Summary
Chris learns all about Skilplane, The Land Based Thrill with Airborne Sensation.
It’s creator D’Arcy shares how this land based flight trainer has many advantages over traditional ways of learning to fly.
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Show Transcript
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Chris [00:00:06]:
I am with D’Arcy at Skillplane. Now, I’m gonna explain what I think I’m looking at, and then D’Arcy can, tell me whether I’m right or not. Basically, we’ve got this thing that looks like a go put t kart with wings and a and a tail fin like a plane. It’s called the Skilplane, and you sit in this go kart. It’s got, a yoke in front of you, pedals, and that sort of thing and as you turn the yoke, it moves the hydraulics at the bottom piece and moves very much like plane. So D’Arcy did I explain that well?
D’Arcy [00:01:00]:
Pretty pretty pretty good. It doesn’t have hydraulics. It’s all mechanically, operated. However, yeah, you like you said, it has a yoke to to, tilt the plane and to pitch the plane, and pedals and brakes to, turn your plane as well. So it replicates exactly what a, light aircraft will, do and, of course, a large aircraft, and and train at a very low cost, very safe, environment. So
Chris [00:01:30]:
Yeah. So and and the pitching’s pretty cool because I didn’t get that when I first saw it. But when you I assume pull back or forward on the yoke, it’ll lift the tail has a, a mechanical lift that lifts up and down, which pitches the aircraft, the the the whole platform forward or backwards. So you’re like in a, a simulator, but it’s rolling. It’s going down the the runway or down the the, car park or wherever you’re training. So why do you need this? Why is this useful?
D’Arcy [00:02:00]:
This this come about because I was learning to fly myself, and my dad’s aircraft, and I just found it, quite intimidating or scary, you could say, and and most pilot learning pilots find exactly the same problem. It’s, you’re in a big machine, you’re making a lot of noise, a lot of power, and it’s, and a lot can go wrong. So it’s it was very, yeah. I I thought there must be a better way to learn learn something before getting into an aircraft, and, I, yeah, dreamt up this, training device.
Chris [00:02:29]:
Yeah. So and so it’s for, confidence thing. So you feel how it works. Now I assume, because you’ve got rudder controls on this as well, pedal rudder controls, which, turn the rear wheel. So I assume that, is very similar to how it would work in a plane, not just in terms of on the ground, but in the air?
D’Arcy [00:02:51]:
Exactly right. Yes. So when you control The with your the rudders, you’re controlling your feet and it will, you basically turn your aircraft The the ground or to turn yourself in the air Yeah. While you’re flying. So
Chris [00:03:03]:
And so most of us who have used experience driving a car, we think of things working like that, but it’s quite different in the air.
D’Arcy [00:03:12]:
It’s quite the opposite. It’s quite very awkward, couldn’t be the right word, yeah, because you’re controlling your aircraft mostly with your feet and not your hands. Yeah.
Chris [00:03:20]:
Right. Okay. Alright. So I’m starting to see the point of this. And so this is a prototype? Where are you at at the moment? Is this like a a working model, or is this a prototype? Where where were you?
D’Arcy [00:03:30]:
It’s a working prototype. It’s like, yeah, the first, testing we’ve done on it, so of course I’ve found a lot of, refinements to make now, And the next model will actually be a production 1, once we’ve, yeah, got it totally redesigned, but it does function and work you know, remarkably well, and it has been tested by, someone already. So
Chris [00:03:51]:
Yeah. You’ve got some videos showing here, and I’m gonna see if we can get a copy of that or link to it so that in the show notes you can watch the The, because you really need to see this as well as hear us talk about it. So are you from a mechanical engineering background or?
D’Arcy [00:04:07]:
My background is actually, in, furniture making. So I was actually a furniture maker most of my life. However, in my, childhood growing up, mechanical, was huge part of my life with my brothers in that, designing and making stuff all the time. And then I did get a university degree in mechanical engineering.
