Finally...A Good Flying Day

[ernie.buenafe]

I haven't flown in nearly two months. I'm was getting rusty.

I'd made some motor changes to a couple gliders and needed to test fly them. Both changes were done to moderately increase power. I removed the outrunner from the Orion 2 and replaced it with a new inrunner with a slightly higher KV (5350). The new motor is unfortunately 30 grams heavier. The old outrunner (5000KV) I installed in the SpriteHot.

The field is still crowded with soccer posts. Easy enough to dodge on approach, however.

I eagerly launched the SpriteHot, fully expecting a sprite-full & aggressive launch. Wrong. Apparently, I hadn't charged the flight pack. Ugh. There was barely enough power for one launch. I landed immediately, all the while cursing my stupidity.

Fortunately, I also still had the Orion 2 to fly. I knew that flight pack was fully charged. I had checked it earlier. Climbout under power was aggressive, but not noticeably more than with the old motor. I was satisfied, nevertheless. The Orion is considered an all-rounder. It does everything well, but doesn't excel in any single thing. It's heavy for a 2.5m ship (~1400g, a little more than 49 oz). It thermals nicely, when I'm inclined to do so, which is rarely. It flies faster than a thermal ship but slower than a warmliner. It's aerobatic capable and flies inverted well. That's one reason why I got it. I should fly it more often but I prefer to fly my smaller 2m ships.

Oh, the canopy flew off at the top of the third climbout under power. That surprised me. I tried to keep sight of it while still watching the Orion, now high in the sky. I thought the canopy would land off field but I found it at the edge of the field. The canopy uses piano wire epoxied along its length. The wire provides spring loading that keeps the canopy in place. However, the epoxy became brittle and broke, thereby causing the canopy to fly off. The piano wire was still in the fuselage when I landed.

I hoping for another good day to test fly the SpriteHot again.