Dreadnought Sea Fury FCF Daily 9.28.17

The flight was an FCF. The airplane was coming out of maintenance, being domesticated after Reno. I rode backseat, Brian Sanders front seat, he did the take off landing and approach.

Engine Start: 12:46

Engine Shutdown: 1:20

Time: 0.6 HRS

Landings: 1 (Brian)

Points:

• 3 axis Control Harmony Check at 250 KIAS
• Pitch attitude captures at 250 KIAS
• Roll attitude captures at 250 KIAS
• Lat/Dir check at 250 KIAS
• Spiral Stability check at 250 KIAS
• Lateral Handling Check 250, 300, 350 KIAS
• Loop at 320 KIAS

Other Observations:

• Stick and rudder pedals are high, and so is the canopy rail, makes you feel like your driving your dad's buick.
• My first time with a functional torque gauge
• Brian locked the tailwheel and did a positive check to confirm it was locked before takeoff using differential braking.
• Locking footstep for the back seater is cool
• Takeoff at 50" and 2800 RPM 330 GPH
• Airborne at 110 as we passed hangar 1 at Ione
• Climbed at 180 to 190 KIAS
• Climb power 30" and 2000 RPM, in auto lean at 120 GPH-1,000 FPM at 200 KIAS
• Cruise power at 26" and 1600 RPM, 90 GPH, 220 KIAS
• Maneuvering at 40" and 2400 RPM
• Downwind 180 KIAS
• Touchdown 110 KIAS

Data:

Control harmony. Estimate at 1-1-1 (expect 1-2-4, aileron, elevator, rudder)...rudder forces are light enough to be surprising, but the power is not overwhelming. Seems in all three axis control power is limited rather than having high forces required. Described by Brian, the rudder forces are light enough that despite significant torque effects through the power and speed envelope you don't need to trim except to fly hands off in cruise.

Pitch attitude captures. I did 5° and 10° at 250 KIAS. No tendency to overshoot, captures were crisp and repeatable.

Roll attitude captures. I did 0-30, 30-30, 45-45. No tendency to overshoot captures were crisp and repeatable. Brian demonstrated some high presicion four point rolls.

Lat/Dir. Wings level sideslips at 250 KIAS. Any Lat/Dir coupling was masked by Pit/Dir coupling. I'd estimate with 10 pounds of rudder force 5 pounds up elevator was required to hold the airplane in trim.

Spiral stability. 30° banks at 250 KIAS, to the right the spiral was stable with time to double amplitude >20 seconds, less stable to the right.

Lateral Eval. Full stick deflection rolls at 250, 300, and 350 KIAS were transparent to the pilot. Roll rate was the same at the three airspeeds and the roll forces seemed to be the same, this was introduced by Brian as the spring servo tab on the aileron, described as "poor man's power steering" (screenshot of POH attached).

Loop entry at 320 KIAS 4G entry. Overshot on initial pitchup, Brian described the entry as that of an "Extra 300 driver that was worried about running out of energy on the top". Stick force per g was positive with less of a delay than is perceived in a T-6, felt like the elevator was more damped. The pitch rate excited the gyroscopics and pedaled the nose all over the sky (2 balls in each direction) for the first 120° of the loop. By this time the energy had bled down and the stall buffett started talking. Brian described the first indication of the stall being an aileron buffett. It started subtle and had a nice gradient with CL that was used to close the loop on CLmax over the top and on to the downline. Very nice stall warning.

airplanes are cool