Been Flying

Flying for me, as well.
At the field for 9, near flat calm, patchy cloud with glimpses of the sun.
The ground is still too wet to mow, so I did some weeding instead, in the wild-flower garden I had going, until the sheep broke the fence down and ate the plants!  Anyway, some are starting to show new shoots, so I get busy evicting grass runners and a thistle before they can get established.
In between, I flew the Decathlon twice.
Stew arrived at about 1130, then a few more trickled in, in fits and starts, until there were about half a dozen of us.
My Student Paul was last in, his wife decided they needed to go shopping first! So he arrived at about 2.30, just as the other few were starting to pack up.
Paul got two and a half flights in - he told me AFTER the model was in the air that he'd put a smaller battery in, so it was a bit like flying a bucking bronco! (just ever so slightly divergent in pitch!) but he managed to get it down in the right field. For the second flight, he put the heavier battery in, and the model trundled around gently, like it was supposed to. He's still doing take-offs, circuits, and landings. but on one he was a bit too high and running out of field, so I told him to put the power on and go round - so he pushed the elevator stick instead of the throttle!
Splat! from about three feet - nothing I could do from there! That broke the prop.
Nothing on the blades to give the diameter or pitch, so he had to use his phone to call up the manual. It proved to be a 10 x 5. Of course he didn't have a spare, but I had a 10 x 6 in my spares bag.
Soon fitted, (using my spanner!) and Paul discovered what difference an inch of pitch makes, as the model scorched around like an escaped banshee until he throttled back!
So over all, ten take-offs, circuits, and landings for him. All I did was hold the master transmitter!
We locked up at about 4.45. Not too long ago, we'd have been using torches to see the padlock combi's
Spring is springing, etc etc.

 

Just a little flying for me at 3:30 pm. 
Same problem as for Eric, my field is both muddy and soggy. I decided to fly the Bog Dragon 3 as it has a printed fuselage so the underside can be safely washed.
 
Only about 16 minutes before I decided my fingers were cold & the breeze was starting to get up as well.
Its underside did indeed need washing.

BOG dragon? I thought it used to be the BIG dragon! Was that a deliberate typo? 
 

 how fast does it go?

Not very, it's a slow flyer!

Janine
Speed is not what it was built for. Relatively light and aerodynamically pretty efficient it glides nicely power off. It also has a big battery so can cruise about for over an hour.
It also has lots of spare thrust so at full power it can go straight up.

As I like building really light even my scale versions of supersonic jets like this one.
 
Actually fly relatively slowly which at my age suits my speed of reaction!   
 

A lot of grass cutting proceeded that session. Hope the reconstruction goes well.

A confusion - one of the images with the two models by the tree... the caption 'fun cub' but that is not the 'original fun cub'. How are its flight characteristics?  

Yes Jon, well spotted, the picture should have been entitled 2 models for maiden.



This badly edited clip is the WotsWot maiden, my sight got knocked on the Wait-a-Bit tree that BB was standing under.

Nice view of the scenery and a wobbly wire!
That's why I prefer expo to rates, it gives you a very soft response around neutral stick, but if you want full throw, it is there. No tryng to remember which switch, and groping for it, while you try to defeat Izaac!

I always use 60% expo, take off was at half recommended movement, I regained proper control at 25% of recommended! Checking CoG as we speak.

BB flew his repaired glider this morning, here's the bits
 
almost a carbon copy of the first flight,

Repairs under way, BB think we need to dial down the movements.

Is that a Warthog in the background? - Behind the pile of hay.

Observation about the carbon copy crash - and prior comments about the lack of dihedral. I am imagining taking the main spar and introducing a few degrees of dihedral with a bit of CAD work and 3D printing as in the following couple of images. The dihedral block can be printed with lots of perimeters and a fair amount of fill for strength and still weigh not very much. The image is one of 4 degrees but it would be a minor tweak to make it 2.5 or 3 degrees.

Note that block was made for a fx707 foamy. I tried to flex it and the CF spar would have broken first. Probably there is a lot more room for a scaled-up block in that larger model. It would require either cutting the CF spar or finding a couple of equivalent lengths of CF in the boat room

     

It would be wise to remember that dihedral only gives straight line stability, it's the yaw induced by the rudder that causes the outer wing tip to accelerate, creating more lift which initiates the turn.

Unless of course you use the ailerons to lift the wing and then the bank creates a side force which initiates the turn. A rudder is not essential to turn!