UFO Flight....

[Aussie_Paul]

I had my first opportunity to fly a UFO that was made flyable by an Oz CFI over the last 5 years.

This Green machine which I am sure a lot of people have seen the pics, has an ej-22 and a Hirth gearbox driviung a 4 blade prop.

The rotors are 28' extruded alloy blades made in Oz.

I enjoyed the opportunity to have a play two up. The weather was 20 to 35 mph gusty winds, not the best conditions for definitive stability testing, BUT I was more than happy with the stability.

Bear in mind that I have extremelly high expectations of machines these days. I require operations that are above what most people would call an acceptable standard, and I do not appologise for that.

The machine is faster than I am used to, and climbs well. We had over 450 lbs of pilot and passenger. The stability is excellent, the disc loading too high and the tall tail not effective enough for my liking. We were flying with the doors off.

The empty weight of this UFO hybrid is 330 kg / 730 lbs. It has to be called a hybrid as there have been so many modifications made to get it to operate anywhere near acceptable efficiency.

I can't wait to have a little more time to appraise the UFO hybrid further. I must say that I felt very comfortable from the get go to the end of the flight An excellent cross country gyroplanes.

The owner, Chris, flew it solo for 4 hours home to his place after recieving his gyoplane certificate a few weeks ago.

These are his stats.

Distance - 240nm / 448km / 276 statute miles
Ave Ground speed - 58.5 kts / 67.36 MPH (Mostly flown at 80KIAS/ 92 mph)
Fuel used - 82 lt / 21 58 US galls.
Fuel flow - 19.71 lt/hr, 5.19 US gallons per hour.
Time - 4hrs 10mins

Great stuff Chris, and thanks for the opportunity to experience the UFO hybrid.:D

Aussie Paul.:)

[Aussie_Paul]

I had my first opportunity to fly a UFO that was made flyable by an Oz CFI over the last 5 years.

This Green machine which I am sure a lot of people have seen the pics, has an ej-22 and a Hirth gearbox driviung a 4 blade prop.

The rotors are 28' extruded alloy blades made in Oz.

I enjoyed the opportunity to have a play two up. The weather was 20 to 35 mph gusty winds, not the best conditions for definitive stability testing, BUT I was more than happy with the stability.

Bear in mind that I have extremelly high expectations of machines these days. I require operations that are above what most people would call an acceptable standard, and I do not appologise for that.

The machine is faster than I am used to, and climbs well. We had over 450 lbs of pilot and passenger. The stability is excellent, the disc loading too high and the tall tail not effective enough for my liking. We were flying with the doors off.

The empty weight of this UFO hybrid is 330 kg / 730 lbs. It has to be called a hybrid as there have been so many modifications made to get it to operate anywhere near acceptable efficiency.

I can't wait to have a little more time to appraise the UFO hybrid further. I must say that I felt very comfortable from the get go to the end of the flight An excellent cross country gyroplanes.

The owner, Chris, flew it solo for 4 hours home to his place after recieving his gyoplane certificate a few weeks ago.

These are his stats.

Distance - 240nm / 448km / 276 statute miles
Ave Ground speed - 58.5 kts / 67.36 MPH (Mostly flown at 80KIAS/ 92 mph)
Fuel used - 82 lt / 21 58 US galls.
Fuel flow - 19.71 lt/hr, 5.19 US gallons per hour.
Time - 4hrs 10mins

Great stuff Chris, and thanks for the opportunity to experience the UFO hybrid.:D

Aussie Paul.:)
--------------------------------------------------------------

Chris report of flying the UFO home.

I was signed off in mid March to fly and also gained my x-country endorsement as well.

On Sunday 2nd April at 11.30am CST I took off from Lameroo, I had Jennifer as ground back up with a car carrying tandem trailer in tow if the weather turned bad, and I gave her a 2 ½ hour head start.
Kevin had downloaded from the NAIPS site all the weather info I needed (about 25 pages worth), and headed to Underbool for my flight home to Lockwood South.
I was setting the GPS just after take-off when it failed and locked up on choosing a destination. I thought about doing a circuit and landing, but decided I had the skills (although rusty) to navigate by map and watch the 240nm home.
I had done this numerous times interstate in a Cessna 210 and 310 with Jennifer and the girls on board.

The sky was overcast with cloud base around 14,000’ and wind blowing at 130 at 20kts on the ground, so I had a cross wind to the first turning point at Underbool, then on the nose all the way home.

