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Post by sean on Dec 5, 2007 10:15:14 GMT 10
Thanks Ken, that was the exact plug I was looking for, at least I'll know for next time!
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Post by sean on Dec 7, 2007 20:22:58 GMT 10
The build's getting very close to completion, I'd been aiming to have it ready for maiden on Sunday but one of the ruddervator servos appears to be faulty, moves all over the shop, basically doesn't hold the instructed position. Bugger! Not much chance of getting a replacement from Tower Hobbies, if I did it'd probably take a couple of months so some frantic ringing around at 5 this arvo found a place in WA that stock them (the Futaba 3153s are quite rare in this country). They were still open thanks to the time zone difference and promised to have it express posted before the end of the day. Fingers crossed it'll be in the air by the middle of next week! ;D.
Cramming all the gear and wires into the nose proved to be a real test of problem solving skills... The servos fit best diagonally, and to increase the finished weight a tad I've mounted the battery as far back in the nose as possible, just in front of the wing, behind the servos and receiver instead of right up the front like usual. AUW is set to be about 1KG empty which is less than I was hoping - 1.1 or 1.2 KG would have been better IMO - not much point building this thing light. It should fit between 300 to 400g ballast which should make a big difference.
Tail will be glued onto the fuse with epoxy and bolted - I'll just glue the bolts in and be done with it - won't be letting go now!
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Post by sean on Dec 15, 2007 9:42:02 GMT 10
I've got a few hours of flying into the Bird now and DSed it on three separate days in varying conditions. It keeps impressing me more and more each time I fly it. The first few flights I was too nervy to enjoy myself and was surprised that it didn't seem any quicker than my Reaper. But as I learn to fly it I'm becoming more and more impressed with the way it holds its energy and stays up with ease in light lift. I'm still having trouble DSing it in rough conditions - it is much harder to fly through turbulence than my Reaper - it really gets knocked around in conditions the Reaper simply cuts through, and when a plane such as the Bird gets knocked toward the ground flying low at 90mph your heart really skips a beat! Got it up to 99 at the Camel Hump in pretty good conditions, which I must admit was a bit disappointing - got the Reaper to 111 on the same day but that was flying a much more risky low line - the Bird seems faster I'm just not prepared to fly it close to the ground, where you get the most speed on this hill.
I flew it again yesterday, only had an hour to fly and took just the Bee and Bird. It was about 4:30 and wind was pretty much due east at maybe 5 - 10kt. Flew the Bee for a bit, DSed it and so on. The lift wasn't bad but not great. Next threw out the Bird complete with a 150g ballast slug. Soon after the throw I hit the camber switch and up she went! Could pretty much speck it out, much higher than I could get the Bee despite the Bird weighing twice as much as the Bee! Did some fast frontside aerobatics with it for a bit then started flying it over the back and man was it moving considering how light the lift was - it really extracts energy from very light DS conditions. I was flying on both sides of the hill - dive over the back do a couple of laps to gain speed then shoot over to the front and do some high energy aerobatics, then back over to the back once the speed had bled off etc. This is becoming my favourite way to fly and I was deeply impressed with the way the Bird carried speed and stayed up with ease in fairly poor lift, it was doing the hollow-moulded howl pretty much the whole time which I think makes it seem faster than it is, then when it came time to land I put the flaps down and it landed a few metres away from where I was standing in the long grass at the top of the Knob at walking speed! It was one of those flights where everything gelled. The other thing I'm happy about is these conditions are very common up here so it's nice to know I can have fun in them now. The Reaper is DSable in this wind but only just and feels a bit flat and lifeless in comparison - it will only just stay up on the front, and while the Bee is fun with lots of other foamies in the air it gets boring pretty quickly on your own.
Sean.
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Post by thevon on Dec 15, 2007 10:04:33 GMT 10
Sean that sounds great. Yes that spot at Bald Knob is pretty nice in a Easterly ... seems to be very smooth and rewarding in light conditions. The only slight neg is having to dodge those trees ... but fortunately they're "soft"! I'm looking forward to a strong easterly there to see if you can start winding it up a bit further away from the hill.
Guys it's a treat watching Sean DS. The other day he was doing aerobatics on each loop and sometimes going around DSing inverted. Sometimes he'd DS one way, roll on the way up, then face the other way and DS the other end of the ridge, in figure 8's (Ezza does this too). Sean also was doing DS loops directly at the hill, ie just looping constantly at 90 degrees to the ridge, dipping down into the shear layer while flying directly at the backside and looping back up. Apparently this is how Joe Wurts first tried it. Not as much speed but still amazing how just crossing that shear layer repeatedly cranks the speed up. I think I like watching DS as much as doing it ... and me watching is a lot less destructive on my planes!
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Post by sean on Dec 15, 2007 10:18:41 GMT 10
Yeah without the trees the gate at Bald Knob would be much better, the trees make the DS zone quite small. I was able to wind the Bird up quite a long way back and quite high - interestingly the Reaper just doesn't like going so far back, it's gotta be right in close to the hill. Still, even in light lift a long way back the Bird was getting tossed around. I need to change the colours on the top of the wing - it was too hard to see and the assymmetrical pattern was doing my head in - at times all I could see was the stripes on the right wing, and focussing on one wing rather than the middle of the plane seems to affect your flying.
