Turbo Porter. S.T.O.L. Fun.

...windy-day fun

Having just successfully flown the Stinger jet after its repair, I headed down the road for a chill-out session with the Turbo Porter.

As it turned out, the wind had freshened considerably to the degree that I had initial trouble getting a stable take-off run. However, having banished those gremlins, I settled into enjoying the PC-6's thoroughbred characteristics.

Despite the breezy and gusty conditions, the PC-6 was always stable and, with flaps fully deployed, could almost be landed vertically. And, one the one touch and go, the PC-6 appeared to bounce leisurely into a near vertical climb with ease.

So a fun end to an action-packed afternoon's flying...

Stinger 64 EDF. Repair Flight.

...back in the air!

It was months ago when, having too much fun with the Stinger, I inadvertently sent it speeding into the swampy paddock grass, where it half its nose and my near-new nanotech battery disappeared into the mud.

Since then I have agonised over how I was to replicate the tapering form of the nose, which also accommodates the canopy magnet and terminates into the join with the nosecone.

Eventually I used rear sections of the original fuselage (funny how you never crash backwards), although this wasn't quite right and had to be cut, and then added onto, and then filled, and sanded, and painted.

However, after this unnecessarily protracted affair, the Stinger was again airworthy and looking pretty good. However, the proof of the pudding if in how well it flies.

Fortunately, in this case, it flew as well as ever, and I was gifted with a good launch as well. So back to enjoying a few run-filled, adrenalin rushing minutes screeching the Stinger around the paddocks...

Raptor Glider 2000. Gorgeous Clouds.

...beautiful afternoon to be in the sky

I love clouds, especially crisp fresh clouds. Or wispy clouds driven by high chill winds. But especially good are those times when you're treated to a dramatic combination of developing clouds made more dramatic, in this case, by warm afternoon glow from the opposite horizon.

The conditions were windy and a little turbulent, as you might imagine, but nothing to deter the Raptor from having a bit of fun cruising around and surfing the breeze.

Fying with such gorgeous sky scenery is a real treat, and one of those occasions on which I'm so happy to be able to get something in the sky and be a part of nature's beautiful spectacle.

Turbo Porter PC6. Wing Cam.

...an intriguing viewpoint

I decided to give the Turbo Porter a go with a wing cam - I’ve only tried this once before on the Raptor glider, and I thought that the Porter would be a good candidate to handle the imbalance that the weight & drag of the camera creates.

I also thought I’d try a ground, putting the mobius on a mini tripod to capture launch and landing action.

Well it turns out that the latter is a bit trickier than I expected; it has to be located far enough away that the plane has lifted off, obviously, so there’s running back & forth to set it up. Secondly, when I have to fly to fixed cameras my flying goes to pieces. I crashed the Rarebear doing this after having flown it twice without incidence beforehand.

Despite the incumberences of the wing and ground cameras, I still managed to get some nice footage, with the wing cam providing intriguing fixed footage of the Porter as the scenery and lighting revolve around it.

And I managed to capture about a second of takeoff from the ground cam. At least I didn’t hit it...

GeeBee R3. Flying Around.

...having some fun

The little GeeBee is kind-of strange to fly, as I may have said before - it appears to be dragged around by its engine and has the very characteristic forward-jutting undercarriage.

However, despite odd characteristics, it does fly quite sweetly, although don't fly it too slow or you'll have it upside down in the grass from a tip stall

One thing it does for you, almost without trying too hard, it knife edge. Maybe not exactly perfectly, however very stable and most entertainingly.

So, while I was buzzing it around, I put it into increasingly steep turns and had it knife-edging around for my amusement.

A fun little plane, except when you try and land it on grass...

Floater Jet. Lake & Country.

...scenic flight and more

A trip to the country was an opportunity to take the Floater Jet to see whether there might be an opportunity for lift off the adjoining hillside.

Also, an opportunity for a gentle scenic flight the next day, with a tranquil morning and the lake mirror-calm.

Not that it was an uneventful flight, with a flock of corellas passing through and a very close call with a radio tower.

And to end it, probably the worst judged approach I've made in a long time, with the docile Floater Jet over-flying and floating straight into the garage door...

Raptor Sunset Criusing

...kept on getting better

Taking the Raptor into the hills for some late afternoon sloping ended prematurely as the breeze dropped off to nothing at the approach of evening.

So, making the most of what looked to be a lovely sunset, I set the Raptor to cruising down the ridge filming our disappearing star.

It turned out to be one of those surprise sunsets which start of a little dull and then develop as the sun clears the low cloud.

As such, I kept the raptor flying laps up and down, only turning it in when the sun was just a glimmer on the horizon...