Got up early so I could get to the park before the wind gets up.
I had rebuilt and hardened the nose with glue so the prop hanger is quite secure. I glued the broken trailing edge back together. I broke the tailplane spar from the stick and reglued it with a slight left turning tilt. I spread the wheels apart, 4″ track on 4″ length, to better resist tipping to the side. I blocked the wing down to flatten it.
First launch, it went off to the right. I checked and the wing is twisted again. A little exposure to the sun is all it takes. As I held it in the shade, I could watch the wingtip flatten again! I guess I need to build another wing with crumpled tissue. I considered replacing the 1/16″ square stick with one 3/32″ wide, but I don’t think that is the solution.
I bent the wing trailing edge straight, bent in left thrust and flew it again without the camera, just to see how it would go. Launched from the ground in the shade, it made an excellent ROG takeoff and went straight across the basketball courts,over the lawn and into a tree, still climbing.
Hard to see in this picture, taken from the launch point. The 30′ orange Jackite pole is on the ground for scale. I got closer for a closeup shot and the camera turned off, battery discharged. The other battery was at home in the charger. I got the plane down with the pole, it dropped nose down and leveled just above the ground. I relaunched, it continued flying for a little while.
Gary