Hi from Jim Byrd

[JByrd]

Hello There,

A small introduction here. I work as a wind tunnel test engineer at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, VA (not far from Norfolk). I have been here 20 years and formerly lived in College Station Texas where I finished a BS degree in electronic engineering technology in 1982. My first visit to the Texas A&M 7x10 Low Speed Wind Tunnel sealed my fate. I took one look at the kind of work being done there and that was what I felt I could contribute to my country's defense needs. That was nearly 25 years ago so that is what I do for a living.

The speed ranges that I am familiar with are from low speed, transonic, and supersonic speeds up to Mach 4.6. I have lost count, but that adds up to about 400 projects and 20,000+ hours of wind tunnel time over the years. I am not a trained aerodynamicist but it is not hard to pick up a good education along the way considering the talent of the people around me.

My family and I are all members of the local <a href="http://www.vawg.cap.gov/newportnews/cadets>Civil Air Patrol unit"</a> and are active in the cadet program and emergency services (rescue) activities through missions assigned by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center (AFRCC) at Langley Air Force Base (nearby). I teach the aerospace education cirriculum to the cadets and interested senior members.

I have never held a rating, but I did take private pilot ground school in 1982. One of my friends rebuilt a 1938 Taylorcraft BD-12? and we flew it all over central Texas before I moved to work at Langley in 1985. So I have about 20 hours yoke and navigation time in the Taylorcraft. In recent years about 10 hours in 172's, 2 as PIC.

I came down with a fine case of Sarcodosis in 1999 (an auto-immune disorder, now in remission) and had a non-cancerous brain tumor removed in August 2004. Removal of the tumor cut the auditory nerve connection to my right ear and vestibular function. I am still healing from that event 16 months later. It took 11 months after surgery before my right eye would lubricate on it's own again. The right side of my face is still moderately paralyzed. I tell everyone that it feels like I fell out of a tall tree and hit my head on something very hard.

The decision to do surgery was sort of like "I am tired of the toothache, please give me the root canal". The headaches before surgery were unbearable. My wife helped me cope. We are much closer now, I did not know until months later how much it shook her about potentially loosing me.

I have been following gyros for about two years now. The forum here is great and sometimes pointed, sad, informative, fun, and mystifying. A little of everything. People from everywhere, backgrounds, etc. The talent and creativity of people is simply staggering. I am a but jealous.

My type of work requires me to constantly plan, conduct, and verify the accuracy of physical measurements. Subjectivity is not much a part of the plan. In fact, subjectivity is often my foe. Helping the wind tunnel customer to accept the fact their data is perhaps not what they wanted to observe is actually a measure of success. Something new was just learned. We learn by accepting what we do not expect tempered by our experiences as to what we think we should expect.

My constant goal is to let the data tell the story, and believe what it is describing, not rationalize what I or someone expected to observe.

Sometimes the news is bad and there is still a problem to solve. Sometimes our proposed solution did not correct the issue or even made it worse. Back to the drawing board.... Sometimes great success.

I might take a shot at the 3rd class medical this summer.

Maybe that introduction was not so short. I lied.... I enjoy the forum. Thanks to all who contribute and make it work.

Jim Byrd

[Friendly]

Great introduction Jim! Glad your illness is in remission. I worked in Fairfax Va. for a few years. I like the area. I wouldn't mind moveing 1/2 way there, like maybe OK.

[ventana7]

Jason,
Welcome to the forum. Glad you are healing. I am sure your scientific bent will be an advantage to the group.

Rob

[PW_Plack]

Jim,

Welcome!

Do they ever let you borrow the tunnel for personal projects? You could be just what the gyroplane world has been waiting for!

[krew]

Hey welcome to the forum, I am new myself and everyone here is EXTREMELY helpful and know what they are talking about. Have a great stay.

[JByrd]

Hi Paul,

I have been thinking about your suggestion regarding wind tunnel testing. Personal projects in these facilites are permitted, but it comes with a price tag of about $42K per 8 hour shift. Now, that does not mean that it is impossible. By that I mean that if the rotorcraft dynamics group (which operates in the same facilty I am located now) takes an interest in gyroplanes and can obtain public funding from such orgainizations as the National Science Foundation it can happen. The data would become public property in that instance and thus available to the rotorcraft community.

