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| A very eventful maiden, and the limitations of SAFE Today, while I was preparing to fly the FMS P-39 Cobra II, one guy came to the field with a brand new P-51 Cripes. He had several difficulties even before getting airborne. 1. He mentioned that he had never flown a low wing plane of any kind , much less a P-51. 2. He was unaware of the correct CG or programming the timer of his TX to avoid running out of battery 3. He had a great deal of trouble programming his radio for the P-51. Since I was heading to fly. I decided to help him prep the plane for its maiden. I did help him with finding the correct CG and programming SAFE in his radio. I did give him pointers regarding how to take off a taildragger as well as to prepare to counteract the torque to the left with right rudder while on the takeoff roll. He took off on SAFE and the plane immediately ballooned almost out of sight. He had no idea why the plane was doing this and was trying desperately to prevent it from climbing out of sight-it was quickly specking out. This is one limitation of SAFE-it won’t save you if you have absolutely no idea how to fly the plane or how to react to it. Yes, it won’t loop or fall into tip stalls but that tendency to balloon can be very nerve wrecking for a pilot who does not know how to react to it. I did tell him to take SAFE off. The plane stopped ballooning but now he struggled to bring it to a comfortable altitude. The plane still wanted to climb. The pilot kept asking why and I trimmed his plane down while he handled the sticks. He really struggled to control the plane-tight banks, going near tip stalling, unintended maneuvers. He really struggled to bring the plane down. Finally it was time to land. Since it was windy, the plane really slowed down to a crawl and he landed without incident. Still, this does show that SAFE is not going to help if the pilot is not ready to fly the particular plane. He thought that the plane did not fly well because of the wind but then I flew my 1.2 m Corsair and had him watch how I flew it, giving him pointers regarding how to fly (both planes being similar regarding fly envelopes). I also flew my non-SAFE, non AS3X FMS P-39 to show that the planes could fly well in wind. I did explain to him what SAFE and AS3X do and what they don’t do for the pilot-I see a lot of dependency on SAFE and gyros and in my opinion it’s best to stop using them once one learns to fly. Finally, he saw another pilot fly the very same Cripes P-51 plane flawlessly. The second flight was less eventful. He could take off without incident but again, the plane ballooned almost out of sight when he relied on SAFE. I told him to take it off and go easy on the controls and keep the speed up-he was flying on the verge of tip stalling. This kept going on for the duration of the flight-ballooning, near tip stalls. unintended maneuvers. The plane was obviously badly trimmed and I kept telling him to trim the elevator down. The landing ended up in a nose over off the runway but no damage. Message: even if the plane has SAFE and AS3X or other aids, if you are not prepared to handle its flying envelope, these devices are not going to save you. I did show him how AS3X does not save you. I climbed to altitude in the Corsair and then I asked the student to watch me release the sticks. The plane merrily continued its bank toward the ground. I then pulled up to normal flight and told him that AS3X does not prevent crashes but simply smooths out things like a windy days. As for SAFE, if you apply it too low and too late in an emergency situation, it might not save you from a crash. It also, for me. interferes with having complete control of the plane. I maidened all my Eflite planes with SAFE off and I never install gyros on PNP planes. |
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