We took the Walrus for a fly this morning at one of the local sports fields. It was a perfect morning, sunny with some high cloud and beautiful blue sky. There was also hardly any breeze, just the slightest suggestion of air movement.
The field area is quite big however I'm still nervous about flying the plane over anything that could get damaged, like houses cars or people. The risk now is much lower, having tested that the transmitter and receiver work at the limits of my vision. Still, I don't want to have to explain to people why a plane flew through their lounge window...
Having "bench-tested" the carbon propellor yesterday after having fitted it, I was quite confident that there wouldn't be any issues. So I lobbed the Walrus into the air and it took off as happily as you could like.
The carbon blades appear to be quieter and require less throttle input for equivalent performance. I didn't really try it much at full power, but what I did seemed to point to better performance. So, all in all, an awesome upgrade!
Being spring, even only just, the Walrus was visited by several local avian residents, all of shared a similar agenda of scaring the invader out of their territory. They're obviously not familiar with EPO foam...
In a Zen Flying-first, I've actually got footage on the wing-cam of magpies accosting the plane and, in another video, the magpie actually contacted the plane, although only barely. Nevertheless, this display of aerial combat provided hearty amusement for one of the ground-staff who arrived to prepare the fields for the morning's soccer games.
After we'd finished flying a hot air balloon drifted over and headed for the far field to land. Appearing serene and elegant, these perceptions were quickly dispelled by its hazardous approach for landing, with it skimming over treetops and narrowly clearing a floodlight tower. The touchdown was surprisingly good, but then the gondola proceeded to tip half-over along with the occupants as it got dragged by the balloon in the breeze.
I think I'll stick to flying the Walrus...
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