EMCA Combine

Aviation Quotes

2009-03-08T12:00:00.000-07:00

There are three simple rules for making a smooth landing. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.

It's a good landing if you can still get the doors open.

The only time you have too much fuel is when you're on fire.

In a twin-engine aircraft, the purpose of the second engine is to supply the pilot with enough power to fly to the scene of the crash.

When a prang seems inevitable, endeavor to strike the softest, cheapest object in the vicinity, as slowly and gently as possible. - Advice given to RAF pilots during W.W.II.

When in doubt, hold on to your altitude. No-one has ever collided with the sky.

Airspeed, altitude or brains: Two are always needed to successfully complete the flight.

When a flight is proceeding incredibly well, something was forgotten. - Robert Livingston, "Flying The Aeronca"

Just remember, if you crash because of weather, your funeral will be held on a sunny day. - Layton A. Bennett

Never fly the 'A' model of anything. - Ed Thompson

A pilot who doesn't have any fear probably isn't flying his plane to its maximum. - Jon McBride, astronaut

If you're faced with a forced landing, fly the thing as far into the crash as possible. - Bob Hoover

If an airplane is still in one piece, don't cheat on it; Ride the bastard down. - Ernest K. Gann, advice from the 'old pelican'

Never fly in the same cockpit with someone braver than you. - Richard Herman, Jr., 'Firebreak'

The three best things in life are a good landing, a good orgasm, and a good bowel movement. The night carrier landing is one of the few opportunities in life to experience all three at the same time.

Try to stay in the middle of the air. Do not go near the edges of it. The edges of the air can be recognized by the appearance of ground, buildings, sea, trees and interstellar space. It is much more difficult to fly there.

The three most common expressions in aviation are, "Why is it doing that?", "Where are we?" and "Oh Crap".

A smooth landing is mostly luck; two in a row is all luck; three in a row is prevarication.

Helicopters are for the rich... or the enlisted.

I remember when sex was safe and flying was dangerous.

We have a perfect record in aviation: we never left one up there!

If the wings are traveling faster than the fuselage, it's probably a helicopter - and unsafe.

Flashlights are tubular metal containers kept in a flight bag for the purpose of storing dead batteries.

Helicopters don't fly... they just beat the air into submission.

Flying the airplane is more important than radioing your plight to a person on the ground incapable of understanding it.

What is the similarity between air traffic controllers and pilots? If a pilot screws up, the pilot dies; If ATC screws up, the pilot dies.

If something hasn't broken on your helicopter, it's about to.

Aviation in itself is not inherently dangerous. But to an even greater degree than the sea, it is terribly unforgiving of any carelessness, incapacity or neglect. - Captain A. G. Lamplugh

In flying I have learned that carelessness and overconfidence are usually far more dangerous than deliberately accepted risks. - Wilbur Wright in a letter to his father, September 1900

The ultimate responsibility of the pilot is to fulfill the dreams of the countless millions of earthbound ancestors who could only stare skyward and wish.

Helicopters can't fly; they're just so ugly the earth repels them.

If helicopters are so safe, how come there are no vintage / classic helicopter fly-ins?

A 'good' landing is one from which you can walk away. A 'great' landing is one after which they can use the aeroplane again.

Every takeoff is optional. Every landing is mandatory... in other words, for every take-off, there WILL be a landing.

Flying isn't dangerous. Crashing is what's dangerous.

One of the most important skills that a pilot must develop is the skill to ignore those things that were designed by non-pilots to get the pilot's attention.

A helicopter is a collection of rotating parts going round and round and reciprocating parts going up and down - all of them trying to become random in motion.

It's always better to be down on the ground wishing you were up in the air than up in the air wishing you were down on the ground.

The probability of survival is inversely proportional to the angle of arrival. Large angle of arrival, small probability of survival and vice versa.

Stay out of clouds. The silver lining everyone keeps talking about might be another aircraft going in the opposite direction. Reliable sources also report that mountains have been known to hide out in clouds.

Always try to keep the number of landings you make equal the number of take-offs you've made.

Remember, gravity is not just a good idea. It's the law. And it's not subject to repeal.

There are old pilots and there are bold pilots. However, there are no old, bold pilots.

If you're ever faced with a forced landing at night, turn on the landing lights to see the landing area. If you don't like what you see, turn' em back off.

Always remember you fly an aeroplane with your head, not your hands.

"Unskilled" pilots are always found in the wreckage with their hand around the microphone.

Remember that the radio is only an electronic suggestion box for the pilot. Sometimes the only way to clear up a problem is to turn it off.

Flying the aircraft is more important than radioing your plight to a person on the ground incapable of understanding or doing anything about it.

