Just before 2PM today, I pushed open the throttle of C-GAKW, a Cessna Skyhawk 172L, sending it rolling down runway 11 at Mascouche Airport. One and a half hour later, with three take-offs, three landings and numerous in-flight maneuvers, I was back on the ground, exhausted but with stars in my eyes.

For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return.
- Leonardo da Vinci

I recently bought a lot of Nine Eagles spare parts on the trade boards here. Though it was primarily intended as a cheap way to keep my Bravo SX flying, the set included the hulks of two micro-helis, a Solo Pro II and a Bravo-III. The latter, a coax, was immediately consigned to the spares bin (many of the parts fit or can be modified to fit my other models). But I had enough spares, once I ordered a new tail, to bring the Solo Pro back to life.

And a nice little hotrod it will be… It came with an aftermarket metal head and swashplate (haven’t installed the latter yet), and I’m going to give it a Bravo SX motor and tail, which are around 10% more powerful than the basic ones. I’m also going to fiddle with the fly bar to make it slightly more efficient, adding weight at the tips and using either carbon fiber or a thin wire to take out some of the slop in the mechanism. Finally, it will fly with a 150 mAh battery instead of a standard 130 mAh — more juice to feed that hungry motor, and the center of gravity will be slightly more toward the nose, making the copter faster in forward flight.

I’m calling it the FrankenCopter.

The Flight Status page has been updated. It looks a little sad right now — I need to stop fiddling with the new rotors and get back to maintenance and building.

Focus, man, focus!