Condor Flight Test GZ

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RATHER
TOOMANYBRMSH ANDEUROPEAN
AIRCRAFT
SEEMEDTO BITETHE DUSTWHEN
CESSNA
ANDPIPERGAINEDTHEIRFLYING
CLUB
MONOPOLY.
HOWEVER,
TYPESSUCHAS THE
ROL1ASON
CONDOR
DESERVE
THEIRPLACEIN
them is AlanCooper,a man who has
lived and breathedaircraft for nearly
all of his 52 years,and for whom the
RollasonCondorhas playedan utterly
crucialrole.
It wasthe sightof Condorsflying
at Rochester- where he baseshis
- that
presentaircrafi G-AXGZ,today
EXPLAINS
TOSTEVEBEEBEE.
first entrancedhim as a boy. lt was
alsoa Condor(the similarlyregistered
Croydon-based
RollasonAircraft &
I
I here'sa smalland hardyflock
q3{Q9) on which he flew his first
I of British-builtlight aircraft
n
Enginesenterprise.Entirelyindepend- solo,and it is Condorsthat he has
from the 1950sand 1960sthat got
ent and unsubsidised,
Joneshad the
either ownedor part-ownedfor three
swampedby the Cessnaand piper
followingwordsemblazonedbeneath
decades.As if that wasn'tenough,
invasion bold and interestingaeroone of his creations:'Thisaircraft is
Alan hasgoneon to fly for a living,his
planeswhich were ultimatelyunable
Britishmade - privateenterpriseand
day job findinghim at the controlsof
to competewith the sheer usabilityof
no taxpayer'smoney'. lt was perhaps
Boeinq757s and 767sfor Thomsonfly
their Americanrivals. lt's temptingto
a sly dig at rivalssuchas the Beagle
from Gatwick.He runs the company
thinkof the RollasonCondoras being
Pup which some saw as grosslyover
flyingclubat Redhilland alsohas
amongthese. Designedas a trainer for
engineered.Rollasonproceededto
an association
with atmospheric
Old
flying clubs,only 49 were built,and an
lose moneyon every Condorbuilt, but
Warden,from which he has flown such
impressive36 of these are still flying.
Joneshad madehis moneyin other
vintagedelicacies
as the Magisterand
In thls instance,howeveqwe'd perhaps
areasand wasn'trelyingon aircraft to
Falconowned by a closefriend. But
be doingthis diminutivelow-wino
buildhis fortune.
ratherthan simplybeinga meansto
monoplanea disservice.
The passionthat drove NormanJones
an end,the Condorhas remaineda
A look at the company'srarely chronihas not dissipated- it has merely
familiarconstantin Alan'slife.
cled historyrevealsthat it was passron. transferredto today'ssmall but loyai
Of his 15,100
flyinghours,at least
not profit, that drove NormanJones.s
clrcleof Condorowners. Typicalamong ],0O0havebeenspentin Condors
HrsroRl As D62BCoNDoRoWNERALANC0OPER
L J
AsevxShuttlewortfi
CollectionCfiiefPilot
AndySephtonroundl
ll
'bend'at OldV{ardei
h
'GZduringan airshoi
appearance
on July1,
2004. Theaircnftis
a regularvisitorto tln
Bedfordshire
airfield,
{ftit-s Sitr;es '*:* Ar.,rr
{l$aFniil
w.todayspilot.co.uk
11628
sits very
grounddueto
47
- with manymore,no doubt.stillto
come.
V I V EL A D I F F E R E N C E
panels
andcan
togetherif
The Condorwas basedon the
French-designed
DruineD3i Turbulent
single-seateIan aircraft that Rollason
was alreadybuilding. Designedto
be more robust than the Druineand
thereforemore suitablefor club flying.
the CondorprototypeG-ARHZfirst
flew in May 1961with b somewhat
underpowered75hp ContinentalA75.
Engineswere graduallyupgradeduntil
the lOOhpContinentalO-2OOAwas
settledupon for the definitivevariant.
the D628. A D62Calso saw the tight
of day,its 130hpContinentalO-240A
convincingmany clubsto use it as a
glider tug - in retrospecta role to which
it was not well suiteddue to it being
still relativelylow powered.
Havingcompletedhis first solo on
9-Al9lin 1974,Alan owned his first
Condo[ G-AVXWfrom i977 until 2OO5
any at all since'1974,
its attrition rate
nas beenvery good. There have been
a smallnumberof fatalaccidents.
two of which involvedglider towing.
