Today was warm but, despite these sort of conditions usually ending up windy and gusty, it was still quite calm after lunch, so I decided to take the Phoenix to the local field to see if any thermalling was to be had. Being around thirty degrees, I launched the Phoenix with flaps and climbed it quickly a few hundred feet before leveling it off to check if any lift was around. I set the Phoenix in a turn to try and settle it when it suddenly started to turn left sharply and start to dive. I have had some issues with this due to the foam wings warping in the warm weather, I think particularly when sitting in the car, so I suspected this to be the case.
I put opposite aileron but, to my surprise, the Phoenix continued to spiral downwards, even when I moved to full opposite aileron, something which would usually have the Phoenix wheeling around, especially at the speed it was going. Suddenly knowing it was out of control, I could only watch as the Phoenix spiralled the last dozen metres down before smashing into the field, shedding foam and parts generously. Picking up the bits and heading to the car I was puzzled, I'd suspected the wing warping being the problem, yet the Phoenix had launched straight and climbed without hint of issue. Then I started wondering; was the Phoenix's lack of response because it wasn't actually doing anything. Had I somehow lost contact? This scenario seemed highly unlikely; since first suffering this issues many moons ago, I run most of my planes with a satellite receiver as well. And, in the case of a few of them including the Phoenix, I have the receiver antenna poking out of a hole in the bottom of the fuselage. Additionally, I have the radio on the higher-power US setting just to make sure. And yet...
...just so easy I took the Canadair to the field again this morning, cool and calm before a warming and windy afternoon. I'd previously flown the Canadair off the field however, being of a fairly delicate EPS construction, one launch and landing off the grass had already managed to remove the paint from the sea-plane's hull. So I decided to give hand launching a go.
Although a large and somewhat awkward to hold plane, the Canadair is quite light and generates an abundance of lift in addition to possessing an excess of thrust. Still, not quite sure how it was going to behave being launched in this manner, I set it at at a little over half throttle and gave it a moderate throw. To my surprise, the Canadairtook to the air seamlessly, its broad wings and plenty of prop wash setting it off as if it hadn't been stationary in my hand a second before. The more I fly this plane the more I am enjoying it; it's very relaxed to fly, can turn on a ticky and possesses a lovely presence as it heads towards you, its dark nose dipped down a little...
once too often... Despite the potential for major disaster, the Stinger suffered only minor damage to the front with the fuselage bent a little to one side and the nose snapped off. However, this area being repaired for the third time, it's increasingly difficult to try and get things looking nice again. However I am endeavouring to be patient and attend to detail to try and get the Stinger nose smooth so that it doesn't suffer from extra drag due to a craggy nose.
The first pass looked reasonable, and I'm now taking time to fill in the dips and grooves as best as possible. Giving the filler and glue time to dry properly, the Stinger should hopefully be in the air within a few days, all going well...
Cool, man... With access to the lake somewhat restricted, I decided to give the Canadair a go at the field. I'd seen a few videos showing it was possible, but still wasn't quite sure how this venture was going to work. As it turned out it works fine, although quite different to flying from water. In fact almost the opposite! Unlike on the water where modest amounts of throttle will get the plane moving and resistance builds up until it gets on the plane, on grass there is no movement until the considerable friction is overcome.
Moving the throttle past the halfway mark with no signs of movement, I was certainly considering that this wasn't going to work when, at about two-thirds power, the Canadairsuddenly broke loose and quickly started to move across the grass. Of course, with that much throttle, as soon as friction is overcome, the acceleration is brisk, so the Canadair was airborne within seconds, gliding sweetly into the cool morning air. Flying the Canadair at the field was actually pretty groovy, with lots of space and the ability to do low fly-pasts which isn't always possible at the lake with its border of trees. And quite fun getting to know the flying characteristics of the big water bomber in a safe environment. As you would expect, with that much wing area and the proliferation of fences and stabilisers, it is slow and steady, although sharp turns are quite possible with the assistance of differential thrust, much like vectored thrust..
...for a bird's eye view The search and rescue mission for the flown by the Phoenix to try and locate theStinger EDFunfortunately drew a blank; a few maybe's but nothing definitive, with a subsequent foray through the paddocks on foot found nothing either. Therefore a second reconnaissance mission was required, this time using the Floater Jet with the Mobius mounted on its nose. The sloping mounting provided look-down capability, something missing from the Phoenix's wing-top placement, and additionally provided an obscured field of view.
The weather was, unfortunately, not conducive to the structured coverage of the field I had hoped for, with the warm and gusty weather making flying the Floater hazardous and doing low passes even more so. As a result the flying was haphazard, battling to keep the Floater flying level while maintaining an even altitude, although desirable, was out of the question. In fact, from the video, it's clearly apparent that the Floater was skimming over fences and brushing the grass tops at stages. About halfway through it's search, a pale speck showed on the extreme edge of the the video image. Having checked numerous specks already without success I was doubtful this would amount to anything, particularly being out of the search zone. Zooming in on the speck it took some form and appeared to have a vertical black stripe. Looking closer it also seemed to have faint hints of something horizontal on either side.
Zooming again the appearance of a circle in between seemed to cement the realisation that I'd actually managed to locate the Stinger. The next day, after twenty minutes of wandering around the paddock trying to match the video clip orientation, I finally found it...
search and rescue underway... The perfect afternoon begged to get the planes out, so I headed to the field on the way home planning to give the Stinger and Radjet a quick run in the gorgeously sunny conditions with a cool southerly blowing.
As I've mentioned before, the Stinger is a bit twitchy in turns, so I've turned my low rates right down making it much less sensitive, and have subsequently become accustomed to it's moderated behaviour with recent flights. Unfortunately something must have flicked the aileron rate switch to high as I found the Stinger alarmingly sensitive to these inputs. I managed to level the Stinger up and bring it round in a turn as I frantically sought to get the switch reset without crashing the jet and, when this was finally accomplished, I hit the elevators to get the now low-flying Stinger some air. The effect of this, however, was not the expected leap into the sky but rather an abrupt disappearance into the grass of the paddock.
I can only surmise that, having been distracted by resetting the switch, the Stinger had adjusted orientation and that the elevator had sent it spearing sideways into the shrubbery. Alarmed and disappointed, I climbed the fence and headed through the marshy flats to where I'd last seen it go down. Emerging from the tall reed grass onto the plain I expected to see the brightly-coloured Stinger lying about conspicuously, but instead saw nothing. Having not made an exact reference as to where it had gone down due to my expectation of finding it immediately, I commenced a somewhat random series of traverses across the paddocks, inspecting thorn bushes and grass clumps for any sign of the downed speedster. Finally, baffled as to the mysterious disappearance of the jet, I hauled out the Phoenix with camera on board for a search and rescue mission. An FPV setup would've been perfect for this situation, however I'll have to make do with a video analysis later...
...still a blast to fly The Stinger got another run today, on a beautifully clear afternoon with a fresh southerly blowing. However, despite having flown it many times, I still feel that flying it is always a risk.
It's fast, twitchy and relatively small, and I don't think the multi-colour scheme helps, to the degree that I'm contemplating stripping the techno-camouflage off the wings to make it more visible. The launch is also often a bit of a heart stopper, with the throw usually leaving the Stinger alarming half-inverted, although its jetstream somehow allows it to hang in the air long enough to get it corrected without ever having any problems.
While not being over-powerful it's still pretty fast, with the best view of it being coming in low and fast with its sharp nose pointed straight at you and the swoop of its canopy giving a menacing look.
And, of course, being a jet, it's sleek shape and addictive howl compensate for the edge-of-your-seat experience you have when flying it...
