Sept. 14, 2002, the rebuilt Pioneer flies again! Mat on his second flight. We did four auto tows and where very happy with the flights.

Our story follows:

November 24, 2002.

Sunday blossomed a sunny calm day.. perfect for testing!

	The panel at 6024 ft (set to 29.92) airspeed on the glider is 50mph on the flytec (blue instrument) it is 57mph. This does not show the GPS and Logger strapped to my legs!
	Over Marion at 6000 msl. note the tubulator tape in front of the aileron.

I called Mike and Nat, the tow pilot and we met about 12 noon. I did the first flight to 5000msl. I had changed the aileron linkage so that the pilot had more machanical advantage... but it did increase the stick motion. I also moved the CG back by removing the seat cushion moving me back about 2 inches. I had our moveable weight positioned on the front of the seat which I could move back.The moveable weight makes a noticeable difference to the pilot. We need to test the performance differences with the moveable weight ... just one more thing to test.

On the first flight the ailerons where definitely better feeling. I did hit some turbulence at 1000 agl and felt I did run out of down elevator at one point but Mike on a subsequent flight did not run out of elevator.

I did a speed run at 80 mph but GPS reading was incorrect. The glider felt good. On my second flight I managed to do some L/D measurements which is published in the Butterfly works.

Mike said he was happy with the changes but felt uneasy under 40 mph. The up elevaotr is weak below 40 mph and I did many runs to about 30 mph indicated ( maybe 35 CAS).

My big complaint was the noisey buzzing in the left rudder so on Nov 25 I took the rudder off and did some fiberglass work on the fin.

November 20, 2002. Finally a day to check out our airspeed calibration.

I had originally planned for a 2 p.m. launch but the winds where gusting from 12 mph to 18 so I scrubbed that. About 3:30 I noticed a much diminished wind with no gustiness so Off to the airport. I took a 5000 ft. tow and started our airspeed calibration using a new formula that can take any heading, although the headings should be approximately 90 degrees apart. The result is pretty good! The air was perfectly smooth above 3000 msl..

The turbulator infront of the aileron seemed to help but I must admit that the gap seal is not too flat in some parts hindering the flow but its too cold to re-apply the gap seals at this time. I noticed a tendency for the glider to oscillate in pitch at or below 40 mph and this may be due to separation so I will put more turbulator tape in front of the elevator for the next flight. The glider exhibits a very positive feel about 60 mph and I did happen to reach 100 mph at one point without difficulty. With any pitch difference it responds extremely well. If I have one change I would like.. the ailerons need to have more mechanical advantage... so I'll also make that change on the next flight.

November 15, 2002.

Thanks to Jerry Nolan for his generous donation for continued testing of the Pioneer IId.!

Upon investigating the Pioneer airfoil there is a small separation occuring at about 10 to13% of the wing chord. On the Monarch which uses the same family of airfoil we attached a turbulator strip to the area ahead of the aileron and found a great difference in aileron authority! So we have just put a similar turbulator strip on the Pioneer. Now we need some good weather to find out how it works.

November 08, 2002. The weather has not been too co operative.We have added gap seals and waxed the fuselage. We also have a themometer in the glider that reads outside temperature. then there is a new flytec package mounted o nthe dash and with the GPS and data recorder the cockpit is one very busy place!

Flight report of November 7, 2002
Nothing was really accomplished on this flight due to the overcast and rather turbulent conditions. with the many instruments in the cockpit I am finding I need lots of practice.

The neutral elevator is now giving me about 50 mph and this is the hands off position as well.

I had forgot to set the voice recorder on this flight.... where is that check list?

Flight report for Nov 3, 2002
The flytec instrument package was installed, It is a FAI approved barograph with two altimieters, a timer, airpseed and vario. This is very useful for timing an altitude loss which gives us the L/D. The airspeed tubine we set about one foot out the front of the nose of the glider . This is obviously too close but any further and it would cause problems within the hangarand besides I can make computer corrections to it.

On tow the flytec was noticeably registering slower by about 10 mph.

Hands off flight is about 50 mph.

Did about 20 minutes of soaring invery weak lift before landing

October 31, 2002.Yes it was an overcast day with clouds at 4000 and 6000 msl and no evidence of thermal activity. So Mat decided on flights to test the new aerodynamic trim tabs, statci stability, dynamice stabiltiy and thermalling stability. Our hands off speed was about 75 mph and just to have it hands off about 50 would be nice so two aluminum trim tabs where added to the elevator and the hands off speed decreased to 45 mph indicated. However an airspeed calibration was still needed.

The first flight Mat tried airspeed calibrations, with the use of a cockpit recorder to record then entire conversation during the flight. It was a great success.

