Flight Test

Following WWII, the declining necessity of huge numbers of military machines led to many firms disappearing into ever-encompassing British aviation conglomerates. The British Executive & General Aviation Limited Company is probably best known as The Beagle Aircraft Co. It’s path was sandwiched between Austers, which had itself gained Taylorcraft and then Beagle’s own absorption by the then British Aircraft Corporation (of BAC1-11 fame). Beagle’s best known lasting legacy to us in the SEP world is the delightfully handling aerobatic, all-metal Pup, along with its more muscular brother the Bulldog. The Bulldog, employed within our Royal Air Force and University Air Squadrons, was a first-rate basic trainer for numerous years, the rights and manufacture of 320 machines moved to Scottish Aviation, which later merged with BAC, Hawker Siddeley Aviation and Hawker Siddeley Dynamics to form British Aerospace in 1977.

But one memorable footnote is the Beagle Husky. Just 15 were made, each individually tailored to an owner’s specification, and at a cost way over their manufacturing and sale price, somewhat uneconomic and not a recipe for fiscal fair weather. The Husky, I think, was the last commercially produced group A tailwheel single-engine piston aircraft built here in the British Isles, making it truly the ultimate tailwheel in the land!

G-AVSR

Husky, serial number 3689, G-AVSR, which I was able to fly for this feature, is now in the caring hands of Dr Stephen Holwill and is operated on a LAA Permit. It was well known in the light aviation world with the previous owner, Wessex-Strut founder Tony Young, who operated it under the CAA and required a Certificate of Airworthiness. Sierra Romeo has had an unusual life.

After construction and its first flight from Rearsby on 17 October, it was almost immediately exported from Redhill to Tehran. James Baring, and his copilot / navigator Tom Storey, had the task of ferrying the Husky for BICC, the British Insulated Callender’s Cables. Having tendered and then won a contract to lay an oil pipeline from mountains over potentially flooded expanses to the ‘Persian Gulf’, BICC had 500km of potential ‘awkward’ terrain over which reconnaissance of the landscape was essential. Logistics also demanded that there was no delay as men and materials, plus the ravages of a difficult winter, pressed for prompt early action. The Husky was the latest – and probably most capable aircraft – for such observation with its high-wing, good off-field performance and, in Sierra Romeo’s case, an extra belly fuel tank for extended range. The latter would definitely be needed.

The route had them clearing customs at Lydd and onwards, towards the then not-so-active series of international airports. Toussus-le-Noble, Paris, and then via Nice, Rotieurbe (Rome Urbe), Brindisi, Athens, Rhodes, Nicosia, Beirut, T1 a remote desert airstrip, Baghdad and finally to the destination, Tehran.

Thirteen days and 31 hours of flying. While the logbook entries make no mention, the journey was full of geographical obstacles, troublesome weather and paper chases, requesting release and transit. There was also the difficulty of acquiring maps and the prospect of the political landscape upheavals threatening hostile tremors from the Greek Colonels, Cyprus and Syria. In Syrian airspace, two Mig 17s came looking for the Husky at 2,000ft, but found it at 10,000ft as the Husky left Syrian airspace. Winter was approaching and the days were shortening as they progressed eastward and some long, long legs had few radio aids.

Fuel? At major airports this was not a problem, however, there was one leg between Beirut – where they had been delayed for three days – and Baghdad, which appeared impossibly long and beyond, even for the range of their Husky. However, British Petroleum, came to their aid, as it had a desert airstrip conveniently mid-way, where a Mr D Bader arranged for cans of 100 octane to be waiting for them, as well as a crew to help fuel and serve egg and cress sandwiches. A flight of endurance, encounters, experiences and endeavour, but the aircraft was delivered serviceable, safe and sound.

But, and there are always ‘buts’. Upon arrival and handover, officials informed the crew that the Husky could not fly again until placed on the Iranian register. A logical and previously prearranged ‘get out of jail card’ had been thought of, as the delivering pilot was contractually obliged to undertake a proving serviceability and owner acceptance flight. Thus they did… cannily along the major part of the intended construction path. This was, to put it mildly, a great relief to the ‘powers that be’, and expressed the opinion that this brave little Husky had already paid for itself! There was none of the inferred flooding by the opposition French contract contenders and, while difficult, the landscape was otherwise manageable. Section by section the area still had to be reconnoitered, and Sierra Romeo became a dependable observation tool, while being cared for in very good order.

