Post by sean on Dec 10, 2007 21:21:20 GMT 10
Maidened my Bird late this afternoon after finishing it early in the arvo.
After checking everything over a dozen times, double checking the radio programming, range checking etc etc it was ready for flight. There was a 10-15kt NNE blowing so I headed for Brandenburg - a pretty good place for maidens thanks to lots of grass. First some test throws from the top of the paddock - flew perfectly with no trim changes necessary. Infact it flew so well I had to chuck on full flaps to get it onto the ground thanks to the gentle downward slope of the top paddock. Good start.
Now it's time to throw it off the hill... lots of nerves - give it a good throw and up she goes gaining height beautifully. For the first half an hour I'm just all nerves, thinking about how this thing will be a pile of rubble if I don't fly it properly! As a consequence my flying is really bad and I don't enjoy myself. Tentatively I try flaps and crow- slows it down a lot but needs heaps of down elevator - maybe three-quarters down with full flaps. Also play around with camber - she climbs a bit better in the poor lift with some camber. One other thing that surprises me is it doesn't track as well as my Reaper, in fact it doesn't feel as stable as my Reaper in pitch either - small changes in lift are really noticable, causing it to balloon - should make it easy to thermal I guess whereas the Reaper just cuts through bumps like that making it feel very dead in light air. Overall the Bird felt light and lively even though I did my best to build it heavy, and it actually took much more effort to fly smoothly than does my Reaper!
After about 20 mins I decide to bring her in. I've always found Brandenburg a tricky place to land a fast plane even though there's a nice big paddock to land in. Problem is there are trees in all the wrong places and the hill slopes in an awkward way - with the Reaper you have to land either downwind, or downhill after a tight downwind turn. Because it picks up speed so much with the nose pointed down, and the tight downwind turn is really pushing your luck in the tight space with not much airspeed, I usually prefer the downwind option. So the technique with my Reaper is to fly low, below the lip of the paddock, lose some speed in a climb to paddock height then fly it into the ground downwind - Always makes for very fast heavy landings. So without much thought I try a similar approach with the Bird but throw on some crow thinking that'll make all the difference - she slows right down but because I'm flying downwind airspeed gets too low and control becomes difficult - it's yawing badly this was and that just before touchdown, then whack! It crashes down striking one wing first causing a horizontal cartwheel... TERRIBLE landing! Could hardly have been worse and not good for my nerves. I find the small lip on the fuse in front of the wing LE has cracked and broken off. Bugger - first landing and I break it! Oh well, it's very minor damage and won't affect the way it flies. I've read this is very common with these planes, the lip is made from epoxy filler with no carbon or glass reinforcement so not much strength there. I also find some small cracks in the fuse just under the wing - again not much and easy to fix.
I'm a bit cross with myself but am determined to have a more enjoyable fly. Program some down elev with flap and throw out again. This time I'm determined to relax and have some fun - just fly the thing and not concern myself with camber, flaps etc etc. This flight turns out to be lots of fun and my increased confidence transfers to improved flying, and I start to get a feel for it. With a bit more wind than there was for the first flight I can try some high speed runs - dive low across the lip, cross over the trees at the eastern end of the paddock and bang a hard climbing turn - responds very well to this type of aggressive flying. It really comes alive at high speed, will need a better day on a better hill to really explore that end of the envelope. THis flight I try a different landing approach - get as much height as possible in the poor lift, then head east flying above and behind the tall trees east of the paddock then turn back into wind with lots of height to keep it above the obstacles behind the landing zone, bang on full crow and put the nose down - she drops height unbelievably well heading upwind with crow- then just before touch down take the crow off (to avoid banging the flaps into the ground) and flare into the paddock - MUCH better! I try this same landing approach a number of times and start to get the hang of it. Then in failing light I come in for another approach this way - the most controlled one yet - I'm just about to touch down so getting ready to take out the crow and thinking to myself "that was a nice landing" when CRACK! It hits something about 2 feet off the ground and spins like a top to the ground. WHAT THE $%#!!!!!!!!!!!!! What was that? As I walk toward it I see I hit a stump - one of two on the paddock. Problem was where I was standing it was positioned dead in from of a tree so I couldn't see it. Talk about one in a bloody million! I couldn't have hit it if I'd tried, and I've never hit it with a foamy and I fly here a lot! I just can't believe the bad luck - first day out with my first, rather expensive crunchy and it goes straight for the nearest tree stump
. And I had to be standing with the stump perfectly in line with a tree so it was hidden from view. Grrrrrr!!! Reminds me of the first day I flew the Reaper after painting its nose - managed to hit a submerged rock in the soft grass at Bald Knob and split the timber nose open. Since then, with a bruised nose, I haven't hit anything hard with it 
.
I find there's a big gash taken out of the leading edge of the Bird that extends right to the spar on the bottom. Shouldn't be to hard to fix but does compromise the strength of the wing which will be something to consider when I take it to the dark side.
Not to be beaten I put some strapping tape over the gash and throw it out again - there's plenty of strength for slow flight and can't go home on a bad landing. Fly around for maybe 15mins not enjoying myself and bring it down when it's almost dark.
It's good that I've maidened the Bird but overall with two separate crashes not a successfully or enjoyable day. Writing this very long report has made me feel a bit better about it all
.
Sean.
I didn't take any pics before the flight, these were taken after today's flying:
Crow - lots of drag!
Damage from first bad landing:
The damage, top. Not too bad from this angle:
The damage, bottom. Not good! The way it cuts more into the bottom than the top, and the narrow cut suggests it must have hit the very top of the stump, which was quite pointy.
