DAY .. 30.march 2006
- Been raining/snowing the last days so no flying. But that is ok. I have flown the Perfect a lot now and too much flying before a competition is not good. I also had to clean up my uncle Per Arne's hobby room. Very strange but also nice to help the family with this. He was just like me and the room was full of stuff all over including the floor.. Some Graphite's, Organic, EVO9, engines (Kontronik) and some stuff will be sold on the net and I will buy some good beginner planes to the children of his son. He had some unbuilt planes also and parts. Some will be built in the club I hope. Anyone need a couple of Sagitta 600 wings/elevator/rudder in good shape? I am now on the plane to Turkey and my shorts are packed and ready.
- Evening: After a look on the field (it was a bit wet after some rain so some bought kinky boots) we had a good meal and Philip tried to ruin a small DLG from www.nemomania.com . It is not in full production yet but will be soon. Cool little bugger. I am trying to get hold on the one they are crashing in the dark here... We are being treated nice as last time in Turkey. Picked up at the airport. food waiting for us. Clean and heated rooms (if that is needed) and nice too say hello to all I know. BTW bad mobile connection as usual in this hotel so only small pictures.

DAY .. 26.march 2006 - Pike Perfect
- Snowing and 3-5m/s winds is not ideal but I need the practice. So I put up 75m to turnaround and downwind launching!!! Tried several different settings but none ideal yet. Flying conditions were actually pretty good so I found both thermals and slope lift so I could fly as much as I wanted. Got about 5 flights before some heavy snow made me stop. Heard from the main club that the LN-BGO had been flying not according to the rules and the main club got some problems from the tower. This was a visiting machine so it is a pitty that our club will get the blame. But it did fly touch and go on the wrong field and was very noisy. It was also flying in "forbidden" airspace over me.

DAY .. 22.march 2006 - Emcotec DPSI from RC-flight
- I have had some issues with power the last year... ;-) and that is why I ordered some new stuff to put in my Katana 2M. I want to know as much as possible and want to be secure in the air. Today I received a package and amazing how cool some model stuff can be packed. It is a Voltage regulator, switch, logger, etc in the 75g I will install. I anyhow have a switch with votage spy so just a few more grms is ok. You can not only switch on your plane (essential I guess!) but you can read out voltage on two Rx batteries, amps, used mah and offcourse it will regulate the voltage and give you feedback if a pack is wrong or you use to many amps in the system. It also gives you lowest, highest and average on all of it. I can plug in 2 packs of 5 cell Nimh/Nicd or 2 cell Lipo/Liion. It can can be delivered for more cells according to the manual. This "DPSI BIC" is rated for max 20A and is meant for models with consumption below 8A. It will give you a warning if the consumption is above 8A.

DAY .. 22.march 2006 - Pike Perfect and Pike Giant
- Thought the late flight of the day would give me some feedback of differences but it is always thermals out there. It had been partly cloudy all day and the wind seemed stable and nice at 2-5m/s or something in -4C. I had been working on the ballast system so that I could adjust the CG without putting stuff in the nose all the time. Pretty cool and can be done on all these types of long bars. Just drill a hole, cut the tube and drilled further with a smaller bor so you can make threads. Now I can change the end of the bar to my liking (CG).
I had 4 flights. 3 with Pike Perfect and one with Pike Giant. First flight was in big sink but the next 3 was in good air. I left the thermals now and then to adjust distance performance. Good practice. What I found was that one needs to load up the Pike Perfect while the Giant still could fly unloaded. Amazing how well the Perfect likes ballast. I think it likes it ;-) I think the Perfect circles slightly better while the Giant has faster distance yet still hangs in there. I must say that I am still not 100% sure what to fly but I guess with a few more hours on the Perfect I will say it has the edge over the Giant. What I am not sure about yet is the CG. It seems like the Giant can be flown more rearward CG than the Perfect. The Giant will still have it's tail up but the Perfect sits on its tail until you are so far back that it will undertuck heavily during zoom. What is cool is that it is nimble to fly no matter how far back you have the CG. What seems to be obvious is that in windy conditions a 107-110 is suitable and in calm conditions it might be that I can go further back to apx 115-120mm. Logs

