Thursday, September 25, 2008

It gets easier

I’m preparing to go out and test again this weekend. Were planning to test Saturday Morning, were goin out Friday Afternoon. There is a FAR workparty trying to put up some shade and we vouelteered to pick up the steel roofing. We need to pick it up around 3:00 PM Friday in Ontario, CA. This means we leave around noon.


I’m spending this evening getting ready. Its the easiest prep I’ve ever done. The only hardware change is to add 25Kg of Payload to the vehicle in the form on srap on Ankle weights on the tops of the landing gear.  Earlier my Son and I  I flushed the Permangenate system and did a full operational check of the vehicle.


Other than that I’m charging all the batteries



  • 2 main flight batteries

  • 2 Main flight battery spares.

  • 2 IIP Abort batteries

  • 1 Emergency Vent Rx battery

  • 1 Emergency Vent TX battery

  • 1 Controller TX battery

  • Primary Lap top

  • Spare Laptop Battery

  • Spare Lap top

  • 2 Video Cameras

  • 2 Extra Vido Camera Batteries.

16 Total.


The only other physcial preperation is to copy some new anaylisys software to the Laptops and make sure the backup laptop gets updated with all the new software thats on the primary. It looks like the toal prep time will be less than 4 hours! WOOO HA!


If I’m going to fly under my flight waiver (longer than 15 seconds) I need to “clear” the uninvolved from the area. Since I’m going to be working on takeoff and landings this weekend the flights are all going to be under 15 seconds, under amateur rules. This is probably one of the better opertunities to come see the vehicle.


We test out near Cantil CA. If you want to send me an E-mail (you’ll have to answer my spam filter) with contact info I’ll give you a call Friday to discuss how to get there. I’ll be packing up by 11am so later than that and I won’t get back to you. My email is Paul at Romeo Alpha Sierra Delta Oscar Charlie dot Charlie Oscar Mike.

2 comments:

Jesse D said...

Hi, Paul,

I'm wondering about the effect of the added mass on your control system. I believe placing the payload mass farther out from the radial center of mass (rather than directly above the center of thrust) will increase the system's stability and cause slower attitude response to nozzle gimbals.

I believe the LLC website said your vehicle is 300 lbs empty, 550 loaded. The extra payload constitutes an almost 10% mass increase; do you anticipate having to adjust your controls, or have you programmed tolerances in for this kind of thing?

Paul Breed said...

I was not clear,
I added the mass on the Top End of the Gar closest to the CG.
(It worked perfectly we took off and landed from the ground today, 3 times. 100% success, no damage.)