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Post by ezza on Dec 15, 2007 12:28:21 GMT 10
Next threw out the Bird complete with a 150g ballast slug. Soon after the throw I hit the camber switch and up she went! Could pretty much speck it out, much higher than I could get the Bee despite the Bird weighing twice as much as the Bee! Did some fast frontside aerobatics with it for a bit then started flying it over the back and man was it moving considering how light the lift was - it really extracts energy from very light DS conditions. I was flying on both sides of the hill - dive over the back do a couple of laps to gain speed then shoot over to the front and do some high energy aerobatics, then back over to the back once the speed had bled off etc. This is becoming my favourite way to fly and I was deeply impressed with the way the Bird carried speed and stayed up with ease in fairly poor lift, it was doing the hollow-moulded howl pretty much the whole time which I think makes it seem faster than it is, then when it came time to land I put the flaps down and it landed a few metres away from where I was standing in the long grass at the top of the Knob at walking speed! It was one of those flights where everything gelled. Sean. Great to hear Sean!! Glass is sooo nice!!!
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Post by ezza on Dec 15, 2007 12:33:39 GMT 10
Those trees do make it a little 'interesting'. I think the taller tree that you fly over to the north actually helps to raise the shear. I reckon a well placed, small hedge, on the east of the driveway would be good. The wind seems to rip through there and go down the back occasionaly.
It is a shame that strong easterlies don't happen that often. I have only had one day where it was over 15knots up there and the laps were actually quite large. You still had to come back nice and low though due to the wind going over the hill, near the gate. This was the day I met Andrew(Thevon) up there.
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Post by sean on Feb 22, 2008 18:43:07 GMT 10
My Bird got some new clothes today. The red/black stripes on the top of the wings weren't good for visibility in bad light, the large areas of black seemed to break up the wing profile, like camouflage. It's scary DSing a plane you can hardly see . The planes I have with white wings and red tips are all very easy to see in most weather, so I figured I should do that to the Bird. Before (pictured at Withcott btw): After: Yet another variation on a the basic theme I've used on almost every plane I've built in the last year! The stripes are supposed to be like tiger stripes but I've never seen a red/white tiger . The idea came from a yellow/black Nyx Furio I saw on the web - it did look like a tiger... Once agin I used sign vinyl - great stuff. It's very thin and goes round all the compound curves, looks like paint. To apply I soaked the wing surface in water with a touch of soap - without the soap it beaded on the glossy surface. Once you've done this you can slide the vinyl around on the wing to position it. When it was in place I used a scrunched-up paper towel to squeegy out the water from under the vinyl. The edges won't stick down until the water has all dried - I left the wing in the hot sun for half an hour, after that the edges stuck down beautifully. This time I used a patch of white vinyl to cover the repaired area on the wing. Unfortunately the white of the vinyl stands out a lot against the darker white of the wing (although you wouldn't really know it from these pics). Because the wing is very narrow in chord, adding colour to the tail feathers really aids visibilty as well.
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Post by thevon on Feb 22, 2008 19:30:23 GMT 10
Wow, Sean, knock me over! Man, I'm seriously impressed! If I get a moldie I might get it plain with just two colours (top and bottom) and pay you to put the patterns on! Truly, that's really great!
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Post by sean on Feb 22, 2008 19:36:32 GMT 10
Hey Andrew, yeah I'd love to do that, all I'd want in return though is a quick fly .
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Post by ezza on Feb 22, 2008 20:05:00 GMT 10
That looks great Sean!!
The red tips should be much easier to see.
Eric
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Post by atmosteve on Feb 22, 2008 20:28:01 GMT 10
That looks 100mph at rest!
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Post by sean on Feb 22, 2008 20:45:25 GMT 10
Thanks guys, yeah, I never, ever had trouble seeing my Reaper when it had the white/red colour scheme, and this should look the same from a distance.
I've been wondering if the vinyl might trip the boundary layer from laminar to turbulent at speed... might sound a bit crazy but it could possibly slow it down a fair bit. I posted a message on RCG to see if anyone can tell me for sure. I don't think it would, I've seen the vinyl used (sparingly) on 300mph planes.
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Post by sean on Feb 23, 2008 20:08:42 GMT 10
The red tips are a big improvement for visibilty! I had a really good DS late this arvo - was DSing at 6:00pm in low light in very hazy overcast conditions and never found it hard to keep track of the wings. This is a big improvement and makes flying fast much less stressful.
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Post by ezza on Feb 23, 2008 23:17:49 GMT 10
Hey Sean,
Glad to hear you got good conditions as well. I really wasn't expecting much from this change. It was MUCH stronger than forecast down here. When I was ds'ing, I was thinking it would have been great to see your Reaper(and Andrews), in the same conditions.
Eric
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