect of this T-tail was that you could fly straight and level at the same IAS at a variety of pitch attitudes – having set the TPI, you pitched to achieve straight and level, then trimmed out the residual load. But that had the interesting effect of moving the control column neutral point! The owner planned to find the best IAS and TPI combination for economic cruising; however, it reminded me a bit of the Gnat in manual, where you were exhorted to set the Standby Trim so that the control column was ‘load-free / central’. After playing with this device for a while, we returned to the circuit with the TPI set to give plenty of pitch movement available for the flare. TPI nose-up, control column forward and trimmed load-free, but I discovered that the view of the runway was almost non-existent until you were down to about 50 ft! The owner tried a touch and go, but this became a series of lurches across the runway as he was using the control column as well as the rudder to keep straight, putting all the weight on alternate wheels in the process. He then offered me a go and I found it fairly simple, apart from the fact that the only throttle was on his side and the approach speed was about 85 KIAS. After my touch and go, he did the final landing which was fine.
As we chatted in the clubroom, I asked him how he spelled his name for the ‘PIC’ column of my logbook. “Well, I don’t actually have my PPL yet, so you were the Captain!”, he told me.....
Later, when reading up on this aeronautical oddity, I discovered that UK-registered Quickies are not approved for aerobatics.....
An oddball, certainly. But quite a nice little aeroplane really. Although I’d hate to have to force land one with that approach speed and poor view.
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Oddities
Should have added this to my earlier list, Tri-Motor at Oshkosh some years ago , it was this or the Collinges B17, did I make the right choice ?, Paul H:
Hi Shytorque...
Re Ercoupe (not Aircoupe):
Confusingly the aircraft had 2 names and it depended on which company had built the a/c
Those built by Forney were named Aircoupe
rgds LR
Re Ercoupe (not Aircoupe):
Confusingly the aircraft had 2 names and it depended on which company had built the a/c
Those built by Forney were named Aircoupe
rgds LR
Last edited by longer ron; 17th Mar 2013 at 08:18.
Looking at logbook, the last 'Aircoupe' I flew featured on the front of Flyer a while back although the Reg. had changed since it was at Surrey & Kent.
The "footrest" was very useful for taxying!!
The "footrest" was very useful for taxying!!
