Berkut

Originally Posted by Mr Gazza

Yep...That's the one. I think my mate's was called a BearCat, but I can't find any reference to it on the net.

Moved over here so we could stay out of their chili.

I've been so heads down in military aviation and deployments and such that I never got to pay that much attention to the civil side. Too busy with coming and going and training when I was home. All changed now.

In the past year I've been on crash course playing catchup learning about the GA planes, what they've got in them and I'm very impressed. I've seen some 172's with better avionics than we had. The kit planes though really have caught my eye. I'd love to get one, build it from scratch and fly it. I'd heard of Burt Rutan and his "unconventional" designs and how he was shaking up things and making a big splash but to see how they've continued to develop and grow is amazing. That Berkut too.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkut_360

Speaking of kit planes and the like if you can check out this show

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/militar...t-air-war.html

I couldn't get it to work on my computer but it does work on netflix. Those Kiwi's have set themselves up to be very aviation friendly.

[Mr Gazza]

Originally Posted by Aviatore

Moved over here so we could stay out of their chili.

Fair play....I guess it was a self indulgent hijack.

I found plenty on the Berkut when i realised it was not a Bearcat at all....I'd only heard it and not seen it written you see.
You have to hand it to the legend, Burt Rutan for the original design, but the Berkut was a cut above the Long EZ in terms of quality and attention to detail.
Not sure which model the Norwich one was, but it had a 200hp Lycoming and was good for well over 200mph....I've not seen or heard of it for a few years, so maybe it doesn't live here any more?

There are plenty of kits about, but I can recommend a Van's plane.
I was lucky enough to be allowed to help out with my neighbour's Van's RV8, which he built in a farm building just over the road.
It was a great fun hammering in hundreds of rivets per evening, but we got a bit merry on the fumes from the fuel tank sealant, and struggled to keep sensible enough to do a first class job of the tanks......It was fine though, even if we did giggle like girls at nothing... The Van's kits are top banana, with all the skins and ribs pre holed for the rivets...They all line up to perfection.
He fully re-built a 200hp Lycoming for it, which put any of my bike re-builds well in the shade.
Circumstances changed for him, and he had to sell the finished plane, but he managed to get in plenty of "testing" hours before it went...Made a decent profit too.

Last I heard of him, he was personal pilot to the likes of Angelina Jolie and David Beckam.

Looking forward to getting up close to your planes again in June...

Originally Posted by Mr Gazza

we got a bit merry on the fumes from the fuel tank sealant, and struggled to keep sensible enough to do a first class job of the tanks...

So that's how you got addicted to planes?!? Everybody's got their gateway.

When you initially said Bearcat I was thinking the Grumman, but mistakenly had the image of the Tigercat instead... lovely plane, the Bearcat not so much.

Speaking of gateways, Burt and his family starting out in kit planes and ending up with Spaceship one and two... talk about addicted! Meeting either Burt or Branson would be amazing, that's on the bucket list! Don't know how Branson got addicted but they're all in deep now. Wish I had their money to indulge in my vices like they can. Garage full of bikes, hangars full of planes. When you run out of space call up the Smithsonian and have them hold onto a few... what a charmed life.

Could say the same about your buddy, pilot to the stars has got to be a really good gig, though it might depend on the star. I can imagine a few of them let the money and fame go to their heads. I'm sure most are ok especially if they had to do the starving artists thing. Anybody that has to pay their dues to achieve the success they have has got to be good. They actually earned it. By comparison a friend of mine flew in the 89th airlift wing at Andrews and relayed a good number of stories about the politicians he flew around. Said they were the worst bunch of entitled so-and-so's. His stories make me wary of private piloting.

Looked up the RV8 and its similar to one that our Hurricane pilot flies. Probably is the same plane but I didn't check it out that closely last time I saw him. He just comes and goes from Duxford like its nothing, commutes in, flies the Hurri, commutes home. I'll have to check it out a bit closer next time I see him. How long did it take you and your neighbor to build?

[Dirty]

Sequel to 'A Car is Born'. Great little series

Berkut @4:30

You're not helping Dirty... I'll be watching this a bit later, been down the kit plane rabbit hole all morning and I've got a driveway clutch replacement to finish!

Actually I recently saw the AC Cobra build on TV, that SVA test was legit. Did a great job on it though and passed some of the tests by the skin of his teeth. Yet another project I wouldn't mind tackling at some point... bucket list grows ever longer!

[Dirty]

Originally Posted by Aviatore

You're not helping Dirty... I'll be watching this a bit later, been down the kit plane rabbit hole all morning and I've got a driveway clutch replacement to finish!

Once you've finished building your plane I'll send you a link to 'A Chopper is Born'. No, he doesn't build a hardley

Originally Posted by Aviatore

Could say the same about your buddy, pilot to the stars has got to be a really good gig, though it might depend on the star.

