We got out today, and I actually got some stick time! Kenny and I met up, and my son Aidan came out. The winds picked up quickly, shortening my flight time, but a lot happened.
You may recall that I charged my batteries a year ago, and never got around to flying, which ruined many of them. Storage charge is around 3.8V per cell... Basically post flit discharge voltage. Mine were fully charged, So I expected the batteries to misbehave. I had discharged them about a week ago, and threw out one clearly bad one, but the others seemed fairly fine when I discharged them by running them on the Pulse XT. I still wasn't sure I trusted them, and my suspicions paid off. Of the five 4S batteries I have, 2 failed in flight with faulty power performance within minutes of take-off, causing low power and a need to land quickly. Fortunately my flying fingers did not betray me and all of these shorter flights ended safely. I plan to recharge them all and ground test them this time.
Aidan hanging out in the pits. He enjoyed watching the Pulse XT fly and wants to come back for more! We want to get him some stick time on a trainer box, so I set him up with an Intro Pilot ticket (I am an instructor pilot). The winds were getting gusty and I wasn't ready to declare myself fully ready, even though my year off didn't seem to be a big deal in regards to my flying judgement and skills. I do need some more experience until I call myself back up to speed.
Kenny Chandler working the kinks out of his new Cubby gas engine. it just wouldn't behave, and the winds made him uncomfortable for a maiden. He brought out and set up his sweet Sbach, but then, dammit, dropped his JR radio snapping off he kill switch... He wisely called it a day.
All in all, a good day. I got four flights in, two bad battery bail outs, and two fairly nice full runs. I battled some upper gusts and managed not to lose the plane. All of my landings were pretty sweet. I remembered why I had spoilerons set up as the Pulse loves to float in ground effect, so I took the flaperons out and reset them as spoilerons again, but I didn't get a chance to try them out. I am glad to have loosened up my flying fingers and got my jitters aired out! Can't wait to get out there again!
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