Ladies and gentlemen: we have F L I G T of the Dust Devil! After sitting as a box of wood since 1999, the "Beast" took flight yesterday, Sunday July 9th. Late in the afternoon, around 4 pm, we had 5-10 MPH winds from the west and temp around 85 - clear skys and excellent visibility. The plane handled very well on the ground. It ran down the runway a few times, and the tail came up every time ... I could tell it wanted to fly.
Take off run was predictable and smooth. Tail came up, as expected. With a touch, and I mean a touch of up elevator it literally jumped into the air. The instructions did say that "up elevator" is sensitive, and they are right. First right turn was smooth, and the plane leveled-off well. Very surprisingly, no trim was applied or needed. The plane tracked straight and true, and was very well behaved and smooth throughout the first few turns. At the 5 minute mark, the nose was pointed into the wind and the engine was throttled down to ready the Dust Devil for the landing approach. The glide path was smooth, and maybe a little too slow. You can see from the video a subtle stall in the last few seconds caused a bit of bouncy landing ... I'll need some more practice with this plane to get used to managing the speed and a good flare at the end. Overall, a satisfying day.
My daughter put together a nice video that is posted on YouTube. The link is attached. Thanks for all the feedback through the build ... I truly appreciated the insights.
Good flying all!
Z-Trap