Hot air balloons suspended in the sky bode well for a good morning's flying, their presence indicating millpond conditions. The cloud cover was also breaking up, bringing with it the possibility of a lovely sunrise.
It was overcast at the field but, after a few minutes flying, the sun broke through the clouds and flooded the paddocks with gorgeous morning light. Bringing the Raptor in, I got the Mobius running and sent the Raptor off again, capturing the gorgeous sunrise on video.
It was an opportunity to fly the Raptor glider, now on its third outing with its new Turnigy powerplant, and get a feeling for its capabilities in calm conditions. Launching the Raptor is very easy, especially into cool morning air, as it gets up to flying speed almost as soon as it leaves your hand and, if you launch it with a little extra power, it will start climbing steeply.
This can be a little off-putting and could be countered by moving the battery forward a little, however I'm quite happy with the way it's flying so I'm going to leave it as-is. The Raptor is, as you'd expect, very stable and capable of being flown and turned at very low speeds without even a hint of stall.
This is, of course, handy as landing gliders without air brakes can be a protracted exercise, and more often than not the Raptor comfortably overshoots the designated spot and I'm turning it around for final approach part two...
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