Two New Planes - At Least One Worked
With the warmer and longer days returning, the flying season is very much starting again after a long and cold winter. There is no reason why you cannot fly in the winter - and indeed many do. However, it gets dark early meaning that weekends or days off are the only time to go flying, and even then the number of hours available for flying are reduced, and it is cold! There is also much more chance of wind or rain (or worse) which makes it impossible, or at least very unpleasant, for flying. Whilst I had hoped to fly a bit over the winter, by the start of March I had not flown for about 3-4 months. Since the start of March, I have managed to go flying a few times.
A few weeks ago, I had the first flight of my FunCub, a plane that I had put together over the winter. Unlike many of my other planes, the FunCub is an electric plane rather an an IC fuel plane (an internal combustion engine that runs on glow fuel - a mix of methanol, nitromethane and castor oil). Electric planes certainly have some advantages - they are cleaner and quieter for a start, and are not subject to some of the restrictions as to when we are allowed to fly them, meaning that they can be flown later in the evening in the week, and later in the afternoon on a Sunday. They also have some disadvantages - they tend not to allow as long a flight as an IC plane, and are a bit more confusing - they need batteries, an electric motor, and a speed controller - effectively a mini-computer that is used to control the motor and which can be programmed in various ways to control how the motor is operated.
The first flight of the FunCub started well, although it was obviously sensitive to the wind. However, part way through the flight, the motor cut out and we could not get it restarted. Taking the plane apart, we found that the wiring had burnt through, and one of the leads had become unsoldered through the heat! I had therefore got hold of a replacement motor, and on Sunday tried again. However again the motor died earlier than expected, and even with a new battery we could not get it running again. The conclusion was that it must be a problem with the speed controller. At the moment, I am not sure whether I am going to get a replacement speed controller or not. They are not cheap - to get a new speed controller and matching motor will cost at least £60 - and I am not sure whether the FunCub was fun enough to make it worthwhile. I am more tempted to take the receiver out - probably the most expensive component - and put it in another IC plane.
However, the FunCub was not the only new plane that I tried to fly on Sunday. Last year I had bought a secondhand Lancair from the Wings and Wheels show, complete with engine and servos. In getting inside the plane to add the receiver and battery, it seemed that the plane had probably rarely been used, with the engine (an Irvine .53 - 0.53 cubic inch capacity or 8.7cc) looking almost new. The one problem with the plane was a lack of balance, with the plane refusing to sits on its three wheels and instead tipping up to rest on its tail! I spent a lot of time putting a lot of weight in the nose - achieved using lots of stick on weights - allowing the plane to at least sit properly on the ground. There was a lot of laughter at the field when people saw how much weight I had put on the plane, but the centre of gravity was not far off, and so after a little more set up, it was time to fly. I let someone else have the first takeoff, and after some trimming the Lancair seemed to fly nicely. I had a little fly around - including doing a few rolls - and then got ready to bring it into land. At this point, the engine stopped, and so I handed the controls back to someone much more experienced for a safe deadstick landing. On the ground, we could not get the engine started again until we topped up with fuel - leading to the conclusion that there was probably something wrong with the piping in the fuel tank meaning that the fuel could not get to the engine when the tank was less than half full. Running the plane on the ground confirmed this, as when the tank was about half full, the plane stopped. Clearly something needs looking at - but it should not stop a couple of short flights. What stopped any more flying of the plane on Sunday was me leaving the power on so that the battery was dead by the time I came to have a fly.
So, now the plane is back home and needing to have a little work done to get the fuel running properly, and hopefully ready for some more flights in the coming months.
