Frédéric Laude reports on the Flying Electron blog about his recent flight in the CC01e, a small canard aircraft designed by Claude Chudzik 30 years ago and pulled from storage to see if it could benefit from electric power. After a first, one-lap-around-the-field flight on March 23, Frédéric made a second flight of 15 minutes the following day. On landing, the team found that the batteries still had 60-percent of their full charge remaining. The airplane was stable and easy to fly, despite the presence of a big helicopter that seemed to insist on making the circuits with the petite canard. Problems with the in-line landing gear persisted, though, and the team spent the next several weeks modifying a nose gear that needed strengthening. They replaced a weak aluminum piece with titanium and made changes to the retraction mechanism. On the airplane’s third flight April 13, Frédéric noted, “We still had a little problem with that damn front,” referring to …
Reanimating a 30-Year-Old Canard with an Electrical Charge
The CC01e, a tiny, single-seat canard design by Frenchman Claude Chudzik, flew for the first time in 30 years years, now powered by an Electravia-supplied motor system. Taking off from Nangis airport, team member Frederic Laude gingerly guided the airplane on its single circuit of the field. He reported some tendency to “marsouine,” or porpoise, of which he’d been forewarned, and managed to keep the pitch oscillations in check. Based on the team’s report on their blog, he accelerated to 60 knots (69 mph), pulled lightly on the stick and “jumped” off the runway. You can see the porpoise-like bobble immediately after lift-off, and Frederic’s ability to get things under control quickly. Once on track, he reached 94 knots (108 mph) in the pattern and managed a reasonable landing on the craft’s single-track landing gear. Originally flown with a 25-horsepower two-stroke engine, the aircraft has been reconfigured for a Lynch-type, 50-horsepower motor, controller and battery package supplied by Electravia. …
Taxiing, Run-ups and Braking – Then Maybe Flying
Frédéric Laude reported the near-flight condition of his team’s CC01e on Sunday, February 3 on the team’s blog. We’ve been following the progress of the airplane for several months. A very small canard, with a pilot tucked into a slim, minimal fuselage just ahead of its small Electravia motor, the plane was taken from its hangar and assembled this week despite the cold, wintry day. Frédéric reports that the team chocked the wheels and started to test motor and battery power, reaching 250 Amps and 3,500 rpm at the propeller. 200 Amps gave 3,200 rpm, and 150 Amps produced 2,900 rpm, even with cold batteries. He notes that this is all much simpler than trying to run the original not-so-quiet two-stroke engine. For the video, the motor’s top cover was left off, but will be replaced for flight testing, and a final spinner will cover the propeller hub after the first flight. Unfortunately, the video is not yet on YouTube, …
A “New” Electric Canard – Thirty Years Later
Thirty years ago, Claude Chudznik developed a beautiful little canard that flew on a 25-horsepower two-stroke engine. The elegantly tiny craft performed well enough on its noisy (“almost unbearable” according to the team’s blog) engine that the team of Chudzik, Frédéric Laude, Rémy Audebert, Eric Favereau, Patrick Quiertant and Gilles Aubin decided to take it out of mothballs, repower it with an Electravia GMPE-E 205 50-hp system (batteries, controller and motor), and take to the skies again. They are close to that goal, having recently reassembled the wings and canard to the fuselage, fitted batteries, motor and an EFIS (Electronic Flight Instrument System) and Electravia E-Screen ES-TX26RSD motor and battery monitoring screen. The simple, mini-glass-cockpit fits well within the confines of the small craft. This high-performance instrumentation complement the potential of this electrified and resurrected airplane, now with a motor twice its original power. It flew at more than 200 kilometers per hour (124 mph) on its two-stroker (the …