From: venky@thelonious.bellcore.com (G A Venkatesh)
Subject: Velocity factory visit report
Reply-To: venky@thelonious.bellcore.com (G A Venkatesh)
Organization: Bellcore, Morristown NJ
Date: Fri, 1 Jan 93 19:34:07 GMT


We visited the Velocity factory in Sebastian, FL this past Monday to take a 
closer look at the factory, plane and the kit. Here is a report from what I
learnt. The flight evaluation was seriously shortened due to a combination of
weather and prop problems. But I did learn a lot from the visit and I have
tried to put together as much of the information as possible in this report.
I welcome follow ups over the net or through e-mail. I also bought a set of
construction videos (6 tapes) to get a definite idea of the building process 
and will be able to answer questions based on those. I have seen only the 
first introductory tape prior to writing this report.

I have left out much of the information that can be found in the information
package. Please consider ordering it to get the sort of information that
can be found in such a package rather than asking me. For people that have
already read most of the articles in the media about the velocity, the video
is much more useful than the written material.


The factory
===========

Veocity Inc., is located in the Municipal airport of Sebastian, a sleepy little
town on the east coast of Florida about 10 miles north of Vero beach and 20
miles south of Melbourne. The factory consists of a large hanger with attached
office rooms and storage rooms - a far cry from the glitzy offices of Neico
Aviation (Lancair manufacturer) in Redmond, OR.

Duane Swing (who bought the place from Dan Maher, the designer of the Velocity)
runs the whole show as manager, designer and test pilot with help from his
wife, son, four regular employees and a temporary. Dan Maher is still around 
and is called a consultant, which means that he drops by often to share in
whatever Duane is doing at the moment.

The factory had very little activity when we visited since all the employees
had the week off. Duane was managing with just his wife. There is a completed
fixed-gear Velocity 173 that is used for demos and the Big Orange (the 
original standard prototype) that is being worked on. While trying out a new 
prop on the Big Orange, one of the blades came off at the beginning of the 
take-off run and trashed a wing. It has now been fitted with a redesigned 
wing without the cuff that was required to cure the deep stall problem. They 
will also be mounting a Subaru 235HP engine in it as soon as they get the 
reduction unit from Ross. More on this later.

There is a partially assembled retract with about 600 hours of factory build
time.

Building evaluation
===================

This kit seems very simple to build compared to Glasairs and Lancairs. There
is a substantially lower number of sub-assemblies required in this plane. There
is no doubt that the most time consuming aspect will be the finishing (sanding,
priming and painting). No jigs are required and the tools are minimal. But
there is a whole lot of alignments to be done using levelers and plumb-lines,
which to me seems to allow ample opportunities to screw up, if one isn't
careful. But that is just from a cursory first look.

The fuselage feels substantially more solid especially compared to the thin 
honeycomb structure of Lancairs. It is pre-molded using a wet lay-up process 
(like the Glasair) and comes in two halfs (top and bottom unlike the Glasair). 
The top half will have the windows and the door which are cut out using 
pre-marked lines. The rest of the assembly will be done in the bottom half 
and the shell closed later. The strakes are pre-molded top and bottom halfs on 
either side and will have fuel cells confined by internal bulkheads. The wings 
and canard contain solid foam cores that are bonded to the spar and covered 
with a fiberglass sheet. The elevators, rudders and ailerons are cut out from 
the corresponding assemblies and re-attached in place with hinges and 
controls. Antennas (with ample redundancy) are also provided for installation 
inside the winglets and are sufficient for any avionics that one may wish to 
install in the plane.

The fire-wall is just fiberglass coated plywood. A flame retardant paint can
be used if one so wishes. The epoxy used in the construction is combustible
and hence there is not much of a protection in case of a fire. Duane claims
that he once made an off-airport landing when a prop blade came off during a
race and flipped over. The fuselage did not collapse. He suggests putting
two bands of carbon fiber as reinforcements if one wishes to get more
protection for roll-overs. The upholstery sold as an $1200 option is fairly good
but is not fire-proof.

The kit does not contain the following - the engine, upholstery, prop, avionics,
instruments, battery, oil cooler, engine mounts, alternator, electrical
switches, plumbing (fuel, oil, vacuum lines), fuel pump (for injected engines),
engine controls. Most of these are available as options. Duane seemed reluctant
to give me the discounted price list on new Lycomings and Terra avionics.

The kit can be either bought complete or in two parts. No other choices. There
is no financing available.

