As soon as we get back to San Carlos, we will be working on introducing our built-in oxygen to the program. We want to establish best cruise speed/burn at altitude (17,500), which will help us understand our exact range and capabilities for ferrying the aircraft. We are also working on max altitude for airspeed records, so it is all coming up fairly fast, should be a great fall for us.
We are also in the planning stages for shooting air-to-air, both still and HD, which is a ways out but non the less exciting. We’ll keep you posted.
[ add comment ] | permalink | related link
OK, so we’re not at Oshkosh but we did get a very uplifting story we thought we’d share with you. Dave Morss had just spent the better part of the week getting a Bearcat to Oshkosh, accompanied by a Sea Fury. After a long trip with several mechanicals, Dave and group finally make it to Oshkosh. Dave just getting out of the airplane and surrounded by $4 million dollars of war bird iron, was feeling pretty darn good, perhaps even manly.
Well the first words out of peoples mouth when Dave got out of the plane was…..Hey, your Dave Morss right? Tell me about the Turbine Toucan. Is it here yet? And I guess they went on about the plane. Staggering to think that two airplanes with so much history, are so extremely rare and valuable that someone would be more interested in the Toucan.
So Dave wonders over to the Epic booth (which he is also a part of their program) to say hello and check in, just to hear a similar story. “Hey Dave, how’s the Toucan doing, you have to tell me all about that plane…..”
So, we are at least at Oshkosh in spirit! If your going to Oshkosh, have a blast and let us know what’s out there and all the buzz. Have fun. David
[ add comment ] | permalink | related link
Yesterday morning we continue to make progress building more time on the aircraft. We calibrated the rear fuel tank and introduced more fuel to the test phase. We'll now be flying longer duration flights and setting up cross country profiles. We also finally removed paper checklists from the cockpit now that we have checklists that we think will serve is well.
[ add comment ] | permalink | related link
The Team has been busy over the weekend trying to get as much time on the plane as we possibly can. We were so close to making it to Oshkosh before we ran into some vibration issues that set us back a few weeks. Now on track, we could be back in San Carlos very soon.
We have been up to four flights in one day, so that is promising. We continue to work out best prop RPM's for various situations. This week we will start working on fuel management between all three tanks. A lot to figure out best way to burn. We will also work on x country profiles.
In order to the get the burn down and increase our range, the only way we're going to do that is to go high. Current burn at 10,000ft is no less than 40.4gph. At 17,500 we should see about 32gph. Because we have built in oxygen, that is not an issue. What is an issue is heat. It is damn cold up there! We didn't think we'd be into having to install the bleed air heat system this early, we were wrong. We have the entire system ready to go, so that will be a few days work but well worth the effort when we start going high.
I wonder how many symmetrical wings have ever been at 17,500? My guess would be only a few. We continue to move into lot of uncharted territory, so this is were the fun begins.
We will continue to report on the planes performance as we start flying longer duration flights, in the hour to two hour range.
[ add comment ] | permalink | related link
Team Turbine Toucan made its sixth flight this afternoon with zero squawks. We think we have finally made it over a fairly large hurtle. At this point, everyone on the team wants to do everything possible to fly off the remainder of the required 40 hours before heading back to San Carlos Airport. We have now passed the half way mark!
We're keeping our fingers crossed we can continue the momentum and be back home in three weeks time now. More to come. Have a good weekend
[ add comment ] | permalink | related link
Incredible 24 hours. We managed 5 flights in two days with ZERO Squawks. This is just huge for the entire Infinity Entertainment & Turbine Toucan team. We finally passed through two flights in one day wall. We are really accelerating the program, and have amazing info to share.
The big news was that we have successfully transitioned Butch Pfeifer into the cockpit. Butch has now flown the plane 4 of the 5 flights. Even Bigger news, Ken Erickson made his first flight in the Toucan today! All this was possible based on the wealth of knowledge Dave Morss provided the team.
Butch took the plane through its paces and after the fourth flight, managed to inch up a little past 180 knots (or 208mph), and it was smooth as glass. Butch also worked at various altitudes all the way up to 10,000ft. We also managed to bring down the landing distance to 900 feet, which was a very big deal. We were not sure if we were going to be able to bring the plane back to San Carlos, which is 2600ft, but that seems to be a non issue at this point.
More to come!
[ 2 comments ] ( 1458 views ) | permalink | related link
Sunday was another positive step forward for the team. Dave Morss reported last week that when we first started introducing more power on take off, we were starting to get a little vibration. This is something we’ve never seen before.
