As a part of our curriculum, I had to conduct few onboard flight experiments, so I headed off to IIT K's Flight lab. The experiments were conducted on a NAL Hansa 3 trainer aircraft(a reciprocating engine prop driven aircraft) and I had the best 20 mins of my life
flying in the cockpit alongside Captain K B Singh(he also gave me the controls for a short duration during the flight
).
The experiments included a steady level flight(cruise), climb, steady level turns, dutch roll, phugoid and stall(little scary
) all aimed at determining the drag polar, neutral point and stability control derivatives of the aircraft. After the experiments were over and the data had been collected, I took out my phone and recorded the landing.
The details of the experiments are a little technical, so I won't post unless someone is interested in knowing.
I'll start off with some pictures. Video of the landing to follow!
Pic 1 : Flight Lab
2,3 : NAL Hansa 3
4 : Cockpit of the Airplane
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