Posted Friday, December 25, 2009 @ 01:27 AM  

Now I’m back in Australia, I can upload some of the on-board video clips of my summer 2009 aerobatic displays. You’ll be glad to hear I don’t have clips of every display, just a representative few.

The first two clips are from Dala-Järna, a surprisingly big airshow at a small and very friendly airfield deep in the heart of Sweden's forests and lakes. It seems that all the inhabitants turn out to help with the organisation, which was impeccable. Even the local farmer laid out rows of white, plastic-coated straw bales to mark 100 and 200 metres from the crowd line, with a short line at right-angles marking crowd centre (although, as it turned out, the middle of the crowd was actually a little south of that).

My routine has continued to evolve, both as I learn new tricks and with the input of experts, most notably in 2009, John Taylor of the Skyhawks and glider ace Guy Westgate.

By the time in 2009 I had got to the Northern Hemisphere, I had already deleted the 6-turn spin at the beginning, because I had to start almost too high for folk to see me, and the height loss could be too variable (plus or minus 100 feet or more) sometimes causing me to have to fly very carefully to conserve height towards the end of my slot. I was also aware that we do not always have a 2,500-foot cloudbase in Europe, even in the summer.

My first Dala-Jarna sequence, flown on the Saturday, was (American terminology):
Salmon-leap
¼ upward vertical roll, hammerhead, ¾ snap
¼ upward vertical roll, canopy-down humpty-bump, ¼ downward vertical roll
Hammerhead with pushed recovery, ½ roll erect
½ snap inverted
Four-point hesitation roll
Hammerhead
Slow roll
Half-Cuban
Avalanche
Half reverse-Cuban
Barrel roll right
Quarter-clover
Loop
Canopy-down humpty-bump with ¼ downward roll
Derry turn
Inverted pass
Waving run

Start height 1,500 feet and end height 300 feet, +5/-3g or thereabouts.

Enjoy, and all critical input appreciated.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVMAiIMWmac

Yours, Bob

Posted Friday, December 25, 2009 @ 04:04 AM  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntwFmMJYR5o

Again, I hope you enjoy it. We sure did!

Posted Friday, December 25, 2009 @ 10:33 PM  

It was an honour to have been invited, because the Shuttleworth Trust are very particular about who they have perform, and I greatly enjoyed the experience.

Of course, I had to modify my sequence again to account for the right-angled kink in the display line, but that was a good mental exercise, and flying it was great fun. As you can see, it was shortly before sunset, and there was absolutely no wind, meaning the smoke hung around for me to fly back through it, which is always great.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIhY1CgqKnI

Posted Tuesday, December 29, 2009 @ 10:39 PM  

Thank you so much for your very positive comments.

Those clips, like the earlier fin-cam ones, were recorded on to my Canon camcorder from a bullet-cam (I think by Sharp, but I'm not sure) clipped on to the canoy stay bracket, so they can only record vision, not sound -- thus the music soundtrack, which usually only the spectators can hear, I can't.

I am currently experimenting with a small Canon PowerShot A590 I bought in Europe. By mounting it on the same sidewall bracket (see the appropriate post) I can either have it outside the cockpit as I did in my earliest airborne film clips, or inside, where I get a poorer outside view, but can read the instuments, which should be instructive to me and everybody. I hope I can also shout what each manoeuvre is before I fly it, so we all know what is going on.

As to engine noise, I leave the throttle wide open throughout and let the revs do what they will. They seem to peak at around 4,000 rpm -- nothing for a Beetle. The engine note only varies with airspeed as the rpm go up and down, and also drop off whenever there's the slightest negative G of course.

I eventually got HDO flying yesterday, and tried filming some simple aeros (without the shouting -- just a little screaming), but at the moment the vibration is so bad you can only see the needles, not the actual readings, so I'll try again today with the image stabilisation switched off (I suspect it's fighting itself).

Waving? Yes, I always fly past the crowd at fifty feet to wave to the kids. Otherwise it could just be a model flying up there.

