Spirit Of St. Louis ponderings

[Ricky Summersett]

I have often wondered about Lindbergh's trans-Atlantic flight in the
Spirit...
He had a "periscope" with which to see directly ahead. He said he
could bank and turn the aircraft to see ahead as well if needed.
What I'm wondering is; What kind of situational awareness instruments,
if any, did the Spirit have on board?
I'm IFR rated but I have never tried to fly visually just by looking
out the side windows, is that difficult or simple? Especially in the
blackness that was bound to have been experieced over the open
Atlantic at night.
I wonder just how difficult or easy was it to fly visually with a
periscope and side windows? Was there needle & ball at this point in
time in aircraft?

Ricky

[Jay Honeck]

> I have often wondered about Lindbergh's trans-Atlantic flight in the
> Spirit...

In many ways it was a Darwin thing. Lindbergh had trained in one of the
harshest theaters of aviation -- the air mail service -- and survived where
many others did not.

Air mail pilots flew in conditions that were beyond appalling, while flying
open cockpit biplanes. Lindbergh had a knack for survival, and was a gifted
pilot. In many ways, the flight across the Atlantic -- other than its
duration, which required fairly severe sleep deprivation -- was a walk in
the park compared to some of his earlier flights.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[Saville]

Ricky Summersett wrote:

>
> I have often wondered about Lindbergh's trans-Atlantic flight in the
> Spirit...
> He had a "periscope" with which to see directly ahead. He said he
> could bank and turn the aircraft to see ahead as well if needed.
> What I'm wondering is; What kind of situational awareness instruments,
> if any, did the Spirit have on board?
> I'm IFR rated but I have never tried to fly visually just by looking
> out the side windows, is that difficult or simple? Especially in the
> blackness that was bound to have been experieced over the open
> Atlantic at night.
> I wonder just how difficult or easy was it to fly visually with a
> periscope and side windows? Was there needle & ball at this point in
> time in aircraft?
>
> Ricky

Hi Ricky,

You can see what he had on the panel here:

http://www.cradleofaviation.org/lindbergh/spirit/439PH1.html

Looks to be a needle and ball. I guess, as Jay says, that he was so
proficient he could fly at night with what amounts to several failed
instruments in today's modern cockpits.

Gregg

[Richard Riley]

On Sat, 07 Jan 2006 07:35:13 GMT, Ricky Summersett
> wrote:

:
:I have often wondered about Lindbergh's trans-Atlantic flight in the
:Spirit...
:He had a "periscope" with which to see directly ahead. He said he
:could bank and turn the aircraft to see ahead as well if needed.
:What I'm wondering is; What kind of situational awareness instruments,
:if any, did the Spirit have on board?
:I'm IFR rated but I have never tried to fly visually just by looking
:out the side windows, is that difficult or simple? Especially in the
:blackness that was bound to have been experieced over the open
:Atlantic at night.
:I wonder just how difficult or easy was it to fly visually with a
:periscope and side windows? Was there needle & ball at this point in
:time in aircraft?

Good article on flying it here:

http://www.charleslindbergh.com/plane/spirit.asp

"Considering the larger wing, Hall was dissatisfied with the stability
that the small tail surfaces of the M–2 would provide. Larger surfaces
would improve stability but increase drag and production time.
Lindbergh opted to retain the smaller tail surfaces: "It's clear that
stability is not a strong point with the Spirit, but we didn't design
the plane for stability. We decided to use the standard tail surfaces
to...gain...range."

Lindbergh was a master of understatement. The aircraft is dynamically
and statically unstable. "It is one of the worst flying airplanes I've
ever flown," said Robert "Hoot" Gibson, former space shuttle
commander. "It's a challenge to keep the airplane going straight and
make it do what you want."

"The Spirit is too unstable to fly well on instruments. It is
high-strung, and balanced on a pinpoint. If I relax pressure on stick
or rudder for an instant, the nose veers off course," commented
Lindbergh.

You can say that again. After entering a normal turn and neutralizing
the controls, I noticed that although the airplane remained banked,
the nose suddenly stopped moving across the horizon, and I was in a
perfect sideslip.

The rudder and elevator were easier to operate but required constant
attention to keep the aircraft on an even keel. The nose hunted left
and right, and porpoised like a whale. The Spirit is a high-workload
airplane that never allows you to relax.

Lindbergh was "thankful we didn't make the Spirit stable. The very
instability which makes it difficult to fly blind or hold an accurate
course at night now guards me against excessive errors." He credited
the instability with keeping him awake and alive."

