Radjet 800 First Outing

...and crashed it three times

I was very excited when I watched the video clips of the Radjet flying - high speed and lots of fun  on a modest budget appeared to be the order of the day. So I happily put the plane together anticipating an exciting outing when the weather cooperated with a calm morning.

Well, a few days later and I was at the field on a calm cool morning with cattle happily absent on the adjoining paddocks and the regular kangaroos contentedly foraging for their breakfast. I wasn't too sure with how much power I should launch the Radjet, so I opted for around two thirds throttle and hoisted it aloft at a fairly steep angle to give it plenty of air.

To my astonishment i was rewarded with the Radjet diving down rapidly and hitting the deck before I had a chance to react. With no apparent damage done and not to be put off, I put the battery back in place, refitted the canopy and had another go with a little more power.

Unfortunately the result was much the same with the Radjet again behaving like a brick, except that this time the tip of the nose was broken off. The brief flight has demonstrated clearly that the Radjet wasn't generating enough lift to stay in the air, even with the amount of elevator I had applied to try getting it airborne.

My final response was to add a healthy dose of up-trim on the elevators which finally managed to get the Radjet into the air at the third attempt. All was not well, however, as I quickly discovered that I could only keep the plane in the air by applying full elevator. Furthermore, as the Radjet rapidly disappeared towards the forested rise, I discovered it was turning to the right probably as a result of the elevators not being completely even.

I managed to turn the Radjet around to head back towards the field, however having to keep full elevator and compensate for its bent towards the right finally got the better of me and it plummeted to earth, just across the boundary fence but fortunately short of the flooded drainage ditch, in a brief flurry of scattered parts.

The damage was bad but repairable with the front of the fuselage snapped clean off. After a short hunt in the grass I also managed to find the battery which had disconnected and been flung out of the plane during the impact.

So I headed back to the car disappointed and with handsfull of parts. As always I didn't get a shot of the crash as it's a sad sort of occasion, imprinted on the memory so it doesn't really need a photograph...