Captain Jebediah is able to successfully take off in the Deuce after adjustments are made to the elevator controls. While pitch stability is vastly improved, design issues still appear to remain
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Jeb & Val will be doing their combined preflight again, Deuce back on the tarmac after engineers adjusted controls to allow for more pitch
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once again Val is out of the cockpit to watch the takeoff w/Bob & Jeb has clearance to taxi to Rwy27, weather remains favorable as before
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after a 2km roll w/speed approaching 80m/s Jeb was able to gradually haul back on the yoke, take to the air & hold positive rate of climb
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Jeb kept gear down until 800m in case he couldn't hold his ascent & had to make a quick turnaround for landing. Now climbing->2.5km @ 72m/s
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trimming level, Jeb reports that going stick neutral the Deuce still wants to roll left quite readily. Pitch-wise tho he says its a dream
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Jeb climbed to 3km then let go of ctrls for as long as he dared, fell almost 1km in 40s w/roll ~50° but was able to recover w/o any issue
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using rudder trim (no roll trim available) Jeb can lvl out but is sideslipping at ~5° which is increasing drag & is not a real solution
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flight ctrl says C7 has seen enough & instructed Jeb to come about for his landing appr to Rwy27. So close to perfect flight performance :/
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Jeb is entering the pattern south of KSC on his downwind leg, looking to approach @ ~80m/s to account for changes since last time he flew
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on final approach, Jeb just recovered from what was almost a repeat of his 1st landing attempt where he stalled out off his final leg turn
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spoke too soon. As soon as he dropped gear the Deuce rolled over & plunged straight into the water. Rescue boat was pacing & is moving in
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rescue boat is onsite & crew just entering the water. No response via shortwave emergency radio from the cockpit, no visual reported on Jeb
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rescuers had to blow the emergency hatch to access the cockpit & extract Jeb, who is unconscious & being rushed ashore, med team standing by
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Jeb is on his way to the med center, boat crew heading back out to setup a tow for Deuce to get it ashore before taking on too much water
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good news, Jeb thankfully only suffered a minor concussion from the impact & Deuce didn't sink, will be ashore shortly then back in the HAB
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as with the last crash, a full investigation will be launched while C7 also further investigates this nagging roll issue plaguing the Deuce
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Jeb has been discharged from the med center & is off duty for the next week. Crash was worse than the last one so we are glad he is okay!!
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Deuce crash prelim report, Mk5 flight overview for this week's bit.ly/OpsSummary9-18… - everyone relax this weekend you all earned it!!
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Genesis & C7 have released the Deuce crash report along with future plans for reassembly & an updated blueprint: bit.ly/Genesis-PR10
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tl;dr Jeb at fault but only from lack of experience, no big design changes, rebuild will take 2 months to make very sure assembly is correct
