Went flying this afternoon, and after cutting down some bush, had a couple good flights with the old BrightStar. Recently I've neem hurling it
around even more vigorously than normal, trying to urge a decent snap-roll
out of it (but it just WON'T snap properly). Trying the snap at full
throttle today didn't help a great deal, but at least it made the semi- corkscrew roll appear really vicious and I could get 3-4 rolls before chickening out and regaining control.

I read recently that if you go high, enter a vertical dive, idle the
throttle and quickly do full right rudder, full left aileron and full
forward elevator, the aircraft should fall immediately into an inverted
flat spin! It didn't say how to get the airctaft OUT of an inverted flat spin.....

Recently, I've been experiencing something strange. I measured 23-24
minutes flight time on the BrightStar with a full tank, and set my timer
to 18:00 which gives me 5:00 reserve. When the alarm goes off, I land the aircraft, and after she's stopped I throttle up again and taxi back to the apron. But each time I throttle up to taxi back these days, the engine
quits! Same thing with the first flight this afternoon, too. I thought
I'd try two more clicks of trim for the second flight, but as the reserve alarm went off and I turned onto the downwind leg to make an approach, the engine cut dead! I was low and slow, downwind over the wild tamarinds,
close in, but I wasn't getting back to the strip, so I factored in some
Zagi Styleez and escaped the wild tamarinds to land softly in the tall
grass on the aproach, about 10 yardfs from the threshhold.

Dry tanks! Either my heavy-handed manoeverings are drinking loads more
fuel, or the carby neads a tweak, or both. I'm going to adjust the carb
and if that doesn't inprove things, I'll just have to reset my timer to
16:00 and go from there. Actually 18:00 is a long flight anyway...

BTW, the grapevine has it that the Christen Eagle is almost fully
repaired. The front of the fuse where the firewall was busted out was the worst, as I suspected. We may see another attempt to fly her this
weekend. If that happens I *know* that Norman will be the one responsible
for the bulk of the repair work! Anyway, time will tell! I for one will
be glad to see her in the air.

---
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Re: Christen Eagle & Others
By: Angus Mcleod to Digital Man on Wed Feb 09 2005 11:15 pm

BTW, the grapevine has it that the Christen Eagle is almost fully
repaired. The front of the fuse where the firewall was busted out was the worst, as I suspected. We may see another attempt to fly her this
weekend. If that happens I *know* that Norman will be the one responsible for the bulk of the repair work! Anyway, time will tell! I for one will
be glad to see her in the air.

I'm sure you won't need reminding, but bring your camera! If she goes down again, this could be your last photo op. :-)

digital man

Snapple "Real Fact" #88:
A ten gallon hat holds less then one gallon of liquid.

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Re: Christen Eagle & Others
By: Digital Man to Angus Mcleod on Wed Feb 09 2005 19:40:00

BTW, the grapevine has it that the Christen Eagle is almost fully repaired. The front of the fuse where the firewall was busted out was th worst, as I suspected. We may see another attempt to fly her this weekend. If that happens I *know* that Norman will be the one responsibl for the bulk of the repair work! Anyway, time will tell! I for one will be glad to see her in the air.

I'm sure you won't need reminding, but bring your camera! If she goes down again, this could be your last photo op. :-)

Heh! Well, unless there is something SERIOUSLY wrong with the aircraft,
I'd be surprised if it goes down again so soon. Pride took a major arse- whupping last time, so I doubt the /next/ maiden flight (how many times
can an aeroplane be a virgin?) will be undertaken so casually!

I'll hopefully be on hand and will get an in-air photograph or two.


---
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Re: Christen Eagle & Others
By: Digital Man to Angus Mcleod on Wed Feb 09 2005 07:40 pm

BTW, the grapevine has it that the Christen Eagle is almost fully repaired. The front of the fuse where the firewall was busted out was th worst, as I suspected. We may see another attempt to fly her this weekend. If that happens I *know* that Norman will be the one responsibl for the bulk of the repair work! Anyway, time will tell! I for one will be glad to see her in the air.

