Champion first flight!

[ksblaze]

Woo-hoo! Smooth as an arrow! Did a number of take-off & landings at a paved parking lot this evening. Wind was almost nil, temp was mid 60's, low humidity, high pressure, no bugs, no damage! :)

I planned to make a run at half throttle and back off but it tracked so smoothly I just let it gain speed, pulling gently while advancing the throttle to 3/4. It lifted off at about 50'. Climb rate was good, estimated at 30° on full charge. I had the CG about 1/4" forward of recommended, and needed two clicks of up & one click of aileron to maintain level flight.

Full throttle take-offs required a blip of rudder then release, and slight back pressure right after the tail lifted. Shortest take-off (no wind) was about 20'.

I think I've got a bit too much battery, and plan to eventually try a 250 mAh, 8 cell NiMH. It can do brief knife edges, inverted with no problems, and loops with ease from level entry. Snap rolls looked more like a tight barrel roll, so I will try moving the CG aft a bit.

First aileron flight in four years, and it feels good to be inverted! The adrenalin is gone, but man I'm digging this afterglow!
:cool:

[WAR]

So how does it slow down for a landing? The plane is spec'd to have a very low wing loading for an acrobatic plane. This usually translates into a slower stall speed.

I want to fly in front of my house so my landing speeds can't be too HOT.

[ksblaze]

My first few flares were about a foot high, and it doesn't settle, just drops. It bounced hard enough to scrape the 9" prop, but no other contact, no damage. After a few flyby's, I made my approaches between idle and 1/3 throttle, to only a few inches of altitude while feeding in elevator to slow it gradually. Made a few good three point landings this way Haven't been able to weigh it yet, though it's probably pretty close to spec.

I think it's more of a park flyer. Wing load is around 6.5-7 oz/sq' and at full throttle it's pretty speedy. It could be flown in a wide street, though I wouldn't do it unless it was free of trees. A vacant parking lot is perfect as long as there aren't too many overhead wires or light poles.

Still haven't updated my site, but there's a bit more info here: http://skaus.homestead.com/rcchamp.html

Karl