Sierra Romeo was housed outside on roughly prepared strips near construction sites and, while normally fine, in October in 1969, there was a devastating hail storm that necessitated a complete fabric recover. After its completion, it was sprayed green and white, rather than Beagle’s factory silver and white. It was belatedly discovered that the engineer who did the work was, well, ‘not qualified for fabric work’, and it took eight months before a suitably qualified engineer could be found and flown in from Kuwait to sign off the work. It returned and continued sturdy service until its part in the project had been upheld.

Its final company flight was from Qaleh Morghi to Mehrabad on 22 May 1971. In nearly five years of service, Sierra Romeo had accumulated 396 hours and 25 min. It had been arranged that a potential buyer, one Tony Young, could check over the engine, prop and airframe as part of a pre-purchase inspection.

Tony was considering the Husky for his aerial photographic business to replace an Auster. An ad in Flight International showed the Husky for sale, but it was a long way away. Having spoken to Ambrose Hitchman, who had been a commercial manager at Beagle, Tony discovered ’SR had nearly every conceivable extra fitted, including a full blind flying panel, larger tyres, stall warner, a Scott steerable tailwheel, flush fitting navigational lights, landing and taxi lights, adjustable front seats, folding rear seats, and an extra belly fuel tank holding 13 imperial gallons. It also had an entire Perspex covering on the starboard door – but no heater. That hadn’t been a priority for the searing desert heat. That aside, it was, however, just what he wanted…

Onwards and upwards

Tony and his co-pilot flew out to inspect the Husky, and then having made the purchase, they set about the task of flying it home. The first leg of the 3,056nm journey was an awkward undertaking as the 14,000ft Zagros Mountains had to be traversed. Despite a 0400 departure, the air temperature rose enough to diminish climb performance and their fine pitch prop could take them no higher than 13,000ft. Fortunately the high level vegetation proved helpful by creating updraughts that allowed the Husky to pitch over the lower peaks and ride along rock-edged valleys. Passing these they descended to denser air on to Bagdad, Damascus and Beirut. From Beirut the next few days were spent in contrast flying over the Mediterranean to Southern Europe.

Rhodes was 394 nm, 5 hours 30 minutes away. The Met Office warned of strong headwinds for the crossing of the Dodecanese Islands to Athens, so once there, they waited for the winds to abate. The day’s travels had taken 8 hours 30 minutes to cover 619 nm. Onwards to Elba, over the Bay of Corinthus, past Corfu, which was all water across the Strait of Otranto. This was more character-building stuff! Every hour, Tony and Chris would swap the duties of being handling pilot. On towards the Italian port of Brindisi. Beyond the Tyrrhenian Sea, whereupon contact their clearance through the Naples zone was no higher than 1,000ft. This placed them in poor vis’ and little time to react should their Lycoming falter. Once out of the zone they climbed to a cooler and tension easing 5,000ft to Elba. And here, safe on the ground the unexpected occurred. Keen to refill their tanks, they discovered the fuel station had none, and it would be a while before any might be delivered. Surely there must be fuel, somewhere? Well, actually, yes. The tractor used for cutting the grass was fuelled from the pumps. Observing that the grass didn’t look particularly mown, they found there was still fuel in that tank. A purchase of 30 litres was sufficient to reach Corsica, and from there with the main wing tanks filled with 16 Imperial gallons each and another 13 in the lower belly tank (204 litres in modern day figures) they flew onwards to the French mainland and Nice, where they visited friends, before flying a further five hours to Toussus-le-Noble via a dog leg of Marseilles and Lyons.

Having crossed the Channel without being able to see it through cloud, they cleared customs at the local London Strut strip – Gatwick, before the duo parted company and Tony flew home to his grass field at Kingston Weston. It had been 40 hours of extended straight and level for 3,056 nm.

DNA of the Husky…

Beagle Aircraft, having acquired Auster, continued the development of the range. The Husky is, in all intents and purposes, a 180hp version of the last true Auster, which had sprung from a Portuguese Air Force requirement for a liaison / trainer aircraft – which in itself was a development of the Auster Alpha. The type was initially available with a 160hp Lycoming 0-320 as the D5/160 and the following Husky was designated as the D5/180.

