Right across the street from my workplace in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, is a nice, large public park with a decent expanse of grassy area. Appropriately, for a model rocketeer, the place is named 'Redstone Park'.
Unfortunately, park regulations prohibit the flying of model rockets there, but I can still use it as a place to hand launch and trim boost/gliders.
So, I brought the FlatCat B/G to work to keep here in order to take advantage of a lunch hour this week during which there would be minimal wind activity. It only takes two minutes to pop over to the park and start flinging gliders around!
Last Monday, Aug. 20th, I made an attempt to trim the FlatCat glider at the park during my lunch break.
I managed to get in a half dozen test throws before some session-ending winds picked up due to a thunderstorm that was building in the foothills to the west. Blasted storm!
By the time I made the final toss, I had the FlatCat trim balanced to glide fairly well.
On the last test flight, I heaved it into the wind. The model climbed to an estimated 40 foot altitude, aided by the wind, turned, and settled into a nice glide that described a wide turn to the right. This hand-launched flight went for well over 25 seconds, and I ended up chasing it over half the length of the field!
Today, I took the glider back out to the field again. Wind speeds ranged from 0 - 5 mph, so it was a perfect time to perform trim flights.
After getting the model to trim out into a flat glide pattern, I found that I needed to introduce a turn. The proper amount of clay on the right wingtip took care of this.
Hand launch flights typically lasted from 10 to 15 seconds.
Here are some still shots from a cel phone video I took of one of the flights:
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| Flattening out... (It's a FlatCat, right?) |
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Gliding...... Still Gliding.....  ....And skimming the turf prior to a soft landing! FlatCat trim test assessment: IT GLID REAL GOOD!
The only items left with this build is to paint and apply markings to the pop-pod, install the recovery system, and trim the entire model for boost stability.
I can hardly wait to get this one out for a powered flight!
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