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Monday, September 5, 2011

EAA 1909 Bleriot XI First Flight

This video shows what must have been a very exciting flight, even though it was only seconds long.  There is a LOT of camber on the airplane's wing, generating a lot of downwash at the horizontal tail.  The pilot seems to need nearly full nose-down elevator to get the tail into the air.  As soon as he goes to neutral elevator, the plane jumps off the ground.  In fact, by the time he is 5 feet up he already has what looks like full nose-down controls back in to get the plane to level off.  The longitudinal axis took so much concentration that the lateral almost gets away as he touches a wingtip on landing.  I think I would have kept is short as well.

http://eaaforums.org/showthread.php?353-Photo-Sequence-First-flight-of-EAA%92s-1909-Bleriot-XI-replica

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