Trip report with a difference EMA-EMA x2!

OK… here’s one that’s a little different! Loughborough University Flight Test Course.

Wednesday 15th December… about 11ish!

Got off the EMA minibus, and boarded Cranfield University’s very own Jetstream 31… If any of you were around there this past couple of days it was the one painted in brirish aerospaces house colours in the maintenance area.

The interior was very good… blue leather seats… personal tv’s… large ones at that… almost filled the headrest infront of me! Not much leg room though, and no inflight service whatsoever!

We took off… and realizing that it’s a noisy aircraft indeed… we climbed into the grey murky weather to 5000ft… bouncing around hell of a lot… all good fun though… throughout the flight, the pilot altered his speed from almost maximum to the stall speed. We took data readings of fuel flow, engine torque and flight speed. The angle of attack had to change as the speed dropped to keep the aircraft from stalling, and also flying at the same altitude. All good fun… until landing… when 1 person couldn’t hack the turbulence and saw his breakfast again… poor guy!

Total flight time was around 40 minutes.

Thursday 16th December, about 13:30 ish

Bourded the Jetstream again, but jhad to sit at the back this time, it’s quieter at the back anyway… had to sit there because I was one of the heavier bods on the aircraft and we wanted the c.o.g to be more to the rear. Took off on a blue skied day, a little dutch roll to start! Nice and fun!

Then came the serious stuff, the pilot measured stick force and elevator deflection so that the stability of the aircraft could be investigated. Then the real fun started… the pilot put the aircraft into a 1g turn at 30 degrees of bank and measured the stick force, elevator deflection and something else which escapes me right now! Next it was done at 1.3g, 45 degree bank, and finally a 2g 60 degree bank… and I’d love all airliners to pull that kind of turn! WOW! You really can’t move ytour head rapidly, if you try to raise your head… it’s bloody hard work!! Great fun!!

After this the fun really started. The pilot demonstrated the short period pitching oscillation by trimming the aircraft in level flight and disturbing the aircraft by pulling on the stick briefly, the aircraft then lept upwards and then settled down. After this the phugoid was disturbed and the aircraft went up and down like it was flying on a sine wave… also great fun! Then the dutch roll was excited by pedalling the rudder, we watched the wingtips descibe elipses on the horizon while beng thrown around. After this the final mode was the spiral mode. Where the aircraft was set at a bank angle and then left… in a right turn, the aircraft is neutrally stable, meaning the aircraft stayed in the turn. In a left turn the aircraft was unstable and the turn got sharper and the bank increased. This kills qite a few pilots every year as it’s slow(inner ear doesn’t register changes and thinks your’re still in level flight), and if the pilot flies in cloud, there is no frame of reference so you don’t realize you’re spiralling downwards.

After that we landed back at EMA. and the flight test course was over! Lot of fun… just seeing what the flight management system on civil aircraft gets rid of!