RL Aviation Posts

[Flyboy]

2 hours ago, Vonrd said:

This is terrible. It uses the Martin Baker MK16 seat. It's initiated by the loop handle between the legs. I think it requires a fairly hefty pull to fire it but maybe something got tangled in it and he didn't realize it was the ejection handle and he gave it a tug? @Flyboy, what's your experience with the T-38 seat? It's not exactly the same (Martin Baker US16T) but similar in using the same seat loop to initiate ejection.

Texan seat:

Talon seat:

I remember the T-38 had two ejection handles on each side like the F-5 and was 0/0 (capable of safely ejecting on ground at zero airspeed). 
 

Hawg flew the T-6 and sent me this:

I know some guy pulled on the ground, years ago because he went off the runway at low speed. Procedure wise that was one of the reasons to eject. He did ok, those seats are 0/0. 
Now what happened on this one, I’m not sure. We don’t remove the ejection pins until we are about to takeoff and put them back in when we are taxiing back in

[Snaggle]

an oldie but goodie:

 

[Ludwig]

We had a mech eject himself through the roof of the hangar at Reese AFB in 1979 from a T-38. It didn't take much of a tug judging by the seat trainer. I went through it a few times in Randolph AFB as well as Reese.

Seat was armed and obviously should NOT have been and he was climbing around, not in the seated position went it fired. 

[Vonrd]

I was always super nervous (and super careful) when working around hot seats in the L-39. Especially terrifying were the canopy ejection rods which seemed to be targeting my scrotum (there are two each side in the cockpit / canopy rails) as I swung a leg into the cockpit. 

[Vonrd]

This film is like candy for us maintenance types 

 

[Vonrd]

Scary Stoff

 

[Klaiber]

17 hours ago, Vonrd said:

Scary Stoff

 

Yeah, that's scary stuff.

I would never want to fly that thing.

[wheelsup_cavu]

On 6/17/2024 at 8:46 AM, Klaiber said:

I would never want to fly that thing.

I might as a glider?

 

Wheels

[Vonrd]

36 minutes ago, wheelsup_cavu said:

I might as a glider?

There was a replica glider several years ago and it flew well. It's now in a museum in Germany IIRC. A turbine powered replica is soon to fly. The engine is basically an RC model engine. Basically the highest thrust one available with 1 Kilonewton of thrust which works out to about 250 lbs of thrust (I may be mistaken regarding metric to English standard calculation). I'd certainly like to give it a go.

https://vintageaviationnews.com/warbirds-news/replica-messerschmitt-me-163-komet-to-fly-in-germany.html

Here's a video of the glider version. Looks like it could really use some spoilers...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNIpJcOZPlA

[Klaiber]

22 hours ago, wheelsup_cavu said:

I might as a glider?

 

Wheels

Yeah, maybe as a glider.  But definitely not with the original rocket engine.

 

[Vonrd]

If you REALLY want it... build it.

 

[Vonrd]

Be careful what you ask for...

 

 

[Vonrd]

I think that I'd be a bit freaked out...

 

[wheelsup_cavu]

On 10/5/2024 at 11:58 AM, Vonrd said:

I think that I'd be a bit freaked out...

Lol, I have no doubt it would freak me out.

 

Wheels

[Gabi]

October 2007 - my 2nd takeoff in N110GL as part of my phase I flight testing of the Fokker DVIII I built. Testing was performed at Haar Airport in Northwestern Ohio. voiceover is my friend Bill was a stunt pilot, CFI, and airline pilot. Although he is addressing me in the video I couldn't hear him as I don't have a radio in the airplane.  It's too damn loud in the cockpit while flying to hear anything but the engine and the wind.

Oh and for the record, my name is Gwenydd (pronounced "Gwenyth")not Gwendolyn as my friend Bill liked to call me.  Sadly Bill recently died in a plane crash =(

 

 

Here's my second test flight landing, again with Bill talking to the camera:

 

And here's me taxiing back to the hangar after my first test flight.  I was grumpy because I bounced it pretty hard on the first landing.    But hey... I'm now a test pilot.

 

[Klaiber]

5 hours ago, Gwen said:

October 2007 - my 2nd takeoff in N110GL as part of my phase I flight testing of the Fokker DVIII I built. Testing was performed at Haar Airport in Northwestern Ohio. voiceover is my friend Bill was a stunt pilot, CFI, and airline pilot. Although he is addressing me in the video I couldn't hear him as I don't have a radio in the airplane.  It's too damn loud in the cockpit while flying to hear anything but the engine and the wind.

