Today was warm but, despite these sort of conditions usually ending up windy and gusty, it was still quite calm after lunch, so I decided to take the Phoenix to the local field to see if any thermalling was to be had. Being around thirty degrees, I launched the Phoenix with flaps and climbed it quickly a few hundred feet before leveling it off to check if any lift was around. I set the Phoenix in a turn to try and settle it when it suddenly started to turn left sharply and start to dive. I have had some issues with this due to the foam wings warping in the warm weather, I think particularly when sitting in the car, so I suspected this to be the case.
I put opposite aileron but, to my surprise, the Phoenix continued to spiral downwards, even when I moved to full opposite aileron, something which would usually have the Phoenix wheeling around, especially at the speed it was going. Suddenly knowing it was out of control, I could only watch as the Phoenix spiralled the last dozen metres down before smashing into the field, shedding foam and parts generously. Picking up the bits and heading to the car I was puzzled, I'd suspected the wing warping being the problem, yet the Phoenix had launched straight and climbed without hint of issue. Then I started wondering; was the Phoenix's lack of response because it wasn't actually doing anything. Had I somehow lost contact? This scenario seemed highly unlikely; since first suffering this issues many moons ago, I run most of my planes with a satellite receiver as well. And, in the case of a few of them including the Phoenix, I have the receiver antenna poking out of a hole in the bottom of the fuselage. Additionally, I have the radio on the higher-power US setting just to make sure. And yet...
...just so easy I took the Canadair to the field again this morning, cool and calm before a warming and windy afternoon. I'd previously flown the Canadair off the field however, being of a fairly delicate EPS construction, one launch and landing off the grass had already managed to remove the paint from the sea-plane's hull. So I decided to give hand launching a go.
Although a large and somewhat awkward to hold plane, the Canadair is quite light and generates an abundance of lift in addition to possessing an excess of thrust. Still, not quite sure how it was going to behave being launched in this manner, I set it at at a little over half throttle and gave it a moderate throw. To my surprise, the Canadairtook to the air seamlessly, its broad wings and plenty of prop wash setting it off as if it hadn't been stationary in my hand a second before. The more I fly this plane the more I am enjoying it; it's very relaxed to fly, can turn on a ticky and possesses a lovely presence as it heads towards you, its dark nose dipped down a little...
once too often... Despite the potential for major disaster, the Stinger suffered only minor damage to the front with the fuselage bent a little to one side and the nose snapped off. However, this area being repaired for the third time, it's increasingly difficult to try and get things looking nice again. However I am endeavouring to be patient and attend to detail to try and get the Stinger nose smooth so that it doesn't suffer from extra drag due to a craggy nose.
The first pass looked reasonable, and I'm now taking time to fill in the dips and grooves as best as possible. Giving the filler and glue time to dry properly, the Stinger should hopefully be in the air within a few days, all going well...
Cool, man... With access to the lake somewhat restricted, I decided to give the Canadair a go at the field. I'd seen a few videos showing it was possible, but still wasn't quite sure how this venture was going to work. As it turned out it works fine, although quite different to flying from water. In fact almost the opposite! Unlike on the water where modest amounts of throttle will get the plane moving and resistance builds up until it gets on the plane, on grass there is no movement until the considerable friction is overcome.
Moving the throttle past the halfway mark with no signs of movement, I was certainly considering that this wasn't going to work when, at about two-thirds power, the Canadairsuddenly broke loose and quickly started to move across the grass. Of course, with that much throttle, as soon as friction is overcome, the acceleration is brisk, so the Canadair was airborne within seconds, gliding sweetly into the cool morning air. Flying the Canadair at the field was actually pretty groovy, with lots of space and the ability to do low fly-pasts which isn't always possible at the lake with its border of trees. And quite fun getting to know the flying characteristics of the big water bomber in a safe environment. As you would expect, with that much wing area and the proliferation of fences and stabilisers, it is slow and steady, although sharp turns are quite possible with the assistance of differential thrust, much like vectored thrust..
...for a bird's eye view The search and rescue mission for the flown by the Phoenix to try and locate theStinger EDFunfortunately drew a blank; a few maybe's but nothing definitive, with a subsequent foray through the paddocks on foot found nothing either. Therefore a second reconnaissance mission was required, this time using the Floater Jet with the Mobius mounted on its nose. The sloping mounting provided look-down capability, something missing from the Phoenix's wing-top placement, and additionally provided an obscured field of view.
