DAY ..
27.May 2007 - Skymax4
Calm conditions today and
difficult to launch. We had set the winch almost
into the wind but it turned and the last flights
were with 2-3m/s wind from behind. But anyhow
good to have some launch practice going all the
long way around for the wind. Alf Erik used his
other Pike Perfect and probably found what I had
said to him about CG 113mm a bit too aft in high
altitude conditions with unstable air. I flew
only my Skymax4 today and loved it with 400-600g
of ballast. Then I could cruise around picking
up thermals and finish of with a speed run. A
couple of other guys came by with a noisy
machines and the main club flew a bit microlight
and a Cessna (Erik Eggum on his way to
Notodden).
Left: AER flying and my Skymax4 waiting turn.
Picture from my Joker2 heli. Right: Microlight
Left: Powerguys. Noisy!. Right: AER coming in
for a landing
DAY ..
26.May 2007 - Skymax4
Alf Erik came for some practice
at Klanten where we will have the National
Championship F3J next weekend. Nice weather and
2-6m/s. Alf Erik flew one of his Pike Perfect
while I flew a couple of flights with the Pike
Perfect and 4-5 flights with the Skymax4. This
is an interresting place since we are at 800m
and the whole area triggers a lot of thermals.
The Skymax4 seems to cope with it nice and I
flew both thermal flights and tuned the launch
and speed with heavy ballast.
Couple of logs
(with and without ballast)
Left: AER launching his Perfect. Right: This is
machine is rarely out but I guess the nice
weather triggered them
Me launching Skymax4. Photo AER
DAY ..
24.May 2007 - Joker 2
Some days without flying but I
have been doing something... Been in the
workshop fixing the Joker 2 and also service on
some sailplanes. The Joker 2 got new blades.
This time Curtis Youngblood 710mm blades with
cool graphic that can be seen easier than only
white or black color. Very quiet and light
blades (188g). A bit expensive but worth it
since I am doing expensive photowork! So I went
out in the evening and took a shot of my new
neighbours that starts working 07:00 each
morning. Yes its noisy..
DAY ..
19.May 2007 - "Cool
down" Norwegian Cup F3F, Norway
Some of us was not
finished flying and the program said a Norwegian
cup event on sunday. Not many showed up but
Espen guided us and got us going for a super
slope on Rennesøy. A couple of the Slovakians
(Aris producer) and Kåre Å. helped us on the
bases and we got a super event with nice times.
We settled for 8 rounds but some of us stayed
behind for some more action since the conditions
picked up even more. This slope really can
produce times when the wind is straight on. It
was probably around 10m/s but on the edge we
could meassure 20m/s straight up. Got myself a
couple of 37s runs but it was surely much, much
faster later. Rold Inge flew a 34,7 and I had no
chance against the locals.
more pictures
of the weekend -
Results (.xls)
DAY ..
18.May 2007 -
Eurotour F3F, Norway - final day
Second day was again high
winds and morning rounds at Obrestad before we
moved to a smaller but better slope near the
beacon. I went there early for a flight with my
Skymax4 but moving towards the slope in +20m/s
winds the tip caught up with the ground so I got
a small dent. I took it too the car and saved it
for more important work later this summer...
Beacon slope was good as we now could land on
top. On Obrestad harbour we had to go down the
steep slope to land. Wind went crossing more and
more during the day. The "beacon-slope" is
rather small but works well as long as the wind
is straight in. But coming from the side it went
difficult and setup of model was very important.
I tried a few things but never figured out why
Rolf Børge got a lead on us flying better and
better. It might have been his far forward CG in
these conditions. Did not seem to work on normal
conditions but on the downwind turns he managed
superbly. I did move into what I thought was a
stable 2nd place but my -100 from the one round
the day before smashed me down to 4th. Still
quite happy with that since I dont fly too much
F3F. Super barbeque at Rolf's house together
with the power guys that also had an event this
weekend. 6 Nations flew the event! Cze, Slo,
Nor, Swe, Den and Gbr. Rolf flew a Aris, Philip
Ascot and Sting?, Espen RaceM extreme (small)
and Opus. I ended 4th.
Results (.pdf)
I gave some "braking shutes" to the winners...
DAY ..
