We have flight!!
My friend
@wilmracer got the video, so it'll be coming when he gets a minute to process it. But she flew! Twice even!
So here's the story...
About 10:00am, 27 degrees F (about -3 for the C parts of the world) and no wind at all. Best flying day we've had in a month! Because of the small wheels on the bipe, I unfolded a cardboard box and put down a 2 meter runway for takeoff. I plugged everything in and started to waggle the controls - and discovered that while I did bind the radio to this receiver, I didn't actually complete the channel programming. So about 10 minutes later the rudder and elevator were on the correct sticks and everything was set to be neutral.
Camera rolling, advanced the stick about 1/2 to get rolling and then 3/4 before the end of the cardboard - and she flew! Very wiggly - a little tail heavy, and ballooned up whenever I bipped the throttle (needs more downthrust for sure). With the combination of two flat wings (no dihedral) and tail heavy, let's say she was "aerodynamically unstable"
I chased her around the sky for a couple circuits, and decided to bring her in for a landing to adjust weight before something regrettable happened. When I lined up down the runway and cut the throttle back to about 1/8 she settled down into the approach great - another big clue that there is a thrust angle adjustment needing to be made! As expected, she nosed over once the wheels hit the frozen grass, but she was plenty slow and no damage. Success!
That was so much fun, I wanted to do it again right away! So I stuck another 1/2 ounce of lead under the nose, checked all the control surfaces again, and lined up on the cardboard runway. Same takeoff procedure and she lept into the air feeling a good bit more stable this time! I spent about 3 or 4 minutes doing circuits and a couple loops - she has loads of power with an 1806 2400kv / 6x3 / 3s450 setup and plenty of elevator and aileron authority. I want to look at the rudder a little closer as it seemed to be fine on left turns, but less effective on rights. Maybe control rod flexing? Anyway, she still ballooned up when the thrust was on - right now the motor is dead center and she probably needs 3 degrees down bubble with these two flat bottom wings providing plenty of lift.
So I was thinking about digging in my field box for some washers and brought her around for a landing. Yeah, this is the sad part of the story coming up. I had a bit too much speed on when the wheels touched for landing and she nosed over a good bit harder - almost a full cartwheel I think, but will need to review the video on that. Bent one of the landing gear wires back 15 degrees or so, and tore loose one half of the elevator hinges - both simple fixes, but not something I wanted to do with shaky fingers in below freezing weather, so she got packed back up for the day (well, until I went by the local hobby shop to show her off!.
I am sure she is going to be a great flyer with a few tweaks - excited to get her back to the field again soon!
Here was the fleet for the morning and the cardboard runway - since it was there I used it for the All Star bipe too. Worked great!
