She Flies!

Went back for another test on Tuesday with the modified tail and the Flanker flew beautifully! Spent nearly an hour flying off the top of the Mount in about 10kts West and really enjoyed it. Not a fast plane but quite capable and predicable.

Next up I'm going to glue everything back together properly and hook up the rudders again. Not expecting any real knife edge performance, but I feel the need to at least have a go.

Maiden Disappointment

Yesterday, Monday, I tried out the new Flanker slope soarer. After rain for a week it was long overdue for its maiden - but what a disappointment!! Due to (ahem) a design fault it would enter a flat spin and then simply tumble down the ground in most alarming fashion. Yikes! What had I got wrong?

After consultation with Ralph, he suggested moving the tail fins rearward and/or enlarging them.... so this is what it looks like now.



Spot the difference! Doesn't look much like an Su27 Flanker anymore probably looks more like an F18 but will take it out for another try and see what happens. Fingers crossed :-)

Sunday Mount at the Treeline

Spent a cold afternoon up at the treeline above the surfclub on the Mount yesterday with Ralph and John - all planked up. Ralph with his MH64 foil 68", me with the 64" JW and John with his 60" JW. Was light and bumpy most of the day - lighter than forecast - but at least we got a fly.



Here's a few pics I took.


This is John's JW looking strangely surreal over the main beach



John flew my grid for a while and I got this shot.




Here's one looking down on a low pass by Ralph



And Ralph carving up a nice turn

Flanker nearly ready

The new Su27 Flanker is all-but ready for its maiden. Was to have been yesterday, Sunday, but a last minute electrical glitch has postponed the action. Here's a photo of it with all the graphics completed - it won't look any better than this!!



In fact it will probably get tatty pretty fast 'cos I built it light to try knife edge. I still wonder how it will go on its side but might have to replace the fins with something more substanial fairly early in its life.

The maiden won't be today (Monday) due to a shortage of time and the wind is up to around 20kts E so a bit strong to be trying out something new.

Mangere Mountain

On Monday I made my first visit to Mangere Mountain in Auckland. A good 15kts W was forcast and it was certainly cold and windy at the top of the crater when I got there. I was trying to learn Dynamic Soaring with my JW plank. The idea is to fly in circles (blue on the pic) on the backside of the slope with speed increasing with each revolution. The world record is around 400mph - and we're talking gliders here - no motor!!



As you can see on the photo, a red line shows my last attempt at blasting into the dark side in a big dive which ended in a massive crash into the ground at full speed! The thing just wouldn't turn and pull up. These things happen in DS-ing due to rotors and turbulence and all kinds of pilot error - hey, it ain't called the dark side for nothing.

Quite a bit of damage with a broken aileron so had to call it a day. But at least there were nice views to be had over the Manukau Harbour and the rest of the city.