Re: planes and stuff

Douglas R. Jones (djones@iex.com)
Tue, 06 Dec 1994 15:11:17 -0600

While I tend to fly "sport scale" aircraft I have seen a precision scale
Jenny fly. It was quite stable and very elegant in the air. Much like the
original. Of course the pilot had a lot to do with this. Like most planes of
this era, models tend to have a rough time in a cross wind. I have flying a
1/6th sport scale Sopwith Pup. It is a wonderful flyer and has been a blast.
As Guy pointed out takeoffs and landings are tough to get right. Modelers
also tend to overpower their aircraft which helps. I am building a 1/6th
sport scale N-17 now which I hope to have ready for Spring.

In thinking about how the full scale guys fly it brings to mind how
surprised I was at the D-VII at Rhinebeck. This has an original Mercedes
engine. It flies with a noticable tail down attitude. With the 9' prop
turning 2100 RPM it had NO trouble taking off and assuming a pretty steep
angle of attack, something else that surprised me. The Jenny there and the
Avro 504K tend to gently rise off the ground. While certainly the pilots
control this, it does seem that these two just rose, in a basically level
attitude, off the ground. The 17, D-VIII, Dr1, Camel and D-VII were "pulled
off". Is this my imagination or what?

Any comment from you folks out who have the real one's fly?

>In any case I am going to try to post this reply to the group and see what
>happens. I guess I will come to understand the workings of the list as I
>get more familiar with it.
>

Post them to the group as I think everyone is interested.

And if you figure out the workings of the list would you let the rest of us
know ;-)

Doug
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'I am a traveler of | Douglas R. Jones
both Time and Space' | IEX Corporation
Led Zepplin | (214)301-1307
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