EzFly Maiden today... flew quite nicely, even though there was a lot more wind that what I was expecting. COG, which had been a problem for some people on RCG, was spot-on.
Unfortunately, the hat-cam was a bit off, so a lot of the footage I took was of empty sky. Trimmed that out, and there's still enough to give a pretty good impression of how it flies. (update: when windy, 3S helps it cut through the wind a bit better.)
Bottom line: sturdy plane, easy to build, and a good flyer. Thanks to MotorHead for such a nice design! RCG thread is here.
Update: The EZFly video curse continues! I flew up at Concord, and a nice lady got some nice footage, except the entire thing was out of focus! Oh well, just squint a bit and you can see how nicely it flies.
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Great success with Andreas' Zii/APM combination. Flew beautifully, APM control was good, able to tune things in the air. All around a great success and left everyone feeling very pleased. Andreas has named it Beast of Kandahar.
We flew with two batteries... 3S/5000, and then a 4S/3000. The 3S seems to provide plenty of power -- enough to accelerate straight up. Andreas had also just upgraded the power system to:
Ground Video. This contains most of the flying modes, takeoffs, landings, and low passes. I'll make a trimmed down version later if this one seems repetitive.
Just got back from Andreas' RiteWing Zephyr II and wanted to get this uploaded as quickly as possible. It arrived yesterday, he got it ready to fly in a day... send me a quick note to see if I wanted to run out and give it a try. Yes I did, so off we went!
Even with a 5000 mAh battery, the inital flight seemed tail heavy. We added in another battery as ballast, and also fiddled with the subtrim. It looks like, as expected, it won't be a problem to load the thing down with FPV and autopilot equipment.
Launching turned out not to be as much of an issue as we feared. When the prop is wound up it handles the weight of the plane, so the launching assistant just needs to keep it flat as it takes off. Don't hold it by the conveniently located motor mount though, even when just carrying it around!
I took it for a small flight so Andreas could get a feel for the throwing. It handled very nicely once it was trimmed out. At half throttle it would hold its heading and altitude hands off. You can see how smooth it is in the video when it comes in for a landing. Chris Klick mentioned that one of his goals with the Zii was to make takeoffs and landings easier... I would say he succeeded admirably!
Here's some video of the maiden, taken with my iPhone at the lovely Berkeley Marina and rendered in genuine ShakyCam (tm). There's a seagull that chases the thing around. Andreas interpreted it as agressively trying to chase the Zii away, but I think it's such a good looking wing that the bird fell in love instantly. Can the Zii outrun a seagull? The suspense will thrill you!
