Experimenter

July 2013

Experimenter is a magazine created by EAA for people who build airplanes. We will report on amateur-built aircraft as well as ultralights and other light aircraft.

Issue link: http://experimenter.epubxp.com/i/142883

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I t 's A ll A b o u t D e t a il s… James said, "I spent hours desk-fying a paper panel. Panel space in the Berkut is so limited, it forced me to carefully choose and place everything. I have constantly been adding to, updating, and changing my panel equipment to ft my needs and budget. Te Berkut is as close to an F-16 as I'll ever get, so I laid out the equipment in the most fghter-esque and ergonomic way I could think of—the landing gear switch, window, and indicators all co-located. Most 'buttonology' items (like radios, autopilot) are on the lef or lef console for my free hand; fight data and GPS/map/nav/ILS are in the top and middle for minimum head movement, along with the centralized engine monitoring with voice warnings, including gear, canopy, and speed brake. Te latest upgrade included a Garmin 560 GPS with a GDL-39 ADS-B datalink for weather and trafc, which is absolutely brilliant. I originally had a NavAid autopilot but went to a Trio EZ-Pilot that is coupled to the Garmin. It's a direct replacement for the NavAid. "Look carefully and you might fnd some other 'secret weapons' tucked away—variable ignition timing override, variable pitch trim speed control, passive trafc detection, and an automatic packet reporting system (APRS) beacon. I've crammed so much into such a tight space, I think NASA engineers would be proud. My next addition likely will be an iPad mini kneeboard running Garmin pilot sofware and a Bluetooth connected to the GDL-39 ADS-B datalink." James made the upper deck of the nose a single piece including the canard itself. It incorporates the glare shield, custom elevator fairings, and torque tube seals. It's sealed against water and air leaks, and the entire assembly can be removed/ installed in 5 minutes, giving complete access to the nose area and the back of the instrument panel. When it comes to the canard itself, James said, "As Tirteen's speed went up, I was running into stability problems with the canard, so I began to analyze all the variables having to do with a tandem bi-wing airplane, paying special attention to the canard airfoil (slotted fap airfoil). I found myself modeling canard profles in CAD (computer-aided design), changing the canard incidence, removing and reinstalling the elevator hinge point in various positions, and evaluating and fight-testing diferent confgurations until I found the 'sweet spot.' I've since been able to help other canard fyers optimize their airplanes with the knowledge learned from those experiments." 16 Vol.2 No.7 / July 2013 Photography by Budd Davisson

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