Salvage...

Went through the remains of the Diamond 2500 Power Glider... the rest goes in the trash.

Silver on Red

Kenny Chandler suggested a silver prop spinner would look smokin' on the nose of my very red Cosmic Wind, so I ordered one from Maxx Products International (MPI).  What do you think?

Before: Red Spinner

After: Silver Spinner

Physics is consistent, I'll give it that...

Well, yesterday I flew the ASK 2100 power glider, and landed her with the spoilerons with good speed, and she landed sweet with remarkable sink. I am also aware that she will tip stall like crazy. And I know that if you want to tip stall more spectacularly use spoilerons at stall speed. So what did I think would happen if I made my approach at just above stall speed and tripped the spoilerons, especially after I saw her do it twice at altitude while slow flying today. She tip stalled and dropped like a rock right on her nose...

Despite a fairly high speed spinning crash she came away pretty well. The nose is cracked on both sides as can be seen here, with a little foam squish. The motor and motor mount are fine. The long canopy snapped on the foam part. Epoxied everything back together easily. Good as new!

I tried a carbon fiber spar in place of the aluminum spar, which of course had no dihedral. The aircraft flew much better for being lighter and didn't seem affected by the loss of the dihedral. But on flaring for a landing the spar snapped and she dropped to the ground in a semi controlled landing. I put the aluminum spar back on and curiously, she still flew well! Today she flew more stably than she did yesterday. Conditions were much, much calmer. Flew her several times and she was a pleasure! And then I tried to defy physics...

Tomorrow is supposed to be an even better day! I am nervous because I plan to maiden the Hangar 9 Sopwith!

Hobby King ASK 2100 Glider

Clearly its not my Art Tech Diamond 2500... I killed that, the first plane I have ever demolished. Today I maidened my Hobby King ASK 2100. Its smaller, 2M power glider. The power is adequate using a 25 amp ESC and a 3S 2200 battery. She arrived in an unmarked box from Hobby King's USA warehouse. Unboxing I found there are no instructions, and like everyone else's, the rudder was broken off the airframe. I used CA hinges with foam safe CA, no problem. Despite the lack of instructions she went together quite easily. I like the wing setup, very easy to install and easy to dismantle for portage. In flight I found the aft part canted out from the airframe. I used packing tape to keep it snug. There were two ginormous lead weights, not sure what they are for, but they weren't needed. She has an aluminum spar that is rather heavy. replacing it is a goal, but it has a dihedral that makes using CF tube difficult. The airframe is slightly torqued so that the vertical stabilizer is a smidge off to the left of center. The elevator piece installs snugly with one screw and two posts. The connection to the elevator control wire is very thin, and it is lead into the elevator control horn and stays quite secure.

The conditions were cold, gusty with light winds. She powered up and flew easily out of my hand stable into a brisk gust. She climbed easily. Her frame is not very strong so she twisted out of control from time to time. I can see her wings twist on the fuse as she spins into un-commanded turns in a good wind. the wing tips flex a lot, a problem because that's where the ailerons are. In glide she is heavy, despite good CG she needs to nose down or she stalls. She also tip stalls very suddenly and hard, and takes a lot of altitude to recover, as some others have reported. She doesn't like to fly slow and she won't stay up long. I think its all because she is too heavy, and that damn aluminum spar is a big part. I think too she needs more chord. Despite all of this she was a pleasure to fly, I just spent a lot more time climbing to altitude than I did with the 2500.

I set her up with spoilerons, instead of my usual flaperons. This was really a good technique. She made her approaches floating like most gilders, even with a brisk head wind. I pulled out the spoilerons and her descent rate increased in a sweet and controlled manner. She landed flawlessly. I did stall her a couple times at altitude, not enough to recover completely, so she landed hard. No damage, pretty tough plane.

The 2500 is a big, big plane, but the price came down to about $159 at Nitroplanes... I would recommend it over this plane. I kept wishing the ASK 2100 was my Art Tech 2500.

Flying Wind

As in, my Great Planes Cosmic Wind being maidened on a windy day at BMF. I took her out to the field, and finally put in a battery and checked CG. It seemed really forward so I put an ounce aft to balance it. First flight was pretty tame for a maiden, some quick trimming. She flew fantastic! She needed a little left trim, a bit of P-factor compensation. It turned out she didn't need so much weight and on the second flight I flew her with only 1/2 oz a bit more forward. This time she was magic! Fast, extremely agile (ended up tuning the rates down to 40, 60 and 100% with 25 expo all across, flew her entirely on low rates and she still danced). She floats on landing, and has tame stall characteristics. With the 350 watt motor with the 8x8 prop, she screams, has really good vertical, and even with low rates she is very acrobatic. On landing she will float, and settles cleanly. I flew her in 10-15 mph winds with some brisk intermittent cross winds, and she handled them fine. The white decals look great and contrast well with the all red bottom. Visibility would increase if I put more on, especially the other wing, but I love the slick clean red fuse. I will be shiny-ing her up with some car wax, and she will be sweeter! What a great pleasure to fly, she is now one of my favs and will likely be with me on every trip out! Pics with my Eflite Pulse XT 25e. Awesome day of windy flying!

Kenny's "New" Stryker

Kenny had a few Stryker frames, and this last one was painted by our club prez, Dickie Ober. Kenny maidened it today, and it flew great!

A boy and his plane...

Kenny landing his Seagull Edge 540 this afternoon. It was a beautiful but really windy day. We had BMF all to ourselves.