Entry speeds? I just tend to keep the speed high. It means I gradually lose altitude, but helps ensure I don't run out of 'puff' at an inappropriate moment. I guess I enter the four-point roll, like everything else at about 120mph, but I do it on a slight down-line (barely noticeable to the crowd, especially if you angle in towards them slightly) so that I also finish at 120mph, ready to go straight into the next manoeuvre -- sometimes a hammerhead and sometimes a half-Cuban (which needs a higher entry speed than the hammerhead).

A strict four-point hesitation roll should spend the same length of time in each of the rolling portions and also the same time in each of the pauses (say three or four seconds apiece in the RF4 - although I haven't timed it), but you'll find that the nose slices away badly in the fourth quarter, so you have to keep that one brief, and this means they all have to be brief to get some kind of symmetry. Also, it uses up a lot of distance, particularly if you're going downwind, so although the general rule is to fly all rolls downwind to help with their shape (as you fly looping manoeuvres and hammerheads into wind, ditto) I now fly the four-pointer into wind. Otherwise I end it in the next State!

Thank you and big hugs to Sofi -- my first ever female fan!

News and clips on Matthew's Fournier pending the paperwork.
Then we have to fly a successful formation loop. We've flown many unsuccessful ones using Paul's RF4, so we know it's not going to be easy.

I hope you can all get out there and fly a few aerobatics, and I hope my clips are helpful. Just remember, height and speed are your friends.

A Happy New Year to you all.

Posted Wednesday, December 30, 2009 @ 05:09 PM  

Trust all well and speak soon
Rgds
Paul

Posted Sunday, January 3, 2010 @ 09:21 PM  

And Hey Jorgen, I love that 'Happy New Fourn'Year'.

I've just uploaded the only useable clip (so far) from my in-cockpit camera. This shows some instrument readings through a sequence of simple aerobatics. Sorry the lens's angle is not very wide, but it's the best I can easily do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzlMQlp6W1s

A few notes:

You can read on YouTube which manouvre happens when in the notes alongside.

The ASI is calibrated in knots, but I think their needles all point in the same direction, so you can either add 15 per cent to the numbers or just note the needle's position.

You will see during the rolls that I apply full aileron above the 108-knot Va, which is not only stupid but dangerous. That's one reason for fitting this camera, to see what I'm doing wrong.

The unusual read-out on the bottom of the ICOM radio is a temporary under-cowl temperature reading. The probe is clipped to the carburettor intake filter. This particular kit bombs-out over 50 degrees C and reads HHH, which you will see it does much of the time. Dave Bland and I have experimented, and it seems the temperature in our lower cowlings spends most of its time at 45-55 degrees C, which is why we don't get much carb icicng.

You will notice that the airspeed gets very low at the tops of the loops, barrel rolls and quarter clovers. It should actually get lower in those latter manoeuvres for a proper shape -- something I clearly have to work on further.

I never close the thottle, it is fully open throughout -- except when the engine coughs and splutters under negative G of course.

The oil you see on the windscreen/windshield at the end came from an ill-fitting rocker box cover. By the time it got out of the cowlings, there was very little oil left in the engine, so I made a gentle glide approach and landing. This is another good reason to add molybdenum disulphide to the oil... it keeps the engine lubricated even if you lose all your oil thanks to a broken pressure gauge line or whatever. And that little side window came in handy once more for making a curved approach and landing using peripheral vision.

This is what the airplane looked like when I got out...

Have fun, enjoy your aerobatics safely and remember, do as I say, not as I do.

Yours, Bob

[Edit by Bob Grimstead on Sunday, January 3, 2010 @ 09:24 PM]

Posted Monday, January 4, 2010 @ 11:45 PM  

Yes, the black's the moly. It was new oil a week earlier.

I use two different products. That available in England is Holts Molyslip (in a plastic bottle), and it seems a little thinner than the Australian stuff you see here (it also mentions graphite in its contents).

