"Kevin Horton" wrote in message
news
On Fri, 08 Aug 2003 00:22:46 +0000, Tilt wrote:

We
would like the craft to have some light aerobatics abilities. Nothing
real heavy...none of us wants to go off and join the Air Show.

Cheers,
Lyle


Lyle,

If you also want to fly some aerobatics, I don't think you should
belooking at a canard. A properly designed, built and loaded
canardaircraft does have stall protection if the stall is approached
gentlyenough. But, if you have a very dynamic entry to the stall (e.g.
verynose high at low speed) you might stall the main wing. If the main
wingever stalls you will quite likely enter an unrecoverable deep stall.

I would not risk doing aerobatics in a canard aircraft. You might getaway
with it for awhile, but if you ever screw up and stall the main wing,you
have to bail out. With a conventional aircraft, you just centralizethe
controls and wait until the aircraft enters a recognizable attitude,or
recover from the spin.

I recall a canard that was lost on a test flight up here in Canada when
the test pilot tried some aerobatics.

See:

http://groups.google.com/groups?selm...ews.ionsys.com

This one is also interesting:

http://www.canard.com/ntsb/LAX/95A289.htm

There were quite a few Velocity accidents due to stalls in the early days.
They made changes, and I think the issue is gone, but it highlights how
bad a cliff edge there can be with stalls in canards.

http://www.canard.com/ntsb/MIA/88A203.htm
http://www.canard.com/ntsb/MIA/93A011.htm
http://www.canard.com/ntsb/MIA/89A087.htm
http://www.canard.com/ntsb/MIA/89A117.htm

--
Kevin Horton RV-8 (finishing kit)
Ottawa, Canada
http://go.phpwebhosting.com/~khorton/rv8/
http://www.canard.com/ntsb/LAX/95A289.htm

I won't dispute that there have been some accidents in canard airplanes
during aerobatic flight. I am confident that I could find an equal number
of accidents that happened during aerobatic flight in most any other make
and model, high-performance homebuilt. Flown properly, aerobatics can be
done in canard airplanes. They are very low drag airplanes and great care
should be exercised in the vertical mode. I have done most any "fun" type
manuvers you can name in a veri-eze and a long-ez. I have rolled a velocity
a couple of times. They are all delightful flying airplanes.

That said, the velocity is not really suited for that as much as it is
touring. I don't have any experience with the SQ-2000 except close
examination of the prototype on the ground. The wing area seems a little
small for the load it is said to carry.

Rick Pellicciotti
http://www.belleairetours.com