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Aviation History
1994
1994 - 2547.PDF
ATLAS ACS PETER GRAY/LONDON Bashfulness not being my forte, I accepted, with alacrity, a chance to fly the Atlas ACE two-seat trainer. I had not flown a fixed-wing aircraft for over IS years, however, and, even then, those I had flown were only Tiger Moths, Chipmunks and the like. After Bob Masson, Atlas Aviation's chief fixed-wing test pilot, had provided a thorough briefing on the aircraft's background, history, technical performance, and aspects of safety, I felt ready to fly the aircraft. Masson offered me the rear seat where the view is best. Rear seats in tandem trainers, where the instructor sits, are notorious for their poor visibility, particularly in the landing phase. This is not true of the ACE, where the field of view from this seat, helped by the low wing and tricycle undercarriage, is excellent. I climbed up the ladder, stepped on to the wingwalk area and got in to the rear cockpit. At this point, I had to let the engineer strap me in to the ejector seat and connect me to the inter com/radio and oxygen systems, although we were not to go high enough to use the latter. Because the canopy is not jettisonable, ejection is made through it, so there are leg restraints which draw them in when you pull the handle. The engineer pulled the five pins to arm the ejector seat and stepped down. I tightened the harness as comfortably as possible. I guessed I was going to need it. I was right. THE FLIGHT I looked around and liked what I saw — a very neat and comfortable, cockpit, with everything close at hand and uncluttered. Masson started the engine — the usual benign acceleration rate and modest temperature that one expects from the 560kW (750hp) Pratt & Whitney PT6 engine. Masson did the pre-taxi checks and handed over control to me. The rudder pedals are connected to the nosewheel steering, so taxiing was delightfully accurate. A quick exploratory dab on the brakes was made and off we went. Masson did all the radio work and checks, leaving me the pure pleasure of the handling. After lining up on the runway, on Masson's instructions, I held the ACE on the brakes, wound up the engine to 58% torque and, feel ing quite Tornado-ish, let her go. Acceleration was rapid. I had little difficulty in keeping (fair ly) straight on the runway's centreline — the engine is cunningly offset in the fuselage to Technical specifications Structural limits +7g and -3.5g Maximum level speed 2 70kt TAS Service ceiling 33,OOOft (15,000m) Maximum rate of roll at 180kt (3 3 5km/h) 150°/s Maximum endurance 5.5h Maximum range 2,040km (1,1 OOnm) South Africa's easy rider South Africa's Atlas ACE trainer is easy to fly — even for a helicopter pilot. help overcome the take-off swing. As briefed, I rotated at 80kt (150km/h). The aircraft has a take-off distance to 50ft (50m) altitude of less than 450m, a maximum rate of climb of 2,750ft/min (13.97m/s) and climbs to 2 5,000ft in less than 15min. We shot up to 3,000ft and I carried out some general handling. I was impressed by the sta bility and ease of handling. I overdid the rud der pedals initially in the steep turns, but soon learned to co-ordinate them satisfactorily. I found the electronic elevator-trim a little slow, but I am very used to this in helicopters. The rudder trim was very conveniently situated on the throttle — just a small button. There are three small trim gauges just above. Masson invited me to do a loop, so I asked for the entry speed and any other relevant speeds and power settings on the way round. "Don't worry about that," he replied, "just pull 4g". After finding the coin-sized g meter in the top left-hand corner of the instrument panel, I pulled 4g and looked up. It seemed ages before the horizon re-appeared. We came out almost level and, at 2,900ft, only 100ft lower than our entry height. This was nothing to do with the ACE, only the non-ace flying her. Masson then invited me to do a roll, so I enquired about the use of top or bottom rudder to keep the nose up. "Not required," said Masson, "just roll her". Round we went, crisply, pre cisely and rapidly. Recovery was instantaneous, with a little opposite aileron as the wings came level. Masson then took control to demonstrate Dutch roll. He induced it, released the con trols, and the ACE recovered immediately. This is a refreshing difference from many of the helicopters I have flown, which are more than likely to be unstable in such a manoeuvre and to "go divergent" — that is, get worse and worse. He demonstrated a similar exercise in the pitching plane by rapidly nudging the stick forward and releasing it. Again, the recovery was instant. This manoeuvre, in helicopters, is very likely to cause divergence. FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 19 - 25 October 1994
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