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During Dave’s training sessions yesterday we had a couple of fly away’s, nothing to do with Dave or his flying ability but more to do with some type of radio interference. No loss of RSSI, just momentary loss of control. We have experienced this on this site once or twice before and it generally only happens when flying low.
The first one ended with a perfect landing next to the roadway crossing our recent flying field,
but it was quite a walk
The second later in the day was much closer to home but removed the tail, elevator & rudder (see Kermit’s video for the resultant damage).
Anyway a little bit of glue & some temporary tape (to hold it all square) and the Mighty Bixler II
SportTrainer is ready again to continue in its role as Group Training aircraft.
Bring on the next flying day.
After a long & eventful life the mighty Bixler 2 Sport has had yet another makeover.
With all the other planes in my menagerie the poor old Bix 2 has not been getting much airtime of late.
We have a couple of our yachty friends looking to dabble into flying so thought that the Bix may just as well get pressed back into service as the
club, oops – group trainer, afterall most of the current flyers at the field learnt to fly on her & the buddy box originally.I have removed the FY-41AP Lite autopilot/stabiliser as, these days given that she is not flying FPV, its a bit of an overkill. Installed a new ZOHD Kopilot and RadioMaster Rx with flight battery monitoring so that has stabiliser, return to home & Flight battery voltage all covered without the need for any FPV.
The new setup is way lighter so Ill need to check the COG and give her a bit of fine tuning and then she should be good to start her new (old) role.
Set the Taranis up as the Master radio and the Jumper T16 as the Slave radio and bench testing suggests it all works as should be.
So Dave, next time you are venturing down to the field just let me know before hand & I will bring the trainer along for you to try.
Even added some “L” plates for you !!
Finally (apart from a lick of paint & a few lightening holes – if needed) the Fox Dolly Trolley is finished & ready for our next fly day.
With the addition of a front & rear foam block the trolley also doubles as a carrier for transporting the assembled fox (with main wings removed) . Just enough length to fit in the Outback without having to move the front seat from its normal position.
Bring on some flying weather but in the meantime I’ll install the variometer, removed from the old Fox 2.3, & connect the flight battery telemetery.
First trial fit of the glider in the partially completed launch dolly.
Now to fit the spacers to hold the floor in place & cut and fit the axles & all 4 wheels.
Another fine day for flying in Southern Tas.
We have now relocated to the old MAAA flying field (at the request of the farmer) as it is no longer (or at least very rarely) used and they are re seeding both the paddocks we normally fly from.
Everyone today was more than happy with the relocation and all enjoyed some very spirited flying with the occasional mishap.
I started the day with the iNAV equipped BumbleBee and while it still needs some very minor tweaking I am very happy with the way its flying. The telemetry available on my Jumper T16 is a real bonus and the main reason I changed to iNAV, and of course the obligatory RTH function.
Next it was time to maiden the 3 metre FMS Fox glider. First flight was only using 2x 3000mAh 3S 30C connected in series as the larger batteries had only arrived this morning and I needed to charge them first. The 3ooo’s were fine and used around 1/3 of their capacity for the first flight of about 12 minutes.
The next 2 flights were off the 4500mAh batteries (without recharging) and once again both flights together used around 1/3 of their capacity. This plane glides magnificently and even without thermals I reckon you could stay up for around an hour on full charge if mainly gliding & just using power to get height.
Full Flaps are needed to slow the beast down for super gentle landings. Overall very impressed but I expected to be after flying the Fox 2.32 metre glider for around 12 months.
Flight 1
Flight 2
Flight 3
Around the Field today
Thanks Kermit, your video definitely showed the essence of the day.
Geoff #80 is definitely in the running for the “White Cane” award today, two (or was it three) collisions in one race & not a penalty to be seen.
The 3m Fox is ready for her Maiden Flight, just need a decent day now to try it out.
Got the RunCam 2 installed temporarily inside the canopy in place of the pilot for (hopefully) a true pilots eye view.
There is a bit of distortion from the canopy moulding so I’ll try it for one flight before stuffing round with a Pan/Tilt mount & remote control for it.
If the video is too distorted I’ll just go back to a wing mount camera.
The wingspan is about the same as Andrew’s big glider, it’s just that the fuselage is so much bigger.
