The aircraft has good water manners and gets off the water in a matter of seconds. The sponsons allow the fuselage to sit higher. |
The nose gear linkage hardware is shown in detail so that it can be assembled properly and easily by the builders. When it has been finished it is attached to the nose of the aircraft. |
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| design was complete. Glass Goose wings now produce static load tests exceeding nine Gs and have been shown to have no flutter characteristics at more than 230 mph! The new Glass Goose certainly should be a good airplane after so many years of study, redesign and the all-important flight-testing programs it went through. In addition to solving the bonding problems on the wings with visual inspection capabilities, and clear, concise instructions for the builder, the serious problem with airflow | around the pylon had also been completely solved. The new plane could now get off the water within a few seconds and cruise at 140 mph. The new Glass Goose is the realization of Scott's dreams. The new plane has accumulated more than 100 hours of trouble-free time. It has flown from Dallas to Florida for Sun 'n Fun and other side trips while there. It has also flown to Oshkosh for that year's big party. It attended the Abilene EAA Regional Fly-In and came away with that year's trophy for "Best Seaplane." | |||||
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The new flaperons are solid as a rock with
absolutely no tendency to flutter and the plane has been "wrung out" with
no faults found. It flies "hands off" in cruise and makes even the sharpest
turns with the ball centered and no rudder input whatsoever! Takeoffs could
be referred to as "jack rabbit" starts, with surprising acceleration and
short runs. On the water, getting "on step" takes only two or three seconds
and the plane is on top of the water! Acceleration is awesome. With 32
feet of flaps, landings are a piece of cake.
The Goose's Feathers
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bottom of the air rudder. The rudder is controlled by a conventional cable-and-pulley system, while the elevator and flaperons are controlled by push-pull tube systems. Some of these tubes are aluminum, others are stainless steel. All of the weldments in the aircraft are stainless steel. The gear is hydraulically actuated via an electric pump. The main gear are attached to the underside of the lower wing and retract up under the wing in a trailing pod. Retraction and extension are accomplished in about five seconds. The main gear have two tires and wheels on each side, and the Matco hydraulic disc brakes are a part of this assembly. With the two tires, the plane is able to negotiate over soft-sand beaches much more easily, and in an emergency, should you get a flat, you can operate on the other single tire. The nose gear retracts in a forward arc up into the nose of the plane, and the nose-gear door closes over it. Unlike most two-place experimentals I've seen, the Glass Goose has a very large amount of baggage room. | ||||
| CUSTOM PLANES - MAY 2000 | Page 3 |
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