After checking everything over a dozen times, double checking the radio programming, range checking etc etc it was ready for flight. There was a 10-15kt NNE blowing so I headed for Brandenburg - a pretty good place for maidens thanks to lots of grass. First some test throws from the top of the paddock - flew perfectly with no trim changes necessary. Infact it flew so well I had to chuck on full flaps to get it onto the ground thanks to the gentle downward slope of the top paddock. Good start.
Now it's time to throw it off the hill... lots of nerves - give it a good throw and up she goes gaining height beautifully. For the first half an hour I'm just all nerves, thinking about how this thing will be a pile of rubble if I don't fly it properly! As a consequence my flying is really bad and I don't enjoy myself. Tentatively I try flaps and crow- slows it down a lot but needs heaps of down elevator - maybe three-quarters down with full flaps. Also play around with camber - she climbs a bit better in the poor lift with some camber. One other thing that surprises me is it doesn't track as well as my Reaper, in fact it doesn't feel as stable as my Reaper in pitch either - small changes in lift are really noticable, causing it to balloon - should make it easy to thermal I guess whereas the Reaper just cuts through bumps like that making it feel very dead in light air. Overall the Bird felt light and lively even though I did my best to build it heavy, and it actually took much more effort to fly smoothly than does my Reaper!
After about 20 mins I decide to bring her in. I've always found Brandenburg a tricky place to land a fast plane even though there's a nice big paddock to land in. Problem is there are trees in all the wrong places and the hill slopes in an awkward way - with the Reaper you have to land either downwind, or downhill after a tight downwind turn. Because it picks up speed so much with the nose pointed down, and the tight downwind turn is really pushing your luck in the tight space with not much airspeed, I usually prefer the downwind option. So the technique with my Reaper is to fly low, below the lip of the paddock, lose some speed in a climb to paddock height then fly it into the ground downwind - Always makes for very fast heavy landings. So without much thought I try a similar approach with the Bird but throw on some crow thinking that'll make all the difference - she slows right down but because I'm flying downwind airspeed gets too low and control becomes difficult - it's yawing badly this was and that just before touchdown, then whack! It crashes down striking one wing first causing a horizontal cartwheel... TERRIBLE landing! Could hardly have been worse and not good for my nerves. I find the small lip on the fuse in front of the wing LE has cracked and broken off. Bugger - first landing and I break it! Oh well, it's very minor damage and won't affect the way it flies. I've read this is very common with these planes, the lip is made from epoxy filler with no carbon or glass reinforcement so not much strength there. I also find some small cracks in the fuse just under the wing - again not much and easy to fix.
I'm a bit cross with myself but am determined to have a more enjoyable fly. Program some down elev with flap and throw out again. This time I'm determined to relax and have some fun - just fly the thing and not concern myself with camber, flaps etc etc. This flight turns out to be lots of fun and my increased confidence transfers to improved flying, and I start to get a feel for it. With a bit more wind than there was for the first flight I can try some high speed runs - dive low across the lip, cross over the trees at the eastern end of the paddock and bang a hard climbing turn - responds very well to this type of aggressive flying. It really comes alive at high speed, will need a better day on a better hill to really explore that end of the envelope. THis flight I try a different landing approach - get as much height as possible in the poor lift, then head east flying above and behind the tall trees east of the paddock then turn back into wind with lots of height to keep it above the obstacles behind the landing zone, bang on full crow and put the nose down - she drops height unbelievably well heading upwind with crow- then just before touch down take the crow off (to avoid banging the flaps into the ground) and flare into the paddock - MUCH better! I try this same landing approach a number of times and start to get the hang of it. Then in failing light I come in for another approach this way - the most controlled one yet - I'm just about to touch down so getting ready to take out the crow and thinking to myself "that was a nice landing" when CRACK! It hits something about 2 feet off the ground and spins like a top to the ground. WHAT THE $%#!!!!!!!!!!!!! What was that? As I walk toward it I see I hit a stump - one of two on the paddock. Problem was where I was standing it was positioned dead in from of a tree so I couldn't see it. Talk about one in a bloody million! I couldn't have hit it if I'd tried, and I've never hit it with a foamy and I fly here a lot! I just can't believe the bad luck - first day out with my first, rather expensive crunchy and it goes straight for the nearest tree stump
. And I had to be standing with the stump perfectly in line with a tree so it was hidden from view. Grrrrrr!!! Reminds me of the first day I flew the Reaper after painting its nose - managed to hit a submerged rock in the soft grass at Bald Knob and split the timber nose open. Since then, with a bruised nose, I haven't hit anything hard with it 
.I find there's a big gash taken out of the leading edge of the Bird that extends right to the spar on the bottom. Shouldn't be to hard to fix but does compromise the strength of the wing which will be something to consider when I take it to the dark side.
Not to be beaten I put some strapping tape over the gash and throw it out again - there's plenty of strength for slow flight and can't go home on a bad landing. Fly around for maybe 15mins not enjoying myself and bring it down when it's almost dark.
It's good that I've maidened the Bird but overall with two separate crashes not a successfully or enjoyable day. Writing this very long report has made me feel a bit better about it all
.Sean.
I didn't take any pics before the flight, these were taken after today's flying:
Crow - lots of drag!
Damage from first bad landing:
The damage, top. Not too bad from this angle:
The damage, bottom. Not good! The way it cuts more into the bottom than the top, and the narrow cut suggests it must have hit the very top of the stump, which was quite pointy.
(but this generally goes for 60" planes, anything bigger seems to be more stable). And yes they wonder around the place alot, thats why you always need to stay in control, you cannot let go of the controls for a second or so because things happen real quick.
.
I guess you don't want the unballasted weight to become to high.
