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aerokurier 9/1997
Don’t gamble with the future The efforts of the USA to revitalize General Aviation are manifold and successful. Three years after passing the General Aviation Revitalization Act, the production of single and twin-engine aircraft is, again, significantly increasing and the number of pilots seems to have stabilized also. However, just the production of new aircraft alone doesn’t secure the existence of General Aviation. The Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) is also very active in generating new blood. EAA has set up the Young Eagle program, with the goal to bring closer the fascination of flying to one million kids and youngsters. Esteemed head of the group is Chuck Yeager, the first man to fly faster than the speed of sound. Klaus Savier and his VariEze: Super fly and save A German born, and California citizen, is generating a lot of attention in the US experimental scene. The Heinsberg, close to Aachen, Germany born Klaus Savier has acquired a name with tuning accessories. He also achieved almost unbelievable results, even world records with his VariEze, which he uses as a test bed. He flies up to 218 kilometers with just 3,8 liters of fuel, at a remarkable cruise speed of 182 kts. In this report, he explains the secret to his success. His tuning kits are well known among homebuilders. Not so much because they allow the use of fuel much more efficiently but, because the kits generate lots of extra speed. Business jets from Dassault: the Falcon family The French aircraft manufacturer Dassault Aviation has produced more than 1200 business jets along with Mirage fighter aircraft. 1996 was the first year in which more than 50 percent of the company’s turnover was generated from the civil business jet production. With the twin-engine Falcon 2000 and the triple-engine Falcon 50EX, Falcon 900B, and Falcon 900EX, Dassault is ready for the challenges of the next century. Even though the Falcon jets are of French origin, US companies have a high share of the value added since they supply avionics and engines. On 15 July, Dassault’s US subsidiary, Dassault Falcon Jets, celebrated the opening of its new headquarters at the Teterboro Airport in New York, New York’s business aviation airport. For the first time, the brand-new building joins all divisions under one roof. From Teterboro, the marketing and worldwide sales of the Falcons is organized (except for Europe, Africa, and the Middle East). New: kit aircraft Europa now with tricycle-gear The British two-seater kit Europa is a very successful product, more than 400 kits having been sold to customers in 27 countries. Now, the two-seater, which was developed by Ivan Shaw, is available with a tricycle-gear. The decision for this landing gear variant has a plausible reason: many pilots, who are interested in the Europa, learned to fly on tricycle-gear aircraft such as Cessnas, Cherokees or Grummans. Most of these pilots don’t have any experience on tailwheel aircraft. It was only logical to acknowledge the needs of these potential customers by offering the Europa with a conventional tricycle-gear. Operating room in an aircraft fuselage The largest airborne operating room gave its European debut at the Paris Airshow. The project "flying hospital" is sponsored by American investors and private fundings and is also supported by the US government. The treatment is free of charge. The system is based on a triple-engine Lockheed L1011 TriStar which has been modified ($25 million) into a flying hospital. The aircraft houses a fully equipped operating room with three places, fitted with autonomous supply systems. The scale of on-board care reaches from simple wound treatment to complex micro-surgery. Oshkosh ’97: The highlights from the world’s largest airshow Oshkosh is the dream of each aviation enthusiast. There is no other place on earth that offers this multifaceted of aircraft at just one airport. Since they presented more news, the manufacturers of production aircraft were a little more in the spotlight than the kitplane manufacturers this year. Only one new kit aircraft, a four-seater canard design designated as SQ 2000, was at the show. Lancair, so far solely a kitplane manufacturer, showed its new Columbia 300, a production aircraft that is based on the kitplane Lancair Super ES. Lance Neibauer received the FAA provisional type certificate for the Columbia 300. 23 interested customers put down their names in the order book, increasing the number of orders to 100. Cessna released the prices for the Stationair and Turbo Stationair. The two single-engine aircraft will be offered for $289,900 and $323,900 respectively. First deliveries are planned to begin in January of 1998. The two aircraft will be assembled in Cessna’s Single Engine Division in Independence, Kansas. The showstopper was an aircraft which will probably never be built as a production or kit aircraft in the presented form: the Williams/Rutan V-Jet II. This experimental aircraft is supposed to show that the new turbofans, which are being developed by NASA and Williams, are the new propulsion for General Aviation. They are supposed to be significantly more silent than today’s propeller propulsion systems, at the same time not being significantly more expensive. V-Jet II has to forward swept wings and is powered by two FJX-1 engines. NDB Approaches Although the NDB based navigation is continuously losing its significance, it must still be mastered, especially by IFR pilots. There are still numerous approaches worldwide based on non-directional beacons. To fly a NDB approach in no-wind conditions is not difficult. With winds, however, the ADF indicator must