Well, It flies!

Well, all of these glued together Popsicle sticks actually fly! It only
took 10 ¼ years! The FAA inspected my Spencer Aircar project on Tuesday &
blessed it as an airplane. Today, My Test Pilot and friend Brian Branscomb
made the first flight of N351DP and everything went pretty well with the
exception of high oil temperatures. Brian reported that the aircraft has
impressive power with the Continental Tiara and MT propeller. During the
ground testing the brakes would not hold the plane, it wants to GO! It was
a pretty hot day but Brian radioed that he was climbing 1000 fpm at 100 MPH,
full power. The stall should ba around 53 clean so eventually we should
find we have a pretty impressive Vx ROC. Most of the flight he was having
difficulty staying below 100 MPH, this with the gear down. The Tiara engine
is super smooth and has a lot of power. The MT reversible propeller was set
up so well from the factory that I have not had to touch a thing, perfect
RPM settings, I don't know how they did that... As soon as we can get the
oil temps down we will try to get some more quantitative data and spend some
more time in the air. BUT the aircraft flew nicely wings level, requiring
no overall trim adjustments, it does apparently however require attention
to what your feet are doing. We only have one hour on the aircraft but I am
walking on air. Thank you Thank You, Mucho Thank You everybody (esp.
Caroline, Brian, Dave, Tom, Jim and Carol Butterworth, Sid, The Rons,) that
helped me with this adventure, I am a happy and proud papa.
(there is a photo on my webpage at http://www.whitealbatross.com/plane/ )

"Doug Palmer" wrote in message
k.net...
Well, all of these glued together Popsicle sticks actually fly! It only took
10 ¼ years! The FAA inspected my Spencer Aircar project on Tuesday & blessed
it as an airplane. Today, My Test Pilot and friend Brian Branscomb made the
first flight of N351DP

The word "congratulations" hardly seems sufficient, but it is the best word
I have right now. That is a real nice looking airplane! How could you ever
guess that the Aircar was designed by the same guy who designed the Seabee?

You have truly earned my admiration.

Vaughn

Doug: You get an A+ in tenacity, and from what I can see an A++ in
workmanship. If you get a chance, bring it to the Golden West Show in
Marysville this year. I'd love to see your bird up close.

--
Stuart & Kathryn Fields, Publishers
Experimental Helo magazine
P. O. Box 1585
Inyokern, CA 93527
(760) 377-4478 ph
(760) 408-9747 publication cell
(760) 608-1299 technical cell
www.experimentalhelo.com
www.vkss.com


"Doug Palmer" wrote in message
k.net...
Well, all of these glued together Popsicle sticks actually fly! It only
took 10 ¼ years! The FAA inspected my Spencer Aircar project on Tuesday &
blessed it as an airplane. Today, My Test Pilot and friend Brian
Branscomb made the first flight of N351DP and everything went pretty well
with the exception of high oil temperatures. Brian reported that the
aircraft has impressive power with the Continental Tiara and MT propeller.
During the ground testing the brakes would not hold the plane, it wants to
GO! It was a pretty hot day but Brian radioed that he was climbing 1000
fpm at 100 MPH, full power. The stall should ba around 53 clean so
eventually we should find we have a pretty impressive Vx ROC. Most of the
flight he was having difficulty staying below 100 MPH, this with the gear
down. The Tiara engine is super smooth and has a lot of power. The MT
reversible propeller was set up so well from the factory that I have not
had to touch a thing, perfect RPM settings, I don't know how they did
that... As soon as we can get the oil temps down we will try to get some
more quantitative data and spend some more time in the air. BUT the
aircraft flew nicely wings level, requiring no overall trim adjustments,
it does apparently however require attention to what your feet are doing.
We only have one hour on the aircraft but I am walking on air. Thank you
Thank You, Mucho Thank You everybody (esp. Caroline, Brian, Dave, Tom, Jim
and Carol Butterworth, Sid, The Rons,) that helped me with this adventure,
I am a happy and proud papa.
(there is a photo on my webpage at http://www.whitealbatross.com/plane/ )

On 2007-06-16 06:59:57 -0700, "Doug Palmer" said:

Well, all of these glued together Popsicle sticks actually fly! It only
took 10 ¼ years! The FAA inspected my Spencer Aircar project on Tuesday &
blessed it as an airplane.

FANTASTIC! It is a beautiful plane, too.
--
Waddling Eagle
World Famous Flight Instructor

("Doug Palmer" wrote)
We only have one hour on the aircraft but I am walking on air. Thank you
Thank You, Mucho Thank You everybody (esp. Caroline, Brian, Dave, Tom, Jim
and Carol Butterworth, Sid, The Rons,) that helped me with this adventure,
I am a happy and proud papa.
(there is a photo on my webpage at http://www.whitealbatross.com/plane/ )


Very very very nice. Congratulations!


Paul-Mont

Doug Palmer wrote:

Well, all of these glued together Popsicle sticks actually fly! It only
took 10 ¼ years!


Doug,

That's an awesome collection of popsicle sticks!

Beautiful!

Richard

("cavelamb himself" wrote)
That's an awesome collection of popsicle sticks!

Beautiful!


I would like to propose a new term to the r.a.h. lexicon: Popsicle stick
envy

"Nice plane."

"Nice? I've got popsicle stick envy!"


Paul-Mont

Holy crap!

That is a beautiful plane.

--

FF