Jetpainter
640cc Uber Pimp
I just got back and got everything put away after a very successful maiden day. We had a big storm roll through last night so it was quite a bit cooler this morning, and somewhat overcast early on.
I got to the field about 9 and assembled the airplane and then had two friends do a sanity check to make sure everything looked right and that I didn't do anything silly. After they gave me the thumbs up I fueled it and drug it out to the starting area. It popped on the choke after a couple flips, and started a few flips after turning the choke off. It idled great, had a clean transition and ran good wide open. I really like how it sounds. This time I actually remembered to do a range test, which is one thing I forgot to do when I maidened my scratch build, after that it was time to fly!
For some odd reason I was not the least bit nervous flying about flying it. Takeoff was smooth. Once in the air, it needed one click of right aileron which was too much. I need to change the steps in the trim settings. The DA120 ran well, though it had a surge at steady mid throttle. I checked the CG in a 45 degree inverted climb and it did fall off fairly easily so at first I thought it may be nose heavy, but after some slow, mid and full throttle passes I think it actually needs more down thrust. It's close, but it need more. When trimmed for level flight at mid throttle it's straight and level, but if you go wide open it starts to climb. The landing was nice and smooth.
Before the second flight I leaned the high end just a tad which helped my surge some. During that flight I tried some point rolls and slow rolls. It has a tendency to drop the nose when rolling, especially when rolling to inverted. It could use some aileron differential, and I think getting the thrust figured out would help that as well. I tried some PopTops during the second flight and man this thing does them nice.
On the third flight I tried a short hover up high just to see the pull out. For a pretty heavy airplane with a new rich engine it was very good. In knife edge it rolls out, but doesn't seem to pull to the canopy or the gear, so with some rudder aileron mix it should be good, but until the thrust is right I wont know.
In general, I'm very happy with the first day. The airplane needs a few tweaks, but nothing big. The sun came out around 12:30 and really warmed it up and shot the humidity up, so that was it for me for the day. And the sun really did a number on the covering, wow, the left wing and stab look REALLY bad so back to the iron with them.
I got to the field about 9 and assembled the airplane and then had two friends do a sanity check to make sure everything looked right and that I didn't do anything silly. After they gave me the thumbs up I fueled it and drug it out to the starting area. It popped on the choke after a couple flips, and started a few flips after turning the choke off. It idled great, had a clean transition and ran good wide open. I really like how it sounds. This time I actually remembered to do a range test, which is one thing I forgot to do when I maidened my scratch build, after that it was time to fly!
For some odd reason I was not the least bit nervous flying about flying it. Takeoff was smooth. Once in the air, it needed one click of right aileron which was too much. I need to change the steps in the trim settings. The DA120 ran well, though it had a surge at steady mid throttle. I checked the CG in a 45 degree inverted climb and it did fall off fairly easily so at first I thought it may be nose heavy, but after some slow, mid and full throttle passes I think it actually needs more down thrust. It's close, but it need more. When trimmed for level flight at mid throttle it's straight and level, but if you go wide open it starts to climb. The landing was nice and smooth.
Before the second flight I leaned the high end just a tad which helped my surge some. During that flight I tried some point rolls and slow rolls. It has a tendency to drop the nose when rolling, especially when rolling to inverted. It could use some aileron differential, and I think getting the thrust figured out would help that as well. I tried some PopTops during the second flight and man this thing does them nice.
On the third flight I tried a short hover up high just to see the pull out. For a pretty heavy airplane with a new rich engine it was very good. In knife edge it rolls out, but doesn't seem to pull to the canopy or the gear, so with some rudder aileron mix it should be good, but until the thrust is right I wont know.
In general, I'm very happy with the first day. The airplane needs a few tweaks, but nothing big. The sun came out around 12:30 and really warmed it up and shot the humidity up, so that was it for me for the day. And the sun really did a number on the covering, wow, the left wing and stab look REALLY bad so back to the iron with them.
(forgot about that beautiful racer maiden!
) Your Extra maiden sounds almost identical to mine when I maiden the EF 104. Your subsequent flights were much better though (mine had an ignition flame out in a hover due faulty kill switch). Sounds like both the EF and H9 fly similar. I thought mine was a bit nose heavy too but it was actually slightly tail heavy. I never did check the up or down thrust and just went with the given built in to the plane. So cudos to you for not trusting a MFG expert design. Your flight report has actually shed light on my past experience with the 104 and knowing it was probably more a thrust issue I was having with it than a balance issue. Thanks for that 