Article: 838 of rec.aviation.homebuilt
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From: ginsberg@t.Stanford.EDU (Matthew L. Ginsberg)
Subject: BD-10 flight demo
Message-ID: <1993Jun24.222500.18266@CSD-NewsHost.Stanford.EDU>
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Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University.
Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1993 22:25:00 GMT
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Xref: newshost.ncd.com rec.aviation.homebuilt:838 rec.aviation.misc:2696

Well, I saw the BD-10 fly yesterday.  Quite a toy!

We left San Carlos in my Christen Eagle about 7:30 for the 290 mile
trip to Mojave.  The day was beautiful and the ride smooth -- a little
boring over the central California valley, but who can complain?  The
traffic started thickening up around Bakersfield -- we weren't the
only ones flying in to see the demo!  We landed around 9:15 (terrible
landing, if I do say so myself) for a press conference scheduled to
begin at 10:00.

At about 9:45, the BD-10 taxied up.  A lot of noise for a small bird!
It looks like a dream -- a small fighter.  The canopy pops and the
pilot, Ed Gillespie, steps out.  He climbs down using a small ladder
that Jim Bede later described as, "Not part of the kits, but very
expensive and absolutely essential."

At 10:00, there is a short press conference; Bede tells us the usual
about the plane.  The flight demo began at 10:15.

I want one!!  The performance really is like a fighter -- 45 degree
climbout (with half tanks and at partial power), then Gillespie did
two high-speed passes (just under 250 Kts, tower height) and one
low-speed one.  Low-speed handling looked pretty good.

The inside of the aircraft is still pretty Spartan.  They've got a
handful of instruments, a placard saying, "Max G 2.5" and in the back,
a host of flight-test instrumentation.

I think the only suspicious thing about the whole event was Jim Bede
himself.  The man is definitely a salesman!  One guy asked about
ejection seats (there aren't any), and Bede's response was that the
canopy could be jettisoned and that was enough.  In a supersonic
aircraft?  *I* wouldn't want to jump out into a Mach 1.5 wind.

Later on, a reporter was asking all sorts of easy questions, so I
tried, "Do you think the estimated 6000-hour build time will deter any
amateur builders?"  Bede's answer was that no, he didn't think so.  He
thought people would spend 20,000 hours building to get a plane like
his.  Well, it's a great plane, but 10 years of full-time labor will
probably dissuade most anyone.

Not much else to report.  There was a small stress fracture near the
base of the right fin; I pointed it out to the guy I was travelling
with and then noticed that CNN was taking pictures over my shoulder!
The flight back was uneventful; there was a headwind most of the way
and we stopped at Shafter-Minter to get some gas and lunch.  (There
isn't any food at Mojave.)  I can't really recommend either -- the
fuel, although cheap ($1.90/gal credit) was self-serve from an
unattended pump that was a real pain to operate and the food (also
cheap) was from a mobile-home-type thingy that seemed to resemble a
sidewalk hamburger vendor more than a restaurant.  Not bad, really,
just not what we were expecting!  Then back to San Carlos for my first
decent landing of the day at around 2:30.  A day well spent!

						Matt Ginsberg