I posted on VANS Air Force about putting a 13B in my 9A and got an interesting response from “F1R” who was a test pilot for “Oly Olsen” when the under powered aluminum version of the Vari-Viggen (w/13B) almost killed him.
Do any of you "old timers” remember if the last builder “Oly Olsen” was ever on our list back in early 2000’s when he was finishing up the installation? Sounds like his engine was only putting out “stock" 2 rotor hp of 160-170, and that heavy a/c needed a minimum of 225 or so…
Doug
"http://stargazer2006.online.fr/deriv.../viggenite.htm
Here is a link with some of the BS and mystery.
The photos however are real.
JR broke his back sliding over a rock pile when a fuel bockage forced he and his wife into an off airport landing.
Keith rebuilt the Viggenite from salvage. My forced Ldg was in late 2003. Then it got sold to Oly after keith made it new a second time.
I am guessing about 2008 for the Chesterfield MO Incident. FAA report said power loss for undetermined reasons. FAA report claimed the roll to inverted was intentional.
A second canard forum posting by a friend and witness read that it stalled, then dropped a wing and riled inverted virtually instantly, from the pitch up when power was lost.”
By the way, the only reason I cleaned up the gear is that the water temp was pegged way above red line and the AC would not climb. So it was either land it on a highway quickly, or clean up the gear. It did cool down a bit and I did get it to 5000 feet. More than one of my friends told me afterwards I should have thrown a match in it before I run away from it.
Oly re designed the cooling and changed the prop. I know he was in search of cooling and even a bit of climb performance, because all the HP did not result in performance or speed. It was a dog. A sexy looking dog, but a dangerous underperforming dog.
I believe that Oly also changed the carb and intake system after he bought it. IIRC it had dual carbs on the other side of the engine bay when I flew it.
As for the dog statement... I used 4400 ft of a 4800 ft runway and I just barely cleared a 4 ft barb wire fence at the end of the airport a few hundred feet past the end of the runway. I had a good 15- 18 kts of headwind.
I should have aborted before half way, but if you hesitate just a moment, it's too late.
The Vig run strong enough but the owner never did a static thrust test.
An IO 360 200 HP will generate about 680 -700 Lbs static trust when measured with a load cell / big inline fish scale.
A healthy IO 540 will make almost 1000 lbs.
I spent several months doing full power taxi runs. Nose wheel was easily up in about 800 feet and accel. felt normal. Even in calm air with a run both directions water temp issues did not present any concern.
However, on the for real TO run and flight it took crazy high air speed to make it lift off the mains. I was about 190 lbs at the time so 30 lbs heavier than the owner and I added about 20 gallons extra fuel for the flight.
Bottom line is the 13B just did not have enough power for that wing and weight. The numbers did not translate into adequate thrust.
I was told that Keith had sold the Vig as salvage parts to somebody and that is all I knew until I got searching on the I net a few years after the final voyage with the tree.
I had lots of friends that tried to lead me to rational thought and away from the Vig, without any of them saying"do not fly that machine" . The old Varriviggen had 2 recent fatals previous to my flight in 2003, from only partial loss of engine power with one of them a high time military pilot. Dropped a main wing when he got slow trying to milk it back to the airport. I should have run away, before I flew the vig. I did a glider flight and had a back seat ride in a long eze before I flew. I never imagined an engine out forced with stuck landing gear would happen on my first flight in a non familiar airframe. The first landing attempt was about 100 kts but as I got down into ground effect the nose pitched up uncommanded and there was NO negative pitch control so the AC flew up and up and I was shoving the stick forward into the instrument panel shouting F**K, F**K, F**K over and over beating the **** out the stick and panel. Just before it dropped a main wing(I think my TW time in pitts and the Emeraude saved my ***) the nose finally mushed and dropped I had time to say wow I get a second chance. This time I kept the nose up and held it high AOA and slower, I eased into the field at about 80-85 kts. It got into ground effect the second time but nose up about 2 feet and everything went into slow motion. It seemed to fly, just grazing the stubble field for an eternity. The saving grace was that the nose wheel was down about 6 inches and when the cooling scoop on the bottom acted like a tail hook, it went from 70 to zero in about 1/2 second. It never even scratched the paint on the main wing. It did not touch the prop. However all the deceleration and weight transfer onto the nose wheel rippled the nose structure near the gear pivot tie in points.
Thank God it not dig the nose in or flip. I hit my harness release and canopy at the same time, jumped and ran as hard as I could not waiting for gas fumes. No fuel rupture and I thanked the big guy for being alive. F1R |