Page 12 - Sept 2018
P. 12
But here I was, with what should have been an emergency,
and the airplane continued to handle normally and I
completed an uneventful landing. We found the right flap
cable that makes multiple turns had broken at a pulley. An
easy fix, but was very surprising to learn, that with one
failed flap, the airplane did not roll over as we, and many
other people expected. This was a very good
demonstration of what a superb handling aircraft the
Chipmunk is and gave me enormous faith in it.
By Dave Gillespie
We flew KDN for the rest of the summer, learning how to
fly it well. There is a saying that, the Chipmunk is easy to
ADVENTURES WITH G-AKDN - fly, but hard to fly well. I agree. I found it much like the
CHAPTER 6 Pitts. It did everything you asked of it with the controls. So
if you were rough, or over controlled, it flew rough and was
It was very exciting, to open up that container all over the sky. If you were smooth and precise, it followed
and see KDN sitting in there, undamaged, and
your every move, and was a delight to fly. The trick was to
safe and sound on the ramp at Saskatoon
relax, and not force it. We mastered it in a short time.
Airport. Many friends wanted a quick peek at
what we had, but we needed to get busy. We We needed more time to master its Gipsy Major engine
had another 5-hour adventure unloading it but peculiarities. It would shake and burp for no real reason
were soon secure in a rented hangar. We would and give us mini heart attacks every time it did. But we
spend another week putting it back together, learned how to operate it and over the years, it has proven
with Tom Coates coaching. We finished itself over thousands of miles of Canadian wilderness. It
assembly just in time to make an appearance at has always got us home. We have had to do much more
the Canada Remembers Air Show held at preventative maintenance on the engine than any other
Saskatoon airport. KDN received a lot of type of engine we have flown, but that is part of the cost
attention and questions. It looked so different and charm of owning a vintage aircraft.
from all the standard RCAF yellow, bubble Although designed in Downsview, Ontario, Canada, the
canopy Chipmunks. With its strange looking UK Chipmunk could have been designed on the other side of
registration, civilian aerobatic style paint job, the world, where they drive on the other side of the road.
and original deHavilland Canada designed The engine turns the opposite direction from North
canopy, it had a lot of people scratching their American engines. This makes the aircraft swing to the
heads. Most people understandably thought it right on take-off, opposite to the direction we are used to.
was a UK built Chipmunk. This creates much amusement to the audience as they
On an early test flight, I was on approach to land watch new pilots trying to fly it. Many of the controls are
with full flap. At about 500 feet I heard and felt a also backwards. Lean the fuel mixture, by moving the
loud bang on the right wing. I looked around and control forward. We normally lean aircraft by pulling the
saw the right hand flap had retracted. I control knob back. Fly with carburetor heat on - we fly with
immediately thought the flap handle had come it off. The master switch for electric power is a giant light
unlocked and retracted the flaps. I was surprised switch, but down is on and up is off – opposite to our
to look down and see the handle was still in full switches. I experienced a dead battery more than once
flap position. Looking left, I was stunned to see I because of this. And the engine is installed in the airframe
still had full left flap! Everyone, including me, upside down!
thought a split flap configuration would cause an
uncontrolled roll.
Similar to the Tiger Moth, this configuration gets
the propeller up high, out of harm’s way, which
is good, but also positions the cylinder valve