After over a week of methodically trying to understand what we were seeing/feeling, we finally are starting to understand the frequency and amplitude of the vibration. At first we thought we were passing through the natural frequency of the cowling. If this was the case, could we fly through it or would we exacerbate the problem. We did static tests and high-speed taxi without the cowling and the vibration was still present. That was actually the good news. If it were the shape or the frequency of the cowl/nacelle we would be building a new cowl. That would set us back months.
We also were able to eliminate several other components in the process. On Sunday, we focused on changing the natural frequency of the engine baffles. We stiffened them up a bit in the process of providing the cowl greater support since it has a very long ARM. With such a large intake (designed for high power & low airspeed), we continued to come back to the baffling. The pulsing of the air from the propeller could very well be shaking the baffling which is very wide and has a lot of surface area.
And at low initial speeds (take off) and high power setting, the pulsing becomes a bit more predominant. As continuous airflow develops from higher forward speeds, it has a tendency to dampen the pulsations developed by the propeller. Which might be why we are seeing this at take off more then anywhere else.
After a good static run with modified baffles and reinforcements, we did not find the vibration. So, only way to know if we found the problem is to go out and FLY IT!
And that is what we plan on doing ASAP. The plane, as of Sunday night is topped off and ready for flying which will happen as early as Monday or Wednesday. We’ll keep you all posted on our findings.
[ add comment ] | permalink | related link
Perhaps one of the most demanding aspects to setting up the Turbine Toucan would be in the governor and prop set up. What people do not realize is that at ground idle, the turbine is producing about 100hp. We have residual thrust that needs to be managed, and it is a challenge to do. We have fine tuned all the pitch settings for ground idle, and seems to be working fairly well now.
After about our sixth landing, we were using no more then about 2400ft of runway. This is only using brakes and not reverse thrust, so we think this number will go way down.
Our initial flight was just like any other high performance aerobatic aircraft short approach. That is, until you get in ground effect. Then the residual thrust wants to carry you down the runway fairly fast. It's wild to see Dave fly the approach, which is about 90kts and soon as he flattens out a bit, the plane just starts screaming. Well, that is almost completely behind us now.
But as we introduce more power (remember we haven't seen greater then about 50%), we are starting to get a little vibration. We thought perhaps it was the prop, but we just dynamically balanced it. Then we thought it could be some harmonics going on at certain power settings. It's not a huge deal but getting to the bottom of it is kind of a challenge.
We think that we might be seeing some prop cavitation but not yet certain. The plane only does this in certain profiles, so we are a little baffled. We'll be in touch with the team at MT Propeller, who custom made our prop and should have more answers soon.
This is all part of the process when you build something as extreme as the Turbine Toucan. If we can solve this challenge, we have only profiling and fuel management work ahead. In all, the program is doing nicely, but it would sure be nice to rest what little brain cells we have left. Have a great 4th of July!!!!!
[ add comment ] | permalink | related link
After a very long day working on the Toucan Monday, we were feeling just a bit exhausted from some new little challenges. Then we got the call from Allen Silver that our Softi Parachute that was made for us, has just arrived! Both Allen Silver and Softie parachute are proud sponsors of the Turbine Toucan as you know.
Allen, as always did a wonderful job explaining all the features and techniques of our new softie. This is only the second time that Allen Silver has sponsored an airshow team, so we are EXTREMELY proud and grateful.
Allen Silver is one of the U.S.'s premiere Master Riggers, no matter where in the USA you live, we urge you to use Allen. Really, it's only $25 or so bucks to UPS your parachute to him for repacking and service. If you need a new parachute, he is THE MAN (and has lots of parachutes in stock).
And as an example of Allen's client list Sean Tucker, Wayne Handley, Julie Clark, Rocky Hill and Bill Stein just to name a few. He has over 800 active clients which is amazing.
So, Allen lifted our spirits after a very tough day at the office. Thanks Allen!
[ add comment ] | permalink | related link
Sometimes no news is good news, at least for us anyway. We've been off for a week now and ready to go back in the air. We're making our final adjustments to the prop governor. This has been a huge task dialing in the prop but we have made some very good progress and hope to have it nailed by end of day Monday.
More to follow at Days end.
[ add comment ] | permalink | related link
Today we were taking the day off, sitting around the coffee shop and talking about the performance Dave was seeing his past few flights. When Dave said he was past 4500ft. AGL by the end of the runway we thought, OK that's cool and didn't think anymore about it. Well, I went back to one of the video's when Dave made that comment and timed him to when he pushed over and leveled out, which was at 4500 ft., that was 32 seconds from wheels up.
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.
[ 1 comment ] ( 789 views ) | permalink | related link
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.
[ add comment ] | permalink | related link
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!
[ add comment ] | permalink | related link
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.
[ add comment ] | permalink | related link
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.
[ 1 comment ] ( 945 views ) | permalink | related link
Back Next
Archives
