...and a blast as well! This morning was overcast and with a hint of drizzle and some breeze around, good enough to fly so I took the Radjet along. It has been flying best-ever recently, despite it's thoroughly battered appearance, and this morning it launched happily and climbed into the sky. It looked like a pleasant morning's flight was in store when, out of the blue, the Radjet went into a severe stall and started to tumble. A few flicks of the control showed that I wasn't going to be any help, so I cut power and let the plane flutter down. My first guess was one of the control linkages had come loose but, on inspection, all was fine. The canopy, however, was nowhere to be seen...
Having flown for all of twenty seconds I was loathe to pack up and head to work, so I decided to give the Radjet another go sans canopy. Just in case, I launched the plane over the long paddock grass to act as an arrestor bed, however this proved needless as the Radjet climbed steadily. In fact the Radjet flew well, very well in fact, seemingly faster than ever without the weight of the canopy. Also, with battery movedtoward the centre of liftto correct the CoG, the jet was more agile and manoeuvrable as well. In fact the Radjet was flying so well the throttle was soon at maximum and stayed there for the whole flight, the jet carving up the sky, soaring and rolling, until the motor note began to drop and I turned the plane in to land. Walking back to the car I spotted the taped-up canopy lying on the grass. Well, I don't think I'll be needing that again...
...but at least no disasters! This morning was the first outing of the Phoenix 1600, resplendent in it's immaculate newness. It launched happily into the cool still morning, a little nose up despite the 2200mAh battery. It's a big and relatively heavy glider, at least compared to regular foamies, so it's slow response takes a little getting used to. It also seemed a little underpowered compared to the Phoenix 2000, with which it shares the motor and prop.
Having done a first run I brought it in to land, needing a couple of tries due to it floating; I tried it with flaps flaps but that just made it levitate. I shifted the battery fully forward with improved results, confirming the experience I'd had with its larger brother; if you fly these with a small battery (they suggest as small as 1100mAh) you have to be very careful with the power, otherwise they just nose straight up. During this second flight I heard a "pop" and the prop stopped dead. On the ground I opened the canopy for inspection which revealed that the cause was that the outrunner motor had rubbed against the ESC leads, resulting in a short and, probably by the sound of it, blowing the ESC. The friction from the motor contacting the wires probably explained the loss of power I'd noted earlier...
...which ends well, but in the paddock This morning was lovely, calm and cool, with the sun just rising as I unpacked the planes. I took the Floater and the Radjet, with the former being backup as the latter can sometimes be a little unpredictable. As it turned out the little jet launched smoothly and flew beautifully, now nicely balanced and flying straight despite it's torrid history of traumatic crashes and endless repairs. It's more predictable behaviour also makes landing easier, bringing it in on a nice long gliding approach and dropping it gently onto the dewy grass.
Having the Floater I decided to throw that up as well for a more relaxing finish to the morning's flying. Well, it ended up as more of a walk as, with the Floater turning back from the paddock, it began to fly lower and lower. Adding more power to counteract what is often an area with sink, the Floater seemed to make no response and eventually glided down for an auto landing. Reaching it eventually, after a walk across the field and a hop over the fence, the cause was apparent - flipping the power on, the prop spun up momentarily before lazily winding down. I'd forgotten to charge the batteries...
...what's in the box After ordering a Phoenix 1600 on the weekend I received it yesterday double-packaged and in a nice picture box.
Everything is very well packaged and protected inside the box, so there was no travel damage at all. Being a Lanyu/Volantex creation, so a nice high-quality piece of kit all round with a beautifully moulded fuselage with built-in battery tray with strap. The EPO wings and tail are high-quality mouldings with excellent surface finish, and all servos are pre-installed except for the flaps. Provision is made for installing flap servos in the wings, and liknages are supplied The few areas where complaint was levelled at older models, like the clevises supplied with the Phoenix 2000's, have been fixed on this later iteration. I'm looking forward to assembling it and will uploading some tech on that as well...
...summer has settled in Yes, the hot weather has well and truly arrived, with sweltering episodes thankfully interspersed with the occasional cool day. Rain, of any significant nature, has been long absent and the garden is parched. The mornings lately have, however, been idyllic for flying - cool and calm and either clear or with a few scattered clouds around. I'd previously taken the Radjet a few days ago and enjoyed putting it through it's paces.
The poor thing is well and truly battered however, with the balance now sorted and me having a better understanding of its launch characteristics (although I'm still not a hundred percent confident with launch, although I haven't had a failure for a while), it's an entertaining little beast to fly. Don't let it get too far away though, as it's orientation can be hard to distinguish.
This morning, though, I took the Floater Jet out for a spin. Not the most dynamically inspiring beat ever to grace the skies, but it does do one thing well - flying slowly. So that's what I did, floating the Jet low over the paddocks, skimming the grass tufts and flying slalom around the trees and bushes. Wildly exciting; no, not really. Very peaceful and enjoyable; most certainly...
...a little too much can be a bit too much Having recently suffered a lumbar incident by putting the squeeze on a spinal disc, I've been out of the air for a few days with activities limited to devising novel methods of sitting down and getting up without aggravating my back. Yesterday, however, after a physio treatment and a few days rest, I awoke to finding my back much recovered. Buoyed by being finally on the mend I managed a tentative day at work and, with evening approaching and a picturesque pastel light show developing in the clouds, I headed off to the field for a well-earned fly.
The conditions were breezy, in fact before leaving I had stood at the car for several minutes trying to decide whether things were, perhaps, not a little too windy for comfort. However, having recently flown in quite gusty conditions, and found them quite entertaining, I decided to head off. I launched the Walrus at almost full power, something I almost never do simply because it's not necessary, however in these conditions I wanted to make sure that Wally was well up into the air before backing off. Just as well, as, within seconds of launch, it was immediately apparent that conditions were more severe than anticipated. The Walrus, despite being on full throttle, was being pushed by the wind so much so that it was in a nose-up attitude but not climbing at all, just being pushed forward. Fortunately, being generously powered, I managed to muscle the Walrus to a safe altitude where I could assess the flying conditions a bit better. It didn't take long to realise that, despite the beautifully illuminated clouds and warm glow from the horizon, that this wasn't the best evening to be flying so I brought Wally in on finals. Easier said than done, though. The high winds meant the glider made almost no forward progress on its approach, and I had to power up and climb round for another try. This time too high, as once it reached the field, the protection of the trees meant it floated too far... I finally managed to bring it in on a decent final, although a bit of tacking was required to bleed of a little height and, after a few sharp wobbles thanks to gusting wind, I put the Walrus down to a nice gentle landing...
...with flights book-ending a scorching day Today was the first opportunity to get into the air again since Christmas. The weather forecast was for an absolute scorcher, so the options were either getting into the air early morning or evening. As it turns out, I did both. It was a lovely calm cool morning, without hint of the extreme heat in store, and the field was deserted when I arrived. Despite not having flown for the best part of a month everything felt familiar, as the ever trusty Walrus buzzed off into the air as easily and reliably as ever. With a large contingent of floodlights as well as a few trees it's not the cleanest of flying venues, however with good calm conditions to fly it was good enough. The Walrus had a bit of a run over the freeway adjoining the ground without attracting any unwonted attention, and again came close to being retrieved on landing. This time it was a friendly black Labrador who ran up to me after having briefly investigated the motionless Walrus and found it to be less intriguing than expected. With the heat of the day abated, I headed off to the local field for an evening fly in the cool breeze. It was an exuberant flight to celebrate the end of a scorching day, with the Walrus' agility put through its paces in the turbulent conditions of the refreshing southerly...
