Well guys, I'm late in reporting in, but a couple weeks ago I finally got around to flying the maiden flight of "Black 3" and finally found some time to sit down and fill you in. After not ever really getting enough flying in this year to develop any sense of confidence, I still couldn't bare to see it hang on the wall another Winter without knowing whether it would be a real flyer or not... so I bit the bullet and took it to the field on what turned out to be a beautiful day.
I'll cut to the chase and tell you now that while the maiden was less than ideal, I did not have to bring it home in trash bag like the SBD, and it will fly again next season. Now here's the full report...
TAKEOFF:
Instead of gradually accelerating and building up speed down the runway, for some reason I firewalled the throttle and it started pulling hard left. I started feeding right rudder but found that it was not coming back so I buried the rudder right. It slowly started coming back to the runway but I was right at the edge still heading for corn stubble. Just as I was trying to decide whether to abort it made the decision for me and lept from the ground. The left wing immediately stalled and I was in a virtual knife edge 6" above the corn stubble for a couple seconds while I peed my pants. I gave it right aileron and it leveled out immediately and started to climb... and climb it did.
TRIM:
The climbout was aggressive, maybe 45 degrees while I kept pumping down trim in. Right about the time it leveled out I heard my radio telling me that I had no more down trim left. But, it was OK, I had what I needed. Two clicks of right aileron and she was trimmed perfectly. Everything felt good once I convinced myself it wasn't tailheavy and it was going to behave.
FLIGHT:
After what happened with the SBD, I wasn't about to make the mistake of not keeping my speed up so I was heavy on the pedal for the whole flight. It tracked like it was on rails and flew extremely well. Not lightning fast, but very fast nonetheless. Time to try manuevers... Aileron rolls were fast and axial, Loops, Split-S and Half Cubans all were smooth and predictable.
Next were some high speed low passes over the runway. Aaaaaah, to see it screaming by up close was what I had been waiting for for over 2 years now and it didn't dissapoint. At this point I was having some real fun.
LANDING:
This is where I disconnected my brain and began acting like a first-year flyer. I had full intentions of testing the flaps at high altitude and doing some dry runs slow over the runway before landing but for some unknown reason when I dropped the gear and made my first approach I just decided to go for it. I brought it in with no flaps as I wasn't sure how it would respond. Again, I don't know why I didn't just go high and find out.
At any rate, I wasn't prepared for how fast it would sink when I slowed down and just before ditching it prior to making the beginning of the runway I popped it up a couple feet to make sure I'd make the runway. Now I'm too high so I cut the throttle back a bit to get it sinking again. Instead of a gradual sink, the nose lowered a lot and it sunk fast at a high angle of attack. It landed on the mains, bounced and skidded a bit, kicked up the tail and came down on the spinner which dug deep into the muddy ground. The tail went straight up, the spinner pulled out of the mud and the plane was inverted about 3-4 feet in the air and pancaked onto it's back. It sounded like a car crash.
DAMAGE REPORT:
Prepared for major damage, I walked over to upright the plane and found nothing more than a crushed carbon fiber spinner and broken prop. That's it. I couldn't believe it. As hard as it hit I expected much more damage. This is a testament to the strength of the JDM foam construction technique... and verifies my theory that WBpoly glassing is plenty strong enough. If you had seen and heard it hit, you'd agree. Even the spindly little antenna mast on the top of the tail fin drove deep into the ground but did not break or even crack.
POSTFLIGHT EVALUATION:
1) Need to adjust tailwheel a little and gradually build speed on takeoffs. Be more prepared for the left pull
2) The RCignitions G62 Engine performed flawlessly, tons of power, great speed, idles like a sewing machine
3) Airframe flies great, very responsive, quite fast, tracks well
4) Lands a little hot and sinks fast... Need to test and practice with flaps next time
5) Oleo struts were bottoming out, even setting still or taxiing... contribitued to landing problem
POSTFLIGHT ALTERATIONS PLANNED:
1) Need a new spinner and prop
2) Need to get stronger springs installed in Oleo Struts
3) Mechanically trim the elevators out and reset the TX trims
4) The lower gear doors were dragging in the grass, may try next flight without them
Overall, all things considered it was a successful maiden, considering the only real damage was the spinner and prop. The plane flies great so I'm really excited to get the repairs and tweaks done and try again next season. I'm sure that had I just used flaps it would have been a much better landing. I just have a tendancy to freeze up and do stupid things on maiden flights for some reason, but next time it won't be a maiden anymore.
I already spoke to Shindin Machine and he's hooked me up with a supplier for heavier springs that will work in my Shindin Main Gear Struts... that will help a lot too. Anything but a perfectly greased landing will bottom my current struts out hard.
I'm a little concerned about my lower gear doors dragging through the grass so I may take them out of the equation next season until I am really good at landing. Even then, I may choose to trim them back a little to avoid getting caught in the grass. Would not be an issue on a paved runway.
Well, I've gone on long enough, so cheers to you all and I hope to bring you an even better report next year.
Tom
Maiden Flight Video
Here's a few minutes of footage from my maiden flight. I apologize for the quality of the video, but the camera wasn't the best and the guy behind it wasn't much better. :-)
Actually, this is the "good" footage... I had to edit out almost 3 minutes of nothing but blue sky, but at least you can get an idea of how she flew. Unfortunately he didn't catch the bad landing on tape so I wasn't able to learn much by reviewing it.
