Walrus First Flight

...and it's still in one piece!

After a very windy last evening it was most surprising to wake up to the firmament being calm and still. This unexpected bonus had me feeling suddenly nervous considering that I'd recently trashed both of my other planes, and was now facing a first flight.

I arrived and got out the car to conduct a quick weather report. A breeze had picked up by this time, although it was nice and steady, definitely flyable. So out with the transmitter and Walrus, time to fly!

The duck pond was as full as I'd seen it, and a group of kangaroos grazing around the borders casually jumped the fence on my approached.

The wing-cam was already mounted on top of the fuselage using Velcro. This setup was similar to that I'd used on the Phoenix 2000 and worked fine despite its rudimentary nature. I opted to leave the camera on for the first flight having found it to have negligible effect on flight characteristics, certainly at the relatively low speeds I anticipated achieving this morning.

So, with little ceremony, I got the Walrus connected, started the camera, set the throttle and lobbed the Walrus on its way. Now, I'd been particularly nervous about the launch, not because I'd had problems with either of the other planes in this regard lately, but rather because the Walrus fuselage is so wide it makes getting a good grasp for launch a bit awkward. 

Nevertheless, the launch went without incident, with the Walrus taking to the air quite readily. It should be remembered, however, that I was launching into a steady breeze which would have helped.

What I did immediately noticed was how responsive the Walrus was. The Phoenix, with two metre wings, had a fairly slow roll rate, while the Floater, although about the same size as the Walrus, has its ailerons set quite far inboard so that the roll response is quite muted.

The other factor was that I'd set the control surfaces with fairly large travel, although I was still only flying at seventy percent. The result is the jerky movements evident in the video.

What I think I need is to activate the exponential rate on the transmitter to dampen the response around centre. Then we'll take the Walrus out at the next opportunity and give it a bit more of a run...