Jump to content

Should we add banjo music?


shafs64

Recommended Posts

Guest Maj Millard

Actually the guy didn't do too bad...he didn't kill himself, and the landing in that aircraft type, wasn't that bad really. The Eipper MX was one of the first ULs I ever laid eyes on, back about 1982. I pretty quickly lost interest in flying one once I studied the control set up. ( I had less than 100 hrs at the time).. No ailerons, small spoilers on top of wings if you wanted to hook them up...appears he didn't have them operating.

 

The only control working in the normal sense was the elevator, side movements of the side-mounted stick operates the rudder !, and if the spoilers are hooked up, they are operated by the rudder pedals, which also gave you the option of deploying both together for a rapid descend, or to kill lift on both wings right after landing.

 

Several of my friends flew the ring off MXs in California when I flew there, including one couple both well into their high 70s, who shared the one aircraft. Most flew them without the spoilers hooked up, as one could create good aileron effect with active use of the rudder alone, ( with the stick operating in the normal aileron direction)... Are you following?......there will be an exam !..

 

These machines were powered with the single ignition, single plug per cyl, pull start Rotax 337. If the wind had come up while an MX was up, we would generally walk out to the runway to assist them, by grabbing the wings right after landing. With all the dihedral in those wings it didn't take much to put a wing in the dirt.

 

There was also a very early weight-shift model where the pilot sat in a sling seat, and shifted weight to maintain control. Didn't see too many of them around.

 

The next model, the MXL, was a great machine with full span ailerons, same side stick set-up, but normal standard 3 axis control set-up, and a much better double surface wing. I did quite a bit of time in one of these, and they were a hoot to fly, and quite a manoeuvrable machine. At flare for landing your arse was only about 12" off the grass at around 45 Kts !.....a later development of the MXL was fully aerobatic .

 

One problem with this type of aircraft was that the upside down engine was right behind your head. We wore hard hat open face helmets in those days, and the transparent fuel tank was right above your head. Whilst checking fuel overhead it was easy to knock the foward spark plug lead off the engine. They kept running on one, (roughly!) and we wore gloves so we could quickly put the plug lead back on, without getting too much of a boot !!!!........I sort of miss those days !...........Anyway to get back to my original point....I was quite impressed that that first- timer actually got that MX back on the ground, in not too bad style really for an MX..............Maj....014_spot_on.gif.1f3bdf64e5eb969e67a583c9d350cd1f.gif

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ross! I flew a Quicksilver MX many years ago.Didn`t like it much. Not responsive enough for me.

 

The MX belonged to a couple and they were trying to teach themsevels to fly it ( No! not on my strip ) anyway! The guys partner had to go away for a while so she gave him strict orders not to use the aircraft while she was away. Well boys will be boys and he took no notice. After a few attempts the guy got it in the air, crashed it back onto the strip and was lucky to walk away with only the MX being damaged!...After that they both decided to come to me to learn to fly........I flew it after they rebuilt it.

 

Frank

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

He is either a natural pilot or a liar. For somebody who has supposed to have never flown a aircraft before. He did a pretty good job of flying level with no reference of the horizon to a instrument panel of anything like that in front of him.

 

 

  • Agree 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

He is either a natural pilot or a liar. For somebody who has supposed to have never flown a aircraft before. He did a pretty good job of flying level with no reference of the horizon to a instrument panel of anything like that in front of him.

I agree that he certainly did a very good job - a bit hard to believe that it was his first flight though with no training whatsoever. There is plenty to get a horizon reference in those aircraft.Laurie

 

 

  • Caution 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...