Flight number three and all is well!

Now that cooler weather is returning to my corner of the world, so too are the seasonal visitors. Who'd a-thunk the club would be as busy as it was on a Thursday morning?

But I digress. Lots of great planes out there today and lots of great flying. One poor fellow on a buddy box got a bit discombobulated and did the proverbial unscheduled landing with his Sig Kadet. Glad to say it'll be OK, but it's going to need some surgery up front.

The club president is starting an R/C aerial photography business and he brought out his big, mean Century helicopter with its 26cc gasoline two-stroke. Doggone thing looked lethal, but it hovered as nice as you please. I wouldn't have minded some stick time on his 14VZ, let me tell you.

Ah, but that new Zero. How I wish that Raiden Tech stood behind their product. This thing is a ball, plain and simple. For eighty bucks, it's a steal. However, no parts support on their end means no financial support on mine.

I managed to sort out a minor fuel problem on the bench; the inverted cylinder made idling difficult. Took the advice of Da Prez and ran a looped line to the carb to increase the siphon effect. Bingo! The idle was perfect with near-zero thrust.

One thing's for sure, though. I'm taking it real easy with this bird and I'm not letting it get too far from me, a tall order considering how fast it is even with a .25 under the cowl. That olive drab and light grey camo works as it should. Too well. Even with its 49" wingspan and my 20/15 eyesight, it got hard to see real fast. A bit scary taking it out far. So, future runs will be made a bit closer to the flight deck.

We're under a wind advisory...grounded until Sunday at the very least.

There's always the RealFlight sim.