It's certainly not all roses ferrying the rich and famous. The inquest into the Vauxhall helicopter crash cited commercial pressure to satisfy an important client as one of the reasons.

Oh no not a chopper!! Those things weren't meant to fly! Been in two and the experiences couldn't have been more different. One was a nice smooth confidence inspiring HH60, the other a clackity religion inspiring POS of an MI-8... put me off them entirely!

Is this show still being produced or is it just reruns? They seem to be a little dated in the intro credits.

[Mr Gazza]

[QUOTE=Aviatore;520956] ....been down the kit plane rabbit hole all morning....QUOTE]

Ha!..You played right into my hands by mentioning rabbit holes...I was bursting to post this...One of my favorite planes.


Now we can make it a Christmas Quiz...Can you work out the Slick link between the plane and a rabbit hole?.......Anybody?

Interesting film there Dirty, but sadly I can't get sound on this PC, and the spelling in the sub-titles is terrible!!...I did spot what looked like a Berkut though, and a Van's RV6....And I guessing it was at Old Warden?

Aviatore...I have no idea how many hours to build an RV8. It took many evenings just to skin the wings. The Fus was built by my neighbour's buddy, who had half shares in the project. The fus arrived one day, about 80% done and the wings were mated onto it....Then the money got scarey....The canopy, propellor and avionics cost more than the airframe kit.! They knew this would be the case of course.

What struck me about the Van's kit, was how complete it was...Right down to countless bags of rivets and fasteners...All labeled and coded for specific jobs.
Van's tell you at the outset what you have to supply to complete the plane, which is pretty much just propulsion, avionics and seats....The quality of everything that I saw was superlative....Come to think of it I am still using the ply from the crates..

[Dirty]

Originally Posted by Aviatore

Oh no not a chopper!! Those things weren't meant to fly! Been in two and the experiences couldn't have been more different. One was a nice smooth confidence inspiring HH60, the other a clackity religion inspiring POS of an MI-8... put me off them entirely!

Is this show still being produced or is it just reruns? They seem to be a little dated in the intro credits.

It was filmed in 2002 so yes, a bit out of date production wise.

[Dirty]

Edit - double post

[Dirty]

Originally Posted by Mr Gazza

Interesting film there Dirty, but sadly I can't get sound on this PC, and the spelling in the sub-titles is terrible!!...I did spot what looked like a Berkut though, and a Van's RV6....And I guessing it was at Old Warden

Yep, pronounce Bear koo apparently. Advised as too complex for a first build though sadly.

[Mr Gazza]

Originally Posted by Dirty

Yep, pronounce Bear koo apparently. Advised as too complex for a first build though sadly.

(have you noticed that the "quotes" have gone a bit funny?)

Thanks for that Dirty...I've gone full circle now from hearing it so badly pronounced in Norfolk...

I would agree that a canard plane is probably not an ideal first build, and the Berkut is a particulaly sophisticated one.

All the flight controls were hydaulic on the one I saw, so there must have been many metres of carefully installed pipe in there, not to mention some very clever valves....
..You see the flappy bits are not exactly straightforward in this configuration.

The ailerons also act as elevators and are called elevons in this case. That is to say that they control roll by moving in opposite directions to one another (one goes up while the other goes down)...And they control pitch by moving up and down as one together.
This is all done from the joystick, so the same control surface is responding to different inputs.
In a model with servos, this is done with an onboard elevon mixer or an elevon mix on a computor transmitter. With cables it can be done by mounting the aileron bellcranks on a rocker which reacts to elevator inputs.....Okay with me so far?

Now there is also the canard (the little wing at the front) which more or less does what a tail plane at the rear would do, and it's control surface also controls pitch (it can also be a flap, but lets keep it simple). and as such is a elevator, so that is moved by fore and aft inputs from the stick, and moves in unision with the elevons, but in the opposite direction.

Any way..not sure how that is done with hydaulics...all clever stuff...maybe not a first build?

[Dirty]

Lucky his name wasn't Berput!

I wonder if the Berkut is now Ursa's new favourite plane or if it's still this one

Originally Posted by Mr Gazza

Now we can make it a Christmas Quiz...Can you work out the Slick link between the plane and a rabbit hole?.......Anybody?

A Beech 2000 Starship and a rabbit hole... I think I'm going to have to sleep on this one.


*Edit* only thing I can think of is Jefferson Starship's White Rabbit song.

Originally Posted by Mr Gazza

fore and aft inputs from the stick, and moves in unision...

You sure you're still talking about planes?

The hydraulics are probably the issue. They're usually complicated systems with built in redundancy and high pressure pumps, one way valves tanks and the like. As a first timer it would very intimidating getting it all to work properly. Throw in the canard configuration with multi use primary flight controls like elevons and it'll probably spin most experienced engineers heads. Even with good instructions its not going to be easy but if you got it right... 300kts and a unique plane will be ample reward. Not to mention the endurance benefit of the canard design.