Author: SHunt

It is with great sadness that I have to report the loss of a truly amazing plane.

The Blue Riot had flown many a sortie, it carried planes on piggyback, flew with smoke, rockets and even ribbons.

On one occasion it even carried a banner for someones 40th, but we wont go into that.

 

What could possibly kill this amazing plane I hear you ask?

Well it all started when I noticed on this very blog site that Dave had modified the tail on his Riot, what a fantastic idea I thought, I’ve never flown a plane with a fully moving tail before, so set about to modify mine in a similar but less broken way.

So it came to pass that on Sunday the 29th of May 2016, I sat at the flight line and readied myself for what I thought would be an interesting flight…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HZDSvW-VFo

The modifications held well, less can be said of the battery cover 🙁

Always wanting to try something new in this wonderful hobby I decided to get myself a Durafly auto G2 and try flying an autogyro.

First I tried to find as many reviews and comments from people who had already flown one, the general consensus was easy to fly as long as there is a nice gentle wind and you don’t make any sharp turns.

I also found out that spinning up the main rotor can strip the gears if put on a switch, so decided to put mine on the dial so it can be ran up gently, this also had the added bonus that I didn’t have to wait for the wind to run the rotor up to full speed.

Thanks to Mr Chris we can witness the first flight in the attached video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JD2-B3oOEF8

Have to admit taking it nice and steady it was very easy to fly, landing was the only problem as the wind kept dropping off then picking up so had to spin up the main rotor again not a good idea in the middle of a final approach. Lesson learned though should fly much better with a gentle breeze.

Spare rotor blades are on there way, looking forward to trying again 🙂

Had the opportunity to have a fly in Hillfield park the other day, nice big area to fly in marred only by the fact the public can walk up to you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_bkJbMyyS4

Since I’ve had the Decathlon it has never really flown “right” for one reason or another, had to rebuild the motor mount twice, fix the battery bay, In the end the wing support struts gave up, and as that would mean stripping all the covering off the wings to fix I though why not fly it in the 30mph gusts we were expecting and if it crashes then we can just have a good laugh about it, long as no-one gets hurt it’s all good.

The plane takes off as normal, and to my amazement  actually handles the wind beautifully…. I just couldn’t believe it, it was flying great in the wind.

So Mr Chris and I came up with the idea of sticking the FPV gear on it, “What could possibly go wrong?”

Well I’ll tell you, when you get blown sideways it gives you the impression your turning…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wl_ExAz9RQ8

And then you get too far away for anyone to help and you crash, so we had to go on a long walk, many thanks to all those that helped, you were great chaps 🙂
How far away did it end up? well…

Quite a way, the white arrow is roughly where the strip is, and the red dot where the plane was found.

And how did the plane look when it got back?

At least most of the electrics were in one piece.

Despite everything it was still a great days flying, loads of fun, and now we have some kindling to try out the log burner 🙂

The general gist to how this came about was a small conversation between myself and Mr Chris one Tuesday not so long ago…

Coming up the field tonight I asked?

No said Mr Chris

Not to worry then says I, hopefully catch you Sunday

Great said Mr Chris, get some photos of plane silhouettes while your there tonight for the blog site says he

Erm… okay says I.

 

So here they are…

The photos are of my Fournier RF5, and taken by Tracey 🙂

 

My poor old shark is falling apart so I thought I’d give it a last outing before the motor finally gives up, first flight was great as always, second flight was shorter as lo and behold the motor started making funny noises lol.

Had a brownout while inverted too, thankfully it came back on before I hit the tree, and I got a last video from the “jaws” of the beast 🙂

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlXmQWHKLpY&feature=youtu.be

Must thank Mr Chris for letting me have a go of his FPV goggles today, was brilliant fun and really enjoyed it.

It gives a whole new perspective to the hobby…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Y8nKRjgmaE

Apologies for the music it was free off you tube when I edited, saves a whole lot of prop noise.

Chris decided to put his electronic switch to the test.

Not happy with the thrust from one rocket engine though, he decided to try two…

And just in case you were wondering what happened…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LsQSRAAbCc&feature=youtu.be

The day of the maiden had finally arrived for Barry’s Spitfire, last seen in his biplane thread,

I managed to take a couple pictures for posterity…

And a pic of the lovely cockpit…

Fantastic looking paint job Barry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX4bp2YOGKA

Sorry I couldn’t get more of the flight on video but was struggling to see in the sun lol.

 

Tried to keep up with the Viggen of Mr Chris so as to get it on film…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xCO9Bs6jQE

Nearly had it as a hood ornament at one stage though lol

And just in case you missed that fly-by…