Monday, August 29, 2011

Pirate Squadron on a Piratey day!

MUWAHAHAHAHA!

Getting more comfortable with the Cornell and the Stearman. Flew them both several times today and landed sweet every time. I realized I have been flying 3S 3300 mAh batteries in the Cornell, when the stock setup calls for around 2200 mAh. I have had no problem with the 3300s, but flying 2200s would free up the 3 (soon to be 5) 3300s for the Stearman, and I have 5 of the 2200s (one is actually a 2650) batteries for the Cornell. So I flew the Cornell exclusively on the 2200's today with no issues! Great! Time tested today; on landing after 10 minutes of flight, she ran another 7 minutes on the ground at a bit more than half throttle, where I fly her, on the 2200s. So I bumped her timer to 15 minutes. Later flights that worked just fine, coming in with plenty of bingo amps. I remain amazed at how beautifully the Eflte PT-19 flies, from graceful liftoff, through flight, to landing on rails... why did they ever discontinue her?

Almost lost the Cornell today. Doing touch and goes, when taking off a strong crosswind gust lifted her right wing. I compensated, but she started a hard left turn and was flying right at me. Stayed cool, she passed to my right by a good margin and struggled in what was now a strong tailwind. Structures coming up, stayed with her, got her up past them, waffling, and powered through over the trees. Regained full control (was just trying to keep up at this point) and she flew the rest of the pack fine! Damn near pissed myself... but proud my skills stayed with me and I remembered to fly the plane through this pucker.

Everything flew well today, though I lost my mind flying the Trojan and busted the wing. I was screwing around right over the runway when she was flying weird to begin with. Controllable, but I had full left trim in because of that already thrice repaired wing. When I got in this evening I put the new one on. In that crash I cremated the last of the 3 blade stock props, so I have to wait for the Master Airscrew ones I ordered last week to come in,.

Flew the Piratey flag over the field today to give the curmudgeons something to complain about. It actually looks pretty rad!

UPDATE 8/29/11 @ 2200hrs: Hoping its not a stock mistake! I found a new Elite PT-19 Cornell at SRI Hobbies in Louisville at the $70 closeout price. They charged me $31 oversize fee an $11 for Priority shipping, but hey, if I have it coming for real its a bargain!!!
UPDATE UPDATE 9/1/11@1612hrs: Crap... of course it was an inventory error...no joy.


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