Jeff

Have you gone and talked to the race car people about cockpit crash
worthiness? They build light and strong and their techniques might be
applicable to your bird (and BD-5's)?

Might give some comfort being so close to ground and going so fast?


Big John

On Tue, 18 Nov 2003 03:14:10 GMT, "Jeff Schroeder"
wrote:

Over the nose visibility isn't too bad in the BD-5. You do lose the
straight ahead view in the flare, but the nose is narrow enough that you
don't have to look off to the side very much. In flight vis is like a
sailplane; Great! The biggest problem for me has been flaring too high and
plopping it in. You sit so low to the ground (there's that lack of
crashworthiness) that its tough to wait until you're low enough before
pulling back. It seems best to just level off with slight backpressure and
let it settle in. The other visual problem is waiting until you have enough
airspeed before attempting to lift off. The low viewpoint makes you think
you're going a lot faster than you really are. (go-kart effect)

Jeff


"Big John" wrote in message
.. .
Thanks Jeff

Your comments all make sense and understand what you did.

Someone in a prior post commented about vision, particularly landing,
due to reclined position in the '5. People forget that in the heavy
iron in WWII there wasn't any forward vision on the take off (until
you got tail up) and landing to clear ahead. When we flared and lost
runway at 12 o'clock we transitioned to a quartering side view (I
normally used the left side). Adjusted height as needed looking at R/W
surface and tracked using the edge of the R/W or lines on R/W.
Thousands did this so I'd not think it a unsurmountable problem now in
the '5.

Fly safe. Have fun

Big John