December 6th 13, 03:40 PM
On Friday, February 10, 1995 2:11:37 PM UTC-5, Nick Leonard wrote:
> Raphael: I'm posting this to the net for their amusement, too!
> 1. Yes, the pre-production A-21 SJ was flown all'round Europe and England
> back in the early eighties. This was to drum up some biz. That bird has a
> 100 KG thrust TRS-18 engine whose climbout is a real yawn ( I have this
> bird with me now) BUT this doesn't detract from the raw pleasure of making
> such expensive noise :-)
> 2. Inflight startup question: Yes, you can certainly restart in-flight.
> / Master:ON, Gen:ON, Vent/Norm: Norm, Start button depress for approx
> 10 sec ( at +3 you hear the ign plugs popping, +6 the engine spoolup
> rate increases and the DB count in the cockpit goes from 60(??) to a
> deafening something-or-other. I use earplugs under headphones. ANR will
> be this summer's key! ) Try to wait about a minute at about 90% to let the
> EGT stabilize a bit then firewall it. On a microturbo you either go flat
> out or idle (the odd approach;usually you behave as a proper sailplane should)
> -the fuel consumption is awful. Example: a touch and go and pattern circuit
> will consume about $8.00 in fuel. That's full burn 'till halfway thru down-
> wind leg then idle.
> 3. I have gone through two other A-21SJs...complete refurbs and some mods
> to reduce friction and subsequent stiffness in both pitch and roll modes..
> One of these (currently back in Australia) has now truly sweet control
> feeling. It's a big, heavy bird so one cannot expect a four-aileron Pitts
> kind of roll rate (! can you imagine!!) but I'd wildly guess 45 to 45 @
> 60 kts to be about 4 sec or possibly a bit faster.
> Once the pitch friction problem was worked out, the control is smooth
> and "linear". No surprises in pitch.
> One rather odd flight characteristic of the bird is the ability of the
> pilot to "turbulate" in circling flight the outboard (trapezoidal section)
> wing panels through rough pitch inputs OR rough little thermals. Typically,
> one is at max gross which makes the problem occur at lower accelleration
> rates. What happens is that too much positive G input oilcans the Trapezoi-
> dal section and thus causes turbulation. You can FEEL the loss in perfor-
> mance. But, after one has flown the creature for a while, you can "sidle
> up " to the grey area and live there as you climb.
> It climbs well, though needing bigger thermals than the local K-8!!
> We have the vario audio + threshold set at about 3 kts. Anything less
> is ignored.
> L/D on "my" aircraft are 43:1 + That is...so far as I can measure without
> a truly precise "Johnson Grade" type of testing. We've done 50 mile final
> glides and the numbers just kept working out as predicted.
> I hope I've answered your questions, Raphael. The Caproni A-21s sure aren't
> everyone's cup of tea; but they have a .....panache.....lacking in other,
> somewhat higher performance 2 place motorgliders. Perhaps becaus the air-
> plane is the result of an artist like Ferrarin ( the designer);perhaps bec-
> ause each machine is hand built by craftsmen of the old school (look and
> you will see the odd file mark and pencilled notations and signatures)
> rather than the somewhat sterile molded perfection of the German Super-Ships.
> I-Jett, for example, has glove leather upholstry. When you get into the
> bird you smell a little Jet-A, a little lubricating oil, a little plastic;
> but what you mostly smell is the lovely leather....
> -Like getting into a Ferrari. Same thing. Sigh!
> Cheers,
> --
> Nick Leonard
Dick Reiser (late of New Mexico?) owned one which he sent to Chile for he and I to fly in a state-sponsored soaring exploration of the Andes (west side) in 1984. During one of the practice sessions in Santiago, Bernald Smith and I powered all the way over Mt Anconcaqua,14,494', at which point it was out of fuel. On the glide back to the airport we flew with some Andean condors.
One quirk I had to adjust to was the perception of what straight ahead was in this ship. Since it was side by side seating the nose taper pointed your legs off center and I invariably landed with a little crab.
Ed Byars was on that expedition and flew the Caproni a couple legs while I was down with Montezuma's revenge.
