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aerokurier 8/1998
IGM at the turning point This year, the International Used Aircraft Fair (IGM) took place for the second time at the Söllingen airport. While the, officially called, Baden Airport, is in an economic upwind, the move of the IGM from the old Baden local airfield to Söllingen was not beneficial for the event. The catalogue only listed 124 aircraft for sale. The IGM has always lived from the personal atmosphere at the old airfield. It will take a lot to bring this show back on track. Extra 400: Production has started The serial production of the 1,4-million Mark composite six-seater Extra 400 has started at Extra Flugzeugbau, located at the airfield Dinslaken-Schwarze Heide in Germany. We took a closer look at the first aircraft. While the test revealed that the aircraft will thrill its future owner with an excellent performance (270 KTAS, 2100 nm range) and its balanced handling qualities, there are some conceptional aspects to the aircraft which probably can’t be changed even in future modifications. There are also a few points where the manufacturer should invest a little bit of "optimization work". Vision of single-jet Vantage from VisionAire has become real There are currently several projects in the USA which are aiming at the development of a single-engine business jet. Most of them are still in the planning phase. Nevertheless, the Vantage from VisionAire is already accomplishing flight tests. The first step of this aircraft’s development has been with Burt Rutan and his company Scaled Composites. Meanwhile the test program is in the hands of VisionAire. In high-speed mode, the all-composite six-seater is supposed to fly up to 350 KTAS. According to the manufacturer’s data, the aircraft will have an IFR range of up to 1575 nm. The maximum altitude will be FL410. At that level, the altitude inside the aircraft’s pressurized cabin will be at 8000 ft (2438 m). The manufacturer claims the aircraft to have a glide number of an amazingly 1:16. CHPL applicants facing long waiting periods Whomever plans to get a commercial helicopter pilot license (CHPL) in Germany is not only facing high costs but, must also be very very patient. Unlike with other theoretical tests for advanced licenses such as ATPL, IFR or CPL, for the results of which the testees only have to wait for a couple of weeks, CHPL applicants must often wait for more than three months before they know if they passed. The German aviation authorities LBA excuses the situation with the workload of its personnel due to the upcoming Europeanization of the licenses, scheduled for the year 2000. Still, the helicopter pilot applicants feel hindered in starting with their jobs. Mylius MY-103 in flight test As far as military activities are concerned, it has become quiet at the US Air Force base in Bitburg, Germany. The aircraft shelters and the tower are deserted. Still, there is some civil aircraft activity. The Mylius aircraft factory has settled close by the tower. The My-103, a two-seater capable of aerobatic flight, has already accomplished its first flight. The JAR certification is scheduled for next year. The all-metal low-wing aircraft will be offered with either a 160 or 200 hp Lycoming engine. The less powerful version will probably list for approximately 225000 Marks. The company also plans to offer a single-seat version (MY-102) and a four-seater (MY-104). It will have an all-retractable landing gear, while the single and two-seater only retract the nose gear. German experimental aircraft association assembly in Speyer This year’s summer meeting of the German aircraft homebuilders had more highlights than the shows of the past years. The so called Oscar Ursinus Vereinigung (OUV) is celebrating its 30th anniversary. More aircraft and more visitors than ever came to Speyer. A stable high pressure weather situation gave the ideal meteorological set-up and the organizers from the airport Speyer and the local flying club supplied the appropriate infrastructure for this event. Second roll-out of the W-33 in Bremen The aircraft made history 70 years ago. With the Junkers W 33 Bremen, Hermann Köhl, Ehrenfried Günter Freiherr von Hünefeld and James C. Fitzmaurice were the first to cross the Atlantic from East to West. On 12 June, the freshly restored aircraft celebrated its second roll-out at the Bremen airport. In more than a year’s work, experts from the Lufthansa Berlin foundation, technicians from Lufthansa Flight Training, together with several other helping hands gave the W 33 Bremen a new life. Altogether, the restoration required 5500 work hours. Pan-Americana with the amphibious aircraft, part 3 For three months, Peter Jacoby and Wolfgang Hamann flew with their single-engine amphibious aircraft Lake 270 T through South America. In the first part of this series, they described their flights into the Antarctica and to the Falkland islands. The second part took them to fascinating glaciers and water landings on one of the numerous lakes between Argentina and Chile. In this