Hi all,
My latest project the Ventus 6mtr flies, this one weighs in at a light 6kg and flies like a dream, even with the light 55grams/dmsq wing loading,
penetration in a fairly brisk wind was no problem. The flaps allow one to basically hover down into the very small slope landing zone seen in these photo's.
I await some launch sequence photo's from one of my flying buddies and will post these soon. Oh I forgot as part of a challange it was scratch built in 24hours of labour across 14 days ,not to be confused with 1 day. This is my 6th one out of my molds so the practice is starting to pay off.
Regards
Mike


Part 2 May 2011
This Nimbus 6mtr has has several good slope flights as well as being aerotowed, it flies well so was ideal as a test bed for a self launch system
the curved arm is made from ply-wood and is shaped to clear the prop as it unfolds, works well.
The Motor is a Turnigy 42-60 500kva , the prop a CAM 14x9.5 the speed controller a Turnigy thrust 70 amp and the Lipo a Turnigy 2200 5s, all reasonably priced items.
A test revealed 1100 watts and a 56amp load , the speed contoller and motor stay cool.
First flight was last sunday , into a 15km/h headwind the glider was airborn in about 20-30 mtrs and climbed out at about 45 degrees.
This ship weighs 8kgs so I was more than impressed.
One issue was at the start the motor pushes the nose onto the ground, but I just keep going on the grass until the speed built a little, then it was possible to lift the nose and run on the main gear, this was so short though as the wings AOA changed it lifted off.
I plan to do some more flight testing soon and fiqure the trim changes that
make for smoother flying.
cheers
Mike