Finally, a flying day!
It has been total crap in central Ontario this summer. Wind, rain, wind, wind, rain, did I mention wind...
The last two evenings, out of the blue, were calm and pleasant. A hasty trip to the field for a couple opf late evening flights was enough for a couple of us to get motivated to fly this morning, and lo and behold it was abeaut until 2pm or so, when it got a little gusty. So what, we were already sun-baked by then.
Got in three Magnum flights. Man that .50V1 is a sweet engine. Everything up until the part where it starts is no different than firing up yer basic sport .46. But then, when you hit the throttle all hell breaks loose. It started each time with a half-hearted two-fingered backwards smack of the prop. This morning there was a curious 10 year old digging the pit action and asking questions, and was standing about 6 feet behind and to the right (pipe side..) when I started it up the first time. It was all good, but when I punched it he ran back about twenty feet with a terrified look on his face.
Last night I decided enough was enough, so I peeled the stupid black and white checkered shelf liner off the bottom of the wing and made some gaudy three-colored neon inset panels over the yellow. Oooh I thinks, that should help.
Right.. the way the field is laid out the sun is never at your back, so they only end up looking neon when the airplane is so close you don't need them. Oh well.
Casual spectators are always blown away by the Magnum in flight. I'm using APC 8.8 x 8.75 trimmed to about 8.125", running mid-high nineteens on the ground. Q500's definitely fly better, but they don't look something like a midget F-4 in flight.
Was there a point to this thread? Hmm, hard to say.. well, other than flying is a good thing.
MJD