third and last part of the story, the two pilots tell us about their flight to La Paz which resulted in a crash landing and almost meant the end for the trip. The two globetrotters visited the carnival in Oruro and the legendary Inca town Machu Picchu. The last obstacle on their final leg via Panama and Mexico with destination Fort Lauderdale was a tough customs check in Key West, concluding a flying adventure of 37000 kilometers. Aerobatic pilot Frank Versteegh: Airshow right in front Frank Versteegh’s flying displays, featuring a race between a car and an Extra 300L, were one of the ILA’98 highlights in Berlin. aerokurier took a closer look at this show, a real real close look. Crew coordination: job sharing in the cockpit Even though light single and twin-engine aircraft can be flown by only one pilot, a work share in the cockpit can make sense. Especially when another pilot is sitting in the second cockpit seat. The challenge is to make good use of him. Our author Thomas Dietrich describes how such a crew coordination should look like. Flight planning refresher There is still no requirement to file a flight plan for certain VFR flights, even though this does not make sense for flights across the German border. Even within the nine countries that signed the Schengen agreement there is still no agreement in that respect. It looks like this will stay this way for a while. A good reason to refresh the procedures of filing a flight plan. Roland Straub has compiled the most important points. aerokurier action: landing without fees Our August edition of the aerokurier action for more flying practice takes you to three airports: Porta Westfalica, Eisenhüttenstadt and Tannheim can be your destination. All of them are worth a visit and, with our coupons, there will be no landing fees. Pilot Report: ultralight version of the MCR 01 The experimental version of the two-seater MCR 02 has developed into an ultralight variant. The flight tests are already completed. On course to German certification, there is not much more left to do besides the noise evaluation. We took a close look at the first aircraft in Dijon-Darois and Habsheim. Our conclusion: This aircraft sets a new standard for ultralight aircraft in respect to choice of building material (carbon-fibre) and performance. We verified the horizontal speed with the help of a GPS: 270 km/h with only 80 hp! Truly a remarkable number for an ultralight (results). 13th German ultralight championships Only a few participants but high tension up until the end. At the 13th German ultralight championships (18 to 20 June in Bad Sobernheim), the favorites basically fought for the title among their own. Even two 1000 point high scores in timed flights and the cat’s-cradle were not good enough for Heinz Korella and his copilot Jan Altenkirch (on Ikarus c-42) to beat the old and new German champions Peter Unterburger and Evi Struller (Remos G-3 Mirage). The third place was won by newcomers Erich Kopp and Michael Neutz. In the solo-class, Hans-Jörgen Weber (FK 9 Classic) succeeded against Gerhard Klein and his Scheibe Coach. The third place in this category was won by Niels Ludwig and his almost antique Scheibe Ultra. Two German championships There were almost no championships: only the reserve day allowed the urgently needed fourth scoring day of the rainy German championships of the 15-meter classes in Bückeburg. The pilots in the open and 18-meter classes, who were competing for their titles in Mengen, were luckier. They could fly seven times in acceptable weather conditions. Nevertheless, the favorite pilots came out on top in Bückeburg also. The last year’s champion Werner Meuser won the title again. In the racing class, he clearly was ahead of Thorsten Tacke and Holger Back. European and vice world champion Michael Grund had to give up his hopes on day one already because of an outside landing, that landing putting him at a non-recoverable fifth place. Mario Kießling is the new champion in the standard class. He also holds the title of the European juniors championships. From the beginning he flew on first rank with his Discus 2a. Bernd de Boer, Erwin Ziegler and Herbert Weiß came in on ranks two, three and four. (results 15 m classes) Mengen: Following a vehement beginning (129,1 km/h) of the Junior European champion in the club class, Michael Sommer, (who has the right to use the counts’ Nimbus 4 from the German Aero Club), Holger Karow took over the lead in the open class and kept it for the rest of the event. Holger Karow, who is a Deutsche BA airline pilot in his professional life, got ahead with two day high scores and showed a constant performance on a high level during the entire competition. Bruno Gantenbrink, Robert Schröder, and Uli Schwenk followed on places two, three and four respectively. In the 18 meter class (38 participants) the final ranking of the top pilots was clear after the competition was half over. This class was dominated by the guest pilots from France. The open class vice champion Didier Hauss won the title with team colleague Daniel