General Aircraft Owlet

[Colin Leighfield]

That was a clever and well thought out design and it's great to see it brought to life this way and give so many people the pleasure of seeing a plane they would otherwise have never heard of.

It will be interesting to see the effectiveness of the two comparatively small fins and particularly of the rudders, being removed from the direct influence of the propeller. There's no question about the advantages of a tricycle undercarriage and it's a rare opportunity to feature it genuinely on a real vintage classic like this one.

You've done a brilliant job of it Lindsey, you have my respect.

[Lindsay Todd]

Lousy, lousy weather however with a trip that saw me heading down to Shropshire I found a spare hour to go via my other club site. So I packed the Owlet into the van and set off in bright weather and calm conditions at about 8:30am. With chores done it was nearly 11am and the site was just half an hour away. The clouds started to roll in and what was once calm was also now a steady breeze. By the time I reached our site the first rain had arrived and the breeze was now a steady blow at 20-25mph and gusting, the direction was swinging around and was now across the runway, the worst case for turbulence and heavy clouds on the horizon looked like countless squalls coming in.

I am truly sick of this weather at the moment so figured I would sit it out for an hour and see what happened.

Well the clouds gave a break and the rain stopped but the wind was still blowing hard. With probably totally the wrong attitude I thought sod it I going to give her a go anyway.

So assembled and placed on the runway a few static photos were made, battery installed and a last check over made. I actually had to keep hold of the model at one point as the wind was blowing her back off the runway. Not ideal for a test flight really.

Power on and a bit of a taxing proved ground handling fine, the narrow undercarriage did not help in the strong wind but she never tipped over, just a few wobbles but should be fine under 'normal' conditions.

Lined up, throttle forward, gently, an the Owlet accelerated nicely, a little back pressure on the elevator and she was up with air under her wings at last. Crikey its windy, I've got to land her in this now, was my immediate thought. A couple of trimming circuits, or trim at least as best I could as she was getting thrown about a bit but at least the control authority was there and that was reassuring and bodes well for better conditions in the future.

I figured after a few minutes that a few practice approaches would be a smart move which meant coming in on a cross wind approach requiring significant amounts of rudder at the last minute so we would soon see what the stall characteristic would be like. It was a bumpy approach, you would not have wanted to have been a passenger, but the Owlet handled it surprisingly well and slowed up beautifully in the what was now a howling gale. At about walking pace she touched down, albeit with a bit of a wobble but all was good. Enthused by this I taxied around and then took off for a further couple of minutes before deciding ok that was enough for today and brought her back down for another bumpy approach and successful landing.

Packed away and 30 seconds later the wind rocked the van and the rain battered down. Time to go home with a sneaky grin on my face. I have finally sneaked in a test flight. No picks, no proof but she is going to be very nice and fun model when we finally get a break.

Linds

[Danny Fenton]

Well done Linds, you are clearly a better flyer than me, anything less than perfect and I wont do a maiden! This should be a popular model I reckon, don't see many scale trikes.

I was curious how the rudder authority would be and also how well the rudders would work generally being out of the propwash, sounds as though all was well. Congrats

Cheers

Danny

[McG 6969]

This is really brilliant, Sir.

I watched since the beginning of your build & there are some of your ideas that I will be gladly 'copycatting' for my Ballerina build.

Cheers

Chris

BRU - BE / CTR Copycat Control

[Lindsay Todd]

Hi Danny, not sure if that makes me a better flyer, less patient certainly. To be honest it was almost impossible to interpret any real characteristics from the flight, I have no doubt that rudder authority will drop off as airspeed declines and may make spin recovery and interesting process which I will explore in the fullness of time after all the flight pics are done at least. The one thing that seems evident was that the tail and fin areas were working reasonably well and the model certainly seemed as balanced as could be expected in yaw so despite the apparent small fin area the combination seems adequate. I suspect I may add a little right thrust (nothing at the moment) as I recall adding a little rudder trim to compensate but again until I fly again in more appropriate conditions and with AW calling lower, slower, closer etc, etc then the fine tuning will have to wait but I think that's all it will need so I am pretty pleased considering. Power seemed pretty good too, once in the air she cruised reasonably at half throttle and plenty for basic aerobatics.

Copycat away Chris, that's how we all learn, just use the good stuff

Linds

[Steven S]

I also have been following this build from the beginning. It’s a good looking plane that I’ll be interested in building once the plans are available. Already I’m incorporating a couple of its’ features into my current build.

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

Congratulations Lindsay...a bit more weathering done then

John

[Colin Leighfield]

Good one Lindsay, I suppose the fact that the rudders held it on track in a very strong cross wind says something about their authority. That was a really good choice for an unusual scale build.

[Lindsay Todd]

Well still a bit windy and wet but did get a chance for a second test flight so here is the proof

Think I'll add a degree of right thrust but all else seems pretty good, just need to get some flying shots sorted

Linds

[Chris Barlow]

Very nice but what's that horrible noise?

Needs a four stroke in it!

[Lindsay Todd]

have to agree

[Lindsay Todd]

Two more flights yesterday in much better conditions and short of my cowl hatch coming a little loose due to a magnet coming unglued I can say she performs really very nicely indeed. I added a degree of right thrust since the video and that has certainly improved the tracking as rudder trim did not seem to do much, no great surprise but rudders do work you do need to give a fair amount of throw, a trait of having no direct pro wash I guess. I was also pleasantly surprised by the slow speed handling and she looks great on low passes. Taxiing has a bit of a wobble due to the narrow undercarriage and long grass but not really a major problem so I am pretty please with this one. Hmmm what next? Linds

[Andrew Price 2]

Well done Linds. It certainly looks the part in the air.

[Chris Barlow]

Keeping on the British trainer theme how about a Piston Provost?

Edited By Chris Barlow on 15/02/2016 14:05:00

Edited By Chris Barlow on 15/02/2016 14:05:19

[Colin Leighfield]

Are you thinking of something a bit off the beaten track again Lindsay?

[Andrew Price 2]

I can hear the cogs churning from here Colin!!

[Lindsay Todd]

Well I do have an Eric Clutton FRED to do for a friend over in the isle of Man before end of June when I'm next over but I sort of fancy another Biplane, scale I think maybe WW1 WW2 era rather than modern. Will let the cogs chew it over for a while as I have a few other things to get one with - Blenheim springs immediately to mind. Linds

[Colin Leighfield]

Plenty of scope there Lindsay!