After spending the week painting, I went out for some fresh air and got some more Gripen flights in yesterday. I even remembered to bring my video camera to the field. One of the club members kindly shot the video which I uploaded to YouTube. Raw footage, sorry, didn't have time to do any editing.
This was flight number eight, and the third off of asphalt. There was a definite reduction in the "Gripen Leap" which is encouraging. Based on the experience gained in the previous flights off an asphalt runway, I had a very good idea of when/where the plane would get light on the nose wheel. I stood in an ideal location to see it clearly and was ready with my finger on the flight mode switch. I applied ~70% power (you can hear the radio beep as the throttle goes through the 1/2 way point) and held full up elevator. When the plane got light on the nose, I switched mode but kept the full up elevator and it lifted off. The takeoff was still a bit steep, so on the next flight, I'll relax the up elevator just a bit after I see the nose rise. There was also a bit of pitch oscillation in the climbout so a bit more expo (I believe I'm using 30% now) will be added. Still, it was a vast improvement over my previous flights and this is encouraging and gave me a big smile.
The flight was mostly a few simple practice maneuvers for Top Gun (high speed pass, low speed pass, roll, etc) but also I tested the speed brakes in flight. They didn't open due to minimal/zero gap around the speed brake and a bit of play in the hinge. While they work great on the ground, the drag and air cylinder pushes the speed brakes rearwards just enough that the back edge jams against the cutout. I'll sand 1/32" or so off the back edge of the speedbrakes and try again tomorrow.
I also did a drop test of the centerline tank. While the tank did eventually drop, it held on too long so I'll have to sort that out too. I'm not sure at this point if it is an aerodynamic or mechanical problem.
Here's the video....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtXRUNV1JJ0&feature=youtu.be
Regards,
Jim