Well today was the day.
Was at the field early this morning and, along with Richard, set up the two "Sea Falcons" for their certification flights. Phil the turbine man turned up, the weather was perfect and we were out of excuses Richard was the first cab off the rank. He fired up his kero start K80 and taxii'd out on the strip. A 40m roll and he was airborne. After the addition of some up trim he flew a perfect test flight ending with a greaser of a landing.
My turn, the gas start K80 started easily and out to the strip we went. After a slightly longer takeoff roll followed by application of a fair bit of elevator she rose into the air for the first time. Richard did the honours with full back trim on the elevator and it was almost trimmed level. By this time I had completed a circuit that was less than impressive as I had left way too much aileron movement dialed in resulting in lots of wing wagging. Ok, got the gear up and told the thumbs to be gentle. Flying nice and smoothly now so a slow roll then a loop. Tried to go over the top on cruise power (about 1/3rd throttle) and mushed over. Next circuit I tried a fast aileron roll. Brisk is not the right word here,, it rolled way too fast. Time for the flaps. I had followed the instructions for the flap mod by changing left for right and fitting upside down. This along with surface hinging, allowed plenty of flap travel and I had set the model up with about 60 degrees of flap. With plenty of height Richard selected full flap for me as I controlled the elevator. No problem, slight change in flight attitude and all good. Because of the extra flap movement I came in higher and pulled power slightly later than I am used to but the flaps did their work and the "Sea Falcon" settled back onto the strip. Big smiles all around.
Some adjustments to the elevator neutral point and aileron travel and she should be as much of a delight to fly as the previous Falcon. Below are some pics taken after the two proving flights.
Richard's is the grey/white one, mine is blue/white.
Col
