It is so illuminating and interesting to see intelligent men parsing out the mechanical attributes of machines designed by other intelligent men over 100 years ago. Such irony and hubris for us nowadays to think we are so smart and have everything figured out.
One of the very best aircraft to come out of the First World war. Thanks to superior airfoil research, done over many years . Fortunately for the Allies , it came into service late in the war. I've read of a copy made of the Fokker Dr1 triplane some years back . That was found to be very tricky to land with a similar problem to the D VII . On Landing the pilot found it wanted to ground loop . It was put down to not having a tail skid , and the rudder losing authority due to being shadowed by the main wing . They had fitted a tail wheel to make ground handling easier . On the ends of the lower wings on the Dr 1 , are two little skids, one each side . That are fitted for that reason.
I heard that the DVII is having overheating problems. That aircraft is of an early production run did not have a firewall, the air moving past the radiator exited through the cockpit opening, keeping the pilot warm at high altitude. There were a couple of incidents where the heat from the engine ignited the chemical in the tracer rounds (in the magazine behind the fuel tank), causing in flight fires. This was fixed in the next production run by adding a firewall and louvers to the engine cowls for the air to escape the engine compartment. If this aircraft has a firewall and no louvers, then the air moving past the radiator has no place to go.
Learning the traits great airmanship. Happy flying great fun no brakes and a skid with a stick held back for a brake. Don't plant a row of potatoes in the skid furrow😊👍
It's interesting to see some of the workings of these old planes. They seem like they were a handful to fly. I'd love to be a fly on the wall when they were designing these and then teaching the pilots how to operate them. I wonder what type of performance modifications they could have done to these easily knowing what we know now about engines and airplane design and mechanics? If they could only use the materials and machinery that they had available then but build them with more advanced knowledge that we've gained over the years like porting and polishing the heads, redesigning the heads for better flow. Over size valves and 3 angle valve jobs etc...?
I don't think these planes were really made to cruise around and definitely weren't made to make the FAA happy. These old engines were meant to start up throttle up and go full bore and kill other planes and pilots.
So Kermit, I've watched the D-7 vids and can't find one where you actually get her up. Did you make it to Oshkosh? Is there video of it flying? It is a very cool plane!
I wonder if the steerable tail skid actually needed the extra cables? I would think that if the extra skid had the pivot point located to the front, it would automatically caster and cables would not be required. Great videos , i really enjoy that you share these experiences.
They were equipped like that from the beginning. All they had to do was prime the engine and engage a wound up mag to send sparks to all the plugs. The engine would start on the prime and when the cylinders fire, they eventually fall in time and the engine starts. I saw this demonstrated on an original D-7 at Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in N.Y. The inlines were way more civilized than the rotaries of the period.
Note how the prop was carefully aligned vertically. This would be with the intent to have one cylinder in a position just past top dead center. There is the capability for a spark to be provided into the cylinder by arcing of the spark 'arcing' enabled by a Bosch starting coil installed by Fokker on its Mercedes and BMW engines for starting purposes . With the cylinder having fuel present by virtue of 'pull throughs' and the piston positioned to drive the rod downward and thus began crankshaft rotation the engine can be expected to start when a plug is fired by the booster coil. Lee B.
It was pretty common. Aircraft came from the factory with camo patterns like that seen on the lower wing here, but many German pilots had them painted in custom colour schemes, particularly those flying in Richthofen's Jagdgeschwader 1 (which contributed to the unit's nickname, "The Flying Circus"). This one is a recreation of the D-VII flown by Ernst Udet, second-highest-scoring German pilot of the war. Since only few photos exist of the original aircraft though, it's not entirely clear if the stripes on the top wing were black or red, and if the underside was also striped. It was definitely a cool paintjob though.
Not yet. Developed a fuel tank leak that has been an ordeal to get fixed right. Thought we had it fixed only to find it still leaking. Working on it and hope to fly it soon.
+Rob Mackenzie I am not sure quite what they did, but I think they primed it, had one pot at full compression and just past TDC, and then they sent a spark to that pot, which fired it and started the engine. You don't really have control like that over a modern ignition system, but I think you could do that with the old ones. You'd need to get one cylinder fully compressed and just past top, and it would need a good mixture, so you'd have to be pretty quick about it, because the fuel would settle out pretty quick...
