French Kiss - British Microlight Aircraft Association
French Kiss - British Microlight Aircraft Association
French Kiss - British Microlight Aircraft Association
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<strong>French</strong> <strong>Kiss</strong><br />
Frank Ogden<br />
The <strong>Kiss</strong> is a highly significant trike. Not only is it the first new design to reach the<br />
<strong>British</strong> market for several years, it is also the first kit-built flexwing to go through the<br />
BMAA airworthiness scheme. Frank Ogden assesses the <strong>French</strong> newcomer.<br />
BMAA member Steve Elsbury is building a <strong>Kiss</strong> 400 and has a web site for others<br />
interested to see how the build is going and to learn from his experience if they want to<br />
build one for themselves. This link, along with many others, has been available via the<br />
BMAA Directory for some time. Our list of microlight oriented links is updated<br />
regularly.<br />
At almost every microlight club meeting and trade event one attends, you hear the repeated<br />
refrain as to how <strong>British</strong> flexwing manufacturers are locked into a design time warp. This<br />
criticism is as unfair as it is regrettably true. Our Section S airworthiness system was forged<br />
at a time when one or two highly suspect three axis aircraft designs fell out of the sky very<br />
publicly. This resulted in a stifling UK regulatory approach that we still have to live with nearly<br />
20 years on.<br />
The <strong>French</strong> in the mean time had no such inhibitions. Pilots could operate and fly weightlimited<br />
machines on the basis that, provided they killed only themselves and nobody else,<br />
then the Department of Aviation would take minimal interest.<br />
The <strong>French</strong> ULM manufacturers were allowed to accept responsibility for ensuring safe<br />
design: They simply reckoned that selling lethal machines was bad for business; proven<br />
design negligence could leave designers and manufacturers open to action in <strong>French</strong> civil<br />
courts. While this approach has had few implications for aircraft safety, it has given <strong>French</strong><br />
makers greater scope for successful mutation of the basic microlight genre and a larger home<br />
market for economy of scale.
Air Creation has been around since 1982 producing some 4000 wings and 2500 trikes since it<br />
began. Based at Aubenas in Southern France it currently employs 27 people turning out new<br />
machines at the rate of five per week. This productivity is at least double that of any company<br />
in the UK.<br />
The <strong>Kiss</strong> 400 weightshift microlight is a typical result of the pilot-focused, free-wheeling<br />
design philosophy allowed by the <strong>French</strong> certification system to which UK importers Flylight<br />
Airsports, run by Paul Dewhurst and Ben 'Doodlebug' Ashman, have added the probity of full<br />
UK BCAR Section S certification. UK pilots can now buy and fly a genuinely different - and<br />
possibly more advanced - flexwing aircraft... providing they don't mind building it first. More<br />
about this later.<br />
First impressions count and they are all good. Even the leaden skies of a bleak Northampton<br />
November afternoon couldn't disguise the bright plumage of a small, complex but beautifully<br />
cut wing sitting on top of an equally colourful metal and plastic trike.<br />
And the wing is small: just 13 sq m of composite fabric lifts 400kg of man and machine in<br />
dazzling style. At over 30kg/sq, the effective wing loading of the <strong>Kiss</strong> 400 blows away the old<br />
25kg/sq m Section S definition of a microlight; it follows the new rules governed by stall<br />
speed. The low speed characteristics of this two-seater pocket handkerchief were likely to be<br />
interesting.<br />
The other aspect which immediately impresses is the short wing keel. It is indeed so short<br />
that the extended propeller arc misses the keel and trailing edge of the wing except for the<br />
final metre or so at each wing tip. This allows the propeller to throw stones, cameras and lose<br />
items of pilot/passenger equipment harmlessly upwards without slicing through a critical part<br />
of the wing. If it were not for two seats and a meaty Rotax 582 high power engine behind, a<br />
casual glance might mistake the machine for a Chaser S.<br />
There are other touches to delight pilots like me who enjoy chucking a tent and sleeping bag<br />
in the back of a trike to go touring for a few days. When not occupied by the rear passenger,<br />
a U-frame folds up from within the seat area behind the pilot to create simultaneously a<br />
comfortable back rest and a usefully large zippable luggage bag. The other delight is the<br />
optional 60 litre fuel tank (as fitted to the review machine; standard fitment 38 litres) which will<br />
tilt the balance of flight endurance towards the pilot's need to jettison previously drunk cups of<br />
tea rather than the machine's need to take on more petrol.
