Here’s the video of the Easy Glider maiden flight:
Since then, I’ve had about 4 more flights, and they’ve all gone very well. The only mishap was when the canopy popped off during my last flight, and landed in the nearby river! The wind was good to me, though, and blew it over to the edge, where I was able to retrieve it. Sometimes, mother nature really is on your side in this hobby.
I finished the Easy Glider today, and took it out for its maiden flight. Here’s the setup:
The plane took a little longer to build than expected, mostly because I ordered the non-electric version so I had to dig out lots of foam to accommodate my battery and motor. I had a hard time fitting all the servo cables under the canopy, so I flew without it the first time. Here’s what the plane looks like:
When I launched the plain, it flew up at about 45 degrees without any sign of slowing down. I was impressed. After an altitude of about 100 feet, I killed the motor to see how it would glide. I must have pulled back too much on the elevator, because the left wing stalled and it started to roll over. Experience taught me how to handle this, so I let the nose fall down to get some airspeed, and rolled out of the stall. Then, I decided to climb a bit, and that’s when the firewall tore loose of the foam. Fortunately, I had put a layer of packing tape over it to double secure it to the fuselage, so it didn’t fall out of the sky. I was able to pilot the plane down with no problem. Any maiden flight with a good landing is a good flight, and this was no exception. I came down with spoilerons, and I’m not sure I could have come down in time without them. I would have overshot my runway by a factor of about 3.
I’ll post some video later.