 1903
Wright Flyer -
Hey guys!! -
"IT FLEW!!!!" These pics of my Dare Designs Wright Flyer were taken by my friend Mike this afternoon (Sunday, Dec. 14) a little after 4:00 PM at the local high school athletic field, just prior to the first flight.
The two flights I made today went fairly well, with only some typical first flight trim adjustments required ("Up" and "Right" trim needed), and the discovery that even more expo throw would be needed on the pitch function, over and above the 50% I started out with. The second flight was much better trim-wise, and the only change I made after it was to increase the pitch expo throw from 80% to 90% (!).
 Neat!! Now that I know that it will really fly, I will add some scale detail such as the dummy engine, the pilot hip saddle and foot rest, and probably some sort of "Orville" or "Wilbur" figure. Right now it weighs right at 12 oz., even with about 3/4 oz.
nose weight under the battery pack, which is as far forward as possible. I am VERY pleased with the performance of the model (given the type of plane it is!), and plan of flying it quite a bit whenever conditions make it reasonable to do so. It has been a very rewarding experience to build and fly it!
Regards - Kermit Walker (aka "planecrazy" - amen to that!!), Lodi, CA
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 [Kermit
also wrote] Guys! - It happened!! My planned
"commemorative" flight(s) came off yesterday about as well as I could have planned (well, almost!). Much better than the real "re-enactment at Kitty Hawk, to say the least!
I really lucked out on the weather for this time of year. By the time I got out to my local "park flyer" flying site (the local high school athletic field) at a little after 3:00 PM, it was at or near 60 degrees F., bright sunshine, and virtually no wind - perfect!! I had taken along my son-in-law Steve to act as launcher and photographer.
The first flight went just about perfect. The
climb-out from Steve's launch was steady and straight away - all the trim and throw adjustments I had made after last Sunday's test flying session in similarly near-perfect weather turned out just right. I proceeded to cruise the Flyer around, at one point climbing it up higher than I had ever flown it - maybe 75 or 80 feet high. Nothing fancy - just wide, smooth circuits. The Flyer does make smoother and more
consistent turns to the right than the left, as it tends to tighten up somewhat in
left-hand turns. The 280 mah 8-cell NiMH battery pack began to give up after about 4 1/2 minutes or so, so I landed the Flyer after a very successful flight of almost 5 minutes.
For the second flight, I decided to try a 1200 mah 2-cell Lithium-Polymer battery pack to see if it would be enough voltage and if it would then result in a much longer flight duration. The
climb-out from the launch was quite a bit slower, although adequate, and I spent quite a bit of this flight making flyby passes for Steve to try to get some good in-air photos. To my surprise, the battery pack began to give out after nearly 7 minutes, so I brought the Flyer in for a perfect "flop" landing practically at my feet after just over 7 minutes.
I should've "quit while I was ahead"! I then proceeded to press my luck by switching to an older 300 mah 8-cell NiMH pack that I had had some trouble with last Sunday. I had cycled the pack several times since then and it "looked" OK, but I guess it must have a bad cell or something. Immediately after Steve launched the Flyer, the motors shut off and the Flyer stalled. Either I didn't react quickly enough, or I didn't have quite enough pitch control authority soon enough, and the Flyer hit the ground at a somewhat steep angle. A number of struts and strut joints broke, but no real major structural damage occurred, so it should be reasonably straightforward to repair. After 3 weeks of pretty intensive work to get the Flyer built and flown, I will need a while to get "recharged" before working in it - especially as it is exactly a week before Christmas, and as I think most of you know, I work for the Post Office!
Overall, the Wright Flyer has been an interesting, rewarding and successful project. It has "interesting" flying characteristics, and is at least somewhat different than anything else I have ever flown. It is light, somewhat marginally powered, and most of all, VERY draggy! Shutting off the motors entirely results in a "glide ratio" of about 1:1! Maybe a bit of an exaggeration, but not much! It is very
sensitive in pitch (I am up to 80% exponential on the "elevator" function in my JR transmitter!), and fairly unresponsive to the rudder control, even with the slight "cheater" dihedral it has. Not surprisingly, it does not like to be turned too tight, especially to the left, as it will tend to "slide in" if you get the bank angle very steep at all. All in all, just about what you would expect, I suppose, given its configuration. Once I repair it, I will probably continue to experiment with battery packs, and maybe make some handmade wooden props (perhaps even counter-rotating ones with a reversed motor), in an effort to get a slightly better climb rate.
If the photos that Steve took with my old Nikon 35mm film camera come out at all, I will either scan them and email them, or send out copies to anyone who expresses an interest in having them.
I congratulate both the designer, Pat Tritle, and the kit manufacturer, Dare Designs, for generating such a relatively good flying model, considering the difficult nature of the subject. It been a really rewarding experience building and flying my Wright Flyer!!
Regards - Kermit Walker "planecrazy"
DEC 14 2003
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