Posted Wednesday, November 5, 2008 @ 02:33 AM
Hi again Folks,
Sorry to pester, but if anybody’s interested in my latest video clip, it’s now on my YouTube site: FournierBob.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4L7BXNgltGw
It’s a nine-minute clip of my Red Bull Air Race display last Saturday – qualifying day.
Karen, James and Lucy, my wife and children, bought me a camcorder and wide-angle lens lipstick-cam for my sixtieth birthday. It’s not actually for another fortnight yet, but they knew I wanted it for the display.
The tiny camera went on the top of HDO’s fin, and I found that its battery pack and the camcorder itself would fit neatly under the fin fairing. Thus.
Tim K (FlyingKroeger) double-checked my calculations that the total 700-gramme weight that far back would still be within the Fournier’s acceptable Centre of Gravity range, so I was good to go.
I’ve deliberately included footage of my take-off from lovely, rural Serpentine (YSEN), the twenty-minute flight up Western Australia’s Sunset Coast to Fremantle and the turn inland for fifteen miles up the Swan River to Perth, because it is all so scenic, and it was a very enjoyable flight in its own right.
The actual display took place over Perth Water, a widening of the River immediately south-east of the city. You can see the pylons set out below me.
The weather was perfect, clear and calm (yes, calm, in windy Perth) with a temperature of 25 degrees Celsius (80-ish in the old money, I think).
Unfortunately, I have never flown in calm conditions before, and ran out of legal space upwind on my first pass before I could fly my avalanche, so that had to be left out, but otherwise it’s the standard routine.
Starting at 2,600 feet with a Vne loop, to get the crowd looking up at the noise of my propeller howl, I then went into a five-turn spin to the left (I found the recovery more predictable than to the right) followed by my usual sequence at around 1,500 feet. Sorry about the low res of this snap. I'm trying to get a better version.
After four minutes, I bottom out, inverted, at my legal minimum (in Australia) of 500 feet, then drop down to wave at the crowd from 100 feet. As you can see, that’s not far above the pylons. My sideslip reduces a little after the first few seconds, because the engine started cutting out. I think the fuel (down to less than 12 litres here, say 3 gallons) was being sloshed away from the tank outlet. Then I looked away from the crowd, and saw the chicane approaching at 100 knots; you can see my flinch!
I hope you enjoy it.
Yours, Bob
[Edit by Bob Grimstead on Wednesday, November 5, 2008 @ 02:34 AM]
[Edit by Bob Grimstead on Tuesday, November 18, 2008 @ 03:51 AM]
[Edit by Bob Grimstead on Tuesday, November 18, 2008 @ 03:57 AM]
[Edit by Bob Grimstead on Tuesday, November 18, 2008 @ 10:07 PM]
