Flying the Prince's DH-83 Fox Moth

[Music] stay light on your toes hi dave hadfield here and today i'm the lucky guy who gets to ferry this de havilland 83 fox moth from grand valley to edenvale ontario it's the only fox moth flying in north america and it has a wonderful heritage it was first owned by the prince of wales who would become king edward viii this machine you see here the new de havilland fox moth fitted with the gypsy major engine being handed over to prince wales on monday it's a standard machine with exception are one or two extra fittings there's a special wireless set for transmission and receiving special navigation lights and the cabinet accommodation is slightly more comfortable than usual it has a range of 600 miles at 110 miles an hour and a top speed of about 125 and now i'm going to take it up on his final test flight i don't know how he gets into that thing wearing that coat the cockpit's smaller than a spitfire but in the air it's a graceful and surprisingly efficient airplane it's much faster than a tiger moth anyway stan and sheila vanderplug of grand valley aircraft services have pulled the aircraft out unfolded the wings which is another story prepared it for flight and it's time for me to go and as i get myself settled in it occurs to me that this is not the first time this aircraft has been on a grass strip the prince kept this airplane for about a year then it was sold to a belgian gentleman who actually flew it to the belgian congo and back in 1935. an incredible trip when you think about the difficulties of doing it back then even airlines could just barely manage it and after that it became a bush plane in new zealand for over 20 years it flew to remote ranches and farmsteads delivering medicines taking children back and forth to boarding school landing in sheep meadows beaches all the things that a bush plane does in the 1990s it was restored back to its royal configuration complete with red leather and mahogany trim and in 2006 it was sold to mike potter of ottawa ontario and i was put in charge of its importation into the country and returned to service here anyway enough history let's talk about flying the thing while i'm doing a last minute weather check on my cell phone you can see some very unusual things on this instrument panel that top oval in brass is a window so you can talk to your passengers kind of looks like it came off a yacht and that vertical instrument with a red stripe it's a primitive attitude indicator it's a three cornered glass tube with a viscous liquid inside that tells you your pitch it actually works particularly if you use it in conjunction with the gyro to the left of it which is a reed sigrist turn indicator the bottom needle shows you if you're doing a rate one two or three turn the top needle functions like a ball and indicates yaw okay brakes are set ready to tickle the fuel that was the brake lever i just pulled down on the left brakes were a new thing in 1932 de havilland was still selling aircraft with tail skids and these brakes work badly they resemble the chipmunk system but this is a much earlier design and they hadn't quite got it right there are of course no tow brakes stan has these brakes set up as well as it's possible to do so and at my request we get some brake with full rudder but they're not directional like a chipmunk is it's basically just a parking brake and it's unwise to depend on them okay brakes are set ready to tickle the fuel it's true gypsy major engines and moths have to be tickled before they'll start or at least that's the verb we use but what we actually mean is we have to flood the carburetor into the intake manifold to prime it for start gypsy majors in moths don't have a direct cylinder prime like lycomings and continentals do so stan up front is moving a small manual handle that's on the fuel pump while at the same time pulling on a cable which depresses the carburetor float causes the carburetor to flood and spill fuel into the intake manifold where it'll have a nice rich mixture for start switches are off mags are off throttle's closed after that confirmation stan pulls the prop through a few blades to suck fuel in from the flooded intake manifold to at least a few of the cylinders of course as he pulls it through he treats it as if the mags are on since mags can't really be shut off they could only be grounded out and if there's a fault with the switch or the grounding they're live no matter what okay throttle set and we're starting on the right mag number two mag clear this particular gypsy major engine is superb it's one of the nicest ones i've ever flown behind and i'm really glad that the prince put in a starter it sure makes life simpler here's an oddball thing the electrical switches move in the opposite sense to the magneto switches that takes a bit of getting used to okay i'm gone the engine manual says to idle the gypsy after start for four minutes let it warm up and then it's a wave to stan and sheila for all their great work and off we go the visibility when you taxi a fox moth is truly terrible my helmet cam is about two inches higher than my eyeballs so i really can't see much of anything and it's very clear that this airplane was designed to be taxied on great big open grass fields and not skinny modern little pavement taxiways and s turning takes a lot of space since the brakes are poor one trick you can do is to scrunch yourself down look through the porthole and then out through one of the passenger side windows but it's not great if you kind of wish you had a periscope like lindbergh and the ryan a very significant factor in the operation of the fox moth is weight and balance because of the unusual cabin you could have one two or even three people up