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.

This page is not complete yet!

 

Once I have some substantial experience flying my Bubble Dancer and can make some more intelligent comments, I will make a more complete write-up here...

 

Check back for the completed write-up!

 

 

 

 

 

-- Current through July 29, 2011