DAY .. 21.march 2006 - Pike Perfect
- Completely calm when I rigged the winch with a new 400m 1,35 speedline and even some thermals. The wind picked up a bit high up and ended on 1-3m/s on the ground. Again I tried different CG's and the last flight was with 450g of ballast. You should not look too much on the length of the flights as I was all the way testing different CG's, camber and wanted some photos in the air (not easy with a 450 lens). The conditions were poor in between the thermals today and it seems that it was apx 30min between each thermal. But the launches are way cool. To get 292m on a calm day is very nice. It was a new line and because the lines always are 5-10m longer than spec I left 10m on the drum. So it was very near 200m to the turnaround. The launch camber are only 12mm and equal along whole trailing edge. The CG I ended up with today is apx 115mm. Personally I think it is boring at 107mm and does not show lift well. At 110-115 it comes to live again. Aileron throw is 10/5mm and thermal camber 2mm on a slider. Speed 1mm. Rudder 30mm each side. This morning I also took the time to install some carbon horns on the flaps. I am way too hard on landings to use stock stuff... The Volz MM is amazing and I have no slop here at all! Log file
Arild was also there and had a few flights with his Wagstaff equipped with DA-50. That motor amazes me. It starts so easy.

DAY .. 20.march 2006 - Pike Perfect
- Probably well above 10m/s today and even with smaller launch camber the speed and tension increases on the way up. The line broke on the first start and again another place on the 4th start. And I nearly did not touch the pedal on each launch... Not very good conditions to fly in but hey we dont play around here ;-) Offcourse I might have landed hard so I broke a horn.... Typical me. I always have to change my flap horns on my models! Log file (you need software for Zlog)

DAY .. 19.march 2006 - Pike Perfect
- 5-8m/s winds, -2 celcius and VERY turbulent in the valley because of the wind direction. But that is what I hoped for! I am going to Istanbul in the end of the month and similar conditions can happen there. So I loaded 600g of ballast and launched on a fresh 300m 1,35mm speedline (EMC-Vega). That is 150m to the turnaround. The wind direction was also 45 degrees on the launch line so I tested going straight up tapping (8sec, 266m), out to the side then full pedal (10sec, 271m), full pedal in sink (6sec, 213m and straight backwards into the thermal) and last flight out to the side and full pedal (9sec, 261m).
First flight was with CG at apx 120mm (not possible to measure in the wind), second 107mm, third 115mm and last 115mm. At 115mm I could take extra circles in only 2-3m height. So the model is well designed for circling for sure!!!! I had to use pretty much rudder but it did not seem to "drag" the tail as many other models. On the Superior and Giant I have to release the rudder downwind to get new "authority" but here this is no problem. The wing is very stable at 110mm (again all these are apx measurements) and maybe less stable at 120mm. On 107mm it will go up on speed changes (too much forward too my liking). On 120mm it is not either stable on the elevator so today I ended up at apx 115mm. This was expected. Typical that I can fly far back in calm air and a bit forward on turbulent air. So how was the model in the wind? Well obviously I could not care much about 2 of the flights but the last two flights were cool. The model will stand still in the wind but just a touch of down and it starts moving. The speed coming home (I followed some thermals apx 7-800m downwind) was also great. The model will as all others sink as a rock outside thermals in that kind of air but will "scoot" if you say so. I had one bad launch and realized immediately that this was sink. I went downwind and ended up FAR behind. Probably 7-800m away. I used several minutes on the way home and could test different settings. With 600g of lead inside I found neutral better than slightly negative camber. I then also could pick up small lift on the way and testturn. Without lead I might need negative camber though... This is the first model I would rather have lead in than not. Normally I hate lead but the Perfect likes it. It is like F3B. There you would rather fly lighter than heavier. But here it is the oposite!! Yes I loved the day. Very high launches and thermals found on all flights.
The Lithuanian with the Cub parkflyer also showed up again and flew 200m away from me so I stopped flying. What are they thinking? According to the scanner his Tx is all over the band. Very happy with today's flying and 4 flights were enough as it was cold in the wind anyhow. Log file (you need software for Zlog)

