At that rage, he was doing 8,400 feet per minute! THIS WAS NOT FULL POWER! Our analog VSI only goes up to 6000fpm, so we really didn't know what kind of performance we sustained as that was not really the mission of the flight. It's when you sit down, take a minute to reflect on things do you really start thinking about what we got going on here. I'm a actually a little stunned.
Dave Morss has been very methodical regarding the addition of power on every flight, so we are excited to find out what we get when we start introducing full power take-offs.
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Today Butch and I spent a few hours working on the rigging. We wanted to do a few tweaks based on a few comments from Dave Morss. We successfully changed the rigging, getting ready for Dave's next flight this week.
Always Nice to see Bob Finer come by when he is not putting out fires (literally). We also got to see a face from the past, Mr. J.T. Rethke. J.T came by with a friend who is heading to Air Force flight training, we wish him all the luck in the world! J.T. worked for Sean Tucker for a number of years as well as flying C-130's for a living.
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Well, we have met some people not as smart as this dog. This is Zoe Cress, Susan Cress's sidekick and boy is she a hoot. She doesn't like loud turbine engines, so she asked for some ear muffs, which we were happy to provide. She knows about 25 hand commands and is about the smartest dog I've seen in a long time.
I think she liked the T-6 better than the Toucan, afterall she is practical and the T-6 provides much better shade.
I've never seen a dog who had never been on a golf cart be so at home doing 20MPH on the ramp. She was the coolest thing going today, but her owner is not half bad either!
Thanks for making everyone smile Zoe!
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We had the good fortune of spending the day with Susan Cress and her dog Zoe at Hollister today. Susan, as you might or might not know, is VP of Business Development for Infinity Entertainment Inc. She came to see the Turbine Toucan in action, now that we are in full swing with test flying. We got in two flights before 10:00am, which we all were very excited about. Susan and Zoe were very inspirational to be around and brought us very good luck, THANK YOU SUSAN AND ZOE.
Jerry Gabe went beyond the call of duty today by providing us his wonderful camera ship, the beautiful T-6. It was a heck of a fun ride and provided us the very first images of the Turbine Toucan in flight. Jerry took out the entire Team Turbine Toucan for lunch to celebrate our very successful day of flying, FINALLY! Jerry has been extremely supportive of our program providing us tools, his hangar and good will. We’re not sure how we would have pulled all this off without him.
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We had another very successful day flying the Toucan. Dave Morss increased the power about 10-15% (to the "W"), to still less than 50% power. Non the less, a lot of grins on the ground. At about 45% power, Dave was past 4500AGL by the end of the runway, which is about six thousand feet in length. Considering the power setting, that is awesome and better then expected. Dave mentioned he pulled the power way back but it still was accelerating vertically, very nice.
The Telemetry system worked flawlessly. We saw all Dave’s engine parameters on the ground and up to five miles away, so that is finally behind us. Dave landed in a very strong crosswind when done with the test flight, it was a beautiful landing…Again.
The rigging is much closer but still needs a bit of love. We should be able to nail it next flight. We should be ready for Air-to-Air photos in the next few days. Hopefully it will be something we can net and then post.
Cheers! David
Here Dave just made a low pass. Air to air will be a great deal more interesting.
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Usually a day that does not involve flying is a frustrating one. Well, not today. We had to do a minor rigging change after some feedback from Dave. After about 5 hours of work, Butch Pfeifer has seemed to dial in the rigging, which we are keeping our fingers crossed addresses Dave’s feedback. This kind of work is all good and progressive to the program, so we are happy.
But, what really made our day was we finally got the Telemetry system up and running. The proprietary Telemetry system has been problematic from an implementation standpoint. We have had many issues with it over the past few months, and almost put it on the back burner until we decided to do one more firmware and software update.
And today it works beautifully, and just in time for our test program to come into full swing. We’re now able to monitor all engine parameters from the ground on a laptop PC. Our Telemetry system has a range of up to 40 miles, so we are excited to try that out the next time we go flying. We’ll keep you posted on the progress if this system, should be really neat.
For those of you who wonder why we need a Telemetry system, we can sum it up in one word……Safety. During airshow performances at low altitude, it is important to keep your eyes outside of the cockpit. This system gives us the opportunity to have a second set of eyes on the power planet vitals. What makes this so important is we can monitor trends that might not be seen during an airshow performance.
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8:30am this morning. The plane performed flawlessly throughout the flight and Dave came back with only a few minor squawks.
Getting to the “P” in P-O-W-E-R. What? OK, so in Dave’s flight today, he mentioned he never exceeded The “P” in power on the power quadrant. Let me show you all where that is, in relation to what is left……..