18.May 2007 -
Eurotour F3F, Norway - first day
Arrived in Stavanger for
Eurotour F3F with 6 Nations. 1st day was
at Obrestad and only one round in 20+m/s wind
and rain. Lots of action with brakage and
overflying of bases. I flew my new Skymax4 and
managed to overfly base B to a -100p that you
can see on the final result gave me real hard
time for the preicegiving... It was a cold and
long day waiting for conditions.
DAY ..
17.May 2007 -
Skymax4
National independence day in
Norway. Me and my son are on the west coast
looking at the celebration over here in
Haugesund and joining the family of Rolf Inge
Waaga for lunch. Always nice to come over here
to good friends. After lunch Arild Møllerhaug
joined us for some F3F practice on Bokn. A nice
seaslope and the wind was 8-10m/s slightly from
the side. This slope works very well as the wind
joins together in the middle. Timing showed my
times with my new Crossfire in the range
40-46sec and I got some good tuning done. I
borowed Arild's Aris Ballast so I could test a
bit on how much I needed. 3 lugs (50x24mm brass)
was a bit on the light side so 5 of them was
great. I needed to increase the elevator throw
comparing to what I found on the winch. Then
offcourse I probably flew with more ballast
today. I did increase the kick flap so that it
all went to neutral with an offset of 30% (30%
stick before kick flap comes in) but did not
feel much difference. Though I will keep this
setting. Rolf Inge flew his RaceM and Arild flew
his Aris. Did not time Rolf Inge but Arild flew
around 40 most of the time. Very happy with the
Skymax4 so far. Easy to fly and I like how it
looks. Initially today I had a big problem with
range (I used a whip) so we changed antenna in
the air. A bit scary actually but needed to get
a decent landing as I need to walk 50m to the
landing. Used the radar gun today but did not
get any good readings. Maybe it was the Lipo
battery we brought that did not deliver enough
power (3 lipo and the gun wants 12v from the
car). NEW a
small video
of me flying the Skymax4 F3F
Arild trying to meassure some speed and me
flying the Skymax4
Fredrik cooling in the tent and Fredrik got a
small fish..
DAY ..
15.May 2007 -
Skymax4
In the weekend I received my
Skymax 4 and I was indeed impressed. This is one
of my new weapons for F3B this season since I am
going to the World Championship F3B in
Switzerland. The model is made in Turkey (cool -
a model made in Turkey!!) by Philip Kolb himself
and is made in CNC moulds (the old Skymax 3 was
in conventional moulds). This is not a model
that is on the market yet and mine is only
number 3 out of the moulds. The quality was
amazingly good and almost on the level of any
top producer out there. My model is the first
with 2 piece wing and a nice and easy solution
have been choosen by Philip. 4 screws, a joiner
that is thicker in the middle (I have two, one
in UMS and one standard tested to over 500kg)
ensures that the wing is seated very rigid to
the fuse. The only difference to a production
model is silicon hingeline and some small faults
in the paint. But it is shiny and all parts fits
very well. In my opinion my model is made dead
solid and should withstand anything with 80g
carbon and double layer in the D-box. The spar
is glued with araldit just for safety and sub
spar in front of hingeline is 3 layers depron
while the flaps and ailerons have a carbon sock.
Fuse is solid carbon (not the nose cone) apart
from nose cone, upper part of rudder and
elevator. Each elevator is only 22g. Yes
impressive homebuilt Philip!!! The model was
delivered with wires, contacts, ballast tube
ready glued in and even a good setup sheet so I
did not have to do much adjusting. I had
instructed Philip tp not cut out for aileron
horns since I wanted to use carbon horns. The
empty model (with some ready glued in lead in
the nose) was 1370g and all up ready to fly it
was 2210g. Very nice for a dead solid model. For
servos I choosed Airtronics
94761z
(neat servo that
Samba (and me) sells. 12mm, double ball
bearing, stronger and faster than most on the
market). for all but the elevator since my
friend Arild had a couple of Futaba S9252 laying
around (6,6kg 0,14s on 60degrees - not
recommended for 6V but i only use 4 cells).
I
finished the model yesterday with final touches
today and went for Klanten airport for some
flights. The weather was nice with 7 Celcius and
wind 60-80degrees from the side in 2-8m/s
deppending on the thermals coming thru. I set
myself up with my Hollenbeck winch, a proven F3B
battery and installed a new 1,45 EMC-Vega line.
