what comes after 2 days of rain? Monday....
So for the past 2 weeks its done little but rain. normally i wouldnt complain but its seriously cutting into my flying time...grrrr
anyway. this weekend come hell or high water i was going flying cos i had my newly built old timer and skyfarer to maiden.
got to the field. cold and miserable already drizlling. but not to be disapointed i set up the old timer and got it ready to go. Fanie hand launched it for me and off it went. a little vibration from the motor and spinner but nothing bone rattling. climb performance is good and the wing loading is incredibly low so itll fly at walking pace basically. Slight warp in the wing casuing it to turn left constantly. With the use of shauns car exhaust we pulled the warp out and it flew just fine afterwards.
as for the skyfarer. well it was another story
Ive got an old OS MAx 25 FP Powering it with a master airscrew 9x6 prop. had serious concerns about it having enough power. Anyway. lined her up for takeoff, she trundled down the runway and bounched into the air with a low but respectable climb rate. flaps helped quite a bit.
she flies like a hunny! stall speed is quite high but thats to be expected
what i DIDNT expect however is for my elevator servo to strip on the second flight. however i did not notice until i wanted to bring it lower and i noticed i had zero tail control. but i noticed that the flaps had brilliant pitch control. they were set on a slider on the side of my radio. so using the slider i managed to bring it back down in 1 piece(luckily) But its a testament to whoever built it that it was absolutely pitch stable in level flight with elevator
needless to say it was quite a laugh in retrospect having to land a aerolpane with no rudder(it does nto have any) and no elevator. can anyone say free flight?
otherwise people pretty much went home early due to the rain. after sitting in the back of fanies bakkie and freezing our butts off we decided to land and go home rather.
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