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> FLIGHT TEST FLIGHT TEST >> ‘Glass’ panel is less cluttered and the Odyssey is great for airspace warnings The story of this month’s air test of the undercarriage axle meant that the improved the look of the machine, albeit it starts way back in the mid-1980s undercarriage had to be rigid. remained in open-cockpit format. with the mid-wing MiniMax. With its angular, no-frills appearance making Initially designed for the single-cylinder Product of Tennessee-based it somewhat like an ultralight version of an two stroke Rotax 277 engine of around TEAM Aircraft founder Wayne Ison and Evans VP-1, the original MiniMax nevertheless 28bhp, and similar featherweight friend Jim Collie, a research engineer proved popular among the old timers because powerplants, designer Wayne Ison found GENTLE HIMAX working for the US Air Force’s Arold it was one of the few designs of deregulated that for those not bound by the ultralight Engineering and Development Centre, ultralight to sport a thoroughly conventional weight limit, the airframe went very well the MiniMax was designed originally as wooden structure covered with doped and indeed using the more powerful 40bhp, A nimble, short-field microlight with 60mph cruise and 80- a very simple US deregulated ultralight painted fabric, rather than the ‘norm’ of in-line, twin-cylinder Rotax 447 engine, (max allowable empty weight 254lb), with Dacron fabric stretched tent-like over a bolted, and that building the MiniMax as an mile range. With great views and finger-light controls, the a low-wing loading and slow top speed. aluminium-tube frame. amateur-build also allowed a greater To keep the empty weight down, the basic It was back in 1986 that PFA member Peter degree of sophistication, albeit bringing HiMax proves perfect for pottering and enjoying the sky MiniMax was just that: basic – with the pilot Harvey (no relation to our erstwhile former with it the need for conventional pilot perched partly in, partly on, a wooden, CEO) decided to build a MiniMax. Under UK licensing and Experimental Category box-type fuselage, plank-like strut-braced microlight rules, the design was not quite so paperwork. Builders in the USA soon found Words Francis Donaldson wings mounted shoulder-fashion and a constrained by empty weight limits and this that the basic MiniMax lent itself very single-cylinder engine fully exposed up extra allowance meant that Peter was able to nicely to slicking up with an enclosed Pictures Ed Hicks front. Bracing the wing struts to the ends add a lightweight rear turtle deck, which greatly cockpit and semi-enclosed engine, 34 LIGHT AVIATION APRIL 2012 MARCH 2012 LIGHT AVIATION 35 > FLIGHT TEST FLIGHT TEST >> which made it look much cuter. Originally to Fly in mid-1997 and accumulated some 140 supplied as a supplementary drawing to the flying hours over the next ten years in Maurice’s basic model, the so-called Sports Canopy led ownership. A small number of other HiMax to a whole new version in 1991, the MiniMax projects were registered with PFA, the first to ’91, which as well as a stretched, fully-enclosed fly being Andrew John’s G-CCAJ, which with cockpit was given a structural upgrade which John Hamer’s guidance was completed in 2003 allowed an increase in maximum gross weight and flew in a brown-and-cream colour scheme to 560lb, later raised to 590 with a further as Chocolat. Unlike Maurice McKeown’s upgrade to the undercarriage. machine, Chocolat was built with a streamlined Meanwhile, Peter Harvey had got the rear turtle deck constructed of fabric over MiniMax cleared through PFA Engineering, a lightweight formers and stringers, getting rid of process which benefited greatly from the fact the aerodynamically disastrous bluff-shaped, that stress man Jim Collie produced a pint-sized wraparound rear windscreen and presenting structural dossier on the aircraft which deftly a more streamlined form to the airflow as addressed the main parts of BCAR Section S. it approached the fin and rudder. Thanks What was missing was made up for by PFA presumably to the turtle deck, flight tests by Engineering drawing up various mods, most John Hamer showed Chocolat to be adequately significant of these being the duplication of the directionally stable without the need for a strake. Teleflex cable which controlled the elevator and the reinforcement of the wooden turn- ANDREW JOHN’S HIMAX over structure behind the pilot’s head to make The wondeful warmth of varnished Recently, Andrew John kindly agreed to bring it more effective in an accident. Having got wood. Note the natty brake levers his HiMax to Turweston so that I could try it his own machine flight tested from nearby on the control