Althoughusedas such,the Condorwas
not a qood choiceof glider tug. They
were all built at CroVdon,and I believe
their manufactureduring those years
was the last aeronauticalactivitv at
Croydon. They'dalreadyclosedthe
airfieldby then, so were havingto
take the Condorsout to Redhillto test
them."
BUILTTOLAST
hasflat
tips.other
TigerMolh
fAu Srrvr
initiallyas part of the MedwayFlying
Group,havingleasedit direcfly from
Rollason.Alan personallyowneo
the aeroplanefrom 1987onwaros
beforetaking it out of the air in 2001.
Recentlysold,'XW is being rebuilt
and shouldsoon be flying again. Alan
is now concentratingon his current
Condor,G-AXGZ,
a D62B modelthat he
has ownedsinceJanuary 2002.
"lt all started when I was eleven,,.he
muses,eyesgazingat Rochester's
capaciousmain hangan "l usedto
come up here to Rochesterand at that
time the ConCorwas the basictrainer.
It seemedto epitomisewhat light
aeroplaneswere all about. They'djust
replacedthe Tiger Moth with Condors
and I quicklygot to likethem. When
I was at schoolmy friend'sfather was
learningto fly. and he took me on my
first flight in a light aeroplane,a club
Jodel. I ended up doing part of my
trainingon Jodels,cross-countryflights
and so on, and the other chunk was
done on Condors.
"They didn't maketoo manv Condors
but consideringthey haven'tmade
Alan'sCondonresplendentin its
orlginalfactorycolours,has a fuselage
of plywoodconstructioncovereotn
Medapalinfabric. lts wing is standard
with a plywood-covered
D-boxon
the leadingedge,and Ceconitefabric
coveringelsewhere."There have been
no problemswith the coveringand
no corrosion,"reports Alan. "They're
good,long lastinqaeroplanes
in that
respect- not as prone to wear and
tear as some types seem to be. Thev
werebuiltusingmodernglue and the
woodworkhas consequenfly
givenverv
few problems."
The older French-builtaircraft were
not put together in the same way
and were far more likelvto suffer
from woodworkproblems."When the
Condorscamein to replaceTiqerMoths
there were a lot of doubtersthat didn't
expectthem to last ien minutes. In fact
the Condorhas provedfar more robust
than the TiqerMoth. tt'sjust a pity
they werebuiltin suchcomparatively
low numbers.
"When I started flying,the Condorhad
begunto establishits reputationand
it wasactuallyquitehardto gr,.iine
instructorsto take you up in .: i-iger
Moth. In comparison
with ti ,..i.r;ndor
they wereconsidered
unrellsi,te
and
uncomfortable.
Althoughthe club
had two Mothson the fleet.irjr-,e
was
normallyawaitingrepairfi+rit one of
the many accidentsthe tvpe sufferedin
club usage."
Thouqha few Condorsrarere
upgraded
to D62Cstatus and given the more
powerfulengine,the slightincreasein
performancewasoffset by higher fuel
consumption.
"The aeroplanehasa reasonably
good
short fieldperformance
in any case,
and the biggerengine.iust
givesit a
Iittlebit extra. The prototypeoriginally
had a smallerenginebut wasseriously
underpoweredbeforeit was re-engined.
The aeroplane'sAchillesHeel,however,
is that it only hasa 69lit tank,and the
l3ohp enginejust sucksthat up in no
time. That'swhy I find it preferable
to havethe 1O0hpversion.lt uses
48 Today'sPilot March2006
lir! Rollason
D62B G-AXGZ
resplendent
in its
origiral factory
G*A XtrE
fus ler": Tfte
undercarriage
shortened
aftor
with longerlegged
earliermodels.
Lirr Thefuel
easilyaccessible,
about 22lit per hour,so its maximum
enduranceis about three hours. That
wouldalmost leaveyou with a dry
tank. The lonqestI've ever done in one
stint is two hours and 40 minutesover
France,Oil burn, however,is negligible.
It doesdrip a bit, but that seemsto be
a characteristicof this particularengine
rather than the aeroolane."
The gear is not retractablebut is quite
robust.just likethe rest of the aeroplane. Designedas trainers.the aircraft
will put up with plenty of firm landings,
and the fact that 36 out of 49 are still
flying is testamentto their worth. Most
Condorsin the UK have rackedup at
least5,OOOhours,with those usedas
glider tugs likelyto havesufferedthe
most. "The one I first went solo on had
a patchalongthe right hand side which
was causedby a pandacar skiddingon
the grassduring a policeexerciseand
rammingthe aeroplane,"Alan recalls.
