Wichita Falls, Texas: Tuesday, November 18, 1998.

The CarterCopter resumed flight testing on Saturday, November 14, 1998 at Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas. Test pilot Don Farrington was at the controls with test pilot Jay Shapley assisting. The runway used at Sheppard AFB was more than twice as long as the runway used for prior testing at Olney, Texas.

A total of thirteen passes were made down the runway. Rotor collective was incrementally varied between 3-1/2 and 5 degrees. Maximum speed was 80 mph and maximum altitude was held to less than 15 feet.

Leading up to the thirteenth run, the pilots reported increasing erratic stick shake and increased difficulty controlling the aircraft. A close inspection revealed that the shaft seal on one of the two cyclic control slave cylinders had leaked enough to allow several degrees of spindle deadband. The hydraulic slave-cylinder method for control has been a high maintenance item since the start of the rotor test-stand work several years ago. As a result, design work had begun on a new control system that uses ball bearing push/pull control cables. Still, it was hoped that the initial flight-test program would confirm the basic control philosophy of this hybrid rotary/fixed wing aircraft before making the change.

The test pilots and the designers feel uncomfortable continuing the flight tests until a more reliable control system is installed. Completing the design work, fabrication, and installation may take eight weeks. Now that the aircraft is flying and all the other systems are performing well, this unplanned delay in the flight-test program is disappointing.

The elimination of the rotor dogleg (see Press Release dated November 4, 1998) greatly reduced control loads to what the designers hope will be acceptable to pilots for long flights. However the new control system will be designed so that a cyclic boost can be added later if found necessary. Cyclic boost for a helicopter of this size is the norm, but since most of the CarterCopter's flight time should be with the rotor unloaded, it may not be needed..

The entire team at CarterCopter L.L.C. would like to take this opportunity to thank all the supportive people who have been following the development of the CarterCopter, most recently, the people at Sheppard AFB.

For complete information and pictures, please see the CarterCopters web-site at www.cartercopters.com. Status reports on the flight-testing will be posted periodically on the web-site.