Maiden Flight Report

Saturday 9/15/07 9:30am

Arrived at the flying field after a departing from home three times - kept forgetting stuff...

My good friend Jay, an RC veteran, help me go over all the Raptor's functions. We found several corrections needed in the elevator functioning, and made a bunch of radio setting tweaks to get the Dual Rates and Travel limits set properly.

Then we balanced the Raptor. Good balance was achieved with the battery pack way at the back, pretty much as expected.

Then we did a full blown range check. No problems with DX7 function at long distance with the Test Button down. The AR6000 is sufficient for this plane.

Then we filled the tank, and started her up. No problem, she immediatle went into a nice smooth idle.

Then I taxied around a bit, and trimmed the steering. Perfect.

Then I lined her up, looked around, took a deep breath, and went for take off.

She was near full throttle and near the end of the runway, and not lifted off. Hmmm. Ok, give a little up elevator - she took off!!

Careful to not nose up too high, she climbed and started a big gentle climbing right turn. She's flyin' son!

Then Jay was asking me about the control. Nope, I was not fighting it at all. "Jay, she is pretty much in trim already!" "What? Really? No way!" "Yep. Way." She was cruising flat with 'hands off' the sticks. AWESOME!!

After a couple large oval flat circuits, I gave a couple clicks of down elevator and right aileron trim. Tracking excellent!! Tried a couple hard-on-the-rudder turns. Pretty nice, but needs more Rudder throw at the Low Rate mode.

Ailerons were too touchy. There was a gentle but turbulent breeze, and compensating for it made trouble. Too hard to fly steady. I was getting worried about landing.

Ok, after two dry runs at the runway, I pulled around and started a nice big wide turn to line up for final approach.

Looking really good. She is gliding better than the FSOne simulator led me to believe. In future, I can do the final approach at a lower throttle level.

I was comfortable down to about the last foot of altitude - then what happened, I am not sure. Probable pilot error, but also the turbulence was a factor, and the fact that the ailerons were too sensitive.

I cam down too hard but at least she was flat. The prop hit the runway and shattered, and the motor stopped instantly. She bounced up hard and I glided her down the rest of the way down after the nasty bounce. She landed flat again, but kept straight, and finally rolled off the edge of the runway into the rough and stopped.

Damage Report

B+

Front nose gear hardware shattered, some minor wood damage around where the hole is. Easy patch / fix. Need to replace steering pinion / arm.

Aft landing gear slightly bent.

Prop wasted. Got plenty of spares ready for balancing.

THAT'S IT!!! No body or wing damage at all!! WOOT!!

The wings and the ass end of the plane never touched ground. The landing gear took all the abuse. Right on.



Contibuting Factors to Hard Landing

Windy conditions.

Need more sim time, especially shortly before takeoff so that thumbs are 'in the zone' at the flight line.

Need more flaps during landing. I set the static flaps for some mininal flap - about a half inch down. No problem for cruising, but more flap needed at landing. I will install the flap servos next week or so.

Pilot experience, or lack thereof.

Plane is tricky. Trainer MY @$$. I am a decent intermediate pilot and I say if you are a newbie, starting with this plane, you are doomed.

Pics later. I'll show the damage and the fixes.

Thanks for all the help! I had a radical time, right there on the bleeding edge of the hobby. Great rush, great fun.