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Aviation History
1948
1948 - 0538.PDF
446 FLIGHT APRIL 22ND, 1945 ACE IN TH£ AIR First Impressions of the Series II Super Ace : Novel Wheel Control and Accelerator Pedal By WING CDR. MAURICE A. SMITH, D.F.C. IT is usually possible to get. into a light aircraft and,after a single flight, to give a~ reasonably accurateassessment of most of its qualities. However, in the case of the Chrislea Ace, I decided that this was not feas- ible. While an impression can fairly be recorded after the hour and a half I spent in the air, several more hours' experience would be necessary to form a definite opinion. The unique feature of the Ace is its wheel-control system —a patented Chrislea design. To the best of our know- ledge it is nearly 38 years since such a system has been employed. In Flight of August 13th, 1910, the controls of the other aircraft, the Blackburn "heavy type,/' were described and illustrated. Ailerons were not employed at that time, and movement to the right or left of the steering column warped the mainplane to give lateral control. Let us be clear from the start that, so far as control surfaces and their effect are concerned, the Ace is a normal three-control aircraft. The pilot is provided with a whetel resembling the steering wheel of a car on a small scale, and with this he controls the machine in all three planes. The '' steering column'' projects horizontally from the panel, and at its base the pilot sees what appears to be a large ball joint. There is no push-pull action on the wheel, the three movements being ob- tained by up-and-down motion, side- to-side motion, or turning motion of the wheel. To operate the elevators the wheel is lifted for nose down or depressed for nose up ; for left rudder the wheel is pushed to the left, and for right rudder to the right; for left or right aileron the wheel is turned in the conventional manner. Although an up-and-down move- ment of the wheel is substituted for the more usual in-and-out one to (Befow) The appearance of the Series li Super Ace is a considerable improvement upon the earlier prototype and, in fact, the machine is now most attractive in both outline and fin'sh. operate the elevators, this, in fact, feels quite natural within a few minutes of getting into the Ace. The move- 1 ment that does seem strange to start with is the sideways •• push on the wheel for rudder operation. On the floor 2 there are two separate brake pedals for steering on the 1 ground, and between them a foot accelerator pedal which overrides the hand throttle to the extent of increasiiz^ fc j engine speed from any position set on the throttle up to '**,. full throttle, if full throttle has not already been selected. J Neat Instrument Grouping J The Ace is provided with large flaps with 60 deg. angu-lar movement, operated by a winding handle placed for- ward in the roof, and with powerful trimmers for elevatorand rudder. The trimmers are operated by levers moved , fore and aft horizontally and positioned one on each side Iof the central throttle and mixture control quadrant. The 1 flap-lowering winder, which is very smooth in operation, |is above the double-curvature windscreen. Exceptionally ~ neat grouping of instruments and arrangement of controlsis one of the best features of the Ace. The average pilot of normal experience, if such a being The power of its Gipsy Major X engine giVes the Ace a very good take-off and climb performance for a light, four-se t design. exists, would probably be ableto fly the Ace without a dual check, provided the systemwas carefully explained to him and he was fully briefed beforetake-off. The take-off itself, under such circumstances,would almost certainly be rather erratic, though notnecessarily dangerous, and once airborne he would settle downto normal flying with reasonable accuracy in half an hour or so.The approach and landing would also no doubt be on therough side, and the exceptional power of the Goodyear
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