Date: 6/26/09
Plane: Parkzone Radian (with new carbon reinforced fueselage)
Conditions: 2-3 mph w/ 5mph gusts, wind in total random directions
Battery: Started full (12.56V), ended at 11.3V (2100Mah 3-Cell Thunder Power Pro-Lite V2)
Modifications to Fueselage:
A new fuselage was recieved, and reinfoced with carbon fiber rod where the previous fuselage was shown to be weak.
Notes:
Today was overall a great day of flying! Flight duration was approximately 30-45 minutes, I should have paid more attention or reset the timer on my transmitter to get actual flight times. Once the plane was properly trimmed (Trimming is difficult without a neck-strap) it flew stable like a charm. Thrown takeoffs were easy, and once in the air the plane seemed highly affected by wind gusts. The wind gust direction was completely random causing some difficulty. I was able to catch my first thermals off the parking lot adjacent to the field, they were quite constant and I was able to fly without power for probably 5 minutes or longer, however, this resulted in some overconfidence in my part and resulted in a stall and near crash in the Leavey Center parking lot later when I was flying at low altitude. Also I practiced landing and found it a bit harder with the wind than I had practiced with the simulator. I found myself coming in too high and way too fast, which ended up with me performing swirls to land. I believe this resulted from my fear of flying to far away to get a good approach. There were no crashes, and the plane was nicely in tact!
