Today was too nice a day to not fly, so I flew.
Haven't flown anything for 2 years, I'll bet. Still a little bit numb from dental work earlier in the morning, too [possibly an advantage to be on lidocaine and coffee for the first flight].
The first launch didn't go well. The plane did a half roll, 180 half spin and pancaked in on the short grass. That cut down 7x3 really was pulling like a SOB and it really shot the model out of my hand...too bad the prop didn't make it.
Back to the drawing board. I brought some manila file folder paper, tape, ruler, scissors, brake cleaner, rags....and built a bigger fin right there at the field. I made it extra big and dorky looking. CG check last night showed that the CG is at 17%, so I knew I had some leeway for adding weight in back.
I un-flooded the engine and put on a 6.5 x 5.5 prop [size .10 pylon prop].
The engine sounds kind of maxxed out with this much prop. Would not want to try any larger, but with zero nitro fuel and the full stack of shims the engine was OK with it.
Next launch was perfect. It flew absolutely beautiful. The model kept accelerating and accelerating with that prop getting up to pitch speed. I won't even guess how fast it was going, after 2 years of no flying my senses are out of tune. I didn't dare move my eyes from the plane to find the elevator trim until it was gliding home. All it needed was some up trim, everything else was perfect.
For the next flight I lopped off some excess fin to a better looking profile and the model flew just as well. I called it a day after this flight, not knowing when the taped on fin was going to fail and to cycle the new batteries.
So, it's a very stable little model [considering how tiny it is] but I don't have my "RC Eyes" dialed in after such a long layoff. Even though this thing has the same span as the .40 sized deltas, it's so thin that it will take some time to get used to watching it fly. I expect after a dozen flights things will seem to slow down. This is like the first trip to the batting cages after spending all winter staring out the window.
The speed props came in from Steve Wilk, so for the next session I will have the video cam going and hopefully get some good footage and some good clockings.
The engine turns 24,700 with this prop, so maybee 26,700 in the air. If so, it confirms my visual impression that the model was hitting the 130 mph range.
I'm pretty sure that dropping down to 5.5 x 5.5 or 6 x 5.... will be an improvement.