Well guys you were not wrong!
Saturday just gone I went round to Peter’s who has the Raptor 30, it was just to set her up really. Check that the servos worked in the correct direction, reduce the pitch down to the “Beginners” setting and so on. One thing that we did have a problem with though and that was seeing at what end of travel was fully closed and fully open on the throttle, I’ll come to this later. OK, so we were happy and decided to see if we can get the engine to run up. I got Pete to hold the rota, just in case, whilst I engaged the starter and pulled the trigger, well she fired up, but she was at FULL throttle!
A quick bit if thinking, I pinched the fuel line and she stopped, phew! Reversed the throttle and things were a bit calmer as the engine had a really nice low tick over. Took her into Peter’s garden and run up the rota to check the tracking, all looked very good as I got her light on the skids. Handed the transmitter to Pete so that he could feel this state as the Raptor got light on the skids, and lighter and lighter, “Pete, take it easy, if we get another gust of wind it will be airborne” I said, panicking! With that Peter opened up the throttle and did a little hop of about 6 inches, I was frantic at this stage as we did not know what state of trim she was in, or not. [:-] He pulled the throttle back after this and said “Do you want a go?” “Yes” I said, he handed me the transmitter and retreated to a safe distance.
I opened the throttle nice a gradual and let the head come up to speed. That rota is so intimidating! Got her light on the skids checked we had cyclic control and opened the throttle up into a hover. WOW I’m still shocked at how stable this bird is, and in a breeze. I still cannot believe how easy it is to fly. You guys were correct. Thanks for the re-assurance.