There is a serious point about fuel and cockpit loads which applies not only to the review<br />
machine, but any fitted with tanks larger than the 50 litre maximum allowed under the old<br />
regulations. Some voices will raise objection that the fitting of big tanks as standard<br />
encourages people to fly overloaded machines. Using the example of the <strong>Kiss</strong> 400, a<br />
combined pilot and passenger weight of 180kg leaves an allowable fuel volume of just 27<br />
litres without exceeding the 400kg MTOW limit. The doubters say that pilots will inevitably fly<br />
two-up and fuelled over the weight limit.<br />
I would answer that decisions on cockpit load/fuel weight trade-offs affect every branch of<br />
aviation and there is no reason as to why microlights should be made a special case for<br />
concern. I personally do most of my flying one-up and all the more safely for having a<br />
purpose-designed single tank of adequate capacity. Complicated multi-tank fuel<br />
arrangements have caused serious problems for pilots in the past and it is my view - offered<br />
with the benefit of 17 years experience flying flexwing microlights - that the new regulations<br />
take flight safety forwards, not backwards.<br />
We are quite aware that overloading is neither safe or sensible: heavy loads adversely affect<br />
takeoff roll/climbout, particularly on soft grass strips, and primary flight characteristics -<br />
especially in parts of the envelope towards the stall.<br />
The Trike<br />
The first - and lasting - impression is of design excellence. The beautifully moulded fairings<br />
partially conceal a fairly simple tube and bolt structure in which the individual tube members<br />
have been factory finished in a hard coat paint to match the mouldings. The single drum<br />
brake arrangement on the sprung front wheel is the same adaption from a motor scooter as<br />
currently fitted to Pegasus trikes.<br />
The unbraked rear wheels inside finned spats - these assist lateral flight stability as well as<br />
keeping flying stones away - are triangulated at the bottom of oleo suspension struts. They<br />
subsequently proved themselves to be soft enough to adsorb the bumps of taxiing without the<br />
rest of the machine wallowing around on over-soft suspension.<br />
The main wing pylon folds forward for (de)rigging, hinged at the top of the seat frame in the<br />
style of Pegasus Quasar trikes. This vastly improves design ergonomics over folding trike<br />
arrangements. It allows installation of large, permanently installed fuel tanks, a favourable<br />
trade between structural strength and weight and gets rid off that cow poo-collecting fabric<br />
'skirt' at the rear of the pod which make old <strong>British</strong> trikes look so shabby.
