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Orca
Jul 11, 2009 18:18:57 GMT 10
Post by sean on Jul 11, 2009 18:18:57 GMT 10
It flies! Flew beautifully actually. I spent about 40mins range testing the 2.4 setup, we gave it a quick test throw then Nick threw it off the hill at Bald Knob. It flew straight out of his hand, only needed a few clicks of up trim. There was hardly any wind but it had no trouble staying in the air. Handling was very forgiving, tried flying it really roughly in tight thermal turns and it didn't drop a wing. Rudder authority is massive, so much better than the V tails I'm used to - I found that to be a big help getting the fuse to track through thermal turns. Not much lift so I couldn't get much height to see how quick it is, though it didn't seem all that quick - I guess ballast might help a bit there. The flaps didn't seem to slow it down quite as much as I was expecting though I was coming in pretty steep, I need to do a lot more flying to suss that out properly. I could only get about 60-70 deg on the flaps, that seems to be all that's possible with the stock horn setup. I think when I get the hang of it it should be OK in that regard. CG was pretty forward at 103mm, pulled up pretty sharply in a dive test. I plan to thermal it with a forward CG to keep it fool proof, but I'll move it back a bit from where it is. It Looked great in the air, and stayed up very nicely in the very light lift today. Overall very happy. Hoping to get it on the winch on Monday.
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Orca
Jul 11, 2009 18:51:52 GMT 10
Post by sean on Jul 11, 2009 18:51:52 GMT 10
Here are some pics from the day of the maiden. Didn't get any in-flight pics unfortunately. This shows it with the shorter 3.39M tips. Next to trusty Erwin:
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Orca
Jul 11, 2009 19:07:11 GMT 10
Post by jirvin4505 on Jul 11, 2009 19:07:11 GMT 10
Gee it looks good Sean The thermal scene around the winsock team looks very healthy. Starting to look like some serious competitions coming up ;D ;D I had better get down to the shed and build the light weight Europhia or joine Shane and get a Supra built cheers Jeff - See you monday
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Orca
Jul 13, 2009 22:48:13 GMT 10
Post by sean on Jul 13, 2009 22:48:13 GMT 10
The Orca had its first day of winching today. It launches very nicely! The wind was quite strong, around 15kt I reckon. The first launch it went vertical straight out of Shane's hand and just kept going... straight up... pulling huge tension. I was a bit slow to respond and before I knew it the winch was complaining and the line broke, but not before getting some pretty decent height. The line I was using is old and had a knot so no big surprise there - inspection on landing revealed the knot had failed, although this knot had lasted dozens of flights before this including a day of competition at Toowoomba so the Orca was pulling a lot of tension . I put in a few clicks of down for the second launch to reduce tension a touch. The second launch it again went vertical but got off the line with no break and good height despite being poorly piloted (I felt very rusty with the winch launches today, it's been a few months for me). Third launch was very eventful - again straight up with big tension. I remembered to reduce launch camber halfway up the launch, then as i pushed down to start the zoom it disappeared momentarily in the sun. When I regained sight of it, it was heading down at mach one, having spent much too long in the pre-zoom dive. I pulled up way too sharply (scared of catching the line) and it whipped up into the vertical with strongly bent wings . Height was very good! Very scary and a good test of airframe strength!!! The sun was right where you do your zoom, and a few of the guys today lost sight of their models during the zoom - a very scary time for that to happen!! The next few launches were less eventful as i got a bit more comfortable, and as the sun got lower. I have a long way to go to perfect the launches with this bird, but you can see it has a lot of potential in this regard. Thermalling this plane was a revelation for me after my Pike. Rudder authority is fantastic and it felt so much smoother and more controllable during thermal turns compared to my Pike. I found myself using rudder a lot. The Orca isn't supposed to be as good working low level bubbles as the Xplorer and Perfect, but this must all be relative as it felt great in this regard to me. Also it seemed to just hang in there while I indecisively fluffed around at low level looking for lift. The other thing it seems to do well is covering sky with minimal height loss. Most of the day the air down low in the landing zone was very turbulent and in those conditions I found accurate landings to be quite difficult, it got knocked around a lot. Of course practice and control tweaking will help a lot there. late in the day the wind dropped and the air became really smooth, in this air the last landing of the day saw the Orca come in with beautiful control for a 100 point landing on our makeshift landing tape! To my surprise I dorked it in too, didn't think I'd do that for a bit longer . I have to do something to increase braking during the landing run, my Orca doesn't seem to be living up to its reputation in this regard. Overall a very positive day of flying from the Orca. It has a lot of potential and I have a long way to go to do it justice.
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Orca
Jul 13, 2009 23:05:29 GMT 10
Post by ezza on Jul 13, 2009 23:05:29 GMT 10
That is fantastic Sean. Sounds really impressive. Just need some more crow hopefully. You must be taking this bird to Harrisville this weekend? Eric
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Orca
Jul 13, 2009 23:13:22 GMT 10
Post by sean on Jul 13, 2009 23:13:22 GMT 10
I hope to Eric, not sure if I can make both days but would definitely like to make it on one of the days. Are you planning to go both days?
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Orca
Jul 14, 2009 5:38:37 GMT 10
Post by nick on Jul 14, 2009 5:38:37 GMT 10
cool as sean im glad you got her home safely after her first tow day, still sounds scarey losing her in the sunlight, going to jeffs tonight to look at the faser fix so i hope i wont be too long grounded regards nick
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Orca
Jul 20, 2009 9:25:55 GMT 10
Post by ezza on Jul 20, 2009 9:25:55 GMT 10
Seans' Orca. I'm super impressed with this plane. It penetrates and floats. Launches are full tilt. Amazing that it is so strong yet light. Looking forward to getting dads' built so I can have a fly. Hehehe
Harrisville was alot of fun. Conditions were perfect, except for the odd down wind launch. It was excellent to catch up with alot of the gang as I have not been up that way for a while.
Eric
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