be constantly compared to the desired course to correct the heading if necessary. ATP pilot and flight instructor Andreas Offermann explains what these corrections should look like. Accident analysis The change from IFR to VFR holds some significant risks. Is the IFR flight plan being canceled by the pilot (no matter if it’s done freely or forced to do so by regulations), real visual meteorological conditions must prevail for the following portion of the flight. If not, the flight can easily turn out to be a dead-end road. This accident analysis describes such a case. Landing for free Again, airports are participating in the aerokurier Action. The airfields Burg, Speyer, Schmallenberg-Rennefeld, and Bielefeld-Windelsbleiche will be this month’s hosts. Ultralights in Oshkosh: Away from the pure design At the beginning of the eighties, the US manufacturers set the standards for ultralight aircraft. This leading position has been meanwhile lost for the most part. Some of the companies now concentrate on the domestic market of experimentals and primary aircraft, to be able to compete internationally. For example, Flightstar/Leza-Lockwood are planning to produce and market the Ikarus C-42 in the USA. The Dallach D-4 Fascination generated lots of attention at its Oshkosh debut. Not only Americans, but also customers from Germany can now get the fast low-wing made in the USA. Our special report also covers other news from the international ultralight branch at Oshkosh. 25th world gliding championships in St. Auban 1997 / part II Werner Meuser champion, Michael Grund runner-up in the Racing Class, and Robby Schröder third rank in the Open Class – very seldom has the German team had such a success at championships. It looked even better during the competition. However, a day with thunderstorms hampered the real big success. The second part of our report describes the really exiting flying days during which the German pilots achieved the leading positions in the Racing and the Open Class, even during tasks that clearly favored the domestic pilots with good knowledge of the area. The results can be retrieved from the Website of the Organizer. Well prepared for the aerobatic world championships During the world air games (9 to 21 September) in Turkey, the aerobatic gliding competition will be held as world championships. The event will take place in Antalya. At the world air games in Antalya both, the glider and motor aircraft will have a competition. While the glider pilots are flying for the champion title, some of the motor aircraft aerobatic pilots will compete for the European championships in Antalya. Motor and glider aerobatic pilots, at least in Germany, separately prepared for the big event, while most of the Russian glider aerobatic pilots already have accumulated considerable experience in motor aerobatics. Following an intense training according to a new concept (see aerokurier 8/97), the team of six from the German Aero Club are looking optimistically at the challenges waiting for them in Antalya. Along with German champion Henry Bohlig, Roland Bauer, Detlev Eilers, Ludwig Fuß, Michael Rottland, and Gregor Wilke are teaming for Germany. The pilots are presented in detail in the magazine. Run on the PW-5 world championships 53 pilots from 30 nations are registered for the first world championships of the World Class (7 to 20 September) in Inönü in the frame of the world air games in Turkey. World champion Bruno Gantenbrink, Diether Memmert, and Gudrun Haas are in the team of the German Aero Club. The World Class is alive! There is very much interest in the first monotype world championships with the PW-5, the participation even exceeds the world championships of the FAI classes of this summer in St. Auban in France – at least as far as the number of participating nations is concerned (six more). The number of pilots will not be as high. However, with 53 it has reached the limit of the capacity in this class. At the dress rehearsal during the world championships last year (Andalou Gliding Cup) only one PW-5 was participating. The majority of the 22 participants of the 1996 event were sport soldiers from the German forces. XXV. OSTIV congress in St. Auban 1997 Are we flying to become world champion? This is probably true for the majority of the 94 world championships pilots in St. Auban. They were fighting for each second in the competition when Joachim Küttner asked this question during his OSTIV speech at the venue of the championships. Or are we flying "just for fun"? The pure lust for flying certainly is the answer for many of the glider pilots. Is it the adventure, that is rousing? Is it intellectual curiosity? Glider pilots who are driven by this force are truly carrying the OSTIV idea: the idea of the international scientific-technological organization of gliding (OSTIV), which again gathered parallel to the world championships. Dr. Hermann Trimmel describes the presentations of the 25th OSTIV congress which are especially useful for practical flying. Quite a few surprising theories were presented in the fields of aerodynamics, technology, and meteorology. The position of the President went from Dr. Manfred Reinhardt, who had lead OSTIV over many years, to Professor Loek M.M. Boermanns from the Technical University Delft where he is directing the Aerodynamic Institute for low speeds. Several profiles of the modern generation of competition gliders were developed in the wind tunnel of this facility. Further gliding news, for example concerning the European championships of the women and the German championships of the juniors, can be found under airSPORT. |
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Last updated August 23, 1997
