Side note: Test Flight

Had to include this because it's awesome. I made the maiden flight on this brand new Sport 2S last night. Our trainer is a 400 hours and this bird has less than 2. The difference was incredible. Handling, climb rate, everything was just better. Most of the guys around here attributed it to tighter sails and I think that's probably mostly right. But this got me thinking. We've got a fairly dirty prop on the trainer and I'd like to see the difference after it's been cleaned and all that parasitic drag has been removed from the airfoil. We're also getting slightly higher RPMs on climbout in the trainer which indicates a difference (albeit minor) in prop pitch. Still, I'd like to run an experiment on the climb rates after the prop has been cleaned if for no other reason than to determine the real world effects of a dirty prop. More on this later. Here's a picture of that new plane we built.



I haven't come very far on the Super other than sending out a few emails to price some of the parts I need. I sent Quicksilver a list and I'm still waiting to hear back on that. So far, I think my repair budget (which is in the realm of $5000) is on track. However, the ballistic recovery chute that came with the plane is no good so I'll still have to buy a new chute which will be around $2000. If I can get the new sails for $1500, that still gives me $1500 for new tubes, gauges, and miscellaneous items. Admittedly, I'll probably dip into my savings a little when all is said and done because I won't stop til it's perfect. But I think the budget planning is solid for now.