some updates from the weekend. Flew the discus glider for the first time this weekend.
Its been a rollercoaster ride up to the point where i actually got the plane flight worthy. i assembled it all last weekend, on our holiday here, canada day, july 2nd i think it was. then i got all the electronics installed, and was working on the control surface throws on tuesday, and made a mistake, and plugged the battery pack in backwards in the plane.
well, little known to me, this basically fries everything. it blew my reciever, and 4 servos. OUCH! i was so ticked off i couldnt even look at the plane. soo, by friday, i had calmed down, and i had to rip the 2 servos out of the wings, which had been glued in (just terrific design there) and basically it took me all friday night to patch the wings, and get the new servos installed.
i also had to heavily modify the battery pack to fit it in somewhat. so, saturday my friend dave came over with his heli, and we set to work re-rigging the control lines. we did that, balanced the model and modded the battery pack again, and got everything in perfect shape.
We had to wait till evening for the wind to calm down, and we decided to drive out to UBC to fly in the bigger field there. that was a pretty good idea, as it was wonderful weather out, and perfectly calm.
i did in total about 8 throws, and got some nice short flights in. i was pretty awkward at flinging the model up at first, but i started to get the theory down by the last flight. i had a few hiccups, where i threw vertically up, and once almost didnt get the model to get airborne because it fell backwards, and i just saved it from crashing into the ground by pulling up quickly.
due to that hard landing, and one other, the wing came a little loose, so after those flights we had to call it quits to make some repairs. but overall, it was so exhilarating. a lot of fun to fly, and i cant wait to get better where i can get more height, and get some longer flights out of the glider.
i have a few pictures of test throws, which i will post, and we did video tape everything, so as soon as i get the will to somehow rip those onto my computer, i will post them
As for brewing, I brewed my first IPA, and an Amber Ale on sunday. tonight im brewing another cream ale, as the last one was such a hit. The IPA is for a taste testing in 2 weeks, and i had high hopes for the beer, but i got a little dissapointed when i did not hit the gravity i wanted (read alchohol). but ill see how it turns out. i may be surprised.
i learned something about hops this weekend, and why Frederick isnt growing very tall. Apparently in their first year, they establish their root network. then in the second year, they are able to grow as much as an inch a day! i cant wait till next year! maybe we should plant more hops!
anyways, thats my weekend. it was really busy! busy but awesome.