I cringe at the thought of one cyl loading up suddenly and pushing everything else in the engine. Although i did read somewhere the merc engines were strong indeed.
I've seen start-ups done on a cold D-7 at Old Rhinebeck in N.Y. It would start out by bucking and even rotating backwards a bit but would eventually catch on time and start. I don't think they were heavily rich to do it - gasoline is very potent in vapor form. Also, these engines were very low compression, I suspect in the area of 4.5:1 so mechanically, they were able to take the misfires without breaking something.
Any good mechanic will tell you that manuals mean a lot. Otherwise you're just guessing on anything you haven't worked with or on so many times the manual is in your head. And heads aren't infallible either. And "period correct" or "accurate" or not, there are several of those controls that are damned important that need to reliably detented/locked in position where you set them.
let me know if you need someone to work there...I'm a jack of all trades and I'm known for seeing how everything works even if I haven't seen it before...I have a gift for mechanics...and I LOVE planes
Здравствуйте. Подскажите пожалуйста сайт компании, где могу посмотреть и купить самолёт первой мировой войны, Немецкий Fokker Dr-1. Прошу ВПС не отказать мне в моей просьбе. С уважением к вам всем Евгений.
+Hayden O'Neil Rise of Flight and Verdun ;) Verdun gets repetitive though, most only play in the trenches. Which is just spawn, try to run across no man's land without dying, or try to defend without dying. I'm glad there will finally be a WWI FPS that takes place in other theaters, even though it will be super arcadey knowing Battlefield. Rise of Flight on the other hand is a rather hardcore WWI flight sim, I love it.
I hate Kermit Weeks! No I Love him, I find myself living life through him, I would love just to have some grease or oil on my hands from the planes he flies, Keep em comimg
Probably the polite edited preflight? Beautiful!
It is so illuminating and interesting to see intelligent men parsing out the mechanical attributes of machines designed by other intelligent men over 100 years ago. Such irony and hubris for us nowadays to think we are so smart and have everything figured out.
The steerable tail skid works very well.
Quite an improvement!
Anthony Fokker would be proud of you!
Thanks for the update and footage Kermit! She looks great!
That D-VII looks great, can't wait to see it fly.
Can't wait to see it in the skies in the next video
Greatly appreciated seeing the "Du doch nicht!" on the elevator face.
I think Kermit Weeks is the coolest dude on the planet...I wish I could fly some of his planes...to keep them in shape of course!!!
What a beauty. The acceleration was surprise for me.
Inline sixes have great acceleration, automotive as well as aviation. Great sound, also!
One of the very best aircraft to come out of the First World war. Thanks to superior airfoil research, done over many years . Fortunately for the Allies , it came into service late in the war. I've read of a copy made of the Fokker Dr1 triplane some years back . That was found to be very tricky to land with a similar problem to the D VII . On Landing the pilot found it wanted to ground loop . It was put down to not having a tail skid , and the rudder losing authority due to being shadowed by the main wing . They had fitted a tail wheel to make ground handling easier . On the ends of the lower wings on the Dr 1 , are two little skids, one each side . That are fitted for that reason.
What a beautiful old bird! Can't wait to see you fly her. :)
BEAUTIFUL.....and it sounds GORGEOUS!
Beautiful old WWI aircraft how nice to see it flying again. An Albatros build Fokker D.VII with the Daimler-Mercedes D.IIIa 180 HP.
I heard that the DVII is having overheating problems.
That aircraft is of an early production run did not have a firewall, the air moving past the radiator exited through the cockpit opening, keeping the pilot warm at high altitude.
There were a couple of incidents where the heat from the engine ignited the chemical in the tracer rounds (in the magazine behind the fuel tank), causing in flight fires.
This was fixed in the next production run by adding a firewall and louvers to the engine cowls for the air to escape the engine compartment.
If this aircraft has a firewall and no louvers, then the air moving past the radiator has no place to go.
I remember you and your beautiful Mosquito from the Hamilton airshow 1986/1987 . That is Hamilton ON .Canada . Thank you .
DVII is a beauty! Annual the Albatross so I can get use to flying the DVII! HA! Awesome choices! Good luck with the DVII test hop.
Outstanding!
