[Drew]

After a significant wait for parts, this beast was ready for a re-maiden with a new cowl, new prop and surgically repaired wing. Actually the damage from the trip into the trees ended up being quite minor and waiting for the chinese boat was the hardest bit. It almost got maidened half built - which would've been a mistake.

I took the tentative stand and asked Jason to assist on a trainer cord to facilitate handover if required. I went for a nice slow andlow take-off and it only needed a little up-trim and a touch of right aileron to get it to glide around at just over half throttle. We did about 3 nice easy level circuits before practicing approaches.

The first couple were super high (nerve induced). On the last, the motor cut out whn I went to 1/3 throttle and didn't come back until I was feeding in almost 2/3. We opted to glide it down to a nice and comfortable landing.

On inspection, the motor was too hot to touch and had been rubbing somewhere. When I took the prop and cowl off to inspect, it seems that just about all the magnets have detatced themselves and were rubbing on the back of the motor. The speedy was happy so it must've been the friction and not current drawn that caused the heat.

For the brief time it was in the air, it was handling nicely and with a sattelite receiver, there were no problems with losing control over the trees.

Thanks Jason for being my backup. I could feel my right thumb twitching on the aileron stick during the flight but thanks to significant expo, it didn't upset the craft .

Sadly, that will be the last flight this plane has in Sydney. Once the magnets are stuck fast, I'll try to post from Adelaide with the details of a more adventurous flight.