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Post by sean on Mar 1, 2008 20:49:05 GMT 10
Thanks Andrew, the great thing was the Bird felt like it had much more in it (we could see only a very slight amount of wing flex), just have to get a bit more practice and get down there on another good day, it's a pretty long drive from here BTW.
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Post by skyboyken on Mar 2, 2008 21:03:21 GMT 10
Hey Sean,
Nice job of flying!!
Given that I've just glued the ballast tube in my Reaper I'd really like to know before I tape and cover it (was going to be tomorrow (Monday)) what you did to retain the ballast in the tube?
For info I had a similar problem with my Skua, which had 1/8th ply at each end of the tube. Over time the ply got pulverised and the ballast could move. So far in the Reaper I have the solid hardwood supplied with the kit for the rear sub-spar, about 6mm, at each end of the tube. Do you think that'll be enough?
Ken.
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Post by sean on Mar 3, 2008 11:11:25 GMT 10
Hi Ken,
If I remember rightly, the end of the tube in mine was blocked off with a piece of thick black plastic. I think Carl has changed the design of the tube to fix this prob so yours may be different. Ezza told me he put a pin through the end of his to fix the prob. It's hard for me to say whether the 6mm timber would be enough without seeing it - if you're not sure would be a good idea to beef it up a bit more, nothing wrong with overkill on these planes!
I haven't got around to fixing mine, was flying yesterday with no ballast. When I do I'll probably embed a chunk of timber in the EPP at the end, maybe a pin too.
BTW it took a pretty big knock to damage the end plug, it survived many big crashes OK. Poor thing's looking very second hand after yesterday. It's amazing how after a few crashes with a nice foamy you stop caring and start crashing regularly...
Sean.
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Post by skyboyken on Mar 3, 2008 20:45:23 GMT 10
I'm using the recycled ballast tube from my Skua so I don't know what Carl does with his kits. I didn't want to wait so I've gone ahead and covered mine now, so what's there will have to do for now. I'm glad to hear you're relaxed about flying the Reaper mate, I just hope to do as little crashing as possible for a while at least . My aim is actually the same as yours was when your Reaper was pristine - I want to fly it like a mouldie and see if I can keep it in one piece for a while. Of course once it's dinged (sorry Ding!) then that'll end pretty quickly I'm sure . Ken.
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Post by Vanders on Mar 3, 2008 23:04:44 GMT 10
Ken, how did your covering finish up, was looking pretty good when I left..................
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Post by skyboyken on Mar 4, 2008 20:29:47 GMT 10
Hi Mark, my covering is 'functional', that's about all. As you said, after a couple of prangs it's not going to matter a whole lot .
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Post by skyboyken on Mar 11, 2008 21:53:07 GMT 10
Well, today I finally got to maiden the Reaper!!! It was at Bald Knob which had strong SSE winds today, and that funny lift where the lift goes away as the wind gets stronger. I spent about an hour getting the trim and CG sorted to a reasonable state. The Reaper handled really well right from the word go. When it got a little squirrely after I took some weight out I put it back and called it good enough. By this time the frontside lift was pretty ordinary but the wind direction where I was, was SE. Anyway, I took a wander along the south side of the Knob and when I got to overlooking the Camel Hump the wind was blowing hard, straight at it! That's SSE by quite a long way. Good news though, so I humped the plane and gear down there and had a go at DS. Bear in mind here that this is only the second time I've flown DS, the first was with my modified Bat, and I only got a few circles in. So with my new pride and joy and no experience, off I went . IT WAS AWESOME!!!! I'm still smiling hours later. Talk about taking a duck to water, the Reaper just went, and went hard. The penetration, the tracking, the sheer whistling mind-bending speed!!! Man oh man I am hooked. I couldn't fly a consistent circle to save myself, but it didn't matter. The Reaper had that much penetration and energy that I could just extend upward, roll over and pull back down into whatever circle I could manage. I flew DS for around 2 hours and had probably 6 crashes into the back side of the hill (looong grass fortunately and absolutely no damage), 2 of which were brain fade and the rest were simply running out of energy after a too-slow drop in. It's a learning experience alright! I'm just totally stoked at the experience, at how awesomely well the Reaper flew and how sweetly it handled, and at how exhilarating it is to DS! Sean joined me for about the last 90 minutes, flying with his brand new 9Xv2 Tx, so he was setting up his Skua and Reaper. He had a fly of mine and liked it, and the 2 Reapers were pretty much on par as far as their speed and handling, which pleased me no end. There was one difference though, and that is the brakes. To remind you, I built my Reaper with 4 servos and 'crow' brakes. Doubts have been expressed about brakes on planks by people like Ezza, Sean and Andrew so I definitely took heed. I'm really happy to report that my brakes required absolutely no tuning at all, they worked perfectly first time! I only have about 8mm throw on both inner and outer surfaces and that is plenty to stop the Reaper from gaining speed when the nose is put down. The plane is very stable under brakes and I have full pitch control. What I don't have is roll control under full brake as I'm using all the servo travel. That's fine with me, All I need is to use the brakes on the straight bits of the landing pattern. The brakes really allowed me to control the final approach and make sure the Reaper didn't go sailing serenely by instead of landing. They are not like car brakes or really good crow brakes on a mouldie but they do a really good job and I'm totally pleased with them. So there you go! An absolute cracker of a day, a great new plane and some fantastic DS'ing, plus an undamaged plane at the end of it. It doesn't get a whole lot better than that!
