FLIGHT TEST SCAN Nord 1101 "Ramier" F-GJBQ |
| FLIGHT TEST by
Raymond Delaunay and Marc Daoudi. Interviewed by Michel Bénichou,
this article appeared in "Le Fana de l'Aviation"
July 1993. ( Reproduced here by kind permission
of the author. This article is published in full and is
protected by the Laws of Copyright.) |
| "Messerschmitt,
you say" ? Attention ! This one has a red nose and
leans to the left ! |
| The Nord 1100, Noralpha in it's
civilian career, Ramier in it's military career, squats
on it's undercarriage, it's nose in the air, it's wings
seemingly half deployed, as though getting ready to leap.
It's profile and the form of the canopy makes you think
of the single seat fighters of the era when it was
designed, at the beginning of the 40's. The triangular
shape of the fuselage and the construction with large
sheets of aluminium, remind you of the construction of
the Messerschmitt. As it should, as confirms one of the
first phrases of the maintenance manual, the Nord 1100 is
"derived from the Messerschmitt 208", and a lot
of parts which make up the 1100 are of German origin,
some being identical to the parts of the Messerschmitt
108 , in France Nord 1101 or 1002. The
108 was difficult to land or take off, because of it's
narrow undercarriage. The 208 was almost the same
aircraft - The overall dimensions of the two aircraft are
identical to within a few centimetres, but it got rid of
the default by changing to a nose-wheel undercarriage.
There were one or two prototypes of the Messerschmitt
208, powered by an inverted V8 Argus ( that of the 108 )
or a straight six Hirth, each of them of 240 hp. The
aircraft should have been built in France where there
were certainly 200 examples made, but after the war, from
1946 onwards, by the Soci��Nationale de Constructions
A\'e9ronautiques of the North ( previously Potez ), with
Renault 6Q10 engine of 240 hp, and called Nord 1100.
The Nord 100 was therefore a small transport
aircraft, rapid and ultra modern, equipped with a very
thin wing, very elegant, but with an exceptionally high
dihedral of 8\'b0. This dihedral we are told was to
correct the instability in roll. Without doubt it works,
but aesthetically, it is almost unanimously disliked. The
Nord 1100 alias Messerschmitt 108, still possesses
certain refinements, such as a folding ladder which
lodges in the thickness of the door of the cargo hatch,
on the left side. By today's standards the aircraft's
performance is excellent, and it's controls are superbly
balanced, however, it presents numerous defaults which
would be unacceptable today, but which were a mark of the
50's.
|
| RD: The cockpit is enormous, but
narrow and low. Normally the right hand door is kept
closed and access is made from the left side. There is in
fact no walk-way on the right wing root. Climbing in is
only difficult for the front right seat, and it is this
fact that justifies the multitude of grab handles on the
windscreen frame. The two front seats are bucket fixed to
the cabin floor, adjustable for height by means of levers
placed around the cabin against the fuselage wall.
Unfortunately the seats also move forward as they rise,
with the rudder bar non adjustable, for a tall pilot such
as myself, I cannot set the seats high without my knees
touching the panel. The best position is fully lowered
with the parachute for which the seat was designed, or
the equivalent in cushions. At start
up, the Nord 1100 is a bit of a plumber's nightmare,
similar to the Stampe or the Luciole. It is possible to
do it all by yourself, but it is not really easy.
Firstly, on the right hand manometer, check the pressure
in the Viet air bottle - 12 to 20 kg to start the engine.
Then, the propeller must be turned over at least six
blades to expel the accumulation of oil in the cylinder
heads ( inverted engine ! ) Close the door, open fuel
cock, close the battery circuit ( low on the right side
of the cockpit ) make sure that the chocks are in place
as there are no parking brakes, then check, under the
panel that the air circuits to and from the engine and
the bottle are closed. Electric pump 'on' while the
propeller is turned again ( the pump makes a clacking
sound until it has primed itself ) Electric pump 'off'.
One or two pumps on the throttle lever, two or three
strokes of the primer pump under the panel ( there are
four fuel pumps, two mechanical driven by the engine, one
electric and one primer ) pull on the choke.
When the mechanic says that the fuel is
running from the overflow, open the air taps which send
air to the distributor with a pronounced
"pschiii". Advance the throttle one centimetre,
( there is only one on the left hand wall of the cockpit
) contacts 1+2. With one hand, leaning to the right, take
off the security flap on the starter, with the other ,
unlock the starter. Bring the left hand back to the
throttle, and pull on the starter with the right. The
propeller turns slowly in silence, and the engine starts
almost instantaneously. However you need to pump with the
left hand to aid the Renault get up to speed, choke in to
prevent the engine from flooding. The engine is noisy,
aggressive but pleasant to the ear, very little vibration
can be felt. Before continuing, a word about the mixture
lever which works opposite to standard. It must be pulled
and not pushed to give full rich at start up. But if you
lean out the mixture in flight, when you throttle back,
the mixture is automatically moved to rich (1).