The front forks with the oleo-damped wheel assembly turn in what amounts to a large hole in<br />
the bottom of the pod - no draught excluders here! However, a moulded fairing around the<br />
hole really does stop the wind blowing around up your ankles in flight. Paul Dewhurst said it<br />
would and it does!<br />
The trike has other, finer design touches. The starting battery (electric starting for the 582 is<br />
listed as an optional extra which, in my opinion, amounts to a screaming necessity) fits within<br />
a recess at the bottom of the HDPE plastic fuel tank moulding with the trike keel taking the<br />
weight of the battery.<br />
The three-point engine mounting virtually eliminates perceived vibration from the watercooled<br />
engine. The unit is mounted at a slight slant along its axis to offset the propeller torque<br />
reaction on the mounting rubbers by virtue of its own weight. The notable lack of in-flight<br />
vibration is also probably helped by the slow-turning three-blade propeller driven through the<br />
3.47:1 reduction ratio E-series gearbox. It makes the aircraft remarkably quiet when<br />
witnessed either from the ground or from the pilot's seat.<br />
The cooling system also has a nice touch: the radiator is mounted horizontally below the trike<br />
within a moulded cowling, forcing air downwards through the matrix. Wire mesh keeps out the<br />
crap.<br />
Cockpit instruments are mounted into a fairly small front panel with little room for more than<br />
the basic flight and engine necessities. But this is very much part of the machine's Gallic<br />
heritage. The <strong>French</strong> really do think that <strong>British</strong> trike flyers are a bunch of fairies for wanting<br />
any kind of weather protection, never mind instrumentation…<br />
Sizewise, cockpit accommodation is definitely on the cosy side when flying two-up but near<br />
perfection when flown solo. The pilot leg room suits me perfectly but then at 5ft 9in I'm not<br />
much of a design challenge. However, with Paul Dewhurst in the rear seat, I think that we<br />
both experienced a degree of intimacy unusual outside the realm of consenting males. At 6ft<br />
2in and 95kg, Paul is definitely not built to Section S.<br />
The wing<br />
Apart from being visibly small for a two seater machine, the wing planform looks in no way<br />
unusual. But then, as with so many aspects of this <strong>French</strong> machine, interest is in the detail.<br />
For a start the principal sail surfaces includes Dyneema filaments within the weave creating a<br />
material of much greater intrinsic strength than that of pure Dacron. Dyneema is a proprietary<br />
high performance polymer made by the Dutch chemical giant DSM and enjoys similar tensile<br />
characteristics to Kevlar. Leading and trailing edges are reinforced with a laminate for<br />
architectural stiffness. The sail retains a beautiful cut both on the ground and in the air without<br />
any sign of wrinkling or, Heaven forbid, flapping.<br />
The undersurface occupies some 80% of sail area and connects to the upper surface by a<br />
flexible neoprene tie strip along its entire trailing edge allowing a degree of relative movement<br />
between the upper and lower surfaces for controlled aerolasticity. A further tie system<br />
between upper and lower surfaces is located deep inside the wing chord close to the leading<br />
edge. This arrangement gives a positive servo assistance to roll inputs making the machine<br />
demonstrably light to handle in the air. Air Creation has provided a neat finishing touch at the<br />
wing tips with caps between upper and lower wing surfaces held in place by Velcro<br />
fastenings.
23 top surface and 12 undersurface batons maintain the wing profile. The batons are retained<br />
in their pockets by ordinary cord rather than the ubiquitous bungee. According to Dewhurst,<br />
the dimensional stability of the sail material obviates the need for a flexible baton retention<br />
system. Certainly the machine flies straight as a die in the air. Should a turn ever manifest<br />
itself, it can be tuned out by rotation of the sail attachments at the wing tips.<br />
Structurally speaking, the wing holds no surprises. Interest is once more in the detail. For<br />
instance you won't find a bolt through a bit of ali channel hinging the crosstubes to the leading<br />
edges. This <strong>French</strong> machine uses a purpose designed complex hinge giving a controlled<br />
