I've been having some great flights with the Radjet. Equally, however, I've been struggling to get the little buzzjet into the air consistently; some mornings I've managed four perfect launches without issue, the next morning my attempts result in death rolls straight into the turf.
This morning was no different, with two attempts ending abruptly. However I did manage to have one successful launch and a great flight - about ten minutes steering the Radjet at speed doing flypasts, rolls loops and some high-g maneuvers.
Flying the Radjet requires a fundamentally different approach to the Walrus or the Floater Jet. While its speed is a quantum leap above the others, it's the direct nature of the Radjet's flight performance that differs most - it flies flat and straight at almost any speed once you've set elevator trim for the cruising speed of your choice. I've it trimmed for about three-quarter throttle so that it has a gradual climb under full power.
It was also the first flight with modified wingtips, a result of half a pod going walkabout after an unscheduled outlanding into the reed-grass in the paddocks. I had done a bit of research and found people, who had remarkably similar experiences to mine, had trimmed the wingtip pods off completely. I had a suspicion that they might help to reduce tip loss somehow so, instead of cutting them off completely, I left a small trimmed section.
Although I can't really say definitively whether this made things better, I can say the Radjet certainly didn't fly any worse and, perhaps, maybe a little faster. I agree that the pods do make the silhouette in flight more distinctive I can say that, once I had the Jet howling across the paddocks, I really didn't miss them...
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