Raptor Aircraft

donjohnston said:
Just like on the takeoff, it's not impossible, just very unlikely.

You don't flare a canard aircraft during landing. You literally fly it onto the ground. And the canard has to be flying (not stalled) until the mains are on the ground. And to make a nice smooth landing, the nose should be on the ground before you're slow enough for the canard to stall.

If the mains are not on the ground before the canard stalls, you're going to have a bad day.
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Yep.

https://www.kitplanes.com/velocity-u/
 
^do you guys think Peter knows this?
 
donjohnston said:
Just like on the takeoff, it's not impossible, just very unlikely.

You don't flare a canard aircraft during landing. You literally fly it onto the ground. And the canard has to be flying (not stalled) until the mains are on the ground. And to make a nice smooth landing, the nose should be on the ground before you're slow enough for the canard to stall.

If the mains are not on the ground before the canard stalls, you're going to have a bad day.
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Good to know, and makes sense to a pilot that has never had the pleasure of flying a canard...yet. I can see if the canard stalls, and my understanding is it should before the wing by design, the nose is going to drop fast and ugly.
 
I only have one flight in a canard, but the nose didn't drop that fast when the canard stalled. Faster than you'd want a few feet off the ground, but not that fast IMO and certainly not ugly, it's very smooth.
 
NordicDave said:
20mm is more violent and hard hitting then .30 cal machine guns.
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No **** Sherlock.

20mm = 0.79 inches

It is quite likely that the weight of the projectiles follow a cube law, so -
0.30 cubed is 0.027
0.79 cubed is 0.488

So a solid mass would be about 20 times heavier.

However it is a LOT worse than that, the 20mm cannon has room for an explosive charge.

I have no idea how to estimate the difference that might make however I certainly would not like to be on the wrong end of it.

:)
 
Salty said:
I only have one flight in a canard, but the nose didn't drop that fast when the canard stalled. Faster than you'd want a few feet off the ground, but not that fast IMO and certainly not ugly, it's very smooth.
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Depends on the plane and weight. And it's hard to appreciate at 1,000' AGL. When the nose comes down, the plane accelerates... down.

In my plane with just me in the front seat, I don't get a pitch buck at all. Just a 400fpm level descent. Put another person in the front seat full fuel and the nose drops noticeably. Add some baggage and while it's not a violent drop, there's some mass and inertia behind it. If that happens 3 or 4' above the runway, I'd give even money on collapsing the nose gear.

But that's my plane. A four place plane with an empty weight under 2,000lbs. Probably not nearly the same outcome as a Long-EZ. But much worse in this pig of plane that's empty at what: 3,200lbs?
 
Worst landing I’ve ever done was in my Velocity. Very gusty day with another guy up front. Just lost all lift at 3-4 ft above the runway. Like an F-18 slamming aboard a carrier. Hit so hard it popped the nose tire. No issues with prop clearance though.
 
Spring Ford said:
No **** Sherlock.

20mm = 0.79 inches

It is quite likely that the weight of the projectiles follow a cube law, so -
0.30 cubed is 0.027
0.79 cubed is 0.488

So a solid mass would be about 20 times heavier.

However it is a LOT worse than that, the 20mm cannon has room for an explosive charge.

I have no idea how to estimate the difference that might make however I certainly would not like to be on the wrong end of it.

:)
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I cringe every time I see German gun camera film of a B-17 taking 20mm cannon fire. There are pieces of the aircraft flying off, and there's no doubt the tail gunner is dead. Ugly stuff.
 
3393RP said:
I cringe every time I see German gun camera film of a B-17 taking 20mm cannon fire. There are pieces of the aircraft flying off, and there's no doubt the tail gunner is dead. Ugly stuff.
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Off topic but just watched The Cold Blue today. Excellent documentary.
 
iamtheari said:
What pitot has an integrated static port? The Garmin GAP 26 has pitot and AOA plumbing and that is the model I would have expected to see on the Garmin-infused Raptor.
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My Bellanca Super Viking does. Three small static ports just behind the raised ring area. Plus another port at the rear of the assembly.