Chris [00:04:28]:
Yeah. Well, that counts.
D’Arcy [00:04:29]:
Yes. And, which yeah. Also, teaching degree, so I could become a technology teacher. So yeah.
Chris [00:04:36]:
And how long did it take you to put this together?
D’Arcy [00:04:41]:
From the initial, idea to the prototype you see here was 2 years.
Chris [00:04:47]:
That’s actually a pretty short period of time because that’s a significant well, to me, a layman that knows nothing about either flying or mechanical engineering, this is pretty impressive. I’m I am actually impressed, and I heard that your top speeds are almost a 100 kilometers an hour.
D’Arcy [00:05:05]:
It’s been bench tested at 99 kilometers an hour at the moment. We have to, yeah, test that out in the real world. However, it’s it’s gotta come close to that.
Chris [00:05:14]:
I’m not test pilot material, I’m just telling you that now. Although, III rode motorbikes most of my life, but, not sure about doing this. And so what’s the commercial, expectation? Where do you wanna go with this? What do you wanna do with it?
D’Arcy [00:05:29]:
We have many opportunities and many, have cropped up for example,, tourism as, we believe could be quite big, for tourists learning wanting to learn to, you know, fly, have that experience. ATC clubs or Cadets Clubs, a big avenue there for kids that really want to actually, yeah, have be able to simulate and learn to fly because they really never really get that opportunity. And then, of course, the actual training The training institutions will also be a I think and the actual fun factor, I mean, as a toy, it’s just it’s actually awesome to, have a go at it. Yeah.
Chris [00:06:05]:
I gotta say, yeah, looking at the video, I’m like, oh, man. I just wanna get in there and see what it’s like. So it just talking about this, it’s, electrical powered. Yeah. So, electric powered. And so how longer, how long would you get, flight time, I guess, is it worth?
D’Arcy [00:06:22]:
So yeah training time, I’m we’re hoping about a good good hour, yeah, of training, you know, but that all depends on your speed and your, the efficiency, the amount of speed you use to use up that energy. So but a good half an hour, an hour, and this, device is actually quite intensive, and and you’ve had and you had a good good bunch of fun. And,
Chris [00:06:44]:
I I think it’s a brilliant idea. Imaginative, yeah, creative, well done. III look forward to seeing where this goes. I wanna see it do well. And, and you’re are you, in up for an award with the, field days? No?
D’Arcy [00:07:01]:
You No. No. We didn’t, make it to the awards. Yeah.
Chris [00:07:05]:
That’s, you know So this is The prototype, section. No. That’s cool. Okay. Well, before we close off, we’re gonna ask you a question or 2 that we’re asking everybody. First 1 is, do you listen to podcasts?
D’Arcy [00:07:17]:
I don’t listen to podcasts. No.
Chris [00:07:20]:
That’s alright. So we’ll we won’t ask you what your favorite podcast is because it’s the Chris and Sam podcast now. But what we’ll ask is, AI is the big thing all the time now. Did AI have any influence in what you did with putting this together?
D’Arcy [00:07:35]:
Had no influence on the actual, idea or the or the design process on it. It did help me a little bit with my patent. We did our own patent and, yeah, it was it helped, a little bit with that.
Chris [00:07:48]:
Yeah. Now that is interesting. I wouldn’t have picked that. Really cool. Oh, so this is patented as well. Okay. Oh, okay. You’ve got the printed patent on the wall.
Chris [00:07:57]:
I didn’t even see that. Okay. Nice. Alright. Well, thanks very much, D’Arcy. And I’m gonna ask you where people can go to look at thris?
D’Arcy [00:08:07]:
So you can go to skilplane.com and, your that will be updated regularly now with, updates on the prototyping and when it’s gonna be released to, the world as a, functioning product here.
Chris [00:08:20]:
That’s awesome. So that’s skill plane, SKIL plane.com. So one L with the skill, and, thank you, D’Arcy. Thanks for catching up with us today. Cheers..
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