BD5B

Corky

A bit of BD5 trivia.

When Jim first built the bird and during the test phase (which
continued after he had started selling kits) they experienced a number
of engine failures with the German/Austrian (forget the name) engine.

Basic problem, as I remember, was that when throttle was put in idle
for long period in landing pattern, there was not enough oil going
through the engine to keep it from freezing up. As bird made pattern
the prop would keep engine RPM up and with only the oil from idle
throttle bad happened. In a snowmobile application (which engine came
out of) this never happened because engine was not spun up like it was
with the prop..

Was going back to Iowa to visit family and stopped by and spoke with
Jim about this. Suggested that he use an engine that had oil injection
vs the mixed fuel/oil normally used in a two cycle. Would have solved
his problem.

The only problem was that he had a contract (with a low price) with
the engine manufacturer that he couldn't get out of and they didn't
want to or couldn't make (without making major redesign $$$$$) changes
to the engine (or something like that) so history came to pass.

If the original engine had worked and Jim had delivered with all the
kits sold, would have been a lot more built (and possibly deaths as
you say, hot bird, high stall speed, even with the 'B' wing, etc.)

Thought seriously about building one (ex Fighter Pilot) but then all
the problems came up and decided against (I'm dumb but not stupid and
know when to cut my losses).


Big John


On Fri, 14 Nov 2003 13:57:03 GMT,
(Corky Scott) wrote:

On Thu, 13 Nov 2003 23:23:22 -0600, Big John
wrote:



No one has posted a follow up with the name of the BD5 pilot, and
details of the accident (1000 ft short on final). You don't see many
BD5 accidents but there are not a lot flying so statically the
accident rate is probably pretty high vs other homebuilts with a lot
completed and flying?

Man those BD5's just don't seem like a good idea. Tiny, high stall
speed, tight engine compartment, and the pilot sits right on the
bottom of the fuselage.

The airplane has been discussed in this group previously and my
recollection is that it has a very high fatal accident rate. It's
first flight accident rate is also very high. Perhaps Ron Wanttaja
can step in with his always meticulous statistical analysis.

Corky Scott