Five Years With Melmoth 2

Peter Garrison

Sunday, May 25, 2008 at 08:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

Melmoth 2, a homebuilt aircraft, has undergone continuous refinement and modifications over five years, consistently adding weight and improving performance.
Significant aerodynamic improvements included adding wingtips to adjust roll-yaw coupling and, most notably, nosewheel doors that reduced total aircraft drag by nearly 10%.
The builder successfully resolved various engineering challenges, such as uneven engine cooling, fuel boiling, and a mistaken pitot tube leak that unexpectedly led to the addition of roll trim.
Future projects focus on further control refinements and the complex hydraulic synchronization of Fowler flaps, adhering to the aircraft's intricate and gadget-filled design philosophy.

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Last Halloween my homebuilt, Melmoth 2, celebrated its fifth birthday-if age be counted not from conception (in which case it would not be five but 26) but from first flight, and if being an inanimate object parked in a hangar be called celebrating.

_Melmoth_2 was not really finished in 2002, but what original-design homebuilt ever is? It was ready to fly. I have continued to work on it since then at a rate of 10 hours or so a week. I’ve made many changes, added a lot of weight-185 pounds and counting-and somewhat improved its performance. But there’s still plenty to do.