...scenic flight and more A trip to the country was an opportunity to take the Floater Jet to see whether there might be an opportunity for lift off the adjoining hillside. Also, an opportunity for a gentle scenic flight the next day, with a tranquil morning and the lake mirror-calm.
Not that it was an uneventful flight, with a flock of corellas passing through and a very close call with a radio tower. And to end it, probably the worst judged approach I've made in a long time, with the docile Floater Jet over-flying and floating straight into the garage door...
...kept on getting better Taking the Raptor into the hills for some late afternoon sloping ended prematurely as the breeze dropped off to nothing at the approach of evening. So, making the most of what looked to be a lovely sunset, I set the Raptor to cruising down the ridge filming our disappearing star.
It turned out to be one of those surprise sunsets which start of a little dull and then develop as the sun clears the low cloud. As such, I kept the raptor flying laps up and down, only turning it in when the sun was just a glimmer on the horizon...
For a while now the Trainstar has been grounded due to increasingly-bad prop vibration. Initially I thought the front fuselage was flexing from fatigue and installed stiffeners, which made no difference. Then I got a prop balancer & did the prop which likewise had a nominal effect.
It turned out that it was just the bell mount grub screws which, although I'd tightened them, were a little loose as the hex drive had stripped. Fixing this was tricky and painful as I couldn't get the originals out, and I couldn't tap new holes for fresh grub screws as there wasn't enough depth. Eventually it has been fixed, well enough anyway, and now the Trainstar is back in the air again, still full of character...
The Firstar's high-mounted pusher endows it with characteristics familiar of the breed; it's not nice to launch. True, the V2 mount is angled to eliminate torque which rotates the nose, however the high-moun configuration cannot escape from a downward thrust component. As well as gobbling up battery capacity in cruise mode, it also makes launches tricky.
Having lived through AXN and Radjet, I'm over launch stress, which is why I like using flaps with the Firstar. Now I know this is contentious but, in this case at least, it works. Usually I'm fumbling to get my launch hand on the radio before the Firstar hits the turf. And I'm not the only one, I've seen several unsuccessful attempts at getting a Firstar into the air. Considering that this plane sports high-aspect glider wings, launch really shouldn't be an issue. Which is where the flaps come in; dialing in about 20 degrees of flap transforms the launch from a nail biting affair into a floaty cruise, with the big big hanging in the air patiently while you get your hands into position. Nice and easy, just like it should be...
...geronimo ! This morning I tried out the dropping bay of the Art Tech Turbo Porter with a trio of intrepid parachutists. I had tried dropping before, initially with my car keys which seemed like less of a good idea as I watched them spiralling down through the air for what seemed like ages before they actually hit the ground.
And I tried it again with two paratroopers fresh out the pack. The bay works a treat, but it turns out you have to unpack the parachutes somewhat for it to unfurl. It's been a while since I played with parachute men. Anyhow, this morning th edrop worked a treat, with the three carefully packed parachutes blossoming open on cue a fraction of a second after I flipped the switch. The wind was a little stronger than I expected, so the chutes drifted scenically across the field. As it happened, turning the Porter around trying to lose some height in the rather restricted space, I collected one of the parachute party who got snagged onto the wing. I didn't need to search for that one at least...
...best of times, worst of times A beautiful sunny afternoon with a gentle southerly blowing set the scene for some great flying with the Stinger. Now, with its third iteration of decals, it sported much improved visibility which boosted confidence in flying at speed. Picking its orientation, primarily roll, had always been a bugbear with me, but now I was able to fly it with much greater authority.
For once the launch was good and the Stinger was soon howling round the paddocks, executing thrilling low passes and high turns. This was the best I'd ever flown it, by a long way, and the enjoyment of flying the speedy little jet and the beautiful setting was quite intoxicating. Unfortunately this wasn't to last, with one low pass having me turn into the sun where, like previously, I mistook the orientation and the Stinger skewed into the marshy grass at speed. Worse still, half of the nose had been blasted into the mud by the battery, with both embedded to the degree that they were lost despite my best efforts to find them...
...flies as good as it should The moments before a plane taking off on its first flight are a bit odd, a mix of trepidation and expectation. Additionally, I find, with the larger planes I wonder to myself whether they will actually get airborne. With the Turbo Porter my fears were unfounded, as this is a very well sorted airplane; it takes off very easily, just easing off the ground on about two thirds throttle and will cruise happily on half power.
The pre-installed flaps have excellent travel with full flaps slowing the Porter down to little more than jogging speed. The large control surfaces also give you instant confidence which, combined with the PC6's unflappable demeanour, makes flying this plane an absolute pleasure. Aerobatics are easy, and any it will stabilise quickly from any incident. Of course, with its scale detail, it also looks great in the air and it's rugged undercarriage makes takeoff and landing very easy. On the subject of undercarriage, I didn't screw in the lower strut mounting, allowing the strut to slide in the mount to give the suspension additional flex which I think works great. Now just to get the paratroopers organised for some air drops using the integrated dropping bay...
...lovely plane & lovely kit The Art Tech PC6 Turbo Porter is a high-quality kit all round - well boxed, accurately moulded and well put together. All the servos and linkages are installed, you just need to connect the tail linkages to the control horns, and all the decals are pre-applied as well which I like as ones like the windows can be tricky.
The servos for the drop cavity (bomb bay) and tow hook are also installed. There's a convenient access hatch on top of the fuselage to get to the tail servos if required at some stage. Overall the Art Tech Turbo Porter looks like an excellent aircraft; now's here's hoping it flies like a PC6 should...
...brief but successful The first flight of the Firstar 2000 was also my first outing with my new Taranis, with the latter being much more of a headache to configure than was the former. However the Firstar disappointingly have a number of quality issues which first required resolving. The morning was a little gusty, with the northerly coming through earlier than expected. I opted to fly the Firstar with two 2200 3S packs which seemed to give the required cog. Volantex suggest running this off a 1800 3S, but seriously...?
Despite the Firstar V2 having the revised motor mount which reduces nose-down rotation due to the moment, this configuration still pushes the plane downwards and consequently there is the balancing act with the amount of power you use to launch. As such the launch went OK, although I needed to rush to get both hands onto the radio controls after I'd thrown it. Of course, if you have someone to throw it for you this isn't an issue. As you'd expect with the high aspect glider wings, it flies, and glides, very stably although the downward effect of the motor spoils its cruising performance in my opinion. The flight was cut short by my inability to trim it out. No fault of the Firstar but rather programming glitches with the Taranis which I have subsequently fixed, but the Firstar landed without issue to complete a rather abbreviated but nevertheless successful maiden flight...
