Just Another Baby Blender Maiden Flight
I maiden the Baby Blender MkII this evening. The winds were calm and I use the low throw rates (~65% dual rate setting) and 30% expo.
Take off took about 2 inches as the BB MkII leaps off the ground even on short grass. Then things get interesting.
As noted by Sydneylopsides and puzzleflyer, the BB MkII is a bit squirrelly in the air. Even with the 1300mah 3s moved all the way to the front, she was still a bit tail heavy. I added 7g to the nose and that seemed to help but she is still a bit of a handful: controllable, but a handful.
"Landings" on short grass were less than beautiful, both resulting in roll-overs. Good thing is that the Baby Blender is rugged as she survived both with minimal and easily repairable battle damage.
Also, at least my Baby Blender likes to run at 2/3 to 3/4 throttle; at 1/2 throttle, she was on the edge of stalling. This may be due to the fact that she is made out of the slightly heavier OfficeDepot foam board and not Adam's Dollar Tree foam board, which is not available here in Hawaii. Still, I was hoping she would be more of a slow flying cruiser.
A couple of suggestions for the BB MkII:
* Add clear packing tape to the front edge wing tips of the lower wing. These got a little crunched on my less than beautiful landings.
* Reinforce with Extreme packing tape the front holes for the barbeque skewers used to secure the wing to the fuselage. Also consider moving the forward holes for the forward wing mount a bit higher on the fuselage than as stated on the plans as they come under a lot of stress in less than perfect "landings."
* The 2mm landing gear wire is still a little too weak for the BB. However, you can bend it back easily to shape but a thicker wire may provide a more sturdy landing gear.
* If anyone knows how to do it for an Armin wing, add dihedral, if possible, at least to the lower wing. With short, stubby, flat wings, the Baby Blender does not self stabilize.
As others have said, the Baby Blender is a fun plane to build and is quite maneuverable. I was hoping for a more stable, sedate, slow-flyer, which the BB MkII is not, but she is still a fun plane.
All in all, not too bad a plane.
Keep'em flyin'!