movement in three axes. The hinge components are individually machined from solid metal.<br />
Having said this, I rather like the simplicity of a simple aircraft quality bolt at this lifedetermining<br />
position.<br />
The trim system shows the same attention to quality and detail. The trim knob on the A-frame<br />
uses integral gearing to ease use in the air while wearing thick gloves. The system acts on<br />
the middle luff lines only but this is sufficient to take 10mph off the 60mph untrimmed<br />
airspeed.<br />
The airframe uprights have been faired with clip-on profiled coverings offering a neat,<br />
structurally neutral solution to draggy tubes. Some enterprising chap should offer them for<br />
sale to those of us with older trikes: I am sure that there would be quite a few buyers for such<br />
a simple solution to an old problem.<br />
In Flight<br />
With Paul Dewhurst shoe-horned into the back seat we commenced taxiing to the easterly<br />
holding point at Sywell. The massive foot-shaped pedals for brake and throttle are also the<br />
footrests and operating them smoothly does take a bit of practice. Ground steering is<br />
satisfactory - very little wallowing on the suspension - although the drum brake on the front<br />
wheel is not progressive and tends to snatch.<br />
Lined up and cleared by the Tower, the excitement begins. The first thing you notice on<br />
opening the throttle fully is how leisurely the 582 sounds. Although it pulls 6200rpm, the big<br />
reduction on the slow-turning prop made me wonder if I had opened the throttle fully. The<br />
next 100 metres of travel down the slightly bumpy grass strip dispels any doubt with the<br />
machine rotating decisively at just over 40mph IAS.<br />
You know instantly that the machine is a good one. It leaps into the air in an absolutely<br />
straight line and the pilot becomes immediately aware of the positive forward bar pressure<br />
required to keep airspeed down to 50mph for best climb performance.<br />
And what performance! The <strong>Kiss</strong> had no trouble sustaining a timed 700fpm at the maximum<br />
legal takeoff weight of 400kg. Indeed, it mostly pushed 800fpm fully laden. And it wasn't the<br />
sort climb rate that required a bit of nudging and scratching around the heavens together with<br />
a scrupulous eye on airspeed to maintain. The machine achieved this climb effortlessly and<br />
repeatably.<br />
I couldn't wait to get the thing back on the ground to boot Paul out and see what a <strong>French</strong><br />
<strong>Kiss</strong> could really do. Also, I found that his long legs were projecting so far forward past my<br />
shoulders that I couldn't really pull the bar in far enough for fun without giving him a kneecap<br />
job.<br />
Before this, there were other things which this machine absolutely begged you to try. Blade<br />
and Q(uantum) pilots would be totally familiar with the fully laden pitch response of the <strong>Kiss</strong> -<br />
reassuringly positive and disappointingly heavy. It needs real muscle either to hold the bar<br />
into your chest or outwards against the front strut. Heaving the bar in returned a sustained<br />
IAS of 85mph while straining to keep the bar against the front strut brought the indicated<br />
airspeed down to 40mph without any sign of an imminent stall - both figures obtained at<br />
400kg flying weight.<br />
The engine seemed fairly leisurely in the cruise. With the trim control set at fast giving a handoff<br />
indicated airspeed of 60mph, the rev counter showed 5000rpm. I would guess - and it is<br />
only a guess - that the power setting would equate to about 12-14 litres/hour. Winding up the<br />
trim control took about 10mph off the airspeed but I can't imagine why anyone would really<br />
want to do this in a machine built for going places.<br />
Opening the throttle on most machines while straight and level normally produces a climb<br />
with little change in indicated airspeed. The <strong>Kiss</strong> is unusual. Opening up the throttle puts<br />
about 10mph on the airspeed and requires a pilot input to convert all the added power into<br />
climb. This isn't a problem, just a noticeable difference.<br />
The roll response is probably the lightest that I have ever come across in a two seater flown<br />
two-up. It acts both rapidly and positively and probably requires about half the effort required
for Blades and Qs. This <strong>French</strong> machine is possibly even lighter in roll than my own personal<br />
two-seater favourite, the Raven.<br />
