...and still haven't crashed! I have successfully flown the Stinger 64 twice more since it's first flight, although I'm still getting used to how it flies. I have reduced the aileron travel by ten percent which has helped, although it's still touchy so have subsequently turned it down by another five. I've also set the ailerons down by a turn of the clevis; the ailerons have been warped, apparently when the decals were applied, so the edges are lower than the centre. As a result, setting the edges flush with the wing effectively reflexes the aileron, which I think is why I had to fly it with a bit of elevator.
On one occasion, however, it did come agonisingly close to crashing. I can't actually recall the lead-up to the incident, but the Stinger ended up low to the ground, heading straight for the raised field and surrounding trees. I cut power and hit full elevator, hoping at best this might mitigate the impact. Miraculously, the Stinger swooped up silently, having managed somehow to find a clear passage between the trees. Seeing it flying free and unharmed, I turned on the power and carried on flying, feeling extremely grateful to whomever had provided assisted in skirting disaster...
...and no crashes! Today I had the first flight of my Stinger 64 EDF, running in on a Zippy Flightmax 1800mAh battery, although I believe some people fly it with a 2200mAh power pack. The first launch wasn't good; I'd watched some launch videos and concluded that it needed full power as well as some correction for roll on launch. Well, it does need full power but the roll correction's a another story.
I'd launched it in a similar fashion to the Radjet, with about two-thirds right aileron. I'd also read that the Stinger was quite sensitive to control input, so I'd set it on low rates with expo. It turned out that the torque reaction wasn't nearly as severe as I'd expected and my low rates were still much too high for aileron.
The result was that, on the first launch, the Stinger was inverted at about four metres above the ground. Fortunately, with experience in this regard with the Radjet, I was able to correct it and then bring it in for a landing. I launched it again, without dialled-in aileron, which was OK, needing just a dab of correction. The ailerons continued to be extremely sensitive, flying on full power, leading to a few harrowing moments, although fortunately I managed to keep it in the air. My first impressions of the Stinger, aside from the over-sensitive controls, were that it was fast but not super-powerful. Having said that, its climb rate and general pace were quite impressive, and the EDF sounds really good. The landing wasn't great - I over-flared it on approach, but still got it down OK. So, for the next flight, I am setting both ailerons a tiny bit down to give a bit of extra lift, and I'm going to add a little up elevator. I've also set my rates down by ten percent. In combination, that should make the Stinger a little easier to control and more fun to fly...
