Out to the hill today for a forecast 14mph ,once at the top I found a steady 20 +
I tried launching the Cutlass first,she was a old combat plane I built in the 90's.
No joy on the Cutlass ,after a half a dozen or so launches {and walks back up the hill } the best I got was a couple of hundred foot glide. even after moving the c/g back with some lead on the back end - I suspect that it needs to go further back {and more lift } but that will be another day.

Next out was my Wind Rider Swift ,it has been a while since I last flew her as she needed to have a rudder servo replaced.
Once replaced I also built a plywood ballast box and installed it in the fuse at the c/g {about where the scale wheel would have been installed }

The Swift is very sleek but at its stock weight ran out of energy quickly and got bounced around in the gusts.

Once launched she carried the weight well and was pumping much higher than stock , she rewarded smooth flying to keep the speed up ,but showed no sign of snappiness once slowed .
The second flight was around 25 minutes and by then the wind was in the high 20's gusting over 30 at times ,she flew well but there was some flex in the wings in the rough air , I will be adding steel rods to the insides of the carbon spars next and maybe cut in flaps as they would make landing a lot less exciting .
I admit having a tough time coming back to a finished plane to make changes when I have others waiting to be started ...

A great day out on the hill ,Fresh air , good exercise !

Had to get out of the shop today for some fresh air {you can't build/repair all the time}
With a couple of inches of snow on the ground and no wind to slope the next option was float planes off the snow
The day started clear and cold with the temp around 16 f but warmed up to a balmy 30 f just after lunch.
I ran a 3 -S ,2200 pack in both planes ,5 minutes flying with a couple of take off's and landing each felt right , both planes had no problem taking off and handled the the holes from foot print's like they were not there .

I maidened the P-47 today
More info to come but here are the pictures
A very nice flying bird

The rest of the story
I had picked this plane up at a swap meet,the seller had no documentation on the plane but the price seemed fair .
Once home I found that the 70 amp esc did not work so I changed it over to a 80 amp Red Brick from HK .
While setting it up I found it had a couple of different brands of servo's mismatched on the ailerons and the flaps {one flap servo actually started to burn up }
so I wound up replacing them all .
So maybe not as good a deal but Pressing on it was time to get this in the air .
My experience has been that there are some scale warbirds that just seem to fly great no matter what size they are or what company makes them ,
the Zero ,the Mustang the T-28 and the P-47 are at the top of that list.
It was time to find out if this one would live up to that expectation .

At the field with a bit of wind coming down the runway , I advanced the throttle and the tail came up nicely , as I continued to increase the power she leapt into the air in about 6 feet climbing like a home sick angel....also veering left at yours truly
As she passed over my head in knife edge I pivoted to keep my eyes on her and remember thinking - This is not going to end well ,expecting her to stall and fall from the sky.
To my surprise she was rock solid in knife edge so I pulled a little elevator and then leveled her out with aileron to fly a pattern out in...Continue Reading

No wind to slope today but no rain either so I got out with my big T-28 to get in one more maiden before the end of the year
This is a Trojan that had been crashed ,I made a deal to pick it up and have repaired it .
A really nice flyer, but not a small airplane ,it weighs in around 12 pounds

Another chance yesterday to do some flying,often Nor Easters give more than 1 day of favorable wind on my hill with the first day having snow/rain and then clearing skies after .
I went out to the hill with a forecast 10 mph NW wind and intermittent sun .
Today's selection was a Multiplex Heron 2M full house that I had picked up on a trade from a flying buddy , it has a Radian power set up on a 12x8 folding prop {not that i was planning to use it }

A bit of history -
My buddy had liked the way the plane flew but it kept having intermittent problems so he moved it on to me .
While I was programming the the model in my transmitter I saw the left flap go to a uncommanded full down and traced it back to the fancy servo connectors that plug in when you slide the wings into the fuse ,4 standard servo extension later she was ready of a test flight .
The flat field test flight was uneventful ,she flew smoothly not bothered by wind gusts and seemed to have a bit of speed in her glide -should be perfect for lesser day's on the slope and exploring new sites to fly .

Once at he top of the hill I found a steady 12 to 15mph and sunshine - Yea !

She launched without a problem and went where I pointed her.
The rudder and coordinated turns were comfortable and fun so I was soon flying close to the hill rolling to knife edge on the turns and zooming down and back up the face and sides ,a solid flyer and a plane that I could hand to a newbie sloper with confidence .

...Continue Reading

A classic North Easter blew up the coast this week end producing snow for The New England states and NW wrap around wind for my hill .
The velocity of the wind depends on how close or far the storm center is from us ,this weekends storm stayed nearer to the coast so predicted winds were only 10 to 11 mph.
Saturday a was 37 degrees warmer so it drizzled most of the day I chose to stay dry and inside and opt for Sunday with lesser winds but some sunshine .
Once at the top I found 9 to 12 with some higher gust, not a lot but a chance to fly my hill in these conditions .
I brought out 2 - 48" wings that I had not flown in years .
A -11.5 oz "Kato " and a 10.7oz "Zulu " {one of Zack's originals offerings before he got established , I bought just the core's and made my own pod }

I flew the Kato first, to be honest I had not flown it much as it just didn't perform well the first time around.
Taking a second look at it on Sat I decided that I had not done a very good job with the magic hinges {also known as tension hinges} I think they were not staying centered on the trailing edge of the wing causing Huge drag so I cut them off and installed CA hinges .
I launched and quickly found out that my throws were way to high on elevator , I wound up dialing them down to 50 % ,she was still pretty touchy so I moved the cg forward with a bit of lead on the nose ...more to come it's dinner time
Changing the hinges turned the Kato into a excellent...Continue Reading