Hey guys,
Thanks for the rousing applause and other notes. What a blast...This thing is a SWEETHEART. I've had a couple of opportunities to take her out flying again before winter reset here in N.E. Wyoming.
The first order of corrections when I returned her to the shop were to alleviate those nasty trim issues. I sat her on the nice flat work table and gently lifted her by the prop nut, leaving her to balance on her tail skid...except she didn't. Her left wings dropped every time. I had a bunch of automotive lead wheel weights laying around the shop, so I laid a 1 oz. piece on the outboard right wing tip. This helped but the left wing still wanted to drop so I tried a 1.5 oz. piece. Perfect....she was now balanced evenly on her skid and prop nut. The tire weight worked out pretty well actually, because it had a metal clip where it would fasten on the the wheel rim. I simply squeezed that clip onto the lower outer wing bow with a pair of vice grips. It is not as noticeable as you would think and can only be seen on the under side of the wing, where it also serves as a "skid" for the inevitable tip drag. I then moved the elevator clevis in about 6 turns to mechanically re-trim for all the down trim so necessary on the maiden.
The next time I was at the field, the Sunday afternoon weather was perfect, and a few of my flying buddies were also there with their Extras, Yaks, and Cubs. As soon as I drug the Camel out, all flying stopped, engines were shut down and everyone came over to gawk at her. One guy,pulled a SLR camera with a HUGE lens out of his backpack and asked if I minded if he shot some photos of her. "Sure" I joked..."it would be nice to have some photos of her while she is in one piece". I've always said cameras and peer pressure have been the cause of many a RC planes ruination. But, no time is ever perfect and I figured a little extra advice may prove helpful if things got stressful. I did an extra long pre-flight, carefully fueled up, checked and rechecked controls, dealt eight priming flips and hooked her to the glow ignitor. The Enya popped with authority on the second flip, coughed and settled into her nice baritone purr after the third flip. Another control check, and a few run ups to WOT and back to idle and I released her and taxied to the runway, using the burp, pick up the tail method to steer. I set her nose into a gentle steady breeze and called up about half throttle. This time she REALLY pulled to the right and required full left rudder to halt the swerve. I became a little fixated on the left rudder and just as she was straightening out, she popped into the air. She performed a little mushy drunken swagger, and started gaining a little altitude as I then remembered to add full power. With the extra Ponies now pouring thrust about the airframe, she quickly became stable and started a rock steady climb. I got to a good pattern altitude in what seemed like about 3 seconds, and noticed something right away. This baby was ROCK STEADY. I have flown trainers that were much more squirelly than this! My trim and balance corrections were spot on. Roll into a turn with a brush of rudder, she stays there, roll out with rudder, she is ready. Hands off...looked around at my buddies who where watching in slack jawed reverence...well that is what it seemed like to me. After a few passes, I switched to high rates and tried a nice big, swoopy, barrel roll down airshow center. She responded by doing a nice big, swoopy barrel roll right down airshow center, without losing any altitude...very scale looking. A nice big loop followed, requiring just a touch of left rudder (weird, I know, but that is what it took) on the upline...all the while the Enya emitting a very scale like BRAAAP! She even held altitude inverted... though that maneuver required full power and almost full down stick. I heard the guy with the camera mutter that if he didn't see it take off, he would swear he was seeing a full scale Camel putting around overhead. I started thinking about the landing, and how I was not going to let her flip over on her back in front of all these critics. I made a few low slow passes to feel things out, and the camera guy took full advantage to get some real nice shots. I set up a nice pattern, reduced power to near idle on final until she was about 10 feet off of the runway then fed back in about 1/4 throttle...she ballooned just a tad, then resettled into a level decent with just a little up elevator pressure, which I increased until........(drum roll) she settled gently and squarely on her main gear, rolled a ways then settled on her skid...continuing her roll out. After the skid was planted, and she had slowed to a point where I was sure she would not threaten to return to the air, I had full up elevator, and reduced power to idle, to the applause of my thrilled flying buddies. I told them, "What?...That is how I do it everytime." Nobody laughed, so I admitted that I had just been quite lucky in that landing as she is prone to put her face in the dirt. I asked the camera guy if he got any shots of the landing, but he said he became enthralled and didn't want to watch through a viewfinder. He later told me he was also a little scared I may pile it up, and he didn't think I would want that on film...whatever.
After refueling, I returned to the sky...this time applying full power on the takeoff roll. This also made quite the difference, as the tail rose immediately and she stayed solid on her feet with very little tendency to swerve right, and she lifted off straight as an arrow and began her rock solid climbout. A few more graceful, scale-like aerobatics ensued, and strangely I managed another landing which was a carbon copy of the first. While taxiing back to the ramp though, I was burping the tail up to steer, and one of the wheels hit a rut...and PLOWSKIE....face in the dirt....lesson learned.
In case you couldn't tell....I LOVE THIS PLANE!
Edit to add photos