It is solely the pilot's responsibility to never let any other thing touch his aircraft.

You know you've landed with the wheels up when it takes full power to taxi to the ramp.

Things which do you no good in aviation: The sky above you. The runway behind you. The fuel still in the truck. Half a second ago. Approach plates in the car. The airspeed you don't have.

What's the difference between God and fighter pilots? God doesn't think he's a fighter pilot.

An aircraft may disappoint a good pilot, but it won't surprise him.

There are only two things required to fly a modern airliner: a pilot and a dog. It's the pilot's job to feed the dog. It's the dog's job to bite the pilot if he touches anything in the cockpit.

Aviation is not so much a profession as it is a disease.

Passengers prefer old captains and young flight attendants.

The only thing worse than a captain who never flew as copilot is a copilot who once was a captain.

It's best to keep the pointed end going forward as much as possible.

Any attempt to stretch fuel is guaranteed to increase head wind.

It's easy to make a small fortune in aviation. You just start off with a large fortune.

A male pilot is a confused soul who talks about women when he's flying, and about flying when he's with a woman.

The last thing every pilot does before leaving the aircraft after making a gear up landing is to put the gear selection lever in the 'down' position.

You cannot propel yourself forward by patting yourself on the back.

Source

Autorotation

2009-03-07T20:20:00.000-08:00

Autorotation is a theory that applies to the operation of fixed-wing aircrafts and rotary-wing aircrafts.

during an engine failure, a helicopter may be able to slow its descent before landing and lan in a controlled manner, using the characteristic autorotation.

Fixed-wing aircrafts

When an aircraft is in stall, or approaching the stall, it displays a tendency to roll spontaneously to the right or to the left. A fixed-wing aircraft in a spin, rolls continuously to the right or to the left, which displays the characteristic autorotation.

When the angle of attack is less than the stalling angle, any increase in angle of attack causes an increase in lift coefficient that causes the wing to rise. As the wing rises the angle of attack decreases, and that tends to restore the wing to its original angle of attack.

Conversely, any decrease in angle of attack causes a decrease in lift coefficient that causes the wing to descend. As the wing descends the angle of attack increases, and that tends to restore the wing to its original angle of attack.

For this reason, when the angle of attack is less than the stalling angle, the angle of attack is stable. The aircraft displays damping in roll.

When the wing is stalled and the angle of attack is greater than the stalling angle, any increase in angle of attack causes a decrease in lift coefficient that causes the wing to descend. As the wing descends the angle of attack increases, and that causes the lift coefficient to decrease further and the angle of attack to increase even further. Conversely, any decrease in angle of attack causes an increase in lift coefficient that causes the wing to rise. As the wing rises the angle of attack decreases, and that causes the lift coefficient to increase further towards the maximum lift coefficient. For this reason, when the angle of attack is greater than the stalling angle, the angle of attack is unstable. Any disturbance of the angle of attack on one wing will cause the whole wing to roll spontaneously and continuously.

When the angle of attack on the wing of an aircraft, or on one wing, reaches the stalling angle, the aircraft is at risk of autorotation that will eventually develop into a spin if the pilot does not take corrective action.

Rotor-wing aircrafts

in operation of rotor-wing aircrafts, such as helicopters and autogyros, the generation lift by the main rotor, even though no power is being provided to the rotor by an engine is known as autorotation.

Autogyros main rotor is un-powered, which results the autogyro to completely rely on continuous autorotation to generate the lift.

Stirling Engine

2009-03-07T09:35:00.000-08:00

A Stirling engine is a type of engine that converts heat energy into mechanical power by alternately compressing and expanding a fixed quantity of air or other gas (the working fluid) at different temperatures.

The engine is designed so that the working gas is generally compressed in the colder portion of the engine and expanded in the hotter portion resulting in a net conversion of heat into work. An internal Regenerative heat exchanger increases the Stirling engine's thermal efficiency compared to simpler hot air engines lacking this feature.

Stirling engine was invented by Reverend Dr. Robert Stirling in 1816, who was the father of famous locomotive engineers Patrick Stirling and James Stirling. The first Stirling engine put in to practical use was in 1818, which was used to pump water in a quarry

The below pictures display the #2 engine which i constructed using the drawings appeared in the Popular Science magazine in 1965.

Video of the Stirling Engine

The Electric Garden Railway

2009-03-07T09:31:00.000-08:00

This is a short video of the new electric powered loco, running on my Garden Railway in negombo, Sri Lanka.

Steam Powered Garden Railway

2009-03-07T09:17:00.001-08:00

A model railway system set up outdoors in a garden is known as a Garden railroad or a Garden railway. hile G is the most popular scale for garden railroads, 16 mm scale has a dedicated and growing following especially in the UK. Model locomotives in this scale are often live steam scale models of British narrow gauge prototypes. 16 mm scale (which runs on 32 mm track, the same gauge as O gauge is probably now more popular in the UK than G scale.