Oh and for the record, my name is Gwenydd (pronounced "Gwenyth")not Gwendolyn as my friend Bill liked to call me.  Sadly Bill recently died in a plane crash =(

 

 

Here's my second test flight landing, again with Bill talking to the camera:

 

And here's me taxiing back to the hangar after my first test flight.  I was grumpy because I bounced it pretty hard on the first landing.    But hey... I'm now a test pilot.

 

I'm very sorry to hear of the loss of your friend Bill.  CAVU.

The vids of your aircraft are amazing.  And that second test flight landing was very sweet.  It's great to watch the D.VIII fly.

 

 

[Etzel]

Very cool Vids!!

I like esp. the 1st one with the take off where it's good to see how you push the left rudder just after the tail went up... 

[Vonrd]

9 hours ago, Gabi said:

the Fokker DVIII I built

Yes, condolences about the loss of Bill.

Sierra Hotel videos!

Since you built it, I'm curious as to why you haven't subsequently incorporated aileron differential throw to alleviate the adverse yaw.

[Gabi]

3 hours ago, Vonrd said:

Yes, condolences about the loss of Bill.

Sierra Hotel videos!

Since you built it, I'm curious as to why you haven't subsequently incorporated aileron differential throw to alleviate the adverse yaw.

That's easier said than done.  The original WWI aircraft (all of them as far as I know) did not have differential ailerons, so they all had bad adverse yaw.  Pilots just had to learn to use the rudder.  As far as refitting my plane for differential aileron control it would require a complete redesign of the aileron controls, which as they are now, are very simple - they are just a push/pull  cable attached to the bottom of the control stick and to a control horn on the top of each aileron.  You can see the black push/pull cable running from under the plane up past the lift struts to the wing.  I would have to design some sort of differential pully system with cogs to adjust the throw based on the direction of travel.  I chose to build so that it handles as close as possible to how the original aircraft did because I wanted to learn what it was like to fly them.

[Vonrd]

1 hour ago, Gabi said:

I chose to build so that it handles as close as possible to how the original aircraft did because I wanted to learn what it was like to fly them.

That's a very good point. Kudos!

[Heinrich]

Homecoming (sort of)

Military Museum brings back aircraft stolen by Nazis.

An original Fokker D.VII fighter plane that flew with the Dutch Naval Air Service before World War II will be exhibited later this year at the National Military Museum in Soesterberg. The museum has loaned the antique biplane from the Deutsches Museum in Munich for the next five years. After being found in a barn in Bavaria at the end of World War II, the plane had been there for a long time. The Military Museum is pleased with the return of the plane. Curator Alfred Staarman calls it "the best plane in the world" from a century ago.
The Fokker D.VII has a long history. The type was designed and built in Germany during the First World War by Dutch aviation pioneer Anthony Fokker. In May 1918, the Deutsche Luftwaffe deployed the first example on the battlefield. Germany lost the war, but according to Staarman, the D.VII was superior to the aircraft used by the Allies.

Not long after 1918, Anthony Fokker transported several unfinished aircraft to the Netherlands. "After the war, he put the whole lot, everything he had left, on a train and took it to the Netherlands," says the curator. "This is one of those half-finished aircraft that came from Germany to the Netherlands and was finished here. It was then sold to the navy. The Fokker D.VII is considered the best aircraft of the First World War. So the Netherlands had access to very modern war material in one fell swoop."

The Naval Air Service bought twenty Fokker D.VIIs and flew them between 1920 and 1937. What happened to them after that is not entirely clear. Curator Staarman points out that at least one example was 'waiting' at Schiphol to establish a National Aviation Museum. But, shortly after the Germans invaded the Netherlands, the plane disappeared. Staarman suspects that the Nazis stole the plane, possibly to exhibit it in Germany. 

Not long after the Second World War, in December 1945, American soldiers found the fighter plane in a barn in Vilsbiburg, some 90 kilometres northeast of Munich. It was not immediately clear that it was a Dutch plane: it was not until 1980 that Dutch features were discovered during restoration work. In the Deutsches Museum, a Dutch roundel, a circle in red, white and blue, by which Dutch military aircraft can be recognised, appeared under some layers of paint.

And now, 45 years later, the fighter plane is returning to the Netherlands. "It's also a nice story. If this Fokker could talk, we would have had a lot of information," says Staarman. "But unfortunately, that's not the case."

