HairyplanePeter Amos
Peter is indeed the guru of Miles Aircraft and his lifes work, the definitive book of Miles Aircraft, will be published soon.
His Email address is – [email]amos@milesaircraft.fsnet.co.uk[/email]
It might take him a day or two to respond.
MMMmmmiles!!!
( now if you wanted some details on the Falcon or the Magister instead, I could help you big time!)
Hairyplane
HairyplaneReplicas
Hi David,
Quite a few opinions expressed in your short post.
If replicas ain’t your thing then you have to be in a minority. the Boxkite
(with modern Lycoming) and Avro triplane, again with a non-original engine – are arguably the biggest attractions at the OW shows. Other OW WW1 machines are of course replicas too.
Also, there aint any original DR1’s which is why we are building one. So, whilst we all prefer to see original machines, replicas are the only way we’ll ever get to see some of them.
The Camel is years away, nice to have been potentially spoilt by the sight of one in OW skies this year and two when the NAW machine arrives??
The Hornet Moth, a machine that exists in healthy numbers, would otherwise have consumed much valuable engineering resource in the coming years. The covering is quite old and we all know what happens when you decide to recover an aircraft – you end up finding a thousand other jobs as well.
Also, the space it occupied in the hangar will almost certainly be taken up by something with more appeal to the paying public.
As with the Arrow Active – a machine that the private owner decided to sell – there was always scope for a private individual to buy the thing and keep it at OW. Nobody did…..
In the case of the Active, I wasn’t in a position to buy it when it was offered for sale. in the case of the Hornet, it didn’t blow my frock up enough although I was very grateful to have soloed it. In any event, I have a very nice 30’s cabin aircraft in the form of my beautiful Miles Falcon.
It is isn’t possible to please everybody all the time. However, somebody has to make the decisions. Its easy to castigate them when not in posession of the full facts.
Hairyplane
HairyplaneHas it got the legs?
Er..let me think…
Messie has a 36 gallon fuel capacity and the Cirrus Major 3 burns IRO 7 gallons per hour….. but portrayed an earlier Messie with a Gipsy engine…
So…… Working on 6 gallons per hour the range @ say 115 miles an hour = 690 miles to dry tanks.
Allowing for half an hour reserves, and assuming that any headwind one way will be directly cancelled in the other direction, thats IRO 630 miles.
The shortest route looks like Wick-Sandnessjoen-Stokka @ 629NM = 723 Statute, so it will have needed refueling on arrival.
I’m not sure if there was an auxilliary fuel tank fitted to the military Messie. However, if you leaned the mixture and flew at best range speed, which I would guess IRO 80 MPH ( I’ve literally just given away my Messie pilots handbook so can’t check) I reckon its just do-able. Add another ten gallons of gas in an auxilliary fuel tank and its a breeze.
What the heck anyway, no point in having loads of gas to spare, this was a nailbiting epic from start to finish!
All the best
Hairyplane
HairyplaneHeli by numbers
Hi Mk 9. I would bet you’ve never flown a heli. It most certainly cannot be flown by numbers. Quite what that means anyway I don’t fully understand.
I have just learned to fly helis, learning on the Robinson 22 and now operate my own 44.
My instructor told me that around 14 instinctive control inputs per second are required to hover the thing.
For the first few hours the heli is a complete box of frogs that defies all efforts to control the thing. It takes hours and hours of practise to learn how to apply ever-smaller control inputs to stop the comical merry-go round that is a familiar sight at every heli school.
I would wager good money that the autogyro is a lot easier, simply because you are not controlling the torque reaction. The pedal inputs change as you raise/ lower the collective lever on a heli. In the hover, unless into a fairly strong wind, the heli has no aerodynamic stability from its horizontal/ vertical stabilisers.
However, taking this full circle, Ive never flown an autogyro so I may be in for a surprise!
All the best
Hairyplane
HairyplaneAutogyro
Hi all,
Thank you so much for your support – it is really appreciated.
Until now I had considered the old Autogyros to be as safe as houses and straightforward to fly. The ground resonance thing bothers me because if it happens in a heli you can either lift off or lower the collective. With fixed pitch blades however, these options arent available.
My guess ( only) is that the resonance problem is caused by blade imbalance. Indeed, it must be nigh no impossible to set blades up that are made of wood/ fabric covered. OK, the Saro Skeeter has such blades but then, as I have expalined, there are ways in which you can get out of a GR situation when the blades are driven.
For those who dont know, Ground resonance is a nasty phenomenon where a heli is in light contact withthe ground and then suddenly starts to thrash itself to death, each ‘bounce’ of greater amplitude than the last.
My guess is that the blades would need to be made of modern materials. This has to reduce the risk of GR.
However, it can even be caused by different tyre pressures or a soft oleo.
I would like to get to the bottom of this and thank you for the heads up. I’m not interested in a flying machine that is likely to hurt somebody through a design deficiency.
Moving onto the Pitcairns – did these suffer from it too? With these still flying(?) I can only assume that the design is unaffected by the phenomenon.
Interesting stuuff.
A special thanks to JDK down under. Come and fly my birds any time mate. I had no idea that the autogyro blew your frock up. What a mine of information you are. If it happens, you will be my first passenger?!
