Hi Darcy,

Today was our last day in the Gym. Lou was back from the Nats and we had only two students, one an adult, so I had time to fly.

I wanted to see how well the 8 3/4″ Baby Squirrel would do with an optimum motor. I made a 13 1/4″ loop of 0.045 Tan Super Sport. Put the wing on the mark previously established with the office rubber bands and flew it. It zoomed, so I moved the wing back a little. Next flight was good, except it straightened when the torque ran down. I put in some left thrust and it circled all the way, but didn’t climb as well, so I moved the wing back forward. Now it flew to the ceiling and made consistent circles all the way to the floor. Ready for a timed flight. With 1,950 turns, 58.22 seconds and 11 circuits. Next flight I got a video. Later, with 2,000 turns, it did not climb as well. I had been taking pictures of the other activities and thought maybe the lube had dried, so I relubed the motor. The motor may have been stretched and softened a little by then, too. I put in 2,500 turns and launched from floor level on the high side of the Gym. Again it did 11 circuits, but this time the flight lasted 1:05.87 seconds. My goal was to break one minute, so I was happy. It was pretty close to the ceiling, so it would be difficult to do much better than that. You can see the better part of a similar flight in the attached video. I had to pick the camera up off the floor, aim it and press the shutter button. You can see it is climbing in the beginning, but is already up part way. This flight may have been more than a minute, too, but it was not timed.

Gary