Hello,

In the list of builders I miss the Australian builders Frank Smallman and Graham Betts. They build and flew their CD's in the mid/late 1990's. Does anyone know how they went along? There are video's and pictures from their CD's and of a meeting where they flew together.

On the site and on Youtube I see a lot of pictures of people building a CD and the first flights, but hardly info of later flights. I wonder how many CD's are used on a regular basis and would like to learn from the experience of their pilots, like which parts are prone to wear and what are the critical handling spots that better can be enforced during construction.

Work on the flappron ribs commeces slowly.

EJ

Hi Erik

I'd love to make contact with Frank Smallman and Graham Betts in Australia and find out about their gliders. I've only ever heard rumours about them. If you have any photos or videos of their CDs in action then please let me heve them and I'll add them to the website.

Steve Arndt, Rick Mullins, Mick Robson and Roger Sherrod are all actively flying their CDs at the Wallaby Ranch Flight Park in Florida. Yasushi Akahori in Japan seems to be active too, and posts occasional updates on Youtube.

Don Berliner is currently building an aluminium CD in the USA, Sid Bottom, in South Africa, is completing (has completed building?) Nick Methley's CD, and will have it in the air shortly. Bart Oosterkerk, in The Netherlands is (I think) just starting his build... and I'm pretty sure there are at least a couple more projects under way in the background judging by the emails I occasionally receive.

I've more or less finished building my own all-carbon CD and am working on completing a trailer before I skin and paint the wings. I hope to load test and do the first test flights in the next month or two.

Keep in touch, and don't hesitate to ask questions if you need help with anything.

All the best,

Phil.

Thanks Phil,

I laid contact with fellow Dutchman Bart Oosterkerk. He is hesitantly building as he described it. My reaction is late because I was looking for photo's of the Australians and I found them. I must have a video, and I will send that when that has surfaced. I will send you the photographs through privatemail so you can put them on the site. While I was searching, I came across a letter from Graham Betts describing his first flight. He was a bit heavier than Maupin so the CG was just within imits. While flying he could barely keep the nose up and after a lot of theorizing he found out that he had referred the angele of incidence of the stabilisor to the top of the boom and not the centerline. This is a logical mistake to make, so dangerous. After correcting the plane flew very well. He put his bum 10cm further back by placing the plywood rest 10cm back to keep the CG within limits, but he flies with blocks on the pedals. I will do the same, but will make the nose 10cm shorter to avoid the blocks. As soon as I find the video I will send it.

Bye for now,

EJ

Hi Erik,

Thanks for digging out the photos!

All Carbon Dragons made exactly to the plans suffer from a Centre of Gravity that is slightly too far forward. Jim Maupin trimmed the prototype CD by duct taping a monkey-wrench to the end of the tail-boom to achiece perfect balance. Every builder since then has had to either add some weight to the end of the tail-boom or, as Rick Mullins and I think Steve Arndt did, extend the tail-boom a few inches. Mick Robson re-engineered his tail fin and horizontal stabiliser to a high-T tail arrangement which allowed him to move the entire tail fin back (and thus its weight) a foot or so. I decided to keep my tail-boom the original length but gave my horizontal stabiliser a full carbon-kevlar-carbon sandwich skin, which has increased its weight... hopefully enough! I'll be doing my weights and balance measurments in April, once my trailer is finished and the wings are covered. I'll post my results on the forum.

All the best,

Phil.

Hi Phil,

Look forward to see your full carbon Dragon coverered and ready to fly!

In the meantime I have laid contact to an engineer who is amongst other things, involved in teh PAL-V flying car. He gave some very helpfull hints for making moulds and the layout of carbon for the D-tube. I decided not to build it from plywood. A sandwich of carbon and foam weighs as much and is much stiffer.

Have found the video, but can't play it on my machine and copy it, because it is in an other format.
Greetings,

EJ