Vincent-Genod close behind. Eberhard Schott followed on third place. (results open and 18 m class) Official first flight of fs-33 Gavilan On 27 June, about one and a half years after the christening of the fs-33 at the AERO 1997 in Friedrichshafen, the Akaflieg (university academic flying group) Stuttgart celebrated the new high-performance two-seater’s official first flight at the airfield Bartholomä. The real first flight was accomplished with pilot Uwe Probst at the controls already on 28 May. The Akaflieg used several sections of earlier developments for the composite two-seater: the fuselage of the fs-31, the mechanical steering contained in the fuselage of the ASH 25, the empenage from the Nimbus 3D. The variable geometry wings are the ones from the fs-32. However, the wings only have trailing edge flaps (with no option to increase the wing area). Furthermore, the inner wings were adapted to 20 meter wingspan (definition for the two-seater class). Off course, the fs-33 is fitted with automatic ruder connections, a highly crash-resistant structure. Also, the aircraft comes with very complacent flight characteristics (data sheet fs-33). fs-33 first flight: a pilot’s point of view The first flight of the Akaflieg Stuttgart’s fs-33 Gavilan was accomplished by the project’s flight test manager Uwe Probst on 28 May in Aalen-Elchingen without much publicity. In this article, Probst describes his first impressions of the aircraft as an engineer. Gliding in Poland Grunau and Hirschberg in Silesia, these two names are inseparably linked to the development of gliding. Today’s Jezów Sudecki (the historic city of Grunau) offers an affordable gliding vacation. In the twenties and thirties, Grunau and Hirschberg were centers of the German and European gliding community. Famous names, such as Espenlaub, Wolf Hirth and Hanna Reitsch, are linked to these locations. Furthermore, Edmund Schneider and his aircraft works, originating world-known designs such as the Grunau-Baby. Further gliding news, for example concerning the European championships of the women and the German championships of the juniors, can be found under airSPORT and NEWS Gliding. Editorial: 8,33 kHz modifications There will be a shortage of frequencies in Europe. That’s why Eurocontrol and the national air traffic control organizations have agreed to space frequencies in the future by 8,33 kHz instead of today’s 25 kHz. The new regulation was supposed to be implemented on January 1, 1999 (limited to aircraft flying above FL245). However, this date has fallen through. The working group is meeting again in September and will decide on the final implementation date. General Aviation in lower airspace is not yet affected by the frequency changes. In any case, this can change fast since there is a shortage of frequencies in this airspace also. Hoping that GA will be spared by the pending regulation would be fatal. The General Aviation associations are required today to apply for their frequency needs with the German Air Navigation Services (DFS) which has to coordinate these requests with Eurocontrol. If GA misses doing so, they will be forced to change over to radio equipment with the new frequency spacing. Even then will GA not be able to use the new frequencies since they are occupied by the airlines. B-RNAV equipment now mandatory The last due day has passed. Since 1 August, every aircraft that flies according to IFR above FL100 must carry certified area navigation equipment. However, by far not all aircraft are equipped with the appropriate equipment yet. B-RNAV is a hard nut. The implementation of Basic Area Navigation in Europe has not only overworked the certifying aviation authorities and air traffic control services on a national and European level but, much more so the equipment manufacturers, the avionics shops and the aircraft operators. After the implementation date was moved from January 1998 to April of this year, Eurocontrol in Brussels issued exceptions up to 31 July. This date has passed. The future avionics concept A revolutionary avionics system is coming from Scandinavia. GPS/STDMA could make many of the on-board systems which are required in the future obsolete. Eurocontrol and the US Air Force are already testing the system. STDMA stands for self-organizing time division multiple access. The system works really simple in principle. The participating stations (aircraft and/or ground stations) are exchanging data on the European wide reserved frequency 136,95 MHz. One frequency is enough since the system divides each minute in 9000 time slots and automatically issues a certain slot to each transmitter/receiver in which it can send its data. New panel-mount moving map systems In the age of satellite navigation and powerful small computers, pilots do not want to miss an electronic map in the cockpit. We picked four new panel mount systems for this market survey: the Filser DX600AVP, the NASA AirNav System, the Becker AirScout and the Moving Terrain MT-Ultra. |
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Last updated July 27, 1998
