Twisted: Making the pilgrimage

During my recent European trip I finally made the 'pilgrimage' to Paderborn Haxterburg and the Silence Aircraft factory.

Upon arrival, Matthias was a little delayed due to traffic so I took the time to look over Twister Number 3, D-MTMN with Ingo, who showed me some of it's unique features and the summer canopy option - convertible Twister!

After watching Matthias and Ingo put together D-MTMH in just 6.5 minutes all three of us went for a nice formation flight over the local area and flew over the Silence Aircraft factory. We also circled over Thomas Streikers house and he took some photos of us in formation on his phone.

Later on that evening I had a great discussion with Thomas and Matthias over dinner and beers.

Matthias kindly put me up for the night and then the next morning we spent 3 hours at the factory - which is an impressive set up with much going on. 3 new prototype aircraft were in construction - but I am not allowed to talk about them and could not take pictures of them. Suffice to say 1 of them is rather interesting.

Lots of pics below...

Flying over the Silence Aircraft Factory

Taken by Ingo in Twister number 3.

Taken by Matthias

One of only 2 photos I took during our formation flight as it was during the hottest and most turbulent part of the day - hence the rather loose formation.

Rotating base of this hangar allows each plane to face the door without moving any other plane.

D-MTMN - Twister Number 3 and still clearly a prototype.

Fuel marks in tanks allow easy checking of levels before assembly.

Notice the different wing spars - this is a German microlight version only and not as strong as the later kits which have a different spar for aerobatics.

Home made propellors - covered with a thin layer of fibreglass then polished to a mirror finish.

Cowl flap for variable cooling. Closed position.

Cowl flap for variable cooling. Fully open position.

Note the heavily reinforced hinge area - retractable Twisterarti take note!

Ingo's headrest solution - very lightweight.

Convertible option - made from an old smashed up piece of glider canopy.

Despite the reinforcing and lighter weight of this aircraft it still shows signs of cracking. A weak point for sure.

Canopy hinges are completely different to other models too. Ingo talked to me about replacing these with the long hinge as per the later models as these ones are not that good.

Matthias and Ingo put together a Twister in 6.5 mins.

I noted that the pitot tube on D-MTMH was much further inboard than the manual recommends.

All done in just 6.5 mins

Taxiing out for our memorable formation flight.

Matthias heads over to the industrial area to overfly the factory.

I noticed the static port on Number 3 D-MTMN was in the position shown by my finger. So it's quite different to the position on G-FUUN. My testing has revealed that my airspeeds are very accurate though so I think my statics are in a good position.

Matthias and 3 of his creations.

Matthias takes me for a tour of the factory.

Twister Number One - the original prototype with a liquid cooled rotary engine. It seemed to me to share almost no common parts with the later production versions.

V-props. Designed and built by Silence they use a similar system to the Pilatus P2 - an air driven front spinner section which automatically regulates blade pitch depending on airspeed.

One of the few things I could take a picture of in the factory. The owner has a Bizzarini that he races at Le Mans in the historic series and wanted spare body panels. So Silence Aircraft have made molds of the body and are making spare panels for him.