Did a range test that was awful (something wrong
with the internal antenna) so I plugged in a new
antenna and installed it outside for todays
flying. First flight/launch was kind of strange
and I discovered why when I landed and could see
the rudderwiper had come out too far. Installed
some tape and launched again. Amazing launch and
rudder control was nice going out to the side. A
bit much elevator though. Tested aileron and
elevator control in some higher speed and found
a bit too much elevator control there too that
were adjusted for the next launch. The logger
showed 312m and the smile was from ear to ear ;)
Second flight was 302m and I surfed around
checking all settings and clicked the elevator
trims a bit. Checked the landing settings (dead
on) and had another launch that was 308m!! Wow
constant good! Now I did even some more distance
settings before I picked up some thermals. The
model seems nice to circle even in the high
winds though I needed to fly with neutral
settings since I was unballasted I guess. No
tendences other than that it slows too much up
downwind turn with thermal camber in. In the 4th
flight I installed apx 600g of ballast for some
more power flying. The 4th, 5th and 6th flight
were all about checking settings for speed and
the launch altitude were 280-290m. I need to
make a tiny bit of combiswitch for the turns in
the speed I think but it was easy to fly and the
punch in the elevator was super. Need to check
with full ballast to see if I need to fly soft
or can use hard turns. Have not yet got myself a
full set of ballast but I think
Espen Torp has managed to get some Aris
ballast for me thru
Brano Legersky that is coming for Eurotour
F3F this weekend.
DAY ..
11-13.May 2007 -
Nuthecup
Not sure I will write
something just yet.. But:
Philip Kolb got a
firm grip on Eurotour with another win in
Berlin. See results
Senior -
Junior
Philip also got more impressive
results... See the
Eurotour site -
Pictures from Nuthecup
DAY ..
10.May 2007 - Perfect
Tomorrow I am heading for
Berlin so I thought I would have a flight with
my Pike Perfect just to check that all was ok.
Good thing as I had forgotten that the flaps
were bonding a bit (hingeline have gotten a good
beating in a full year of flying). So a trip to
the workshop, some epoxy and kevlar and it was
good to go again ;) Flew thermal slope today.
Just went up a bit and tossed it off. Had
3
nice flights and got a good themal that
developed pretty high too. Almost dead quiet
every time a thermal passed and winds going into
the thermals. Tossed when the wind came down the
slope as I then knew a thermal arrived ;)
Husket å melde deg på NM F3J? Oppdatert side
pr.7.mai
-------------------------------
DAY ..
7.May 2007 -
Crossfire V
Took
a trip to Klanten airport as I am organizing the
National Championship F3J there in 3 weeks.
Booked a couple of cabins and flew my Crossfire
V with repaired wings (the ones broken in
shipping). They are not 100% but should be ok.
Total weight is at 2070g and since I did not get
new servos from Volz soon enough I installed the
Airtronics 94761z that I have in stock (600Nkr a
piece). Neat little servo that seems to be a
good alternative. Cheap, 12mm, great lugs,
double ballbearings, fast and powerful. It was
windy and chilly with 8-10m/s crosswind but
still thermals that made it a nice day. Here it
is all about not just hanging there and
conservative flying. You need to get around a
bit and work it when you hit something. Most
models is good here as long as you think
aggressive.
DAY ..
4.May 2007 - Skymax 4
Just got confirmation from
Philip Kolb. My
Skymax 4 is ready! Will pick it up at
Eurotour F3J in Berlin next weekend.
Thanks Philip! Much appreciated ;)
DAY ..
3.May 2007
Last chance to feel the ice
I guess so I went for the mountains. Every year
the club arranges a mountain camp and I brought
my Adrenaline 2M for a one day trip (the other
guys are there for a long weekend). We are
talking high mountain here because at my place
there is no ice and 25C today. I got a good
sunburn today (high altitude and ice) and it was
cool to see a clubmember take a lowpas with the
beachking 2 engine ambulance plane.
Lots of pictures HERE
BTW got a cool email from a
junior in Croatia. According to the newspaper
article he sent me my new son is Filip ;-)
DAY ..
1.May 2007
Wonderful weather and 25C in
the middle of the day. Went to the local club
field and set up the winch. Only get 120m to the
turnaround here but because of the location
there are lots of thermals here. Played around
with teh radar gun today and Arild's Ultimate
went 70mph (112km/h) and my crossfire goes 70mph
in the zoom. Got a few readings lowpas also and
from 160m (According to Z-log) I got 105mph
(170km/h). Geir Atle was using the radar while I
flew. Thonny also came around and flew some
helicopter.