In Australia, I use Molybond Formula 2.5 (in a tube).

Both recommend adding a full tube or bottle to your sump of oil. However, the VW only has a tiny 2.25-litre sump, while most cars have 5-litre sumps, so I add a tube/bottle to each 5-litre (gallon) plastic can of oil, then change the oil and use the remainder in the can for the regular top-ups I need to repalce the oil thrown out of the breather -- or along the fuselage, as seen here.

For cleaning up, I just use PVC gloves and lots and lots of rags -- mostly torn-up sheets. I don't reckon it's a good idea to use petrol/gasoline, because it only dilutes the oil and allows it to creep into smaller cracks and crevices.

This lot took an hour to clean off, but of course oil re-appeared from crannies and crevices after the next few flights. I think the G acts like a centrifuge and squeezes it all out.

Incidentally, I have re-visited that rocker-box cover. It was a new one I took off my new British motor when I fitted my formerly Australian rocker-box covers which had the breather modification. It turned out to be very slightly under-size, so rather than the lip fitting around the head, it was just resting on the edge. It seemed to hold in the oil fine on a ground run (up to 1,500 rpm) but of course, once the oil got thin and the crankcase pressure built up in flight, out it all came!

Now I have the rocker-box breathers on the original covers, it should not happen again.

Posted Monday, April 19, 2010 @ 08:05 PM  

Okay, for those of you particularly interested in entry speeds and heights, G loads, engine rpm, oil pressure and other instrument readings, the cockpit-cam footage is now on YouTube at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0Jc8AYno4k

My sequence card (dance card) is here.

This clip was actually shot on the Saturday, whereas Bob's footage was shot on the Sunday. Rather than getting you to spot the subtle difference, I'll tell you that on Sunday I was distracted by a question from the Race Director as I completed the first quarter vertical roll. Thus I kicked for the stall turn/hammerhead a millisecond late. Thus the propeller stopped during the fall-through (you can see this on Bob's footage at about time 0:35). Thus the remainder of that figure changed from a three-quarter vertical downward flick/snap roll to the right into a frantic Vne dive with an aileron roll to the left. The engine re-started and no further harm was done, although it was frustrating for me.

My cockpit-cam footage shows the correct flick/snap roll sequence.

I also need to work on adding more outward aileron in the stall turns/hammerheads and to steepen the inverted 30-degree climb in the reverse half-Cuban, but then that is what this footage is all for -- critiquing and improvement.

I hope it is of interest and encourages everybody to explore all three dimensions in their Fourniers.

Yours, Bob

[Edit by Bob Grimstead on Monday, April 19, 2010 @ 08:11 PM]

Posted Tuesday, April 20, 2010 @ 04:07 PM  

To her, what you do in your RF 4 must seem perfectly natural. The poor flight instructor that will one day take Sofi up for her first lesson is probably in for quite a surprise....

Nice clips, Bob and I have heard many nice comments about your show in Dala-Järna. Keep up the good work, or as Elvis put it: "-Well it's one Fournier money, two Fournier show, three Fournier ready, now go cat go, but don't you, step on my Blue Swede 4......"

May the 4's be with you/ Jörgen

Posted Wednesday, April 21, 2010 @ 03:21 AM  

I don’t know if it’s any better, but it might appeal to those of you who enjoy aerobatics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieQIiA7Z8R8

Those who enjoy a laugh can giggle at my stationary propeller one minute into the clip!

Posted Wednesday, April 21, 2010 @ 10:15 PM  

Now I know how to do it I will do that with future clips.

Unfotunately it would take too much time to go over all the old ones and narrate to them.

Yours, Bob.

Posted Sunday, January 30, 2011 @ 11:52 AM  

I just stumbled across this in the middle of the night

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NE4r5Bt1Lc0&NR=1

What fun!

I wonder how he makes the smoke.

I must get HDO flying again; I haven't flown for over two months and that is seriously bad!