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Where did my thread go??? Was it something I said???

Here then, for those of you who may have missed it, is my last post on flying in Australia. Enjoy, and I’ll report again from England next week…

Steve

As you may have gathered from the previous posts, Wangaratta was a wonderful experience. Here are just a few brief observations from my all too brief visit there.

First, in order of appearance, the P-40…

Cockpit is very straightforward and typically “American”. Trims, gear, flaps, throttle quadrant, instruments are all in places that you would expect. Also nice and roomy, with the canopy rail low enough to allow you to rest your arms outside. Canopy can remain open up to 250 MPH, so you can leave it open for take off and landing, but it needs to be closed for acro. This plane had been modified with a direct drive starter, as opposed to the old style fly wheel spin up type. While the old may have been charming and reminiscent of all those old flying movies of our youth, the new system is much safer if you have a stack fire. If you over prime you can get a fire in the exhaust stack, and the procedure is to keep cranking to suck the flames back into the engine. Landing gear is locked down with hydraulic pressure, so the procedure there is to give the handpump a few cycles until you feel the resistance of the pressure building. Very straightforward, although the gear lever is tucked out of the way in approx. the same position as on the Harvard. Engine start with the Allison was very straightforward, and 1000 RPM is maintained for warmup to reduce airframe vibration. On this day it was about 28 Celsius, so overheating was not really a problem. Coolant temperature is monitored as the oil temp comes up, and on this day the oil warmed to 50 C while the coolant temps were still well in the green. Taxi is accomplished with differential braking, and the tail wheel has about 20 degrees of steering either side, and can be broken loose to allow the tail to spin around. Very good visibility over the nose. Next time I’ll tell you what it’s like to fly!

Next the Wirraway…

Well, it looks like a Harvard. Sort of…

Walk around is very T-6 like. Geared engine and three blade prop look more fighter than trainer, as do all the guns. Large round air intake below the cowl gives it a jowly look, but all in all the stance on the ramp is good. Now, the bad news. The cockpit is a mixture of dials, levers and gauges that resemble a Harvard after it’s been put through a cyclone. Worst of all is the hydraulic system, which is completely opposite the Harvard. In the T-6 (before the G model) you press a lever to energize system pressure (it runs for about 45 seconds) and you can then operate gear or flaps. Simple.

In the Wirraway you first move the gear lever from down to up with your left hand, moving a slide guard into place about a third of the way along, then while holding the lever against the up stop (otherwise it will move) you press a hydraulic system energize button with your left elbow. Once the gear is up (good luck finding the indicators…they’re there, but you have to search for them) you then have to turn off the hydraulic system by pulling the lever back out. Wow. But wait, it gets worse. When lowering the gear you move the gear handle about 2/3 of the way down until you hit the gate that hopefully you remembered to slide into position when you retracted the gear. You then push the hydraulic power lever in (again, with your left elbow so you can at least try to fly) wait until the gear cycles (you are never really sure when this moment arrives, but somehow you can just sense that it’s time to move on to the next step) you move the gate, slide the gear lever the rest of the way (forcing in the locking pins) and turn off the hydraulics. After saying all of that I’ve lost the will to live, but believe me when I tell you the flaps are even worse. Every time I retracted the flaps they would bleed down when the pressure was turned off. “Don’t worry about it” was the procedure I was given. On landing everyone just cheats and leaves the system pressured up, forcing the flap lever from up through neutral to down for 3 seconds, then back to neutral. When you’re ready for them all (very short final) just force the lever from neutral to down.

The throttle quadrant is very similar to the Harvard…but…Holy Sh*t, the mixture lever is completely backward. So, throttle and prop levers are forward increase, but the mixture is forward cutoff, back full rich. Definitely a killer item. “Why would anyone design a mixture control like this?” I asked. Something about Pommies was the answer. I thought Pommies where the flowers that they dropped from the Lancaster?

The good news is once you get all that sorted out she is a really fun airplane to fly. Like a Harvard on…well, not exactly steroids…maybe an espresso. Make it a double espresso with guns and you have the flight characteristics of the Wirraway. Take off and landing are exactly like the Harvard, with the same sight picture and numbers, but the vibration and noise from the fabric skin is much greater than her trainer cousin. Likes to wheel land, and like the Harvard doesn’t bounce if you stick the landing. Back on the ground you unlock the tailwheel and taxi with breaking (and lots of power in the turns). She’s definitely no dancer on the ground.

So, my Wirraway report card…
Systems…D+
Flying Quanities…B
Ramp Appeal…B+
Fun Factor…A

And, last but certainly not least, the Winjeel. Little did I know after seeing my first Winjeel in the RAAF museum at Point Cook on Wednesday that I would be flying one on Friday. Hell, I had never even heard of a Winjeel. But I have to say, I’m hooked. Quite simply I don’t believe it’s possible to have any more fun flying behind a P&W R-985. Nice big cockpit, a throttle quadrant and stick for each pilot, one on the left for the pilot, and one in the center for the instructor. Cub simple systems, and barn door flaps. I can only imagine what it would be like if you used them all (think SBD here). Good positive controls, and although lacking power a good trainer, especially for formation practice. Nice roll rate, but you have put the nose down pretty far to get enough speed for anything over the top (about 180 MPH). Having a third seat is nice, and it’s quite roomy (capacity, One Setter and camera). When I asked about approach speeds I got a shrug of the shoulders, but suffice it to say it’s pretty slow (65-70 MPH). Three point landing sits very nice, and rollout is no worse than your typical taildragger. The tailwheel locks, but you have some steering when unlocked, and like the Mustang pushing forward on the stick puts the tailwheel in free caster mode. The Winjeel gets an A across the board from me. Fun, practical, fun to fly, economical, and fun. Did I mention fun?

So, Wangaratta was a fantastic experience and exceeded all my Australian expectations. Well, almost…I didn’t get to see a Platypus