5th July 2013;
The little chap is all covered with Solarfilm and looks lovely. Then I hit a major hurdle that should have been obvious when looking at the plan. The original was designed with a relatively heavy diesel up front and so was designed with a long body and short nose.
When I came to balance it the balance point was way off the marked point on the plan. To get there I had to add 40g of lead to the front. Not ideal as this weight moves the envelope of the power of the motor out to its maximum. Decided that since I was going to add weight it might as well be useful and ordered some new lipos that were twice the weight and carry much more capacity giving longer flight time. With the new battery in I still required 30g up front but this compares to the weight of the original engine. I had to move the motor forward of the existing firewall and had added another compartment to the nose. All I had to do now was open up the bottom and add the weight. The plane balanced a the correct point with a small weight in the engine cover.
So today was the day. Little or no wind so lets see if it flies. Battery charged and off to Bow. On arriving I find the farmer has mowed the field and there are round bales of hay everywhere. What the hell I am here now. Hook everything up, test the controls and head off to centre of the field where there are few bales.
Gun the motor and launch with my heart in my mouth. She dips a bit then starts to climb but is banking left. Cut the power and let her flop to the ground. Adjust the rudder trim in the pits and return to the field. Gun the motor and launch and up she goes. Very twitchy on the controls so need to tone down the throws to the rudder and elevator. Flew until the motor was starting to run out of puff and brought her in for a sloppy touch down. She is not gliding that well, which she should do, so figure she is a bit nose heavy.
Very thrilled indeed by how she flies. At the moment I think she may be a bit fast for indoor flying but correction of the balance point may cure this. She is able to cruise around on half throttle.
15th July 2013;
Consulted with Stan Yeo and after more trimming I have removed 10g of nose weight which moved the balance point back to the trailing wing spar. The little chap is flying beautifully and gliding well now. Very docile and nice climb out on hand launch.