It is quite a good test of roll control to place the machine in a gentle bank and take your hands<br />
off the bar. Well-tuned Pegasus wings will eventually reduce the angle of bank without pilot<br />
input. Ravens have a tendency to increase the angle of bank until things get scary. This<br />
<strong>French</strong> machine simply sits in the attitude you left it in although, like all flexwings, it requires a<br />
handful of opposite control to damp violent roll manoeuvres.<br />
There isn't a two-up stall as such. Gently decreasing airspeed by edging the bar up to the<br />
front strut simply results in a fully flying machine with ponderous roll response either in bank<br />
or level flight. Accelerated entry to the stall does produce a more classic response - a<br />
significant symmetrical drop below the horizon which can easily be recovered with carefully<br />
controlled rearwards bar movement.<br />
Interestingly, an observer in an accompanying chase plane said afterwards that the<br />
accelerated stall had looked spectacular 'losing several hundred feet'. I have to say that the<br />
manoeuvre did not feel spectacular from the pilot's seat; the positive and progressive pitch<br />
response of the <strong>Kiss</strong> 400 made recovery almost pedestrian.<br />
Time to head back to the airfield. The machine was easy to line up for a deliberately long<br />
approach: with an examiner of instructors and an exemplary pilot sitting in the back seat, I<br />
wanted to do the perfect landing.<br />
It wasn't to be. Executing a near perfect approach and sliding down to the threshold as if on<br />
rails with 65mph of airspeed on the clock, it looked as though the landing might be a greaser.<br />
Enter into the flare and burn off the flying speed at just an inch or two above the grass. All is<br />
going well until… you reach the front strut and the wretched machine is still flying with no<br />
forward bar movement left to flare with! The back gear gently touches the grass, hits the<br />
smallest of bumps, and sends you back a few inches into the air until the wheels touch the<br />
next bump. And the next…<br />
It was a perfectly acceptable landing but not completely tidy: the front strut places a restriction<br />
on forwards bar movement preventing the aircraft from flying right to the stall. This was borne<br />
out both by the stalling tests and in a further landing.<br />
Time to go solo with just 300kg of takeoff weight. With such a small, short keeled wing above,<br />
it is like climbing into a Chaser. Line up, open the throttle and... Wow! The high power 582<br />
literally catapults you into the air after what seems like no ground run at all. The VSI edges<br />
past 1200 fpm and the thin layer of stratocumulus rushes down to meet you in a manner<br />
unusual for a microlight. Actually, the machine is climbing at such a wonderfully crazy angle<br />
that sky is really all you see, even with 50mph on the ASI.<br />
Oops. Extract myself from the cloud and try to be a tiny bit professional.<br />
Flown one-up the machine feels entirely different. True, it exhibits the climb performance of a<br />
sky rocket but what really stand out are changes in roll and pitch. Although both axes remain<br />
positive and convergent, they reduce significantly to the point where, if you were to shut your<br />
eyes, you could be flying a hot single-seater. You can throw the machine about, point it at any<br />
place in the sky or on the ground and go there directly and precisely. Wonderful stuff. This<br />
machine really does become a weightshift fighter aircraft.<br />
A more measured appraisal suggests a neutral bar trim of 58mph with the engine turning at<br />
4700rpm for level flight - a fast solo cruise would probably be possible with a fuel<br />
consumption in the region of 10 litres/hour giving an easy endurance of 300 miles on that big<br />
60 litre tank. Pass me the Little John.<br />
Pulling the bar right in puts 75mph on the ASI with the machine still capable of going upwards<br />
but the rearwards bar force required to sustain this would soon become uncomfortable.<br />
Pushing the bar gently out to the front strut once again fails to stall this machine. It simply<br />
grumbles along at 40mph or thereabouts. An accelerated stall entry once again produces a<br />
definite but easily recovered stall.<br />
The lowest sink rate on a trailing throttle would be about 500fpm at 45mph.<br />
And back for a solo landing. Once again, everything travels down on rails to the runway<br />