I'm sure you won't need reminding, but bring your camera! If she goes down again, this could be your last photo op. :-)

AND... if she DOES go down... we wanna see pictures of the wreckage!

:-)

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Re: Christen Eagle & Others
By: Richardw to Angus Mcleod on Thu Feb 10 2005 08:49:00

I'm sure you won't need reminding, but bring your camera! If she goes dow again, this could be your last photo op. :-)

AND... if she DOES go down... we wanna see pictures of the wreckage!

I'll try to oblige. But if you wanna see wreckage, you need these before
'n' after shots...

http://www.barbadosrc.org/gallery/show_image.php?image=phantom.1.jpg
http://www.barbadosrc.org/gallery/show_image.php?image=phantom.2.jpg

taken a few minutes apart...


---
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Re: Christen Eagle & Others
By: Angus Mcleod to Richardw on Thu Feb 10 2005 05:24 pm

Re: Christen Eagle & Others
By: Richardw to Angus Mcleod on Thu Feb 10 2005 08:49:00

I'm sure you won't need reminding, but bring your camera! If she goes again, this could be your last photo op. :-)

AND... if she DOES go down... we wanna see pictures of the wreckage!

I'll try to oblige. But if you wanna see wreckage, you need these before 'n' after shots...

http://www.barbadosrc.org/gallery/show_image.php?image=phantom.1.jpg
http://www.barbadosrc.org/gallery/show_image.php?image=phantom.2.jpg

taken a few minutes apart...

I would venture a guess that one was irrepairable. bummer... jet propulsion too eh? Perhaps that's one reason it was so badly obliterated. :)

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Re: Christen Eagle & Others
By: Richardw to Angus Mcleod on Thu Feb 10 2005 13:48:00

http://www.barbadosrc.org/gallery/show_image.php?image=phantom.1.jpg
http://www.barbadosrc.org/gallery/show_image.php?image=phantom.2.jpg

taken a few minutes apart...

I would venture a guess that one was irrepairable. bummer... jet propulsion too eh? Perhaps that's one reason it was so badly obliterated. :)

The problem was, that was the *last* crash that model ever had, but not
it's *first*. Hendy, owner and pilot is not the greatest modeller nor
flier. It had been beat up so many times that there was about 3-4 lbs
extra glue in the airframe, the fan unit was cracked and out pf balance,
and the vibration was so bad it a) vibrated the carburettor settings
off-tune, and b) foamed the fuel in the tanks. The aircraft had precious little power and was teeth-clenching to witness it taking off and flying.

The owner decided to make a near vertical dive downwind to get some speed.
It passed straight over his head at tremendous speed and when he turned
around to follow it he found himself looking directly into the afternoon
sun. She never lifted her nose and went in at full chat. So far it is
the most spectacular wreck that any of us can recall ever seeing, and gave birth to the "Hendy" scale of crashes -- similar to the Richter scale for earthquakes.

Hendy went on to build this (exceedingly ugly) model of a MiG 15:

http://www.barbadosrc.org/gallery/show_image.php?image=mig-15.jpg

and is well on the way towards adding 3-4 lbs extra glue to this one as
well! If you have the bandwidth to spare this QuickTime .MOVie (about two
meg) shows how:

http://www.barbadosrc.org/gallery/mig15.mov

Notice the hot aproach (his planes are usually so heavy the wing-loading defies a slow aproach), the bounce on landing (there is never any sort of 'spring' designed into his undercarriage), uncontrolled roll left (I told
you he wasn't a great pilot) and characteristic abrupt termination in the landing roll-out. Yep, Hendy's at it again!

BTW: i) that isn't our club strip, ii) the photography is lousey because
I'm a lousey photographer, iii) you are seeing the back of a lot of
peoples heads because I have more sense than to stand at the front when
Hendy makes an aproach!


---
þ Synchronet þ Made of wood and glue, but mostly glue!

