...a ray of sunshine The weather this autumn and winter has been dreadfully windy, all the more remarkable given that this is usually the stillest time of the year and the opportunity I'd taken to fly off the lake in the still afternoons. However, there have been a few occasions when the gusting northerly has abated and yielded bejewelled afternoons, like this one.
Heading down to my usual spot, lovely cumulus decorated the vivid blue sky, the dark grey of their undersides vividly contrasting with the sparkling white of their peaks. As on the best late-afternoons, the clear horizon allowed a full spread of lush, golden sunlight to drench the lush greenery of the fields and add a sense of magical perfection to the scene. These are my favourite flying conditions, preferred to sunny mornings or even lovely sunrises, except for when I'm suddenly wanting to capture a special moment of exceptional light, or beautiful cloud formation, or ibis flying formation. Fortunately, in some cases such as this, I don't need to worry as I've got the video running and I can enjoy the moment. Flying the Raptor now is lovely, my favourite being it's red and white wings contrasting vividly with the blue and greys of the sky as it sweeps past...
...a little slope soaring I've chosen to set up the Phoenix 2000 as a pure soaring glider without motor, running a 2200 3S battery located right at the firewall and some small-change ballast installed in the nose cone. I have configured the Phoenix with crow brakes, as I discovered that having some sort of brake/lift dump is essential, whether that be fence-type brakes or, in this case, flaps and ailerons configured to generate drag and reflex the airfoil respectively
There are, unfortunately, no good slope soaring sites nearby, however I decided to try the hill at the far end of the paddocks where I fly; not particularly high or steep but enough to generate a little lift. The wind was a strong north-wester, a little gusty too, and I launched the Phoenix with as lusty a hurl as I could summons. The Phoenix flies well enough, catching what little and sporadic lift was available here. I tried the Phoenix with and without flaperons active but, given the very turbulent conditions, I couldn't asses the effect they have. Similarly, I didn't get the opportunity to really test the crow brakes, however they were effective in slowing the glider down and didn't cause it to climb when deployed which is good. However, as a first try, the Phoenix is encouraging, so I'll be trying to get it flying in some better lift...
...back with avengeance The little Fox glider is a beautiful flier, however mine has always suffered from motor vibration. Even the addition of a supplementary firewall didn't make much difference, so the little Fox was eventually consigned to hang on the wall whilst I decided what to do.
Help came in the form of the forced retirement of the Radjet, and I transplanted the Funfighter motor I'd installed there into the Fox. To complement this I'm using a 1500 4S Zippy compact battery, lightweight enough not to tax the speedy motor but large enough to provide generous flight times for the sleek Fox. The result is speedy, the slippery Fox now genuinely fast and very quiet, the Funfighter motor providing it with landscape-traversing speed and generous, although not unlimited, vertical climb. So all in all a simple and very successful transplant, the Fox glider flying with the Radjet's heart...
...blackbird of noisiness The SR71 is a Parkjets design, one of those "stickplanes" which combine simple construction with characteristic design cues that define the aircraft. I chose to do the 125% version, giving a wingspan of 840mm and a length of 1250 and making it quite an impressive aircraft.
I chose to power the Blackbird with a funfighter motor I'd liberated from my old Rarebear. This motor is a little under-specced for a plane this size, yet it managed to give the SR71 a decent turn of speed nonetheless. I was going to use a 1500 4S lipo but, unable to get CoG sorted, opted for a heavier 2200 4S to balance things out.
My main concern approaching launch was not it's flight characteristics which, being a large delta promised to be benign, but the proximity of the handhold to the propellor! Fortunately this concern was unfounded, and the SR71 took to the skies beautifully stably. As the Blackbird accelerated away, it became apparent that this is a very noisy plane, even noisier than the Radjet with the same motor...
...back to the future The Phoenix 2000 was the very first RC plane I purchased, and so this is very much a back-to-the-future episode for me. The Phoenix 2000 is, as it was back then, a very well build and affordable RC plane. It has a sturdy plastic moulded fuselage, which it shares with its sibling the Phoenix 1600, which comes complete with plywood battery tray and rear servo deck. The fuselage comes with the rear control rods pre-installed and, on PNF versions, the servos installed and connected.
The wings are good-quality EPO with moulded-in reinforcements, and a carbon joiner rod is supplied as well. There's also a sleek moulded plastic canopy which clips onto the fuselage. The wings have substantial ailerons, with servos installed on the PNF package, although control rods have to be fitted yourself. There's provision for flaps including moulded recess for servo and linkages included - you just need to cut the flap free where they're moulded to the wing. The kit comes with a folding prop and spinner with collet adapter, and there's a fixed nosecone in case you just want this as a pure glider. So the Phoenix 2000 comes highly recommended as a high-quality entry-level glider, sturdily constructed yet elegant and capable in the air...
...fast and fun The Viggen has proved to be a great addition to the fleet, being fast stable and distinctive in the air. And, all this despite it being my first Flitetest build. Most amazingly is how easily, and stably, it launches; being flat underneath you have to launch it underhand and yet it climbs stably without threat of stall or spin.
It's benign characteristics are a combination of it being a delta, but also certainly due to the calming effect of the canards, keeping the nose up and reducing the load on the wings. You can turn the Viggen as sharply as you like and it won't do anything nasty. In fact, so effectively will it turn that it's almost like it has vectored thrust, being able to keep on looping almost about its own length. And it's quite quick too; my version runs a common-or-garden ebay fan with a 50A ESC and is good for about 100kph. You could load it up with a 12 blade fan although I'm not sure how much aero load you'd want to put on a foam board plane...
...on a sunny Saturday afternoon Beautiful weekend weather begged for some flying, so I headed down to the paddock with the Firstar EDF conversion. The first flight of this has been on a cold & overcast morning, so this afternoon would be an opportunity to try out the big FPv plane in some sunny weather.
With the straight-shooting EDF unit, the flight characteristics are much more aligned with its close cousin, the phoenix 2000 glider, making it a real pleasure to fly. And today enjoying having a bit of fun cruising it around the open space of the paddocks. Whilst EDF's are known energy hogs, the Forstar flies so much better and truer that I still think the overall performance and duration can't be worse than with that huge prop tower and negative thrust line. This still has to be tested when I get some proper FPV flying done, but even just punting the Firstar around is so much more fun now...
