I velcroed the FlyCamOne to the belly of the Fik100 this morning and took my first aerial videos. The videos were a bit blurry from the vibration of the motor, and the low light due to cloudy skies didn’t produce the best pictures. I’ll have to do some gliding with the Fik 100 on a sunny day to get better pictures.

Over the weekend, I had some fun flying with the Fik 80 at Rancho San Antonio. The weather was perfect, and it was nice to fly without any crowds at 6:30 AM in the morning. I visited the Baylands on Saturday, and although they have a nice grass flightline, I presently prefer RSA because of its proximity, views, and hilly trails I can run on after an early morning flight.

Last night, I decided to reconnoiter the area where I thought my FIK 100 landed. I was on my bike, slowly looking at the trees and yards on a street over 600 feet away from the park when I saw the FiK 100 sitting in the front of a garage. I went home and walked back to the house to retrieve the FIK, and when I asked the owner about where he found it, he said he saw it sitting in his front yard on the lawn. He asked his son if it was his, but his son said it wasn’t. He said he left it by the front door last night, but I must not have seen it when I went by the street Sunday night.

I was amazed the plane was totally undamaged, but I remember I was trying to pull the plane up when I lost sight of it, so it must have just drifted down after I lost contact with it. The only thing that was a little adverse was the battery since it hadn’t been unplugged from the ESC. The BC-6 wouldn’t recharge the battery since it said the voltage was too low, but after reading about how to bring back a drained lipo battery, I hooked it up only by its JST power lead and charged the battery as a NIMH at .1 amps until the voltage hit 9 volts (it was a 3s battery, so 3×3 volts). After I did this, the battery accepted charging as a LIPO. I’ll have to see how the battery performs tomorrow morning. After this incident, I’ve learned my lesson on not taking a plane up on a thermal when it’s a windy day!

I don’t believe I lost the FIK 100 to the thermal coming off the parking lot at the local park. I learned from some reading that the thermal becomes a lot stronger a few hundred feet above the ground since there isn’t any interruption from ground terrain or winds. It wasn’t just the thermal that caused the loss, but the wind blowing from the west. By the time I brought the plane down from the thermal, it was blown far to the east and descended too quickly for me to bring it back. Tonight, I’ll post some flyers around the neighborhood in the hopes someone found the plane.

I flew the Fik 80 fuselage / Fik 100 wing some more this morning, and it flew pretty well at a slow speed. It makes more noise than the Pico-Stick since some resonance is occurring with the mount, but other than that, it’s a nice lazy flyer. I had to trim the rudder a bit to the left, so I think I’ll put in a carbon 1.5 mm rod along the length of the fuselage to straighten out the glider.

When I was out at the park at 6:00 am this morning, there was no wind and I couldn’t smell any smoke. Two hours later, the wind had picked up, and I could smell the smoke coming in from the Santa Cruz Mountains fire. Last Friday, I didn’t run since it was too hot. Now I think I might not run today in order to save my lungs from the smoke. I wonder if the conditions today are a good day in Beijing.

I had a successful test flight of the Fik 100 wing and Fik 80 Fuselage last night. I couldn’t fly it too much since it was getting dark, but it had a nice slow flight performance. At home, I cut a slot for the battery, and tried to reinforce some areas with Sumo glue. Since the plane is so light, even when it crashes, not much damage occurs. I used a LightFlite 8mm Magic Motor Mount inserted into the front of the plane and secured with Sumo glue and 3M strapping tape to hold the Blue Lightning motor from MAE. I was using a GWS 8×4 last night, but I’m going to try an APC 8×3.8 from now on since the APC propellers are more durable and seem to give better thrust.

I tried to remove the prop saver from the MAE motor for the Fik 80 fuselage / Fik 100 wing hybrid build, but I managed to destroy the rotor in the process. I bent the shaft off and the magnets on the outside rim didn’t seem to work right. I put the Skyholic 8×6 folding propeller on the Fik 100, and it was a loud and low powered dog. It few pretty level, but it needed near full throttle to take off, and it flew like a truck compared to the APC 8×6. Evan told me to float it in, and he shocked me by catching the plane with his hands. In the midst of all the flying, I managed to break off the landing gear. I flew the Fik 100 a few times without the landing gear, but it was a little tail heavy. Eventually, it went into a spiral dive, and the shaft broke off the Lazertoyz blue wonder motor. So over the weekend, I had a bit of carnage that has led to the purchase of some replacement motor parts.

I finally had a successful flight of the FIK 100 at Rancho San Antonio Park. With a APC 8×6 Slow Fly prop and proper trim of the elevator, the FIK 100 is a very stable flyer. It was fun trying to fly it back against the wind. I was applying down elevator and tacking against the wind. I also took the FIK up high and cut the motor. The FIK had enough weight to penetrate without any power, and I guided it down without any power. I was surprised I was the only flyer out there at 6:45 PM last night, but it was nice to have the flight field all to myself.

Last night, I came home around 8 PM and decided to fly my FIK 100 at dusk which was a big mistake. There just wasn’t enough light in the sky, and I lost the FIK 100 in the distance. I tried to turn it around, but it flew into a tall redwood tree before I could fly it back. I had to put together my 1/2″ and 3/4″ pvc pipe to get it down. It took about 30 minutes of prodding, but the FIK 100 finally came down with only a broken prop. What I’ve learned is that when a plane is trapped high up in a tree, you can use a lower branch to prop whatever you’re using to get the plane down.

This morning, the FIK 100 too off very well with an APC 8×6 Slowflyer propeller. The problem is I didn’t get it high enough before I tried to turn the plane, and I again got mixed up between the rudder and elevator. The plane dove into the ground, and the front part broke off. I just have to be more gentle with the controls since the plane really moves when you move the control surfaces. I used some polyurethane glue to reattach the front of the plane, and it should be ready to go by tomorrow.