Karl Striedieck
> Raphael: I'm posting this to the net for their amusement, too!
> 1. Yes, the pre-production A-21 SJ was flown all'round Europe and England
> back in the early eighties. This was to drum up some biz. That bird has a
> 100 KG thrust TRS-18 engine whose climbout is a real yawn ( I have this
> bird with me now) BUT this doesn't detract from the raw pleasure of making
> such expensive noise :-)
> 2. Inflight startup question: Yes, you can certainly restart in-flight.
> / Master:ON, Gen:ON, Vent/Norm: Norm, Start button depress for approx
> 10 sec ( at +3 you hear the ign plugs popping, +6 the engine spoolup
> rate increases and the DB count in the cockpit goes from 60(??) to a
> deafening something-or-other. I use earplugs under headphones. ANR will
> be this summer's key! ) Try to wait about a minute at about 90% to let the
> EGT stabilize a bit then firewall it. On a microturbo you either go flat
> out or idle (the odd approach;usually you behave as a proper sailplane should)
> -the fuel consumption is awful. Example: a touch and go and pattern circuit
> will consume about $8.00 in fuel. That's full burn 'till halfway thru down-
> wind leg then idle.
> 3. I have gone through two other A-21SJs...complete refurbs and some mods
> to reduce friction and subsequent stiffness in both pitch and roll modes..
> One of these (currently back in Australia) has now truly sweet control
> feeling. It's a big, heavy bird so one cannot expect a four-aileron Pitts
> kind of roll rate (! can you imagine!!) but I'd wildly guess 45 to 45 @
> 60 kts to be about 4 sec or possibly a bit faster.
> Once the pitch friction problem was worked out, the control is smooth
> and "linear". No surprises in pitch.
> One rather odd flight characteristic of the bird is the ability of the
> pilot to "turbulate" in circling flight the outboard (trapezoidal section)
> wing panels through rough pitch inputs OR rough little thermals. Typically,
> one is at max gross which makes the problem occur at lower accelleration
> rates. What happens is that too much positive G input oilcans the Trapezoi-
> dal section and thus causes turbulation. You can FEEL the loss in perfor-
> mance. But, after one has flown the creature for a while, you can "sidle
> up " to the grey area and live there as you climb.
> It climbs well, though needing bigger thermals than the local K-8!!
> We have the vario audio + threshold set at about 3 kts. Anything less
> is ignored.
> L/D on "my" aircraft are 43:1 + That is...so far as I can measure without
> a truly precise "Johnson Grade" type of testing. We've done 50 mile final
> glides and the numbers just kept working out as predicted.
> I hope I've answered your questions, Raphael. The Caproni A-21s sure aren't
> everyone's cup of tea; but they have a .....panache.....lacking in other,
> somewhat higher performance 2 place motorgliders. Perhaps becaus the air-
> plane is the result of an artist like Ferrarin ( the designer);perhaps bec-
> ause each machine is hand built by craftsmen of the old school (look and
> you will see the odd file mark and pencilled notations and signatures)
> rather than the somewhat sterile molded perfection of the German Super-Ships.
> I-Jett, for example, has glove leather upholstry. When you get into the
> bird you smell a little Jet-A, a little lubricating oil, a little plastic;
> but what you mostly smell is the lovely leather....
> -Like getting into a Ferrari. Same thing. Sigh!
> Cheers,
> --
> Nick Leonard
Dick Reiser (late of New Mexico?) owned one which he sent to Chile for he and I to fly in a state-sponsored soaring exploration of the Andes (west side) in 1984. During one of the practice sessions in Santiago, Bernald Smith and I powered all the way over Mt Anconcaqua,14,494', at which point it was out of fuel. On the glide back to the airport we flew with some Andean condors.
One quirk I had to adjust to was the perception of what straight ahead was in this ship. Since it was side by side seating the nose taper pointed your legs off center and I invariably landed with a little crab.
Ed Byars was on that expedition and flew the Caproni a couple legs while I was down with Montezuma's revenge.
Karl Striedieck