If you’ve seen a few Austers, the family DNA is obvious.

You duck under the wing behind the struts and open a forward swinging door on either side to access the cabin. The cockpit is very smart with its vinyl seats in green with matching cockpit trim. There are curved metal sticks which sweep up from under the panel and have a large throw. A sober grey instrument panel has a left side full of period instruments, but the large turn and slip seems to make its presence felt the most. The view over the curved engine cowling is framed by triangles of bracing tubes.

Classically Auster, is the huge centrally mounted compass slightly above head height. Similar to that found in all WWII RAF aircraft from Tiger Moth’s onwards, it is inverted with a mirror reflecting the scale and luber line to be aligned with the North seeking needle. While it seems odd, it works in the same way as the standard P2.

More modern, is a Garmin G5 providing a second altimeter and horizon, along with a radio and a transponder. The G5 has been added so that the Husky may be considered to operate in IMC in future, though a heated pitot has yet to be added. Below the avionics is a small sub panel that mounts the push-pull throttle, mixture, carb heat and the primer.

Protected by a circular guard, the fuel selector is floor-mounted within reach of both front seat occupants. It has a lever and pointer to three tank positions, PORT 16 imperial gallons fittingly signed in red, opposite by half a turn, STBD 16 imp galls in GREEN, between the two 13 ¾ imp galls AUX on, and the final position, PETROL off.

Twist your head to the wing roots and the circular fuel gauges become apparent. Almost hidden in the left-hand wing root is a small cockpit clock, which has, in contrast to the normal hours and minute hands, an extra set of red hands that may be set to help with timing for fuel burn, tank rotation or navigation turning points.

Above Providing great visibility, the cockpit Perspex extends beyond the wing trailing edge.

Left The 10ft tail surfaces have diagonal wire bracing. The left elevator has an adjustable trim tab, while the rudder has a fixed tab and an aerodynamic balance.

Below Smart cabin features – an uncluttered instrument panel, curved sticks and comfortable green vinyl seats.

The split flaps have three positions and are selected from the left seat, squeezing a trigger, before pulling down to engage a detent to lock the flap position. There are three positions, Up, Lift and Drag. While they are easy to use on the ground, in the air against the rushing slipstream there is some resistance, but they are easy enough once you are familiar with the load to expect.

Limiting speed for extending the flaps is 73mph/63kt. Conveniently, to help with pitch trim forces on the stick when selecting flaps, your left hand may be raised to an adjacent elevator trim control that sprouts from the wing root and may be eased backwards or forwards in the natural sense.

Looking into the rear end of the cockpit above and behind the two place bench seat is a loading placard printed in red and a loading chart with a descending line grading the weight that can be placed on the rear seats. If the front seats are occupied and all three tanks are full then 100lb may be stowed in the back. Should the auxiliary belly tank be empty, then 200lb can be carried and the sliding scale determines 400lb if you are flying on fumes! Clamber over the folded backs of the front crew seats and the rear seats offer a good view to the sides, diagonally down and upward through the Perspex canopy between the wings.

Standing back to take a look, there is no doubt in my mind that the Husky is a handsome, well turned out, clean machine. Its form has obviously grown in stature since the earlier marques and derivatives, there’s a dorsal fin fillet to aid with directional stability. As always, as a tailwheel machine with a large flat of fuselage sides behind the centre of gravity, crosswinds are always going to be worthy of consideration.

The cable-operated ailerons are generously sized, and of the frise variety, while the elevators are without aerodynamic balances and there’s a movable trim tab on the left. A generous rudder with a fixed, ground adjustable tab, has a fair-sized aerodynamic balance forward of the hinge line. Looking at the undercarriage, the tailwheel is very sturdy looking, and moving forwards to the main gear, you’ll find slack looped u/c support check wires to prevent collapse should the bungee suspension give way.

Airborne

Sierra Romeo’s owner, Stephen, learned to fly in 1984 on Tomahawks before moving onwards to the seemingly omnipresent Cherokee. He admitted to not being consistently happy with his own landings in the early days. They were safe, but, let’s say, had ‘room for improvement’.

