Hi Guys,
Linhart,
I am sorry to hear about your poor flying WX. 28 degrees is just plain cruel in April! :-( I hope you get to fly soon. I moved (escaped?) out here when I was 17 and never went back! I do remember flying in the snow as a kid. We would tramp out a circle and fly. I still have the scars on my fingers from being cut by the sharp nylon props. We did not know that you were supposed to sand them 1st :-( We did not even know how much we were cut until we got home and our fingers thawed out. The oil and Nitro in the cut did not help the healing! ;-)
I won't be rude and mention what our WX is here, but I have been able to fly a little more than you have. The good news is that the calendar is in your favor, you should be flying that beautiful Bearcat real soon. :-)
Alan,
Good point about the grass. I should have mentioned that. 90% of my flying is in the park, on grass, near my home. Your right, you have to get used to the sound of the power needed to start the TO roll safely before launching the plane. It only took a few flights before I got it right. I started on the "high" side and backed into the correct amount of power needed before pulling the stooge sting.
It helps that my planes are set up for grass. My P-40 and Vector-40 have the gear well forward, axles approx. >1" ahead of the wing, and 2.5" wheels. When I said in my prior post that the plane barely moves upon release, I should have mentioned that the power was already coming up so that there was a good airflow over the Stab/El to help prevent a nose over. I'm sure it will be even better next week when I fly it off our cement club field.
RE: Props. That is a subject that deserves it's own thread! ;-) ...... It is interesting that you and Linhart both have such good success with higher pitch props. I think he uses an APC 12 x 6 to fly his beautiful Bearcat. .......It goes against the current thinking of less pitch and more diameter, but it is hard to argue with success! :-)
I use a Bolly CF 3B 11 x 4 prop from Randy Smith @ approx. 11,500 RPM. It pulls my 56 oz. 560 sq. in wing area, Profile P-40 at 57 MPH and a 5.0 Lap time (62' eye to eye lines + 5' for; arm, LOs, handle, and 1/2 wing). This is a PERFECT set up, (Thanks for the advice Randy! ), giving excellent line tension throughout the entire flight and giving a good pace to the maneuvers. I use 3,000 mAh from my 4,200 mAh TP 14.8V battery for a 5 min. 10 sec. flight.
Linhart, Alan,
It looks like 2007 will be a very exciting year for Electric CL. As soon as you guys back East start flying this year we will see more and more great ideas coming from your "Eastern Flyers" braintrust! Sparky's excellent forum has made it possible to have our minds function like the "BORG". This should allow us to move ahead at an accelerated pace. :-)
I hope the WX gods smile on you soon.
Regards,
Rudy
Hermosa Beach, CA