G'day from the Goldfields

Apologies about the lack of a column last month. A new baby and extra work commitments have had impact on my free time.

By now your must all be bursting with curiosity about the Tri-Lander's maiden flight. Yes, it has happened. The weather was perfect. I wasn't half asleep on my feet and no crowd of 'crash hungry' spectators to put me off. A few final adjustments, fingers crossed and away she went.

It tracked beautifully on the ground accelerating rapidly with no hint of wanting to R.O.G. until commanded to, then climbing steeply but smoothly with the three engines sounding fantastic together. No lateral trim was necessary however under full power it continued to climb rapidly and not being willing to take my thumbs off the sticks long enough to adjust the trims I had a constant battle to keep it at a comfortable height. All too soon the outer engines ran out of fuel however it continued to be flyable as I battled to guide it back towards the landing area. The third engine then cut revealing a weakness. The aircraft being loath to turn in glide mode, forcing me to put it down in the rough doing some minor damage to the undercarriage.

The verdict from the first flight was thus. It required a computer radio to mix some rudder in with the ailerons, a bigger fuel supply and strengthened undercart. The first was not a problem as I had a JR642 spare after the death of the scanner. The fuel supply was a major problem that I have only partially solved.

The original Norvel integral tanks proved to be very disappointing providing no useful duration and worse than that they are not fillable with the plane level, requiring the plane to be placed up on its nose to get any fuel into the tanks due to a design fault in which the pressure line terminates at the bottom of the tank.

My partial fix has been to fit a four ounce tank into the fuselage utilizing duel clunks and a common pressure return. This system works surprisingly well even with the relatively ling lines and complex pressure return arrangement. What appears to happen is that with one engine running no pressure is exerted on the tank - it escapes out the engine's muffler. However with both started they rapidly come up to speed and are very reliable due to the effects of a very positive pressurization.

As this article goes to print I have not come up with a solution for a larger fuel supply for number three engine due to weight, height, space and laziness restraints, but I am not all that concerned. I'm happy to take off on three, cruise around a bit the enjoy the rest of the flight on two engines as I have power to spare.

The undercarriage problems have a couple of possible solutions. I have considered ditching the undercarriage for hand launch/skid landing, but just can't bring myself to sacrifice the pleasure of watching it take off with the three engines screaming as it points its very long nose to the heavens.

The benefit of hindsight has revealed that I should have built it .40 size as I originally intended. This would have allowed plenty of room for fuel supply, made the whole project less fiddly and with more opportunity to include greater scale detail.

Having said that I must admit I am still satisfied with the aircraft. It does fly, it sounds great and I enjoy the response it gets on the ground. "Nuff said".

What else has been happening around the club? Mike Proud has finally come up with the right engine for his superb Pitts Special and has been enjoying the long awaited fruits of his labours after a couple of false starts. What a beautiful large aircraft! It looks magnificent on the ground and in the air and sounds fantastic as it is put through the manouvers that only a Pitts can do justice to, especially with the addition of smoke. Congratulations Mike on a job exceptionally well done.

John bates has also been enjoying the unique flight characteristics of a biplane, repowering a Phaeton given to him by Mike Proud. I think john is secretly enjoying flying an aircraft that is capable of landing on a bin lid in a breeze, hovering, and generally fooling around exploring the envelope.

Peter Oxenham now holds the club record for the greatest horizontal disassembly of an aircraft after putting his OS46FX powered Scanner into the ground inverted at very high speed, after a brain fade, adding this to the lost of aircraft that have come down in an area rapidly becoming known as Death Valley. Don't worry Ox, you're not the first to do it, and you certainly won't be the last!

Peter de Groot wins this months award for perseverance. You may recall he purchased a .15 size foam delta from the east to investigate its suitability for use in combat.

Unfortunately the first flight ended in severe flutter, no not the ailerons, the whole wing as the thing shook itself to pieces and disintegrated in mid air. This was very disappointing as the aircraft was practically flying level and not very fast at the time.

Not to be beaten Peter took the remains away, inserted a steel spar through the wing and glued it all back together again. Further attempts at flight resulted in very lack-luster performance, so Peter took it home again and bolted a .40LA (Lacks Ambition) on the front.

The thing flew, but without really providing any inspiration apart from being exceptionally easy to hand launch. Realising he was flogging a dead horse Peter has since retired it, but not before impressing us all with his perseverance.

Talking about being impressed, Gary Adams continues to impress us with his selection of superb gliders, both electric and unpowered.

The electric glider is an incredible piece of technology capable of repeated extremely rapid vertical climbs back to great height before indulging in a wide range of aerobatics and extremely high speed passes.

Gary has only recently joined the club and we are enjoying the exposure to a different field of aeromodelling performed at such a high standard. Thanks Gary.

That is all for now. I will leave you with this observation. If one engine fails on a twin, the other engine will take you to the scene of the accident.

Tim Bailye G.A.M.

                 ---oo0oo---