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ARX-5 Coyote Concept Aircraft
By Jeremy King (25 August 2003)
In every hangar across the country, there are aircraft that are
lookers, and there are ones that are flyers. It's a hard search to
find aircraft that qualify as both. As an aerobatic pilot, I swear I
have some form of ADD. I get bored quickly in the cockpit if I am
just cruising cross-country, and the same holds true for my sim
flying. Here's a plane that I can deal with--I get there fast, and I
can tumble across the country if I am so inclined.
Jason Terry and I have been friends for a couple years now. He took
the Zlin 526F that I fly in real life and put it into FS for me, and
he flew with me to Sun N' Fun (BIG Florida airshow) in 2001. There,
we unveiled my sim I built from a Porterfield fuselage, which
featured aircraft Jason had modeled. Check out
www.airshowunlimited.com
for some more info on that project, there's a copy of the article on
it from Sport Aerobatics saved there. I spun off on this tangent for
a reason: Jason knows FS aerobatics and has had a bit of experience
with the real stuff. On the other hand, I've fiddled with FS just
enough to get proficient with flying it, but not designing. However,
I fly a lot of aerobatic types (Extra 300, Pitts Model 12 and a one
of a kind Christen Eagle, all in this month), so this is right up my
alley. Boeing types, don't bother e-mailing me. I don't care about
getting there efficiently or quickly. Flying has a whole different
meaning for you. We'll just agree to disagree.
That said, it's time to talk about the Coyote. I've flown a lot of his dream designs, or concepts as he calls them. This one is by far the most realistic plane I think he's managed to imagine. The Coyote (don't ask where he came up with that name) resembles a Staudacher or an Extra-type aircraft, but it's different. I was standing next to him at Lakeland, Florida when he came up with the idea for a v-tail. I told him it wouldn't work for acro...but he had to try it. He did. Notice how conventional the tail looks? Some things just work, and there's no reason to dink with them. Looking at the tail, it looks like the tail off Patty Wagstaff's Extra 300, scaled up (oh yeah, hers isn't standard, it's a bit larger than stock, so Jason's is larger than larger than stock.) The wing could be from any species of modern aerobatic monoplane. The engine compartment is unique, as it looks like the Turbo Raven, but it's no turboprop. It's an Orenda V-8 up front, giving a LONG snout on the thing, but gives lots of horsepower in return. The exhaust stacks look a lot like you'd see on a turboprop, and I don't see the need for them being so big on a reciprocating engine, but I am sure they'd sound just fine in real life!
The paint job on the plane is fantastic. It shines and shimmers with the light, an effect I can never get over in FS. I spent five minutes on the tarmac before I hit the power, just looking at the sun reflecting off it.
FLYING
Until recently, most of my aerobatic flying was behind the M-14 radial engine and the LOM 337 inline engine. Only recently have I started flying souped-up American engines, and I can tell you they don't like to start or idle as well as their stock cousins. (Read it this way: You've got to be pretty sharp or else you'll be sitting on the ramp with a dead battery and a pool of fuel under the cowling.) The Coyote surprised me by promptly stranding me on the ramp at Meigs, as I had swapped from an already-running aircraft and half expected that it would keep running. I went full rich on the mixture and hit the mags, then hit the starter--a sputter then it died. O.K., I admit, I cheated. I hit control + E to get it running and keep it that way.
I hit full power, and just let go of the stick to see what
happened. With a bit of trim, I was quickly climbing and
accelerating through 200 knots before I really had time to assess
things. Power is a nice thing to have, and there's plenty here. I
hadn't even plugged in the USB stick yet, and I just flew it on the
keys for a moment--those of you stuck with keyboards can enjoy this
one, as I had enough aileron authority to do some pretty sharp rolls,
and some loops that probably weren't too round, but nobody was
looking. I had Chicago to myself. If you lay back on the keys too
long, though, you'll find yourself in an accelerated stall. Those
are fun, but much more so when you've got a stick to take advantage
of them.
With the stick plugged in, the action got hotter--rolls and loops nice and sharp, hammerheads acceptable and tumbles amazing. The thing I found amazing about this aircraft as compared to most aerobatic types for FS is that it was stable. Not hands off, plane rolls to straight and level stable, but when you have it trimmed up, it doesn't go twitching off on a snap roll. This airplane's flight qualities are simply amazing--it feels as rock solid in a hover as it does at full speed. It may start creeping into a skid, but it can be corrected. Let me say this simply: THIS IS A FUN AIRPLANE TO FLY. If you want to land, however, I suggest killing the engine. It's hard to descend without accelerating with that much horsepower, even at idle.
I found myself primarily flying from the virtual cockpit, with the zoom pulled back to .42 or so. Aerobatic flying demands a lot of visual cues from a large field of view. With the view zoomed out, I can still see the EFIS display and have a general idea of what the gauges read, but the emphasis remains outside the cockpit. As on many other planes, the instrument panel looks a little bit like it sticks out, but then again, my home computer is having problems handling textures right now, so I think that may be the culprit. The instrument panel has vernier-style controls for prop, mixture and throttle. I have seen aerobatic planes with a vernier mixture control, and planes with vernier prop controls, but the throttle is usually a fighter-style control on the left sidewall.. however this airplane is Jason's concept so he can do anything he pleases.
Just a brief note on the lighting: step outside of the cockpit to an
external view before turning the nav lights on with the L key. Oh,
yeah, be sure to wear your sunglasses!
SUMMARY
With that all said and done, let me say this: since I have loaded up the Coyote, I haven't flown anything else. I can go fly acro all afternoon, or top it off and cruise at 200 knots on a cross-country with all the electronic instrumentation. A word of advice though: The fuel load is good for about .7 of an hour if you're holding full power for aerobatics. Keep an eye on the fuel gauge! I ran out of fuel this morning over water after a hover climb to 18,000 feet. Luckily I could glide to a dead-stick landing at Honolulu!This is a fun plane, but it isn't for everyone: If you like the smell of kerosene, don't bother. Also, if you want to see Mach 14 on your airspeed indicator, keep looking--there are lots of fast movers out there that would better suit your desires. However, if you want a fun to fly, reasonably fast, exceptionally agile, yet easy to fly aerobatic mount, the Coyote is your plane! Jason Terry is a firm believer in freeware--and many of his designs are superior to some payware I have sampled. I highly encourage you to try his products and let him know what you think.
Jeremy King
jeremycking@mac.com
Airshowunlimited.com
Links
www.aeroworks-technologies.com (Jason Terry's web site)
ARX-5 Coyote section of Jason Terry's web site
Download the ARX-5 Coyote
