Captain Jebediah once again takes the Deuce for a spin to see how adjustments that have been made to the controls affect the pitch handling, and also to further investigate its left-roll tendency
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Kerbal Space Agency
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C7 still analyzing data, here's a look at how much trouble Jeb had holding the aircraft level - a few big movements almost stalled the plane
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Jeb is wondering if the left-roll tendency is due to only him aboard & in the left seat. Engineers say yes, but shouldn't be this noticeable
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C7 has tweaked the control surfaces down lower still & have asked Jeb to take another flight but winds have increased. Monitoring weather...
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approaching sunrise, winds still haven't died down. Waiting also for a report from KB team to the north of Wx conditions for balloon launch
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Bob reports that weather is currently overcast over their position, so both KB team and Jeb are standing by at launch/flight readiness
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Jeb is standing down, but KB team has a larger window in which they can launch, not worried about payload landing at night up in that area
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sky of molten gold. Doesn't look like rain will come our way but low clouds will not allow Deuce to fly, hoping for better Wx 2nd sunrise
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rain stayed away, so HAB crews rolling out Deuce. It has a sandbag in the co-pilot seat to see how much it helps balance out left-roll
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in addition to the sandbag, both the aileron and elevator controls have been set to lower sensitivity to hopefully give Jeb an easier time
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we have a GO from Wx to continue flight trials, clouds still low Jeb can't climb past 3km but he doesn't need to go higher than 2.5km to have plenty of recovery room
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climbing aboard for preflight Jeb comments on how cavernous the aircraft feels when he is the only one aboard. Can seat up to 4 passengers
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Jeb is on his way out to Rwy27, winds are light enough to depart either runway but sticking to 27 as that's the well-used departure/approach
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climbing out after a ~500m takeoff roll, Jeb fought a brief period of left roll/sideslip but says it is better now. Gear up, flaps up!
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up at 2-3km, still fighting for level flight, Jeb says the trim control is better but still not able to completely level out the aircraft
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Jeb managed to find a good trim setting & is flying much more easily now. Aircraft roll is lessened but still present to a noticeable degree
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after some more meandering about Jeb says the dampened pitch control really lets him feel how it's the aircraft itself that is unstable
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furthermore the aircraft seems to want to dive turning left and climb when turning right. Perhaps ailerons were mounted slightly misaligned?
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Jeb spent a few minutes cruising level(ish) at 1/3 throttle to check out low speed handling, is now heading back to KSC for pattern entry
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7km out lined up on final, flaps full, gear down, Jeb is looking to fly the same approach as last time, 60-70m/s then 50m/s over rwy to land
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BUMP BA DUMP... BUMP, BUMP - several bounces that time, touching down initially around 50m/s as planned. Gear may need adjustments as well
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back in the HAB, we don't expect another Deuce flight today or soon. C7 already saying they may need to do another aerodynamic redesign pass
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weekly ops review - 3rd Ed! All hail the weekend - catch up on this past week's activities & w/additional info via bit.ly/KSAOpsSummary8…
