[popeyepete]

Date: 19 Feb 11
Conditions: Gusty westerly winds, good visibility, OK strip
Aircraft:Extra 330 (Dynam Copy)
Battery: Turnigy 3s 1300mah
Pilot: Me

   

With Samste coaching me, i took the Extra330 for its maiden, with its flimsy landing gear the first flight had to be a hand-launch. Not a great start as it went straight for the ground, didn't respond much with any of my inputs. Found that the travel on the ailerons was to little and adjusted the end points to 125% to get more throw. Back to the strip again and found a short patch of grass to take off from. This time all went well with the plane responding much better. After trimming her out, i found that it had the tendancy to roll to the right when throttle input was increased. Plane was very light in the wind and was moving about alot, a real handful to fly. After a couple of circuits i took her down and at touch-down the landing gear pulled from the fuse..

Next flight i used a 2200mah battery to give it more weight, this time the hand launch was successful but still found it to be a handful to fly. Also noticed that the tail was dragging and requires more weight to the front. At the approach for landing it got caught by a gust and i flew it straight into the reeds, luckily no damage.

Back in the hanger i noticed that the motor is way off centre and may be the cause of the tourque roll.
Also going to adjust the control rods to different positions to get the correct throw without having to adjust end points to 125%.

Overall not a bad plane, just needs a bit of fiddling with to get it flying right. As it's only my second plane can't really rate it more than that.

Thanks to the guys on the field that day for the help and advice.