With the hands off position at a reasonable speed a hands off straight and level flight was attempted. There was no appreciable turn to either direction and it felt very stable. Next a shallow banked turn was made to the left. The stick was released and the Pioneer kept the same bank angle and high banked turn was done and the stick released. On the left high bank turn the glider did tighten. On the right side the glider was stable in the shallow banked turn and the steep turn.This indicates there is still some turn to the left in the wing.

The glider is statically and dynamically stable. Any abrupt force applied to stick will cause an immediate pitch change and the following occillations are soon dampened coming back to the original set airspeed.

The slowest indicated speed was 30 mph and the fastest during this flight was 110 but keep in mind that the airspeed has not been calibrated.

I did one 500 ft. sink test that gave the glider just above a 30:1 glide ratio at 53 mph and the airspeed calibration test gave results of about plus 8 mph at 45 mph and minus 4 at 80 mph.

These tests need to be redone so that we can get some consistent results. The airspeed did not seem to register well at the high speeds perhaps I had a problem with the gps or the pitot tube is not in a correct position. Things to think about.

For neutral elevator the airspeed is about 65-70 mph which indicates that the glider is still nose heavy.

Some of my observations are that the reflex in this wing could be reduced to reduce the pilot workload on tow and in high speed and the ailerons could be more immediately effective. This is an aileron glider and yaw corrections are better made with the aileron which result to bringing you into the lift

On the last flight I found lift at 1000 agl and soared there for about 20 minutes before I tired of it. The spoilers work well now.

October 27, 2002. With Mat and Muggs away not much was done however Mike soared the Pioneer for about an hour on a very weak thermal day. He did report that the spoilers really kept him busy on final....so it was decided to do something about it. Mat unhooked the lower spoilers and while he was at it repositioned the static ports back about 10 centimeters. Our flying weather this weekend was quite poor but at least there was calm air to test the spoilers. And they where much improved although maybe slightly lacking in the necessary drag to get the ship down quickly. Luckily the ship side slips quite well so that a precise landing can be accomplished. The indicated airspeed also seems to be improved.

For more detail on the flight report see the Butterfly Works.

October 7, 2002. With the interest in testing one sometimes forgets the real purpose of the sailplane... namely soaring! So thats what Mat decided to do!

Pilot Report
It was a gusty north wind (9 gusting to 15) but it did look good with puffy clouds and all.

The tow was quite normal and the ailerons and elevator countered all turbulence and was at least comparable to the grob 102. The change in the elevator was immediately noticeable and I was able to counter any gust.

Once off tow I floundered about... I was very busy! The light wing loading does make a more sensitive aircraft. The craft really gives a lot of feedback and every nuance is felt. I had an initial difficulty understanding this.But what was apparent is that this craft really climbs under 50 mph.. I actually watched the altimeter dial more than the vario. It was a time to learn... so thats what I did. When I topped out in the thermal I was amazed how excitingly different this sailplane is... OK now to cruise between the clouds! At 60.... very good... at 70 still very good... OK 80..... still just fine. I hit 90 and the vario then started more of a descent so in the range 75 to 85 is a good cruise speed. Well this is strange and my predictions really did not give this good a cruise especially for a dirty wing!

Well if it really does do well on cruise lets christen it with a cross country. Bucyrus is only about 15 miles away and blessed with an airport so why not? I skipped from cloud to cloud circling once and a while since not everything was working . Cloudbase was about 4000 msl. This was starting to get a lot of fun... but I was certainly busy.

In circling in a thermal it was not just a matter of holding a bank angle and airspeed. I was able to optimize my gains every step of the way by the feedback from the craft.

I actually went north of Bucyrus just popping between the clouds. And an hour and then some passed quickly.. OK a final glide home from about 3200 agl... fifteen miles at 80 plus mph.... arrived back at over 2000 agl... I did get some lift on the way. this is one amazing glider!

The landing was easily controlled despite the very turbulent conditions. The spoilers work just great and it side slips just fine when needed.

I pushed the Pioneer back to the Hangar and just could not think enough good things about it.

The wing needs to be smoothed, sanded and waxed. The bottom spoilers need more spring tension and more work to smooth the airflow on them. The rudder still buzzes left and right. We need a new canopy... but thats a project for the winter months.

This is one very successful glider! Jim Marske was right all along!

Oct 6, 2002. It was 8am and everyone arrived ontime...observers, Wes Metz and Cary Beazley, Robert Mudd tow pilot, Mike Couts pilot for the day and Mat to organize and run the show.! We where excited! The winds where starting to pick up and it was cold. Dew settled on the wings and our flirst flight takeoff was difficult due to the sun right down runway 12. We have a video thanks to Wes Metz and Photos by Cary Beasley. Results are posted in the Butterfly Works.