Looked like a resounding success to me.Great idea too.
I would hate to see that sweet old girl take a ground loop.
Did you ever get this beast flying? If so, please take some videos? This plane is awesome!!
I tell ya? Kermit Weeks has the best job in the World.
Learning the traits great airmanship. Happy flying great fun no brakes and a skid with a stick held back for a brake. Don't plant a row of potatoes in the skid furrow😊👍
I so enjoy your work!!
can´t wait to see it fly...kermie cam please !!!
It's interesting to see some of the workings of these old planes. They seem like they were a handful to fly. I'd love to be a fly on the wall when they were designing these and then teaching the pilots how to operate them. I wonder what type of performance modifications they could have done to these easily knowing what we know now about engines and airplane design and mechanics? If they could only use the materials and machinery that they had available then but build them with more advanced knowledge that we've gained over the years like porting and polishing the heads, redesigning the heads for better flow. Over size valves and 3 angle valve jobs etc...?
Cool plane, I hope the issues get sorted out and we'll see first flight for this some day :)
I don't think these planes were really made to cruise around and definitely weren't made to make the FAA happy. These old engines were meant to start up throttle up and go full bore and kill other planes and pilots.
Sounds really cool :) what a beauty!
What the hell is this... where is my manual? Ohhh that struck me funny and got me to laughing hard. Thanks.
Me too
In German of course !
Nice job . Turns on a dime.
So Kermit, I've watched the D-7 vids and can't find one where you actually get her up. Did you make it to Oshkosh? Is there video of it flying? It is a very cool plane!
It has not flown yet. I will be releasing the second episode of Kermie Q's this Wednesday, where I address the status of the D-7.
these ww1 birds are the absolutely best. i have a dream to fly one for my self one day.
Has this bird flown? Have not seen any flight video posted.
No. Still issues with gas tank leak.
Can we get a tour of the PBY?
why didn't you fly it yet!? And why don't you make a testflight of triplan fokker dr1?? I saw it in one of your videos. It will be really great!
More Power to You!
Thanks for the update just a quick question but what if you have to land on tarmac hows that tail skid going to work ?
Sparkly and hot.
You don't. Made for grass runways.
I wonder if the steerable tail skid actually needed the extra cables? I would think that if the extra skid had the pivot point located to the front, it would automatically caster and cables would not be required. Great videos , i really enjoy that you share these experiences.
No later videos on the a/c - what happened to it..? Did it ever get to fly...???
Are you planning to do a Kermit Cam with this one as well? Those are the videos that brought me to your channel.
Thanks
Love the older birds.
What was done to make the d-7 look like it has a self starter?
They were equipped like that from the beginning. All they had to do was prime the engine and engage a wound up mag to send sparks to all the plugs. The engine would start on the prime and when the cylinders fire, they eventually fall in time and the engine starts. I saw this demonstrated on an original D-7 at Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in N.Y. The inlines were way more civilized than the rotaries of the period.
Note how the prop was carefully aligned vertically. This would be with the intent to have one cylinder in a position just past top dead center. There is the capability for a spark to be provided into the cylinder by arcing of the spark 'arcing' enabled by a Bosch starting coil installed by Fokker on its Mercedes and BMW engines for starting purposes . With the cylinder having fuel present by virtue of 'pull throughs' and the piston positioned to drive the rod downward and thus began crankshaft rotation the engine can be expected to start when a plug is fired by the booster coil.
Lee B.
@@leebranch1228 Great mechanical/electrical explanation. Thank you, Lee!
With modern electronic controls, IC engines could be started in a similar manner.
Were the colors all that bright on the originals ?? Not saying it's bad ... just curious !! Really cool plane !!!
It was pretty common. Aircraft came from the factory with camo patterns like that seen on the lower wing here, but many German pilots had them painted in custom colour schemes, particularly those flying in Richthofen's Jagdgeschwader 1 (which contributed to the unit's nickname, "The Flying Circus").
This one is a recreation of the D-VII flown by Ernst Udet, second-highest-scoring German pilot of the war.
Since only few photos exist of the original aircraft though, it's not entirely clear if the stripes on the top wing were black or red, and if the underside was also striped. It was definitely a cool paintjob though.
Fokker made such great planes...
