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#403307
Wonder Boy wrote: Fri Apr 20, 2018 12:30 am Sad deal, you get what you pay for.

If you damage the I-beam, that is pretty much in my opinion a non-repairable item some people try and force that but I would not. There's the proper way to do a repair, and there's not.
I agree. A broken I-beam is a different story, and that's likely the end of that d-cell. Having said that, it takes so much more effort to damage the I-beam. The vast majority of d-cell repairs I've seen are dents or holes in the leading edge - which still takes a lot of work to damage. D-cell repair should only really be done by professionals. No one should be "gluing the pieces back together". A good place to get d-cell repair work done is a sailplane repair shop.

The Exxtacy involved in the fold-up at POM surely must've been subjected to tremendous abuse prior to it's destruction. I've owned a could of them, and there's nothing on the market today more solid than those d-cells.

RM
#404778
It's been over 6 months since I first tried to fly the F225, with that first really failed attempt at Funston. As I reported in my first post, I quickly realized that there was a whole bunch of flexwing skills I had forgotten in my many years of flying rigids. That first flight at Funston ended on the beach after a short, PIO-packed flight from launch.

Since then, I've slowly been taking occasional flights at Ed Levin, figuring out how to gain control of this beast - heh, heh. More recently, I've tried to fly Funston on two separate occasions with the F225, but a quickly falling cloud deck thwarted me both times. Dang.

Today, was finally the day, but the afternoon started out too windy for me on this wing. I thought about setting up my ATOS VR (I brought it, too), but I really had my heart set on getting the F225 flight I've been wanting. Others were getting into the air, but I didn't feel comfortable, struggling with this circus tent out to the cliff. I tried earlier, but only got a third of the way from the setup area before carrying back. I waited.

About an hour later, the wind backed off just enough to make me less uneasy. With a two-man wire crew, I pushed my way to the cliff, and elevatored off. My plan was to wait for a few seconds before giving the right-turn input, and it worked out great. I was able to give it a couple of bumps, without initiating PIO and I was in business. I slowly inched my way closer to the cliff as I headed north. There weren't many others in the air, but anytime I was near someone, I would end up with mild PIO-type yawing, but nothing too bad. Proximity nervousness, I guess. When I was flying apart from others, I could keep it flying straight and smooth.

I felt pretty good about my turns - they were feeling fine. I worked on eliminating the minor PIO I was doing around others, and got better without eliminating it entirely. More practice... I also realized that flexwings take constant attention and control inputs - even if just tiny ones. I'm sure it's not noticeable by regular flex pilots, but I could tell. Absolutely not needed with rigids, but I'm getting my flex skills back.

After flying for and hour, I noticed that the wind had picked up again and gone a little southy. flying south along the cliff was getting slow, and I knew it was time to go land. I set up an approach over the bushes and parking lot, them drifted way back in the field. I could feel the turbulence rolling across the field, but it was OK. A bit of activity spoiled what I thought would be a very smooth landing, and I ended up on my knees - ungraceful, but not too bad. I pushed through the turbulence as I carried over to the breakdown area.

Overall I feel pretty good about the flight. I've gotten smooth enough to handle more conditions, and I will bring the F225 back (hopefully) pretty soon for more educational airtime.

RM
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#404781
DMarley wrote: Wed Aug 29, 2018 11:42 am Where's the vid?!? :)
Is your weight appropriate for the F225? That's a big ship to control solo!
I carry water ballast on my F190. Some of it for a refreshment.
"Vid" - yeah, in another world where I have time to sit around and process vid footage. Raising a new batch of young kids, I've barely got time to fly, much less get into to vid production. Photos are so much easier to make, store or post.

My weight is within the lower range for the F225. I wanted a slow, floaty glider for specific types of flying, and this one works.

RM