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Aviation History
1913
1913 - 0069.PDF
JANUARY 18, 1913. IfilGHT FROM A PILOT'S NOTEBOOK. [Fn the hope that they may be of use to others, the following records from a private notebook, which was started bv the late Lieut. Parke about three months before his death, are published by the wish 0/ his relatives.— ED.] Cody's "Circuit" Biplane. September 30th, 1912. I FLEW this in November, 1911, then fitted with a Green engine (60-80-h.p. auxiliary ports). It is a delightful machine to pilot, and easy ; the control, though unconventional, being very suitable for the machine. The great point about the control U that the column is continued above the wheel. This column is grasped with the left hand, which does all the balancing. The right hand is placed on the wheel only when required to steer. The warp and rudder are inter connected, the warp being very low-geared, while the rudder is balanced and is high-geared. The amount of power required from the pilot is small ; on the other hand, the gear between rudder and wheel is very low, making the machine a little awkward to steer on the ground, as it takes some appreciable time to get the rudder over. One disadvantage of using so much rudder to preserve lateral balance is that if you try and land while using the engine, the movement of the control to correct for torque may have rather a disturbing effect on " direction," which is a nui-ance near the ground. It is thus easier to land en vol plan*!. Though easy to control, this machine wants just watching all the time for lateral balance, probably due to the inverted dihedral. You keep on just slightly working all the time, but the amount is very slight. Fore and aft, she more or less looks after herself. When I smashed her, I had a. big load up, turned down wind whilst forcing her to climb; she lost speed, started to rock and finally side slipped when about 30 ft. up. Directly she side-slipped, her big rudder area put her nose down, and I started to pull her up with the elevator. Another 15 ft., and the smash could have been saved, as she wa5 starting to answer quickly. Unfortunately the small front wheels actually hit in a ditch and brought her up all standing, with considerable damage ; I was shot out head over heels, but quite unhurt. My helmet showed marks of having saved me from some nasty cuts by wires. My passenger was more or less jammed in bis seat and also unhurt. I had previously flown this machine solo from Farnborough to Brooklands and back, landing at Brooklands, on that occasion I made a vol plans' with engine completely stopped from over 2,000 ft. Note that the elevator was almost dead balanced in normal flight. When going faster (as in a vol pique') it pu-hed the control back ; when driving her up too much, it pulled the control forwards. I do not think the elevator carried much load with either the Gieen or with the Austro-Daimler engines. Caudron Biplane (35 Anzini). October 25th, 1912. My experience of this machine up to date has been gained on the machine belonging to Percival (Aero Construction Co.). I flew her for some trial flights, and then in a couple of small races at Brooklands, one cross-country and the other round pylons. This latter was the only pylon race I have ever flown in. I do not care much about them, thinking them unnecessarily dangerous, owing to the danger of machines passing each other Tather close when rounding a pylon. What has chiefly impressed me about this little machine is its extreme steadiness in the air, especially when considered in relation to its small span and light weight. It appeared to have quite a high degree of inherent s'ability, probably due to its flexible surfaces, though actually I did not test this systematically, being at that time too fond of correcting the smallest deviations. The machine is rather heavy on its lateral and longitudinal controls, and would, in my opinion, be very much improved by the substitution of a wheel control for the standard universal lever. It is a very easy machine to fly on account of its steadiness and ample control which it answers very well. For pupils, I am inclined to think that the rather heavy controls are an advantage rather than otherwise. One thing I noticed was that I tended to land much more " tail high" than usual, from which I deduce that she has not got a very good gliding angle. Also, one has the impression that one is coming down much more steeply (en vol plane) than is really the case. Left alone when turning sharply, she takes up a very nice bank, but I have no reason to fear her overbanking herself. In turning sharply either way she has a strong tendency to dive, which can be resisted by the elevator. I attribute this to her sharp bank making the rudder act partly to raise her tail, especially as the pressure remains fairly high on the inside of the rudder. At any rate this is so up to 1800 turns; more than that I did not try. There was a good deal of vibration from the engine, rendering the Gnome-type oil indi cator useless. That, in conjunction with the rough seating accom modation and moderate