Aidan and I headed out to the field this morning, taking a whole covey of aircraft. The conditions were clear with light variable winds and occasional brisk gusts. It would end as one of my best flying days.
We flew the Alpha 450. Aidan flew it into one of the pilot station fences during one of his take-offs putting a nice dent in the left wing. But he flew much better today than he has, showing nice progress! As we work on his control, he'll refine his ability to fly a pattern and then start making approaches, then landings. Once he gets these skills down, he will be ready to solo! He plans on working on the simulator, which will really sharpen his skills. Still getting a weird stutter from my transmitter when the trainer switch is pressed, with my screen blinking while the alarm tone and vibration go off. Sometimes several times in succession, sometimes 10-15 seconds without. Not sure what that's about yet.
I took up my 30cc Sbach a couple of times. She flew like a gem. Still 4-cycles a bit, more when airborne so I am going to do the metering vent modification to see if I can stabilize that, but wow, she made me so happy! I am getting used to her weight and how she will sink quickly on approaches. I am not sure she is perfectly balanced yet, not sure but I think she's a bit tail heavy and I need to remove a couple of the weights I put in the tail.
Today I was determined to maiden the MX2, and she flew so perfectly, perfect CG, perfect response, perfect stability, just a dream! I was just beside myself I have never flown such an incredible aircraft! We kept hearing a vibrating reed like sound when I put the power one, brought her down a couple of times to check it out, finding nothing. I never thought to look at the cote under the wing, but once again I took off and this time saw a piece of black cote fly off the wing and realized that the cote had probably been worked loose, and that was the reedy sound! I brought her back around and as I came over the threshold down she dropped, loosing lift about two feet off the ground into deep grass. That's when we inspected the underside and saw a wide part of the replaced cote missing. No other damage. I think she is my favorite airplane to fly!
Oops... Piece tore off, the part remaining up to the servo was flapping loose.
All fixed! I made the edges of the replaced cote more generous to ensure it doesn't come off again.
Lastly I took the Align Trex 600e up and she flew wonderfully too! I am still learning heli'sbut took her around in patterns. As I landed when the timer went off, I dropped the tail a touch and the tail blades ground, breaking off. No other damage, but I will have to wait for the new ones to come in. It was an incredible feeling finally getting her into the air!
Can't wait to get out there again!
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