December, 2004 Edition          

Chapter # 407                       www.eaa407.org

          South East Idaho

 

 

Officers and Contacts:

          Hal Johansen, President                            522-7297              haledie@ida.net

        Jerry Phillips, Vice President                    523-3981              phillipsjh@asme.org

          Harold Turvey, Secretary                         785-2552              happyharold@cableone.net

          Harold Mothersill, Treasurer/Website     524-6204              lmothersil@aol.com

          Austin Moses, Newsletter                          684-3922              mosescpa@srv.net

From the President:

 

           OUR TRADITIONAL CHRISTMAS/DINNER/POT LUCK/PARTY WITH WHITE ELEPHANT GIFT EXCHANGE. 

                   CHAPTER 407 WILL FURNISH THE HAM AND TURKEY ( Tremblay and Moses volunteered to, respectively, cook these items, Bless Their Souls). The rest is up to the balance of our membership, i.e. bring a food item to share in old fashioned pot luck style, your plate, utensils etc., and of course a WHITE ELEPHANT gift to exchange with the understanding that “you brings one, you gets one”.  Nolan Getsinger will serve as the Santa Claus designee and with his inimitable style you can expect some good humor.  If you have any questions give me a call.

                                                                             Hal @ 522-7297

 

 

From the editor:

 

The following article was passed along to me from someone in our Pulsar users group and I thought it was a person touch and enlightenment on Space Ship 1.

 Mike Melvill - Space Ship 1

I just had the extreme pleasure of speaking with Mike Melvill  yesterday,  the pilot of Space Ship One's first two flights above the Karman line of 100 km MSL, and with his wife. He gave a 45 minute presentation to the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association conference in Long Beach on Thursday, and got a several-minute standing ovation.  I was able to speak with him for a short while after his talk.

Since he was speaking to pilots, he didn't have to translate for the  "general public" ! or pull many punches. He spent almost half of his time going over the flight controls and the entire cockpit layout inside of Space Ship One, explaining how it is flown. I think this is the first time this has been explained publicly in such detail, and it was amazing. There are actually four separate flight regimes, and each is flown differently. Just after launch, it flies like a piper
cub, using a joystick and rudder pedals with mechanical linkages to the controls (no hydraulic assists). When it goes supersonic, the aerodynamic forces are too high to be able to move the stick, and the controls are subject to flutter. So they use an electrically powered trim system, flown using the "top hat" switch on the joystick and a couple of grips on the arm rest of the pilot's seat. (There are backup switches to the left of the instrument panel, which had to be
used on one flight.) This moves the entire horizontal stabilizers, not just the elevons on the trailing edges. Eventually, they get high enough and the air gets thin enough that they can again use manual controls, although the response is totally different than lower down.  But that goes away as they exit the atmosphere; the Reaction Control System nozzles are then used for maneuvering in space. Coming back down, the pilot has to reverse the sequence. There is no automated switchover of control systems; the pilot has to remember to move from one system to the next at the right times.

The rudder pedals are not linked. Each controls one of the two vertical stabilizer rudders separately. You can push both rudder pedals at the same time, and get a fairly effective speed brake, with both rudders canted outward. Push both fully forward and they engage the wheel brakes. But these are not very effective and are only really useful for steering input during rollout. The real brake is on the nose skid: a piece of maple wood, with the grain aligned down
the centerline of the airplane. He said it was the most effective braking material they could find.

Stephen, we talked about G forces on Tuesday, and I got some of it wrong. He says that he gets hit with about 3Gs kicking him backwards as soon as he lights the rocket motor. He's supersonic within about 9 seconds later. But he immediately starts to pull up into an almost vertical climb. So he also gets over 4.3G s pushing him down into his seat just from that maneuver. The combined force is "very stressful" and Mike says it's "important not to black out" at that point.

He's going 1880 knots straight up within 70 seconds. On re-entry, the aircraft goes from being absolutely silent while in space to generating a deafening roar as it hits the atmosphere again. He's going about Mach 3.2 by that time, and has to survive about 5.5Gs for over 30 seconds, and lesser G forces for longer than that, as it slows back down. It sounds really intense, both as he explains it and on the radio.

A couple of interesting side notes: Space Ship One has a standard "N" registration number; but it is licensed as an experimental "glider".  Apparently there was a huge bureaucratic hassle trying to license it as a rocket powered spacecraft, which they just sidestepped by calling it a glider. I asked him if it had a yaw string; he laughed and said that would have burned off.  By the way, the registration number is N328KF, where 328K is the number of Feet in 100km. (White Knight is N318SL - Burt Rutan's 318th design.)

Mike says that the flight director system (called a TINU) was developed completely in-house by a couple of 28-year-old programmers, and is absolutely fantastic to fly. That's why they don't
need a yaw string. But I had heard over the radio that Brian Binnie had re-booted the TINU just before the landing approach during the X2 flight, and it took quite a while for it to come back up. So I asked Mike what that was about. He says that during re-entry, the TINU loses its GPS lock. So it keeps trying to go back to catch up, re-interpolate and compensate for the missing data, and this keeps it a little behind in its actual position calculations. The pilot has no straight-ahead vision at all, so they have a real issue landing:  they can't see the runway!  The way they do it is to fly directly down the runway at 9000 feet; then they do a (military style) break and fly a full 360 degree pattern right to the landing. The TINU gives the pilot a "blue line" to follow and a target airspeed (which produces a given rate of descent). If the pilot follows the blue line, right to the break point and through the two 180 degree turns, it will put him right onto the runway at whatever touchdown point he selects. But the TINU has to be absolutely current when this is going on. So at something above 15,000 feet they reboot the TINU and get it
 re-synched with the GPS satellites again before setting up for the landing!

