Last Sunday with the Mount Hard Core Slopers

Here we are on top of the Mount on a really cold winter's day - a shower of rain has just passed through but still a few keen men... from the left we have anonymous spectator on the seat, then Leon (from Foamworks), Ralph, Richard (the F3B Dentist)and John.



Earlier in the arvo we were flying at the Half Goat and this is Ralph testing out one of the new Fusion 2010 prototypes. Leon also had a new Fusion 2010 with the new wing - the RW03 developed by Ralph. By all accounts it flys very nicely and appears to have excellent inverted performance as an added bonus.


Johnny S had his Screamin' Banshee out again blasting around the sky - at times a rather weird and dark looking sky as you can see in this shot...



So a good little afternoon for most - my only problem being an indiscreet encounter with a digger parked in the landing zone at the top - oh dear, the poor old Vampire in the wars again - this time a broken aileron and wing damage.

Maiden Day for the Tank

Yes, finally after nearly six months, the 2m Tank took to the skies in a 15kt southerly off the top of the Bowl at the Mount. Ralph got some good shots of the launch with a very worried pilot about to test the new beast.

And beast it turned out to be - first flight lasted about 20 seconds before coming down. It was way too tail heavy to fly. Couple of goes later with ballast nicked from the JW and it was flying - well, sort-of.





It needs a long list of modifications : here's the list of things to do;
1. Change decalage angle of tail.
2. Strengthen elevator pushrods
3. Add noseweight to new C.O.Gravity
4. Reduce elevator travel.
5. Investigate elevator binding/double centering
6. Replace broken clevis's on flaps with metal inners.(did I say it had a bad landing??)
7. Add skewers to L.E. of v-tail
8. Add upstop for flaps to stop flutter (from gear slop)
9. Remove subtrim on flaps to enable centre of camber trim knob.
10. Provide steeper angle of v-tail to assist less yaw.

Phew, that will take a while. So just lay back and enjoy the pics for now.

One last shot showing the crow braking in action.

Corsair Video

OK, here's the video I took of Humis flying his Corsair way back on 27th April... it took so long to get this up cos I have to get into town to use broadband to upload... so if you want to watch this you will need broadband. Also spent a lot of time messing round trying to find some decent music for the clip. Hope you like it.

Went out again yesterday (Tuesday 10th May) with the Vampire to the top of the Mount and was supposed to be 15 kts NE - only got about 7kts but I managed a fly anyway. With the reconfigured horizontal stabiliser now lowered at the leading edge, it flies so much better. I've also tidied it up a bit more so she now gets thru the air pretty nicely. The Vampire is definitely going as good as it has ever gone.

Today, wind should be a bit better - maybe JW country!! Here's the vid...

Big Blow Tuesday

Was a good 20kts NNE on Tuesday and I took the JW to the top of the Mount where I met up with Humis - first fly together for a few months!! The conditions were a little strange as the wind was being split right on the point, but the lift was just like an elevator and I could do inverted climbs with ease! Yeeeha!

At one stage, Humi's Corsair got tangled with my JW and it sent the plank into a frightening nose over tail spin that seemed to last for ages, but it pulled out shortly after and appeared to have sustained no real damage - but I landed just to check for sure. Wicked spins. Ralph has had a plank do that before and now I know what it looks and feels like - scary.

So here's a few pics of the day with a nice video of the Corsair to be posted soon.

ANZAC Day

Went for a fly on ANZAC Day and this was the view from the top of the Mount - it's those beautiful cloud reflections in the sea again! Not often that they happen but today was a fabulous example. (Right click the pic, then open in new tab for a bigger version)



The wind was very light NE about 5kts but with a the lightweight BalsaBanana sailplane I enjoyed two hours of flying. The only drawback being the constant hassle of onlookers asking the same old questions : What's the range? How far can you fly it? Where do you land it? How do you get it back? Do you land it in the sea? Have you ever lost it? How long do the batteries last? etc. etc. What a pain.

And just in case you thought the "Tank" was a forgotten relic languishing on the workbench, here's a pic showing fiberglassing the wing. I decided to use polyurethane varnish instead of epoxy resin (cost and messyness) and I'm pretty happy with the outcome after applying 3 coats.

Mitsubishi A6 Zero in town

I can now add the Zero to the list of warbirds I've been lucky enough to see. This beastie was at the Wanaka airshow for Easter and it just happened to be at the Mount before being loaded onto a ship to travel back home to the USA.

After a bit of detective work, Douggie and I managed to track it down and were allowed to get some piccies of it in the hangar before they start to remove the undercarriage for transporting.

It is one of only two Zero's in the world in flyable condition.

Just love that classic cockpit shape. This one is now powered by a double row Pratt and Whitney radial. Would have been nice to see it fly, but at least we managed to see it in the flesh.

The New Mount Hard Core!!

Just a few pics of last weeks flying off the Mount. That's my fellow pilot Daniel with his sister at the top on a very light day.

