Took out the Twinstar, the so long not flown Cosmic Wind, and the Waco 26cc. The wind was a gusty 90 deg crosswind from behind me. One moment almost calm, the next roaring. Usually Mt Hudson conditions. I stood and waited, trying to decide to flymormnot, understanding that as I had in Mississippi, if I want to fly I need to learn to fly in the wind.
The Twinstar flew well, but was 45 deg off centerline on approaches, which was challenging, and she for some reason needed to come in hot or she sunk hard and fast. Flew a couple of packs, and more or less did fine with landings.
The Cosmic Wind is one fast little bugger, and needs to go fast. And I found out she really doesnt fly upside down at all. At. All. I took her inverted and she dived despite full elevator and power. At the last moment I pulled full up and she looped hard, disappearing below the hill line, and whew, came screaming back up! Aviate, navigate... Landing this tiny plane not on Geotex is always a challenge. She comes in hot, and the moment her gear touch the grass she flips hard and fast. I brought her in, hot... can't lift the nose or she rockets up. Last minute cut the throttle, and ease back on the elevator, and FLIP! CARTWHEEL! Battery comes flying out, ESC comes off its velcro in tow. This plane is all fiberglass, so she now has few cracks I am repairing. But man, did she fly sweet and fadt, even in the wind.
Ah, the Waco, my favorite plane. She started sweetly, ran smoothly. She has an OrangeRx stabilizer system on her, but I took off without it. The crosswind was brisk, and on takeoff she dropped her upwind wing hard. I corrected, and she was off. She did keep wanting to drop the upwind wing, and it took a few minutes to get her trimmed in the wind. Constantly correcting dips and dives, she gets pushed around with thw wind. I turned on the stab system and everything smoothed out! She became a joy to fly and her behaviors settled down predictably. Landing in the crosswind was a challenge, she really floats with it, and I managed a decent 45 deg approach. She floats on any up elevator. On touchdown I botched something and her wheels touched and she flipped coming to an unseemly wheels up rest. No damage, but I really sucked the landing. Needs work. I flew her a couple of times and each landing ended rough. 2 out of 3 flipped. One take off she flipped on takeoff power despite up elevator, apparently not enough. I was rough on her, but she took it wel, no damage.
The new iCharger arrived today. Slipped right in, fired up familiarly despite being 8 yrs newer than it predecessor. The quality of the build is better than its already quality build. Glad I stayed with it and ProgressiveRC.
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