Bullethead 12 Posted September 24, 2009 I'll show you conservative.... Who needs a left wing? It was a boring sortie on a rare beautiful day, so on the way home I decided to have some fun and buzz the local village. And I mean REALLY buzz it, as in swoop down at high speed, touch the wheels on the road, and roll/bounce right to the edge of town scattering chickens in all directions, then pull up just before the 1st houses. Well, that was the plan. I left my lower left wing behind on the eave of the 1st house as I was doing my pull-up. I was still doing more than 100 knots at about a 45^ upwards trajectory when it happened. As my momentum carried me up, the Albatros started rolling left and by the time I had full right controls in, roll had accelerated. But at that point, it started slowing down again. It stopped after 2 complete revolutions and I found myself rightside up and under fairly decent control. I could just barely keep the thing level and maintain altitude but I couldn't entirely stop the tendency to yaw to the left. By this point, I was about 500' AGL at about 80 knots. I decided to land in a nearby field, picking one at about 10 o'clock, which is where the left yaw was taking me. I pointed the nose down and reduced power and sure enough, I made a nice approach and a 2--point landing at a survivable sink rate and speed. At this point, I shut the motor off because I was curving across the field toward a stand of trees. Unfortunately, as I slowed down, the ailerons and rudder lost effectiveness before the plane slowed down enough for the remaining wings to lose theirs. Thus, the left turn steepened and the plane slowly rolled over onto its left side. On the plus side, the steeper turn and increased braking from the fuselage side dragging made me miss the trees. On the minus side, I was in sickbay for several days. Still, any landing you can still breathe after is a good one. Drinks on me . I've seen an AI plane flying along minus a lower wing once and it really surprised me. I shot the lower right wing off a Fee and it immediately spun down and away so I paid it no more mind and went after another. But lo and behold, it recovered and flew away safely. By the time I realized this, it was too late to go chase it down, so I ended up not getting that kill. I'd chalked this up to the Fee's inherent stability. Nice to know the Albatros can do it, too. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
UK_Widowmaker 571 Posted September 24, 2009 You're on a Charge Mister!!... Ze Kaiser vill not be impressed ven he hears of your larking about!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Olham 164 Posted September 24, 2009 The Albatros is a fine, sturdy battle hawk, except for the weakness of it's lower wings. As the control cables for the ailerons go through the lower wings, I'm not sure, if you could really control an Alb with only the right one. But surely some fine piloting, Sir! AI can perform things you shouldn't dare to try, so I don't know about a missing wing on a Fee. The Nupe 11 and 17 regularly dive away from me with full speed without breaking their wings. If I'd try to follow that, my wings would just fold backwards. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