The first half of the construction can be done in a single car garage, if you
can find the place to store the completed parts and the unfinished parts
elsewhere. Once the spar is mounted to the fuselage, you will need at least a
two-car garage. The glassing should be done at 65F or more ambient temperature.
A hair dryer or heat lamp can also be used to help.

The construction manual looks fairly readable but a full evaluation is 
impossible to do just by looking at it. However, the kit also comes with 
construction video tapes that can be extremely helpful since you can see 
someone actually doing each part.

Delivery is guaranteed within 30 days of the order.

The Engine
===========

Currently, 200hp Lycoming IO-360 (fuel-injected versions) are used in the
factory equipment. An 180hp engine can also be used but is likely to have
severe penalties in its performance.

A 235hp 6-cylinder inline Subaru engine conversion is ready and will be put 
in the Big Orange for testing as soon as they receive the prop reduction unit
from Ross. The only modifications are - the intake manifold has been turned
180 degrees, the original alternator has been replaced with a smaller one,
and an emergency ignition module including all the electronics required to
run the engine in case of a failure of the main module has been added. A 
monitor to read out the engine diagnostics will be made available with the 
engine kit for permanent installation in the instrument panel. The exhaust 
system will also include a muffler. The engine can be retrofitted on any of 
the earlier velocities. There would be no mixture control.

Duane seems fairly excited about the prospect. According to him, if he had 
employed a bunch of designers and engineers to design an engine specifically
for the Velocity, they couldn't have come up with anything better than the
Subaru. As soon as he puts the engine in, he plans to fly it for 250 hours
and tear the engine down and test it for wear and repeat the process in 250
hour increments. His only worry was about the efficacy of the cooling system. 
He is planning to have completed a substantial amount of the testing done in 
time to offer the option in Oshkosh '93. The estimated price for a complete 
new engine kit will be about $10K and an used engine can be converted for 
about $6000.

The Prop
==========

It is apparent that this is the most unsatisfactory part of the plane. Duane
seems to hate wood props with a passion and for a good reason. He really hasn't
found one that he is completely happy with. A three-bladed prop for use with
the Subaru engine seems to be fairly decent, but he is not too happy with the
two-bladed props he has used with the Lycomings so far. He doesn't believe
that any of the wood prop manufacturers have designed a good one for a 
high-powered pusher plane as yet. A lot of props are being tested and
re-designed. The one on the 173 that had seemed to show great promise for the
past 150 hours showed its problems during our demo flight and had to be sent
back to the manufacturer. More on that later.

A three bladed prop also has the advantage that the blades pass through the
turbulence behind the trailing edge one at a time while in a two bladed prop
both go through it at the same time. Apparently this has some effect on the
flexing and vibrational characteristics of the props.

Demo flight
===========

Getting into the plane is the most ridiculous aspect of the whole thing. There
is a single gull wing on the left side. The 173 has a glassed in ladder which 
is actually the pitot tube and the static port as the two steps. You step on 
the lower tube (static tube) facing forwards and push yourself up with your 
hands on the wing behind you to sit on it. Then you slide back as far as you 
have to depending on whether you are getting into the front seats or the back. 
Next you swing your legs over into the plane. The rear seat is easier to get 
into as you can step right into the floor. The right front seat passenger 
steps on the center console and pushes on the front seat back to clamber over 
to the other side. The pilot also steps on the center console with one foot
and steps onto the floor with the other.

Once you get in however, it is extremely comfortable. The seats don't recline
as much as the Glasairs or the Lancairs. You feel like you are sitting in a 
comfortable chair rather than sleeping in it.At 5'11", the fit was perfect for
me and I can see myself in that plane on long X-C trips. There is very good
shoulder room and head room. It doesn't feel cramped at all. The back seats
have plenty of leg room and head room and they are actually wider than the
front. It is a true 4-seater that can fit 4 largish people.

As long as there is a minimum weight of 150lb in the front seats, the plane can
be loaded to gross without worrying about the weight and balance.

The 173 had lap belts while the Big Orange had shoulder belts. You could do the
same for the 173 since they have identical fuselages. The anchor point would be
below the door sill and the harness would come up over the seat back. I did not
have a chance to try it.

There is a center stick in the console with a PTT switch on the left side and 
the aileron and elevator trim (electric) switches on the top. The throttle
and mixture control are on the left front console with a speed brake switch 
in front of them. Duane flew from the right and he could reach all the controls
fairly easily. 

The fuel injected Lycoming took a while to start while Duane in the right seat
fiddled with the mixture controls. We had headphones. The sound levels with the
door open and closed and with the headphones off and on are about the same
as an Archer.

There are two latch points for the door and a single handle. You pull on the
handle, push the door in and release the latch to lock it.

