You always have that warm fuzzy feeling when a day test flying a new ship goes well. I just completed my Super Vee 100" earlier in the morning, and with the lingering tropical storm leftovers in Texas, I thought it might be unlikely that I would be able to fly it. After studying the radar off and on, I recognized a break in the doppler pattern, and decided that I would call my flying buddies and get together a crowd. Realizing that it was not a day for much thermal activity, I checked the slopes. Utilizing a little god-sent weather agent named Weatherbug (www.weatherbug.com) I tuned into the wind patterns at a local slope. The slope in question happens to be a nice elongated u-shaped grassy slope at a middle school, and one of the Weatherbug stations is located onsite. An east wind of 8 average with gusts to 17, just perfect for the 200 yard long face. Gathered at the site when I arrived were 2 of my friends, and lots of smiles at the excellent conditions.
I unpacked the plane from the truck, and started to assemble it. The batteries had been peaked on the ride over, and we were set to rock and roll. (Thanks Brad for the 1100mah TX pack, it served me well today) CG was spot on, and did a final once over. I swear I could feel the curing heat from the epoxy gluing the servos into the wing. A couple of quick sub-trim adjustments on the 388 got the flaps and ailerons in just the right spot. The V-tail was very solid with the Sullivan carbon filled precision rods, with zero slop. With a quick glance at the onboard LED voltmeter (Thanks again Brad), I was ready to go. My 50oz beauty was ready to go. I enlisted the arm of trusted friend, Tim Olson, the same guy who has test chunked all of my Open Class ships for the ititial toss across the flats in the lower section of the school playground. Tim happens to be the best darned thrower we have, and let her out smoothly. He also happens to be the tallest pilot that I fly with, so he gets a nice glide set up for you. Out of his hand, she flew straight and true with no need for trim. After flying about 40 feet, I lightly put about a 1/3 of the flap in to check the elevator conpensation. A little balloon resulted, but I slowly fed the flap back out. After about 100 feet, I realized that this ship did not want to stop flying, even though she was flying headstrong into the wind. For a brief second, I thought that she was ready to settle in. As soon as I started to feed a little elevator for a flare, she climbed back up a couple more feet. "Ok, this is getting ridiculous" I thought. I was quickly running out of space, and decided to feed in flaps, and my own elevator compensation as she settled in to a nice gentle landing. Armed with the knowledge that I lacked enough elevator compensation, I entered the 388 programming again, and made the change. With the test glide out of the way, I had Tim once again throw it, but this time off the slope. I just watched my friend, Dave, out on his second day with his new Aldi J zoom around the slopes at full camber with a wingloading about 3oz/sq ft heavier than my Vee, so I knew the lift was there. I set it for full camber, and vocalized my readiness. Once again, she flew right out of his hand. After making about 6 or 7 passes, and gaining altitude all the while, I decided to check the flap compensation again. Full flaps dumped, and she sailed straight ahead. The grin was now ear to ear, and I was loving life. I setup up for a landing on the next pass, and whoosh, she sailed right by. Slowly, the flap was backed out, and I went for another attempt. I made 3 such passes before she decided to stop flying and settle in near my feet. Break for the cars, the rain is coming through from a few minutes!!! Whew, rain is done with, and everything that makes a sailplane a sailplane is taped back together. I made several more flights on the slope dialing in aileron differential and various other tweaks. I caught a lone thermal, and got out of the slope lift for a few minutes. Well lets see here, just how fast can she go? A solid push down on the nose, and she started down like a runaway freight train without the shimmy (or flutter). Lets just bend the elevator stick back and loop it. Uh, lets bend it a bit more, she seems to be lacking in elevator for this. She did not fall out on the top and rounded nicely, WHEW! The flashes of a pile of fiberglass and foam are gone, where is my elevator? Oops, :) lets put it on high rates. Time for the high start roll out, she seems to be behaving herself nicely. Now high starting at this slope is a bit tricky as you have to set it up crosswind and right next to some power lines. Uh Tim, mind launching again? After some stretching and grunting from Tim, we were at the end of the latex and line. Energy is stored, set for launch mode preset check, OK GO! Despite the crosswind, she tracked up nice and straight, pop there goes the chute. Well lets see, there is a buzzard going up over there. Locked into my best thermal turn with a ship that I had only about 30 minutes on, I proceeded to go up with him. I have ridden that just about far enough. Lets really see how fast she will go. You know, it is that first speed run that lets you know what a new bird sounds like at speed that makes you grin again if you are not already. What a beautiful sound, and not a hint of flutter. Loop with more authority now you pretty Vee :) A few more nice launches, and I decided to try a hand catch. Ok, here she comes, feed in the flaps, nice, ok GRAB! I usually catch my HLG's, but that was a rush. 3+ pounds of glider can be a bit intimidating. It is now 7 hours later, and I am still buzzing. What a new plane in your life will do for you :) Don't you just love it? James _________________________________________________________________ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
