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Got a couple of good flights in today. It's getting to the point where it's more fun than frustration to fly the darn thing. My first try today wasn't much good though. I launched it and it went aloft, but for some reason it just make a long bank to the right and cartwheeled into the ground. This did some damage to the wing but I was able to glue it back together in a short time and give it another try. I also decided there was probably too much weight in the back end and removed one of the pennies.
The next flight went great, until there was a loss of power. I thought there was a lot more time on the battery than that when it lost power. Turns out the solder joint I did on the wire going to the engine came lose. Well I still had a fully charged battery with me and the plane was still flyable, so I managed to stick the fuse in between the shunt resistor and the engine to get it to work.
Then the next flight was excellent. At one point the plane was headed right for a big tree and I managed to miss it on purpose, not just out of luck. It only came close to hitting the ground once or twice and I managed to pull it out. And I shut down the engine and got some good soaring time in. Then it came in close to me and the battery was running down and didn't have enough power to pull it back up. So I make a nice landing right next to where I was standing. I did want to make another flight using what was left on the first battery but I couldn't get the fuse to stick anymore. So I decided to quit while I was ahead.
And for the first time the plane is still flyable, all I have to do is solder that wire back on and charge the batteries back up and I can go out for another couple fights today.
1. Do a better job on those solder joints.
Later the same day.
I went back out and gave it another try. No luck. On the first flight it just banked to the left and did a cartwheel into the ground again. I finally figured that was because the tail fin was not on straight. But the damage done on that crash was pretty extensive. Basically every repair job I have done on the plane so far was knocked apart.
But there was still some daylight left and I was determined to get another flight in for the day. So I wrapped electrical tape around the front and slapped some glue on the left wing to hold it together and taped the tail fin and elevator down the best I could. Then I launched it into the air. It was still banking to the left but I managed to control that, then the left wing buckled but didn't come off. So there it was flying with the left wing barley hanging on. I would have kept on flying it like that but it eventually crashed. It was no worse off for the last flight, but I did lose one of the wing dowels. At this point I will have to do some major reconstruction before I try to fly it again. I'm considering buying another kit to use for spare parts.
