andyede

Flew mine for the first time yesterday.

I am using the stock motor and prop. with an Xtra22 ESC and ripmax 8.4V 600mAh NiCad. My building was hampered by a duff speed controller with wanted full throttle all the time. this had the amusing affect of throwing the motor and propeller across the room when i first connected them up. after a replacement everything was fine (apart from the small issue of wiring the motor up the wrong way around....i knew i had to reverse it but for some reason nothing in my brain told me that red to + and black to - was wrong in this case) so set the control throws up approximately as stated in the instructions and went over to my local park. My CoG was very slightly aft but i wasn't too worried about this as i thought i might help the climb out.

I had tried to get a friend to come and help me throw but ended up in my own so after waiting for all the old giffers to finish walking their dogs around very slowly gave it full power and a good hard chuck!! It seemed to follow a text book ballistic trajectory straight into the ground before i got my hand anywhere near the stick. This cracked the plastic under the nose in a few places but nothing serious to not to be out done by a bi tof foam i picked it up to try again....

As i was thinking about how to make it abit more successful i remembered reading about putting in some up trim atleast for the first launch so i added about 1 1/2 - 2mm up and tried again. Good hard throw slightly upwards and we were away. It sank but the nose didn't drop and it very soon picked up speed and was climbing away. The motor torque took it ot the left slightly which since i am normally a glider pilot and havn't flown powered for years was abit of a flashback experience.

I soon realized that where i was flying is not nearly big enough. i was having real trouble trying to not fly over the trees and was still desperately trying to trim the thing. the rearward CG was making it really unstable and i didn't have a very good roll rate. also i was stalling in the turns, i could hear the prop slipping as the airflow broke from the top of the wing. after about a min i thought it might be time to get it on the ground and adjust my control throws so after 2 slow passes got it on the ground alittle way away. I upped aileron control quite abit and elevator alittle, and also puled the battery forward a few mm but couldn't really check it cos of the breeze. Second flight, launched same as before had some more contorl but CG was still aft and was still very unstable. Battery soon died from te 2 flights so brought it in again and went home to charge and play.

I sorted the CG out, increased the aileron throws some more and sorted out the damage from the first throw. I decided i needed more room so i went up on the south downs (UK) where i had big open fields to fly in and a nice smooth wind. i had 3 more flights up there and didn't change a thing. I was loving it but it got dark too soon to get anymore in.

This things gets upto speed damn quick when you put the nose down! i soon got the hang of it, sweeping turns and low passes look great but don't try and turn it too tight or you will hear the prop slip and the speed drop. The change in airspeed between up and down wind can interesting when doing proper circuits but most of the time i was dossing about doing fast stuff. There is one thing i do need to change however. i found that it really tries to put its nose down when under power and i had to hold in quite alot to make it climb so i've put a bit of balsa under the rear of the motor to see if that helps but i have yet to fly it again. This is because my speed controller seems to have melted and i havn't got a clue why....very annoying.

After the first few flights i thought this was going to be a dog to fly but i really enjoyed the last few. i was confident enough to fly low doing turns and circuits ata bout 2/3 throttle and landings were easier than i thought to. Some power s needed but it is still controlable and can be slowed up more than you would think. no power at all is interesting cos it slows down alot and it easy to stall if you pull up to much. i didn't time it but i think i was getting about 4 - 5 min flight times, maybe more. I'll get back when i've had some more flights to see how its still going