Get the picture now? The "P" is only between 25%-33% power, WOW!!! Dave took off this morning with no more then 1900RPM on the prop and the power lever set at “P” and was doing better then 3000fpm at a 45 degree deck angle. One of the maneuvers Dave did was to slow the plane down from 160kts down to 60kts (which happened in about eight seconds). Losing zero altitude, Dave continued to pull the nose up to about a 60+ degree deck angle until all the speed was bled off. At that moment, he added power, again only to the “P” and Dave mentioned the plane just accelerated up to 3000fpm from a near stall speed and extremely high angle of attack.
Other things Dave surprised us with included rolls, very fast rolls. We saw about 300 degrees per second, which was not at all full deflection. So, roll rate aught to be incredible considering some of the aileron is in the prop slipstream. Kevin Kimball's custom wings for the Toucan are working VERY well, than you Kevin!!!
One of the last surprises was the immense braking power of that large MT four-blade prop. Dave was able to obtain 4000fpm rate of decent at only 90kts when he brought the power back to ground idle. Now that was one of the steeper approaches I have seen:)
As soon as we finish rigging for our selected cruise speed, we’ll start looking at more power. So, based on what we continue to see, this ought to be just AWESOME.
Jerry Gabe has been kind enough to donate himself and his T-6 for Camera ship duties sometime at the end of the week, so we are excited to populate the website with some air-to-air shots fairly soon now (finally).
Please stay tuned, much more to come later this week.
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OK, so I am not politically driven, nor do I share my political views publicly, but this is just WAY over the top. You see, I am not only a native Californian, but I am also a native of San Francisco and spent the last 46 years of my life in the Bay Area Peninsula. The Bay Area has rich military history I am extremely proud of. Moffett Field (USN), Naval Air Station Alameda, Treasure Island and Mare Island to name just a few, were such a big part of the bay Area for me growing up. And they are ALL gone.
The Bay Area now is mostly populated with people who have come from other areas of the country, and who have done an amazing job of eroding the Bay Area culture. San Francisco was pro military for the longest time, and now I am ashamed of the City I was born in.
Supervisor Chris Daly, who is pushing this resolution (story below) came to San Francisco in 1993 and first elected to the board in 2000. He is a relative new comer who has NO sense of the culture and history of this great city. And yet his actions seem to hold the rest of us in and around San Francisco hostage.
It is so painful to see what is happening to my City. What’s really sad is the nation thinks this vocal minority of San Francisco is how we all feel. Nothing could be further from the truth. You’ll find that the Bay Area at large has a landscape of very patriotic citizens. We just happen to be guilty by association (geographically speaking).
I am so apologetic to everyone who is as outraged as I. Real San Franciscan’s are extremely grateful to the armed services and the rich history made together the past 100 years.
I found this to be really interesting, a photo journal of the downturn of military installations in the Bay Area. I found it on the web at http://www.flickr.com/photos/telstar/sets/56935/
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Critics Include Anti-War Groups Who Cite Safety, Pro-Military Message
What would San Francisco's annual Fleet Week be, without a performance by the US Navy Blue Angels aerial demonostration team? A city official wants to find out.
The San Francisco Examiner reports Supervisor Chris Daly, with help from such groups as CodePink, Global Exchange and Veterans For Peace, is pushing for a Board of Supervisors resolution to ground the annual performance, calling it "dangerous and unnecessary."
Perhaps not surprisingly, critics of the performances point to the April crash of a Blue Angels performer at an air show in Beaufort, SC as "proof" the shows are dangerous. Paul Cox, a Vietnam veteran and member of Veterans for Peace, says the slightest miscalculation or mechanical problem could cause a plane to "go barreling into the Golden Gate Bridge or a high-rise and cause a significant amount of damage."
Cox, along with other members of the group, is also opposed to the pro-military theme of the show, and the fact the Blue Angels are a recruiting tool for the Navy. He also says the performances cause "noise pollution."
CodePink, a women-for-peace group, has started an online petition calling for city leaders to end the flyovers, citing concerns with public safety, pollution and fuel usage. The Examiner reports as of last week, about 500 people had signed the petition.
Despite those points and protests, the Blue Angels performances are a popular draw at Fleet Week and the 34 other locations the Blues have scheduled throughout the US this year alone. In 2006, more than 15 million spectators watched the team perform, including well over one million in the Bay Area alone. Edward Leonard, chairman of the San Francisco Fleet Week Committee, notes in 2004 -- when the Blue Angels did not make an appearance -- attendance to the weeklong Fleet Week event dropped by more than 50 percent.
"We think it's safe," said Leonard, on questions about the safety of the Blue Angels performances. Leonard notes the Blues must receive approval from the FAA prior to each performance, and the more complex maneuvers are conducted over Bay waters.
