I don't think I can really say more about this plane than has already been said. Even if I could I would just be repeating the same rubbish as I have been coming out with for the past two days since I flew my Capiche.
It seems that I have told the same thing to about 100 different people about this little model.
Things like
" I can t believe how much fun this is"
" I hate small planes so how come I like this one so much"
" How the hell does it stay together?"
Basically I took my Capich out with a little skepticism this weekend. As yet I have only seen one fly and that was Paul skinners which doesn't really count as he can make any plane look appealing. So it was off to the field with a selection of models that included a ZN Synergy and my new 2.6m Composite Extra. I put my Capiche in at the last minute just in case it was windy.
I ended up flying the other models once a piece and the Capich must have totaled nearly 15 flights. Now for me thats a miracle. If I manage to fly a model more than three times on a day out this is a lot, so the poor old Capiche didn't now what had hit it.
There were a few skeptics in my club like most i guess. These guys told me that these Capiche's have their wings fall off. well that was just like setting me a challenge. The next three flights were full of full power walls both positive and negative. Followed by blenders at idle that worked up to a 3/4 power blender. Really when i look back at it it was pretty irresponsible flying, but the capiche just took it all on the chin. Not a cracked wing mount, no snapped stab not even wrinkly bit of film. I don't know who was more impressed me or the club moaners.
As for all round flying. Top notch.
I did my first harrier landing. Now this is a move that I have seen done a million times before but have never really had the balls to do. Ive seen a few disasters with flicky models that let go at about 4 foot or models that harrier like alead balloon pancaking into the strip. The Capich is easier to land in a harrier state than in forward flight. 50 foot up 10 foot away from the point you want to Land on. Dial in full up, catch the initial wing rock balance with power and just use throttle to rate your decent. A little jab of power at point of touch down gave me a run out of 3 foot. Superb.
I tried this two point harrier that the boy seems to have become infamous for. High alpha into wind, and just blip the throttle with a little instant snap roll and you are now upside down high alpha doing a negative harrier. I repeated this till I got down to about 8 foot and then lost my nerve. This is a move that needs to perfected to a landing.
The two point harrier then became a 4 point high alpha stationary roll. I liked this one as I fell into it by mistake and a few practice attempts had it looking half decent.
Blenders. What can I say about blenders. This model goes from a Tasmanian devil blurr to a graceful flat spin so sweet it puts my big majestic to shame.
I found it pretty clean in the roll, I would like to try some differential to see if I can get it any better.
Knife edge was good. Very little coupling at low alpha high speed. A bit more work to do on the sticks when it comes to high alpha stuff. I am sure a little mixing would sort this out if you are into that.
Rudder to elevator couple was a lot better than I expected. I did a few circuits just banging the rudder to and fro expecting that nasty pitch and dutch roll toward the ground and was surprised that it took a lot of provoking to get this response. Inverted flat circuits were good. Hard to tell how good as it flicked a bit as it went down wind. I reckon it was blowing 15mph
Prop hang was Ok, again hard to tell as it was windy. Same applies to the torque roll. The only thing I will say about this was that all controls stayed super sharp when upright so when things went a bit west it was easy enough to drop back into a T/R.
Tracked pretty good for a small plane. It was certainly easier to keep on line in those conditions than my synergy. I think I have mine a little nose heavy as slow rolls need a fair bit of down to keep the line straight. I don't know where mine balances apart from its on the wing somewhere. Although it flies in a nose heavy sort of solid way I am S**t scared to make this model any more tail heavy as it such an animal as it is I really don't know what will happen. I might ask Archie where the best place to balance these things is.
Apart from that not much more to tell really. Sorry for such a long winded load of old tripe but I really feel the need to share my fun with others. God knows every body in the shop is sick of hearing about my weekend with the capich so I thought I would bore you lot.
Anyway. I feel the need to say a big well done and thank you to Malc and Pete, and I hope everybody else with a Capich has as much fun as I did, and will.
Regards Al
P.S In my humble opinion I think you would have to look long and hard to get somebody to ARTF this model to this weight and still take the punishment that it will take. Even if you don't like building or like me don't get the time find somebody that does and pay them ARTF money to build you one of these.
Capiche 140 Bring it on