Then, as so often happens, there was a dry patch until this particularly nice Beagle arrived on the market in 2006. He, along with a partner, bought Sierra Romeo and he revalidated his licence. After a lengthy gap like that, you’ve got to be particularly motivated, plus there was the additional challenge of getting to grips with a tailwheel aircraft too. Twenty hours of training at Dunkeswell had every conceivable situation covered, including out of wind runways. He initially thought take-offs more of a challenging task than landing. On one occasion the wing lifted with a crosswind departure, but promptly regained control at low speed and a high-power setting with good coordination.

Above A gentle banked turn highlights the extensive glazing, providing the crew with all round visibility.

Interestingly, the only recorded incident Sierra Romeo had in her logs was a take-off incident in Tehran.

Some years later Stephen decided to gain an IMC rating and found himself back in the dear old PA-28 - he now had no problems with his landings! Stephen now has 250 hours on his Husky and still enjoys the type.

In flight the view forward and down is obviously enhanced by the high-wing configuration chosen for all reconnaissance machines of the period. Both Stephen’s and my view sideways, needed us to duck down below the wing root to see along and under the wing. With just the two of us and 20 gallons of fuel she trimmed out well and proved stable in pitch. So long as the roll into a turn, both left or right, is gentle without a wild poke of the stick in either direction of roll, there is no evidence of any adverse aileron drag where the nose wishes to move away from the turn. She obviously rewards gentle persuasion. But, and again, there are always buts, should you wish to make the point, the sin of adverse aileron drag may be demonstrated if the acting pilot immediately reverse the direction of roll, then the nose will now swing away demanding rudder to regain and maintain balanced flight. With a little understanding of technique and gentle rudder coordination, she is both calm and serene in temperament.

Cruise is at 80-85kt at 2,100rpm burning a tad over seven imperial gallons an hour (remember there is a 180hp engine up front). We have seen with Tony’s flight the range what the Husky is capable of but Stephen works on a generous rich burn of a little over four hours for both main tanks, which is well on the safe side. Climbing at 70kt initially gave us an estimated 800ft per minute but we had no need to go for height at full power in order to catch Patrick in the photoship. Straight and level with throttle fully forward she will reach 109kt. The formation was flown at her standard 80/85kt giving us surplus power to manoeuvre.

Stalling is a none event, well, that’s not quite true as it wouldn’t particularly upset a tyro pilot under training. It certainly stalls with a wavering warning on the elevator and stick circuit, but the wings stop flying and the nose drops in a straight line at 47kt clean. Then with the effective flaps fully lowered she reached the slower speed of 38kt.

She continued to give us a low fluctuating speed and the thing that may surprise the uncaring if you persist like this, is a high rate of descent. Stick forward has a prompt recovery. A standard approach speed is based on the stalling speed multiplied by 1.3, with a flapped approach to land would be 49.5kt. That is a bit on the low and slow side for following traffic and Stephen is happy with 55kt.

Crossing the hedge the throttle is fully closed and a gentle float finds Stephen arriving on all three wheels together. There is little wind to speak of and the landing roll slows to a taxi and we vacate the runway and stop to rundown and refuel. Book figures give a landing distance from the standard 50ft barrier as 1,380ft around 420 metres. Take Off has a max’ all up weight of 2,400lb with fuel, baggage and crew, plus passengers of 984lb (a standard Husky without a belly tank is 1,460lb empty). This distance is shorter, again climbing above the 50ft obstacle within 1,095ft, 328ms.

I have to thank Stephen for his generosity in allowing me to rekindle my affection for flying an ‘Auster’ type machine. After getting my licence I joined the Wasp Auster Group at Panshanger – a VJ1 with a Cirrus Minor and a whole 100hp and a third rear-side facing seat.

I got an hour a week for three years at £12.60 an hour, wet. It made a pilot of me. And I have long been grateful of the type’s character and abilities. ■

Beagle Husky Specifications

General characteristics

Length 23ft 4in

Wingspan 36ft

Empty Weight original without the belly tank 1,420 lbs and now 1,600 lbs, Mtow 2,400lbs

Useful load 800lbs

Power loading 13.33 lbs/hp

Engine Lycoming O-360 180hp

Performance

Vne 159mph

Cruise speed 128mph

Stall speed (full flap) 35mph (clean) 44mph

Rate of Climb 1,450fpm max, 800fpm min

Take off ground roll

550ft (to clear 50ft obstacle) 1,175ft

Landing roll 350ft (to clear 50ft obstacle) 1,130ft