DAY .. 30.November
2007 - A story of building
Next door to me they are building some
apartments and I have documented the building
step by step.
HERE is a collection of
pictures Beware pictures might take some
time to download since they are not so much
compressed.
DAY .. 19.November
2007 - Pike Perfect SL (super light)
Fantastic light below the fog today and I did
some flying with my Perfect SL. The conditions
were better than expected and it was popping all
over the place making 10min+ possible from low
launches (full launches left me in the fog).
Nice to get soem quality airtime on the SL and
it does fly slightly different than my other
ones. Today I had to fly it mostly in neutral to
keep the energy up. With slight camber it was
too slow to be working. In the evening we had a
clubmeeting and some building.
DAY .. 18.November
2007 -
Pike Perfect SL electric (super light)
-4Celcius outside and the fog is covering the
valley and my place (at 445m). So I drove of
higher and found a nice small lake (729m above
sealevel) just 10km from me. This is now the
first frozen lake flying this year! Pike Perfect
Electro with SL wing was taken out and I had
already preheated the battery (4xA123) in the
front window of the car. Flew a long 30min
flight with a couple of landings in the hand and
direct throw again just for the photos. Lovely
day out. Today I also changed the joiners to
Philip's home made ones (5,5degree). You loose
slight flying time maybe but you gain in crisp
rudder. Not really sure what I will use this
season but I like them.
DAY .. 16.November
2007 -
Pike Perfect SL electric (super light)
Tested the SL wing on the electro fuse today in
very calm conditions. Just above zero so the
A123 was ok without preheating. Model felt
lighter in handling than with the "heaver" wing
but other than that it was no big noticeable
difference from this one flight. Great to know I
have the possibility to use both wings.
DAY .. 14.November
2007 -
Pike Perfect SL (super light)
Finished of a Pike Perfect SL I have had laying
around for a little while. I was curious on the
weight so I used light cables and used some time
on servo installation in the wing to get it
right. The weight ended on 1925g with the CG at
112mm. The wing fuse with elevator (49,9g) is
632g and that makes the wing with joiners and
screws 1243g. This is 190g lighter than my
previous wing and will make my Pike Perfect
Electro go down to 2545g!!!!! Great! (midsection
705(633) + tip 245(218) + tip (221)248g)
But today I wanted to fly the model so I went to
a football field and did 20 launches on a small
bungee. I adjusted the CG a lot but ended up at
the initial 112mm. Conditions was sunny with
-11Celcius and almost calm but there was
differences and it was a good session. The SL
model is like many says. It feels like it almost
never is trimmed out because it is so extremely
light. It feels good at aft CG in today's
conditions but one could see it was falling out
of the sky compared to a more forward CG. Nice
to have a SL ready to go though it might not be
used so much here in Norway (we rarely have calm
conditions to justify a SL).
DAY .. 11.November
2007 -
IGG Norway
When
I bought the DG600 in September I also joined
the
IGG Norway. I was thinking of showing up at
a meeting and so I did. Also 3/4 of the "Farmers
team" (my first F3J team and good friends since
then) was there. The weather was suppose to be
cold, slightly windy and maybe snow during the
day. Arrived a little before 10 and yes it
snowed... But after meeting up with the guys and
a coffee the clouds opened up and we even got
some sunshine. Winds were pretty strong at
altitude but on the airfield we actually had
calm wind from the opposite direction (probably
slightly DS a matter a fact). Pulled first out
my Adrenaline2M motor plane and had one flight
in the snow. I had installed a towing hook on it
but luckily Oddvar Kristiansen showed up with
his huge one. Several first flights was due
today and mostly it went pretty well for both
Petter and Svein. The long grass that was not
cut for the winter and the snow spun a few
models on the ground but as long as pilots know
when to release it goes well. A funny (and a bit
tragic) thing happened when the tug plane
struggled a bit on tow (flying inverted for cool
factor and stalling) and both the sailplane
(17kg LO100) and tug released. They both seemed
to come out fine just slightly low. Then the
sailplane hit the only thing possible in the
air... The towing line!!! tangled in with the
heavy line the LO100 spun to the ground and had
massive damage to the leading edge sadly. The
pilots did what's expected of them but yet... I
had what I think was 6 flights with my DG600.
Most of them in the range 8-10min with some
aerobatic and high speed passes to finish of. My
DG600 is too light!! The wind above 100m
altitude was pretty strong early in the day and
my model was almost not moving without speed
setting in. I flew both with short and long tips
(4 and 4,8m) and it is what I would consider
VERY stiff yet still very light just above 5kg
(need to fine measure after taking out some lead
today). Will have to make at least 3kg ballast
in the wings I think. Thanks to all that were
there. We had a super day out. It is so good to
have a day out meeting sailplane pilots.
Lots of pictures
HERE - Pictures and video of the DG 600 also
in september and
october
Just before the sun came down I flew my
Pike Perfect electro and my son got to fly most
of the flight. Tested today and the electric
fuse can take atleast 7 A123 (maybe 8 deppending
on size of motor/controller) if you absolutely
want that much power (and weight). This means
4+3 side by side and the Rx and Rx battery needs
to come further back the fuse to get the CG
right.
The A123 cells works well at 130A in the summer.
At below zero they needs to be heated just as
other cells (I use a small cooler that I can
switch to a heater instead. I can also run 4-5
bursts on the ground before I fly to heat the
cells up internally. Tested them in the
helicopter (12S) and even at 30-50A they also
need to be heated below zero before you fly.
The good thing about these cells is that they
can be charged at 10A or more so you only need
one flight pack to fly almost all day. They will
not get hot while charging and only slightly at
130A use.
Yes we do have clothes to fit. Me, Petter and
Svein (Ole missing). 5 hours of flying
and we were still smiling ;)
DAY .. 8.November
2007 -
More pictures by Jojo
Photos from Soarist Open edited (see bottom
of page).
Now also with great shots from Thomas Cooke (
yes the "Who the f... is Thomas Cooke" guy ;)
DAY .. 4.November
2007 -
Perfect
electro
Yeah I had to make another launch
video.. But this time it is electric. My Pike
Perfect was a perfect test today since teh
temperature was below 0C and I had cold A123
cells in it. I must say sorry.. They do not work
well above 100A in cold temperatures. If they
are warm or heated with flying they work well
but my first climb was not even 10m. A few more
climbs and the cells are good and I had two
charges and no problem after the first miserable
climb. So the deal is just as any other cells:
start with the warm. Either use a cooler set for
heating or leave them in front of the car heater
for some time before you fly. But the cells will
stay in the model.. Why? Because they can be
ready charged long time before you go flying and
you get almost all the juice out of them in full
power. I stopped climbing when I heard the motor
rpm going down and I charged them 2110mah
leaving less than other cells. Maybe you are
wondering what I feel about the comparison with
the Supra? Well the climb rate might be best
with the lighter Supra while the Perfect can
handle the weight better. So for fun flying
maybe the Perfect while Supra for F5J when the
climb rate is important? Will depend on the
rules I think. Either way both models is nice to
have an electric motor in.
Today I also flew my 10cell lipo Adrenaline2M
with Hacker C50-14XL and Arild flew his Velox
2,6m with DA-100. Lovely day but pretty cold
when the sun was getting lower. Both me and
Arild need more time flying motor planes as we
felt slightly rusty. 2 flights each just shorted
a bit by some full size guys. My son was going
to fly the Adrenaline but we could not get the
teacher/pupil stuff to work.
Video of
the Pike Perfect HERE (15,6mb .wmv)