15e52ad266d0702a849f1cc241c54bda.jpg
 
After watching the latest video, I'm guessing by Sunday the aircraft will be in the weeds. His hand was shaking as he reached up to flip overhead switches.

After misplacing a data entry decimal point on the throttle range when the aircraft was reassembled, the engine went to idle during one of PM's runs.

Then he discovered the canard elevator is flattening out and losing positive pitch as the airspeed increases. Solution: Crank in more positive trim. No need to change the trim spring. This means as the canard AOA changes at liftoff, the elevator pitch will also change. How much? Who knows?
 
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Thought he had a new local test pilot? Well, at least he has a flight suit now....
 
Reminds me of "The Defender". I thought it was a spoof along the lines of "This is Spinal Tap", but I'm not sure - this guy might be serious. The result is the same though - it will never fly, just like the Raptor.
 
3393RP said:
Then he discovered the canard elevator is flattening out and losing positive pitch as the airspeed increases. Solution: Crank in more positive trim. No need to change the trim spring. This means as the canard AOA changes at liftoff, the elevator pitch will also change. How much? Who knows?
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This is a well known... feature with canard elevators. The low pressure on top of the canard sucks up the elevator the faster you go. Velocity's have a "sparrow strainer" (a small upside down wing) on the trailing edge of the elevator to counteract this and relieve the force on the trim spring. Some builders never install them of remove them. If your trim spring is strong enough, it's no problem. But if the trim spring breaks (or breaks loose), you could wear your arm out by the time you get back on the ground.
SS-3.jpg
 
Oh ffs. It just keeps getting worse. His family will miss him. So very selfish...
 
Tantalum said:
There are some remarkably stupid people out there. Holy hell. $42K with a band of supporters out there for a piece of trash operated by a narrow minded stubborn idiot.
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Movie theaters are charging almost $20 for an adult ticket. Buy one for your date, a large popcorn, a couple boxes of candy, and a couple large sodas and you're in it for $100. At the end, you'll probably walk out disappointed because most movies just aren't that good. Plus, in 2020, you'll come home with the rona.

The guys kicking in $1,000 confuse me a little, but I can't say anything bad about a person who decides that he is more entertained spending $20 to ensure another Raptor prototype video than on Star Wars 10: The Tears of a Generation.
 
iamtheari said:
The guys kicking in $1,000 confuse me a little, but I can't say anything bad about a person who decides that he is more entertained spending $20 to ensure another Raptor prototype video than on Star Wars 10: The Tears of a Generation.
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'The Tears of a Generation' lol.. sad but true. Disney is awful. Kathleen Kennedy is on her way out. Rumor is Mandalorian's Favreau will take a bigger role in Lucasfilm
 
Tantalum said:
'The Tears of a Generation' lol.. sad but true. Disney is awful. Kathleen Kennedy is on her way out. Rumor is Mandalorian's Favreau will take a bigger role in Lucasfilm
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I'm telling you.....put Christopher Nolan on the next 3 Star Wars films. They will be epic. But nobody listens to me....
 
jaxcessnadriver said:
Looks like there are some issues.... throttle communication to the ECU seems to be cutting out and the elevator trim moving to a nose down setting as airspeed increases.
https://youtu.be/UZmrJsDRoE8
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so lets see, the throttle is working fine for a bunch of runs, then fails to idle and the solution is just re-calibrate it? the engineer in me says, "interesting, why did it loose calibration? a fly by wire throttle system has to be foolproof, even better, foolproof with with a backup. the sad part is with decision making like that the go fund me page may be a go fund me to pay for his funeral expenses.
 
Don't worry guys, he slapped some tape near the static port. Should be all good now -- Oh wait, it didn't accomplish anything. Damn, guess he'll try again later.
 