DAY .. 18.march 2006
- Today I took a "day of" and visited Gjøvik Airshow. It was a nice show as usual. As others they do this for fun to get a bit money for the club and to show locals what they are doing. They had done their work well and personally I have nothing to put my fingers on. 32 pilots and me attended... I did not fly but took a lot of pictures and were co-pilot quite a few times. There were few crashes. One jet pilot was thinking fast and got the wheels in on a fast apporach and one had a cool "spin". Also one very low electro pass and one deliberate crash with some dogfighters. Very cool to see the "Grokkers" again. I just had to ask loud when the speaker announced that one of the jets were 24kg if he had extra insurance. I don't think the owner responded with laughter... Not always a joke is taken the right way!
113 of the 390 pictures is HERE

Edited 23.march

Nerd have ordered a new plane!

DAY .. 17.march 2006 - Pike Perfect flown again!!!
- Today I could have gone down... While I made myself ready to fly a car came down to the ice. It stopped before it came out to the field and backed up a bit. I prepared myself to launch when I took a look at the car again. A guy came out with a small park flyer Cub and started to fly!!!! I grabbed the clubs scanner and checked though normally those park flyers are on 27Mhz (I fly 35Mhz). The scanner showed a strong signal on 35.010mhz and also a LOT of distortion on all other channels. I walked over to him and it was a guy from Lithuania that works here as a short time painter. Well I know painters are sometimes affected by paint fumes but this was too stupid too be true. The guy understood what I said and stopped flying luckily...
Now over too the flying...
Now I could finally get in the air with my Pike Perfect and the conditions were awesome (with that I mean warm and sunny) though very few thermals this week strangely enough. -3-4 celcius and almost no wind at all. Same 1,35mm line was on the winch and sadly I had only a 1,15 in the car because this baby pulls a lot if you want it too. I broke the line (have probably 50 starts on it) and tied it two times before I gave up. If you buy a Pike Perfect and want to launch hard you should order heavy lines at the same time as the model... (Samba does not sell lines..). Today I wanted to test Philip's CG (107mm) and also some ballast. I am given a couple of prototype ballast systems by Samba and tested them both. One is a whole bar that I don't like. With this one can not adjust the CG but I have found a solution to that (see picture). The other one is a clever system with a rod that you can slide in as much ballast you want. I like that one. But one can also use standard slugs as the tube is sealed in the back. Instead of carrying those long bars around I will probably use slugs...
To test the CG I just placed some lead in front of the servos and made a separate memory since I knew I would need some other neutral and elevator throws. I could say immediately that I did not like it. The model become more slow on the sticks and the nose pulls up immediately on speed changes. Sadly I forgot my logger but the performance looked good. So one can off course fly with this CG. The model is also more stable off course but too my liking too much stable. It will not indicate lift other than with speed changes and some other small changes.
What amazed me was that with 600g of ballast the model performs VERY well even in calm conditions. I did not bother to adjust the CG since I ended up on 112mm with the bar I used. I did not fly more the 2 flights with lead in so no other CG was tested. I beginning to think that Philip's calculations on performance versus weight might be correct. The hang time was just as well or even better strangely enough ;-) This might have something to do with the CG also but more testing will reveal that.