MD:- On the ground the aircraft is very nose
high as we remarked earlier, but as soon as the engine
turns the nose drops a few centimetres and the forward
view is much improved. The wind screen is small and very
narrow in the centre. The panel is almost triangular in
form, following the shape of the engine cowling, in the
centre it is higher than the pilot's eyes. But on the
sides it is exceptionally low. Thus even on the ground,
forward visibility is good, but to each side of the
cowling only. (2) The bucket seats really fixed to the
fuselage floor, between the wings with their dihedral
putting the wing tips well above the horizon. There is
nothing else to see on the sides except two big patches
of grey ! To the rear, however, the canopy is large
enough for the rear empenage to be visible"
RD:- A lot of people believe that under the
enormous cowling there lies an engine of at least 1000
hp, whereas in fact there are only 240.. and then only
when you push the engine hard ! At 800 rpm, with chock
removed the aircraft does not move, at 1200 rpm, it is
moving almost too fast, and as the nose wheel is not
conjugated to the rudder bar, the brakes need to be used
gently during taxying. The brakes are aggressive and not
at all progressive. It is very easy to block a wheel, if
the aircraft is on a slight incline, it is sufficient to
stop the aircraft ! You need to be very gentle on both
throttle and brakes; Apart from the aggressiveness of the
brakes, the aircraft is very mild.
MD:- The tail fin starts to become effective
around 30 to 40 km/h. With a good dose of anticipation,
from this moment on it is possible to steer the aircraft
without touching the brakes, the pilot is helped in this
by the fact that the aircraft is not overly sensitive to
cross winds. It's cross wind limitation is a surprisingly
high 25 Kt.
RD:- At takeoff, because the prop wash turns
around a very long fuselage the aircraft has a very
marked tendency to swing to the left. 30\'b0 off line to
the right is needed, and if you touch neither rudder nor
brakes the aircraft lines itself up, the pilot the has
control - with a lot of right rudder ! If the throttle is
opened progressively, there is no difficulty in
maintaining the line, with an occasional dab at the
brake. At 2500 rpm and 100 pi\'e8zes inlet pressure (3),
the acceleration is not remarkable. The take-off run is
long. The efficiency of the undercarriage makes for a
very comfortable ride on a hard runway. The occupant feel
no shocks, not even when the aircraft leaves the ground.
At 80 km/h, it takes off by itself and you need to push
the stick forward to maintain a level flight, to allow
the airspeed to build up, and to raise the undercarriage.
|
| MD:- If the take-off is slow and
gentle ( 21 seconds to clear an obstacle of 15 m ) you
have a very clear impression of power. The aircraft is
"slippery". It accelerates and climbs well. The
undercarriage lever is fitted with a double security, a
metal horseshoe has to be removed before take-of, then a
button is pressed with the palm of the hand. As the lever
is placed on a small centre console, the pilot needs to
change the stick to his left hand, to raise the
undercarriage with the right hand, as on a Spitfire.
Fortunately there is no adverse effect of raising the
undercarriage, but it is slow, -15 seconds. First the
nose wheel, then the left wheel, then the right, then the
locking of the nose wheel. A light 'thump' under the seat
confirms the raising of the undercarriage and the locking
of the main wheels by the red light on the panel. This
sequence is explained by the length of the pipe-work and
the mechanical resistance of each of the undercarriage
legs. The left wheel locks first because it is nearest to
the hydraulic pump placed to the rear left of the engine.
\par For the climb at 150 km/h, the pressure is reduced
to 90. The variometer will indicate according to load
between 500 and 1.000 ft/min. During the whole of the
climb you must maintain right rudder to keep the ball in
the middle. However, the effort required is not enormous.
RD:- In level flight you reduce the
admission to 80, and the rpm to 2.200; the speed builds
up to 220 and 230 km/h. Here we must mention the length
of movement of the throttle. It takes half of the
distance to go from max. pressure to cruise pressure. A
great advantage for gentle piloting.
MD:- The Ramier is a touring aircraft. It is
limited to + 3g and -0.75g, aerobatics forbidden ! a pity
!
RD:- The controls are pleasant to the touch,
light and well balanced, efficient and precise. A dream !
