Flight Training - February 2013 - 34

THE CURTISS Jenny (above). The Wright brothers with the Flyer at Kill Devil Hill, North Carolina (right). An advertisement for the Ercoupe in 1946 (left).

Since they lay on their bellies like reptiles, they decided to use a cradle, which, when shifted by moving their hips, operated the wing warping (their version of ailerons) and moved the rudder, because they linked it to their version of ailerons—the wing-warping mechanism. Shifting the cradle to the right made the right wing drop and the rudder move right, turning the nose right; shifting it to the left made the left wing drop and the rudder move left, turning the nose left. It worked so well that they built it into the 1903 Flyer. And so, on December 17, 1903, the brothers made the first of four powered, controlled flights: The initial one was 120 feet in 12 seconds; the last, and longest, was 852 feet in 59 seconds. That’s barely long enough to cramp your neck when you’re holding your head up to see where you’re going.
34 / FLIGHTTRAINING.AOPA.ORG

THE 1903 MACHINE was destroyed that day by a gust of wind; the 1904 machine was an abject failure that barely got off the ground. But the 1905 machine was a good one. It could circle, fly figure-eights, and it could stay in the air long enough to send severe pain shooting down the brothers’ necks. By 1908 the Army realized it was interested in flying, and the brothers promised to deliver a machine with a 50-mile range that could carry a pilot and a passenger. To sweeten the deal they promised to teach a few officers how to fly it. Before demonstrating a flying machine—which they also promised to do—Orville set about reconfiguring the 1905 bellybuster into an upright two-seater with dual controls. And not a moment too soon. “I used to think that the back of my neck would break if I endured one more turn around the field,” Orville said. The control system the brothers devised consisted of three levers: two (on the pilot’s left and the passenger’s right) controlled the elevator; the third, between the seats, controlled the wing-warping mechanism. To operate the rudder (which the brothers had decided functioned better when it wasn’t linked to the wing-warping mechanism), they mounted a twist grip for the top of that lever. Sound confusing? It was. You really had to think about it, especially when you learned it one way as a student, then were trained as an instruc-



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Flight Training - February 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Flight Training - February 2013

Flight Training - February 2013
Contents
President's Perspective
RightSeat
Letters
Flying Carpet
Prop Art
SOLVE THE TAKEOFF EQUATION QUANDARY
Control Freaks
Technique
Weather
Flight lesson
Accident Report
Complexities
Advertiser Index
Debrief
Flight Training - February 2013 - Flight Training - February 2013
Flight Training - February 2013 - Cover2
Flight Training - February 2013 - Contents
Flight Training - February 2013 - 2
Flight Training - February 2013 - 3
Flight Training - February 2013 - President's Perspective
Flight Training - February 2013 - 5
Flight Training - February 2013 - RightSeat
Flight Training - February 2013 - 7
Flight Training - February 2013 - Letters
Flight Training - February 2013 - 9
Flight Training - February 2013 - 10
Flight Training - February 2013 - 11
Flight Training - February 2013 - 12
Flight Training - February 2013 - 13
Flight Training - February 2013 - 14
Flight Training - February 2013 - 15
Flight Training - February 2013 - 16
Flight Training - February 2013 - 17
Flight Training - February 2013 - 18
Flight Training - February 2013 - 19
Flight Training - February 2013 - Flying Carpet
Flight Training - February 2013 - 21
Flight Training - February 2013 - Prop Art
Flight Training - February 2013 - 23
Flight Training - February 2013 - 24
Flight Training - February 2013 - 25
Flight Training - February 2013 - 26
Flight Training - February 2013 - 27
Flight Training - February 2013 - SOLVE THE TAKEOFF EQUATION QUANDARY
Flight Training - February 2013 - 29
Flight Training - February 2013 - 30
Flight Training - February 2013 - 31
Flight Training - February 2013 - Control Freaks
Flight Training - February 2013 - 33
Flight Training - February 2013 - 34
Flight Training - February 2013 - 35
Flight Training - February 2013 - Technique
Flight Training - February 2013 - 37
Flight Training - February 2013 - Weather
Flight Training - February 2013 - 39
Flight Training - February 2013 - 40
Flight Training - February 2013 - Flight lesson
Flight Training - February 2013 - 42
Flight Training - February 2013 - Accident Report
Flight Training - February 2013 - Complexities
Flight Training - February 2013 - 45
Flight Training - February 2013 - 46
Flight Training - February 2013 - 47
Flight Training - February 2013 - 48
Flight Training - February 2013 - 49
Flight Training - February 2013 - 50
Flight Training - February 2013 - 51
Flight Training - February 2013 - Advertiser Index
Flight Training - February 2013 - 53
Flight Training - February 2013 - 54
Flight Training - February 2013 - 55
Flight Training - February 2013 - Debrief
Flight Training - February 2013 - Cover3
Flight Training - February 2013 - Cover4
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