Phil,
Thanks for the report...
CJ
--
Jack Strother
Granger, IN
LSF 2948
LSF Level V #117
LSF Official 1996 - 2004
CSS Gold
-------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Philip A Renaud <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Well the weather finally cooperated and we flew the prototype Icon 2 on
> Sunday 3 Feb. This is a big airplane, 1,258 sq in, 150 in span. Radio
> equipment consisted of my trusty Futaba R148DF receiver, JR DS368 rudder,
> elevator and flap servos, and JR DS168 thin wing aileron servos and a 4
> cell NiMH AA size 1700 mah battery pack. With about 3 ozs of lead in the
> nose the prototype came in at 79 oz ready to fly which put the wing
> loading at a hair over 9.1 oz per sq ft. Weather was heavy overcast, cool
> for Arizona (52 degrees F), very light wind. Field elevation at our
> flying field is 2500 ft MSL. A standard 12 volt winch with retriever and
> 250 lb test braided line was used to launch the airplane. Distance from
> the winch to the turn around was shorter than normal, about 170 meters,
> due to the need to work around some grass sprinklers that had been running
> all night. We elected not to launch the airplane for the first flight
> using the winch rather than risk damage during a hand launch. The first
> launch was spectacular to say the least! Using 10 degrees of camber with
> the tow hook about 1/8 of an inch ahead of the CG and moderate hold back
> on the winch, the airplane climbed absolutely vertically out of the
> launcher's hands. The launch was straight with slight wing bend so I kept
> my foot on the winch pedal through the climb and "bucket". The zoom was
> good and overall launch altitude was much better than normal considering
> the shortness of the line and lack of wind. While I didn't have my data
> logger installed for the flight I would guess the launch altitude at
> around 700 feet based on previous "eyeball calibrations" with the data
> logger. The first flight was spent checking out controllability, elevator
> trim settings, CG location, crow (butterfly) settings, etc. As a result,
> I wasn't really looking for lift and, given the weather conditions, didn't
> expect to find any lift. In spite of that duration on the first flight
> was about 8 min 50 sec. The airplane slowed down very well for landing
> with no tendency to fall off on a wing. During the course of the day we
> put a total of 7 flights on two airplanes (my prototype and a
> pre-production airplane)
>
> My general impressions regarding the airplane are as follows. I was
> surprised with how nimble the airplane is in flight. This airplane
> doesn't exhibit the "wing heaviness" of other large sailplanes. Roll
> control and general flying qualities are very similar to the Pike Perfect.
> Secondly the airplane is responsive to rudder. Using coordinate rudder
> and ailerons I was able to perform some very tight (about 3 wingspan
> diameter) thermal turns. When forced the airplane will tip stall but
> recovery is quick. We intentionally spun the airplane and again recovery
> is quick and "hands off". As you might expect, the airplane has great
> legs and can really move out if you're looking for lift. While we weren't
> particularly searching for lift on Sunday, we did encounter a few very
> light patches of lift during the day. The airplane seemed to signal these
> well and a couple of tight turns in the lift produced solid climb
> indications. Our focus this last weekend was verifying structural
> strength and general airworthiness. All launches were performed pedal to
> the metal on the winch. Wing bend never approached any areas of concern.
> I am looking forward to doing some more serious thermal flying with the
> airplane this coming weekend and do plan on flying the airplane at the
> Southwest Classic Contest in Phoenix February 16 and 17. I am pretty
> impressed with the airplane.
>
> Phil Renaud
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