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What a Pocket Rocket! BD-5 twilight flight around Ireland

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A GO-KART WITH WINGS

 

I was reading an old issue of Pilot Magazine last night and came across a great flight review of the Bede BD-5 by Bob Grimstead.

 

This amazing little aeroplane was first produced as a kit in the early 1970's. It is probably most famous (after the accident stastistics..) for it's appearance in the James Bond movie "Octopussy" when a BD-5J jet-powered version flies knife edge through one side of a hanger and out the other side.

 

I then remembered that I had an FSX version of this little bird on my system but hadn't reinstalled it after the last big FSX "Crash". So I spent a good half an hour going through my program installation files trying to find it. Eventually (about midnight last night) ..SUCCESS!

 

The IRIS BD-5 FSX version made by David Brice is a really good addon. There are both the prop and jet versions included in the package. The pix here are the prop version (I thought I'd start easy and work up;)

 

I've been going through BD-5 reviews and flight tests to check the handling characteristics of this pocket rocket and the FSX version handles very realistically IMHO. I was very pleased (and surprised!) to see that his team have modelled the high thrust line dynamics (which means the nose GOES DOWN when you apply throttle and comes up when you reduce power.....freaky!).

 

Despite the small surface areas on this tiny aircraft it is very stable once trimmed out. Take-off and landing require lots of practice to get them perfect. It is VERY low on the ground!

 

And it spins rather nicely ;p

 

This was so fun to fly again and hopefully the pictures below reflect the enjoyment. I didn't perform any aerobatics as I was still getting used to the handling but I'll post some pix in another thread with the jet version if anyone fancies some pix of it.

 

Anyway. Hope you like the pics below :)

I didn't know there was a prop version Adam, anyway fantastic shots of the little guy. :good:

 

Adam

HP Omen Obelisk Gaming Computer, Intel Core i7-9700, Kingston HyperX Fury 16GB DDR4 System Memory 4.7GHz 8 cores, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Super Graphics with 8GB GDDR6 memory, PSU 750 watts, 1TB hard drive, Samsung T7 2TB SSD, 512 GB SSD, WD 5TB HDD,  Logitech HOTAS X52 Pro Joystick, AOC 27" monitor,

 

 

 

 

  • Author

I didn't know there was a prop version Adam, anyway fantastic shots of the little guy. :good:

 

Adam

 

Thanks Adam :) The prop version is slower but the handling is basically the same. The jet version can climb happily at 4000 feet per minute!

 

Regards,

 

Adam

Interesting little aircraft. The sky in those shots is beautiful.

John B

 

ftxcustomer1.jpg

  • Author

Thanks lifejogger - the textures were generated by REX Essentials using it's choice of textures for the prevailing weather conditions around Galway Airport in Ireland. Not sure if that's actually what it looked like in reality but I think it looked great in the sim!

holy ######, the sky looks great!

calma.jpg

RoyalSkies.CO.UK

Youtube Vidz

!My website will be back soon with new paints and videos!

 

 

"I love walking in the rain cause no one can see my crying"

"Those who enter the field for the sole purpose of impressing others with their aeronautical knowledge can never be true aviators."

I saw the jet version at airshows named Coors Lite Silver Bullet. They did some fly bys with it. Amazingly loud for such a small jet engine.

10700k / Gigabyte 3060

I'm loving the colors of the sky! Great shots!

Sincerely,

Chase 

 

My 2017 Build: Liquid Cooled i7 7700K CPU idle @ 4.2GHz | MSI GTX 1080 Gaming X 8G | 16GB's DDR4 4000 RAM | ASUS 27" 144hz Gaming Monitor | MSI Z270 M7 Motherboard  | Windows 10 | Samsung 960 EVO M.2 500GB SSD

Absolutely lovely!!

DIMITRI

gametab-dcs-p-51d-mustang.jpgcrawling_bug.gif

Ooooh, very nice!!!

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