He also talked in detail about the rocket motor, and had photos of its insides after firing. The nozzle throat actually ablates as the motor burns, enlarging the interior throat diameter as the burn progresses.

He described the problem they had on the June 21 flight: The rocket motor nozzle was skewed by about ˝ degree to one side. This generated a surprisingly high lateral torque trying to turn the aircraft. If it had been up or down pitch rather than lateral, the controls could have handled it; but the lateral yawing forces were too great for Mike to compensate as the atmosphere thinned. The result was that he was pretty far off course. Mike says he reached apogee, rolled the spacecraft over, and was surprised to see the Palmdale VOR directly beneath him. That was 30 miles away from Mojave and a long glide home. He says it’s amazing how fast a relatively small deviation can produce large distances when you're going Mach 3!

 For one of the static burn tests, they had fire and safety crews all standing a mile away, ready to duck if anything went wrong. In the middle of the test, Mike and Burt Rutan walked up to the front of the motor assembly and felt the pressure vessel that contains the N2O.  Mike knew he was going to have this same thing strapped onto his back soon, anyway, and he wanted to know how much it vibrated, how hot it got, and how loud it was. It was deafening, literally. It turns out that, with the nozzles they use at high altitudes, it's actually not that noisy inside the spacecraft. But he still wears hearing protection.

Scaled Composites seem to have fabricated quite a bit of the rocket motor themselves, including the N2O tank (which is also the structural core of the spacecraft) and the nozzle casings. It would be interesting to hear from Michael's friend exactly what parts SpaceDev designed and what they manufactured.
 

 

 

E. A. A. Chapter 407

Minutes of November 20, 2004

I. S. U. Hangar, P. I. H., Pocatello, Idaho

 

The meeting was called to order by President Hal Johansen at 10:16 a.m. with 27 souls attending. Harold Turvey read the minutes of October 16, 2004, which were approved as read.

Harold Mothersill did not have the current information from the bank, so no treasurer’s report was given.

Austin Moses expressed appreciation for the support and input he has been given as Newsletter Editor.

Carl Yrene reported on the announcement given to the media for the meeting today.

Election ballots were passed out for the positions of President and Secretary. The ballots were counted and all 18 ballots were unanimous for Austin Moses as President, and Pete Stewart as Secretary for the next two years.

Hal Johansen announced that he had received a letter of resignation from Jerry Phillips as Vice-President, due to his being sent to Washington D. C. on a work assignment. Therefore, he has appointed Gary Shipley as Vice-President until the position comes up for election, which will take place in November of 2005. Hal Johansen suggested that there be a transition meeting sometime in December for the outgoing and incoming officers.

A motion was made with a second to send a check for $500.00 to I. S. U. for the Aircraft Maintenance scholarships. The motion was approved. Calendars need to be ordered through Harold Mothersill as of today so the order can be sent in. A motion was made with a second to secure a debit card from the Wells Fargo bank to pay for the Go-Daddy bill each month for our web site. The motion was approved. The Christmas party will be held at the Aero Mark building on December 4, 2004, beginning at about 6:00 p.m. Assignments were made for a turkey to be provided by Austin Moses and a ham to be provided by Paul Tremblay. Pot luck items will be brought by everyone else.

Certificates of appreciation from National were presented to the following: Harold Turvey as Secretary and Membership Coordinator; Harold Mothersill as Treasurer and Web Administrator; Austin Moses as Web Editor and Newsletter Editor; Jerry Phillips as Vice-President; John Bakken as Technical Counselor; Dan Pierce as Technical Counselor and Flight Advisor; Don Knauts as Library Manager; Jim Tibbets as Technical Counselor; John Bakken and Carl Yrene were presented with Step-Up-To-The-Plate awards for their help this year with facilities preparation and media announcements by Hal Johansen

Austin Moses has been assigned to provide the club with a financial review after the end of the year. John Bakken took a lesson from Oscar Batdorf at last month’s meeting, and drew his own name from the Bring-A-Buck container, after which the meeting was adjourned.

Refreshments and some hangar flying were participated in, after which those with interest visited the following to view aircraft that are under construction; Hayes Rudolph, 13772 Laughran Road, Stinson 108; Keith Jensen, 1362 Sego Street, RV6; David Adkins, 420 S 8th Avenue, Ridge Runner II; Nick Davidson, 1019 Dolbeer, KR2.

I will be on a ship to Hawaii when you gather for the Christmas party, and will not be renewing my membership for next year, due to other interests (building a ‘39 Chevy into a hot rod). I want to thank all of you for your friendship and help during my terms in the club as Treasurer and Secretary, and wish all of you the best in the future...Harold Turvey.