WW1 flying Downunder
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WW1 flying Downunder
just letting everyone know about a new Australian organisation to promote building and flying WW1 replicas in Australian skies.
The aim is to have as many of these flying as possible at various locations around Australia on 11/11/18 - the centenary of the Armistace.
Anyone can be involved, not just pilots and builders. Have a look at our website www.tavas.com.au and follow our regular updates on facebook at www.facebook.com/tavasww1
2 minute video at youtube -
The aim is to have as many of these flying as possible at various locations around Australia on 11/11/18 - the centenary of the Armistace.
Anyone can be involved, not just pilots and builders. Have a look at our website www.tavas.com.au and follow our regular updates on facebook at www.facebook.com/tavasww1
2 minute video at youtube -
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Pun intended but still a serious question. How much would the little Fokker and other era aeroplanes cost? Obviously an exact amount is not expected and also any idea of running costs? Again this will depend on hours flown but just some general idea.
Finally, how much grief can one expect from the "safety" Gestapo if one owned one of the magnificient machines? Do they fall under the RAA banner?
Finally, how much grief can one expect from the "safety" Gestapo if one owned one of the magnificient machines? Do they fall under the RAA banner?
Hi Biggles,
There are affordable replicas, both full sized and scale that are available as kits from Airdrome Airplanes in the US. They have a website at Airdrome Aeroplanes ~ Holden, MO.
That website will give you an idea about cost for these types of aircraft.
Most of these replicas could be built and operated under the RAA banner without too much grief.
Of course, there are quite a number of other replica aircraft kits available, but Airdrome seems to have the greatest following.
There are affordable replicas, both full sized and scale that are available as kits from Airdrome Airplanes in the US. They have a website at Airdrome Aeroplanes ~ Holden, MO.
That website will give you an idea about cost for these types of aircraft.
Most of these replicas could be built and operated under the RAA banner without too much grief.
Of course, there are quite a number of other replica aircraft kits available, but Airdrome seems to have the greatest following.
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Here's the link to their newsletter http://tavas.com.au/resources/Contact%20Issue%208min.pdf
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Details
Hi all and thanks so much for your interest in what we are doing.
I will post some details on the Tripe shortly. I would suggest you have a look at our new website - it was only released 3 days ago and has all the picture and video content on the WW1 aviation scene in Australia, including plenty more pics of the triplane - www.tavas.com.au
Also plenty more pics on our facebook page - and no you don't have to have a facebook account to view it - www.facebook.com/tavasWW1
Biggles - how long is a piece of string? What do you want and how accurate do you want it to be and how much of it do you intend to build yourself?
At the low end of the scale, Airdrome kits (only the full size - don't worry about the scaled stuff) costs around US$12-15,000 for the complete kit and another US$10K for the engine and you could build that within a year part time.
If you want a cheap radial engine to look more authentic, you need about $25-35K. If you want a reverse engineered rotary engine (as we are having made up for our E.III Eindekker) allow closer to $60k.
At the top end of the scale, you can buy a 100% accurate Albatros D.Va for US$685k. I think you can buy an original Sopwith Camel for about 1 million pounds.
Yes many of the 100% reproductions and all of the Airdrome kits meet the RAAus classification. The triplane does not and so is registered VH-FXP
Plenty more info on the website and in each of our extensive newsletters available to members. You can obtain membership through the website.
How do you attach images to a post on this site? It only seems to allow you to link to a website URL which is why I haven't put up any pics in this post.
Andrew
I will post some details on the Tripe shortly. I would suggest you have a look at our new website - it was only released 3 days ago and has all the picture and video content on the WW1 aviation scene in Australia, including plenty more pics of the triplane - www.tavas.com.au
Also plenty more pics on our facebook page - and no you don't have to have a facebook account to view it - www.facebook.com/tavasWW1
Biggles - how long is a piece of string? What do you want and how accurate do you want it to be and how much of it do you intend to build yourself?
At the low end of the scale, Airdrome kits (only the full size - don't worry about the scaled stuff) costs around US$12-15,000 for the complete kit and another US$10K for the engine and you could build that within a year part time.
If you want a cheap radial engine to look more authentic, you need about $25-35K. If you want a reverse engineered rotary engine (as we are having made up for our E.III Eindekker) allow closer to $60k.
At the top end of the scale, you can buy a 100% accurate Albatros D.Va for US$685k. I think you can buy an original Sopwith Camel for about 1 million pounds.
Yes many of the 100% reproductions and all of the Airdrome kits meet the RAAus classification. The triplane does not and so is registered VH-FXP
Plenty more info on the website and in each of our extensive newsletters available to members. You can obtain membership through the website.
How do you attach images to a post on this site? It only seems to allow you to link to a website URL which is why I haven't put up any pics in this post.
Andrew
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Details of the Dr.I flight downunder
On the 17th December 2013 (exactly 110 years since the Wright Brothers first history making flight), the TAVAS Fokker Dr.I Triplane took to the air for the first time in Australia, at Cabolture airfield about 45 minutes drive north of Brisbane.
This of course is the first Australian based Triplane to fly in Australia since The RAAF museum at Point Cook retired theirs. That particular aircraft was built in 1973 for use in the film 'The Great Waldo Pepper' and registered N864DR. Imported to Australia privately, then acquired by the Australian War Memorial and loaned to the RAAF Museum, it carried the registration VH-ALU.
