jerome1
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- Oct 22, 2012
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We are preparing an interesting event here in France that will involve 3 Piper. On Sept 22 it will be the 100 years celebration of the first non-stop Mediterranean crossing by Roland-Garros in his little Morane-G. To celebrate it, we have re-build over the winter the exact copy of his Morane G. It took about 6 months of efforts and the first flight took place two weeks ago (pictures attached).
The plane is really nice and flies well but is a bit special : no aileron (wing torsion through cables), very small rudder and elevator so stability is not great, no brake and no tailwheel… The engine is a new radial Rotec of 110hp, so should be good from that end.
On Sept 22 we are planning to fly it non-stop across the Mediterranean sea on its historical route from Southern France (Fréjus) to Africa in Bizerte-Tunisia. We will be flying over Corsica and Sardaigna Islands and the trip is close to 500NM. At 60kt cruise speed it should take around 8 hours to complete... We will escort the Morane permanently with 3 Pipers (PA11) that will relay each other, with one refuel stop for them. We don’t want to let the Morane alone anytime and will do all radio clearances, navigation for him and be ready to help in case of problem. We have to fly around 3 hours over the sea and the rest over the islands. It will be a long day for the Piper pilots with 8 hrs flight but we will make one re-fuel stop to stretch legs while the Morane pilot will aim to do it non-stop with the wind in his face !
This week we are starting the endurance flights to check all consumptions and continue the engine (and pilots !) break-In.
Really fun and exciting project with a great team. Hope we can make it successfully to Tunisia as Roland Garros did alone, on its own 100 years ago !
The plane is really nice and flies well but is a bit special : no aileron (wing torsion through cables), very small rudder and elevator so stability is not great, no brake and no tailwheel… The engine is a new radial Rotec of 110hp, so should be good from that end.
On Sept 22 we are planning to fly it non-stop across the Mediterranean sea on its historical route from Southern France (Fréjus) to Africa in Bizerte-Tunisia. We will be flying over Corsica and Sardaigna Islands and the trip is close to 500NM. At 60kt cruise speed it should take around 8 hours to complete... We will escort the Morane permanently with 3 Pipers (PA11) that will relay each other, with one refuel stop for them. We don’t want to let the Morane alone anytime and will do all radio clearances, navigation for him and be ready to help in case of problem. We have to fly around 3 hours over the sea and the rest over the islands. It will be a long day for the Piper pilots with 8 hrs flight but we will make one re-fuel stop to stretch legs while the Morane pilot will aim to do it non-stop with the wind in his face !
This week we are starting the endurance flights to check all consumptions and continue the engine (and pilots !) break-In.
Really fun and exciting project with a great team. Hope we can make it successfully to Tunisia as Roland Garros did alone, on its own 100 years ago !
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