threshold resulting in a textbook flare. And once again, I run out of forward bar movement<br />
before flying speed has properly decayed resulting in a bump, bump, bump.<br />
Would I want to buy one? Oh yes, even if it is a bit of pain to put back on the ground cleanly.<br />
The <strong>Kiss</strong> 400 really does have a dual personality. As a small two-seater it outhandles the<br />
competition in most respects - it would have been interesting to fly this machine in heavy<br />
turbulence. The high wing loading might confer some advantage, possibly offset by the light
oll characteristics. As a single seater hot ship, it wipes the floor with everything else that I<br />
have ever flown. This really is a machine that is whatever you want it to be.<br />
Get Your Kit Built<br />
Flylight only supplies the Air Creation <strong>Kiss</strong> 400 as a kit requiring typically about 100 hours of<br />
build time. The machine arrives in five boxes of various sizes containing absolutely everything<br />
needed for a complete machine. All the members are pre-cut and drilled and individually<br />
labelled. In essence, putting a <strong>Kiss</strong> 400 together is a straight Meccano job. The only drilling<br />
required is for a set of self-tap screws to attach the seat webbing.<br />
Construction has to be overseen through the BMAA inspector network with inspections taking<br />
place at rolling chassis, wing/airframe completion and after final assembly.<br />
TECHNICAL DATA<br />
Flylight <strong>Kiss</strong> 400 582<br />
MANUFACTURER<br />
Air Création, Aérodrome de Lanas, 07200 Aubenas, France; tel +33 47593 6666; fax +33<br />
47535 0403;. Director: Jean-Luc Tilloy.<br />
IMPORTER Flylight Airsports, Sywell Aerodrome, Northampton NN6 0BT; tel 01604 494459;<br />
fax 01604 495007. Proprietors: Paul Dewhurst, Ben Ashman.<br />
SUMMARY<br />
Tandem two seat flexwing aircraft with weight-shift control. Rogallo wing with neither fin nor<br />
keel pocket. Pilot suspended below wing in trike unit, using bar to control pitch and roll/yaw by<br />
altering relative positions of trike unit and wing. Wing braced from above by kingpost and<br />
cables, from below by cables; floating cross-tube construction with 80% double-surface<br />
enclosing cross-tube; 22 battens on top surface, 14 battens on under-surface. Undercarriage<br />
has three wheels in tricycle formation; gas damped shock absorber suspension on all three<br />
wheels. Push-right go-left nosewheel steering independent from aero-dynamic controls. Drum<br />
brake on nosewheel. Rectangular-section aluminium-alloy tube trike unit, with glassfibre pod.<br />
Engine mounted below wing, driving pusher propeller.<br />
EXTERNAL DIMENSIONS & AREAS<br />
Length overall (to tips) 3.90m, 12.8ft. Height overall 3.57m, 11.7ft. Wing span 10.20m, 33.5ft.<br />
Chord at root NA. Chord at tip NA. Dihedral NA. Nose angle 130°. Wing area 13.3m 2 , 143ft<br />
2 . Aspect ratio 7.5/1. Wheel track 1.63m, 5.3ft. Wheelbase 1.60m, 5.2ft. Main wheels dia<br />
overall 36cm, 14 in. Nosewheel dia overall 36cm, 14 in.<br />
POWER PLANT<br />
Rotax 582 DCDI engine, liquid-cooled. Max power 64hp at 6500rpm. Propeller diameter and<br />
pitch 1.70m x 23°@50.5cm radius, 67 inch x 23°@20 inch radius. Gearbox reduction, ratio
3.47/1. Max static thrust NA. Power per unit area 4.8hp/m 2 , 0.45hp/ft 2 . Fuel capacity 38<br />
(60 optional) litre.<br />
WEIGHTS & LOADINGS<br />
Empty weight 178kg. Max take-off weight 400kg. Payload 222kg. Max wing loading 30.1kg/m<br />
2 . Max power loading 6.25kg/hp. Load factors +4, -2 recommended, +6, -3 ultimate.<br />
PERFORMANCE*<br />
Max level speed 78mph. Never exceed speed 87mph. Economic cruising speed 60mph. Stall<br />
speed 37mph. Max climb rate at sea level 750ft/ min. Min sink rate 500ft/min at 45mph. Best<br />
glide ratio with power off 8/1 at 45mph. Take-off distance to clear 15m obstacle 159m on<br />
grass. Landing distance to clear 15m obstacle 180m on grass. Service ceiling NA. Range at<br />
average cruising speed 200miles with reserves and 60 litre tank. Noise level 80dB(A) LEL.<br />
* Under the following test conditions Airfield altitude 0ft. Ground temperature 15°C. Ground<br />
pressure 1013mB. Ground windspeed 0mph. Test payload 400kg.<br />
PRICE INCLUDING VAT<br />
£11750 +options and instruments<br />
NA = Not available<br />
Figures above are manufacturer's/importer's data<br />
Figures in text are tester's experience: test conducted 16/11/01 at Sywell Aerodrome, weather<br />
light overcast, stratocumulus, nil turbulence,