stick for myself and see how this fast-back model Badminton by local enthusiast Eddie Clapham, compared with Maurice’s original with its all- Peter Harvey went on to get a full Permit to Fly round view and fin strake. on his original MiniMax in 1990 and then set up the structural changes agreed, Maurice was You’ll perhaps have noticed that the aircraft as the agent for the type to deliver kits in the UK able to register his project and built his HiMax pictured is G-CBNZ, not G-CCAJ, and that and pass on news and advice to builders. in earnest, G-MZHM being started in January of Chocolat II adorns the wingtip. There’s a sad The MiniMax sold well, but when Peter 1996 and completed just 12 months later. story here, though one which owner Andrew passed away the MiniMax community was I was invited across to Ireland to carry out the has turned around into a personal triumph. without a UK representative, so MiniMax handling checks on Maurice’s machine in the Andrew managed to write off Chocolat one builder John Hamer stepped up to the mark spring of 1997, enjoying the fantastically luscious fateful day in 2005, when low-level turbulence and volunteered to run an Owners’ Club, not scenery around Enniskillen during a few days of from the nearby hills caused him to stall and as a commercial venture but purely as a means perfect gin-clear calm weather. The first day of crash shortly after taking off from Rhigos. of sharing MiniMax know-how and to promote flying resulted in long faces all round however, Andrew was seriously injured but thankfully the type. Owners were encouraged to send in because contrary to expectation, Maurice’s made a full recovery and, after what must have their news monthly, and quite a few of them HiMax had a serious handling defect in that been a great deal of thought and not a little did over the years, creating a fascinating diary it lacked directional stability. Pressing either courage, decided to start again. He purchased a of trials and tribulations in the workshop – their rudder pedal and then releasing resulted in no part-built HiMax and completed it as stories dealt with covering, painting, then the tendency at all to return to straight-ahead flight, Chocolat II in September 2007, creating a close joys of first flight, the Permit to Fly, and finally, the aeroplane carrying on ad infinitum in a flat, replica of his original aeroplane – the only getting out and about and flying into a raft of skidding turn with the slip ball jammed against difference I could determine, apart from a places to compare their projects with fellow the end of its tube. mirror-image colour scheme being that the owners. The newsletters that John produced During the evening meal at a local hotel, we first one used electric elevator trim while the make a wonderful compilation of all that is best came to the conclusion that despite the HiMax second reverted to a simpler mechanical-cable- about sporting flying. having identical wings and exactly the same operated type, which Andrew prefers. generously-sized tail surfaces as the MiniMax, Walk up to the HiMax and it looks compact, THE HIMAX APPEARS something was upsetting the directional stability Tipsy Nipper sized, which belies the fact that As the MiniMax design matured, TEAM in a big way. Admittedly the fuselage was very its 25ft wingspan is more than six feet greater brought out a host of variants, mostly involving short but this was the same as the MiniMax than the Nipper’s. The impression of a small styling changes to what was at heart the same except that the wings had been raised by a size comes perhaps from the fact that the top airframe, but including a reinforced, heavier couple of feet, so the tail volume coefficient of the high wing is at eye level, meaning that weight one to take a VW engine (the V-Max). of both types (a theoretical design measure you have to duck down to get to the cockpit More boldly, they built a cabane structure on of stability) was identical. It could only be door. Like the Nipper, the HiMax is one of the top of the MiniMax fuselage and raised the that the effectiveness of the fin must be being few aircraft where you can place one hand on wing mountings from the shoulder position compromised by the turbulent air coming off the trailing edge of the wing and another on to the top of this wooden structure to create a the back of the wing and from the bluff rear the leading edge of the tailplane without high-wing version. With thin polycarbonate part of the cabin. Perhaps we should have even stretching. sheet wrapped around the cabane it produced anticipated this because, on reflection, the a cockpit with all round vision like a Cessna 152.

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