acdii

The Saga continues.

Two weeks ago after smacking the side of the barn, I thought I had repaired the fin OK, so took it up last night for a test flight, but should have waited until the wind died down a a bit under 14 MPH with gusts. The plane handled like crap, pitchy, roll rates were sloppy, not at all the plane it was before. Ibrought it down to adjust the elevator link as it was pitching down with full up trim. The landing was bad because of the sloppy handling and it wound up in the soybeans. Adjusted the elevator trim and took off again. This time though, when it hit the cross wind at the end of the barn, it slid 90* left right into the wind and headed right for the tree by the drive, and it would not roll, so basically I had two choices, hit the ground, or hit the tree, chose the tree, and the ground. The ground hit was much softer after the tree caught it. Other than some scratches and dents, the fowm is holding up well.

Basically the fix on the tail fin didnt work, it was too loose and looks like it flopped around which caused the poor handling. Ialso noticed the motor mount is pitched down, which probably contributed to the pitchiness. The wing repair worked fine, but the smack into the ground cracked the foam I used to repair it, and found the CA I have is not foam friendly, so will have to patch it again. Iguess Ishould spend the $20 for the tail and motor mount, and get a new cone while I'm at it. Ineed to remember this plane loves to skew into the wind when going slow, had it not been for the strong cross wind, it probably would have flown a bit better, but the turns were too sloppy.

OTOH, the T-34 flew great.