Next flight

Back again guys.

following my crash I've been left with no choice but to use one of my other planes. I've won an identical ripmax trainer kit on eBay but can't collect until this Thursday now. Too long for me to be waiting for another flight, especially when it also still needs building before I fly.

So I dusted off the Seagull Spacewalker 2 and went about mounting my old Irvine 40 and all the electrical gear.

Set her up ready to fly and went to the field.

its been windy here all week and tonight was no exception. Blowing an easy 25mph with gusts to 30mph. Very windy but I'm afraid I do have a acute case of mustflyitis. It's Terminal!!!! It is for my planes anyway.

After overcoming my upside down engine issues I got her started and ready for take off. I do like the controllable rear wheel on this tail dragger. Very good for taxi manoeuvring. Very twitchy at high speed though and will take some getting used to as my first take off was quite twitchy. Wow though, she didn't need much run into that headwind and she was airborne very quickly.

First thing I notice with this plane is how responsive it is compared to a high wing trainer. It responds to even the slightest controls. I did set the throws at 150% of manuals standard sport settings. That's right between sport and aerobatic settings. Just in case i needed the extra throw when trimmed.

Next thing I noticed is the speed that she flies. I think the Irvine engine pulls harder than the TT one did in my trainer and feels much smoother so that probably adds to the speed.

i love the way this plane rolls so much easier and can climb at a much steeper rate than my trainer could. I was getting a feel for it as much as possible prior to my first landing attempt. This came sooner than expected when I dead sticked down wind. Managed my first landing but overshot my intended landing area and landed further up the field. This plane has a much higher stall speed than my ripmax so you certainly come in a little faster before flaring.

Well it turned out I had ran out of fuel. Thinking back I got carried away and the whole flight was at full throttle and the tank is also smaller. N ext flight I'm going to time flight at three quarter throttle and use that as my guide.

i refuelled and went back up. It's time I was much smoker on take off and after what, compared to my trainer, seemed like a short run I eased back and she climbed out very nicely. I tried some lops and rolls but in this wind I just focused on level flight and getting used to the way she flies.

After 6 minutes I came around to land but for some reason I couldn't throttle down less than 50%. No where near slow enough to land. Throttle was very unresponsive so I had to circle until the fuel went which took another 3 minutes or so. Landed her again quite nicely with a little bounce. It turned out the entire throttle servo had left its tray. All the screws popped out. I guess the screws used before we're bigger but I'm sure they went in tight. I'm just glad it was the throttle and not any other servo.

so first low wing flights went well. Certainly harder to handle than a trainer but not much more. I'd defenitely say less forgiving on a bad landing though as there are no sprung wheels and the wings are held in place with screws.

Next flight ill try to supply video.