2026 Speed Challenge - Telnar1236

[MadMonkey]

I think everyone eventually ties the record for the world's lowest pass. Just have to hope you do it with a plane you don't mind losing and have the grace to laugh it off afterwards instead of being mad. Mine was with my 90mm Freewing F-22 - got a bit too low inverted and sanded down the tips of the vertical stabilizer and scratched up the canopy - was lucky it wasn't worse.

In general, there are pretty good reasons to put control linkages on the bottom of the wing - the airflow over the top of the wing is faster and contributes a lot more to lift so anything above the wing is higher drag and hurts flight characteristics worse in general. For the Rapier, I'm willing to take that hit for safety on landing, but in general I'm more on the side of putting the linkages on the bottom

I agree, I only put them on top if they're likely to get damaged on a belly landing.

I like to skip both of my Avantis (80mm and 50mm) on paved runways. Usually surprises people 😬

My Flexjet likes it too but it wears down the strakes...

EDIT: On the inverted note. I programmed spoilers on my 40 size UCanDo years ago and used them inverted as flaps. It would float almost at a walking pace in ground effect all the way down the runway. I once landed like that accidentally 😬 no damage though!

 

[telnar1236]

Had a thunderstorm roll in and prevent me from flying it, but I did take the Rapier 90 to the field and get some pictures by the side of the runway.

 

[telnar1236]

Hoping to get one more speed run in tomorrow, but the weather isn't looking too promising

 

[Mr Man]

Same here, bad weather... (and I still need to paint my plane...)

 

[telnar1236]

I was just able to sneak in around the rain today and get in 2 flights of the Rapier 90. Top speed for the 8s flight was "only" 169 mph.

I think that the ESC or wires must have been limiting RPM or current since the 8s flight, which should have had twice the power, only gained 9mph from the 160 mph 6s flight. I need to look into ESC programming a bit more.

It may also have been my flying. With how gray the sky was, I didn't feel comfortable getting too far away from where I was so I couldn't get much of a run-up. Definitely more to look into. I also need to tune down the rates for both roll and pitch - it was getting a bit twitchy.

Sorry for the poor-quality video. The app for my camera decided it really needed me to login before I could see what my camera was seeing so the angle was a best guess and it was lightly raining as I flew.

 

[Houndpup Rc]

I was just able to sneak in around the rain today and get in 2 flights of the Rapier 90. Top speed for the 8s flight was "only" 169 mph.

I think that the ESC or wires must have been limiting RPM or current since the 8s flight, which should have had twice the power, only gained 9mph from the 160 mph 6s flight. I need to look into ESC programming a bit more.
View attachment 260435
It may also have been my flying. With how gray the sky was, I didn't feel comfortable getting too far away from where I was so I couldn't get much of a run-up. Definitely more to look into. I also need to tune down the rates for both roll and pitch - it was getting a bit twitchy.

Sorry for the poor-quality video. The app for my camera decided it really needed me to login before I could see what my camera was seeing so the angle was a best guess and it was lightly raining as I flew.

Well done!!👍👍