The weather was, unfortunately, not conducive to the structured coverage of the field I had hoped for, with the warm and gusty weather making flying the Floater hazardous and doing low passes even more so. As a result the flying was haphazard, battling to keep the Floater flying level while maintaining an even altitude, although desirable, was out of the question. In fact, from the video, it's clearly apparent that the Floater was skimming over fences and brushing the grass tops at stages. About halfway through it's search, a pale speck showed on the extreme edge of the the video image. Having checked numerous specks already without success I was doubtful this would amount to anything, particularly being out of the search zone. Zooming in on the speck it took some form and appeared to have a vertical black stripe. Looking closer it also seemed to have faint hints of something horizontal on either side.
Zooming again the appearance of a circle in between seemed to cement the realisation that I'd actually managed to locate the Stinger. The next day, after twenty minutes of wandering around the paddock trying to match the video clip orientation, I finally found it...
search and rescue underway... The perfect afternoon begged to get the planes out, so I headed to the field on the way home planning to give the Stinger and Radjet a quick run in the gorgeously sunny conditions with a cool southerly blowing.
As I've mentioned before, the Stinger is a bit twitchy in turns, so I've turned my low rates right down making it much less sensitive, and have subsequently become accustomed to it's moderated behaviour with recent flights. Unfortunately something must have flicked the aileron rate switch to high as I found the Stinger alarmingly sensitive to these inputs. I managed to level the Stinger up and bring it round in a turn as I frantically sought to get the switch reset without crashing the jet and, when this was finally accomplished, I hit the elevators to get the now low-flying Stinger some air. The effect of this, however, was not the expected leap into the sky but rather an abrupt disappearance into the grass of the paddock.
I can only surmise that, having been distracted by resetting the switch, the Stinger had adjusted orientation and that the elevator had sent it spearing sideways into the shrubbery. Alarmed and disappointed, I climbed the fence and headed through the marshy flats to where I'd last seen it go down. Emerging from the tall reed grass onto the plain I expected to see the brightly-coloured Stinger lying about conspicuously, but instead saw nothing. Having not made an exact reference as to where it had gone down due to my expectation of finding it immediately, I commenced a somewhat random series of traverses across the paddocks, inspecting thorn bushes and grass clumps for any sign of the downed speedster. Finally, baffled as to the mysterious disappearance of the jet, I hauled out the Phoenix with camera on board for a search and rescue mission. An FPV setup would've been perfect for this situation, however I'll have to make do with a video analysis later...
...still a blast to fly The Stinger got another run today, on a beautifully clear afternoon with a fresh southerly blowing. However, despite having flown it many times, I still feel that flying it is always a risk.
It's fast, twitchy and relatively small, and I don't think the multi-colour scheme helps, to the degree that I'm contemplating stripping the techno-camouflage off the wings to make it more visible. The launch is also often a bit of a heart stopper, with the throw usually leaving the Stinger alarming half-inverted, although its jetstream somehow allows it to hang in the air long enough to get it corrected without ever having any problems.
While not being over-powerful it's still pretty fast, with the best view of it being coming in low and fast with its sharp nose pointed straight at you and the swoop of its canopy giving a menacing look.
And, of course, being a jet, it's sleek shape and addictive howl compensate for the edge-of-your-seat experience you have when flying it...
...camera at the ready Having packed the Floater Jet it seemed opportune to load it up with the camera and give it a fly for a scenic tour around the lake.
The brisk northerly, however, made this anything but a simple exercise, having to launch the Floaterover the lake without having it ending up, well, floating in the lake. Fortunately the Floater launched OK and soon powered over the lake against the gusty breeze.
I'm always fascinated at the different perspective provided by the aerial camera, obviously the same reason that people want to fly FPV, and the view of the lake and trees spreading out below the Floater as it climbed in the sunny blue skies was both intriguing and lovely. The approach to landing seemed impossibly high however, as is clear and evidence of the headwind the Floater was experiencing, it worked out ok although it did end up a little close to the rubbish bin...
...on a warm windy day Access to the lake is a bit restricted and, along with variables of weather thrown in, the opportunities of actually getting a plane on the lake are not brilliant. So, despite it being a warm and windy afternoon, I headed past the lake just in case.
It turned out that it wasn't that windy, although the lake surface was covered with ripples. In the end I opted for a partially sheltered spot between some willow trees and decided to give the Canadair a go. The rougher water caused some problems with the wing floats, as would be expected, and I had some issues with the Canadair turning because one float was still on the water.
Nevertheless, I still managed to get the Canadairairborne and flying without incident, although the strong wind made it more of a reactive flying session than anything else. Landings, however, were a breeze with the Canadair descending almost vertically to literally plop down onto the water. Although slow and stable, the Canadair still needed careful watching in the wind, with its large wing area and so many winglets and stabilisers making crosswind effects more pronounced. So a bit more experience with the Canadair, but the take-offs still need some work. But at least its fairly easy to fly. Next time, perhaps some aerobatics...