A garden railway's scale can be anywhere from 1/32 (Gauge 1) to 1/20.3. 1/32 scale is also called "three-eighths scale" meaning 3/8 of an inch on the model represents one foot on the real thing. For similar reasons, 1/24 scale is also called "half inch scale".

The following pictures illustrate my garden railway built around the garden, with a bridge across the pond. "BRAZIL" the 16 mm Live steam loco is the only train operating at present.

A train station, along with structures, buildings, lamp and signal posts will be added in the near future.

Video of the Garden Railway

Wilma - The Twin Hull Steam Boat

2009-03-07T09:07:00.000-08:00

This is a twin hull steam boat powered by the previously built Hasbrouck #10 Steam Engine

Me and My Wife going on a ride

The Boat

The Boat was constructed using two 16ft canoes.

The Hasbrouck #10 Engine mounted on the Boat.

Video of the Twin Hull Steam Boat

Steam Engine

2009-03-07T08:49:00.000-08:00

Steam Power

In physical chemistry, and engineering, steam refers to vaporized water. A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.

For details of the Previously built Steam Powered RC Aircraft Click Here.

The Hasbrouck #10 - 2HP Column Marine Steam Engine

The plans for the engine were presented to me by Mr. Ray F. Hasbrouck of No. 20, Brouck-Ferris Blvd., New Platz, NY 12561, in May 2005. The plans were drawn very carfully and the building instructions were fully descriptive.

Construction

The Steam Chest, D Valve, and the Steam Chest Cover were made as first step.

The above photo shows the two eccentrics and the outer covers.

The Trunk Guide, the Piston and parts for the foward / reverse control machanism are shown in this photo.

This photo illustrates the Cylinder Block showing the Port arrangement, Trunk precisely alligned with lower face of the Block.

Copper Tubes for the Mono Tube Boiler.

The floating Lazy Bee

2009-03-07T08:14:00.000-08:00

The Lazy Bee is one of the most popular, easy to fly RC airplane designed by Andy Clancy of Clancy Aviations. Lazy Bee is an airplane with exceptional low speed performance with a typical wingload of 6oz/sq ft. The stall speed is very low and control surfaces are over sized. The Lazy bee loops and rolls easily at speeds where most planes tend to fall out of the sky.

Model Specifications for the original Lazy Bee

Wingspan	40"
Wing Chord	14"
Wing Area	15 - 30 oz
Length	26"
Wing Chord	14"
Wing Load	4 - 8 oz/sq ft
Motor	.049 - .15 2-stroke/ Diesel .20 - .26 4-stroke .035 - .075 Electric

The Lazy Bee on a Puddle

The following video shows off my Lazy Bee fitted with floats, flying on a puddle of Rain water.

Electric Autogyro

2009-03-07T07:40:00.000-08:00

RotorCrafts

Before discussing the Autogyro, it is important to know what is meant by a rotocraft. A rotorcraft is a heavier-than-air flying machine that uses life generated by wings, which are called rotor blades that revolve around a mast. Rotor is refereed to several rotor blades mounted to a single mast. Rotorcraft may also include the use of static lifting surfaces, but the primary distinguishing feature being the lift provided by one or more rotors.

Types of Rotorcrafts

Helicopter
Autogyro
Gyrodyne
Tiltrotor

Autogyro

Autogyro is a type of a rotorcraft, which was invented by a spanish aeronautical enthusiast and engineer Juan de la Cierva in 1919. He made his first successful flight on 9th January 1923, at Cuatro Vientos Arfield in Madrid. Autogyro uses a rotor to develop lift in a similar way as helicopters. But the difference is that, though the helicopters rotor is rotated by an engine during normal flight, The rotor of an autogyro is driven by aerodynamic forces in autorotation. An engine-powered propeller, similar to that of a fixed-wing aircraft, provides thrust for the autogyro.

Construction of the Model Autogyro

This is a direct control Electric Gyro Plane, Powered by an AXI motor. A 12.6v 1500 mAh battery supplied the power to the engine. The Tail boom is made out from a carbon fiber tube.

The rotor pylon is costructed with balsa and cardboard.

The three blades were constructed from balsa wood. Though disorientation is a slight problem, it was quite easy to fly this model. The flight duration was approximately 12 minutes.

Video of the Flight

Catalina - Electric

2009-03-07T07:27:00.000-08:00

The Catalina was constructed from RCM Plans. It is powered with two AXI Motors. Two Pararally connected Lipo batteries (12.6v 1500 mAh) were used to power the motors.

