Flight #1315

Finally ! A good set up and inflation. The wing spent the night in the garage which added a little weight that helped but the big thing was a serious chevron, a mild tuck of the trailing center edge and maybe the A assists.

I used zip ties were too light for the job. When under pressure both sides let go and the prop batted the cams. The clips were broken by the hit. No prop damage.

Another bad inflation

The first attempt wend bad before I started to roll out. The prop wash caught the wing’s trailing edge. As the wing lifted and the wash got under the wing it flipped upside down. I drug it about 10 feet before aborting.

When I got home and watched the video I could also see that the was was slightly off center. Next flight I’m going to use A assists and make damn sure I’m centered.

The second attempt went better. It was 5 on the bump scale at different altitudes.

Coming back to land I saw Alvaro driving in and another guy setting up. He was a German fellow about to do his first launch out of school. He was a bit stressed out and called it after two aborted launches. His new motor was bogging down when he went to power.

Flight 1308

Starting to get the Colorado 2 dialed in.

Raising the angle of the prop wash and increasing the angle of the “chevron” has greatly improved inflation.

The wing behaved well while I was getting “in” to the risers and inflated clean. The center (leading edge)still looks like it’s wants to frontal but as soon as I’m rolling it comes up and catches the wind.

Notables:

There is a group of Pink Flamingos hanging with white egrets in a pond a the South end of the preserve.

The 2d steering works poorly when putting the brakes away from the body but well on the close and down I put.

Flight #1306

It was a challenging afternoon that culminated with a hard landing . I did a bit of kiting while the winds settled down. It was variable 5 to 10 cycling about every few minutes. The good news is that lowering the axle 5 inches seems to have done the trick. I’d like a few more launches with a good surface but the prop wash didn’t disturb the wing prior to throttle up.

The landing was terrible. I descended a bit much before final and landed hard. No damage to man or machine. I’m glad there were no witnesses.

The GoPro Max didn’t record and the 11 Black didn’t stabilize…. So much for video.

Notes… yellow lenses for sunset launches. Raise the beaners on the kiting harness.