Glow Adventures pt 1

(Originally published July 24, 2022)

I got out to the club on Friday and broke in the 46AXII on the LT-40. Yesterday I got out again and the CFI assisted me in maidening the LT-40, which was successful apart from some gripes about the offset trim locations on the X20 (they are a pain if you are not used to them. The X18 does not have this issue)

In short, the LT-40 flew well, the prop isn't ideal (The CFI recommended switching from the APC Scimitar 10x6 prop to a Master Airscrew 10x6, which I will do). I got another flight on it, but there were a lot of folks out and the wind kinda sucked later on in the day so I didn't fly any more than that, aside from 2 flights on my Ugly Stik, the second of which resulted in hitting a tree with a Stik. 

Mild damage to the Stik, with the wing forward of the spar ripped up on the outer 4 bays. A couple days of work to fix & recover and it will fly again. Reason for the hit? I'm not familiar with the field and have been having issues judging distance of my aircraft because I've been flying 60"+ aircraft lately after years of 50" and smaller stuff. I thought I was closer in and turned onto final too soon, putting me behind a tree with not enough power to get out of the way. 

Pure pilot error, but it does make me glad I've not tried to fly that 40-sized pattern ship at this field yet. I want some more time on the LT-40 and the Valiant 10cc at the field before getting anything much higher performance in the air there. It's a really different layout than what I'm used to and I just need to get comfortable with it. Plus I'm flying stuff now that likes grass a lot more than the smaller aircraft.

For the Stik, I'll probably move that over to the TANDEM radios from the 9ZAP, so I can set up spoilerons easily. It's WAY too floaty on final and I think 1/8-1/4" of reflex will solve that nicely. It's electric right now as well, but I'm not happy with the power on 4S and while the setup is 5S capable I'm not buying new batteries just for that. As this was a glow aircraft converted to electric by a previous owner, I'm strongly considering converting it back to glow with a ~60-sized engine.