FIRST HORIZONTAL FIGURE EIGHT
taran, good to hear about PZ fixing you up. After today's first maneuvering flying, and landing approach practice flight, I was so emotionally drained that almost all of my whole second flight was little more than relaxing "motor powered glider" flying. One time from around 600 feet altitude I timed a dead stick gliding flight down to about 100 feet to be over two minutes. That particular flight lasted twenty minutes on it's 11.1 volt 1200 mAh battery. Maneuvering allowed it's mate to last 16.5 minutes on the previous flight.
Today's practice session revealed a trimming procedure discussed earlier by another light Spitfire pilot that I finally grasped after thinking about how to best avoid stalling out on landing in windy weather. Trimming in some down trim at some point during the decent to land provides a little "insurance" against stalling in gusty conditions. Before today I never changed the trim from that of normal cruising flight when making a landing.
It turns out that this 23.75 ounce configuration of my Spitfire needs to fly at full power on a "strafing run" in order to allow a good "aileron only victory roll" in a climbing flight path after the pull out. By applying full power only after pulling out and up into an escape climb out doesn't provide enough flying speed for a really convincing victory roll.
A "comfortable way" that I have found to perform a bona fide horizontal figure eight (not a Cuban eight) is to enter the maneuver at full power and pull up to nearly vertical before applying full down elevator. This is then followed by applying up elevator after the ship comes around on its outside loop path and starts vertical. The maneuver ends after the inside loop in a vertical climb through the center. The plane can do it but my nervous thumb kind' a spoils the maneuver's shape.
I have found that an iron set on low heat just high enough to do the job can almost completely eliminate wrinkles from "overstressed" areas. The finished areas have an appearance that looks a little like war weary WWII fighters. I actually like the appearance of my Spitter better now than when it was new. From a distance you would never know there was ever a "problem." Yet, up close the plane provides enough evidence of residual damage that great "war stories" can be told.
madwebtvscientist [sm=lol.gif][sm=cry_smile.gif]
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