The Engine cowlings were casted from Glass Fibre Fabric

The Spinners were turned out in my CNC Lathe Machine.

Though the Catalina was stable in calm air, It was slightly underpowered. At a later stage I will be try this with more powerfull motors.

Model Specifications

Wing Span : 84" with the floats up
Wing Area : 876 sq. inches
Wing Loading : 29 oz. / sq. ft.
Weight : 10.5 lbs. with a monokoted wing
Takeoff run : 100-200 feet
Fuselage length : 51 inches
Constructions : Fiberglass fuselage, foam core balsa sheeted wings
Engines : .40 - .46 cu.in. using 8 oz tanks in each nacelle

Video of the Flight

Comet - The Steam powered RC Aircraft

2009-03-07T06:48:00.000-08:00

Steam Power

In physical chemistry, and engineering, steam refers to vaporized water. A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.

Construction of the Steam Powered Aircraft

I was lucky to come accross a set of copies of the drawings of the Comet , published by Mr. David Parker in the Model Engineer Magazine. The work started in 2000. I had prior experience on steam engines when I started this project. As a school boy in 1965, I had constructed an oscillating cylinder Steam Engine for a science exhibition. After leaving school, I joined an Engineering Firm where I worked in the tool room learning to operate lathe machines, milling machines, grinders etc.

My experience in flying RC Fixed Wing Models, Helicopters and Gyro copters was an added advantage to successfully complete the mission.

The Engine Construction

The engine construction started with the Base Plate and moved on to other items

Cylinder and Port Block

Completed Port Block Soldered to Cylinder

Piston, Cross Head and the O Ring

Throttle Valve Lubricator Assembly

Boiler Casing and the Fire Box

The Engine Fitted to the Boiler casing.

The Aircraft

Technical Specifications

Working Pressure (Steam)	80 psi
Propellar	13"x 8" Wooden (Electric)
RPM	3350 (max 3600)
Static Thrust	500g
Wingspan	75"
Wing Area	5.09 sq. ft.
Weight of Power Plant (Dry	735g
Water	150g (Hot Water)
Methanol	75ml
Weight Ready to Fly	1469g (52oz)
Wing Loading	11.51oz per sq. ft.
Engine Run Duration	1.5 minutes @ 3500 RPM

The Flight

The maiden flight was made on a calm day, with a steady breeze of 8 mph. The take off run was around 20 feet, and the flight duration was 4 minutes.

The Wright Flyer

2009-03-07T04:01:00.000-08:00

The Wright Flyer was the first powered aircraft designed and built by the Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur Wright. The Wright Flyer, also known as Flyer I was the first piloted, heavier than air, aircraft that could fly and take off under its own power. It was based on the Wrights experience in testing gliders at kitty Hawk in 1900 and 1902. The first flight was made on 17th December 1903 at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in United States.

On December 2003, The world celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Wright Flight. To Mark the event, A model of the Wright Flyer was built and successfully flown by us on 17th December 2003, in Negombo, Sri Lanka.

The Tail (Rudder) section of the aircraft was slightly modified to obtain better control as it was almost impossible to fly with its original design as a model aircraft.

The frame was constructed from carbon fiber tubing and the wings were covered using Expanded Polystyrene.

Pictured above are my Sons Collin and Amith, Who built the aircraft, holding it, few moments before the flight.

Captured Moments of the Flight

It was a magnificent sight to see the model of the wright flyer airborne, though it was a tricky and a challenging task to maneuver it.

The Wright Flyer made us feel the joy and pride that Wright Brothers expirienced on 17th December 1903, which is considered as the hitorical turning point of airborne transportaion in the world.

After a successful flight of over a minute, the aircraft safely landed back on ground.

Video of the Wright Flyer

Kadet Senior on Floats

2009-03-07T02:21:00.000-08:00

The Kadet Senior

Kadet Senior is a low flying, inherently stable model aircraft designed by Claude McCullough. It is considered as one of the easiest to control RC aircrafts, which is a perfect approach to RC flying for amateur Pilots.

Specifications of Kadet Senior

Wingspan	78 in(1981 mm)
Wing Area	1150 in²(74.2 dm²)
Weight	6 lbs (2720 g)
Length	62 in (1575 mm)
Radio Req.	3 Channels, 3 Servos
Engine Req.	.29-.40 in³ (4.8 - 6.5 cm³) 2-Stroke Glow .35-.45 in³ (5.7 - 7.4 cm³) 4-Stroke Glow

Video of Kadet Senior

This is my Kadet Senior model Aircraft fitted with locally fabricated foam floats. The flight was made above the Negombo lagoon in Sri Lanka.

Kadet Senior on Floats