A Yorkshire farmer’s 70th anniversary tribute to the “Few” from the BBC.
Brightline Flying Bag review (Video)
I got a Brightline flying bag on Saturday and I thought it would make a fun video review using my new camera.
(It’s all toys, all the time here at GHW HQ!)
Why Belite loves carbon fibre
This is a guest post from James Wiebe from Belite Aircraft.
We manufacture ‘FAR Part 103’ ultralights. On the English side of the pond, they are called ‘SSDR’ aircraft. (That’s ‘Single Seat DeRegulated’).
The common denominator of these aircraft is that they are simple own, operate, and enjoy!
I thought I’d try and show you how we are able to innovate, in order to produce a superior product.
At Belite, we incorporate state of the art technology into our aircraft – carbon fiber provides the ability to decrease weight while increasing strength. That’s important – especially if you are trying to hit an all up weight of 254 pounds in the U.S, or 10KG/SM wing loading in the UK.
One of the really nifty things about the ultralight aircraft is the regulatory freedom to explore innovative aircraft structures. As an example, Belite has recently been working on improved tail feathers for our aircraft. Our old design used conventional, trusty, 4130 chromalloy steel.
We’ve been using carbon fiber spars in our most advanced ultralight aircraft, for instance, our Belite Superlite. We are now incorporating carbon fiber into some of our tail feathers.
I’d like to show you the old fashioned way of doing tail feathers, which is steel. Have a look at some steel tail feathers:
Chromalloy steel can be welded into a thing of beauty, as shown in the photograph. The problem is that welding takes time and also takes the skill of a true steel artist. (Fortunately, we have such a welder on our staff.)
But carbon fiber has some very interesting properties.
First of all, Carbon Fiber is unbelievably strong.
In order to appreciate Carbon Fiber, it’s useful to understand steel. Let’s consider the strength of steel, so that we can understand how strong carbon fiber is. Steel has a tensile yield strength of about 63,000 pounds per square inch. That means that a one inch square steel rod can lift 63,000 pounds off the ground, without suffering structural damage to the steel.
Steel is pretty good stuff.
(Hey, we’re not considering anything but tensile strength here. There’s lots of other engineering considerations… but let’s keep it simple.)
Now – let’s take a look at Carbon Fiber. Carbon Fiber has a tensile strength of around five or 600,000 pounds per square inch. This means that the same small 1 inch square rod, when made out of pure carbon fiber, could lift 250 or 300 tons off the ground!
It seems like Carbon Fiber might make a pretty good material to manufacture aircraft parts with.
It also is a great material to make tail feathers out of! Take a look at this carbon fiber horizontal stabilizer structure:
This is a direct replacement for our steel tail feather. It has attachment points in the same spots, and can be used interchangeably with the original steel tail feather.
The benefits are as follows:
- This structure weights just 4 pounds, or 1.82 KG in KiloSpeak.
- This structure’s strength is considerably greater than the steel structure that it replaces.
- Due to the increased ‘thickness’ of this structure, this improved tail feather can incorporate a slightly more aerodynamic airfoil.
In other words, it’s just better. And of course, the downside is that it’s more expensive to manufacture. Oh well. Can’t have everything!
If you have any questions on carbon fiber, ultralights, or SSDRs, drop me a line. I’d enjoy talking with you. I also maintain a blog about ultralight aircraft. Please have a look.
Until next time, cheers from Wichita, KS (the Air Capital of the World),
Flying to Lelystad, Holland (Video)
Lelystad (EHLE) is a great destination for GA pilots in the Netherlands. It’s very GA-friendly but still has customs on site and (relatively) cheap landing fees compared to Schiphol or Rotterdam. The aviation museum, pilot shop and cafe with terrace make it a nice place to spend a day if you’re a pilot or aviation enthusiast.
The future of online dating
I read this out at my wedding. For some unfathomable reason it didn’t go down as well as I expected it to. Plus, my wife doesn’t have a plane, hangar or any navigation skills. Still, I think it’s funny in a post-modern, pro-feminist, ironic sort of way.
Kurt Russell: Why I fly
Airport Journals recently had a wonderful and inspirational profile about actor/pilot Kurt Russell that is well worth reading by pilots, aspiring pilots and their families.
According to the article, Russell’s grandfather was an aerobatic pilot with over 45,000 hours who flew "well into his sixties" and had also spent time as a senior check captain for TWA and a test pilot for Howard Hughes. However, Russell himself never took up the opportunity to fly with his grandfather – a decision he came to regret as it was not until 1988 when he himself finally caught the flying bug and began his pilot training under the watchful eye of his grandfather.
Since then, Russell has owned a Rockwell Commander, Cessna Crusader, Cessna 414, Cessna Conquest, and fractional ownership of a Piaggio Avanti 180 but its his Starduster biplane that is his favorite. Russell is also an instrument rated pilot due to the marine layer that regularly blankets coastal Santa Monica. However, Russell was quoted as saying that he often flies IFR even when local conditions don’t call for it just to stay sharp and he recommends IFR training for all pilots as it makes navigating air traffic safer.
Why does Kurt Russell fly? The article quoted him as saying that:
Flying has taught me more about who I really am than anything I’ve ever done. I take very calculated risks. I’ve done too many stunts on too many movies and television shows to be a daredevil. I learned a long time ago that if you want to do something you enjoy, you want to do it again.
In addition, Russell and the writer of the article also made the following interesting observations:
"When the Wright brothers hopped off the ground, they had about 90 percent of it figured out," Russell says. The veracity of that statement clearly delineates the value of the simplest aviation techniques tucked into the minds of pilots from days gone by.
The article ends by saying that all of Russell’s children have been at the controls of his aircraft but none have yet expressed an interest in beginning pilot training. However, Russell hopes that the doors of aviation remain wide open so that they, like him, may have the opportunity to learn how to fly if and when they eventually catch the flying bug.