Plus, he adds, "commercial airlines fly over the city all the time."
Daly's resolution calling for an end to Blue Angels performances over The City By The Bay may be introduced this week. The non-binding document wouldn't carry any legal weight, but it would present the Board's view on the issue -- and "We can then take the next steps we have to legally stop them," Daly told the Examiner.
This year's Fleet Week activities are scheduled for October 4-9. Critics Include Anti-War Groups Who Cite Safety, Pro-Military Message
STORY FROM AERO NEWS NETWORK
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Today we completed and installed the fix for our issues with the EHT. After about five hours of work, the Toucan is now ready to go flying! This was over a month in the making.....of a fix that is.
We'll keep you posted but we WILL be flying this week, weather permitting.
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In the fear of boring most, we haven't been all that detailed about some of the recent challenges. But, lots of e-mails asking more about the issue (out of curiousity) made me think we need to post more specific info, which is cool! We have a very sophisticated Turbine Starter limiter monitor system which controls all parameters of the engine start. It also is a limiter, controlling any parameter in which it thinks is going to be exceeded both on the ground and in the air. The major things it looks out for is ITT (Inter-stage Turbine Temperature), N1 (compressor) and N2 (prop RPM), oil pres. and oil temp. It also limits Beta and Reverse RPM. The fastest way to almost instantly reduce one of the mentioned parameters is to derich fuel to the engine. This is done through an EHT unit. EHT stands for Electro Hydraulic Transducer, which is a component of the FCU (Fuel Control Unit).
The TSLM (Turbine Starter Limiter Monitor) also records all engine data into memory, so we can look at all the trends and be able to isolate issues or problem. In our initial limiting set up, we set up beta/reverse to 1900 rpm, which is normal. What we saw in the data was the EHT coming on and reducing power at exactly 1900rpm, not 2080rpm which is for normal inflight limits. Why was this happening if limits were set at 2080 for normal flight?
It turns out that some noise/interference in the data line confused the microprocessor into thinking it was overspeeding in beta/reverse (even though we were in forward pitch) and put on the brakes to developing power. So, every time Dave was just spooling up and running down the runway, the TSLM flagged a parameter being exceeded and cut power. That was a needle in a hay stack kind of issue, but the data reflected it beautifully. Without this data, we would not be able to see the EHT valve come on and off.
We found a fix for it and by end of day tomorrow (Monday the 11th), we will be ready to fly. We have a great deal of time and testing to catch up on to be back on track, but we are very optimistic about getting the program back on schedule with some extra long hours.
EAA rule #1, when you have completed the plane, you are about half done!
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This is our last high speed pass, we're ready to resume flight testing after resolving our FCU problems.
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One of the best days we ever had, and not because of a first flight but by solving a mystery that was really taxing all our experiences. After a new FCU, which was a very time consuming job, we all thought we had nailed our issue. And this was coming from two of the industry's best. Well, Friday we got out on the runway and to our dismay, the problem of not producing power was still with us. Almost totally dejected, we went home baffled.
This morning, after we made a phone call, an idea came up that non of us ever thought of. Within 10 minutes and one more run down the runway, we finally found the gremlin. Dave Morss describes the acceleration like being smashed into the seat like a bug hitting a windshield! If you know Dave Morss, he has a very dry sense of humor. So when he was in the cockpit demonstrating the position after advancing the throttle, we all got a kick out of it.
The gratification you get from solving a complex problem is extremely rewarding. The team is over-the-top happy with the day. We're so excited to start thinking about getting into the air a minimum of three times a day starting next week!!!
It's time to start looking up! Have a great weekend all!
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Every once in a while you meet someone that really "gets it". As we were testing today, a gentlmen came by to introduce himself, Bob Finer is his name. Currently a CDF tanker pilot but also a Airshow pilot and good friend of Wayne Handley's. And to top it off, a Marine Pilot/Driver of one of my favorite military jets, the A-4.
Being a good friend of Wayne's and an airshow pilot, Bob really understood what we were doing from a very different perspect than most, and boy if he wasn't right on the money. He seemed to hone in on what a great deal of other pilots seem to miss, with regard to what our program is all about, and our place in the world.
After another frustrating morning not getting the fuel control unit to work in our favor, it really was refreshing and a big attitude adjustment to meet a very nice guy. We look forward to seeing more of Bob as he and his wife are settling into Hollister for his six month stint.
Thanks for stopping by Bob!
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Yesterday was a very long day. We had to take most of the components off the firewall in order to swap out the FCU. After eight hours of work the new FCU is in and ready for ground testing for this Thursday afternoon. All goes well in the afternoon and we'll return the aircraft to flight status!
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