Part II-Twin Maidens take to the sky at Fort Jackson

The Twister finally flies! It's been built in fits and starts since January. It's hard to believe some people can build a stunt ship in a couple of weeks. I guess if you've done it enough that you never have to ponder and figure things out, it all falls together that quickly. I am actually getting pretty good at a lot of things now that I have three builds under my belt. The Yak-9 was my first venture into larger than 1/2A planes, then the Osprey, which was a kitbashed Skyray into a Flite Streak, an ARF Oriental, and now the Twister. The small ones don't require as much critical problem solving if they are to be strictly sport fliers, and I built a few of them without fully understanding what I was doing, taking a month or so on average.

But anyway, she was finished enough to fly today, though still lacking a couple of minor loose ends. I think I've spent every night and Sunday for the past month in the shop, learning and doing. Wayne has been building a Tom Morris Cavalier and it too was ready for its maiden flight. So we had two virgin maidens on the slab ready to take to the skies.

I'm still working on some more wing decals for both planes. I guess I better paint my tip weight cover. So should it be red or blue? You can see how free my controls are. Gravity alone lowers the flaps and raises the elevator while sitting on the ground. Also, there is no light shining through any gaps in the hinge lines, so I see no reason to seal them like I have on other planes.




After a couple of trim flights, it flies well. Too much flap action, so it's really twitchy. I need to slow them down in relation to the elevator. But I did get it flying well enough to put it through one full pattern. Not a pretty one, but it really flies with authority. Just too twitchy still with those flaps moving so much. But it has more strength in the overhead maneuvers than any plane I've ever flown. For instance the top loop of a vertical 8 pulls just about as hard as the 45 degree maneuvers. That's new to me, I'm used to nursing them through the maneuvers that are straight overhead, but not this one.

We spent a lot of time bench trimming the various CGs, and ended up removing some tip weight and moving the leadouts significantly aft, before the first flight. I will write more about that tomorrow, as it's quite interesting, but I'm out of time tonight. I did learn that the prop choice can significantly affect how much tip weight is needed. It makes simple sense but I'd never realized it before.

Hmmm, in the picture, I do see a squinch of light peeking out under that flap, maybe I need to rethink sealing at least that spot. When I weighed it this morning it didn't have a muffler(I forgot about that), so I bet that took it up to 40 ounces. I think the tongue muffler would require I add tail weight because it feels right on the edge of being tail heavy. When it was flying rich and slow on my first flight, it was hunting a tad, and after cutoff, a little floaty in the wind which died down on all the later flights.


Wayne is more cautious than me, so he didn't do any daring maneuvers. That's one reason he has more planes in his hangar than me. A lot more of mine are in grocery bags, but none today Lol.



Thanks for reading. I'll add to the story tomorrow and post a flick too.
Good night,
Rusty