Angus Mcleod wrote to Richardw <=-

Re: Christen Eagle & Others
By: Richardw to Angus Mcleod on Thu Feb 10 2005 08:49:00

I'm sure you won't need reminding, but bring your camera! If she goes dow again, this could be your last photo op. :-)

AND... if she DOES go down... we wanna see pictures of the wreckage!

I'll try to oblige. But if you wanna see wreckage, you need these
before 'n' after shots...

http://www.barbadosrc.org/gallery/show_image.php?image=phantom.1.jpg

http://www.barbadosrc.org/gallery/show_image.php?image=phantom.2.jpg

taken a few minutes apart...

Now that is one impressively mangled pile of junk. Beautiful plane when
it started. :)



... Damn! My family tree was just wood-chipped
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Re: Christen Eagle & Others
By: Sniper to Angus Mcleod on Thu Feb 10 2005 19:15:00

I'll try to oblige. But if you wanna see wreckage, you need these before 'n' after shots...

http://www.barbadosrc.org/gallery/show_image.php?image=phantom.1.jpg http://www.barbadosrc.org/gallery/show_image.php?image=phantom.2.jpg

taken a few minutes apart...

Now that is one impressively mangled pile of junk. Beautiful plane when
it started. :)

Yup. Truly spectacular. The wreckage was scattered over an area 50 feet
in radius from point of impact. I saw bits leap 25+ feet in the air. The 'whump' when it hit the ground made the hair on the back of my head stand
on end. Hendy kept saying he would 'repair it' until we made him snap a
rum!

A truly remarkable crash. The proto-typical 10.0 on the Hendy scale!


---
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Angus Mcleod wrote to Sniper <=-

Re: Christen Eagle & Others
By: Sniper to Angus Mcleod on Thu Feb 10 2005 19:15:00

I'll try to oblige. But if you wanna see wreckage, you need these before 'n' after shots...

http://www.barbadosrc.org/gallery/show_image.php?image=phantom.1.jpg http://www.barbadosrc.org/gallery/show_image.php?image=phantom.2.jpg

taken a few minutes apart...

Now that is one impressively mangled pile of junk. Beautiful plane when
it started. :)

Yup. Truly spectacular. The wreckage was scattered over an area 50
feet in radius from point of impact. I saw bits leap 25+ feet in the
air. The 'whump' when it hit the ground made the hair on the back of
my head stand on end. Hendy kept saying he would 'repair it' until we made him snap a rum!

A truly remarkable crash. The proto-typical 10.0 on the Hendy scale!

I believe he would have been better off rebuilding it from scratch, than to
try to repair that one. :)

When I think of the hours you have involved with building these things... geez...



Sniper
Killed In Action BBS, telnet://kia.zapto.org
Home of the Unofficial SynchroNet Support Network.
download the info pack at any of the below sites: http://www.chcomputer.net/USSNET.ZIP
http://www.ussnet.org
telnet://kia.zapto.org

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Re: Christen Eagle & Others
By: Sniper to Angus Mcleod on Fri Feb 11 2005 10:42:00

When I think of the hours you have involved with building these things... geez...

It's a hobby. Some people will spend 3,000 hours detailing a model. I'm
not into that level of detail!


---
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Angus Mcleod wrote to Sniper <=-

Re: Christen Eagle & Others
By: Sniper to Angus Mcleod on Fri Feb 11 2005 10:42:00

When I think of the hours you have involved with building these things... geez...

It's a hobby. Some people will spend 3,000 hours detailing a model.
I'm not into that level of detail!

Oh, I can believe it. I've got a little car that I take for shows that I've spent a little over $50,000 dollars on...
I've spent so many hours on it that I lost count 15 years ago. :)

I wasn't saying you or anyone that does modeling was crazy or anything, just stating a fact on how much time you all spend
on the things. My baby isn't a model, but the real thing, but I know the compulsion. :)





Sniper
Killed In Action BBS, telnet://kia.zapto.org
Home of the Unofficial SynchroNet Support Network.
download the info pack at any of the below sites: http://www.chcomputer.net/USSNET.ZIP
http://www.ussnet.org
telnet://kia.zapto.org

... If I save time, when do I get it back ?
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