KARI HPAC -- HPA competition in Korea Sept. 25 & 26 2014

Inha University "AOA" HPA at KARI HPAC (Photo by Hak-Tae Lee)

On September 25th and 26th I attended the KARI HPAC human powered airplane competition at the invitation of professor Hak-Tae Lee of Inha University.  I gave a lecture on HPA history and our DaSH project a few days prior at Inha, then we drove down the peninsula to the far South end to the KARI (Korea Aerospace Research Institute) test site near Goheung, South Korea.  (Map Link:  http://goo.gl/Sd42q9 )

They had a very good contest this year, with 14 participant teams plus 2 planes built by KARI.  The prior two years, not too many teams flew successfully, but this year the majority of teams flew, and several teams had flights of hundreds of meters, with the Ulsan team exceeding the stated goal of the competition of 400 meters with a flight of 470+ meters.

The evening we arrived on the 24th, teams were attempting some trim tests but got caught in blustery gusts and some barely got their planes back inside the huge KARI hanger before they were ripped to shreds.  But the two days of the competition had wonderful weather, with nil wind in the morning (flights started around 6:30 a.m.), and only on the second day in the second round around noon was there a significant cross wind.

I had a great time there, checking out all the teams, giving another talk about DaSH on the evening of the 24th, and helping out the Inha team with repairs and upgrades to their plane between flights.

The Inha teams previous effort last year wasn't quite finished and didn't fly.  This year, the team, led by professor Lee, built a robust design of 21 meters span and about 20 m^2 wing area named "AOA", with a lifting tail, that wanted to fly right from the get go.

On Day 1 (Thursday 25-Sep), they had two short flights that ended in mushing stalls because the elevator could not be trimmed far enough down.  That evening they reset the trim of the elevator and made other improvements.  In the morning on Day 2 (Friday 26-Sep), they had a brief flight that was cut short when the vertical tail was struck during launch, setting the servo arm off track and preventing lateral control.  Upon landing, the front landing gear leg broke.  A quick fix and a few hours later, they had a successful flight of 50+ meters.  All-in-all, it was considered a great success.

As mentioned above, Ulsan University had a 470+ meter flight, the first to reach the contest goal.  There were several other planes with multi-hundred meter flights, notably Sejong University with a very lightweight, elegant wing design with a pusher prop.  (Their longest flight was interrupted by a collision with the windsock pole, but they had the wing fixed and flying again the next day.).

KARI announced there will be another contest next year.  Most of the planes this year didn't have full fairings, or even any pilot fairing at all, so there will definitely be room for a lot of performance improvement by teams next year if they can add that feature.  (The few planes that did have full fairings had other issues that prevented long flights...)

The record setting flight by Ulsan University

Here are some photos and videos of the contest:

Day 0 -- evening of Wednesday 24-Sep-2014

The Inha fuselage

Inha transmission, with pilot peeking from behind

Closeup of the center section on Inha plane

Inha University plane AOA being set up on Wednesday night 24-Sep-2014

Inside KARI hangar

The huge door on the KARI hangar

A plane with both leg and arm cranks

Idler pulley spring on belt drive

A plane with belt drive

In Asia they use "Mode 1" R/C equipment, so most or all planes were equipped with elevator on the left, rudder on the right (aka 'aileron' in Mode 1, but these were 2-axis only ships)

Giving a lecture at the KARI site about HPA history and the DaSH project

The Inha AOA airplane lacked hard ribs at one end of each wing section, preventing full tightening of the Mylar covering, so on Wednesday night we fashioned wood pieces to glue on each side of the existing foam end rib to create a hard rib, then tightened the wing surface with heat guns.

Hak-Tae Lee cuts out sheets for fashioning end ribs

Making last minute fixes to the wing mount and the chain guide to prevent chain derailment

Fixing the chain guide

Parts for making hard end ribs on the wing inner ribs

Installing the end cap

Horizontal tail end cap/stiffener

Re-taping the Mylar on the new end rib

Fixing the Mylar to the end rib

Inside the hangar

The huge KARI hangar

The KARI hangar

Hot air gun tightening Mylar

Tightening the Mylar (Mylar frustrates many)

Day 1 -- Thursday 25-Sep-2014

Ulsan University first flight attempt

Sejong University first flight attempt (and pole collision)

Inha U AOA first flight attempt (broken rear landing gear)

Crash into antenna pole (watch in background)

Result of crash into pole

Inha U AOA First Flight

Inha U AOA Second Flight

Inha University preparing for flight

Korea Aerospace University plane

Sejong University plane

An "Airplane Magnet" (antenna pole)

Belt drive with idler pulley

Belt drive

Some seats are pretty simple!

Fixing the front landing gear on the Inha plane

Fixed front landing gear

Inha University cockpit

Assembling the Inha University plane "AOA"

Ulsan University plane in flight

Humpty Dumpty -- Ulsan pilot fairing after a hard landing (unlike Humpty Dumpty, was put back together again, for a 470+ m flight!)

Sejong University flight -- photo by Hak-Tae Lee

Inha U AOA HPA Flight #1 -- Photo by Hak-Tae Lee

After 2 successful flights, Day 1

Inha University team

Time to fix and come back another day

Collision with pole

Closeup of resulting damage, fixed the next day

Adjusting the throw of the horizontal tail for more down elevator

Stiffening the vertical tail end rib to allow tightening of Mylar

Alec practicing ladder safety?  (working on the VTail)

Mylar tightening

Tightening the horizontal tail covering

Day 2 -- Friday 26-Sep-2014

Ulsan University record 470+ m flight

Third flight of Inha U AOA airplane

One of the KARI-built planes flies in heavy crosswind

Fourth flight of Inha U AOA airplane -- 50+ meters

Celebrating the successful flights of the Inha U aiplane AOA

Korea Aerospace University plane with full-flying ailerons

Wingtip of the Ulsan plane

Drone filming

Fairing for horizontal tail servo, made from large R/C airplane wheel pant

Fixing the damaged vertical tail leading edge

Fixing the broken front landing gear leg

Gusset added to strengthen front wheel leg

Closeup of lashing on gusset

Repairing the lift wire clamp

Ulsan University pilot gets some press attention

Fourth flight of Inha AOA --  Photo by Hak-Tae Lee

Photo by Hak-Tae Lee

Prop and wheel damage after final flight

Broken wheel after final Inha AOA flight (gusset survives!)

The broken propeller from Inha's final flight

Inha University team after the final flight

Drone used to film KARI HPAC (8 rotors in 4 co-axial positions)