Hawker Sea Hawk

Test flight today? looks a treat!

Calm(ish) this morning. It flies - twice! Very short flights but no damage. It will however need some changes before I try again.

The major issue is it needed almost full down stick to maintain level flight but even like that it was longitudinally stable. I tried moving the battery forward a bit on the second flight and with full down trim set. It still need a lot of down stick.
This suggests to me the decalage is too great. It was after all only set by 'appearance'. :woohoo:
Can't do anything about the wing incidence so the leading edge of the tail plane will have to be raised a bit. Not too hard to do.
It does fly on much reduced throttle and it glides very nicely.
At full power (36A) the 1500 mAh 3s battery is working pretty hard (it got surprising warm after just 20 seconds) so it will be replaced with an 1800 mAh. The extra weight shouldn't be a problem.

It does make an odd noise at full power most likely from the tortuous inlet path. With hindsight I probably should have gone for the 'short trouser' exhaust duct in combination with the longer more direct inlet.
I will know for the next one.

Brilliant news Simon!! That's 2 models ( yours and my Slicker) that have had successful flights this week!

The tail plane incidence adjusted.

Achieved by cutting the underside of the tail plane free and then simply lifting it to insert a 2mm tapered foam 'wedge' all duly glued in place. The fin and fixed rudder had enough 'give' in them to allow this to happen.
Will have to let the glue harden for 12 hrs.
The bigger 1800 mAh compared to the 1500.

Its almost ready to go again.
I will video the next flight.

It is not entirely a fatuous concept to build another. :woohoo:
It would make a nice sequence to build the Hawker prototypes P1052 and P1081.
The swept wing Sea Hawk P1052



The single exhaust Sea Hawk P1081



It easy to see how Hawker arrived at the Hunter.

I would however have to buy 2 more EDFs!

Rather too much wind today to test the new tail plane incidence.
It looks like Sunday should be good with plenty of sunshine and just a 5 knot wind.
So I spent the day trying to get used to the new Hobby King TX6i transmitter. As we have left the EU I bought the 'International' version which does both DMX & DSM2 like my old Spektrum DX6i.
The TX6i specification reads almost identically to the DX6i and all the switches are in the same place so how different can it be. Wrong! :woohoo:
I had forgotten how used I was to the DX6i menu structure and how to access it. The TX6i has a rather different menu and completely different button operations to access it.
Oh well never mind it has 6 'mixes' rather than 2 and 20 model memories instead of 10.
I was thinking of buying another second hand Spektrum DX6i but the prices are silly actually more than a new TX6i.

I know what you mean Simon, I'm looking for another one.

Calm this evening so a flight at 21:30 hrs!

You really need to watch it in 'full screen'.
It was a bit of a rush before the light went completely so I used the small 1500 mAh 3s which meant it was slightly tail heavy.
As you will hear on the video I was 'visited' during the flight by a group of inquisitive lads and girls who asked some questions!
The 2 minutes 40 second flight, with throttle management, took the battery down to 'storage' level.
I does glide really well.
Should be good tomorrow.

great stuff! really enjoyed that, flys a treat Simon!

I was going to put that it looked a bit tail-heavy - - then I read the text!

Looks to be elevator sensitive, but I suppose that's because it's a bit tail heavy.

Enjoyed that video Simon. Once you have the CG right with the bigger battery I think it will fly very nicely.

Flew in again this morning with the bigger battery.
Much better but still pretty 'twitchy' but that could just be me. It may need the big battery moving just a touch further forward.
What is noticeable is a significant up trim required to make it glide nicely. Was not really expecting that given its mid point thrust line.
Sorry but the tiny LiPo in the camera failed so no video.
If it stays calm hopefully a better video tomorrow.

Quite a bit of wind today so no flight but it does look rather better tomorrow early but it will be a good few degrees cooler.

I have also found I have another 55 mm EDF!
Exactly the same dimensions but with a slightly smaller motor so perhaps I can do the swept wing Sea Hawk prototype.

It was calm(ish) this morning (9.00 hrs) and the video worked.

As before better in full screen.
Still a bit twitchy but it does include s roll and a loop just to convince myself it has adequate strength despite the all foam wing simply being glued directly onto the fuselage.
Being finicky the left wing produces a touch more lift than the right so although trimmed neutral it tends to roll to the right under a 'g' load.

I am still not really used to its remarkable glide performance.
Still mustn't grumble, 5 flights with no damage.