"Not eventhat has stoppedit."
C O N D OERV O T U T I O N
Smallin stature,one thing that strikes
the casualobserveris how low the
aeroplanesits on the ground. Despite
the limitedproductionrun. Condors
have.evolved
over the years,and the
undercarriagelegson Alan'sD62B
exampleare as short as they are for
good reason. "Some of the earlier
oneshad longer undercarriagelegsand
those legswere situatedfurther backin
the winq,"he says. "Thosewere much
more proneto standingon their nose,
and every year we'd havea prop break
on one of them. Theyalso had a much
shorter stick in them, which we found
quite unpleasantto use.
'As
the aeroplaneevolved,that undercarriagegot shorter and was moved
forward" That madethe aeroplane
mucheasierto handleon the ground,
and it's virtually impossibleto get a
later one to qo over on its nose. There
is still a lot of similaritybetweenthe
first one and the last one,but that said,
it is difficultto find two Condorsthat
are exactlvthe same."
Alan has flown many Condors,including the prototype,which is still extant
today and is currently being rebuilt.
"lt \/as an interestingaeroplanebut
it felt verv differentto the one I'm
flying now,"he recalls."lt was grossly
underpoweredfor a start, and I believe
there were some problemswith trim
characteristics,
all of which were soon
ironedout on both the prototypeand
subsequentCondors."
Over the yearsRollasonassessed
variousmodels,shorteningthe fuselage
and applyingdifferentwingtips. Alan's
Condorhas cut-off flat plate wingtips,
whilehis previousexamplehad a
conventionalwing bow. Thereare
many that understandably
assumethe
changein wingtip style was done to
improveaerodynamicefficiency,but
Rollasonin fact changedto flat plate
iips simplybecausethe companyran
out of parts. lt had beenusingTiqer
Moth wing bows until then. A few
Condorsendedup with glassfibre
wingtips,a differentmodelagain.
"One definiteimprovementmadeover
the yearshas beenthe brakes,"adds
Alan. "You'resupposedto use the
brakesonly for parking,not for slowing
you down, but in realityyou can use
them for slowingdown in later models
like mine,becausethere is no longer
that tendencyto go over onto the nose.
EventhoughRollasononly madea
short run of Condors.it's fascinatingto
see how the designdevelopedduring
its lifetime."
In decadesgone by,Condorowners
went througha phaseof painting
their aircraftin what might politelybe
termedindividual
and unusualcolour
schemes.WhenCondorswere regarded
as everydayaeroplanes,ownersdid
everythingthey couldto changetheir
appearance.With the designnow over
40 yearsold, it is reassuringto see so
many now revertingto factory colours.
Alan'sCondoris largelyyellowwith blue
trim, a schemethat seemsso much
more naturalthan the swirlsand stars
appliedto many others in the 1970s.
The majorityof Condorscamefrom the
factory in yellow and buyerscouldalso
havethem in blue,red or white.
'Another
featurethat I think is worthv
of praiseis the cockpit,"saysAlan. "lt's
got a properblindflyingpanelusing
post-warmilitary surplusinstruments
thai are either driven from a venturi in
the earlyonesor a suctionpumpin the
later ones. Froma professionalpilot's
point of view itb an idealinstrument
panel- wide,clearand welllaidout.
By contrast,the originalFrench
aircraft had a completeabominationof
a panel- a total hotchpotch"Youcan
alter them slightlyif you want,but they
*$nrE i"rFrAs|lell
as building
NormanJonesf,as
the manbehindtlr
TiqerClub,to rhici
Alan'spaint
homage.
*r: Thetailrierl
oneof the key
to checkduringth
walkroInd.
tfe morecommonl@hp engine,you
canexpectyourCondorto cruiseat
around85kts. lf heavilyloadedand
flyingin hot weather;
that figurecan
be more like 78kts. Most Condorshave
two-bladedEvraprops,but Alanhasa
woodenPer{ormance
Propeller;
which
he hasfoundto be excellent.
"lt's an Americanprop,approvedby
the PFA,andmakesminea littfelaster
thanmost.lt qivesmean improved
cruiseperformance,
the onlydownside
beinqthat itb not too goodout o{
stripsin the summer.I tendto operale
my aircraftas a single-seater
in those
circumstances.
I useit verymuchas
dnsuriogthat its bottis tiffi and
secure. Access to . the low
cockpit is v€ry easy
,-.th* I
simple ta operata The mntrols and' l
' h i n g e , .. pedalsare great,
two door panels
and the trim wheel
upwardS, meeting
middle where they
clipped together
upright position if
Youthen simply
onto the wing
walkway, step
seat and pull
in.
