|
|
|
Home
|
This SPAD is based on the design of the original Spadstik. The only difference is I had a .61 super tiger motor so I scaled the wings up to a 53 inch span and increased the cord to 15 inches, also scaled up the tail and got rid of the round vertical stab. Maiden flight was on February 28, 2004. Started out with some major trim problems on the elevator, took full nose down trim along with putting almost every bit of nose down control input I had to keep it flying. In the end it turned out to be to much to for me to control and the flight ended with a kind of controlled landing into the corn field. Retrieved the plane made an adjustment on the elevator control linkage and then back into the air. Wow this thing was a lot of fun. Very fast and the ailerons are very responsive to say the least. The ailerons were set up with 27 degrees of travel up and down. At full deflection it spun over so fast you almost could not count the rolls. Finished flying for the day when I let a good friend (name withheld to protect the guilty) fly it. This was his first flight of an R/C aircraft and we did not have a buddy cord. But I thought it would be ok it is a SPAD and they bounce. Let everyone at the field know what was about to take place, so that they could keep an eye out for everyone's safety. Then he had a go at it. Take off was great, got up did some flying and looked real good. Then it happened, was going to go parallel to the field then make a right turn and get set up to land. Well he went along the field at full speed then went to make the right turn and instead of turning the plane just spun over a couple of times and then when he got it to stop spinning it was upside down but he did not realize it. So at full speed inverted he "Pulled up" down it went 80 mph inverted 70 degree's nose down into the corn field. So he handed me the transmitter, apologized then started making the long walk in to the corn field to retrieve the plane. When he got back the only damage was a broken 3 dollar prop and a carburetor full of mud. Ministik is all fixed and ready to fly again. Also set up duel rates with the original 27 degrees on the low side and 45 degrees on the high. Hope to fly it this weekend and see if it will roll any faster.
UPDATE: Due to a missed preflight inspection item (aileron servo horn screw) this airplane is no longer with us. During a full throttle pass about four feet off the ground the right aileron control horn fell off, inducing a rapid left roll. I was unable to correct the roll in the one millionth of a second before impact. During the subsequent collision with mother earth, the wing was torn from the fuselage cracking the spar in the process. The motor was then firmly planted into the ground, tearing away from the fuselage. Then as the fuselage tumbled it became a twisted mangled mess of yard sticks push rods and coroplast.
|
