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It was a chilly, but nice, day for our last Outdoor contest of the year up here in Michigan.  When I got my Phantom Flash out of the box, I saw that it had a “potato-chip” stabilizer.  Oh well, it was the only one I brought.  The first flight was an 82-second flight.  It was during the best part of the day.  The air was still calm and the temps were starting to warm up.  (It was about 25 degrees when we started the contest.  By the end of the contest, it was in the high 40s.)

I was encouraged. This poor plane had spent one night outside this year and the wing had to be recovered.  I am sure I will be building a new one this winter.  But, sometimes our little planes do all they can do.  They fly as best as they can.  Sometime they seem like little puppies; so eager to please.  Even with its warped tail, this plane flew like it was perfectly balanced.  No rubber motor weight shift needed on launch, Take offs were straight up, with a stall to level flight and another climb.  And then it settled into large, slow circles.

The second flight was 85 seconds.  No one else had flown Phantom Flash at the time, but I gave it one more flight, since it wanted to fly.  I put in the winds, called for a time and let it ROG one more time.  Up it went – climb, stall, flatten, climb, flatten, circle.  As the motor ran down, the plane never lost altitude.  In fact, it’s nice trim allowed it to rise and rise.  I could see that the motor came off the front and was hanging on the rear.  But it was perfectly trimmed.  I chased and stopped.  Chased and stopped.  Chased and stopped three or four or five times.  Finally, it came down on the far end of the field.  I got back and was told it was a 4:16 flight!  The 82, 85, 120 was good enough for a win in Phantom Flash, against 4 other flyers.

I was excited about the Wisp.  This was my first 2 Bit model (Old Time ROG models with 26″ span or less) and I spent a lot of time making it look beautiful (if I do say so myself).  In addition, there was additional time spent installing my first working DT.  At 29 grams and 75 square inches, it just might need that DT.  I built the model per plan, including the carved prop (8″D x 6.25″P) and the 3″ per tip dihedral.  These two things concerned me – my intuition was telling me both were strange numbers.  Then, right before I left for Muncie, I re-read the MAN article – it said “up to 2 inches per tip” but the plan clearly says 3″ per tip – very frustrating.

I arrived in Muncie on Friday with plenty of time for testing before the Sat/Sun contest.  Trimming out, the plane flies, but not beautifully.  It seems to pull to the right for some strange reason, and there is a lot of wing-rocking.  Then there is a sharp, right-hand, spiral dive when the power is low.  After testing off and on through Saturday (2 Bit is on Sunday), I bit the bullet and cut the pretty tissue, the spar, LE, and TE and reset the dihedral to about 2″ per tip.  I also changed to a 7.875″ Czech plastic prop.  These changes improved the flights, but it still needs more work.  I was able to coax flights of 85 seconds or so, but I am still battling the right hand spiral.  I am sure it is a free-wheeling issue and I hope to get it sorted out.  Here is an in-flight shot of the Wisp – it sure looks pretty in the air.

The Wisp in Flight