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Post by Vanders on Mar 11, 2008 22:20:12 GMT 10
Great work mate, I could tell in your voice today when we spoke that you were over the moon with the result. Good news on the brakes as well. These Reapers are developing a bit of a following!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Post by ezza on Mar 12, 2008 7:18:13 GMT 10
Congrats Ken!! ;D It really is a buzz, especially when it all starts coming together. You must already have some flying skills as it took me ages to work it out. The Reapers are true ds'ing machines. They have soo much penetration and can hold their energy well. Glad to hear the braking system worked for you. I might have to try it on my next one. Eric
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Post by thevon on Mar 12, 2008 15:16:52 GMT 10
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Post by Vanders on Mar 12, 2008 15:46:25 GMT 10
I think someone might be on commission.......(nudge nudge wink wink, 'looks at Andrew')
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Post by sean on Mar 13, 2008 10:58:20 GMT 10
Ken was flying great Tuesday - when I got there he was flying round and round, looked like he'd been doing it for a lot longer. It was only when I got home I realised it was his first solid day of DSing! Nice flying Ken! Ken's Reaper DSes very nicely, he gave me a brief fly and it felt very much like my own, I DSed it briefly but didn't want to be responsible for wrecking it so only did half a dozen laps.
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Post by skyboyken on Mar 13, 2008 15:30:11 GMT 10
Thanks Sean, for the photo and the compliment . I flew at the Camel Hump again today (told you I'm hooked!). The wind wasn't as strong and it was a little Easterly but very smooth. The upshot is that I had another sensational day! I got to fly lots and lots of DS, and I could really see my flying getting more and more consistent and smoother. I ended up flying much larger circles, similar in size to the way you were flying on Tuesday Sean, but nowhere near as smooth or consistent as you. Nonetheless I couldn't be happier with how it's going so far. DS is just sensationally exciting!!! I am absolutely convinced that the Reaper is having a big part to play in how well it's coming together for me. I know I bang on about my Co-ckpit SX transmitter but its user-friendliness makes it easy to get the plane to do what I want, and its great ergonomics help me to stay focused when flying, and that's super important when DS'ing. One thing which definitely makes a huge difference is that I have elevator trim on a side 'slider' control that can be operated from the top or the bottom of the tranny. So when I throw the Reaper out it's set for 'up' trim to help me gain height. Then, as I approach the drop-in point I move it to 'down' trim so that as I'm flying circles the Reaper doesn't want to balloon at all, it tracks straight at any speed. Those who've flown DS will know just how big a help that is. Most Tx'es can be set up to do this somehow, either on a slider or the throttle stick. For high performance planks I can't recommend it highly enough, so please do give it a try if you haven't already. I've been doing this on all my flyig wings for years but it really comes into its own for DS. I did actually manage 2 laps of figure 8 DS today, then I had to bail big time as it was about to go horribly pear-shaped ! No harm done although my pulse rate went through the roof and I had to fly front-side for a while to get my act together. As for the Reaper, it continues to fly superbly. I moved the CG back slightly today and the plane is now noticeably light on its feet, plus its nose comes up easier when it's flying slowly and I've reduced the elevator throw to keep everything in order. It feels really great now, I reckon I'll leave it just as it is for a good long while and focus on improving my flying (and having a blast!!). One interesting thing is that on day 1 it was virtually silent in the air until it was wound up to serious speed in a DS circle. Today it had a quiet howl almost the whole time it was flying. The only difference is black tape stripes from LE to TE on the bottom surface of the wing. My theory is that air bubbles in these are enough to disturb the laminar flow and cause the noise. Performance hasn't been noticeably effected so I'll just pop as many of the bubbles as I can and leave the tape on because it makes for sensational visibility and my aging eyes need all the help they can get! So, another great day DS'ing!
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Post by sean on Mar 13, 2008 18:59:21 GMT 10
That's great to hear Ken! BTW the wind is always too east at the Camel Hump! If it moves really east and you can barely keep your plane in the air on the front, the top gate works in ESE, but can be a bit tricky if the conditions aren't just right.
I find my Reaper is much smoother to DS with the CG just slighty forward of ideal.
You can play around with circle size a lot, the general rule is the lighter the plane the smaller the ideal circle size, but some sites require bigger circles than ideal just to get from the still air on the back to the moving air above the lip - the top gate at Bald Knob is a prime example, at that site you'll find there's a sweet spot down really low, right in close to the hill. If not going for all out speed I find the bigger circles more satisfying to fly.
I wonder if your Reaper was making more noise today simply because you were flying faster? As your skills improve you'll naturally get faster but it won't actually feel faster. I noticed with your Reaper yesterday that it was very quiet until it got above a certain speed, then it started to howl!
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Post by skyboyken on Mar 13, 2008 21:21:55 GMT 10
Hi Sean, the wind swinging to the East and killing the frontside lift is what stopped me flying today. I didn't try the top gate so I can't say how it would have gone. I undoubtedly could tke the CG further back but I don't want to, it's flying sweetly now and I prefer to keep it that way. As to the noise, it was quietly howling all the way from stall speed up, on the frontside. In contrast, on Tuesday it was virtually silent on the frontside. I'm pleased to say that I was achieving pretty much the same speeds today in the lighter conditions as I was on Tuesday when DS'ing. The plane whistles then! No, this new noise is due to some change in the plane, and the only change I know of is the tape on the bottom surface. It's possible an edge of the covering has lifted that I haven't noticed, but I went over the plane with the iron so I've had a pretty good look at it. In any event it doesn't really matter, it still goes great! BTW Sean, are you interested in more DS'ing at Mt Ngungun? That sounds like a pretty good spot in the prevailing winds, for foamies at least .
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