weather protection, render her less luxurious to fly in than many machines. Still, considering her very low price, I think she is perfectly marvellous. Her proper duty, no doubt, is the school, for which she is admirable ; but she is also splendid for the private owner of very limited means, as I should have no hesitation in using her for any amount of cross country work. She has a very good margin of lift, and rises quite fairly quickly and stops well. Her Y Anzani engine has a very good reputation and only requires proper intelligence in the way it is looked after. I know from close touch with the Deperdussin people, when Sabelli was with them, that once the Y Anzani is given enough oil it is very reliable and wants little attention. Deperdussin Monoplane (70 Gnome). October 28th, 1912, A few days ago, through the very great kindness of Lieut. Grey, I had a short (very short) flight on his (Service) machine of the above type. I only did a single circuit, having to come down as the engine was not running properly. She struck me as being a very easy machine to handle, but the view from the pilot's scat, as for landing, might be a good deal better. Having a very good length of machine in front of the pilot, it would certainly be a help. What I noticed puttcularly, was that I was pushing very hard on the control wheel, i.e., carrying a big load on the elevator flap, though this may lie partly due to the fact that I was purposely keeping her from climbing. Also, in spite of its being almost a calm, I could feel the wheel kicking at me strongly, ;'.<:., automatic warp. Owing to having a big weight on the tail skid she does not steer over well on the ground, though obviously the pilot can soon, with practice, overcome this. My flight was too short to test for inherent stability, &c, though from the way she handled I should expect to find she had a certain amount, though probably very lively and terrifying at first, if left alone. She is very light on her rudder and answers it well. With the scuttle-dash now fitted, the pilot is quite reasonably com fortable, but passenger flights have shown me that though the passenger can see very well, his accommodation is the very worst I have ever experienced ; he gets his head blown off, and his lower part is in a " cave of winds." Handley Pagi Monoplane. October 20th, 1912. There is no doubt that this 'bus is of a really fine and extremely promising design ; whilst not quite so efficient as, say an Avro (W.O. type), it does not do at all badly. It flies at, as far as I can judge, just under 55m.p.h. with a probably unsuitable propeller (Bl&fiot- Chauviere Circuit de l'list type) practically no difference ; indeed, she gave no sign of being overloaded with two children totalling 16 stone in the passenger seat. She is certainly a bit slow at getting off the ground, and I do not make her climb fast, but the latter has probably got something to do with me, as her ordinary gentle rock ing motion probably makes me think I have got her cabre', when really she is going up perfectly all right; i.e., she would climb faster if she were made to. Now as regards her inherent stability: her lateral stability is as near perfect as I can imagine ; she just simply floats about quietly, quite regardless of remous, propeller draughts, &c. ; you can feel them hit her and her consequent " aulomaticing," but it does not worry her at all. As regards banking, she takes up her own angle quite naturally ; she appears to be moving on an approximately uniform path after turning the first 1350 (about), and for trial purposes I have frequently extended the turns to over 360". This makes no difference whatever to her ; she simply continues as sweetly as possible, everything remaining unchanged, including the pressure on the rudder, which, though very light (a possibility of observers' eiror therefore) appears to always remain on the inside, i.e., when turning to the left with uniform angularity, the pressure is always on the left foot, though the force is less than whilst accelerating. To bring her off a turn I used, at first, to use the warp at the same time as I ruddered, but have since found this unnecessary, as she comes up quick of her own accord ; for trial purposes I have reversed the rudder from half left to half right, and watched her swing over and pick up her bank on the reversed curve without needing a touch of the warp. With reference to this it is interesting to note that after straighten ing out after a sharp turn she will "hunt" laterally for a short time to pick up her normal lateral altitude. 1 noticed this par ticularly once when shutting off to vol plane' rather low from a sharp turn ; the hunting gave me quite a lot of work to do with the warp to make her take the ground on an even keel. Probably it would not matter a bit touching one wheel a good deal first (with the excellent type of undercarriage fitted), but it looks bad. Natural control, she has any amount of it, though the warping wheel is rither low geared, ts my mind ; she is quite reasonably quick on the warp. 69
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