Been Flying

Yes but pretty calm by 7pm so out came another 'gentle' flyer, the Hawker Sea Hawk.
 
It was my first EDF made from XPS sheet foam.
It always has been a gentle flyer perhaps to be expected from its generous area straight wing and light weight.
Flew for 5 minutes this evening but the fight did confirm the inefficiency of its inlet duct arrangement as it required a higher power setting than that needed for the Hawker P1052. Although it uses an identical fuselage and EDF to the Sea Hawk but has a much improved duct design and level of performance.
I will have to think hard on difficulty to benefit ratio of installing a P1052 type duct in the Sea Hawk.
Of course I could do nothing as the Sea Hawk does still fly quite adequately. 
 

Flat calm and almost sunny, but no flying for me.
The damn Creamfields pop-noise concert have taken over our field a day early, again, and there are crash barriers all over the place, and about 8 caravans on the field.
So I'm stuck now for the next two or maybe three weeks!

Yes I drove past a couple of days ago. Every access to the fields blocked off and even a new temporary speed limit in force on the A56. 

Between the rain showers and thunder it was calm and still this afternoon so I flew the lightweight Depron Super Cub.
Ground takeoff and a 21 minute gentle flight with a smooth slow glide landing that did not nose over!
Absolutely no one at the field with just the music "beat" of the Creamfield Festival in the background. It is about 5 miles away as the crow flies!   I do wonder how many will suffer from poor hearing in later life. 

During the flight a formation of 7 jets flew over fast and low. Definitely not the Red Arrow Hawks (aren't they grounded?) much too loud, with a "military" jet exhaust note. 

The 'Reds' were still stuck in Canada - grounded by the poor weather, the last I heard of them.
The Hawks are reaching the end of their useful life, which is why they are only flying a seven-ship, not the usual nine - in an attempt to extend the useful life, as - as yet - there is no replacement fast jet trainer to replace them.
Of course, I didn't have any flight tracker turned on, so I can't say what those jets that S saw - were. (possibly the 'B' team in regular Hawks?)
I could clearly hear the mud-fields bass lines and percussion from here, on the Sunday, so either the wind had changed, or they'd turned the amps up for the final day.
I'll go and find out what kind of mess we have been left with - on our field -  in a few days.
I read on the local facebook chat page that one of the regulars thought it was quieter this year, so I suggested that perhaps they were going deaf! I won't repeat the response!

It appears is was the Red Arrows returning from a weather truncated display at Southport. They apparently did a flypast with smoke over Old Trafford. 
I guess they were low and fast to minimise disruption to busy "Bank Holiday" airliner traffic.
Currently based at Liverpool Airport.  If the weather holds they will display again at Southport and fly back again over Warrington/Manchester area about 5(ish) on their way to Waddington.

Flying for me, today.
Yes, we've got our field back for another year. The track leading to it has been well-hacked up, though, with pot-holes ruts, and ridges all over.
Still - this year they had taken ALL their debris, not left it scattered all over the 'rough'.

I got there for 9.00, first there of course, and got the cabin open and the kettle on.
Then I spent half an hour searching for the wind-sock pole!
It turns out that possibly Graham had put it into the mower shed.
With the sock up, it began drizzling! So I sat in the cabin for a while, and watched the world going round.
At about 11, Lee arrived with his big gliders and his 3D electric helicopter. I think he scared the drizzle away - because the forecast South wind was a flat calm for now.
I flew my Decathlon a couple of times, then after Lee had finished thrashing his heli about, I tried the new mini-glider, the SG133.
It took a bit of pratting about to get the trims right, and then the 1S 180 battery decided that was enough, and the motor cut out. The model floated down into the long grass off to the side of the pits, and a short walk rescued it.
That's when I discovered that the battery hadn't run down, when I was fiddling with the elevator trim, I'd successfully turned the transmitter off! Now I know the fail-safe works, and I need to make a little guard to go at the side of the switch, like I did with the ducted fan Hawk, a couple of months ago.

At about 12, Stew turned up, but not to fly, he was just passing, and called in to see if the field was accessible.
Then Ed arrived, with a couple of models, one of which he'd forgotten the wing for!
Lee left.
I can't recall if it was Mike or John R that arrived next - pretty much at the same time.
Still later, Alan called in just checking that everything was ok. He didn't stop long.

The sun came out to play, and everyone that remained was peeling layers off.
BUT - the wind picked up  from the South, so the air got rather bumpy.
That left John, Mike, and self chatting about this n that - ranging from what the new PM - Burnthem - was messing up, to car electronic gadgets that keep going wrong. That topic was triggered by Chris, of the FPV's, who had succeeded in locking himself out of his electric car at home!
By 5, there was just me left, watching the world still going around.
I locked up at 6.
Four Decathlon flights, and one SG 133, Nobody crashed, although the grass needed cutting, but was too wet, so that as models landed they tripped up.





 

I also flew yesterday but waited for the drizzle to stop. It stopped at 11am and although the forecast suggested it would be windy it was still flat calm so I took the opportunity to test fly the flapped Albatross after some significant repairs.
 