The ground handling is like the Tigers. The front wheel swivels freely and
you steer by differential braking of the rears. The twin rudders only swing
outward and the brakes come in at the outer limits of the rudder travel. So
there is no "heel-toe"ing in this plane. Duane had the controls while we taxied
up and took-off.

There are two take-off procedures for the Velocity. In one you keep the stick 
completely back from the beginning. At about 65mph, the nose starts coming up.
As the nose reaches the horizon, you neutralize the elevators and let the
plane fly itself off the ground. In the second approach, you keep the
elevators neutral until you reach about 70mph and take the stick back quite
sharply (no babying it here) and when the nose comes up to the horizon, 
neutralize the elevators and wait for it to fly off the ground. You can
over-rotate if you don't neutralize the elevators. There is no rudder required
at any time.

It was about 65F at sea-level that day with a 10-15 mph winds and patchy low
scud at about 1000'. There were three of us with an estimated weight of about
500lb and about 30 gallons of fuel.

The initial ground acceleration was nothing spectacular and about the same as
an Archer. The front wheels splashed through a deep water puddle in the middle 
of the runway which turned out to have significant consequences later.

I estimate about 1200ft before the plane left the ground. You climb out at
100mph. As soon as the plane left the ground, Duane trimmed it with a few fast
flicks on the trim switches and took his hands off. The plane flew straight
with no rudder inputs with not more than 5-10 degrees of lateral travel on
either side due to gusts which it would correct promptly. It is extremely
stable in this configuration. It was climbing at about 1200fpm.

I took the controls for the right turn out and to find a clear patch of blue
between the low scud. No rudders are required for normal turns. The controls
are crisp and precise. The plane does whatever you want calmly and with no
hesitation. There are no vibrations or rattles that you often find with
spamcans. Duane leveled it off and trimmed it (you need some practice with the
trim switches to get the hang of it). Trimming is essential. The stick forces
can get quite heavy in both axes if the plane isn't trimmed right. But once
it is trimmed the control pressures felt just right for me. At about 2100 RPM
we were at about 160mph level. There wasn't much sky to play around with due
to the clouds.

The visibility is excellent. I never felt the presence of the canard in terms
of visibility, while the main wings slope back fairly well to allow a good 
side view for the front seat. The rear seat visibility is good if you are 
looking forward and down and excellent in banks. I felt the top of the front
windshield to be too low and would have preferred it to be another 2 or 3 
inches higher. Duane says that it will soon be available. It has all the
advantages of a low wing plane for looking up and around and is a little better
in the front seat for looking down.

Duane had told me that most people tend to unconsciously apply slight backward 
pressure on the stick in level flight since the nose attitude is different 
from that of a typical spamcan. I didn't find the attitude difference 
significant at all.

I tried a few banking and pitching motions to check the responsiveness. It is
really delightful to fly at cruise speeds. There is absolutely no twitchiness
or hesitation and I felt absolutely no discomfort with using the center stick
on my right. The plane is neutral in banks and just keeps turning with the 
bank that you establish after you neutralize the ailerons. Any pitch 
corrections for steep turns can be done promptly. The changing wind noise 
cues, engine noise cues are all there to let you know if your speed is varying.
No rudders are required except for quick abrupt turns. The ball never leaves
the inner marks for normal turns. For quick steep turns, you lead with the
rudder to prevent the adverse yaw. It is easy to over correct with the rudders
and you are much better off with the feet on the floor at all times.

Yawing with the rudders drops the wing much more quickly than an average
spamcan. I didn't have much of a chance to play around with the oscillations
due to the low clouds.

Now for the stall. With the engine at idle and the stick held all the way back,
the plane slowed down gradually until about 70 mph at which point, the nose 
dropped about 5-10 degrees and slowly came back up again. It repeats this
process every 5 seconds or so. The feeling is quite different from a stall
in a conventional plane since the plane doesn't really sink any more than it
was originally doing with the engine at idle (about 500fpm) but just 
"pitch-bucks". There is very good aileron and rudder control during this time.
Recovery is prompt with either an application of power or by releasing the 
stick. I think in an emergency situation you can just land in this 
configuration and survive. With full power-on, Duane claims that the plane 
will climb upto 1000fpm in the pitch-bucking canard stall configuration. We 
didn't test this. 

