I had a great day out at BMF today! I took a couple days off from flying, and was itching to get back out. I flew pack after pack on the Alpha 450 and the Stearman. There was a brisk and shifting crosswind, ranging from NW to SW, to dead calm, all in one flight, so I enjoyed working on some tough crosswind landings and takeoffs. I did pretty well! I am starting to get used to the Stearman. I fly her on low rates with about 40% aileron, 70% elevator and full rudder, with 20% expo on the ailerons and elevator. I still tend to over control a little more with full rates as she is a tad twitchy. Arnie Miller and I flew her in a couple different configurations and this seems to work best. She is still a tad tail heavy; I need to add some more weight to the nose, somehow. We tried the 4S battery and it overheated the EC5 connectors somehow... It also added a bit more weight than the aircraft wanted and she was a bit sluggish in low speed flight. That's part of the problem of adding more weight to the nose, it might start to add too much to her AUW. All in all it was a great day of flying! Looking forward to going out again on Friday, our prep day for the Fly-In, and then the Fly-In on Saturday!
Bill Page and his beautiful Extra 260. Arnie Miller in the background. Small crowd today, with Vinson being the only other pilot besides them and myself.
We were having depth perception issues today along with some squirrely winds. There were several missed approaches, and I found myself coming in over the blackberry patch when I thought I had turned much later. Bill got caught in a dangerous corner (the SE corner) and came down a little early coming into contact with the tree tops. That's all it took to total his Extra 260. It doesn't look bad at first glance, but had some significant structural damage. Its a shame, Bill was flying her wonderfully and enjoying himself... Sorry, Bill.
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