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TOPIC: Flying at Salisbury Plain

Flying at Salisbury Plain 6 years 11 months ago #622

  • ahmetcalfe
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At last I managed to get some flying in on Easter Monday at Salisbury Plain, it was a bit cold and windy in the morning but there was little turbulence so the models flew OK.
The wind dropped somewhat in the afternoon so it became a bit more pleasant to be there and it is a truly lovely place to fly.

I only flew two of my models the new Phantom F4 and a completely refurbished MiG 15 that I built in the late 1990's.

The F4 suffered from insufficient down thrust and tried to loop all the time but the very straight (and good) glide looked promising. After gradually increasing the area of a temporary down thrust tab inserted into the underside behind the exhaust protector plate, it few very nicely in a wide open circuit looking every bit a Phantom on full 'welly' streaking across the sky. I was pleasantly surprised by how stable it was -- except when the CG was too forward and after a stall it nosed dived to the ground! No damage despite the rock hard ground. Depron models rule!!!

In contrast, the MiG 15 had too much down thrust set on the motor and despite a floaty glide it only wanted to dive into deck when the motor was lit. I fixed this by re-positioning the motor with much less of a down thrust angle on it as the down thrust ramp I had built into the shortened exhaust trough was obviously too large.

Once modded in the field it flew in rather swoopy tight circuits- nearly hitting the ground at one point of the circle, then climbing up high on another. So it still needs another flying session to trim this out but it looks promising.

The tight circuit is caused by small warps in the wings which on the original model nicely counteracted each other, but I was foolish enough to try and eliminate them during the rebuild. :dry: I could only stop the turn with a little weight on one of the tips but I rather overdid it .
But, all in all, I am very happy with the MiG, and though the colour scheme is not completely authentic I think it looks the biz [Roger comment: I so do I! B) ]









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Last Edit: by rogersimmonds.

Flying at Salisbury Plain 6 years 11 months ago #623

  • rogersimmonds
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Hi Howard,
many thanks for this nice report, looks like you had a good time trimming out your MiG 15 and Phantom in not too unfavourable conditions. Glad to see the MiG 15 is back in the air, and the Phantom looks to be an outstanding model. :ohmy:
I look forward to seeing them both do their stuff at Old Warden, which isn't too far away.

Anyone got the long term weather forecast? :whistle:

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Last Edit: by rogersimmonds.
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