The Easy Eagle first flight sounded a lot like Steve Parkman (Sp?) fatal
accident. For first flight, he adjusted the ground adjustable prop for
maximum static thrust (never do this) which provided great initial thrust but
would not make significant thrust above stall speed. He crashed into the
only obstacle (a cactus) within a hundred yards while attempting to mush
the airplane around the pattern.
Thanks to all for the comments. You're exactly right
Tracy. I had originally written about his prop situation, then deleted it
from the message. He added a belt reduction for the VW, and
changed props, because the original prop would not have had enough pitch for the
max rpm it would turn with the redrive. I'm not sure how he calculated the
new pitch, but it sounds as if it still wasn't nearly enough. I've
watched him do high speed runs, and the engine sounded great. By all
accounts, the engine sounded good on his flight as well, but just
didn't move the plane fast enough.
Rusty
(newspaper reported as an ultralight...
sigh)