DAY .. 16.march 2006 - Pike Perfect flown!!!
- OK here are the impressions of my first day of flying. I went up early since I could not sleep (new model?). Some coffee and I was ready on the ice 10:30. It was calm with 0-1m/s from the North and -12 celcius (4F). But the sun was up so with proper clothing I had a nice time. I started out with a CG a little bit ahead of what I had calculated as a neutral point (kind of a "non-tech personal" calculation but based a bit on Martin Hepperle's program). So 120-122mm was my starting point and after 10 flights I did not see any obvious reason to change yet. I will try some other CG's but I liked it here. It is probably way too much back for most pilots. Philip flies his on 107mm. My all up weight was 2210g (empty 1760g) and I know Samba have shaved of another 50g on the next model and will shave of another 30g on the HUGE joiners. My model is a Carbon 68 with normal spar. I could not see any bending in the wing in the calm conditions even though the winch almost stalled a couple of times. The winch I use is a Hollenbeck and today I had 300m 1,35 speedline on it (EMC-Vega). the battery is a F3B spec Banner 510EN (Very good battery supplied by T&K).
The first I noticed was that the model had a cruising speed that was not super fast but it was constant. The Superior sometimes needs to be pushed but the Perfect accelerates by itself and keeps the speed well in neutral. There was no "fall thru" on flap changes but with much camber I might need to take down the aileron camber a bit since it sometimes was a bit "windmill". This was not a problem with 0-3mm camber. The model flies now neutral even in launch mode. According to the logs I could not find much difference using 3 or 6mm camber but it looks like that in the air. This is an optical thing that is sometimes tricky to see. Anyhow when the air started moving during the day it was easy to see how much camber was maximum. I had it on a slider and adjusted until the tail came up mostly. The conditions were ok today but some downdraft on one side of the valley made me have to fly one side to get as equal conditions as possible. Could probably have flown slope on the other side again but that was not the task today. Seems like the Pike Perfect is doing well in calm conditions.
Mechanically I could have made 120degrees crow easily but I went for less possibility of slop and 70 degrees instead. This seems to be enough and the model drops into my hand when I catch it.
With my CG I needed a little bit of opposite aileron when turning but only once a while (this is CG deppendant). The model is turning on a dime and I have to say I am amazed how slow and tight it can turn around the landing mark. The rudder also grips well and makes it easy to take those last points. Might try a bit kickflap when turning but not sure.
After 10 flights I had no more time as I was going for a checkup 100km away. But I phoned my good friend and WC spotter Tor Midtlund and organized some flights on another lake before the sun went down. Here the conditions were completely different with 2-3m/s on the ground and probably 5-6m/s higher up. I had 4 flights and Tor borrowed the Perfect for 2 flights. It was clear that the model now stalled the winch completely if I just pulled slightly and I could now see slight bending but very equal along the whole wing. My logger was full from the morning flights otherwise I could have shown some great altitudes on the 150m to turnaround (300m total). Conditions were turbulent behind a ridge but after that some nice wave lift and stable air further away from the ridge. Took some long rounds far away and low since one can land everywhere on the ice. I never had too.
So what can be done better?
- Offcourse I need to test different CG's and camber. This will take time but is luckily easier with a logger and testing against another model. We need to find settings that everybody can start with both safe and with good performance.
- I think Samba will work on getting the huge ailerons stiffer as they now have used very simple subspar and lots of micros. I guess this is usual until they have measured all heights and can finetune the parts that is glued in.
- The weight can come down much more as there seems to be plenty of micro balloons creeping of spars. I think they can easily make super light for only calm conditions at 2000-2050g but I don't think anyone should buy this. One thermal in the launch and you will break it if you don't know how to handle it. A Perfect on 2150g is VERY light compared to the size.

All in all a super day and I am a very happy owner that can see a potential here. Thanks Samba and Philip for letting me experience and be a part of this. It is obvious that it is still the pilot but I like the tool ;-)
Log file (you need software for Zlog)

DAY .. 15.march 2006 - Pike Perfect arrived!!!
- Building log HERE (page 2)
I was finsihed at 03:17AM ( early morning 16th march). Now I just have to fly the damn thing ;-)

DAY .. 15.march 2006 - Pike Perfect arrived!!!
- 02:00 PM: Took me 3 minutes from I received it until I had to rip it around!!!
Haven't got the time too look at all the details yet but joiner is huge, fuse is very stiff, elevator is rock solid and with double crank so you pull instead of pushing up elevator, moulds looks to be perfect and btw it is huge yet feels small when you pick it up... Kind of strange maybe...
Don't know why they took out room for a 15mm servo on elevator since there is Volz MM XP around ;-)

DAY .. 14.march 2006
- Another day with great weather and we just had to fly on the ice again. Again I flew my Giant but the Mini Katana also got a spin. My son collected the parachute and his reward was 4-5 times after the parachute with the winch almost on full speed (I did not dare full speed). The speed this little kid gets on cross-country ski's are incredible. My 1,35 line did hold up ;-) Kjell Sture suddenly went down with his little Mosquito after bad contact on the Rx. That is a free flight model that he equipped with a brushless. It goes pretty fast. Too much for most pilots. Luckily it came down horizontal so very little damage.
Tomorrow morning I will collect my new Pike Perfect!!!!! It was in Flensburg yesterday and in Oslo today. It was sent on the 8th so even with DPD it takes a while.

