The first flight of one of our ASWs (Peter Webbs) has taken place. The model was flown on Bunster
Hillnear Ilam in Derbyshire. All went well untill Peter deployed the brakes to test them. One of
them refused to go back in. What happened next? Well Peter gave me the transmitter!
The first thing was to put the nose down to gain some speed, re-trim for straight and level on
rudder, gain some height and land. Panic focuses the mind and the touchdown was perfect.
As if to save us from the temptation of risking a further flight the skies then opened and it
rained and rained and rained so we beat a hasty retreat. The car journey home was spent doing the
usual re-living of the flight.
Up until the incident with the sticky brake the aircraft had looked superb in the air and Peter
reported no problems with its handling. Having the flaps mixed in at 50% of the ailerons made the
roll reponse very positive. NO trim changes were required.
The postmortem showed that the bowden cable to the brake was flexing which has now been fixed by
tinning the cable with a little solder. Hopefully this will ensure that future flights will be
less traumatic.
Colins ASW has also now flown. First flight took place in a light north westerly wind on one of
our favourite slopes, Corndon Hill in Shropshire.
I was the test pilot nominated for the task and if I had the gift of hindsight I might have
declined the offer!
The conditions were not really ideal but the air was tested with Peter Webbs Minimoa which indic-
ated that there should be enough lift.
The ASW was launched and it immediately became apparent that there was not enough slope lift.
My blood pressure headed skywards as quickly as the ASW descended towards the bottom of the hill.
A little thermal lift was detected and the model climbed slowly untill it was back at launch
height. With a little more coaxing there was soon enough height to stop worrying, with the model
almost as high as my blood pressure.
Cruising the model around there appeared to be a little adverse yaw present, although using
rudder with the aileron this was not a problem. The differential has now been increased.
The model was lined up for landing and using brakes was easily landed.
The most memorable part of the test flight - I hadn't touched the trim levers - the model flying
off the proverbial building board.
Both ASW's have been flown again in excellent conditions off Bunster Hill. They are both a joy to
fly. Slowing them up shows no sign of a wing dropping, their behaviour being impeccable.
At speed it is deceptive just how fast this machine is travelling, its size making it appear to
be trvelling slower than it is.
Using airbrakes and crow braking combined means that landings are easy. The approach can be quite
steep and short and landing in a small area presents no problems.
They really are most impressive in the air.
Two down - just mine to go
I have just received an email fron John Murray (Eastern Sailplanes) in the United States with some
pictures of his latest ASW - N27LX. Ricky from Purbeck Sailplanes has modelled his old one N6LX
and I am looking forward to taking photographs of them both together at the Long Mynnd Scale Day
in early July.
The scheme is based on a Calder painting (Calder was an American artist who invented the mobile)
and makes an interesting and bright change to the usual all white schemes and is the scheme that
I will be using on mine.
The pictures have also proved useful in highlighting the non-scale areas of the model tail assembly
and a little extra work has been undertaken to make the models tail area appear more scale-like.
At the moment mine has been glassed, rubbed down, primed, rubbed down, primed etc... and so far has
had three litres of white primer applied (mostly rubbed off) and is now ready for its final top
coat of gloss white to be applied. Whilst waiting for some decent weather to spray (I have to paint
outside) I have amused myself making a number of accessories for the cockpits of both mine and
Peters - scale beercans and magazines etc (magazine is in picture above left). I have also been
experimenting with the fitting of a special scale feature of most glass ships - if it works I will
post details.
More details of my ASW27 here
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