Kent, these videos are WAY helpful.
Thanks!

I'm glad you get it. Not all modelers would even know what I'm talking about and others would think "what a newbie". I take photos and shoot video pretty much for my own use. It does not take long for a memory to fad and reviewing these build log saves me from relearning stuff. Both stuff that works and stuff that doesn't work.

I didn't post it, but the other end of the alignment pin has a capped sleeve. That sleeve gets embedded in a oversized blind hole in the other wing panel along with a big glob of microballons, of course using the alignment pin as the support while the epoxy cures. It worked great. The pin is an inch long, slips in easily and is super tight.

Initial test balance suggests 6oz in the nose to hit a static margin of 4%...............I was hoping for .5oz.
So without wing tips, it is just over 11oz./sf.............Good! Adding wing tips could reduce that to 11.

12 oz. of nose lead to balance at 21% of the MAC. Yikes. this is a tiny plane.
AUW = 49.8 oz.
Without wing tips..........as built = 430 sq. in.
16.67 oz./s.f...............OK............I wanted a plane that would penetrate, so good...........I guess.

Rain and thunder forecasted for today so flight testing is a GO!

Lately I've found that if I measure the planform ACCURATELY and account for the lost area in the wingtips, I can maiden pretty reliably with 3% SM, and rarely need much CG tuning later. Sure, some guys fly with 2%, but at that SM, landings get too touchy for our rocky landing zones. Maidens are on a slope, not on a bungee. Bungees here take an afternoon to untangle from the brush.

Fast is good as long as fast is flat. I SO admire your courage, using a steel hold-down screw.

What will be your finish on that lovely veneer?

ha, ha, ha............not really courage when you are landing/crashing into fluffly dry sand. Today, moments after a big down pour, the sand is a little closer to concrete. That's a "stainless steel" wing bolt, just so there is one thing that won't corrode. There is a carbon dowel at the front of the wing, which takes most of the load.

APPARENTLY, the CG range is rather foregiving. After carefully calculating the CG, when I first held it up in the air, I immediately removed 2 oz. from the nose, BEFORE THE FIRST TOSS. It felt rediculously nose heavy. Amazingly this was OK. This was definitely at the most aft CG possible, but flyable. Later I added most of that lead back in, so I guess the original calc. was OK.

The first flight had the elevator trim pegged with full nose up and had to hold nose up just to fly.

Since the elevator is tiny, I found the best way to set the pitch trim is to adjust the aileron mechanically. The little elevator really has to move a lot in order to get any traction. An aft CG makes the elevator sing.........as one would expect. But I prefer the smooth as butter elevator and pitch dampending, so the later flights, after the camera battery died, where with a forward CG and soft elevator. This is going to be fun. I can barely keep up with this plane. With the right CG, it is graceful in the air for such a small plane. It is a lot faster than a seagul.

I don't think that I saw a stall today. Could not get it to hyper stall with today's CG.

The initial efforts at the finish have not come together very well. It is a dull plane. I'd like to avoid paint. Todays fin is temporary so there is room for growth there. It needs some black......or something. The veneers look raw but (sadly) are actually finished. Treated them with pre-stain conditioner, wiped it off and stained with golden oak.............which didn't make much difference. Then polyurethane. so it is sealed at this point. I'd like to darken the wings up......some how. Maybe dark wing tips will get something going.

The audio out in the wind is hopeless, as usual. Conditions were measured at 16mph tapering to 14mph. No whitecaps on the ocean. The wind was from a bad direction so no paragliders today. This lead sled flys in 14mph! Pretty happy about that.

set the youtube resolution at 1440p and go full screen.

Hyper Plank - Test toss (8 min 27 sec)

Looks like paint is the only option.

Sweet! Congratulations are in order. Still curious about elevator end plate/fins.
Nice photo color emulation, but orange and blue? Hmm.

Small, fast ship + wide-angle lens = small dot in the sky. That critter moves!

ed

I could tape on some end plates easy enough.

I am up for suggestions on the color scheme. I just happen to have a lot of orange and blue paint on the shelf...........so there's that.

Next video will be after I have some air time and dare to fly closer to the camera. this plane DOES move and I haven't even put in the 18oz of ballast yet. Should be fun. I am keeping the foam nose.

maybe the wood can live on.

Color: depends somewhat on your background. Maximum contrast with sharp boundaries increases visibility. Flying in the mountains, some time is spent looking across or down at the plane, which means dark backgrounds. That moves me toward white on top with black and red tip trim, and black or red or blue on the bottom with a bold panel of white for contrast.

Flourescent red, pink or orange are great visibility aids, but some of them don't adhere well to plastics. Oh, and I LIKE holographic tape. Those tiny little twinkles of light can really help locate and orient the plane.

I found the same stall behavior with forward CG. Rearward CG = more control sensitivity and a little higher L/D. Forward CG = slower landing speeds. A removable nose weight allows a rearward CG for smooth air trim, forward CG for turbulent. Of course, dual rates can help with that too.

Good summary on CG Ed. I like the color comments too. My backgrounds are cloudy grey a lot of the time. White ships are hard too see. Different colors top and bottom help me with orientation but a complex pattern, although good for high contrast, gives me too much to think about when trying to figure out orientation. Orange on top and dark blue on the bottom always work for me.

Orientation is not really a problem with this plane because I never take my eyes off of it for even a millisecond.

During testing I moved the CG all around, along with elevator rate changes and of course trim changes. Surprisingly, amazingly, satisfyingly..........I ended up at the original mark.

more

What does this remind me of..............

Fin and ballast hatch are in.
The nose has been given a flat top haircut just to clean up the lines. I'll cap it later.
Almost ready for paint.
Certainly ready to fly.

Lots of machines in the air today.

There is something very right about this plane with a forward CG. Although the elevator response is soft and limited, this is a fun configuration. Crow does very little to slow it down.

Hyper Plank - New Fin (3 min 18 sec)

Hyper Plank - Slow Pass (0 min 33 sec)