DAY .. 13.march 2006
- A pilot I have known for a while is still here (Kjell Sture is from Tromsø about 2000km from here). He is mainly a sailplane pilot so we headed out to the field for some bungee launches. He brought his Highlight mega T and I flew my Giant. I also tested the Highlight and it was a nice plane. It is a nice design but should have some carbon in the surfaces as they were not straight. Just a little carbon here would have been enough. It is mainly a slope model but I think it flew very well as a thermal model too. We adjusted the CG a bit and found the elevator rod to be bad. This should be an easy fix.

DAY .. 10-12.march 2006 - Fagernes Airshow
- Super weather and 70-80 pilots (still dont know the exact number) having fun on the ice. There is some guys having an event at the same as us and they seem to do everything they can to destroy for us. Not that it helps because we are very happy with how things are going. But it is kind of strange when pilots say to me that they don't like to be called up during our show to get them on another show just 120km down the valley. Anyhow I HAD A GOOD TIME and even though I ruined another Lipo pack... The 10S battery in my Katana 2M said goodbye as one cell blew up on Friday after the second flight. I have no idea why actually. I heard it fizzling in the fuse as I pushed the model into the pits. The only reason can be that I used a 3 blade 20x10 Mesjlik prop a few days ago just to test. It took 60A on full power and that is the limit of the batteries. But I only flew one round and landed as I could hear the battery power went down. Luckily I got to fly both a huge 3m Votec and a huge OV-10 Bronco (all pictures Bronco HERE) The Votec was nice and very easy to fly but the motor was adjusted for sealevel or maybe was missing a intake flow tube on the carburator. I nearly messed it up when I suddenly had no contact with the model. Sorry MPX. The synth module on the 3030 I flew with could not take a nearby mobile phone! This could have been very expensive!!!! Flying the OV-10 Bronco was very cool. First time I have flown a big warbird (never been a scale man). It was very cool to fly low over the ice (1-3m) when the owner was tripping beside me telling me loud how much time I had left of safe fuel time ;-) I think I even got a small applause from the other pilots.
On Sunday I flew one flight in the postal competition X5J extreme. I was so tired I forgot that I was not allowed to restart the motor (you loose landing points). So I retired after one round and set up the bungee for a few flights with my Giant. Ended up landing in my leg and got a small dent in the leading edge. I guess nobody is perfect ;-)
Lots of pictures HERE - Article in newspapers: Scan from Avisa-Valdres - Scan from OA

January 2005 - Winter is on but good flying on the ice and indoor. 6 days with sailplanes, even some slope flying.
February 2005 - Got some good days with winch on the ice, tested synth rx and first big competition in Arnborg.
March 2005 - Indoor season stops soon and outdoor is on. I tried high power 3D model and it burned down to ashes..
April 2005 - Two F3J competitions and new JR radio in testing. The electric Superior is in the air also.
May 2005 - Lots of F3F, some F3B and Yellow Eagle Throphy in Sweden. Tested the Taifun Supersport.
June 2005 - Summer is here with good temperatures. F3J win and F3B good results. Tested a SU-31 electro model.
July 2005 - DS, friends visiting and the biggest of the year: Nats USA
August 2005 - Super month with Nats, National champion F3J and the new Giant in the house
September 2005 - Nordic Championship F3J and National championship F3B. Practice days in Istanbul.
October 2005 - Istanbul Open, Adrenaline electro
November 2005 - Lots of powerflying (electric) but also some electric and sadly my uncle Per Arne Nilsen died.
December 2005 -  Actually flew a lot and not only motorplanes. Good month I think
January 2006 - Katana 2M motorflying and a tiny bit of sailplane flying and electric sailplane
February 2006 - Lots Katana 2M motormodel but also first F3J competition in Denmark, New Pike Perfect
March 2006 - Pike Perfect released, Fagernes Airshow and first days of Istanbul Open
April 2006 - Istanbul Open (3rd), Supra and the first F3J in Norway this year
May 2006 - Started editing

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