The inspiration, the philosophy, and the story behind the Jart can be found on the Jart World Web page. Well worth a visit!

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Finally we have reached the stage where we can launch and test fly our prototype!
If you look closely you'll see the blunted end of the Jart with the unforgivable prop fixed to the front! Vic being a purist was much distressed but agreed to come to the field and watch Daron do his thing.

Daron : the elected test pilot
I canabalised my hotliner, (composite Baudis Zoom) and removed the Axi motor and planetary gearbox. We knew the arangement would work as both planes have a similar all up flying weight of 1300g and fitted a 14x10 folding prop on a 28mm spinner. The nose had to be reshaped from it's oval profile to accommodate the spinner.
The actual launch was pretty uneventful except for a twitchy left and right wiggle as Daron adjusted his fingers on the controls. The motor arangement can take the plane up vertically and by the time Daron cut back the throttle back, the Jart was a tiny speck in the sky.
That was when the problems began......
Daron failed to level out before cutting back and the plane entered a stall and seemed to drop a wing. Besides being so high up our colour scheme did not help with the oriontation and the plane never recovered from the spin. Hard to believe with all that height to play with. We have come to the conclusion that it was all pilot error!
The plane hit the ground nose first on a hard surface. Th amazing thing is that there is hardly anything wrong with the plane. The motor gearbox, prop and elevator servo are buggered, but for the rest the plane is still intact with marginal damage to the wings and fuse.
It was rather distressing, but we'll try again! Just waiting for parts.


Vic's pulling his nose at the thought of a prop!

At this stage the going has not been to good with two flights and two crashes. The first was Vic's balsa prototype in a 100km/h wind and Daron's disoriontation....

Third time lucky!