there you have to decide how much weight in which seat too much weight in the forward seat and the aircraft could nose over if you had to abort using brakes and too much weight in the aft seat means it'll take forever to get the tail up on takeoff and in cruise you'll be very tail heavy and you'll run out of forward elevator trim for this flight solo i've secured about 50 pounds of water ballast in four liter jugs to the forward seat but it's all quite efficient the fox moth was the first commercial aircraft in england to pay its own way it was economical to produce because most of the big pieces of the aircraft are from a tiger moth and of course de havilland was making many of those at the time for the royal air force as a training airplane but the fuselage instead of being welded steel tube like a tiger moth is a wooden veneer box structure putting the passenger cabin and the fuel tank pretty much between the wings was efficient because it kept them very close to the center of gravity and as for the pilot being out on his own well he didn't care about that very much the first major customer for the fox moth was a brand new startup no frills airline believe it or not in 1933 hillman's airways hillman had a bus and trucking company and decided to branch out initially using the puss moth he set up at an aerodrome just northeast of london and took people on excursion flights to the resort towns of clacton and ramsgate one pound that's all it cost it was successful and he upgraded from the puss moth to the fox moth to carry more load later he expanded into the dh-84 dragon and the dragon repeat and offered trips to the continent including paris and that only cost five pounds hillman's was one of the companies that eventually became boac but never mind that let's go flying hood harness hydraulics it throttles trims trim is set temp tension turns tension temperature don't have a temperature html mixtures mixers all the way back for rich max hdmpf fuel selection quantities good pressure pumps we don't have controls gyros switches turn the radio on it's available later when we want it and go all right crosstalk on the left let's go over that blind old biplane take off again get lined up tail wheel straight make absolutely certain the brakes are off have a look at the wind sock for crosswind ease the power up smoothly with the stick hard back correct for yaw and in this case it's left foot count three mississippis then raise the tail about six inches again keep it straight let it fly off and accelerate when it's ready keep that rudder in and watch out for a wind shear when you climb up to the top of the trees but aside from the blind aspects the fox moth performs well comes off the ground easy particularly at this light weight the wings are straight in a fox not swept like a tiger moth and quite efficient also none of this takeoff is done with reference to instruments it strictly eyeballs out and if you want to check the airspeed it's a lot easier to look at the one on the wing strut the one on the instrument panel is always a bit dark and hard to see [Music] i did a test flight on this airplane a few days back and all went well but it had a lot of work done over the winter so i briefed with stan that i would return after takeoff and do a visual inspection pass make sure i'm not leaking any oil or other fluids and it all looks good before i commit to the cross country and if it's fun well so much the better stan radios that everything looks good so we dodge the windmills and head east on flights like this i use the helmet cam to record engine performance so while climbing at 70 miles an hour i record full power rpm which is about 2150 where it should be and then back to climb power sometimes at air shows people point at the propeller on the left wing and say what's that well one thing that gypsy major engines did not have in 1932 was provision for a generator and yet this airplane needed one for lights and starter and radio so de havilland mounted an air driven one on the lower left wing it has a tendency to overheat on the ground so we turn it on once we're in flight and then check the ammeter make sure it works then it's a lot more peaceful to close the canopy [Music] so as we climb i notice that the airspeed indicator just doesn't look quite right it should be a little higher i'm familiar with this airplane and power settings and attitudes and right now the correlation between the dial and the paddle gauge out on the wing are not matching up a fox moth is generally a pretty speedy antique airplane usually over 90 miles an hour in fact in 1932 a fox moth won the king's cup air race here are some of the competitors lined up for the start on the aerodrome this year's race lasts two days captain hope is just landing his plane now at the finish of the race he won it in both 1927 and 1928 here he is looking very happy about it the first time it's ever done as you cruise it becomes very clear that the fox moth has very little directional stability the stock tiger moth fin and rudder are simply not big enough the rigging of nearly all wooden biplanes is rarely perfect but the fox is quite different you can take your feet off the rudder pedals in smooth air but if any yaw is introduced the nose keeps going sideways the rate of that movement increases until you chicken out and straighten it it would never get certified in the modern era but it is controllable and a lot of fun i haven't flown the fox much lately and there is a bit of disagreement between the two airspeed indicators so i've decided to divert to a friend's grass airstrip and do a couple of practice circuits so up ahead on the left you can see tottenham ronan airport where there's a glider operation i have a good look i see