Airborne!
It was an overcast and showery day, but having finished the Bubble Dancer the night before, my intrepid son and I headed out to the flying field anyway.
With absolutely no one else at the site, I asked my 8 year old son to be my photographer with my Nikon D90 - turns out the kid did a great job!
Click on this picture to see how perfectly he captured the instant of first flight.
Very first impressions:
The glider flew straight and true with no inputs.
The rudder and elevator controls are extremely effective! I will need to reduce the rates or just tone down my stick movements. :-)
The spoiler is crazy effective! I almost played lawn-dart on my first approach when I deployed the spoilers. (Note to self: next time program in the spoiler - elevator mix before you go flying!)
The Bubble Dancer does a close pass on landing approach.
The glide ratio is amazing! It was fascinating watching the plane hang motionless in the air when pointed into the slight breeze.
An equal-opportunity shot of the only other flier at the field that day.
My son puts his Hobby Zone Champ through it's paces during a break from his duties as my photographer.
By the way, he is also my shop-buddy. He has a workbench in the shop next to mine where he's built all manner of things while I've been building the Bubble Dancer.