The controls make you want to try a roll or a loop ! The
aircraft offers good penetration through turbulence, and
is piloted toes and finger tips. The roll rate is
interesting, much higher than a modern touring aircraft,
lively even if you give a brusque movement to the stick.
The aircraft is slippery, if you pull back on the stick,
you lose little speed, if you push the stick forward you
gain speed very quickly and the VNE (4) of 310 km/h is
not far away. But the Nord 1100 requires a permanent
co-ordination of the controls (5). The slightest error of
co-ordination will send the ball off to the left or way
off to the right - engine torque. Because of this, turns
are almost child's play.
MD:- The Nord 1100 is a very stable aircraft,
but difficult to trim. The level flight trim ( the only
trim on board ) is situated between the seats, it is
activated by a lever with 1 mm notches, it is as powerful
as it is sensitive. I have a lot of difficulty with it.
RD:- This does not bother me too much, I like
for the stick to be a little 'heavy' in my hand. Jean
Caillard who has a lot of hours on the Ramier at the CEV,
showed us how to move the trim gently - with his right
elbow !
MD:- If you let go of the stick, the aircraft
will immediately lean to the left and side slip, the
effect of the prop wash on the side of the fuselage. In
level flight, it is not unusual to keep a slight 'stick
right' position, but the control is so light it is hardly
noticeable. There is a tab on the right aileron, but it
is of doubtful efficiency. We set the rudder very
carefully when restoring the aircraft, but to no effect.
The aircraft would be much better for the fitting of a
rudder compensator.
RD:- Before starting the restoration a older
pilot said to us "You'll see, it leans to the left
!" Now I know what he meant. Two pilots with a lot
of experience on the Nord 1100, Jean Caillard ex test
pilot on the C.160 and the Corvette, and Christian Ravel,
a regular contributor to FANA, both said to touch
nothing. The Nord 1100 leans naturally to the left.
MD:- At the stall it has a tendency to drop
the left wing without much warning other than a light
vibration of the tail. The turn on to finals at low speed
and low altitude can be particularly dangerous.
RD:- A weak point on the aircraft - which we
find on other types such as the Flammand - is the
variable pitch control on the propeller.
MD:- What are you saying, it works fine.
RD:- It works fine when it works ! But older
pilots have drawn our attention to the defaults of the
electric Ratier system, which is very similar to the
system found on the 109. ( see the previous edition of
the Fana ! ). In the aircraft the pitch is not controlled
with the traditional lever. However the pilot can
intervene in the control, by means of a large
multi-position switch on the left side of the panel. In
the 'down' position, the switch is in 'automatic'
|
| The pitch changes automatically
with changes in the admission pressure, the throttle
lever is directly connected to the pitch control by a
bell-crank. At constant admission pressure, the pitch is
varying constantly, to maintain constant rpm of the
engine. unfortunately, the electric contacts do not last
long, and this is why the 'automatic' system is used as
little as possible. In level flight, at cruise, the
switch is put to the centre 'stop' position, the
propeller becomes a fixed pitch, with the rpm varying
according to the turbulence through which the aircraft is
passing. To readjust, there are two method. In the first
one, you put the switch back to the 'automatic' position
for a few seconds until the rpm stabiles again. In the
second, the pilots controls the pitch by hand. The switch
is moved to the 'up' position, where you can move it to
the left to reduce the angle and increase the rpm, or to
the right to increase the angle and reduce the rpm. Two
lamps will flash when the pitch is varying,
"green" to fine pitch, "amber" to
coarse pitch. In automatic, as soon as the admission
pressure drops below 80, the propeller goes to fine
pitch. We take off in fine pitch of course, but in
automatic to ensure that we do not over rev the engine
(6) MD:- Before landing, the
difficulty is to slow down. The Nord 1100 with it's
narrow fuselage and thin wings, has very little
resistance. You put the admission to 60, and then you
wait. Speed variations have little effect on the
attitude, but must always be accompanied by a
compensation on the rudder. The carburettor re-heat can
be engaged, but as there is no effect on the rpm of the
engine, I sometimes wonder if it is efficient.(7). The
system sends warm air via a small tube into the intake
manifold. At 180 km/h, the undercarriage can be extended
- it drops far quicker than it came up - 7 seconds. To
compensate for the extra drag, The manifold pressure is
brought to 70.
