I had an interesting flight this morning. The forecast was for a moderate breeze although when I got to the field there was just a suggestion of breeze from the North. So I happily launched the Walrus and set about cruising around. However it was soon apparent that something was amiss - sometimes control response was slow and occasionally a wing would kick up for no apparent reason.
Now, with the history of failures I've had while flying my RC aircraft, random behaviour is cause for instant panic. I had resolved the wing-warp issue with padding in my car so it wasn't likely to be that. Also, with the receiver configuration in the Walrus as well as the high-power US transmitter settings I've happily not had any issue with signal loss lately.
Testing the Walrus showed normal response to inputs, although it was now clear that the relative calm at ground level was masking the approach of a growing breeze. Realising this I was quite happy, as knowing what to expect is much more reassuring, even if it's the unexpected!
I made a camera-run over the kangaroos to try and get some better video than I've managed up till now. I was probably a little too far away to judge the distances well, so I had a rather closer encounter with them than I had anticipated but did little more than pique their interest as the Walrus pulled into a climb over their heads.
By the time I came in for the final landing the breeze was quite strong although smooth. After an initial approach was aborted due to the Walrus running out of height, I tried again coming in much higher. The Walrus flew it at snail's pace against the wind, having to make constant adjustments to keep it on the level before finally dropping it onto the grass at the far side of the field...
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