To my relief it flew just as well as as before although I had changed the Rx to a 35 meg as the previous 2.4 with a single short aerial was suspect in certain orientation. With a 30" wire trailing out the back no such problems.
About the only issue is the old Futaba Skysport does not have a flap/elevator mix so you have to anticipate the substantial trim change and manually retrim. It requires almost a full travel trim change between zero ands 50 degree flap but no problem as the Futaba has the trim on sliders allowing virtually instant movement.
Eventually had to terminate the flight after 5 minutes as the drizzle returned but at least I had confirmed the repairs.           
 

Something a bit different - Bert Rutan strikes again! - 

Minimum r/c SG 133
They DO fly! 

Ca\lm and passably warm today so first the lightweight Canberra PR9 with its two tiny 30mm EDFs.
 
As it has a modest 850mAh 3s LiPo the Tx timer is set to 4 minutes. With a bit of throttle management but including a full power loop and roll, I flew for 4:06.
At rest the cells were showing 3.73V in each so it looks like the timer setting is just about right.

This afternoon I flew the Big Dragon 3 gently around for 27 minutes
 
. It loops nicely but the high lift wing section means it does not really roll properly.   

Flying for me, as well
An almost flat calm, initially with lowish cloud, so the jets going into Speke were ducking in and out.
As usual, I was first, at 0930, and got everywhere open and up and running.
Lee turned up a bit later, with his huge glassfibre glider, and his aerobatic helicopter.
Then Graham and Alan, followed by Pete.
That was it for a while,then Mike, Ed, Jeff, Malc, Martyn, and John R arrived. No new models on show, though. Mike had an AcroWot, Ed a home-brew glidery thingy, Jeff had his Mustang and Tundra, both of which went home in bin-bags. Malc had his old pushy glider, Martyn brought his duck and a boxy trainer made up to look like a WW1 fighter, and John R had his Gladiator.

We all flew, in fits and starts, as we also got the grass cut. As it had got quite long, and after having been rained on last night, it was rather wet. When you consider that three weeks ago it looked like straw, it is all nice and green again now. We had to mow a bit, then stop to unclog the wet green gloop from the mower blades, (when everyone grabbed a fly) then mow a bit more. It got done eventually. It needs another cut, yet, as it is still too long. - but 'nuff's enuff!'
I flew the micro SG 133 a couple of times, then sat and watched everyone else for a while, while the tiny batteries charged up again off the 12v I'd put on the bench. Later I flew it twice more, then wondered why it seemed to be taking longer and longer to charge. When I put a voltmeter onto the 12v it was showing 10.5! Somehow all the volts had got used up!
So when everyone but Pete had left, I flew the Decathlon four times, but didn't fly the little Blade heli or the big Kobuz fast glider.
Then Pete and I chatted about the club, how nobody ever volunteers for any tasks, then the forthcoming AGM, when Pete is considering chucking in his dual hats job of Treasurer and Chair, and that Graham wouldn't mind not being Secretary for next year - and who might possibly take on those roles. Under the existing club rules, only members with three or more years continuous can take a post on the committee, which crosses out a lot of recent members!
Then Pete said "Hey  it's nearly 6.30". So we got on with packing up and locking up. 
I left just after 7.


 

 The big Fokker V25 is exactly 1 year old but not yet flown.
 
This evening was really calm so I plucked up the courage to have a go.
First I tried a rolling take off but even with two attempts the long(ish) grass caused it to nose over long before as sort of speed was achieved. Surprisingly no damge.The only solution would be a hand launch.
First attempt with reduced throttle caused the gyro to attempt to maintain launch attitude. A very short staggering flight ending in a stall wing drop. The resulting cartwheel damaged the cowling and knocked off a cylinder from the rotary crankcase. For balance the only solution was to remove the other 8! 
Second  attempt with no cowling and rather more throttle resulted in a near vertical climb but rolling from the motor torque. The gyro could not control ot. Reducing the throttle stopped the climb but not the torque roll. As soon as it was inverted the scale wing section caused the nose to drop immediately to vertical with the result the ground "got in the way" well before I could do anything about it. The result was inevitable. 
 
Much to rebuild!
Probably the most difficult repair will be the wing damage resulting from the three "ripped out" wing retaining bolts.
I might have achieved a better chance of a flight if I had a really smooth runway so the throttle could be advanced progressivly.
I don't have a runway so I shall have to organise suitable changes to the V25 to make a successful hand launch a more realistic possibility.
We shall see!

  

Probably a daft question, but you did check the gyro was working the correct way around, didn't you?

The gyro was definitely working correct way round. I did note the gyro aileron effect was rather small compared to both the elevator and rudder  I expect it was just about the worst combination given the high torque from the big prop and Fokkers generous elevator and rudder areas!
Repairs are underway.

My intention is to print the 9 cylinder rotary in LW-PLA and to power it with a 2s but made up of two individual cells each flat up against the motor bulkhead to compensate for the reduced weight of the rotary.