RD:- Be attentive not to exceed 200 km/h, max.
speed undercarriage down. The pilot needs to be prudent
with an aircraft of this type especially in the descent,
it asks only to accelerate. Even so, the pilot must not
stay in the descent too long, throttle closed, for the
rear cylinders stay warm, whilst the front cylinders cool
rapidly. A six cylinder in-line engine is more sensitive
to these temperature differences than other types. Also
the older type of carburettor run the risk of flooding
the engine if the throttle is opened too rapidly.
Therefore, gently gently is the by-word.
MD:-We have the undercarriage down at 70 on
the manifold pressure, the propeller is set to
"automatic" and goes to fine pitch, flaps are
extended to 10 or 15, speed is about 160 km/h.
RD:-The flaps are extended by an enormous
wheel, almost behind the left seat. Slightly in front of
this is a small drum indicating the flap angle, but you
need to be a contortionist to read it.
MD:-If the speed rises too high, the relative
air speed will cause the flaps to raise. The manifold
pressure is reduced to 60, to maintain 140 km/h on
finals. The flaps are extended according to loading, to
maintain 120 kph on short finals. Full flaps at 50
causes a sharp nose up, but easily controlled.
RD:-Landing is simple, even in a cross wind.
The pilot does however need to familiarise himself with
the cowling positions, which are unusual to say the
least. With the nose long and high, the aircraft gives
the impression of climbing more rapidly than is the
reality, and the impression of not descending as rapidly
as the reality. In spite of all, the pilot soon learns.
The controls are only slightly lighter at slow speed. A
very light pull back on the stick is needed for a round
out with a sensation of having the nose in the clouds and
your backside on the tarmac. Nevertheless, the contact
with the ground is very gentle. A "creamer" is
no more guaranteed with a Nord 100 any more than an other
aircraft, it is simply because the oleo legs are
exceptionally efficient ! Do not pull back too much on
the stick, other wise the tail will strike. Neither ease
off on the stick too soon, the nose wheel shows its
dislike for too high speeds by a very strong shimmy! On
landing the Nord 1100 remains simple and without vices,
but paradoxically, you cannot leave it without control
for even a second. It is an aircraft which requires
piloting permanently and with finesse. If it is not
brutalised, it will show an extraordinary docility.
I believe it is the aircraft that you expect.
|
| THE COCKPIT OF THE NORD 1100 With
the exception of a transversal bar, the cockpit of the
Ramier is completely open, from the panel to the rear
seat when the double doors are opened. However, the right
hand door is opened only for emergency evacuation. This
set up weakens the rigidity of the fuselage, and probably
explains the limits of charge that the aircraft can
support.
The throttle lever and the flap wheel are only
on the left hand side. On a console between the seats are
the trim and undercarriage levers. At the base of the
panel there are numerous instruction tickets covering
flaps which hide the carburettor re-heat pull, fuel
cut-off, starter, priming pump, choke and air valves. All
have the same form, made of aluminium and have their
function engraved on the surface.
Easy to make a mistake. These indications
poorly readable have been covered by coloured labels. The
flaps which protect them are only raised on the ground
for start up or shut down of the engine, and in flight
for the carburettor re-heat.
|
| (1)The higher you go the richer becomes the
mixture air/fuel because of the rarefaction of the
atmosphere. The pilot weakens the mixture to reduce the
fuel burn. But if you then descend without doing anything
then the mixture will become even weaker ( there will be
too much air for the quantity of fuel ). Therefore before
beginning the descent you must put the mixture lever to
full rich. In general before beginning the descent, you
close the throttle to make sure you do not accelerate.
But in general only.... the utility of the system seems a
little doubtful. ( Ed. ) |
| (2)The crankshaft of an inverted engine is
higher than the front seats, you therefore have the
impression of sitting below the engine. ( Ed. ) |
| (3)100 pz equals about 1000 Ha or 760mm de
mercury or 29 inches of mercury ( Ed. ) |
| (4)VNE = Velocity Never Exceed, speed never
to be exceeded, close to the structural limitation. ( Ed.
) |
| (5)Co-ordinate or conjugate the controls
means acting simultaneously on the stick and the rudder
to maintain symmetrical flight. On certain aircraft for
manoeuvres of small amplitude, the conjugation can be
theoretical. On the Nord 1100 it is imperative. ( Ed. ) |
| (6)Compare this flight test with that of the
Messerschmitt BF 109G in the previous issue. The
regulation of the propeller is very similar. ( Ed. ) |
| (7)If the carburettor is not iced, notably on
the ground, pulling the carburettor re-heat caused a drop
of about 150 rpm. The carburettors of the Renault 6Q are
fitted very close by the cylinders, and had the
reputation of never icing up. ( Ed. ) |
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