At last, a calm day for the maiden of the Daddy Rabbit, 3mph wind and very warm, it has been 98 all day and I'm lovenit!!
On maiden day Ialways bring out an extra plane or two so today Itossed in my CG Extra. It was a just in case, not in case of a crash, Inever crash
but Ihave had new planes that just didn't work for some small reason? It happens!!
The new Daddy Rabbit is a scratch build from plans, it was the 1966 class three pattern winner at the Nats that year. Ibuilt this little plane as close to the plans as I could, building them stock is not something Ido and this one was hard for me, Idon't build trike gear or ever have an engine sticking up looking at me, it's just really ugly looking and another something Inever do. Trike gear, how girlie!!!
The plane came in at 7 3/4 pounds, it was designed way back in the olden days to come in heavy so it could cope with different wind conditions. Abreak away from ARF thinking!! Iinstalled the SK .91 two stroke engine. This is the first time Ihave ever used this ugly stock muffler too.
Surprise, the SKfired right up, it was in a crash {make that an almost never crashes} last year and just cleaned and tossed under the bench. The surprise was the fuel tank is 8.5 inches away from the carb, that's the front of the tank. Iguess you can say the SK engines really suck!!
The servos are Hitec 5475s for the elevator and rudder and 475s for the ailerons. I used an old HT80 for the throttle and the HT81 for steering. Iused a flex cable for the steering arm to take up any shock to the gear train just in case there is ever an ugly landing. Ihave the steering servo slaved to my rudder, Ifly with an old Futaba 9-C and mixing things like this is very easy.
The big moment, take off roll out, YAWN!!! Straight, maybe there is something to be said for this trike gear stuff?? Lift off, YAWN!! Trim, Four beeps of down elevator. This plane Ihave trimmed at under 1/2 throttle. Most the time Itrim for fullthrottle. Not anymore.
The DR tracks like it was on a rail, Iput it through the Sportsman Know Sequence and it's anti climatic.
Things Inoticed about this plane compared to my Kaos. Any plane Ican remember building was always sensitive to any rudder input, the DR is way different, Ican go from side to side with the rudder stick flying straight and level and it just wiggles it's butt a little?? Itook it up a bit and wonder of wonders it went into knife edge without any drop going either direction?? Ikept playing with the rudder and can't figure this one out. With any of my other planes Iwould have been slipping into a snap roll or some other nasty stunt. The stall test showed straight and level,just sunk the nose down and when Igot the speed back up it just started flying again.
Landings?? Well I'm not used to seeing one of my planes land without bouncing?? This plane only has 1.5 inches of prop clearence and Iflew all morning and still have the same APC up front?? That's not like me at all! Ihave decided that this trike gear makes me look good, take off and landings are straight, turning and coming into my pit is easier then driving a car. I'm liking it!!
The one thing other then the rudderI noticedis how fast this plane is. It is fine as far as take off and landing speed goes but in the air it just hauls mule. Iknow all the old school turn around patterns planes were fast but this one will smoke my Kaos!! Iwill be testing props next time out and may go to a three blade for a little extra breaking?? That;s the fun part of a new plane, all the testing and little trimming to get it to fly like the perfect machine.
I'm happy with it. It lacks that smoothness of an Extra or Yak but what the heck, it's old school pattern!!!
Gene