UngaWunga
Pattern Altitude
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UngaWunga
Skigull first flight
- Thread starter UngaWunga
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SkyDog58
Ejection Handle Pulled
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Canis Non Grata
I really like it but since it is new and different and does not look like a 172 or a Cherokee, the masses on here will despise it.
Dav8or
Final Approach
I like it a lot too. I am a little suspect about it's landing gear for solid surfaces though. It looks weak and problematic. I'm also really glad I'm not the test pilot that has to try landing it in rough water.
Burt has an awesome track record, so I will give the design the benefit of the doubt, but I'm having a hard time seeing how this design will handle rough water any better than those before. I don't understand how the little drop down ski things will help all that much. 
ktup-flyer
En-Route
almost looks like it was made for the snow
farmerbrake
Line Up and Wait
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farmerbrake
Serious question here: where do propellers go if they fall off in flight? Yes, know itd have to be some weird freak accident, but still.... flung forward? Straight down? Directly towards the person who is the most sue happy?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk
oregonboy109
Line Up and Wait
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oregonboy109
Very cool design. Will be interesting to see how that landing gear holds up. Gotta say I'm a little skeptical.
I like it a lot too. I am a little suspect about it's landing gear for solid surfaces though. It looks weak and problematic. I'm also really glad I'm not the test pilot that has to try landing it in rough water.
I have concern about their claims of 'rough water capability', I suspect with that low span deck, operations in anything more significant than a chop will be problematic.
Typically they fling outward in the arc of rotation.
ktup-flyer
En-Route
yep. 2 seat tandem
It's kinda interesting putting rollerblade wheels into the skis. I like it, but I wonder how it will play out on a deeply grooved runway.
Dav8or
Final Approach
It is. That is part of the criteria. To be able to land on snow as well.
Dav8or
Final Approach
He would be suing his dead self. This airplane will never be produced in any form. There will also be no plans. This is the one and only.
Dav8or
Final Approach
With a lot of baggage area.
Dav8or
Final Approach
IMO, they will be changing those little wheels out all the time.
Maybe, they have some tough compounds though. Heck, at $8 a piece they are cheap.
My concern lies more to the groves being deep enough the gear high centers the skis when the wheels go in the ruts. I realize this is a small percentage of runways that have that deeply grooved surfaced, but I'll tell ya, there are some airports I'd be asking to land on a taxiway or in the grass, especially if those are carbon fiber and Kevlar as I suspect. Last thing I'd want to do is grind those on concrete.
G-Man
Cleared for Takeoff
I'm curious how those wheels and skiis wil work on less-than-stellar asphalt runways, potholes, patches, expansion joints, etc.
Mr. Rutan is a demonstrated genius, and I look forward to learning more about this design.
Mr. Rutan is a demonstrated genius, and I look forward to learning more about this design.
Dav8or
Final Approach
My guess is, poorly. Pick your runways carefully, or bring along spare landing gear.
Mtns2Skies
Final Approach
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Mtns2Skies
He is brilliant, but for this one I was less than impressed. It seems to be on-par with other designs, rather than miles ahead of them like he normally is.
Independent Aircraft SeaDragon:
Icon A5
Lake Amphibian:
I'm sure there are others as well.
Asphalt I don't see problems with, even the typical less than stellar. Gravel I see as a non option, but grass as a very welcome one, even tall grass or standing grain crop would make suitable landing, if not departure, strip. Just keep a nice linear polyurethane wear coating on it, and all that is nice. Expansion joints in the perpendicular won't pose a problem, but parallel may very well be a major issue. My bet is he modifies the gear with somewhat larger wheels, like for the off-road rollerblades.
X3 Skier
En-Route
Basically it's purely random. I recall a fan separated from a RB-211 wing mounted location on a Lockheed Tri-Star, came forward, passed in front of the cockpit, went along the fuselage chewing up the skin and wound up in the ocean.
Cheers
No, this is quite different if you observe. Rutan has designed a full trimaran hull, and I fear he misdesigned the alma support for anything but smooth water. They are low enough that when it creates the intersecting bow waves, they will it the cross beam/deck creating a lot of drag. If you add any sea conditions on top of that, now that leading edge keeps slamming into a wall of water preventing you from accelerating. This is why you can't even motor most trimaran sail boats into the seas, they stop with every wave. Maybe he plans to leave the skis extended and take off using them as hydrofoils.
If you timed the waves right to jump it up coming off a crest, I could see it happen.
ktup-flyer
En-Route
He is brilliant, but for this one I was less than impressed. It seems to be on-par with other designs, rather than miles ahead of them like he normally is.
Independent Aircraft SeaDragon:
Icon A5
Lake Amphibian:
I'm sure there are others as well.
SeaMax, Akoya (awesome design), Osprey 2, glass goose, seawind, etc. It's a crowded market. The MVP model 3 does the snow/water/land thing too
I would do snow on a Seawind hull.
Art VanDelay
Pattern Altitude
Guys I think your missing the concept here. Picture a leaf-spring with a little rollerblade wheel on it. The rollerblade wheel is only there to keep from scraping the leaf-spring.
As for water landings Google Convair Sea-Dart and I think you'll get the picture.
As for water landings Google Convair Sea-Dart and I think you'll get the picture.
SkyDog58
Ejection Handle Pulled
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Canis Non Grata
Basically it's purely random. I recall a fan separated from a RB-211 wing mounted location on a Lockheed Tri-Star, came forward, passed in front of the cockpit, went along the fuselage chewing up the skin and wound up in the ocean.
Cheers
Way off the subject of the Skigull but, I'll play along. I recall an Eastern L-1011 suffering an uncontained failure of the #2 engine fan that tore through the S-duct but I do not recall an L-1011 losing one from a wing engine, let alone one that passed in front of the cockpit. Do you have any other details?
Exactly! And look at the leg geometry for those skis. The question is will he be able to get it up onto them in anything but smooth water. It may be ok, it's hard to judge, but at first eyeball I'm concerned. He should have put them out at the ends of arches.
X3 Skier
En-Route
I was told this by a fellow at Rolls-Royce in Derby England when I was working there back in the late 70's. No idea what airline (or if he was "winding up" a Yank Engineer:wink2
Cheers
petrolero
Pattern Altitude
With a blade separation due to, say, a crack, it would go in a straight line, tangent to the arc of rotation and in the same plane of rotation initially (the only period of time that matters). The profile view of the SkiGull makes it appear that the prop is forward of the pilot by just a bit.
For a view of what a shaft separation looks like, I've heard that it often initially flies ahead of the airplane at the instant of breakage and then slows and smashes into the wing or nose as the airplane catches it. They showed a simulation of this on one episode of Air Disasters because that is what the passengers witnessed. Pretty "cool" in one sense and terrifying in another.
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