Been Flying

Dinosaur juice is what the EV drivers call it, so we call them Floaters, or the Floaterati, because they all drive around in milk-floats! 
 

Just got my Clio back from its MOT.
It took two days with an eye watering bill - £742
A new front spring fitted. 2 front suspension parts and a rear brake caliper. The parts cost £382 the rest was labour.  Ouch! 
And there are seven "advisories" on the MOT certificate!
Interesting the mileage noted on the pass MOT was 4 miles more than the mileage noted the previous day's failure one. They do have a rolling road for the emissions check but 4 miles! 
 

garage charges seem to be off the scale these days, i keep looking at my van and thinking is it worth putting back on the road just to go fly model planes, as i dont need it for anything else, and it needs a new battery for a start 

To get back to flying.
Having been impressed at how well the Depron "Black Arrow" F6 Hunter flew I though it would be interesting to fly my other EDF Hunter the prototype WB188 so I flew it yesterday although It must be more than 2 years since I last flew it. 
 
Identical in construction to the F6 and 50mm EDF but without the saw tooth wing leading edges, the external airbrake housing and the two Sabrina pods that catch the cannon ammo links.
As I hoped it flies just as well as the F6 and maybe a touch faster. Really not that surprising as the prototype airframe is aerodynamically a bit cleaner than the F6 and in my case it is uses the same EDF whereas in full size the F6 had an Avon with about 20% more thrust.
Managed just over 4 minutes including a couple of loops and rolls.
I really should fly it more often!  

Flying for me, today - of course!
Absolute flat calm, a bit cloudy at first, but once the sun burned through, the coats and jumpers were coming off.
I got there for 9.15, beaten by a new member, Paul, I think, who was so keen he'd been there since 8.30.
In dribs and drabs, the other regulars turned up, until there were about 12 actively flying something.
Both Pete and Graham had pupils under their 'wing'. Pete was teaching Simon, who is a professional quad-copter surveyor, but has never flown fixed wing. Graham had a youngster in charge, I never caught his name - but between the pair of them, they managed to crash one model three times, and the club trainer went in vertically - making four!
Mind you, I can't speak. on my third Decathlon flight, I totally misjudged the distance, and the ground leaped up and took the undercarriage off. End of that for today!
So I got the micro-glider out, to find that the tiny batteries won't charge. I can't tell if it is the tiny usb charger or the batteries that have failed. So that didn't fly, either.
Never mind, the Blade heli got four workouts, and later I screamed the big Kobuz around for 20 minutes or so, and still had 40% battery left when I landed it! As there was absolutely no wind, a long approach with full flaps was called for, and took me three go-rounds before I got low enough to MAKE it land!
I was last away, by a few minutes, behind Pete and Mike, at 5.15
 

Still no Hawk trainers showing up on the ADSB tracker. I did see one over Coningsby a few days ago, displaying the i/d Red Arrow. I don't know if it was a solo having a 'jolly' or the team having a practice, with only one transponder turned on to avoid 'clutter'.

Flying for me, today.
Absolute flat calm. Heavy but high overcast at first, but eventually that broke up, leaving blue sky and nice little fluffy 'thermal-top' clouds.
First there, of course, at 0915ish - and got the cabin open, kettle on, and windsock up, though why I bothered, I don't know, it just pointed at the floor all day.
Graham and Alan were next, then in no particular order, Pete, Mark, Stew, Ed, Mike, John R, Neil, Simon, and Ed.
Of my models, I took three, and flew all three several times, Decathlon first, then the Blade heli, and before the crowd turned up, the big lightweight Tango glider, which floated around for somewhere between 20 minutes and half an hour, using just over half a battery.
Through the day, the Decathlon got six flights, the Blade got four, and the Tango two.
The only person to have a 'nasty', was Neil, with his big heavy petrol self-starter. It all went fine, until he came in to land, misjudged it, hit hard, separated the wheels from the fuselage, which flipped up and took a chunk out of the tailplane, the big heavy model then bounced into the air, and the whole front snapped off!
When three or four of us went over to pick the bits up, I got the undercarriage, and commented that the legs and wheels alone were heavier than my Decathlon!
As usual, everyone was starting to depart by 3.30, leaving Mike, John and self.
I finally locked up at 5.45.

