E20 & E36 at the Free Flight Nats

After coming to the 2016 with my e36 Super Pearl that had some issues resulting in no official flight, this year I came with two e36 models and an e20. Before the competition started I flew the Starduster e36 I had built over the winter but a bad launch damaged the wing. I repaired it but just couldn’t seem to get consistent flights, no doubt there are weak spots causing inconsistent flight patterns. The BMJR e20 Sky Demon flew pretty well when launched correctly.

Super Pearl e36 2017 Nats

Super Pearl e36 Climb

After last years Nats I discovered on the Super Pearl there was a weak spot in a dihedral joint and the stab was not as rigid as it should have been. The problem of diving when gliding to the right went away and I had some good flights.  For this year I covered the pylon with fiberglass cloth, improved the DT system, and replaced the vertical fin with a two-layer fin that was straight. Test flights looked really good; I was ready for the contest.

Flight at Muncie

Tuesday evening was the non-official e20 event.  My plane was the only one that wasn’t a pod and boom design, it has a full fuselage. The first flight I cheated myself in not having the DT set long enough, flying it earlier I had a hard time finding the tiny plane in the tall grass and had set a shorter DT time.  Increasing the DT time my plane did pretty well for what it is but came in 7th out of 11 entries. I was so busy flying I did not take any pictures, earlier I took pictures of Paul Bradley’s E20, Ralph Bradley won the event with a similar plane.

BMJR Sky Demon e20

Paul Bradley e20

Wednesday was the official e36 event, I knew there would be a lot of entries and most would have more powerful motors than the 1806N motor I was using.  Picking the weather conditions for me is rather like my stock market theory, if it looks like conditions are pretty good I fly early because I am afraid it will get windy later. In the market I seem to cash in when ahead but could have done better if stayed in longer but sometimes I have dodged a bullet.

e36 Starduster after Many Repairs

My three flights in e36 looked good, the E36 Pearl climbed in a steep spiral to the right and transitioned beautifully. The glide was really slow. On the last flight it encountered lift and made an easy max, at least it came down by DT after 2 minutes. That was really cool, I felt like now I was on the way to try for greater performance.

Bill Kuhl
http://www.ideas-inspire.com

Related Links

http://www.pearlfreeflight.com/Buy.html  Pearl Free Flight Super Pearl e36
http://www.texastimers.com/  eMax electronic timer
http://www.bmjrmodels.com/sky-demon  BMJR Sky Demon
http://scienceguyorg.blogspot.com/2016/08/flying-my-e36-at-2016-nats.html  - e36 at 2016 Nats
http://scienceguyorg.blogspot.com/2016/10/making-progress-in-e36.html - my learning process in e36
http://scienceguyorg.blogspot.com/2016/12/sky-demon-e20-build-report.html  - BMR Sky Demon
http://scienceguyorg.blogspot.com/2017/01/starduster-bmjr-e36-build-report.html - e36 Starduster