...and flying well! Yesterday, I again nudged the DC-3's battery a little rearwards, with the front of the battery now a distant 70mm from the front of the tray, equating to a CoG of 70mm from the leading edge, and found the DC-3 still flew happily.
The take-off was really good, you never really know how well it's going to turn out, and I enjoyed buzzing it around the field, enjoying the clouds starting to catch the light of the rising sun, first those in the east followed by those in the west. The Dak flies very easily now, although I will do some more experimentation with turns, where it can tend to go into a stall-type turn, perhaps just needing extra rudder to boot it around at lower speeds. Also, I'll also do some sore stalls and spins to see whether the the light nose leads to any instability at low speed...
...but still good to fly The treetops waving indicated the chances of getting some flying in weren't good, but it turned out that the breeze, although reasonably strong, was actually pretty smooth so the Walrus was unpacked rapidly and sent powering quickly up into the sky. Conditions were quite pleasant, as it turned out, so did a little more inverted flight practise and tried flying knife edge as well - quarter snap roll then full opposite rudder. The result was just a slowing down of the Walrus heading down, however that's at seventy percent travel. Next time I'll put the rudder onto full travel and have another go! I also had the flaps down for the latter part of the flight, slowly driving the Walrus around and seeing if I could get it at "standstill", which it managed on occasions when the breeze stiffened. With things getting a little too gusty, I brought the plane round to land, with flaps still deployed, and had a bit of fun trying with VTOL. Unfortunately I think the Walrus suffered tip stall while I tried to correct a wing drop due to gusting, and it dropped a couple of feet onto the wing. There was a tell-tale crease in the wing decal, but otherwise everything was fine thanks to the robust EPO...
...had a lovely fly today. It was an absolutely beautiful morning, crisp and clear with some high cloud and just a hint of breeze. I ended up going to my back-up field a few kilometres away so it will be interesting to see the video of it.
It's a nice open space, and of course the blue sky and bright morning sunlight made it a visual treat. Virtually no wind meant that the Walrus could fly straight and true so that, after a while, I was confident enough to fly a few big, slow loops and some barrel rolls. The agility of the craft is quite surprising and, giving it a bit of a run-up, will climb vertically for a surprisingly long time.
The only obstacles are some trees at the perimeter and some tall nets, fortunately I managed to avoid all of them and, after a generous flight, came in for a nice slow approach over the fence and settled in for what must be the best landing I've managed in the Walrus so far...
...flying with the birds The winds finally abated to modest single-figure speeds, and the light rain which had fallen overnight ceased long enough to have a quick fly. The clouds were still leaden and, with streaks of rain visible falling here and there, it was clear that rain would reach the field sooner rather than later. The Phoenix 2000 was all prepped and ready to go, so it didn't take long to get it into the air. Launch was happily uneventful and I powered up into climbs and practiced a few loops and stalls. There were plenty of birds flying over this morning, and one particularly large wings of what I think were ducks. Lovely to see.
I also tried out the flaps on the Phoenix for the first time. They're pretty big and also, with my transmitter being very basic, I can't control the servo travel on my auxiliary switch - it's either on or off. So the flaps have full servo travel and open right down to about forty-five degrees. The Phoenix was flying back towards the field, a little high, so I thought I'd give the flaps a go. Well, let me say quite categorically, that the effect of them is startling. The Phoenix slowed right down and then went nose-up, gaining a few feet in height. I was expecting it to stall, however it just ploughed its way through the air, slow and steady. All I needed was to level the wings a little before it slumped in for a landing. Not exactly elegant but certainly highly effective...
