| The Rutan Defiant's Maiden Flight |
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| Written by Peter Wyss |
| Sunday, 14 March 2010 03:59 |
Clive's Rutan Defiant Maiden... or "What our editor doesn't want you to see!" This is the regrettably short story of Clive's first, only and last flight with his beautiful two engine Rutan Defiant canard.
It all started out like one of these routine maiden flights we see almost every weekend at Belrose. The two engines of the canard were new but after running them for a few minutes on the ground they were behaving nicely although idle was somewhat unreliable until a few loose screws (mostly mine - Ed) were sorted. Nevertheless Clive was confident enough to take it out to the field for take off.
The Rutan Defiant ready for engine start. A few attempts for take off were made but the front motor wasn't happy and stopped every time before it got into the air. Clive finally tracked it down to a glow plug problem and changed the plug.
Clive changing the glow plug. That solved the problem and now both engines were running smooth and delivering ample power. The next attempt at taking off was a success... sort of success at least... but check the video and see for yourself....
Yes, that wasn't quite what Clive and all the bystanders expected.
Clive decided that he didn't like the way this canard flew, pulled out his gear and gave away the parts to Doug for spares (as Doug is the only other member currently mad enough to try to fly one of these, albeit with a little more success than Clive had).
Amazing the parts you can find in such a plane.
The undamaged parts ready for give-away.
And that's the end of the short story about Clive Weatherhead and his Rutan Defiant maiden today Comments (0) |
| Last Updated on Monday, 15 March 2010 05:44 |
