C17 Globemaster III @ 1/15th scale - for PSS

Last week Bob and I saw that there was an upcoming big SW wind, so a plan was hatched to get to the Orme as early as possible to get two maidens done. I got up at 5am and made the 3 hour trip with a car full of C17, to be greeted by a 55mph SW on the top of the rock. Wow! If she doesn't fly in this, she is definitely going in the bin.

All rigged and ready (extra insulating tape to hold the engines on!), the hardy lads we'd corralled into meeting us there lofted the airframe above their heads, and gave her the heave-ho. The first launch showed some tail-heavy attributes, but nothing that couldn't be handled on trim, thankfully. A slight runaway in the dive, but not something that made me panic too much - I didn't even make any changes for the second flight.

All in all, I'm very happy with her. Quite manoeuvrable, not too fast, fairly easy to land even without touching the throttle stick for the huge flaps. I did give the flaps a go on the front side and she slowed up very quickly without too much pitching - at least they're there if I need them!

The second flight was cut a bit short due to the backup receiver losing signal.  I still have no idea why this was, and can only assume it's something to do with the "beta" pre-release RB30 redundancy bus I was using.  I really wanted the RB in there to keep an eye on the flap servo current as it has that feature built-in, but I have since found smaller servo-current sensors made by FRSky that I can daisy chain off the telemetry ports instead.  I'll lose the battery backup feature, but by adding two separate receivers, I can mitigate that risk through them using different batteries and cross-controlling the aircraft for redundancy.

All photos courtesy of Phil Cooke - many thanks Phil for capturing these great moments.

Some specs;

• Based on ZZ176 based at Brize Norton when she wore her anniversary tail art.  
• 32lbs AUW
• 8 servos (2 ailerons, 2 flaps, 2 rudders, 2 elevators) all high voltage.
• 2x 2 cell 4000mAh LiFe batteries, 
• FRSky RB30 redundancy bus (for now...)
• FRsky R8Pro & R9X receivers (2.4ghz and 900mhz links)
• FRsky X20S transmitter
• Flytron LED landing lights and strobing beacon (fantastically bright!)

Construction is foam veneered wings, then glassed.  Fuselage is white foam rear, built-up centre around the spar box, foam nose.  Fus foam parts then brown-papered and glassed.  ABS vac formed engine nacelles.  Everything sprayed in 2K high build primer, then 2K matt battleship grey.  Decals from Callie Graphics and Dave's Decals.

Own design Gloster Meteor for PSS - maiden and thoughts

With the first PSSA meet of the year, I was really hoping that the Meteor got a maiden - and she did!

We had to wait a bit for the big winds forecast on Sunday evening on the favoured SW slope, but they came about as forecast, and aviation was committed.

All pictures by Shona Meade;

A slight oopsie on the landing, as the Chief Design Engineer forgot that the balsa version of the nacelles had thick balsa on the bottom and formers top and bottom for a reason : landing loads.  When 3D printed, the flexing of the nacelle snipped it off cleanly over a layer line.  Oh dear.  A quick fix though, along with a C of G tweak as it was slightly rearward of ideal.  

Overall very happy with her though, and very glad for fitting the flaps.

Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker for PSS - maiden done!

On the 30th I joined up with a few of the south Wales fliers on the Ice Scream slope in the Bwlch range of hills above Treorchy for some slope flying.  The wind was NW ish, but it would gust with more W in it temporarily, giving us lots of turbulent air and not much lift.

Anyway, the Flanker got away ok in the end, after scratching out some lift she went well.  I struggled with my TX a bit, as it seems the up elevator trim switch is not working - I know this is a common fault with the 10C unfortunately, but not a big problem as I will swap it for the elevator trim switch internally.  This gave me no real feel for the planes performance in turns, as I was flying the elevator all the time I could have been close to the stall.

Enough chat, here's a video from Steve Haughton.

And a few stills from Tom May :

Some finer tuning I hope at the May PSSA meet on the same range of hills.