Wicked Wing Cam

...comes in small packages

Having watched this morning's flight video I am again hugely impressed at the quality that the tiny RD32 wing camera manages. I must admit that watching gives me the feeling of actually being in the plane and experiencing the flight, anticipating moves and generally really getting the feel for it.

It was also nice to see some new scenery - there's little better for gaining perspective than an aerial view. So, as usual, if the weather's benevolent I might try the field down the road. It's two fields adjoining of different levels which might make for interesting flying experience. 

And of course we'll  have the camera on so we can enjoy the flying again after we get home!

Flight of the Phoenix

there’s always something...

My first thought when I arrived at the field with the Phoenix 2000 was to make sure everything was properly trimmed. With the Floater I’d had a nasty experience launching it and having it head steadily into a right hand turn. This is very off-putting and alarming. I had managed to put the Floater down and reset the trims on that occasion, but I certainly didn't want to risk it with the Phoenix.

So with the surfaces set flush and the tail tweaked to level the elevators I launched the Phoenix fairly flat with moderate throttle. Banking a little to the right I quickly corrected but with little effect. Cutting power, the plane continued its bank into an unceremonious landing. No apparent damage, so a quick control check and we were ready to go again. The second launch, very similar to the first, saw similar behaviour except this time the left turn was more severe, ending in an uncomfortably severe thump into the ground and a bit of a ground loop. Not exactly an auspicious return for the poor aircraft!

Nothing critically wrong, although the wing root had torn a little at one of the rear mounts (bad thoughts) but still flyable. A thought suddenly occurred to me while I was checking the controls - all the reversing switches were down because that was how the Floater was set up. Hang on a minute...Checking again showed the ailerons and rudder to be reversed, which explained why my attempts at correction had ended up in a terminal spiral. Yes, more bad thoughts.

Nevertheless, few seconds later all the controls were trimmed and in the right orientation. I set the power for launch although noticed the motor sounded a little rough - the shaft must have bent. Anyway, determined to get it into the air I set about a third power and lobbed the Phoenix off.

With a small bank quickly corrected, the craft climbed gradually and displayed the elegant shape of its high-aspect wings. The flight was serene, just was I needed to give myself a bit of confidence, then I brought it in for landing. Being very stable it’s actually really easy to land. Not knowing its response to elevator I over-flared it a little, but it settled down without issue to a perfectly smooth and level landing.

It was only on the when carrying the Phoenix back to the car that I noticed about two centimetres had been sheared off one of the propellor blades. Yes, that would certainly explain the propellor running a bit roughly...

Frosty Flight

...and a crisp landing!

It was a very cold morning with the sky completely clear following an unprecedented run of cloudless weather, literally in the middle of winter. The field was consequently almost entirely covered in frost so I donned my jacket and mitts as added protection.

I have been told that there is a transmitter glove that you can get (I see it's apparently called a transmitter glove) which encloses the radio and into which you insert your hands to keep warm! An interesting concept, although for now I am managing. However, for fliers in colder climes I can imagine this would be most attractive.

The Floater launched flawlessly, as it had got into the habit of doing, and climbed happily into the frosty air. I flew the usual circuit around the field, and then a little over the paddocks, cautious of the two hundred metre reception-limit that seemed to exist - I certainly didn't want to be tramping though soggy paddocks in freezing weather searching for my plane. The thought certainly generated empathy for the poor kangaroos, standing motionless on the frosty ground waiting for sunrise to warm them up.

By now, seldom ten minutes of flying later, my fingers had gone from being cold to being numb and aching. Before things got desperate I brought the Floater around and lined up for a gentle finals approach. It touched down about ten metres over the fence and then, instead of the usual brief slide to standstill, it slid a full twenty metres across the frosty grass, making a delightfully crisp scratching sound.

The most brilliant landing, ever...

Learning, but not about Flying

...a notable omission

The lingering trauma following the major disaster with the Phoenix 2000 lead me to reconsider taking it to the air again in the short term. While comments I'd read suggested a larger aircraft was easier to learn with, other comments backed by my experience with the Phoenix, indicating it wasn't really a beginners' glider. Having a nylon fuselage made it a bit heavier and thus slower to respond. I therefore began a review of alternative "beginners" gliders for something more suitable.

Two candidates made themselves conspicuous, both sporting an over-wing motor configuration. The one I chose was purported to be a "floater", the Clouds Flyer or Floater Jet as it's also known. This was a smaller span of 1.3m with a broad wing chord and light all-foam construction. Apparently just what the doctor ordered...

However the first flight was, as you may now imagine, a bit of a fiasco.

Now let me explain that the wings of the Floater join through the top of the fuselage with a novel jigsaw joint, made possible by the tough and flexible characteristics of EPO foam (an expanded plastic). However, due to delays in assembly from to waiting for servos and a receiver to arrive, a key item ended up being omitted from the construction...

The launch went OK. On about one-third power and with a slightly upward trajectory, and the Floater flew surprising quickly across the field. Heading now towards the pavilion I pulled back on the elevator to get a bit more height and hit the ailerons to the left. Going into the turn, the wings suddenly bent upwards surprisingly. I hadn't expected them to be that flexible, a bit like an ASW-20 on a cable launch.

When the wings reached about an 80 degrees angle I was fairly sure that something was wrong. Quickly cutting power, the Floater fluttered earthwards following a gentle arc before clattering into the boundary fence. The crumpled heap looked like devastation, however, closer inspection showed very little damage apart from a few minor dents in the wing where it had contacted the fence, a testament to the robust nature of the EPO construction.

So my flying capability seems to have changed little, all too brief followed by violence...

In this particular case, the omission of the carbon fibre reinforcing rod between the Floater's wings appeared to have contributed to the failure of the flight...

Untoward Characteristics

...a most alarming propensity to climb

The modest success of the initial flight of the Phoenix 2000 was followed by a brief flight, ending sadly in an abrupt near-vertical collision with the sports oval. Why? Well, it turns out the Phoenix, with its conventional propellor-in-front layout has a very (and I mean very) high climb rate when the power exceeds a modest threshold. With the first flight having followed a very flat circuit of the field, I had thought a little more power would provide a more comfortably elevated flight path. Wrong.

With more than a whiff of throttle, the Phoenix rises like a veritable Saturn rocket. On video clips this seems behaviour seems most impressive however, for a novice's second flight, having a large aircraft suddenly head for the heavens is absolutely alarming. One doesn't know exactly what will happen - will it suddenly stall and crash onto the lady with the maltese poodle, or will it suffer incipient spin and veer off into the clubhouse?

Without an answer to either of these questions, the safest option is to cut power. Unfortunately, the response from the moderately-heavy Phoenix to a sudden loss of power is ugly. A sudden stall followed by an inelegant descent nose-first into the turf. Not cool...