VELOCITY ZU-CYJ

Dream flying surpassed

I guess before one gets involved with a kit plane project like the Velocity, one dreams about flying and one can hardly wait to get into the air. While flying C172's to stay current I had no idea what to expect. The three years and a few month that I spent in the dungeon (as my wife Uli calls my garage), kept me away from most social activities at the time and I thank Uli for her patience during this time in which she saw little of me while she looked after most of our business activities. Now in hindsight I have to comment that my real life experiences in this superb aircraft surpassed my initial dreams as I think back on the many exciting flights that I have undertaken in the past 1.5 decades!

First Flight

Well, I called her "Out of Africa" - because she was the first Velocity built and flown in Africa - I remember June Friday the 13 2003 (not lucky for some) - Dave King the test pilot flew over from Brakpan to FASY in his Long-Ez to conduct the first test flight. With ZU-CYJ still in primer paint work, the result of three years and 3 months of painstaking work were about to be tested. After a twenty minute flight she performed well - but some minor adjustments needed to be done. This was the start of the wonderful journey that took me to experiencing flight of a new dimension. 

Maturing into a long distance cruiser

A fancy paint job, constant speed prop, autopilot and some extra instruments were added with time to turn this Velocity into a fantastic flying machine that cruises at 160 knots (using a Lycoming IO360 200 hp engine) burning 28-30 litres of fuel per hour reaching Cape Town from FASY in 4 hours. A lot easier than driving a car.

Bonding of Man and Machine

When planing and executing such a project, for instance the placement of instruments, the inclusion of the speed brake, the choice of the engine, the repeated testing of the retractable gear as well as all the accumulated tasks that add up to a building time of 1800 hours - you then are able to experience the reward of flight. All these moments contribute to a ever growing bond between yourself and the machine. I have been asked many times to sell my baby, but as with my wife Uli, I would not trade them for the world.

Canard Advantages

• The total lift produced by a canard configuration can be 30% more than a comparable tractor configuration where the rear wing produces drag as the small wing at the rear pushes down. (Explains good fuel burn and speed figures.)
• No adverse yaw during take off as there is no prop-wash over the fuselage.
• No rudders required during flight. Used only for take-off & landing.
• Not possible to stall as canard stalls before main wing causing nose to drop to gain speed and thus unstalling itself.
• Good visibility.
• Little noise & vibration in cabin due to engine being at the rear.

Canard drawbacks can be contained

• Stones kicked up by wheels can damage prop (protective tape helps).
• High risk take-off when using unpaved runways. Cannot be used as a bush plane.
• At higher altitudes with close to MTOW I require more than 2/3 of the 1000m runway to rotate as the canard configuration needs about 75knots to rotate. This leaves no room for error during the critical rotation phase.

Now 1.5 decades flying

 My promise to Uli was to produce a plane that would get us to places fast with no fuel stops. She disliked the Cessna 172 which I had frequently hired to build up flying time as it was slow and trips would be a nightmare especially on hot days. Changing to the Velocity was getting used to big movements on the yoke to the small movements on the centre stick. At first I would practice many touch and go's to get used to the much faster landing speed as the Velocity has no flaps, just the speed brake helps to bleed off speed during landing. It was not long before Uli and I planned longer trips where she would take care of the rental car and accommodation issues while I would work on the flight plan and weather forecasts. When flying for example to Stellenbosch we would arrive at the airfield (FASY) at 7am to be airborne at around 8am, climb to F095, arrive at FASH around midday to receive our rental car. The autopilot, constant speed prop and Uli assisting me with navigation makes flying so easy that one actually feels refreshed on arrival to enjoy the rest of the day in Cape town. 

 The problem we had on destinations with little infrastructure is that there are no car rental facilities and it is boring to just land and take-off again without exploring the surrounding area. So Uli and I decided to get some mountain bikes that we would disassemble (front and rear wheels as well as the pedals) then remove the two rear seats and place the bikes in the rear of the cabin using a blanket for protection. The assembly or disassembly time would be 10-15 minutes for both bikes. We then tackled our day trips by exploring decent tar runways and using a Google Earth print-out to explore surroundings (avoiding squatter camps). We then would spend 2-3 hours cycling at our destination, maybe have some lunch at a restaurant of coffee shop before flying back home.

 Our day trips entailed following destinations: Middelburg, where we explored the Botshabelo mission. The flight time was 25Min each way (with no Toll roads to worry about)! At some destinations as with our trip to Ladybrand we would even stay overnight and cycle to our accommodation from the airfield and explore the area by mountain bike before flying back on the following day. Then we would undertake many memorable flights, even to neighbouring countries like Mozambique and Namibia. Well, during the past 1.5 decades the Velocity has clocked 730 hours on the Hobbs meter. I thank the visionaries of manned flight like Leonardo Da Vinci, Otto Lilienthal and the Wright brothers together with many others whose inspiration has led to the evolution of an aircraft like the Velocity and I am privileged to have experienced some of Southern Africa's most spectacular scenery from a birds eye view with this magnificent aircraft.