Easystar Flight

[bearcat]

The maiden flight of the Easy Star yesterday was excellent. Evan was "Chuck Yeager" this time. Once he trimmed it out, I took the controls for awhile, and you know what? That plane can really float. I also think it will be a nice thermal soarer too. That flight was quite long, and then Evan brought it down for a landing.

The second flight, Evan took it up, and then I flew it the entire rest of the time. I kept the flight short because it was after 1 PM and I was getting really hungry. But still, it was probably a good 10 minute flight. I landed it myself this time. The thing I love about the Easy Star is how nice and slow it floats.

It flew a long time on a little 7.4 volt 1250 mah battery, but because the battery's so small, I had to ballast the nose with another 5-cell nmh battery (which wasn't used for power). So I think I'll look for a larger battery to help with ballast.

I'm going to guess with the proper ballast, the Easy Star is sitting at about 20 ounces, give or take, with a 54" wingspan. And it had decent penetration when the breeze kicked up.

Thanks to Evan and Kim, for their teachings. I appreciate it.
I'm there, and flying finally. But it's been about a dozen flights to get there and a few crashes along the way.

[Lt Swiss]

Great flight yesterday!

[bearcat]

Thanks. I had just hit the point where landing this thing was something that I just knew I could do. I was suddenly confident, and was rewarded with a successful landing. Of course, it wasn't windy either.

Had it been very windy, my chances of landing that well would have been reduced.

Next nice day that we fly, I'd like to start practicing patterns around the field, like flying a perfect square along the fenceline and practicing my landing approaches...maybe even with some touch-and-goes, if I have enough power for that. On snow, I probably do, but on grass, probably not.

Thanks for posting the flight on You Tube! That was fun.
(Even though I look overweight...ugh).

[Lt Swiss]

You're not over-weight, you're just under-height...

[bearcat]

You know, I used to weight lift and carry engine blocks around. Would you believe that? A few years ago I had open-heart surgery, which saved my life but ruined my body. I was always really proud of my bod. Now I'm kinda disappointed in it.

Hopefully sometime I can get back in shape, but I'm not sure if my heart will try to explode if I do.