The elevator change made yesterday was confirmed as being an improvement.

The airspeed was calibrated and all of out L/d runs showed greater than 30:1..from 46 to 85 mph. with a surprising reading of 30:1 AT 85 mph.

Cleaning up the wing, adjusting the CG will improve all of this. What is most surprising is the high speed L/d... when I excitedly told Jim Marske.. he said of course I've know that for the last 35 years but no one believes me!

So I guess more testing to really confirm this crazy belief!

And especially thanks to Robert Mudd who offered to aerotow for us. As Mike noted if you need a precise tow Roberts the man for the job!And I'll bobber that!

-mat

	Mike getting tucked in for the early morning flight
	Flight visability down runway 12
	Mike Landing after the test flight

Oct 5, 2002 October 5th say a real breakthrough. The airleron adjustment was indeed a great improvment in handling. We also moved the CG back. And to top it off Mike Couts had an hour and one half thermalling flight! More details and data in the Butterfly Works.We have traces of the flights, available from the Butterfly Works early next week.

	Early Morning launch
	Mike landing after 1 1/2 hours of soaring

Oct 5, 2002.. During the week Mat was recovering from an infected hand and the weather was poor so we decided to make a change in the ailerons by putting the down travel to 2 inches instead of the 1.5 inches. Up travel is 4 inches now measured at the root end of the aileron. We are hopeing this will improve the roll rate and give us a littel adverse yaw which was missing in our first few flights. Hopefull we do not haveto go in and change the belcrank that dictates the differential ratio.

All of our data on the pioneer testing will be placed in the Butterfly Works section of the web site along with the projected flight tests. Ideas and suggested flgiht tests are welcomed.

Oct 1, 2002

Mat here is todays log files. You will notice things slowed down a lot.
The low speed handling and performance were very good. you can look at the
log with the cambridge software . Short flight but I was smiling
all the way!

Downloadable Flight Log of sept 29, 2002 for Cambridge aero explorer software

-Mike

thoughts after 9/29/02 flight

1) adjust for less differential--- suggest 1/2 inch change for starters.
2) maybe remove foam from 1 rudder cable-- fuse needs more air outlet
3) don't tow at less than 60 indicated
4) adjust for a bit more down elevator-- we have more than needed amount of up.
5) still have buzz in rudder ----check for humming bird nest.
6) use no more than 55mph indicated on final. still
a bit pitch change, learn to cope.
7) recheck my c of g w/ no cushion and small shot bag under rudder board. CG now at 7.25"? from bottom fuselage rearmost to ground. Will recheck.
8) maybe think about splitting seat cushion to allow for bottom but no back.
9) sell 4 or 5 gliders and trailers per year----- so I don't have to fix combines and tractors anymore.
10) go to bed.

Mike

Sept. 25, 2002. Mat took the second high flight in light thermals at mid day with a 10 mph at 75degrees crossed at 10 mph . The cross wind landing was a non event.

Mat Redsell Pilot report: After Mikes flight test report I sealed the canopy, and made a cover for the rudder hinge so that it would not show an open hole on the top hinge. The bottom still had a small hole showing. I had thought of changing the lower spoilers so that they opened a little later than the upper but decided to try for myself since I suspected that at speeds of 55 or below they would be fine.

The aero- tow was fairly easy although with the midday thermals there was once when full ailerons where not enough to counter one abrupt thermal. I did not determined whether the Yaw String was correct during this maneuver. Once released I found that the CG was too far forward so one of the forward weights was pulled back which resulted in a much better handling glider. I feel the CG could even go back further but decided to give it a workout with this configuration. The Pioneer is basically quiet and I took it to about 85 mph and down below 40 mph. Turns where easy with no hint of any wing tip stall at 55 mph, and it was definitely different from the 13 meter version. I did have some difficulty getting accustomed to the rudder. It was still buzzing slightly if right or left rudder was applied and the yaw string seemed easier to correct with the ailerons.I have a suspicion that there is too much differential in the ailerons. Further testing will help determine this.

Flying at 50 mph is so quiet that one feels they are in a stall but you are still flying! I applied the spoilers and above 60 mph there is a pronounced pitch up but at 55 or lower they where easily controlled by the elevator and at times with full spoilers seemed neutral in pitch. but with a much improved sink rate to about 700 ft/min sink. A slip was a non event which further increased the sink rate. I would leave the spoilers as is although the lower spoilers need to have their springs tightened.

The L/D of this craft is very surprising, I kept tapping the altimeter just to make sure it was working since the decent rate was so low.

Ten minutes into the flight I felt totally comfortable and relaxed!

Overall this a real success! We will do a few more flights to accustom ourselves with this new Pioneer, make some changes then proceed with more testing and publicizing the results. Please help us evaluate the Pioneer IId by helping us financially to subsidize the aerotows.

