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Spring is here again - who's been flying?


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Back in action with the Black Widow, it's had a few flights after it's crash and fly's very well. It seems the culprit was one of the batteries, after a few fights yesterday I put in two fresh batteries which had been fully charged on opening up the throttle one motor appeared slightly slower and after taxiing , it tracked to the left as it had on the fight that it crashed, at that time I was taking off cross wind. Today I taxied back  to the pit area ( I was the only one there due to the strong wind and Easter weekend I suspect) and checked the batteries the port side was down to 50% and showing 12v, it is a 4s battery so on replacing it I took off into a strong breeze, no problems apart from landing as the wind was coming down the short landing strip, 2 aborted landings then a diagonal approach with full flaps got it safely down, 

It is quite heavy, just over 12lb so approaches are fast and it was damaging the nose leg mounting  which I reinforced, It  had an oleo strut with no coil at the top due to lack of room so I replaced it with a simple leg with a triple coil which is much better.  

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Hi Andy,

I did consider that when I was setting it up for balance  but it was already built when I bought it and I would have had to try and feed wiring through from the front through the central fuselage into the wings and into the nacelles which were all one unit. at first glance the long nose looks as though it would be easy to attain the CofG  but it is an empty plastic cone and I had to cut a 310mm x60mm  length of 6mm ply to go right to the front to which the 4.8v battery and a 165g weight is attached. The two flight batteries would have filled the cockpit.

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Couple of hours on the slope yesterday - the windspeed varied between 7=10mph and the lift was coming and going a bit. Not a problem for the fancier composite ships which looked to be having lots of fun. A bit scratchier for my Big Yellow Taxi and slightly heavier Ridge Racer, but the Easyglider Pro was the best choice of the gliders I had with me. Flew all three of those, but let the wee Limit EX wait for a blowier day.

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At one point someone was flying a drone directly over our heads - couldn't see it but could clearly hear it. I think the guy was flying it from the car park and no way would a drone have been LOS from there. Very disconcerting when you are flying, but can't see the thing, in the vicinity.

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Lovely afternoon here in central France yesterday afternoon. Quite a lot of models took to the air including towed and electric powered gliders. I flew both of my Barons, the Big Guff and my "well-flown" Senior Telemaster which is in dire need of an overhaul! The engine on the grey Baron needs a little further adjustment.

18th April 2022 (1).JPG

18th April 2022 (2).JPG

18th April 2022 (3).JPG

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Spring is definitely here and my Swizzle Stick is performing well. I flew it last Thursday, which was a calm sunny day the only issue was the bouncy, bouncy, bouncy landings. The best I could do was a little skip but I could not repeat even that. I remembered reading on here that a light breeze helps with take offs and landings. Wednesday bright sunshine, my model always flies better in the sunshine anyway the wind was 10 mph. It's true the wind helps, multiple landings and only a few minor skips I had three flights before the trainees turned up, Wednesday is training day, I hung around and enjoyed the good company. Today bright sunshine with 10 mph early in the morning so at the field at 08:00 and the Swizzle Stick had not forgotten the lessons from the previous day ?. Even as the wind gusted up the little Swizzle Stick handled it without issue. An amazing model that flies so well for me that it boosts my confidence and makes me feel really pleased that I go flying. Back home no repairs just a warm glow of elation from within, I guess that's why we do this. Tomorrow it's back to the Mini Super build as the forecast is 19 mph ☹️ too windy? not really it's just that as the conditions get more challenging the sense of fun reduces to the point where it starts to feel like hard work, and I gave that lark up a long time ago. 

 

Steve

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2 hours ago, EarlyBird said:

Spring is definitely here and my Swizzle Stick is performing well. I flew it last Thursday, which was a calm sunny day the only issue was the bouncy, bouncy, bouncy landings. The best I could do was a little skip but I could not repeat even that. I remembered reading on here that a light breeze helps with take offs and landings.

In truth, we are only on our undercarriage a few seconds Steve

But those lightweight solid foam wheels on single wire, will do you no favours on landing on the hard stuff.

Any softer, pneumatic type tyred wheel will help you.

Brilliant build BTW.

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Edited by Denis Watkins
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On 20/04/2022 at 21:21, J D 8 said:

Had a try with my Mercury Matador this evening. A normally reliable runner, the PAW 1.5 just would not keep going and then bit my little finger, ouch?. Over winter gum up I recon. Ah well better luck next time.:classic_biggrin:

Had another go with starting the  PAW this afternoon, ran just fine. fresh fuel had probably melted some old castor. Don't know why we still have castor in model diesel when most glows have or little or no castor today. Tradition perhaps.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Went yesterday, and today but was 'billy no mates' both times ?

 

No piccies as photos of my planes on the ground are boring.

 

Looking at my flight log, I've flown more ic than electric this year, for the first time in over a decade.... and I've bought 6 engines in just over 2 years.

Edited by GrumpyGnome
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