...without disaster or mishap This afternoon was gorgeous and sunny, slightly warm with a gentle breeze from the south west, perfect for letting the recently-refurbished Radjet loose with its boisterous battery pack, the 1800 4S 40C borrowed from the Stinger. As mentioned previously, I'd had several concerns relating it being too heavy with the oversize battery or simply bursting into flames due to the ESC being overworked. Fortunately, neither happened, with the Radjettaking to the skies without incident and flying well.
I did a few circuits before bringing it down, needing to make a few adjustment to the elevator settings after the servo change, and also to dial in a little more expo with the new servos having a bit more travel than before. Having sorted out the details, I threw the Radjet up again to give it another run. The battery, significantly larger than the recommended 1300 and substantially larger than the 850 I'd been using, is rather oversized for the power system and changes the characteristics of the Radjet into something of a grand tourer. I think a 1300 4S battery is probably the ticket, providing enough current and flight-time without carrying any excess. So, while this exercise answered one nagging question, it also raised another; considering it can comfortably carry the 1800, what if you uprated the motor and the ESC...
...and a servo upgrade
Following my conversion of the Radjet to give it a battery hatch for easier insertion of the chubbier 4S batteries, I was playing around the other day and discovered I could actually get an 1800mAh battery in without much effort. This was rather remarkable and something I had thought of doing before but never taken much further as I thought it unfeasible. My concerns are that the sustained current supply from the larger battery might overwhelm the stock ESC, and the other that the additional weight might cause issues with the Radjet, especially on launch. Regarding the former, the 1800 is a 40C while the little 850 is a 45-90C, so I don't think there should be too much difference, except for duration. To hopefully reduce the heat-load, I have installed an extra cooling port (slurpee straw) directed straight onto the ESC and of course the Radjet runs without a canopy these days.
In the case of the latter, I think the Radjet should be OK with the mass, considering the Stinger runs with this battery on a smaller wing area and with a heavier body. I've also replaced the original wing servos with Turnigy TG9z's due to these stripping when I pancaked the Radjet on its most recent flight. I'd bought these servos as the HXT 900's were out of stock and, while expecting much the same, I was amazed when first powering these up at how quiet they were in comparison. I gather these are not quite as strong as the HXT's, however they should are well rated and sound super-smooth! So, since today was just way too windy from start to finish, I'm hoping that I might be able to get the Radjet into the air tomorrow and see how it goes...
...the last piece of the puzzle The Canadair 415 has been somewhat of a trying exercise; first the several hurdles in getting it built and then the issues on the water, namely non-functional rudder, researching proportional thrust and then, finally, figuring out how to launch it without the wing floats diving into the lake.
The solution for the latter was, fortunately, quite simple, requiring just a few millimetres (I took off five) trimmed off the front of the float-mount to increase the angle of incidence of the float. I'd actually considered doing this up-front but had decided to try it out unmodified. The default configuration may work, but only in mill-pond conditions in my opinion, as the scale-float cannot manage even the most modest ripples ,which simply wash over the float and causing it to immediately submarine. As I said, I randomly chose a 5mm trim which has worked fine, although I have seen videos where the floats have been tilted significantly more than that. I think it's a matter of "horses-for-courses", however I think that some increase in incidence is required to avoid frustration...
...my first soaring flight! This morning I had, rather unexpectedly, my first soaring flight with the Phoenix 1600 glider. Rather unexpected is as much as I had no expectation of there being lift about at that time, a leisurely nine o'clock departure due to sleepy disposition precluding getting out any earlier.
It was a lovely sunny morning following a clear cool night, although the breeze was already beginning to pick up from the East. I launched the Phoenix but saw immediately that it was turning to the left, an affliction which I have annoyingly been unable to eliminate satisfactorily, although twisting the left wing a little is a topical remedy.
Whilst bringing the Phoenix down for repairs, it was accosted by a very annoyed magpie flying down from its nest, the episode spurring me to mount the camera on the Phoenix to capture the antics. So it was, with the wing corrected and the camera running, that the glider powered up again into the blue morning sky.
Having previously tried to get the Phoenix in lift with only very moderate success, I was amazed to find that, once up a few hundred feet, that the glider didn't seem to be coming down in a hurry. Without having a variometer it was of course difficult to determine where the lift was, but flying over the road seemed to work well. The first run lasted a good few minutes before the Phoenix fell foul on sink and headed towards the field. The next run was more successful, the glider staying up ten minutes, having to turn it back at one point as it climbed and drifted into the distance. Finally the breeze grew too strong, pushing the lift too far away...
