There's a great story (from memory) from a book on pioneer aviation… The pilot and passenger took off on a test flight of a prototype aircraft. The passenger was an apprentice who had very recently joined the company. The aircraft was an open twin cockpit biplane with two pusher props. The engines were mounted high between the upper and lower wings so that the arcs of the spinning propellors almost meshed over the fuselage.
After climbing out, the pilot realised that he did not have enough elevator authority to control the aircraft and of course they did not have parachutes. He yelled to the passenger to climb out of his seat and join him in the other cockpit to balance the plane. The apprentice had to crawl along the top of the fuselage which was probably nice and flat, but he had to crawl below and between the arcs of the props, no doubt keeping his head well down. And after that they landed fine… and some years later, the apprentice went on to become the chairman of BOAC and no doubt had a healthy respect for weight and balance. D _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list [email protected] To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
