What happened to the BEAR???

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: What happened to the BEAR???

Unless a Mustang also has a healthy engine....

Heey brudda!!

That's what makes this sport what it is!!

[Peashooter]

Re: What happened to the BEAR???

Wasn't the time-to-climb record set with the Able Cat long wing? It would make sense.

[Propellerhead]

Re: What happened to the BEAR???

It appears that the gear door problems were manifesting themselves quite early and possibly could've been addressed earlier with more testing. I'm glad things didn't turn out worse for the Bear under the circumstances.

This photo and the detail crop are from qualifying on Wednesday morning.

[MRussell]

Re: What happened to the BEAR???

That's really severe!

[Inverted]

Re: What happened to the BEAR???

Interesting.

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: What happened to the BEAR???

That's really nothing new for the Bear.. she's had gear door uplock problems in year's past. I'll say again, the "When" the problem finally manifested itself, was, indeed, a blessing in disguise. How serious would it have been if this had happend on a test flight with NO chase and NO crash support?

Think about it...

[Inverted]

Re: What happened to the BEAR???

I truely believe that.

[stuntflyr]

Re: What happened to the BEAR???

Wasn't the time-to-climb record set with the Able Cat long wing? It would make sense.

Hi Peashooter, of course it was.

These guys are talking absolutes and cross talking different subjects.

The Bearcat needs a little more wing than it has, not as much and not as thick as the tips are stock, to go theoretically faster; IMO.

It is clipped where it is because of the hinges.

The wing was full span when the time to climb record was set and the climb deck angle was varied from take off attitude to a very steep angle of 60 to 80 degrees during the climb maneuver. AOA during all of this is one for the experts because I don't know if the AOA exceeded that which one would normally expect a stall to occur because of it's extreme thrust and deck angle. (There was a period of ballistic climb according to Lyle.) But I do know that the control of the airplane during the climb and the ability of the wing to continue to lift at low indicated airspeeds was greatly increased because of the full span wing over the clipped version. I have never heard any pilot refer to the clipped wing as doing anything positive for the airplane's handling!

[forbergler]

Re: What happened to the BEAR???

It appears that the gear door problems were manifesting themselves quite early and possibly could've been addressed earlier with more testing. I'm glad things didn't turn out worse for the Bear under the circumstances.

This photo and the detail crop are from qualifying on Wednesday morning.

Hoopefully race teams will realize from this event how vital a tool the digital camera is. An analysys of this sort of problem can be done instantly, right on the camera, and help avoid critical problems. Watching the aircraft fly by at even 200 mph with the naked eye, one would still not be able to discern a 1" discrepency in a gear door. And Mr. Hinton does not have time to inspect every racer between take off and the start of the race. This problem could have been found and fixed Wed. had there been pics taken and looked at right away.