Spirit Of St. Louis ponderings

On Sat, 07 Jan 2006 07:35:13 GMT, Ricky Summersett
wrote:

:
:I have often wondered about Lindbergh's trans-Atlantic flight in the
:Spirit...
:He had a "periscope" with which to see directly ahead. He said he
:could bank and turn the aircraft to see ahead as well if needed.
:What I'm wondering is; What kind of situational awareness instruments,
:if any, did the Spirit have on board?
:I'm IFR rated but I have never tried to fly visually just by looking
ut the side windows, is that difficult or simple? Especially in the
:blackness that was bound to have been experieced over the open
:Atlantic at night.
:I wonder just how difficult or easy was it to fly visually with a
eriscope and side windows? Was there needle & ball at this point in
:time in aircraft?

Good article on flying it he

http://www.charleslindbergh.com/plane/spirit.asp

"Considering the larger wing, Hall was dissatisfied with the stability
that the small tail surfaces of the M–2 would provide. Larger surfaces
would improve stability but increase drag and production time.
Lindbergh opted to retain the smaller tail surfaces: "It's clear that
stability is not a strong point with the Spirit, but we didn't design
the plane for stability. We decided to use the standard tail surfaces
to...gain...range."

Lindbergh was a master of understatement. The aircraft is dynamically
and statically unstable. "It is one of the worst flying airplanes I've
ever flown," said Robert "Hoot" Gibson, former space shuttle
commander. "It's a challenge to keep the airplane going straight and
make it do what you want."

"The Spirit is too unstable to fly well on instruments. It is
high-strung, and balanced on a pinpoint. If I relax pressure on stick
or rudder for an instant, the nose veers off course," commented
Lindbergh.

You can say that again. After entering a normal turn and neutralizing
the controls, I noticed that although the airplane remained banked,
the nose suddenly stopped moving across the horizon, and I was in a
perfect sideslip.

The rudder and elevator were easier to operate but required constant
attention to keep the aircraft on an even keel. The nose hunted left
and right, and porpoised like a whale. The Spirit is a high-workload
airplane that never allows you to relax.

Lindbergh was "thankful we didn't make the Spirit stable. The very
instability which makes it difficult to fly blind or hold an accurate
course at night now guards me against excessive errors." He credited
the instability with keeping him awake and alive."