Ok, I'm making this the official Big Lazy Hawk discussion thread.
Please try to stay on topic.

It's been raining here in Cody but it looks like the rain has stopped so I am rounding up Carol so she can video some BLH flights. It's dreary and overcast but here goes nothin' anyway.

Oh...and here's a BLH photo to start off this new thread

**drool!** **drip***glub***slurp***pant**


i want one!!

Wait till you see the videos. You will need a JUMBO tub of popcorn.

Originally Posted by Kinkade

Wait till you see the videos. You will need a JUMBO tub of popcorn.

and a bib

Did you fly it yet?

Oh gosh...I wonder...I just wonder...

I have a 4000mah 4 cell lipo pack...it's a big brick...I just wonder if this BLH can haul it up without breaking anything. The battery is so big it will have to mount to the top of the wing sail..on the birds back. Hmmm.
The question is, will the added weight exceed the birds efficient lifting ability to a point where it starts to have diminishing returns from the battery capacity? Only one way to find out. I'm worried about stressing the mechanics though!

Originally Posted by Heavy Chevy

and a bib

Did you fly it yet?

No, not yet. Still dumping video off the camera card to make room.

What about a 3cell 1000mah lipo? I have 4 of them so if they are a good choice for the BLH, I will be delighted.

A 4cell eh? Sounds big and heavy but you da' man!

I'll get some good video before I start any heavy lift shananigans.

Good idea, video first and then you can get up to shananigans

Originally Posted by Heavy Chevy

What about a 3cell 1000mah lipo? I have 4 of them so if they are a good choice for the BLH, I will be delighted.

A 4cell eh? Sounds big and heavy but you da' man!

Oh I'm SURE your 3 cell 1000mah packs will be good! I have some of those exact packs charged and ready to test right now. I'm flying this bird on both 2 cell and 3 cell packs. You can safety go to full throttle at launch on 2 cell packs and it puts you right in a perfectly safe climb mode. With 3 cell packs half throttle gets you climbing and you have to use a little common sense not to over-throttle. I have had great flights with a 3 cell 1800 pack so I have no doubt a lighter 3 cell 1000 pack will work great. You won't get as much flight time but you should be able to glide well. I will let you know, in fact I'll try the 3 cell 1000's on video.

^^Sweet! I'm itching for one and am very eager for this test flight video

I just set a personal record. ...a 28 minute flight on a 3 cell 1800mah pack and 9 minutes of pure thermaling with no detectable loss of altitude. This as far as I know, is a total ornithopter "first"! If anyone with a profile wing ornithopter ever did this before,somebody show me.

It was drizzling on me but it was a little rain cloud's thermal that I got under.
Carol got the tail end of the thermaling on video ( I think) on a different camera because she had gone inside to the computer to upload the other earlier clips she had taken and the new camera's SD card was full.

Wouldn't you know, I said "while you're doing that I just want to fly" and then I go and get the best thermal flight ever.
But although yes, it does require thermals to glide, it's the same way with a sailplane. Without thermals you eventually come down..so the air currents are having a lot to do with this. It's no fluke though so I will keep trying and eventually we will get a great flight on camera. Carol has trouble seeing the bird at a distance in the camera viewfinder though and that isn't helping.

Today I found something unexpected and that is with this bird too light a battery pack is not a good thing. It seems to fly better on an 1800 pack than a 1000mah pack. I think it's just a bit tail heavy without the heavier pack and I have all packs mounted as far forward as possible.

More to come! hooo I'm having fun!

Personally, I would consider make a different frame with lower body so that the battery can be mounted at lower section. That should help keep the bird stable under rough condition since you already started tasting the fun of thermaling....................

Yeah, that's a possibility, but I didn't have any stability issues. I just let the bird seek it's own way for the most part, in fact it was almost like watching a live bird because I let it circle and just watched it with minimal stick inputs.
I say this was a thermal simply because the bird stayed up. I never saw anything rough about it though. Now I do see a whole new dimension of fun though, something I never thought possible with an ornithopter.

Now, I come in to download stuff and my new camera acts up. It crashed my computer twice. Turns out it's the SD card..brand new 8GB card is toast.
It's bad on both cameras while a different SD is good on both so it's the card.
I didn't know SD cards could go bad!

Carol got the tail end of the long thermal flight on the older camera but the footage is gloomy looking. All this video has been taken with still cameras, not video cameras so the quality isn't very good. I do have a video camera but it still uses minDv tapes and all my tapes are full. I'll have to upload a tape and then erase it so I can get good footage.

How's about two 3cell 1000mah lipos with a 'Y' harness making it a 2000mah lipo?

Can't wait for video.