 

Been flying, NOT! We all struggle with issues, I currently have a number of models ready for Maiden, or re-maiden, Seagull, Paper plane, Rise Nano, Savage Bobber, Extra 260  and "Y".
The problem is, When I want to fly, Mary's dementia or back pain precludes it, when Mary's good to go it's too windy or too sunny! It's not much fun being beaten to death by the sun.

Flying for me this morning, clear blue and a gentle but chilly Easterly. My son had my car so I had to walk the mile to the field along the Trans Pennine trail with gloves, 2 jumpers & coat!  As I walked along it occurred to me than just 5 weeks ago I did the same walk and relied on the overhanging trees to shield me from the sun in the 25 degree heat.
Anyway I flew the lightweight Canberra PR9.
 
It seemed to struggle to gain height from the full power launch but as soon as I got above the tree height I had to throttle back repeatedly simply to avoid climbing too high. Despite the initial use of full power for the best part of a minute I carried on until the 4 minute timer started beeping so an all glide big circuit and landing. Each cell was showing 3.73V 
It does fly well. I shall have to resist the temptation to build a bigger one as I really don't have room for this small one!    

Sunday flying for me. Not quite first at the field, but first to fly something. The other person was a pupil that was being taught by Peter, who - of course - didn't turn up!
Next in was Alan, without Graham H, who was on holiday.
Then in no particular order, was Ed, Stew, Martyn, John R, Graham P,  Jeff, and Chris.
Today was rather chilly, with a light wind that couldn't decide if it was from the North or the East, so kept changing it's mind!
No new models put in an appearance.
I'd taken the Decathlon, the Kobus, the Tango, and the Blade heli. When I came to assemble the Tango, I found I'd lost a wing-bolt somewhere. I hunted through all the drawers in the cabin, but there wasn't a suitable alternative, until Stew arrived. He had one in his odds and sods box that was the correct pitch and diameter, but 5mm longer, which wasn't important. What WAS important was he brought the wind with him - so it was that bit too much to fly the Tango, which isn't stressed for wild gyrations!
So, the Decathlon got five flights, the heli two, the Kobus and Tango none each!
At about 3, it was getting decidedly cold, and big black clouds were putting in an appearance, so most went home.
Chris, Martyn and I chatted for a while, then Chris packed up. Martyn and I retired to the cabin, where the heater was on, and continued putting the world to rights - until I noticed it was nearly 6!

A brief flight for me at lunchtime as I managed to test fly the Swiss Venom after some rather tricky alterations to its tail booms to reduce some excessive tail plane incidence accrued from repeated tail boom repairs.
 
As Eric pointed out the wind in the Warrington area was variable with some quite substantial gusts but fortunately I had by luck got the tailplane incidence just about right although in the bouncy conditions it was hard to tell if a change in the flight path was the product of being out of trim or the result of some wind shear.
Only about 3 minutes but I decided that as I has proved the mods it was wise so "stop whist ahead" with a smooth glide landing and no damage.     

It did stop raining at 11am and with very little wind so I took out the fully repaired Fokker V25.

Being careful the first launch was at really low power. No problem but the descent was steep so quite likely the wing was actually at or very close to the stall. No damage.
Second attempt with quite a bit more but still not full power it immediately went onto climb stalled and dived in with the inevitable result!
 
Interesting it rolled to the right but the motor torque would cause it to roll left!
I fear my initial low power glide did not truy indicate the state of its aerodynamic balance! 
As the wing itself is not damaged I might repair it (yet again!) but first I will reuse its gyro radio to replace the "dead" one in the V-2 with wings.    

It looks to be seriously under ruddered to me.