The Ultrastick 10cc flew wonderfully! She is flying heavy, at about 10 lbs. At the field I noticed that the battery pack puffed during charging. Since I wasn't going to get the wing on with it puffed, I decided to poke a hole in the outer casing to see what would happen. A puff of gray smoke, and the case deflated. Nothing else happened. Battery worked fine. I decided to fly, since the draw would be minimal, and it worked fine. I decided to replace it anyway, no matter what the IRs are. This is a new battery and it should not have puffed under 1C charging. I need to shed some weight, so I have already bought a replacement 2S 2200 mAh LiPO. I don't understand why its so heavy. Firm crosswind gusts, so I practiced takeoff and landings. Fun flying!
Despite the long fast crosswind gusts I decided to proceed with the maiden of the 20cc Pitts Model 12.
Sounds awesome. I wasn't convinced she was producing max thrust in the air, but it was plenty powerful. She was challenging to fly getting pushed around by the gusts at altitude. And my not being used to it. I am going tomprogram the AS3X before I fly her again
On landing she took a gust from the right side, rolled left, I over corrected and stalled a few inches above the ground. The right landing gear caught as she rolled. Tore right off and flipped he over.
The broken right landing gear and the this "wheel pants penetration" of the right wing. This happens when the collapsing landing gear rolls back and the pointy back end of the wheel pant pierces the wing. This one poked through a designed hole in the wing, so only cote damage. When the right landing gear struck the ground instead of the wheel, it pulled back taking the hard point with it, and the wheel pants poked a hole in the wing as it collapsed.
Haven't looked at the damage to the attachment point yet, but this should be easy to fix. I didn't like the strength of the stock hardpoint, so wasn't surprised it failed so easily. The cote will be easy to fix. I also have a 2200 mAh battery for this plane, to replace a 5200 mAh one, cut some weight.
Weather and work the next couple of days, no flying planned. Reset the crash clock, please.
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