-mat

Sept 23, 2002. Mike did the first high flight!

	Mike on final
Mikes Flight report: Downloadable flight log of sept 23, 2002 for Cambridge AeroExplorer software. The aero tow was almost done hands off it was so easy. Robert Mudd the tow pilot said the climb rate was about 7-800 ft a minute which is above normal for most tows. Indicated stall was at 35 mph, increased sink seemed to start at 45 mph. There is a slight left turn apparent above 70 mph. In a turn there is a tendency to let the nose come up and slow down. There is no tip stall in a turn. Elevator is neutral at 60 mph with some back pressure. This may be an indication of a nose heavy condition as the sink rate spreadsheet indicates the sink rate should increase below 36 mph.. On the negative side, the spoilers when deployed at 60 mph cause a pronouned nose up attitude. Spoilers probably need to be used below 55 mph. We will also increase the down travel in the elevator. The cockpit is very noisy with moving air and the rudder gap seals are buzzing. We will seal off the wing roots. A rough calculation of L/D is 38 at 60 mph.which is rather surprising since calculated the L/D was only about 36:1. We have not done the airspeed calibrations yet, but it is close. Further study and refinements are necessary. This is one of those moments when your financial generosity would be appreciated to help pay for aerotows.
	Mike and robert dicsussing the aerotow.

September 21,2002. Mike's back had mended enough to continue the testing and Saturday looked perfect. We pulled the Pioneer out and proceeded to pull it by rope to runway 25. On one of the corners on the taxiway we ran into some trouble. Mikes mirror for his van had broken and the rope had become slack.... and we ran over the rope. This rather simple mistake caused a lot of problems. The rope and the rings went up inside the wheel well and managed to break the brake cable holder that was cast into the side of the aluminum brake assembly. We where so close to flying! We could not move the glider and only after numerous runs to the hangar where we able to free the wheel. When we finally got back to the hangar we took off the wheel and went back to the shop to find a fix. We managed to weld an arm onto an already existing bracket and all was well after an hour or so. So back the to airport where we assembled the wheel and pulled it out more carefully to runway 25. Moral of the story do not get flustered... gather your forces and continue!

The first autotow flight was fine. The nose tends to stick to the ground on the initial run to about 25 mph when enough elevator authority allows one to raise the nose. The lift off is automatic and is easily controlled to maintain a low altitude. On the second flight Mat tried a slight turn going from the hard surface to the grass runway. What he didn't account for the was the recent rains and upon skimming at the 12" level he was horrified to see that his path lead directly to a great puddle of water and mud! Mike came to the rescue and then pulled the Pioneer back to a run down runway 7 with a projected run to 200 ft. and landing on 30. On this flight Mat went to about 250 ft. altitude and it soon became apparent that he had overshot the height for the glide ratio available on this new Pioneer and had to do a button hook to assure landing on 30. During the turn mat was made aware of a now very powerful rudder and happened to over compensate on the rudder having to use opposite rudder to align the turn. The spoilers where deployed and the landing was well done.

We elected to end the day early and review what we had learnt.

The initial takeoff reminds one of the 1-26. The elevator works very well and one has a feeling of excellent control. The spoilers seem a lot more effective with the spoiler pans and seem to have a more pronounced effect on pitch than was previously remembered. There is a little shudder when they are first deployed then it is smooth all the way with a pronounced pitch up countered with the elevator. The rudder is hardly needed for the turns and the ailerons seem much more responsive than we had last year. We still do not have mylar gap seals on the ailerons or elevators. Landing is entirely normal with a good feeling of control.

The take off occurs about 45 and the climb out seems fine at 55 mph. Landings seem to need 55 mph on final. Our airspeed has not been calibrated yet.

The L/D has certainly increased and there is no apparent turn to either direction.

September 15, 2002. Just some more photos

	And the inevitable curiosity about the ship... Mike handles that best!
	Mat before the first flight
	am I nervous? Not at all. Doesn't that wing look great!

Sept. 13, 2002. Well we transported the glider to the airport and today is the big day for testing!

	The wings at the airport. We had to take out the rear panel of the trailer to get the new wingtip extensions in!.... yes it was getting late!

Sept. 10, 2002. the glider is assembled in the shop to put the gap seals on ... this is getting exciting!

	Together!.. just a few more things and ofcourse the paperwork!
	Looking good!

Past history of the Pioneer rebuild

RETURN TO: MARSKE FLYINGS WINGS HOMEPAGE

Designer:
Jim Marske

Phone :(740)-223-3550
Marske Flying Wings
c/o Marion Industrial Center
3007 Harding Higway East
Marion ,OH, 43302