they're not too busy so sure i'll drop in after making sure there's no one in the circuit i circle overhead so that my buddy mike will come out of his shop and see what's going on [Music] yep i can see him wave so back with the power and descend into the downwind pre-landing check breaks off for sure reselect the fuel to the wing tank for a backup gravity feed but most of all if you've got a passenger on board make sure they move to the back so there's less chance of you nosing over on landing these old biplanes can leave you blind straight ahead if you fly along final with the speed back and the nose up so i'd much rather fly a continuous descending turn to final maybe even a slipping turn and that way you have the whole runway environment in view until just before touchdown and on a grass strip of course you're checking for lawn mowers and livestock and mud puddles and implements you don't want any surprises but in this case there are some noise sensitive neighbors on my left wing and i have to extend the circuit to get around them the fox moth does a nice steady dependable three-point landing but in this case which airspeed indicator do i use the fast one or the slow one well obviously i picked the fast one and let's see i'm flying at 70 and it's power off and flare and float and float and float and float and i guess it must have been the other air airspeed indicator but finally we touch down after landing the fox moth tends to roll straight and that's really nice since you're blind don't forget this helmet cam is two inches higher than my eyeballs the tail wheel's not much bigger than a hockey puck generates a lot of drag from a stern which helps you keep straight anyway time to go back and have a visit with mike and cheryl and you gotta love a glider strip it's about 250 feet wide here we have a visitor today it looks like a fox moth yeah one of those it doesn't really have brakes oh i guess not it's pretty marginal got 1932 brakes that's why i didn't go up there push my no i'm gonna keep going i'm delivering it to eden bale for the gathering tomorrow and then the air show in ottawa on tuesday but i haven't found it for a while so i thought i'd come over and use your nice wide grass air strip and it's got a new pitot static system and my airspeed indicator and that one are not agreeing so i was trying to figure out what's what that one yeah so what's on the window into the cabin hello i want my sandwich this used to belong to the king king edward viii it wasn't a king very long but this he bought this new in 1932. it's all leather and mahogany in there this was after he got rid of it it was a bush plane in new zealand for about 20 years well flying into a sheep stations and beaches and you know taking kids to school and bringing groceries and all that stuff no bearings on the wings or just drag city i guess uh well the wings fall yeah well they fall yeah you pull some pins and around she comes anyway i'm going to do one more circuit and then go to edendale okay we'll do a video all right see ya oh would you hey david would you go to the other side please just pull on the bottom of that strut and help me get turned thank you that was the king's airplane at one time lovely fox math there's the fox moth over our house hard to see from here suspect since it's a touch and go i'll do a wheel landing and i know which airspeed indicator to use the fox settles on without a long float thanks a lot guys see you at the fly in at eatonvale tomorrow here's a historical tidbit which i find interesting see those fields those flat fields off to my right during world war ii that was rcaf detachment alliston a relief field for borden there were three big grass runways there as part of the british commonwealth air training plan but today not a trace remains the war is over and quite literally sheep may safely graze as we fly north we happen to pass right by the alliston airport where i keep my fear child 24 so i take advantage of another training opportunity and do another approach and go around the strip's a little on the narrow side for a blind airplane like the fox moth the crosswind and the turbulence over the buildings makes for good practice and off we go to edenvale and tomorrow's gathering of the classics mr milan krupa is the gentleman who has developed edenvale aerodrome and it's so wonderful to see someone investing in general aviation [Music] while i'm overhead i have a good look to choose a parking spot and check out who might be around to help me push the airplane i'm crossing overhead to join for 31. the fox moth has a great built-in attitude indicator to help you judge the flare it's the bottom of the forward cabane struts you fly at 70 and then flare by putting them on the horizon and hold that till you touch down it makes for a smooth wheel landing the fox moth has much better manners on the ground than a tiger the longer fuselage really does help it keep straight and it doesn't need much runway either that's taxiway delta it's only 1500 feet from the approach end of the runway and we have to taxi to get to it hello sir hey mike well i'm just happy to be here with a serviceable airplane amen there are no breaks you swing and you go dancing with tigers is more than just show stay in the middle let go with the flow no matter which way the wind blows you

Channel: dave hadfield

Views: 135,539

Keywords: de, Havilland, de havilland, tiger moth, spitfire, Lysander, westland lysander, chris hadfield, dave hadfield, hadfield, stearman, fox moth, DH-83, gipsy major, mustang, supermarine spitfire, Roll-Royce, merlin, tailwheel, taildragger, edenvale, P-51, P-40, Kittyhawk, Warhawk

Id: 0_2kPloPljg

Length: 29min 14sec (1754 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 13 2021