What's going on

Just came back from a glorious morning's flying. Was a quick one as work and other such "real life" events are unfortunately getting in the way, but what a glorious morning.

The sun was up and shining brightly. The ground was cold and frosty, but it was dead still. That often takes people by surprise about Canberra. The reward for enduring one of the really cold nights is often a beautiful bright, sunny, warmish, alpine winter's day.

I put up my GWS Mini Dragonfly first. She now has her new superskids, and a new 2s 1300 mAh battery courtesy of NQRC (when I say courtesy, I did pay for it, although Paul Daniels from NQRC did very kindly replace my 3s 2200mAh that went in with the RV4 at cost price when he heard about my misfortune, which was a lovely gesture). The new battery had the MDF ready to lift off at around the half throttle mark.

Today I tried to keep her in the air for longer with mixed results. Although still struggling for control I put her in for a few controlled "crashes" although I did go in heavy by the boom at one stage and broke the boom, but not a clean snap through. It could have been worse - I realised what I was doing (pulling back on the cyclic pitch - the "elevator") and pushed forwards in time to stop her landing only on the boom.

After that the boom, although broken, looked strong enough to fly. Of course, even though the boom could support its own weight on the ground I of course forgot to consider that in the air it has the added force of the tail rotor acting on it. Once I had her in the air and semi-stable I realised the tail boom was handing down behind the heli at like a 30 degree angle of deflection - oh dear. Brought her in to land - no probs.

The super skids are awesome. They turn hardish landings into a non-event.

Tucano was next on the flight line. With the Zero out of commission we borrowed the Zero's multiplex battery (which I must review sometime) and had a nice relaxing flight with her (yes - relaxing - with the Tucano). When she isn't glitching she is actually quite a lot of fun to fly. Today I was working on hammerheads, nice long loops etc. I must try some knife edges again, but haven't found them all that easy to do with this plane.

A great flight was followed by a great landing in still conditions. I've concluded flaperons are a real mixed blessing - they give you a very slightly lower stall speed, but at the same time unless they are perfectly setup they throw your plane out of trim, and you end up having to compensate with aileron as well while landing. I think the Tucano is easier just to bring in hot with no flaperon, let her flare for a long long time with the power off until she just touches down. It takes a little more planning to hit the landing area, but with her smart undercarriage, going long onto grass isn't an issue (going long into the ditch is another matter).

The Tigermoth had a spin. I've figured out how to snap roll her, and she looks beaut doing it. I just wish my girl wasn't quite so bent - her injuries from my inept flying plus radio issues at the start of my flying career have left her permanently scarred and basically impossible to trim. This comes through particularly as she changes angle of attack at speed. Her right wing, which obviously has more flexible hot glues joints in it, bends up a little more than the left and she puts herself into a right hand roll. Oh well - maybe one day I will buy a new airframe, but probably not.

Other RC news. My Microseether is coming along gradually. Nice little kit with excellent instructions. Also - the full kit is the full kit. Excluding avionics/motor there is nothing more to buy. It even comes with covering. I'll do more of a writeup once she is done.

I sat down with the RV4 wing last night to start the job of rebuilding her. The wing was the least damaged part (although ironicially it took the impact of the mid-air, and the damage to it was what crippled the RV4). Boy - what have I left myself in for here. I was expecting the wing to take about an hour to repair. However, I was expecting the balsa spars to still be in place, just broken, but all the pieces to be intact. Unfortunately, not that easy. Damage to the leading edge and two of the three spars on the top of the wing will require complete replacement of that section. All very doable, provided I can find the balsa for it.

Sorry - no photos for this post. Maybe next time.