If gyroplanes become a scheduled public mode of transportation (I will not argue practicality here) or a Department of Defense project then you will most certainly see some wind tunnel time committed to the effort. In that case the data would certainly be proprietary and not likely to be publicly available since the developers would be competing for market acceptance. Unfortunately the vehicles tested under those circumstances would not likely duplicate the experimental effort, but much could be learned none the less.

From a more pragmatic standpoint I think a university effort for a graduate student would be more likely (I hope Jason read this). Many fine college facilities can be used for $3200 per 8 hour shift. A practical model could be built to 1/5 scale and powered with electric motors. Again an NSF grant is often the way to accomplish this. I have seen this done with model helicopters.

From a garage dude standpoint (that's me, and probably you too) I think a very simple model made of electric motors, wood frame, and rotors held by hand or extension frame in the back of a pickup truck would glean a lot of valuable information. It sounds crude, but it is what I term the Burt Rutan method, and it works! I know it works because that what Burt does!

It is relatively inexpensive, eliminates a lot of guesswork and tells the truth in as much as you can accurately model the situation. You ask questions, perform a manouver and get an immediate result. The questions can be formalized and/or adaptive as you answer more of your questions. If stabililty and control are lost on a model so what? you do not suffer physically or financially as a result. You can push the model into an attitude and airspeed that you would not dare attempt in flight. The downside is that subjectivity may be allowed to creep into the picture. Ah, subjectivity, my foe.

However, if you accept the result and eventually understand the reason for loss of control it is possible and likely that you will pursue the fix that will enhance the safety and thus the commerical acceptance of the gyroplane community - the caveat is - to those who are willing to adapt. Unfortunately pride and experience is not good enough to keep you or me from digging/punching the hole we are going to be buried in.

I, like many others am severely stressed at the recent passing of Ken Rehler. He seemed to be the kind of fellow that did things right and would rarely if ever make a mistake. I, like you have thought many hours about what may have happened and read the posts. It may take modeling his situation not just from calculations on a computer, because the math model may be deficient but with a physical model to begin to clearly understand what happened.

One of my former bosses was very down to earth. He said he followed the rules about 97% of the time. Flying is the same. It's the 3% of the flying envelope that you/I have little or no control over and are often willing to accept. In my view that is not good enough. Any loss of control in a gyro or other flight machine is highly likely to become a very bad day. It seems Ken's situation ventured to long into that 3% of the envelope.

It is possible Ken himself may not have known what actually happened. I think it safe to say however that he would want us to learn to avoid whatever experience he encountered. This is one tragedy that deserves much of our private talent and resources to seek a non-subjective solution. Strong feelings about Ken (and the future of everyone else) have caused me to think about some testing concepts.

Jim Byrd

Yes, Richard Byrd is a distant cousin. My grandfather knew him. He was cautious and still had his share of nearly fatal accidents and lost a lot of close friends. It seemed everything was risk management to him. I happened upon the Byrd Polar Expedition plane quite by surprise at the Richmond Museum of Aviation. Absolutely spotless condition. There is placard at the South Pole Station commerating the 75th anniversary of the polar flight (Nov 1929). Someone took a picture of it on a visit and posted it on the Internet. You can see the reflection of the florescent lights on the glass. I will send it as an attachment if you request via email. It makes a nice screen background on my laptop.

[gyromike]

From a garage dude standpoint (that's me, and probably you too) I think a very simple model made of electric motors, wood frame, and rotors held by hand or extension frame in the back of a pickup truck would glean a lot of valuable information. It sounds crude, but it is what I term the Burt Rutan method, and it works! I know it works because that what Burt does!

If you've seen the TV program about SpaceShip One and the X-prize, they show Burt's team testing out airfoils surfaces mounted on the front of a truck. I believe they called it the Land Shark.

Also our own Doug Riley had posted some pictures of airfoil tests with a truck mounted stabilizer.