Post by thevon on Mar 10, 2009 21:01:12 GMT 10
I want to avoid spending too much time writing these stories but I’m so bursting with enthusiasm after flying at Beechmont today, that I have to have a quick rave. I picked up our new dog hydrobath at Burleigh today, squeezing it into the Outback and then repacking heaps of glider stuff around it and headed for the hills. The radio news was saying 75kph winds on the coast and there were light showers scudding through occasionally but as it turned out, 95% of the arvo was clear.
It was about 2pm when I got to Rosins Lookout and met up with Kane and Ivan – great to make their acquaintance for the first time. The lift was huge. You could hear the roaring in the trees and I was a bit scared – my main aim was to maiden the Fazo – the 3 metre Caracho wing mated to a Fazer fuselage. This was serious wind.
I warmed up with the Nemesis. Again I say – what a plane! That little thing is totally awesome. By the time we finished today Kane was begging to get one. And with good reason! Kane got his new Zipper airborne – he got this thing fully molded from Glenn at Off the Edge and couldn’t be happier with it. He was crowing with excitement. Yesterday was the maiden and today he had the CG dialed and the Zipper was really cranking. A very fast fun machine and it even does great outside loops! The vac bagged wing with spruce leading edge feels really strong.
Ivan got his Raptor carving too. This is a Future Slope Designs plank which Kane can sell. It seemed really good, the little bits I saw – mostly I was watching my own plane! The frontside lift was just huge. It’s been a long time since I’ve flown in lift like that. You could lose sight of the plane climbing too high, easily. I reckon you could have flown a park bench in that lift and it would have felt nimble and aerobatic. Amazing.
I dived over the back of the trees for some wild DS. So wild I had 3 huge near misses, one where I went back out the front inverted. Kane counseled me to cut the aileron rates back by half, so I landed, but this is a scary exercise. They land over the back which involved flying thru the shear between trees into a gully with dead/ mixed air and over powerlines, turning back at the end without hitting a second set of powerlines, pulling flaps and flying now UNDER said powerlines following the contours over soft undulating kikuyu till it touches down. After a couple of trial runs I put her down beautifully, and when I retrieved it found the wing had stopped 3 inches from a corner star picket! Very lucky!
Kane got the Opus up – another fantastic plane in fantastic conditions – what more can you say! The half pipes were so big you almost lost sight of it at the top.
But despite the nerves I had to stick to the plan and fly the Fazo. Kane and Ivan were really taken with it - I nearly took out a restraining order to stop them from stroking and kissing it. I finally satisfied them by taking a photo of them with it.
From left - Kane, me and Ivan. Planes are Opus, Zipper, Raptor, Fazo and Nemesis.
Then after putting in a bit of ballast, range checking etc I ran out of excuses and had to launch. Straight out of the hand, not one click of trim required! It was truly beautiful to fly and to watch. Big, fast, smooth and with a roll rate a 2 metre would be happy with. It was gi-normously nice and I was in love with it very soon. Coming across the slope with flaps down, trying an approach it suddenly pitched into the grass for a fast but flat landing, which although unplanned looked OK, but unfortunately a woody weed stem had mashed a section of wing on the centre panel. No big deal but a bit sad on the first flight! When I got back to Kane he said “Oh, no, are you on 36meg? (Yes) Did it happen in front of that tree? (Yes) Oh, I’m sorry! Should have told you everyone on 36 gets a big glitch right there! Never fly just in front of that tree!” So I don’t know for sure whether that was the reason, but it made me feel a bit better.
Then it was the Vector’s turn and again I could rave. What a fantastic plane! My first flight in big lift and the first flight using some ballast. It was so perfect it was almost boring. It was smooth, user friendly, fast, aerobatic and fun. Flying it was like a flight sim game set on “dead easy”. It just went everywhere and every which way.
Then we pulled out the old Bat which I’ve modified with a zip-tied Reaper boom and fin, and an aluminium tube for a nose. I was pessimistic as the Bat hasn’t been much fun lately but in this incarnation it was OK. Mind you as I said, anything would have felt good in that lift. We got the radar gun out and got stuck into some “I don’t care about this plane DSing” and got 98mph before a funny fast treetop crash which did no harm, then later it bellied into the ground at a similar speed and separated the fuse tube by snapping the ties and wing bolt. This is great because that’s what I designed it to do.
Five minutes would have had it back in the air but instead, with some encouragement I had another crack at DSing the Nemesis, this time with much lower rates. And it was much smoother than before. 130mph was the best read but it’s an intense place to DS. You have to approach, bottom turn and exit within a small area. Plus the wind was far from smooth with some unexpected swirls etc. There was one huge flickout over the treetops - I don’t know how I got out of that! My unpredictable wild lines had the other guys hiding strategically behind me, until finally I clipped the outer leaves of the tree above us at top speed. Kane was on the phone; “Oh no, he’s hit the tree … hang on … it’s still flying!!! I can’t believe it!! Land, land it now!” It flew and landed perfectly and was found to have quite minimal damage.
Thus ended a great action packed arvo. I’ve been doing more fixing and building than flying lately and it was great to get the opportunity to put some of my projects into the air.
Here's me posing with the Fazo. Normally I'm quite handsome but next to this thing I look quite ordinary.
;D ;D
