Wednesday 16 December 2009

Nearly there...

We had all the parts. The equipment was set, and we ventured onto the nearest patch of grass, only to be beset by the fact that after a horrific nosedive after a self launch, it was discovered the antenna had in fact snapped. By the time we had soldered everything back together, there was no more time - and thus, for the second time, we were cheated of our promised maiden flight.

The good news is that the pre-flight checks looked promising. The ESC that arrived needed some modifications before it was fully functional, as we had to replace the seemingly faulty push switch (and it didn't behave as we expected either) with a SPST toggle switch. The battery also had to be modified, as I had to split the power supply (not sure if this is an altogether acceptable thing to do) to power both the receiver and the ESC, but after that, the prop worked wonders, spinning furiously (and at one point coming off and nearly taking someone's eye out), and the elevons responded nicely. The centre of gravity seems to be in the right place, but the motor is a bit loose (but the line of thrust is correct, as we see it).

The maiden flight will have to wait until after the holidays unfortunately, but we will begin phase 2 in January as well (hopefully), after we get the results from flying with the mugi.

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