I settled into a cruise climb of 70KIAS hoping to complete the trip home at around 2500’, but at around 400’ the wind picked up and I ended up with a headwind of approx 30kts all the way home. I ended up climbing to 5000’ to see how it was blowing up there, but still around 30kts.
I turned SE at Underbool for Patchewollock then onto Birchip and into Charlton, on this leg I bumped the cruise speed up to 80KIAS to improve my groundspeed. 3 hours later I landed at Charlton as arranged with Jennifer, put 40lts of fuel in for the last hour home, had a bite to eat and the obligatory toilet stop.



By the time I had landed from joining the downwind leg some 30 cars came out from town to see what had just landed at their airport. Two guys came over to have a chat, they were ex-ultra light pilots turned R/C modellers and hadn’t seen a gyroplane that looked like this, they had seen gyro’s before but only open frame machines. I spent 50 mins with these guys.

I got the GPS to work while I was on the ground at Charlton but it required removing the backup battery pack, which cleared it and I was able to refer to it from here on, but it was obsolete as I know this country very well.
My grandmother and her family were in business in Charlton and district from 1890 to 1975.

Now that I have sufficient fuel for this leg it was time to have a bit of a play as I followed Jennifer down the Calder in big circles, slowly increasing the throttle open to see 100KIAS showing on the dial and backing off the power slowly once again and trying to only make minimal movements to the cyclic stick, did that a few times over the trip to get a feel for her.

Passed overhead at home to check the wind direction and decided on runway 18 and spotted a group of family and friends had gathered to watch the touchdown.
Lined up around a 1km out at 300’ cut the power as I passed over the power line in the paddock across the road from the strip and settled into a very nice power off descent to touch down about the middle of the strip where my cross strip runs to the SW. Turned around and headed for the taxiway to the shed.
Clock now says 1650pm EST.

Chris Williams.

[PTKay]

So, Paul, it looks laike UFO is no "UFO" any more...
Seen flying in reality and the witnesses are sticking firm to their version... ;)

[shaybrennan]

Hello
Have you any photos of this new UFO?
Shay

[Aussie_Paul]

Hello
Have you any photos of this new UFO?
Shay

Yes, BUT still trying to get them out of a word document to post.

Aussie Paul.:)

[Doug Riley]

Yes, Paul, a disk loading over 2 lb./sq. ft. is pretty high, unless you're a helicopter.

What's the chord of the blades? The blade loading is probably too high as well if the chord is the typical 7.5" - 7.75".

[shaybrennan]

Paul take your time I have waited 4 years to see a UFO hybrid.

Shay

[Rehan K.Janjua]

Hello Paul.

Nice to hear about your UFO flight.
I have a picture of the older version, will be great if you could post the newer UFO pic.
Thank you for the post and comments.

Best Regards.
Rehan

[SamL]

Hi Paul. here are some pics of here at Lameroo.
Chis's pride and joy !!!!!!!!
I,m hopeing Chris fly's here to Ballarat, and takes us all for a spin.:D
Regards Sam.

[Aussie_Paul]

Thanks Sam, yes that is the UFO hybrid that I flew, and am talking about.

I am sure if Chris gets his aerodrome and above 500' endoresments it could happen. If he hasn't got them, we will take Waddles out the back behind the shelter shed and make sure Chris gets them!!!!:D

Pete, I just can't help myself!!!!:eek:

I also flew a single seat machine after pod modifications. He put a Rosco control system in to fit the pod scenario, BUT did not put the width of cross bar that Rosco recomends!!! The cross bar being the bar that attaches to the torque tube.

Geeeez, talk about sensitive in roll as I was trying to stay in the middle of the strip during the last 20' and hold off.

Why would someone with 30 solo hours not build to the manufacturers specs??? And think, oh well that means I have to make anoth cross bar so I will give it a try!!!! he had said to me that he after the mods he felt a little uncomfortable with his landings as he seemed to hop from one wheel to the other!!! That is why he asked me to fly it and see if it was the aircraft or him!!! Pic below.

A great flyin and camaraderie.

I really enjoyed having a fly in Chris' UFO hybrid. I have to test another UFO, if I am happy with it, in Ozzi land next month. then I will be looking forward to flyin gthe factory UFO in NZ when I am over there in July certifying Firebird.

With a bit of luck I will also have the opportunity to fly a Sparrow Hawk in amongst all all of that.

THEN, I will know what opposition I have to contend with, and see if I really have made the grade with my Firebird!!!!:D

I was happy with the comparison of my Hybrid to the Magni. That was one positive to keep me excited with my Firebird project.:D

Aussie Paul.:)