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Post by mike on Jun 29, 2008 12:37:45 GMT 10
bill or steve with a prop? now there's a combo i wouldn't like to try and combat with that's for sure! after seeing your bungee type handlaunches i don't think a lack of undercarriage woul be too much of a problem mate. finally got the time to finish the electric off tonight ready for a maiden tomorrow.hoping by some miracle i can get a hang of flying it before i plant it......maybe someone should be taking bets on this? You will be right mate....take it from me...i only learnt from all my crashes!!!
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drcuzo
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Post by drcuzo on Jun 30, 2008 10:32:33 GMT 10
Sean Did you fly and how did the Pike go?.
I was up to my arm pits with sick people at Maroochydore
Steve
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Post by sean on Jun 30, 2008 11:13:45 GMT 10
Hi Steve,
I did fly the Pike and it went very nicely! I didn't get to Bald Knob until about 3 or something because it took longer to get ready for flight than I'd expected. There was very little wind - almost still infact. I gave it a test throw from the back of the paddock and it just kept going so I let it go out over the slope and it just stayed up, climbing very gently. The only other planes in the air were HLGs and an Easyglider (which stayed up just as well as the Pike BTW). Charles - one of the club guys who's into thermalling - gave me some help finding lift so in the end we got about an hour and a half flight time with it, on a day that was almost still. I tried a few DS laps but could only get about four in before it lost energy.
Sean.
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drcuzo
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Post by drcuzo on Jul 2, 2008 16:50:02 GMT 10
I have been checking the forum regularly for a fix to satisfy my slope addiction but alas there is little activity. Is this seasonal or just a fluctuation in the sine curve of sloping? In medicine we never use the "Q" word because all hell breaks loose, so here goes - GEEZ IT'S QUIET!!!! Steve
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Post by thevon on Jul 2, 2008 22:00:23 GMT 10
Darn wind's been too quiet too! I'm hoping to sneak off for a fly tomorrow
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Post by Hamburglar on Jul 3, 2008 14:20:45 GMT 10
Hey Guys, I checked the forecast last night and it looked promising for a Moth maiden today. I got to the slope early this morning only to find that there was hardly any wind. I figured this would be a prime opportunity to test the Wasp on my elastic cord bungee. It turned out to be great fun. I only stopped because the battery was getting low and my stomach was growling. I made a short video (my 1st attempt) of a couple of the first launches. I thought I'd put the Wasp out of action on the first launch/crash but there was luckily no damage. Here's the vid (hope it works ok)- s7.photobucket.com/albums/y260/bonediddly/?action=view¤t=WaspBungeecompressed.flvand pics- A couple of Kangaroos behind my gliders And I still haven't maidened the Moth yet. Hopefully the wind picks up tomorrow. Jordan
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drcuzo
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Post by drcuzo on Jul 3, 2008 15:27:25 GMT 10
Jordan great photos - the moth looks fantastic. I can feel your frustration wanting to fly it.
Forecast for up here looks good for the weekend:-
Southeast Coast Waters, Double Island Point to Point Danger: Thursday until midnight: S/SE winds 10/15 knots. Inshore afternoon NE sea breezes at 5/10 knots. Seas 1.3 metres in open waters. Isolated showers. Friday: S/SE winds 15/20 knots, inshore SW winds at 5/10 knots early. Seas 1.6 metres in open waters. Isolated showers. Saturday: SE/E winds increasing to 20/30 knots Sunday: SE/E winds easing to 20/25 knots. ;D Steve
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Post by jirvin4505 on Jul 3, 2008 18:29:30 GMT 10
Maidened the Pike Plus today. When Vanders was looking for a moldie I went looking amongst my contacts for any spare models. I unearthed a couple of Caracho's and a Pike plus. One Caracho has gone to Shane =- Way to go Shane. The Pike was a deal I couldn't say no to! Had a RDO today and took the family out to Redbank plains so that I could fly with the pensioners. k.domaindlx.com/rssflyers/index.htmlNothing spectacular on the launches. I was launching on a sport winch with a tailwind at times. Had a sortout flight. Had 2 great thermal flights both around 30 minutes duration. The model is a keeper. ;D It was good to have my flying buddy Jane calling the thermals for me - she always had better thermal eyes than me. Looking forward to getting the Pike up to Bald Knob on Sunday - Maybe a bit of MOM with Sean and his Pike. cheers jeff
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Post by sean on Jul 3, 2008 18:56:05 GMT 10
Great to hear Jeff! Mine is also a Pike Plus, though with the V-tail fuse. I'm planning to head to BK on Sunday so looking forward to flying with you, especially seeing as there's some OK wind forecast.
I met Andrew and Gerard at BK today. Andrew and I flew our Pike and Fazer together for most of the day. Very light wind most of the time but still lots of fun. Highlight was DSing them at the same time in the same groove although we didn't stick at it long. Spent most of the day just cruising looking for thermals, lots of thermal activity early on (big thermals but equally big sink). My ability to hunt for and centre in thermals needs a lot of work...
Andrew's new Bat stayed up really well in the light wind, despite being pretty heavy. It was hard to believe how well it was soaring actually.
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Post by thevon on Jul 3, 2008 19:00:09 GMT 10
Wow, Jeff that Pike looks great. I noticed a Pike Plus and a couple of Tangents have come up on RCTrader.com.au
I snuck up to Bald Knob with Gerard today and met up with Sean. Wind was never great but when you have a 3m moldie ... hey, who needs strong wind! It was a lovely day. Highlights were: * Flying my newly recovered Ozprey - it went beautifully. Very happy with the thin film covering. Launched it with bungee at first - huge height. The only drama was the huge radio cutouts that Gerard and I were getting.