VBR
Hairy
HairyplaneEnstone
This will fit your bill.
THey have a really long runway but use less than half of it. The western end can be made available for this type of thing I believe. Its more than long enough for your purpose and has a good surface. They are really friendly there and have tea and cakes always on the go, plus a log fire when it gets a bit parky. Call Ray Brownrigg, CFI of Oxfordshire Sportflying on 01608 677208.
Best of luck.
HP
HairyplaneFalcon 6
MMMmmm.
I want one.
A pity that the only one extant ( In a Spanish museum) will never come up for sale.
Hairyplane
(Falcon Major G-AEEG)
HairyplaneMagisters
A favourite subject too!
My Magister is now N3788 not V1075. It was rebuilt after a crash in the fifties using the fuselage tailplane fin and rudder of 1938-built N3788 but kept its G-AKPF/ V1075 identity ( 6th from last off the line) purely because it had a CofA and the ‘donor’ didnt.
The machine in the Berkshire museum is a poor replica using a few original bits.
THe Duxford machine is a Maggie in all but name but the Hawk is virtually a tandem open cockpit version of my Falcon, with gorgeous wheel trousers and swept fin and rudder.MMMmmm!!
The Maggie was the result of a request for a heavy duty Hawk, with a set of requirements that included larger cockpits to allow for parachute-equipped occupants, blind flying hood over the rear hole etc.
More than 1200 were built.
Three fly here in the UK, there is another one in Brazil that was airworthy at least until recently and offered for sale.
THe ex-Strathallan machine is still owned by Sir Willy Roberts who doesnt really want to part with it judging by the amount of money asked. It may actualy have a current permit.
That potentially makes 5 fliers worldwide ( although to be absolutely precise the Shuttleworth machine is currently in a thousand bits undergoing a major inspection of the wooden structure).
Mine is probably the best of the survivors. It is a fabulous aircraft and very easy to fly.
Come and see it at Old Warden in 06.
Check out the dates of our shows at –
Join the SVAS and get in for half price.
THere have been plenty of photos of our 2 Maggies posted on this Forum by our gifted toggies.
All the best
Hairyplane
HairyplaneThe Red Baron
I think the best Red Baron of all was Adrian Edmondsons portrayal in Black Adder Goes Forth ( coincidentally portraying him as a shirt lifter).
Our DR1 full scale replica should be flying by the Spring – maybe we’ll be getting an offer for some film work??
Hairyplane
Hairyplane10th aniversary
Visiting old airfields on your 10th wedding anniversary? She must really love you! Please pass on my congratulations (and commiserations??!!)
Welcome to the forum. THere are many interesting posters, plenty of stuffy old gits like me ( who actually chuckles at posts like Snapper’s) but we all share a passion for old birds.
Let me rephrase that….
Hairyplane
HairyplaneUK Registered? If only…..
A pity that otherwise interested people ( and that probably includes me he whispered..) can’t consider anything like this in the UK.
‘Experimental’ here? If only….
Hairyplane
HairyplaneAndys birthday
Thought of you today, the lovely Nicky and I were debugging the fleet at OW after the last display. My..she does look good in a pair of overalls ( but not just in a pair of overalls if you know what I mean…?! Baaaaaah!
Happy birthday you old git, enjoy some currant bun and get your butts over here when you get back, I have a fridge full of beer rapidly approaching its ‘best before’ ( OK OK I bought it yesterday but it is ‘best before tomorrow’) and Nicky is producing the lushest of casseroles from the AGA.
Is there anything she’s rubbish at?? She can even hover a Robinson 22.
Hairyplane
HairyplaneThames Estuary Forts
A subject that continues to fascinate.
I flew the famous toggies Damien B and Man on the Fence over these forts a in September 03. They took some stunning shots. They were posted again on this Forum in January 05.
I’m not sure how to post the link so all I did was click on ‘Search’, enter ‘Thames Estuary Forts’ et voila!
Its well worth a look.
Hairyplane.
HairyplaneGemini
It is owned by Brooklands Aviation and was offered for sale as a project in Classic Wings Down Under a year or two back.
Looking at it and talking to Lyn Foster the owner when he visited Old Warden ( and flew my Magister when he was here), it would be a brave man who took it on.
THere are plenty of bits and expertise on this side of the pond though. However, there is one for sale here anyway so buy that!
It is a Belgian Registered machine, fully restored and airworthy and is being advertised in GA Buyer.
All the best
Hairyplane
HairyplaneTerrible news…
Dan, this is absolutely terrible news.
As no stranger to grief myself – my beloved Tina died at 27 in 1988, knocked down and killed in front of me and her parents by a young driver whilst we were on holiday. Aileen also died tragically 5 years later at 32…. Both were ‘life partners’.
All I can say is, I know how you are feeling right now. Grief is difficult to explain. Its like a knife whirling around your insides. You keep repeating to yourself, If only I’d done this, gone there…… but know all along that the whatevers and what-ifs cannot bring them back.
Your true friends will be very important to you right now.
Every day passed is a step forward but I cannot tell you that it wont be really tough, especially over the next 12 months.
Terrible, terrible news…..
You are in my thoughts.
HP
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