Maiden Flight, Andreas' Zephyr II

 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!