ToolJoint

Hey MF, glad to see your input again...and yeah, maybe we are getting a little wrapped up in CG issues, but for me at least, it was the single largest concern when making ready to fly. I have lost a few on the first flight, some could have been avoided had I paid more attention to CG.[X(] I was taking no chances with this baby, too hard to come by, out of production, and my first bipe.

Tree to Tree, I did watch your video...over and over again... beautifully shot, and your bird was expertly flown I might add!

Allright then...so I'm satisfied with the balance at 4" on the top wing, I have tightened the covering where necessary, checked and re-checked control throws, test ran a tank through the Enya, installed the Williams Bros. wheels and re-checked balance, I was ready. I loaded the camel into the back of my pickup (no way am I taking those wings apart to fit in a car), threw in my old reliable (a Goldberg Senior Falcon type of affair set up as a Tail dragger and an OS .61) and headed out. Where we fly also doubles as the municipal airport and when I stepped from the pickup I noticed the windsock indicating about 10-15 knots and gusting...DANG...pretty fresh breeze for a maiden, even for around here, at least it was right down the runway.

I took the Falcon out and flew several figure eights, loops, cuban eights and touch and goes since this was my first non-sim flight of the year, and I wanted to re-acquaint my surroundings and check orientation in the light conditions. After about 20 touch and goes I taxied her back to the ready area, shut down and stared at the camel, still nestled in the bed of the pick up.

I decided it was too windy to try today, but took her out to set on the tarmac for some pictures. I mean, I hauled her all the way out here and my flight box was already unloaded with fuel, glow ignitor, chicken stick, electric starter already out...it would be a shame not to start her up and listen to the big Enya for a bit. I said out loud..."I will not fly her in this wind...only start her!" and I meant it. After priming, the Enya started on the second flip. I removed the ignitor, tuned for max RPM, then ran her through several cycles of wide open to idle and back. She was running SUH-WEET! OK well maybe just a taxi test to check ground handling with the skid and stuff. In order to taxi to the runway from the prep area, I had to keep picking up the tail because she wanted to "weather vane" so badly in the wind, but she did keep her feet and showed not tipping tendencies at all. I also noted that when applying power the tail wanted to come up, which made steering much easier, so I allowed her to find an attitude which was comfortable for her, and I found her ground handling to be quite manageable in the small, loose shale that serves as our runway. I taxied her down wind, thinking I would have to walk down and manually turn her around due to the wind, but no...I fed power in little blips and with just a touch of coaxing from down elevator she swung right around into the wind. So there she sat...100 yards down wind, pointed into the wind, staring at me, purring like a kitten. I fed in about 1/2 throttle...she grinned at me, the tail came up and as I was about to decrease throttle she smiled and rose in a level attitude. I immediately chopped power and applied slight up elevator and she settled back on all three and rolled to a stop...the Enya putting sweetly, yet the bird scowling at me since I had ruined her much anticipated return to the sky. I gave her little burps of power, bringing the tail up then down, using only power changes and taxied her back up beside me. I glanced back at the wind sock...no change. I got behind her, stared into the wind and fed in 3/4 throttle. The tail immediately came up, and this time the nose started veering strangely to the right...but after reading about that phenomena here, I was ready, and just as I was feeding slight left rudder, she lifted. Through my left thumb I transmitted to the engine room that it was time to release all the ponies in the Enya's Stable. Her nose pointed skyward and she was climbing like a homesick angel. I reduced power back to half and noted she really, REALLY wanted to bank left, so I I started feeding in right trim. I let her come around to the left and with left rudder, and a touch of up elevator, she began a perfectly coordinated turn. Now going with the wind she was really picking up ground speed and after trimming right all the way to the max, she could maintain wings level with my right thumb off the stick. She was still trying to poke her nose up, so I had to max the trim to the down position to fly hands off. So much for all that lead and nosey CG! I swung her back around into the wind, and returned to full power and watched her climb...WOW. Everything seemed to calm down and half power seemed plenty to maintain level flight. After several circuits to the left with no unanticipated aerobatics or attitude changes I tried some slow, low passes to see what I may expect for the landing. She slowed quite sweetly with no bad habits or weird gyrations, and I was struck by the sound of the flying wires and all the hardware as she passed by me at an altitude of about 10 feet. A few more passes convinced me that I could probably land her without incident, so we lined each other up quite a ways out and I reduced power to 1/3...she did not want to descend. 1/4 throttle saw her nose come down slightly and maintain a decent airspeed in the stiff headwind. Just as she was about even with me I chopped power to idle, and she settled so so sweetly on her gear at just above walking speed. She rolled about 8-10 feet and just as I was wondering what all the fuss was about landing these things her tail settled in, I applied full up elevator, and she promptly stuck her face in the shale and settled on her top wing and rudder tip.

What the hell? But I was grinning as I righted her and noticed no damage. I was thinking about all of you and your flip warnings, and I was thinking about all those mysterious scratches on the upper wing and rudder, and I was smiling. Thinking I had tempted the wind fates quite enough for one day and on an accidental maiden at that, I snapped a picture of her out on the runway, loaded everything up, and drove home smiling like a school boy who just found a hole in the wall of the girls locker room. Notice her face print in the runway as I returned her to upright exactly where she put her face.