That's what he's supposed to do. I'm guessing at VLD the tower knew who he was so he thought he could get away with "raptor" there.
Indeed. I found it odd that he always did it wrong at a towered airport but got it right at an air park. He mentioned flight following on his trip to Arkansas, so maybe center corrected him.
He mentioned the Boise area and Twin Falls. He said that he will stop short of there in Montana and the people he is working with will come get his suitcase and other stuff to lighten the plane for the hop over the mountains. I don’t know what route he is planning that even goes close to Montana. From 2A2 to KTWF, the direct line is through southern Wyoming. Of course, any route from AR to ID is going to require altitudes he hasn’t reached yet. And his windphobia will be a serious impediment. In Wyoming and Montana, they call 15 knots “calm” unless it’s gusting over 30.
My biggest fear for his ego on the trip to Idaho is that he will encounter conditions beyond what he and the plane are currently capable of (winds, density altitudes, turbulence, IMC, terrain, etc.) and have to choose between pressing on and eating crow.
Actually, no. 14CFR 91.319 says merely that the operator must "...Notify the control tower of the experimental nature of the aircraft when operating the aircraft into or out of airports with operating control towers." Doesn't say it must use "Experimental" as its aircraft type on a radio call, and in any case, CTAF is not a control tower.
If that porker can't make it over the mountains with one guy and some baggage, then I fail to see the point of going west to begin with. But hey, not my plane, not my circus, not my monkey. Maybe they're going to replace the Audi engine with a PT6 or something.
Bottom line is he has just flown it 40 hrs. He has no idea of vso,vs1,va,vx, vy, service ceiling, he has never determined best glide, he has never fixed. The static problems. Basically he has no test data at all.
Not true. He knows how it performs doing figure eights at 3500 feet.
Key word there is "indicated". For all he knows, with that wonky static port, he could actually be at 5,500'. Or 5,000'.
Hmm...wonder what a static source error large enough to cause a -1000 ft altitude error might mean in terms of calibrated airspeed at 110 KIAS.
Indeed.
Oh yeah, that could kill him for sure.
Jumped off the Cirrus bandwagon and back onto Raptor?
Actually, I've known several people who did just that: flew forty, loaded up the plane with family, went places. Is there more required?
That's when you know things have gone real bad for me. It flew relatively stable, even hands off. There were several things in the video that were just too easy though so I didn't bother with it. He mentioned having to fly with the heat on to keep the engine oil under 240 so he cut a whole in the plane for extra vent for himself since it gets very hot in the cabin now. His parachute cover blew off one flight so he taped a random plastic panel onto it.. he still has the deathgrip on the sidestick on takeoff
It's been discussed in this thread. See posts #3134 and #3141 (both on page 79) for example.
I had that same impression.
I have a question ..... I cannot wrap my mind around the fact that he is using that awkward-looking single hand control unit for his aileron and elevator control.
Marc Zeitlin paid $10 for the documents on the plane which included the OL's. He said it's a typical E/R&D with no Phase I. So no leaving the test area without a new OL.
I obviously can't speak to the raptor, but the Velocity has either a center stick which uses torque tubes and flex cables (same type as used on boat steering) or side sticks using torque tubes and push/pull links. No problem at all with one hand on a relatively small throw stick. I can't imagine that adding a cable-pulley system in would make it significantly harder.
Not to mention, I think my LSA could just about keep up with him in cruise flight…. But not on final. Yeesh. I have to wonder, though, how he calculated his approach speed when he doesn't know what VS0 is.
Sure, right up until you explored the actual specs, I imagine. I haven't watched all of the videos, but from what I gather it seems to top out at about 130 knots or so, and can't make it to a reasonable altitude with a solo pilot and baggage.
Here's the thing. We already know that his static port location is bad. He picks up at least 100' on the ground roll during takeoff. That will also equate to a higher indicated airspeed than actual. How much faster is he indicating? I don't know. But it's possible that he's only going 90kts over the threshold. I guess that also means his cruise speed could be slower than he thinks. Since he's never done any testing for that, we'll never know. But he's "okay with that".
So did he get a new OL or did he once again say "it's an experimental aircraft, I can do what I want!"...as referenced by him flying a west cross country at 3500'- 4,000'