WDD said:
Reminds me of "The Defender". I thought it was a spoof along the lines of "This is Spinal Tap", but I'm not sure - this guy might be serious. The result is the same though - it will never fly, just like the Raptor.
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I was like 13 when I saw Spinal tap. I truly thought it was a real band. The line of "don't touch it...it can't be played" kind of reminds me of this err...plane?
 
jrcox19 said:
Don't worry guys, he slapped some tape near the static port. Should be all good now -- Oh wait, it didn't accomplish anything. Damn, guess he'll try again later.
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Wasabi indicated his pitot has a built in static port. I just don’t get why he doesn’t hook into that.... seems like the dicking around with the port he’s got is wasting more time.
 
jrcox19 said:
Don't worry guys, he slapped some tape near the static port. Should be all good now -- Oh wait, it didn't accomplish anything. Damn, guess he'll try again later.
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Peter has a lot of bigger issues to solve.

Static position and/or configuration can be determined by trial and error. It is a bit of a black art. No ASI is accurate through the entire speed range, but as long as it is consistent at a given point, you can use it as a reference, because that's what you need it for anyway.
 
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unsafervguy said:
so lets see, the throttle is working fine for a bunch of runs, then fails to idle and the solution is just re-calibrate it? the engineer in me says, "interesting, why did it loose calibration? a fly by wire throttle system has to be foolproof, even better, foolproof with with a backup. the sad part is with decision making like that the go fund me page may be a go fund me to pay for his funeral expenses.
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The addition of a flight suit concerns me that he is going to try to fly the thing himself. The incredible self-righteousness he has displayed makes me fear that once he’s run out of possible test pilots, he’ll decide that he needs to do it, rather than stopping to ask himself why he ran out...
 
Omalley1537 said:
The addition of a flight suit concerns me that he is going to try to fly the thing himself. The incredible self-righteousness he has displayed makes me fear that once he’s run out of possible test pilots, he’ll decide that he needs to do it, rather than stopping to ask himself why he ran out...
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Yup. We all know he's going to. He's just talking himself into doing it. Every video I post a comment urging him to reconsider. Here's what some of his cult followers posted in response: I hope they feel responsible for his demise when he ends up crashing.

Bender Aviation said:
Please use an experienced test pilot to do the ground effect flight
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"Alex1911" said:
What’s the difference? If it’s controllable anyone can do it, if not even the test pilot will be pulling the power to get her back on the ground and stopped. Should we use a test pilot every time we do a short field T/O in a twin just in case there’s an engine failure below redline? That’s also uncontrollable at full power, but chop the throttles and it lands just fine. Pretty sure Peter was a flight instructor, I’m sure he can figure it out
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Day Trader said:
Lol....like Wasabi....what a joke. Many people all over the world test their craft themselves. The only reason people like you are having aneurysms is because of YouTube
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Paul Dutton said:
Bender Aviation - Why do you think Wasabi are able to put the plane into idle better than the builder?
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Truly inane stuff.

dreampilot881 said:
I can only imagine what the comments would have looked like if the Wright Brothers did a Vlog of their first flight...they probably even had shimmy in the nose skid. keep your chin up Peter, I can't wait to see this bird fly!
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Because the wright brothers were taking off in a 3000 lb machine at 100kts right?
 
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Bender Aviation said:
Yup. We all know he's going to. He's just talking himself into doing it. Every video I post a comment urging him to reconsider.
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He thinks he can "slowly" open the envelope himself. 8000 feet of runway disappears fast at 100kts when you are in ground effect or not.
 
Peter doesn't need an accurate altimeter or ASI, only a dumb liberal commenter on Youtube would want that. You think the wright brothers had that? All he's gonna do is fly it into ground effect. It will literally go perfectly, nothing can go wrong. Then he'll fly a loop around the pattern all by himself, because who needs experienced test pilots. That's for *******.
 
Just remember folks, you ain't cool without walking away from the explosion.



I hope it all goes well for him. I would never want to see someone spend that much of their life on something and not succeed. Didn't someone build a twin Vans RV and crash it on the maiden flight?
 
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On the bright side, the NTSB will have plenty of data points for their investigation with all the cameras he's using.
 
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