For the curator, the story is not over yet. Because it is most likely 'spoils of war', he wants the Deutsches Museum to permanently hand over the plane and not just lend it out. But then it must be irrefutably established which plane this was exactly. The Dutch navy had twenty of them, and it is unclear whether this is the plane that was taken from Schiphol. Research is needed, says Staarman. "We are trying to reconstruct the story with all the bits and pieces we have."

The plane will be on display to the public in the National Military Museum in September.

[Klaiber]

3 hours ago, Heinrich said:

Homecoming (sort of)

Military Museum brings back aircraft stolen by Nazis.

An original Fokker D.VII fighter plane that flew with the Dutch Naval Air Service before World War II will be exhibited later this year at the National Military Museum in Soesterberg. The museum has loaned the antique biplane from the Deutsches Museum in Munich for the next five years. After being found in a barn in Bavaria at the end of World War II, the plane had been there for a long time. The Military Museum is pleased with the return of the plane. Curator Alfred Staarman calls it "the best plane in the world" from a century ago.
The Fokker D.VII has a long history. The type was designed and built in Germany during the First World War by Dutch aviation pioneer Anthony Fokker. In May 1918, the Deutsche Luftwaffe deployed the first example on the battlefield. Germany lost the war, but according to Staarman, the D.VII was superior to the aircraft used by the Allies.

Not long after 1918, Anthony Fokker transported several unfinished aircraft to the Netherlands. "After the war, he put the whole lot, everything he had left, on a train and took it to the Netherlands," says the curator. "This is one of those half-finished aircraft that came from Germany to the Netherlands and was finished here. It was then sold to the navy. The Fokker D.VII is considered the best aircraft of the First World War. So the Netherlands had access to very modern war material in one fell swoop."

The Naval Air Service bought twenty Fokker D.VIIs and flew them between 1920 and 1937. What happened to them after that is not entirely clear. Curator Staarman points out that at least one example was 'waiting' at Schiphol to establish a National Aviation Museum. But, shortly after the Germans invaded the Netherlands, the plane disappeared. Staarman suspects that the Nazis stole the plane, possibly to exhibit it in Germany. 

Not long after the Second World War, in December 1945, American soldiers found the fighter plane in a barn in Vilsbiburg, some 90 kilometres northeast of Munich. It was not immediately clear that it was a Dutch plane: it was not until 1980 that Dutch features were discovered during restoration work. In the Deutsches Museum, a Dutch roundel, a circle in red, white and blue, by which Dutch military aircraft can be recognised, appeared under some layers of paint.

And now, 45 years later, the fighter plane is returning to the Netherlands. "It's also a nice story. If this Fokker could talk, we would have had a lot of information," says Staarman. "But unfortunately, that's not the case."

For the curator, the story is not over yet. Because it is most likely 'spoils of war', he wants the Deutsches Museum to permanently hand over the plane and not just lend it out. But then it must be irrefutably established which plane this was exactly. The Dutch navy had twenty of them, and it is unclear whether this is the plane that was taken from Schiphol. Research is needed, says Staarman. "We are trying to reconstruct the story with all the bits and pieces we have."

The plane will be on display to the public in the National Military Museum in September.

Amazing aircraft.  I would love to see a Fokker D.VII someday.

Here's to hoping.

[Vonrd]

Very nice. Too bad they didn't restore it to it's original Dutch service paint scheme. Understandable though.

[Heinrich]

3 minutes ago, Vonrd said:

Too bad they didn't restore it to it's original Dutch service paint scheme. Understandable though.

I'm pretty sure as soon as they have it in their collection as the official owner, it will be restored in the Dutch colours.

On the other hand, there is already a Fok DVII in the museum: 

https://collectie.nmm.nl/nl/collectie/detail/471153/ 

https://collectie.nmm.nl/nl/collectie/detail/571578/

Sadly, only in Dutch.

[Ludwig]

Just ran into a guy and in the conversation was mentioned that one of the Texas Airplane Factory Me-262 was going to be finished. Herb Tischler was a master craftsman and he started the project back in the early 90's. I got to see one of them still in clickos just pinned together and they were amazing. Lost the tracks after that and heard that they did not get finished and scattered. One was completed and is in Europe and I think another up around Washington/Oregon area. Anyway, this guy was saying that another was going to be completed and will be flying in the USA. He was not sure but said that there was one that was going to have the original Jumo 004B1 engines (YIKES!) but for you Mx guys already know that is where all those quick disco fittings originated. 10 hour TBO but they could swap an engine in hours.