Don't you mean Rheinhold Platz?
Ground run, no goggles needed. Fly like Your Elders need you . Next!
Have you flown it yet?
Not yet. Fuel tank leak issues.
I think that mystery flap is the "heater", lol.
Did the DVII ever fly?
Not yet. Fuel tank leak issues.
Is there a maiden flight yet?
Not yet. Developed a fuel tank leak that has been an ordeal to get fixed right. Thought we had it fixed only to find it still leaking. Working on it and hope to fly it soon.
Who's owns that plane?
Me!
I would put a tail wheel on it.
"A inconspicuous one."
You have gotta be able to handle it.
Interesting how it starts. If a big, 6-cylinder engine is warm it will usually start just by switching on and retarding the magneto timing.
+Rob Mackenzie I am not sure quite what they did, but I think they primed it, had one pot at full compression and just past TDC, and then they sent a spark to that pot, which fired it and started the engine. You don't really have control like that over a modern ignition system, but I think you could do that with the old ones. You'd need to get one cylinder fully compressed and just past top, and it would need a good mixture, so you'd have to be pretty quick about it, because the fuel would settle out pretty quick...
I cringe at the thought of one cyl loading up suddenly and pushing everything else in the engine.
Although i did read somewhere the merc engines were strong indeed.
I've seen start-ups done on a cold D-7 at Old Rhinebeck in N.Y. It would start out by bucking and even rotating backwards a bit but would eventually catch on time and start. I don't think they were heavily rich to do it - gasoline is very potent in vapor form. Also, these engines were very low compression, I suspect in the area of 4.5:1 so mechanically, they were able to take the misfires without breaking something.
Awesome
Did she fly?
So, they installed a starter? I don't think then originals had starters! I can't even imagine owning and flying one of these!
Any good mechanic will tell you that manuals mean a lot. Otherwise you're just guessing on anything you haven't worked with or on so many times the manual is in your head. And heads aren't infallible either. And "period correct" or "accurate" or not, there are several of those controls that are damned important that need to reliably detented/locked in position where you set them.
Slave driver or not, Kermit Weeks is a neat, neat dude! I keep wanting to call him Herman.
I recently started talking like him, it works!
Where is this Fokker? Nothing for a couple years?
Fokker is being readied for the trip to Oshkosh. Update coming soon.
Manual? What the heck are you going on about? It's an old airplane, everything is manual!
But you already knew that - lol.
Nice one !
What happened to this plane? MIA for last 4 years.
Kermit please!!! Make a aerobatic video with your old Weeks Special!!!! Please??????
Have to rebuild it first. Was destroyed in Hurricane Andrew back in 1992.
Need Kermie Cam this one PLEASE for the love of ww1 Biplanes lol !
good
Remember. SYNCRONIZE!
let me know if you need someone to work there...I'm a jack of all trades and I'm known for seeing how everything works even if I haven't seen it before...I have a gift for mechanics...and I LOVE planes
Здравствуйте. Подскажите пожалуйста сайт компании, где могу посмотреть и купить самолёт первой мировой войны, Немецкий Fokker Dr-1. Прошу ВПС не отказать мне в моей просьбе. С уважением к вам всем Евгений.
Just remember, in German "Auf" means "on"
battlefield 1 teaser ? :D
+Phil Langer I've been waiting for a WW1 game for a long.
+Hayden O'Neil Rise of Flight and Verdun ;)
Verdun gets repetitive though, most only play in the trenches. Which is just spawn, try to run across no man's land without dying, or try to defend without dying.
I'm glad there will finally be a WWI FPS that takes place in other theaters, even though it will be super arcadey knowing Battlefield.
Rise of Flight on the other hand is a rather hardcore WWI flight sim, I love it.
i wonder what the BMW engine would sound like?
it's a great airplane
Why is the lower wing Lozenge "up"....it should be 'down"......something is not right......
I hate Kermit Weeks! No I Love him, I find myself living life through him,
I would love just to have some grease or oil on my hands from the planes he flies,
Keep em comimg
Turns on a dime.
No one said it is going to be easy.
Thats more of a plow than a skid xD
We Works
You have to put 10hrs on it, you poor, poor thing. Ha Ha.
Get a bucket of prop wash! & Keep your Faith!