There's
width and
headroom
average
pfus 22kg
i
it
in the
ean be
in an
you wish.
step up
root
onto the
yourself
plenty of
enough
for the
Person'
of storage
and flap leverare positionedbetween
the seats and very easy to get at. Once
on the move,they are very pleasant
to taxi, especiallythose suchas mine
with the shorter undercarriage.Even
though it's a taildragger,you can easily
see over the noseand it isn't necessary
to weaveabout."
FLYING
THECONDOR
Alan can operateG-AXGZfrom strips
as shortas 400m, though450m and
abovers more comfortable.Oncein
)
50 TodrrtsPSd Man$ 2006
L{rr ThecontrolI
is wideandvert c
to uss.
the aina typicalrateof climbis 500lt
per minute."Someof the amateur
rebuildsmightbe a little worse.
becausetheytendto slapon too much
paintwhichputsthe overallweight
up. Emptythe aircraftshouldweigh
417k9with maximumtake-oflweightof
669k9,so it is fairlylight andhandles
well. Thehandlingin flight is actually
stunning- the aileronsarefabulousand
it's reallylight in pitch.
"Theydo tendto fly quitenoselow.
but ttley arevery balanced
and not at
all subjectto yaq so are easyto fly in
balance.My presentaircrafthasflaps
but half the CondorsI'veflowndidn't
havethem. Thatjust makesthema
little moredemanding,
particularlyon
hoi days.but theyaremoreefficient
andeasierto maintain.
'Anothergoodthingaboutthe
Condor
is that it's fabulousin a crosswind.lt's
ratedfor operationin crosswinds
of
up to l2ktsbut in realitythat figure
allowsa comfortablesafetymargin.
Considering
howlightit is,it feels
incrediblysurein a crosswind-One
thingthat madethemgoodaeroplanes
to learnon is the disciplinethey instil
duringapproach- with theseyou
needto holdyourspeedmcuratelyon
approachbecausethey areverysensitive in pikh andwill losespeedquickly
dueto their lowinertia."
ln fact 65ktsis considered
to h a
goodintermediate
approachspeed.
Thepilot'snotesstatethat you
shouldbe comingoverthe tredgeat
55kts,howevergiventhe aeroplane's
tendencyto dropa wingat the stall..
Alanregards5oktsas moresuitable
loweringthe speedto 55ktsonlylor
shortfieldwork. Onceon the grassor
tarmac,the Condorcanbe broughtto a
halt prettyquickly.Theonlydrawback you do needto seebelow."
to this quickdeceleration
is that the
Condorsare not clearedfor aerobatics
maintyrestendto wearquicklydueto
thoughtheydo havea veryrapidspin
a marked'toein'on the undercarriage, for whichtheyare clearedup to a
particularlyif operatingfrom Tarmac
maximum
of threeturns.Oneof Alan's
strips.At f9O each,theyare not cheap clearest
boyhoodaviationmemories
to replace.
is of visitingRochester
andwatching
Anotherminordownsideto Condor
a testpilotspendalldayspinning
flyingis the aircraft'sprimitive
Condors
to gainthe type'sspinning
ventilationand heatingsystem.You
certification."Theydo behavevery
canexpectto feelthe sunbeatingon
wellin the spin,"he confirms."Given
the windowsin summer,andpossibly
that knowinghowto handlea spin
you'llbe a bit chillyaroundthe knees
wasa very importantpart of pilgt
in winter.'The ventilationandheating tminingbackthen.they hadto. They
systemshaveneverbeenup to much,
wouldhavebeena delightfulaerobatic
andalthoughyoudo havea coupleof
aeroplanebut of courseare not cleared
ventsin the canopytheyare not that
for that,andthe ailerons
arein my
effective,"concedes
Alan. "Withplastic opinionas effectiveas thoseon the
upholstery,
15or 20 minutesspentat
Stampe,whichis the nicestaeroplane
the holdon a summer\ afternooncan
I'veeverflown."
be a bit uncomfortablelt's not so bad
Thetendencyto dropa wingin the
onceyou'rein the air though.
pilots
stall,of course,is a characteristic
"Visibilityis generallyvery good,
shouldbe awareof. Theyarenot
thoughof coursethe lowwingdoes
aeroplanes
to tinkeraroundin, andwill
obscurethe groundat certainangles.
departinto a spinfrom the stallgiven
youcanalwaystip the wingif the opportunity.ln straightandlevel
Naturally,
flight,stallspeedarrivesat 42ktsclean
or 38ktswith flaps. Because
of the low
andrelativelylargewing,Condorpilots
canalsoexpectto experience
a lot of
groundeffect.
