October's Flying

Well yes October is flying past and it's been nearly a month since I posted anything. But luckily I'm getting no feedback so there can't be anyone out there who is too worried :-)

The lead pic is of John Searle launching into a maiden of his Siren Hotliner at Papamoa's Gordon Spratt Reserve. The next pic is Ralph's Ellipse going up on the winch at the same spot.




And the Redblack is now complete and has been maidened! With a little reluctance I took her round the front of the Mount last week and managed to dodge all the rocks on landing. So how does it fly? It goes really well - just eats my foamies for performance - fast and holds energy so well. I flew it for nearly 2 hours! And so easy to land with the crow braking. Here's a shot of it with some tidying up of the paint etc. Still pretty tatty but she flies well.



So finally, I've progressed to mouldies!

Springtime

Ah Spring! A time for new thoughts and hence new projects. Here's what I've been working on lately - two new projects. Firstly a new plane (well new for me) actually it's a fairly second hand plane that Ralph gave me. It's a sloper/sailplane made from vacuum-bagged fibreglass over blue foam cores and has a fibreglass fuselage.



As you can see it's a bit shabby and has had crash repairs. It's now called a Redblack to reflect its colours. I'm strengthening the wing by adding a drag spar and also adding two more servos for flaps. This should help to land a bit slower and hence make it flyable around the Mount with it's rocky landing zones. Well that's the theory - we'll see how it goes.

The other project is a spinoff from the Redblack which needs servo covers to protect the servo horns under the wing. Ralph helped me to make up some alloy ones using his jig, but I have also built a vacuum box and tried to make some covers from vacuum formed plastics. The jury is still out on whether this will work, but until I get more suitable plastic sheets, here's the pics of what I've made so far and the box.

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