* Flying the Bat again. I am super impressed, very amazed. That thing really goes well. I'll post a summmary in the build thread.
* Flying the Fazer and Pike in the same DS circle! Sean has been fantasising about this, and we fulfilled the dream for a couple of minutes but it was heart stopping stuff and we bailed out soon, and let logic prevail! Too much chance of a huge smash.
It was a really nice day. Long periods spent circling around in light lift. Gerard brought his Weasel as an afterthought but it was his most flown plane today!
Just landing the 3m planes is inspiring, and flying is mesmerizing. Very graceful.
We even got the radar gun out and clocked the bungee launch speed! 97mph for the Ozprey and about 87 for the heavier Bat. But there's room for improvement there ... I can pull back harder yet!
Andrew
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Post by Vanders on Jul 3, 2008 19:32:05 GMT 10
Jeff thats a really nice looking model, what a deal hey!!! I've got mine home now, Virgin was great, no excess baggage & appeared to treat the package really well, I watched them load & unload the box in/out of the plane & they treated it as a fragile package as the stickers stuck all over it suggested.
Now I just have to sort out how to program the JR to run the sucker, since I've only ever flown 2 servo models I've got a bit of work ahead.
Can't wait to see 3-4 of these 3m+ planes cruising around the sky.
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Post by windsock on Jul 4, 2008 9:32:58 GMT 10
I've uploaded some of the photos from yesterday at Bald knob on to the Windsock website . www.windsock.net.auGerard
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Post by chamm37 on Jul 4, 2008 12:47:28 GMT 10
is any1 going flying on Saturday and might be able to take me with them.....i wanna test out my Bevo on a slope where i can DS it so by the looks of the weather forcast for this weekend it looks to be really good flying and might be worth going up to MT Mee or Bald Knob ;D
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Post by Pij on Jul 6, 2008 15:49:57 GMT 10
All week long, 5 night-shifts at work, I'd been looking forward to the weekend, and the weather reports at first had Saturday looking good, then as the weekend neared, Sunday seemed the best bet. Saturday morning I got home at 10:30 from an extended night-shift, planning on staying awake and flying Sat afternoon. But I was too tired, slept till 4:20, and decided not to use the little remaining afternoon light to go flying. That was OK, Sunday was going to be better weather. Sunday morning (today) dawned rainy and low wind. NOOoo!! Each hour I checked the live weather, and each hour the wind was too low, too far south. Around 12:20 I heard the wind pick up. Didn't wait for the 1:00 live update, just hurried the wife along and we got in the car and went to Elliott Heads. It was OK out there, so I had a few flights, enjoyed myself, got the reflexes working again. Ten on a whim, decided to gamble on a shift to Barolin slope or cliff. Got there, and there was no wind at all north of Barolin Point. Disappointing! Moved the car down to the dive point, an dfelt there was a breeze there, and kept looking up around the point to the trees at Barolin slope (the grassy bowl). When the trees began to move there, we moved back up to the slope. First couple of launches showed how choppy the air was. The poor Duck was ducking and weaving like a boxer. The air from treetop to rocks shore was all broken up, terribly unpredictable, but still good for a buzz and to train the reflexes. Then I managed to get the Duck up to treetop height, and I felt the difference. It was over my head when it first entered good air. Once I learned where the good air was, I had a 40 minute flight way up above myself, in BIG clean air. The direction was still largely along the slope, not onto it, but up there it didn't matter. It was big and clear, and the lift extended about 50m out, and 150m from end to end on the cliff, longer out further, but at the edges it was hard to keep sight at the extremes due to the curve of the bowl, and the trees. But I had the biggest, free-est airspace I've ever flown in with the Duck, for 3 flights, over an hour all up at that spot. It was totally different to the limited space I usually fly in at E Heads, and different again from my other flights at Barolin area, which have either been off the cliffs in NE winds, or tiny conditions at the grassy bowl. Today, bigger conditions at the bowl, up high, was something entirely new. One launch in particular impressed me - Usually when there's lots of lift I hold the stick forward to make sure I have forward flight during the launch. But I wanted to get up into the clear air, so I launched straight into an elevator, no forward stick, and the Duck lifted straight up to treetop height, from where I stood under the edge of the trees. It just missed the branches, was right into the good air straight away. We'd even avoided the rain (but great weather for Ducks). I came home smiling broadly. That should keep me going till next week.
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Post by thevon on Jul 6, 2008 17:45:12 GMT 10
With the rain yesterday I did some fiddling, and one thing was to re-set up the T-Bird as I've never got it going with the new radio. I trimmed it up and re-set the CG and got enthused about flying it again. So this arvo before sunset I ducked down to Woody Point and gave it a go. Flew like a bewdy. The thing I love about the Multiplex radio is that it's easy to fiddle with settings during flight. It was low tide, so I landed on the sand down the bottom. It has flaps, but the ailerons can't come up as spoilers and I found it harder to "put it down" - it tended to float along with ground effect for a huge distance! But the landings were great. I also did a couple on the grass slope, which was much harder since there's no long approach. You have to come over the trees. Anyway being a fragile sort of plane (balsa sheeted foam) it was exciting. The wind was light but enough lift for this very light thermal type plane.
I then pulled out the Minij and so was able to make a comparison. When the T-Bird Multifunction was popular (maybe 10 yrs ago?) It was state of the art, considered very high performance in light air and a good sloper. But I have to say the Minij leaves it for dead. I guess it is true that the advances in composite technology have made huge improvements in the flying qualities of models. The Minij is very beaten up, with dings in the wings everywhere, but it flew better in every way, dramatically so. It climbed better, was faster, more responsive, everything. And even though it's a composite, it's definitely heaps tougher than the T-Bird and can take a rough landing.
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