Another successful maiden flight
10-01-2006, 09:50 PM
#1
Another successful maiden flight
Finished my BUSA Bristol M-1 the other day. Took it to the field today, had three successful flights, but it could have gotten ugly. I put an .80 Saito on it, very good running engine, had it in another plane a while back. When I fired it up the first time today, it started right up, but needed some needle tweaking. I had to lean it waaaay out to get any rpm out of it, and although it would rev on up there, just didn't sound like the .80 of old.
The Bristol took about 100 feet on grass to get airborne (14-6 prop) which seemed unusual, but it was running smoothly. There was the usual nervous jitters of flying a new plane and not wanting to trash it right away, and after about 5 minutes, had the trims set well enough to fly it without having to saw on the sticks a lot. Landed it, not too bad a bounce, reset a couple of throws, and put some rudder mix in with ailerons that I had forgotten to do, although i did put quite a bit of expo in as well as aileron differential to combat the adverse yaw. Second flight was better, trims and throws just about right, rudder mix was a big help, but the engine still just didn't do as I thought it should. The plane weighs about 7-8 pounds I guess (haven't put it on a scale yet), and the earlier plane that had the .80 was a 10 pound bipe, and it really hauled it around. Flew in circles a while, getting the feel, made a better second landing.
Back at the starting stand, I held it up and looked under the cowl to see if all was well. When I was finishing the plane up a few days ago, painting, detailing, etc. with the cowl off, I had put a piece of blue masking tape over the carb throat to keep trash out of it. Well guess what was still stuck over the carb throat. What a dumbass I was to have missed this big blue piece of tape. Well, I pulled it out with a pair of forceps, refueled, and started it up again. I had to richen it waaaay up this time, but it finally ran like the .80 I remembered it to be. The third takeoff was about 35 feet, and it climbed like a 3-D plane. Now that's what I'M talkin' about! Much better performance, I felt more comfortable getting radical with loops, rolls, and even a couple of spins. The third landing was even better. This is gonna be a fun airplane. I tricked it out with all pull-pull controls (even ailerons), full flying wires, larger wheels than the plans call for, much closer to scale. I had my LHS guy order me one of the new H-9 Sopwith Camel dummy engines, and trimmed it down to fit the cowl of the Bristol. Paying $70 for a scale spinner just eats the big one(the whole plane kit was only $78), and I've read that many of the originals flew without them for better engine cooling, so there. I'll stick some pics in here later.
I can hardly believe it would even run with the tape over the carb. I have the little stack on it, must have gotten just enough air around the bottom to keep it running.
The Bristol took about 100 feet on grass to get airborne (14-6 prop) which seemed unusual, but it was running smoothly. There was the usual nervous jitters of flying a new plane and not wanting to trash it right away, and after about 5 minutes, had the trims set well enough to fly it without having to saw on the sticks a lot. Landed it, not too bad a bounce, reset a couple of throws, and put some rudder mix in with ailerons that I had forgotten to do, although i did put quite a bit of expo in as well as aileron differential to combat the adverse yaw. Second flight was better, trims and throws just about right, rudder mix was a big help, but the engine still just didn't do as I thought it should. The plane weighs about 7-8 pounds I guess (haven't put it on a scale yet), and the earlier plane that had the .80 was a 10 pound bipe, and it really hauled it around. Flew in circles a while, getting the feel, made a better second landing.
Back at the starting stand, I held it up and looked under the cowl to see if all was well. When I was finishing the plane up a few days ago, painting, detailing, etc. with the cowl off, I had put a piece of blue masking tape over the carb throat to keep trash out of it. Well guess what was still stuck over the carb throat. What a dumbass I was to have missed this big blue piece of tape. Well, I pulled it out with a pair of forceps, refueled, and started it up again. I had to richen it waaaay up this time, but it finally ran like the .80 I remembered it to be. The third takeoff was about 35 feet, and it climbed like a 3-D plane. Now that's what I'M talkin' about! Much better performance, I felt more comfortable getting radical with loops, rolls, and even a couple of spins. The third landing was even better. This is gonna be a fun airplane. I tricked it out with all pull-pull controls (even ailerons), full flying wires, larger wheels than the plans call for, much closer to scale. I had my LHS guy order me one of the new H-9 Sopwith Camel dummy engines, and trimmed it down to fit the cowl of the Bristol. Paying $70 for a scale spinner just eats the big one(the whole plane kit was only $78), and I've read that many of the originals flew without them for better engine cooling, so there. I'll stick some pics in here later.
I can hardly believe it would even run with the tape over the carb. I have the little stack on it, must have gotten just enough air around the bottom to keep it running.
10-01-2006, 10:06 PM
#2
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RE: Another successful maiden flight
any successful maiden or re-maiden for that matter is a great flight, glad to hear you found your "tape problem" glad to hear all's well with the plane.
