An Action-Packed Morning

...never a dull moment

It was another lovely calm morning so I packed the Radjet and Walrus and headed to the field. Having got to a manageable skill level with the Radjet I was looking forward to getting some good airtime to explore capabilities and responses. And I got just that, plus a little more than I expected.

As said before, the little jet flies beautifully and it's speed is now not so intimidating with a little better understanding. It climbs without bound, rolls well and does beautiful loops. I did encounter something completely unexpected - a flat spin. As often with the gliders I put the Radjet into a vertical stall, expecting it to flop over and continue flying. Well, it did flop over but into a flat spin. And, like a Tomcat, I've discovered the Radjet doesn't recover from it - don't do it.

The best I could manage was elevator and opposite aileron which helped to slow the spin so that the Radjet sort of fluttered to the ground. Landing in longer grass the damage was limited to the tip of the nose coming off, again. This time I couldn't recover it, but it flies well enough without it!

I was about to pack up the Radjet when I had an urge to do a bit more launch practice, that being the a little nerve-wracking as it usually rolls and dips to the left, requiring quick correction to keep it off the deck. On my second launch the Radjet climbed steeply so, to avoid another flat-spin scenario like earlier, I let it drop until the speed was well up before I started to level it out heading back towards the field. 

Unfortunately its trajectory coincided exactly with a goal post, so its swift progress was suddenly reduced to a burst of parts. It didn't look pretty, however putting on the wing and aileron should be fairly easy, however restoring the dented leading edge will take some doing, if at all.

I returned to the car for old faithful, the Walrus, for a bit of post-traumatic stress therapy. The Walrus is great because you can launch it at almost any power and it just cruises up. Well, this morning I flipped up a little more throttle to get it buzzing right up. 

Unfortunately, and most unexpectedly, the prop pulled off the front and the Walrus turned into a real glider for a second or two. As it turns out the circlip retaining the motor shaft got a little tired and went to lay down in the back of the fuselage.

So a little work to be done at home so I've got something decent to fly. Odds are on the Radjet, just hopefully it doesn't get crashed again as it's running out of lives...

Walrus Flies a Goal

...and a smooth landing

Grey clouds hung heavily in the morning sky, with just a int of colour showing through above the horizon. Not the most spectacular dawn, however the morning was still and cool, perfect for flying which was great!

The kangaroos were on the field in force this morning, grazing on the pitch. They seemed a little less shy this morning, hanging around near the fence as I prepared the Walrus. However the noise of the propellor revving up for launch was a bit much for them, and they had hopped off to join their friends in the paddock by the time the Walrus had cleared the fence.

I had a few good flights this morning, just easy circuits with a few low passes nearby. I also managed some good landings, without flaps though, as I still haven't changed the settings for the flaps.

One thing I have been missing is the relaxed floatiness of the Flyer. That's not to say I don't like the Walrus - it's a great straight flyer without the pitching characteristic of the Floater. However the Floater does produce magic when it floats silently past you, seemingly weightless.

I've just been considering flying the Walrus with flaps (on a reduced travel, perhaps twenty degrees). I think this might give the best of both worlds, clean flight for straight balanced handling, and flaps deployed for slow, floaty relaxed cruising. If the weather permits I think I'll give that a go tomorrow.

On the last flight this morning the Walrus flew a goal, flying its approach through the posts, a first for me...