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Mountain plane

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Starjumper7

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 28, 2015
Messages
260
Location
Ecuador
As some of you may remember, around ten years ago I escaped from the future prison camps to the north and moved south of the equator. I ended up building a place which is very close to the top of the Andes mountain range in the southernmost part of Ecuador. We can drive to the top in around an hour, and can see the continental divide from the house.

I've been imagining what kind of plane would work in this kind of area, which calls of a description of the terrain. It is all very steep here. The only flat and level spots anywhere around here are made by excavators. There are no airstrips around here. The closest airport, which is for passenger jets, is far away. We do have one flat spot, it's about a hundred meters long, with steep slopes rising at one end, and with the other end facing a high cliff. The winds are turbulent and can switch from one direction to the other in a second.

So, the plane which I think is required would be a very low aspect ratio plane, like a Zimmerman style. This is so it can have a very slow and steep descent, with a super fast roll rate to deal with the turbulent wind conditions. At some times of the year the wind is pretty mild, ant other times, the birds are walking. It needs to have a very low wing loading so that it's a'floater', can't stall, and can descend almost like a parachute.

I was thinking that the reverse Zimmermans are a little more efficient, but those have the center of lift too far back and therefore the visibility is completely unacceptable and unsafe for steep landings.

Concerning taking off. It needs a relatively powerful engine so that it can make steep climbs. I envision something like an ultralight, but with a 'cheater' engine. I haven't checked the ultralight rules here, but the ting is that no one is checking and no one cares, therefore a more powerful engine is indicated.

I'll never consider a plane like the kind of ultralight where the pilot is below the wing, sitting in a trapeze of flimsly tubes and wires. The pilot needs to be sitting on top, and right at the front edge of the wing. To get it balanced this may require the engine to be behind and below the pilot, with a drive shaft going between his legs to get teh propeller in front. Also it needs a very large diameter prop for that good old helicopter like cling performance. Maybe a good engine would be something like one of the 900cc industrial V twins.

Here's a couple of pictures of my land to give you an idea of the landscape. There are usually strong steady winds blowing sideways across the ridge top road in the second picture.Xmas walk1 copy.JPGXmas walk3 copy.JPG
 
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