Thanks Kathy, I appreciate the feedback! :-)

Fly Safe,
Steve R.


"Stuart & Kathryn Fields" wrote in message
...
Steve: My Benson was definitely not under powered. I had a ball type
airspeed indicator that as I recall topped out at 85. I stuck the ball
all
the way up in the tube so far that I had to take a pipe cleaner and knock
it
loose. I was never passed by any other gyro. At the time we figured that
I
had done close to 100mph in straight and level flight. The Super Mac was
very light and under ideal conditions delivered 95hp. The engine mount
was
raised some 2" to get the bigger prop installed. I can remember racing
another Benson that had a Super Mac but a smaller prop and a streamlined
body and I never saw them after I passed. The Benson manual recommended
taxiing without the rotor installed to get used to the steering. The
first
time I did that I ground the wood front wheel brake almost in two and
never
got the throttle much off idle. The thing felt like a dragster without
the
rotor. After installing the rotor and getting it up to speed before
taxiing
very far, the thing became much more controllable. As I recall the thrust
line on mine was just a couple of inches below my shoulders. Yeah if I
was
cruising along at say 50 indicated and firewalled the throttle without
some
aft cyclic, it would push my nose down a bit. I think that if I would
have
had a side-by-side fuselage up front to provide additional drag as the
nose
pitched forward, I might have had a different experience. I do remember
that once in a while doing those Brock spirals, (zero forward airspeed and
enough throttle to blow the tail around) the nose would sometimes get
lower
and lower giving me the feeling it was going to try to split S. I never
let
it get beyond about a 45 degree nose down before I stopped the spiral and
flew out.
Yep Vaneks bird looks pretty good and he can fly the thing. We have seen
his loop and roll and it is darned impressive. I've also seen him get off
the ground in a very short span. Take a look at the Magni in a front on
view with Greg Greminger on board. I know he weighs at least 250 and
imagine a passenger in the back. I can't believe that it is very close to
a
CLT. The Magni does have a HS though and the tandem seating doesn't give
a
real draggy front end.
I rode in the Sparrow Hawk prototype which has all the CLT/HS and found
it
very stable but the control feel was monstrous. I had never flown
anything
including a T-38 that had such heavy controls. Even the Bell 47 with the
hydraulics turned off didn't have such a heavy feel. Also the take-off
roll
was as long as a Cessna 150 on a hot day.

--
Kathy Fields
Experimental Helo magazine
P. O. Box 1585
Inyokern, CA 93527
(760) 377-4478
(760) 408-9747 general and layout cell
(760) 608-1299 technical and advertising cell

www.vkss.com
www.experimentalhelo.com