Vmax Probe

[First time Juke]

http://www.webcamsue.nl/vmax.html

Cool under 300 kg and 300 mph !

Little bit washout and voila it could gain that intented record.

Poor Giertz he forgot his helmet. My condolences postmortum.

[spacegrrrl]

Re: Vmax Probe

It was an amazing plane. Lars was building it when I was living in Houston and he regularly emailed be letting me know how he was progessing. Sadly I never got out to see it in person.

I heard that there wasn't room under the canopy for the pilot to wear a helmet. I think Dave Morse knows a bit about the plane. Maybe he can offer some insight.

Spacegrrrl

[Apteryx]

Re: Vmax Probe

Michele beat me to it, nevermind

[Skyracer]

Re: Vmax Probe

And the final chapter: http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/GenPDF.asp?...97LA209&rpt=fa

[morss]

Re: Vmax Probe

here were my thoughts on it

http://www.davemorss.com/testingsafety.html

[Peashooter]

Re: Vmax Probe

here were my thoughts on it
http://www.davemorss.com/testingsafety.html

Dave: Looking at your site, what's the latest on the GP-5? Thanks, Rudy

[MRussell]

Re: Vmax Probe

Man what a damn sad story. I was totally unprepared for THAT ending.

[First time Juke]

Re: Vmax Probe

Thanks for the information. At first sight I by instinct wondered two things as I saw the planes 3-views alongside the photo.

1. How does that get sufficient aircooling for the engine.
2. How to bail out if something goes wrong.

I think Lars Giertz had those as nightmares as well before the flight.
Even if the engine was not in danger in case of slight temperature it definitely heated up the pilot temperature.

Many this kinda purpose built record brakers have faced the same destiny. Heston J-5, Me-209 R, Mr.Awesome ( modified Yak ), Pond Racer and I bet a few Gee Bees also had trouble.

Another two things came to me also when thinking why he did not bring it down at slightly overspeed when emergency apparently was at hand.

1. The cockpit heat made thinking and vision blurry ( was there sufficient ventilation for the pilot ).

2. The planes gear did not allow too much overspeeding or otherwise it went upside down thus he wanted to slow it down before touchdown....and/or did he accidently shut down to engine to prevent overheating and the drag increasing prop caused an unexpected roll near stall speed ( that prop looks very large ).

In general what bugs me most is that the existing speed record was 213 mph, why did he set the goal to go 300 mph+ when 230 mph would have left plenty of marginal ? To go 230 mph would have left in the concept lotsa room to wear helmet and bigger inlets and outlet for the enginecooling etc.

I am not saying I want to dimish his accomplisment ( since the plane with little bit of luck could have survived the test flight ), but as I have been designing a plane to go after the same record I had to " give in " to all those little necessities like room in the cockpit, enough lifting area in the concept and even tought how to bail out and how to recover from a flat spin and still go beyond 213 mph ( is that the BD-5 record ? ).

I have ended up to design a 2-stroke twinengine AC that would be even smaller the Vmax Probe ( in dimensions )..and not likely to have all that cubature in the engines and most likely not achieving 300 mph. Mostly I would like to make safe plane capable of flying with one engine smoothly and the if God willing trying to tune it up a little to see how it goes and where the envelopes egde might be. I definitely want to wear crash helmet and have a safety arch on top of the canopy to survive all telemarks etc. Also I want to make it so that it floats if the engines quit over the ocean or a lake.

Well designed AC is halfway done ( after a finnish proverb ).

A down side is the a twin needs multiengine lisence and I am outa those..but still I can design it and fly it as a model..maybe the "law" will be changed and someday the safety issue overcomes a small nyance like the need for a multiengine lisence in this type a plane where the engines are very close together.

Here it is the current FAI record in under 300 kg category;

http://records.fai.org/general_aviation/history.asp?id1=16&id2=27&id3=1

Here is my Tweedy Bird ( at one stage );

http://www.aafo.com/hangartalk/attachment.php?attachmentid=10905

Here is quite recent..larger canopy and tails.

http://www.aafo.com/hangartalk/attachment.php?attachmentid=11115

[First time Juke]

Re: Da-11 by Leeon Davis

http://www.aircraft-spruce.com/da11.html

That is beautiful and cool...155 mph with 18 hp !

I N C R E D I B L E !

[First time Juke]

Re: More Da-11...

http://www.airplanezone.com/NewsgroupPix/DA-11.pdf

[Race5]

Re: Vmax Probe

That thing was sitting in the CAF museum in Midland last time I was there. There is no way in hell I'd try to fly it.

[First time Juke]

Re: DA-11 in Midland

That thing was sitting in the CAF museum in Midland last time I was there. There is no way in hell I'd try to fly it.

The visibility down is possily less than 11 degrees ( Daniel Reymar suggestion ).

I find it interersting that 18 hp can carry small man that fast. If compared to the early days of aviation 18 hp is a lot.

------

Sorry for bringing other experimentals here..Da-11 and VmaxProbe are totally different breed.

[stuntflyr]

Re: Vmax Probe

Juke,
The main lesson of this is design the airplane to fit the pilot, with minimal survival protection. Then, when the airplane is finished, have a professional test pilot do the first flight series until the airplane's performance parameters are at least to a basic stage of knowledge. Then one with little experience can begin to fly the airplane with at least some margin of safety. Maybe I should say, then the builder can attempt to fly the airplane armed with this minimal knowledge.

This reminds me of Mike Carroll and Cobra III. Totally avoidable, completely unnecessary.

[First time Juke]

Re: Vmax Probe...and other new under 300 kg planes.

Stuntflyr,

Lars Giertz had logged 90 flying hours in a high performance propeller plane certainly were not adequate to fly that beast VmaxProbe.

I read he wanted to beat the records both in 300 and 500 kg FAI categories..when in 300 kg class 213 mph would have been enough. He set the goal to go 300 mph+.

Race5 referred to the DA-11 plane on the previous page I assume ( in Midland ).

It would have been very easy to make a small R/C model to see how that VmaxProbe is landable with that unorthodox wheel assembly. I will try that in my twin as I get the designing ready.

Right now I am short in funds to go forward.

PS: We had NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC History series Howard Hughes -edition yesterday on TV. He survived 4 major crashes ( with major injuries ).
Did you know HH-1 the racer was named SILVER BULLET ? Really cool aviation footage on that document.

[First time Juke]

Re: Vmax Probe

This reminds me of Mike Carroll and Cobra III. Totally avoidable, completely unnecessary.

What exactly happened to Mike with that Cobra III ?