I had the JART and Daniel was flying his Fusion. I managed to lose the JART in the lightest of airs at the end of the day - it just wasn't enough to stay airbourne - but I managed to land the beast just behind the fenceline and with no damage to boot.

And a pic of the sunset clouds to round things out.

JW with new servo

Yesterday (Monday) went to Mount for a fly in NW with the JW. It has now been repaired with a new metal gear right aileron servo. Wind was fairly light but with nice smooth lift and it wasn't long before I had to land and add some ballast for a bit more speed :-)

It had a been quite a while since my last fly and I really enjoyed the afternoon - even if I was by myself. I flew from the side track overlooking Matakana Island which made it a bit easier than walking all the way to the top. It's also a bit easier to land on the front face. Later the wind turned to the west and although I could still fly, it was getting a bit marginal from being too sideways.

Here's another progress piccy of the Tank, my 2m sloper. It now has leading edge EPP foam on the wings (partially shaped) and this shot also shows how I have finished the area around the water dump outlet - an area that also will take the full brunt of landings. I hope it is going to be strong enough!!

Ah, The Sunday Fly

Took the JW up to the Bowl on the Mount on Sunday in 15kts SE. Was flying okay but had a heavy landing which munted the left aileron servo. Daniel offered me some gears to replace my stripped out ones in the servo, but they didn't quite fit inside the case, so what to do? In the end I managed another 40mins flying using just the right aileron for steerage.

It wasn't an ideal solution and made it impossible to do rolls (it would just fall into a crazy inverted spin)but was an interesting exercise flying a plank with only one aileron.

Later Daniel's Fusion was mysteriously shot down by some interference (suspected) although we never got to the bottom of his problem so we called it a day.

Just to finish, here's an interesting old pic of Power Scale Slopers from the US club the Inland Slope Rebels.

More Progress and Mount Fly

Yesterday (Tuesday) went to the Mount for a light fly with the JART. Was only 8kts NW down at A buoy but worth a look. Got to the top and the jellies were just getting into the air - damn! Went back down to launch of the NW track and whoa! three more jellies launching as I arrived. Had to help the last one open his chute while he was taking off. Then it was "me" time and nice lift meant I could fly for an hour with a little ballast.

The JART is definitely nicer to fly now that I have trimmed off the v-tail and stiffened it up with fibreglass rods. Later, I went for a pee behind some rocks and when I returned all the jellies had gone and the wind was dying away. No matter, I simply removed the ballast and enjoyed another 30min fly - the lift was still there!

Back at the hangar, here's the latest pic of the 2m sloper construction - now with wing skins top and bottom, and carbon tube along the fuse side. Will have to come up with a name for the beast soon.

Raglan

Went to Raglan yesterday (Sunday) to see what 10kts of breeze was like over there. Won't bother to do that again! It was so light I had trouble staying in the air. But I did get to try flying the knob to the south of the stream - something I hadn't done before.

The pics show looking both ways up the beach. The one with me is looking south and the other shot is looking north with an arrow indicating where I was standing in the other shot. Hope that's not too confusing :-)

More Construction

As you can see, I've made some wingseats and test fitted them to the fuse. Earlier this week I spent a long time trying to get an aerial layout that gave a good range test. I've decided to place the receiver and the aerial wire inside the wing simply because there will be carbon longerons embedded in the fuse and not enough separation for the aerial in the fuse. (I worked out with the Vampire that I need 50mm separation to prevent interference)

Of course I have the added problem of my alloy box section ballast tank in the wing and this created a major headache with reception interference. However after muchos trialling of different layouts I stumbled upon a wire route which worked! So fingers crossed that it will be okay on maiden day.

Not flying much at present - went out on Sunday and flew the Su Flanker for the last time - have decided to sell it!! Here's the pic for the trademe sale - will be for sale shortly.

Sicky Sicky

Been laid low lately with what seems like flu symptoms - so not been able to get out flying. Wanted to go yesterday with 30kts it would have been a real blast. Johnny Searle made it for a huge fly and said it was real tricky bringing his Banshee in to land. Read about it here ... http://johnflys.blogspot.com/

In the hanger, you can see I've started on the fuselage for the 2m sloper and did a quick mock-up pic to get first impressions.

February Already!

Wow, that was fast, January's gone already. But I did manage to get a pic from my birthday month - here's the snack I invented for the occasion - brie on crackers drizzeled with spicey plum chutney and topped with blueberries. Goes well with home brew :-)



Not a lot of flying done in January - here's one attempt I made. After an assault on the Mount traversing the East Face and, running low on mint cake, I made the summit only to look out on this murky view :-( Oh well, not every day's a flying day...



And finally David, here's a shot of the 2m sloper wing showing painfully slow progress to date. Balsa skin on one side and servo pockets cut out. No sign of the fuselage yet - it's still mostly floating around in my brain and will need a gale force wind to blow it into shape :-) But I think the wing is looking ok.



Fair winds and good lift....