To descend back into the pattern, I reduced the power down to about 1500RPM.
There was noticeable vibration behind me. Duane reduced the power further
saying that 1500-2000 RPM range induces those vibrations and is not recommended.
Moreover, you don't slow down or descend much at 1500RPM. At about 1200RPM,
the plane very gradually slowed down while descending until I leveled off
at pattern altitude at about 100mph. The controls at this point are still
precise and the plane is quite stable, although the plane must be trimmed 
right so as not to have unreasonable stick forces. We flew through some bumps
while descending and you can just take your hands off the controls and let
the plane stabilize itself. Although it is difficult to comparatively 
evaluate how it handles turbulence without flying another plane in the same 
conditions, I would guess it is at least as good as the Archer and much better 
than the Cherokee 140s.

Duane flies the pattern at 100mph on down wind slowing to about 80mph over
the numbers. I entered in the upwind leg and the turns to get downwind felt
quite stable and responsive. Again there wasn't even a hint at any time that
the plane could get away from me. Abeam the numbers, Duane took over for the
landing. No flaps to worry about. The higher the approach speed, the
better the descent view. We were descending at about 500fpm with excellent 
visibility over the nose. After turning to final, the speed brakes were
activated and we slowed down to about 80. The speed brakes take about 5 seconds
to activate and there is an orange light on the panel to indicate its 
deployment. Landing a canard plane is quite different from a conventional
plane. No flares to worry about, you just fly it into the ground trying to 
keep the descent rate as small as possible by lifting the nose up, if necessary.
Duane lands it at about 75 and applies rather hard braking. The approach was
very shallow (no trees at the end of the runway). This is definitely not a 
STOL plane. With enough experience and skills, it may be possible to land 
this plane in less than 1000' as claimed, but in the real world with real 
trees at the end of the runway, I would not be comfortable landing this plane 
in less than 3000' runway if the airport was not familiar to me or had trees 
at the end and perhaps 2500' if I was familiar with the runway. The brakes 
seem quite effective though.

Duane doesn't recommend using the rudders at all during final to either
lift a wing or to make course adjustments since it is very easy to over-correct.
Besides ailerons are quite effective and ailerons stalls are not a problem
in this plane.

I am not thrilled with this landing approach. I think I really prefer the
finesse involved in landing a conventional plane (especially when you get it
right). Your tastes may vary.

I told Duane that I would like to take-off and land. He didn't seem very
enthusiastic about it. He reluctantly said that I could take-off. Perhaps he
was worried about other customers that were supposed to have come over for
demo rides. Perhaps, he was worried about the clouded up skies or perhaps he
wasn't happy with the way the plane was behaving which is more than likely
given what happened next.

Taxiing the plane with differential braking is really not difficult. Since 
the plane tracks fairly straight with full power on the ground, there is very
little input required. Duane cautioned me about over-rotating and perhaps
because of this I was quite a bit hesitant about rotating. Finally lifted off
after being on the ground for much longer than necessary. With a 1000'
ceiling, there was very little to do except go around the pattern. As I leveled
off in downwind and brought the power back, there was a shudder at the back 
which I thought was the same vibration that had occurred at 1500RPM except that
we were at about 2200RPM. Duane immediately took over, saying that we had a 
problem and made a quick landing with the engine at idle. The Velocity 
makes for a very good glider with the engine at idle.

When we got out, we found the problem. The fiberglass layer at the end of
the propeller tips had separated and broken off about 6" on one end and about
3" inches on the other. The last shudder must have been when the big chunk
broke off. The leading edge tips of the propellers were chafed a little.
Duane thinks that the sheet of water thrown up by the front wheel on our first
take off is responsible for the damage. The propeller plowed through this 
water chafing the tips and flexed inwards sufficiently that the fiberglass 
layer separated from the wood (it really didn't look like the fiberglass had 
penetrated the wood at all to give a good bond).  Anyway that was the end of 
the demo ride.

Final Evaluation
==================

The plane isn't perfect, there are a couple of things that can be improved, 
not the least of which is getting a satisfactory prop. However, it is a plane 
that seems easier to build than any plane with comparable performance and 
abilities and handles delightfully well to be great for X-C flying 
as well as just boring holes in the sky. There is no doubt that it will make 
a nice IFR platform too. Duane seems to be quite dedicated to supporting this 
plane. I don't think there is any other kit currently available with the 
combination of buildability and flyability like the Velocity.

There are several compromises that have been made. But I didn't feel any of 
it was sufficient justification to rule this plane out. On the other hand those 
compromises did not make me thrilled enough to place a deposit right away 
without further consideration of some logistics in building that plane in the 
situation that we are in. I will probably make a decision by Sun 'n Fun after 
which Duane tells me that there will be a price increase (I don't know by how 
much).

I hope that other people get a chance to test this or other experimental planes
and share their experiences with the net.

venky
Newsgroups: rec.aviation.homebuilt