It was returned to Canberra in late January 2000 when Flight Lieutenant Peter Clements flew it from Point Cook to Canberra (via a refuel stop in Wagga) - a total flight time of 5.1 hours. It now resides as a static exhibit at the Museum of Australian Army Flying at Oakey in QLD.
The TAVAS example is a very comfortable and enjoyable aircraft to fly, not difficult as I had been led to believe. The controls are positive and responsive - firm, not twitchy. Only little control inputs are needed for general flying. At this stage no aggressive manoeuvres have been attempted.
Ground handling of this aircraft is better than the original, with the non standard tailwheel and differential disk brakes making all the difference.
I fly the final approach at idle power and 70 knots (a good 10 knots higher than it needs to be). Three and a half wings and full power gives great lift, but with no power, there is plenty of drag and so I find as I flare, the aircraft will develop a high rate of sink unless I carry 1300-1500rpm into the flare and back to idle just before touching down.
As we approach the centenary of the First World War, this aircraft and the others in our collection will attract a lot of attention as we use them to educate the Australian public on these remarkable machines and the people who flew them.
Now that the Triplane is complete, we can turn our attention to completing the Fokker D.VIII which just needs and engine and instruments fitted. We had fitted an Australian built Rotec radial engine to it, however that will be replaced with an authentic 160hp Gnome rotary engine which we have just purchased from the United States and hope to have early Feb.
Whilst work is being done on that, we will also be finishing off the E.III Eindekker. We have just obtained the authentic linen for that aircraft (made by the same family run business in Belgium who were producing it during the war). The Gnome 100hp engine we are having reverse engineered in NZ for this, should be completed and have had its first test runs around March.
Video of that exact engine being described by the builder can be seen at -
It is taking a long time to complete these aircraft as authentically as possible, but the finished result will be worth it. More details can be found at www.tavas .com.au
This of course is the first Australian based Triplane to fly in Australia since The RAAF museum at Point Cook retired theirs. That particular aircraft was built in 1973 for use in the film 'The Great Waldo Pepper' and registered N864DR. Imported to Australia privately, then acquired by the Australian War Memorial and loaned to the RAAF Museum, it carried the registration VH-ALU.
It was returned to Canberra in late January 2000 when Flight Lieutenant Peter Clements flew it from Point Cook to Canberra (via a refuel stop in Wagga) - a total flight time of 5.1 hours. It now resides as a static exhibit at the Museum of Australian Army Flying at Oakey in QLD.
The TAVAS example is a very comfortable and enjoyable aircraft to fly, not difficult as I had been led to believe. The controls are positive and responsive - firm, not twitchy. Only little control inputs are needed for general flying. At this stage no aggressive manoeuvres have been attempted.
Ground handling of this aircraft is better than the original, with the non standard tailwheel and differential disk brakes making all the difference.
I fly the final approach at idle power and 70 knots (a good 10 knots higher than it needs to be). Three and a half wings and full power gives great lift, but with no power, there is plenty of drag and so I find as I flare, the aircraft will develop a high rate of sink unless I carry 1300-1500rpm into the flare and back to idle just before touching down.
As we approach the centenary of the First World War, this aircraft and the others in our collection will attract a lot of attention as we use them to educate the Australian public on these remarkable machines and the people who flew them.
Now that the Triplane is complete, we can turn our attention to completing the Fokker D.VIII which just needs and engine and instruments fitted. We had fitted an Australian built Rotec radial engine to it, however that will be replaced with an authentic 160hp Gnome rotary engine which we have just purchased from the United States and hope to have early Feb.
Whilst work is being done on that, we will also be finishing off the E.III Eindekker. We have just obtained the authentic linen for that aircraft (made by the same family run business in Belgium who were producing it during the war). The Gnome 100hp engine we are having reverse engineered in NZ for this, should be completed and have had its first test runs around March.
Video of that exact engine being described by the builder can be seen at -
It is taking a long time to complete these aircraft as authentically as possible, but the finished result will be worth it. More details can be found at www.tavas .com.au
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TAVAS
The video of the first flight of the triplane. It seemed to be very squirily on the ground in that crosswind landing, from the look of it in the video.
Does the tailwheel help or hinder cf a skid?
I applaud all your efforts.
The video of the first flight of the triplane. It seemed to be very squirily on the ground in that crosswind landing, from the look of it in the video.
Does the tailwheel help or hinder cf a skid?
I applaud all your efforts.
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Dr.I landing
Rjtjrt - Landing this is relatively straight forward. However I had been told so many horror stories about landing these things that I was prepared for the worst.
So much so that on landing I probably over reacted to every little movement. I can assure you that much of the squirreling you saw was pilot induced. All subsequent landings have been much smoother with much less use of rudder.
I assume a skid with a metal keel (as we have on all our other Fokker fighters) would be slightly better, but you can't use them on Tar runways and they'd be a lot harder in general ground handling.
So much so that on landing I probably over reacted to every little movement. I can assure you that much of the squirreling you saw was pilot induced. All subsequent landings have been much smoother with much less use of rudder.
I assume a skid with a metal keel (as we have on all our other Fokker fighters) would be slightly better, but you can't use them on Tar runways and they'd be a lot harder in general ground handling.
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TBM-
I think I have the right genes for it! Ie.my grandfather was a mechanic in Douglas Bader,s squadron.but I'm a flyer not a fixer,I'm limited to checking fuel and oil..
I think I have the right genes for it! Ie.my grandfather was a mechanic in Douglas Bader,s squadron.but I'm a flyer not a fixer,I'm limited to checking fuel and oil..