Skyline/Goldwing Sbach 70 Maiden!

Well, after the debacles that ended the life of my third beloved Eflite Pulse XT25e, I had decided NOT to maiden my brand new baby Sbach.  Aidan and I sat around watching others fly while Kenny Chandler cajoled me into manning up, not letting one mistake keep me from flying the Sbach (he rewrote history as I made a bunch of mistakes today). I wanted to fly sooooo bad. I also knew that this would be a basic flight behaviors and trim flight, but maiden's need your skills to be focused and sharp as they are often unpredictable and perilous. I also knew if I walked away a broken man today, it would incredibly stressful coming back to maiden: get back on the horse, son, its just an airplane.

Being of unsound mind, I listened to the white devil, and we flew her together, me pilot, Kenny wing nut, Aidan cameraman.

Pre-maiden photo op

First flight battery pack. Two 3S 2650 mAh Turnigy Nanotech's should give me at least 4 minutes.

Kenny and me preflighting.

Taxi tests.  Out...

and back.

Preflight conference with Kenny Chandler, best bud, evil man.

The flight went sweet. Nice rollout but she leapt into the air when she was ready. Low rates but with more elevator than I would need. I will decrease elevator throw and increase expo on both low and mid rates. I flew the entire flight on low rates. I noticed on landing that I had too much elevator authority. She flew perfectly balanced, the CG was spot on. I had forgotten to weigh her, but with full throttle she had unlimited vertical and good speed. She is big, so seems to move a bit slower when in fact she was hauling ass.

Aidan did a nice job with the video, the autofocus was off a lot, but he kept it in frame nicely!  Thanks Aidan for thinking to video the maiden!