[Dan Foster]

In article >, Saville > wrote:
> Ricky Summersett wrote:
>
>> I have often wondered about Lindbergh's trans-Atlantic flight in the
>> Spirit...
>> He had a "periscope" with which to see directly ahead. He said he
>> could bank and turn the aircraft to see ahead as well if needed.
>> What I'm wondering is; What kind of situational awareness instruments,
>> if any, did the Spirit have on board?
>> I'm IFR rated but I have never tried to fly visually just by looking
>> out the side windows, is that difficult or simple? Especially in the
>> blackness that was bound to have been experieced over the open
>> Atlantic at night.
>> I wonder just how difficult or easy was it to fly visually with a
>> periscope and side windows? Was there needle & ball at this point in
>> time in aircraft?
>>
>> Ricky
>
> You can see what he had on the panel here:
>
> http://www.cradleofaviation.org/lindbergh/spirit/439PH1.html

Better one, even if this is computer generated:

http://www.microsoft.com/games/flightsimulator/img/craft/cockpit_spirit.jpg

(The Ryan NYP 'Spirit of St. Louis' was featured in Microsoft Flight
Simulator 2004.)

The only really unusual looking instrument is below of the center,
T-shaped, which was the Rieker pitch-and-skid indicator.

Unusual today would be things like the small earth inductor compass
deviation gauge ('L/R') above the turn indicator. It let you know if you
were going left or right onto whatever your chosen course was.

It's since been integrated into the modern moving-card directional gyro.

And obviously, the pitch-and-skid indicator was combined with the turn
indicator for modern turn coordinator indicators.

That was one heck of a crossing, because:

a) He had been up about 22 hours prior to the flight
b) Was up for 33 1/2 hours throughout flight
c) Was up for 4 hours post-flight
d) Had to deal with water spray during flight
e) Had to deal with oxygen issues at 10,000 ft best he could
f) Started to hallucinate about 2/3 way through flight
g) No flaps, no brakes -- chopping the power and letting mud
slow him down at Le Bourget worked out great.
h) Didn't take coffee (diuretic and caffeine effects)
i) Took only a little water and five sandwiches
j) Had to very, very carefully monitor actual fuel burn rate and
would adjust engine RPMs to nail an optimal profile -- and
slowed down the plane a bit as the fuel burned off
k) He said that the periscope was too tiresome to use for long
periods so he only used it during the early part of flight
l) Restricted visibility for landing
m) Had to contend with constant longitudinal instability (which
was reportedly deliberately chosen, as a means of keeping him
awake during the flight)
n) Had to do own nav position calculations based on the stars
o) No electrical starter -- had to have someone hand-crank the prop
p) Dealt with storms, icing, continuous fog

Still one heck of a difficult flight, even today, had it been done with
an exact replica of that plane and these conditions.

Heck of a good navigator, too -- was only 3 miles off course by the time
he arrived off the southern tip of Ireland.

Trivia: Ryan NYP was the plane -- a derivative of the earlier Ryan M-2.
NYP stood for 'New York-Paris'.

-Dan

[Paul Tomblin]

In a previous article, Dan Foster > said:
> a) He had been up about 22 hours prior to the flight
If I remember his autobiography right, at one point he went off to have a
sleep and a friend came by to cry about "what am I going to do if you
die"?

> b) Was up for 33 1/2 hours throughout flight
> c) Was up for 4 hours post-flight
> d) Had to deal with water spray during flight
> e) Had to deal with oxygen issues at 10,000 ft best he could
> f) Started to hallucinate about 2/3 way through flight
> g) No flaps, no brakes -- chopping the power and letting mud
> slow him down at Le Bourget worked out great.
> h) Didn't take coffee (diuretic and caffeine effects)
> i) Took only a little water and five sandwiches
> j) Had to very, very carefully monitor actual fuel burn rate and
> would adjust engine RPMs to nail an optimal profile -- and
> slowed down the plane a bit as the fuel burned off
> k) He said that the periscope was too tiresome to use for long
> periods so he only used it during the early part of flight
> l) Restricted visibility for landing
> m) Had to contend with constant longitudinal instability (which
> was reportedly deliberately chosen, as a means of keeping him
> awake during the flight)
> n) Had to do own nav position calculations based on the stars
> o) No electrical starter -- had to have someone hand-crank the prop
> p) Dealt with storms, icing, continuous fog

And take a look at that fiendishly complicated fuel system. I have enough
trouble remembering to switch from left to right and back again. Look at
all those little stop-cocks!


--
Paul Tomblin > http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
I didn't need to sabotage anything. Not being around to say "No that
won't work" or "you can't do it that way" is more than enough damage.
(Ego problem? It's not a problem.) -- Graham Reed, on job endings

[Dan Foster]

In article >, Paul Tomblin > wrote:
> And take a look at that fiendishly complicated fuel system. I have enough
> trouble remembering to switch from left to right and back again. Look at
> all those little stop-cocks!

Ah, yes, he had five tanks -- three in wings and two in fwd fuselage, and
had to keep all five in balance. Now that was a fun job. </tongue-in-cheek>

-Dan