Angela Flight #2

[Ernie Buenafe]

Got out early to beat the heat, 9am. The north end of this field is where I fly. There're usually some soccer nets to dodge. Today, most of them were pushed to the side. Great.

'So, how did it go?' you ask. Well...this plane is a handful to fly. My hands are just big enough. One shouldn't think about flying something like this without a healthy amount of experience, especially with fast gliders. You can get into trouble fast. I did. Just once, though.

It was not an auspicious launch to start things off. Somehow, I launched at too steep an angle and the glider went vertical almost immediately. Power from the motor/prop combination saved the situation. Whew. That's not something I'd like to 'demonstrate' in front of spectators. Most embarrassing. Fortunately, I was alone.

Once I got the thing stabilized into level flight, it was apparent the trim was off. When it rains, it pours. There was too much down trim. But that's better than too much up trim. The instructions say the trailing edge should be raised 2mm. That's what I thought I had. Maybe 3mm for the next flight. Anyway, the Angela was flying fast, blisteringly fast. It whistled as it went by. Throughout the flight, I found myself constantly holding back pressure with the elevator to keep the nose level.

I have the flaps coupled to the ailerons, something not suggested in the instructions. But, hey, I'm addicted to fast roll rates. Once at height---level flight, hands off the controls---the Angela would enter into a shallow dive because of the down-trim setting. This builds up speed for a maneuver, like a roll. With the coupled flaps, the Angela rolls quickly, very quickly, in either direction. Rolls are nicely axial, something I didn't expect from a flying wing.

I'm very pleased with the power provided by the Reisenauer motor (5350KV) I selected. Paired with an RF 14x8 slim prop, power climbs to altitude are vertical and aggressive. Each climbout provided an opportunity to try another roll. I did four of them. On one occasion, the Angela got squirrelly. It was too far away to tell what it was doing. Fortunately, I got it sorted before it was too late. That got the pucker factor up a bit.

Landing was uneventful with butterfly employed. The Angela was down in one piece. I'm already looking forward to flight #3.

[Rocky Stone]

Whew! 

Nice report, Ernie!

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "soarabq" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to soarabq+u...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/soarabq/e5e129ea-d6ff-46bd-b5c8-02a360f8c0e2n%40googlegroups.com.