ROSY
FUTURE
Recently,
Condorownersbothcurrent
andpotentialwerehandeda longawaitedpieceof goodnews.TheCAA
hasnowapprovedall Condorsto fly
on a PFAPermit.Thisbringsthe type
underthe auspices
of the Popular
FlyingAssociation
anddramatically
reducesannualcosts.A fewyearsago
a confusingsituationexistedin which
halfthe Condorfleetwason a Permit
whilethe other half still reouireda
Lrrr Despite
fts
dfuninutive
stattre,
tbercl pleily ofd
in tllc Cordor's.oc
lhe flapleverat{
trin rheelan hcr
befueenthes6ats.
M.todayspilot.co-uk 5l
' ilaps.l'lot all
havethem.
*dors
, ,,rti:iThecondor
iihrgeandPowerful
on the
siolsurfaces
aI
' Condor
at
G-AXGZ
- wherethe
i$hester
q1e
hasenjoyeda long
historY.
d successful
C of A. The Permit examPleswere
consideredmore desirabledue to the
lower costs.
Whetheron a Permit or on a C of A,
one attractivefactorto owningan
aeroplaneas unusualano rareas a
Condoris that it bestowsautomatic
club.
to a very exclusive
membership
Althouqhthere is no officialRollason
there
Condorownersassociation,
is a very effectivesocialcirclethat
Alan and others can draw on for
expertiseand advice.lt seemsthat all
UK-basedCondorownersknow each
other throughsomeoneor othe[ and
there'san excellentwebsitethat acis
as a centralhub for all activity www
l(.
rollason-condor.co.u
"l knowaboutfoui-or five Condor
and theYeach
ownerspersonallY,
know four or five more,so what You
end up with is a reallYgood'albelt
totallyinformal,network,"explains
Alan. "We'venow got all the technical
and ihe
on CD-ROM,
manualsavailable
PFAholdsall the drawings'
"Whenthe factorYclosed,Norman's
son MichaelJonesgaveme tne
all of the
opportunityto Purchase
spares,and
remainingCondor-specific
I now haveall of them in safe storage.
I probablyhaveenoughmetalwork
though
to buildanotherten Condors,
I'veno plansto do so. I can'tprovide
day-to-dayspares,but if anyoneneeds
metalworkfor any seriousstructural
rebuildof a Condolby all meanscome
and speakto me. Michaelwantedthem
to qo to an enthusiastratherthan be
put on the skiP."
Shouldyou requireadvice,or are
interestedin Alan'sexcellentreserve
of Rollasonparts,you can contacthim
and otherson the websiteforum. All
thingsbeingequal,your ownershipof a
increase
Condorshouldn'tsubstantially
your bankmanager'sValiumintake.
comesto aboutf.1J00
Alan'sinsurance
is
at Rochester
and hangaraqe
annually,
aroundf230 Permonth.
"l probablyspendaroundt4,000 a
year,and then you'vegot the PFAfee
whichisn'tmuch,plusany engtneerlnq
and sparesYoumightneed,"he says.
''lt'san idealaeroPlane
for PoPPing
up to Old Wardenor visitingfriendsin
Banbury- that'sthe type of flyingI like
to cioin this. lf buyingtoday,I would
adviseyou to PaYabout [1O,O00for
one with a tired engineand in lessthan
great condition,and up to f15,500 for
a'peach'. I wasincrediblyluckywhen I
cameto buy mine- ljust happenedto
be in the right placeat the riqhttime'
l'd betternot tell you what I paidfor ltl"
lookingbackat the
ln retrospect,
Condor'ssmallplacein aviationhistory,
it seemsihe onlythingthat stoppedit
coldwasa lackof publicityduringwhat
shouldhavebeeniis heyday.At places
the Condorswere
suchas Rochester
wellusedand equallywellregarded.
way'
ln its own smalland understated
RollasonAircraft& Enqinesis among
the unsunggreats;a Britishcomp.lry
that doesnot deserveto be Ir':';'-r:lcn.
l
i'ru';-ri.1
As wellas buildingCondors,
lcr
JoneswasalsoresPonsible
the TigerClub,and intio
instigatinq
ducedthe Stampe,Turbulentand Jodel
into ihis country.He wasan enthusiast
ihroughand through,a legacYthat
clearlyliveson todaythroughpilots
likeAlanCooperand the vibrant,close'
U
knii circleof Condorowners.
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