No. During the pitch buck the airplane is stable in roll. And it descends. PM was able to climb during when this was going on.

However, depending on how much weight it up front, the buck can be rather benign. With just me and half fuel, it's not really a buck. More like a level descent after the first drop.

For those with PFDs with the trend vector "meatball", shouldn't it be centered during takeoff roll?

If you watch the takeoff roll, the green vector is consistently aligned with the runway, but the nose itself is left of course...just struck me as a bit odd, although it could just be an avionics install issue. Roll and yaw both show fairly correct, so it's a bit interesting given that he also has a right turning tendency.

Can watch it at 1:46: https://youtu.be/32l0BGtgTLs?t=106

If the magnetometer is properly calibrated then it should.

His heading showed 175*, and the runway at Valdosta is 176 magnetic, so it seems fairly close at least. Very strange, but that's not too surprising I guess.

It's unintentional comedy but it speaks to the professionalism of NFB that they didn't mock the guy, the film just presents the story and lets the viewers draw their own conclusions. The program feels almost like a character study as it does a documentary.

Of course he's off-kilter. It's fascinating to listen to him espouse his opinions, mid-1980s, about the F-18 (and then state of the art technology and modern doctrine), all while trying to persuade the listener about what amounts to... low technology swarm tactics/suicide waves. He really had no notion just what an efficient killing machine the F-18 would show itself to be only a few years later (in 1991 and 2003).

His warbird restoration accomplishments are respectable in their own right. His Defender is just so... strange.

That CAF Zero got a complete inspection years ago and it was decided that it was unairworthy, and really not a candidate for restoration. Through the generosity of a donor, we were able to work a 3-way trade for an airworthy Zero, and the old CAF Zero is now in the Pacific Museum in Hawaii. I won't go into the details, but let the movie speak for its self.

That CAF Zero got a complete inspection years ago and it was decided that it was unairworthy, and really not a candidate for restoration. Through the generosity of a donor, we were able to work a 3-way trade for an airworthy Zero, and the old CAF Zero is now in the Pacific Museum in Hawaii. I won't go into the details, but let the movie speak for its self.

It is hard to believe that is not satire. I got a chuckle over the mention of his "calibrated instruments" for measuring lift. And his sidekick is almost too goofy to believe.

What happened? "I got hit by wind shear!" Reminds me of the suggestion that the Raptor's pitch instability was "thermals".

It is hard to believe that is not satire.

He finished the installation of his heavy, Rube Goldberg cooling contraption.

Friggin' hose clamps to mount a coolant expansion tank. It's like he's trying to find ways to ensure his failure.

[youtube]https://youtu.be/9wzW04adsgU[/youtube]

While I admire this guy's tenacity, and his willingness to put everything, the good, the bad, and the ugly out on video for all the would to see, this baffles me.

Instead of trying to solve the cooling issues, this much effort to just buy more time before the engine overheats?
The engine will overheat. He just wants a few more seconds before he needs to reduce power?

My knowledge of thermodynamics is lacking.
How does painting a tank in an enclosed area black help it radiate heat?

Between the tanks, plumbing, and additional coolant, how much weight has been added?

Someone needs to slap this guy across the face and wake him up. He is buying way too much of his own bull stuff.

Adding volume to a cooling system does almost nothing. He is so obsessed with the fact that when he turns on the heater it drops the temp. So he wants to make that a larger short term drop? LOL

Does he really think the extra coolant volume and all those tanks is a good solution for production? No way he can think that.

The only thing he just did that made sense was to lower the boost. He does not need crazy boost to fly at low altitude. And even this is not a long term solution. adding a ton of heat and throwing it out the waste gate is not helping anything.

All I keep thinking is he is changing way too many things at once. He will have no idea what fixed what. For all he knows the taping over the wheel wells made it fly more level and got more air into the cooling intake. Or maybe his back plate in the intake did the job. he will never know which of these mods made it worse or better. If it cools better he will most likely think it was the cooling tanks. He seems to choose heavy fixes over simple ones. Haha

Mike

I'm pretty sure that his intention, however short sighted, with the cooling system is an attempt to buy enough time to evaluate and iron out flight handling characteristics "well enough". No, I'm sure he doesn't plan to go to production with the silly system he has going, but he isn't willing to redesign the cooling system in "the prototype".

It's interesting that he referred to it as "the" prototype rather than "this" prototype. If he thinks he can take a punch list of squawks from this plane, and simply address them in the first production airplane he's more delusional than I thought. Hopefully it was just a mistaken phrase.

I get his train of thought about thermal inertia, even though it's flawed. Thermal inertia is what keeps CHTs reasonable during the takeoff roll on most every air cooled piston airplane... the difference in thermal inertia is about an order of magnitude though. Back of the napkin math will tell you all this- horsepower waste heat, seconds, BTUs, mass of water (or cylinder barrel+head aluminum).

I'm a little surprised he hasn't thought to add a spray bar in front of the heat exchangers to give them a shot of water mist (evaporative cooling!). This wouldn't work any better, but then again it was flying through the rain that kept Louis Blériot out of the English Channel 111 years ago, so why not give that a try...