DP Ultimate 120 Blue Test Flight
#1
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From: Canton,
MI
I test flew my Ultimate today. The flights went pretty good for the first day. Did a few TR's, flat spins, rolling circles, & pattern maneuvers. The rudder has a lot of roll coupling @ knife edge, however less elevator coupling. CG is @ 1" forward of rear top middle cabane. My powerplant is Enya 155R, swinging APC 17x6 @ 9400 rpm. It will go vertical forever, but not quite enough for extreme 3D maneuvers. I think I will put my 1.40 DZ instead.
After 2 flights, I discover a few issues:
1) my wheel pants screws backed out, and the blind nuts in the pants fell off. So the 2nd flight's landing has 1 pant rotated down. But a greasy landing prevented any damage to the pant.
2) my couter-weight inside the left bottom wing tip fell loose. So a 1.5 oz lead strip was just floating inside the wing
3) the most severe of all, the bottom wing's front wood wedge used to secure to the fuselage broke off completely. Lucky I didn't rip a wing off in the air. The top wing kept the bottom wing intact through the cabanes. If I did a full-speed outside maneuver, it might've created a disaster. I am going to use 2 "real" dowels and drill 2 holes to the fuselage former, instead of the 1 cheesy plywood wedge.
4) aileron servos jitter randomly. After coming home, I realize that the cheap extension wires are the culprits. It would jitter when I plug all 4 aileron servos in. But as soon as I disconnect the servo on the cheap extension, the jitter would go away.
[&o]
After 2 flights, I discover a few issues:
1) my wheel pants screws backed out, and the blind nuts in the pants fell off. So the 2nd flight's landing has 1 pant rotated down. But a greasy landing prevented any damage to the pant.
2) my couter-weight inside the left bottom wing tip fell loose. So a 1.5 oz lead strip was just floating inside the wing
3) the most severe of all, the bottom wing's front wood wedge used to secure to the fuselage broke off completely. Lucky I didn't rip a wing off in the air. The top wing kept the bottom wing intact through the cabanes. If I did a full-speed outside maneuver, it might've created a disaster. I am going to use 2 "real" dowels and drill 2 holes to the fuselage former, instead of the 1 cheesy plywood wedge.
4) aileron servos jitter randomly. After coming home, I realize that the cheap extension wires are the culprits. It would jitter when I plug all 4 aileron servos in. But as soon as I disconnect the servo on the cheap extension, the jitter would go away.
[&o]
#2
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From: Durham,
NC
I had to mix in a bit of up elevator to the rudder for my knife edge flight. Still falling off to one side in loops. and my verticle wanders a bit. Trying to figure out how to fix all these things but I sure do love the plane



