Hello and sorry for my late post. Unfortunately our soaring club lost access our DS site in Northern California. This has been the case since February of this year thus opportunities to test fly the Excalibur have been far and few for me.
Where things left off was Ernst had built and sent a new wing center panel with more carbon and stiffer area along hinge line, I had test flown it late last year in the 200mph range, ready for further testing during 2023.
The Excalibur made a visit to Weldon during Spring '23 season however during first flight there was some mysterious intermittent control issues mid-flight. Landed, double checked everything, but similar issue during next flight hence model was grounded and inspected meticulously - thank goodness a problem was found and confirmed to be an "open" wiring/solder issue at MPX wing connector.
Then during Summer the Excalibur flew again at Cape Blanco where it performed well however with max wind speed was only 25mph range which meant there wasn't enough energy to push the airframe.
Last week Excalibur visited Weldon (during Fall off-season) for possibly the final "West" wind day before Winter season (North/East winds) arrives here.
Thank you Artur and Uwe for sharing my notes and videos here from Tuesday of last week.
Please note that the fastest models flown that day were K2m and Transonic Sweeper. Those gliders flown by Spencer achieve 10:1 or pretty close to that ratio.... meaning usually his glider goes almost 10X the speed of wind. Therefore with 30mph wind, Spencer can fly his K2Ms to 300mph. I don't have those skills and will go much slower than 300mph in same conditions with same glider.
That day last week the wind speed would get stronger from noon to 3pm, and then taper off slower into the late afternoon. With each pilots in rotation and taking turns on flying one at a time, wind speed was always would be different next time the same pilot flew.
That 298mph Excalibur flight with 42mph max gust was likely the strongest wind of entire day so I was the air lottery winner for sure. Now if Spencer or Bruce were flying the Excalibur during that 42mph wind gust period, I am certain they would have achieved much higher speed than 298mph. Hence the pilot (me) is the limit is my conclusion.
Also, it must be mentioned that I had my K2m with me but by time my next turn came up in the flight rotation wind had already dropped below 30mph and so it wouldn't be a good comparable.
What I can say about he Excalibur is it flies very stable in DS circuit. It gives a level confidence both visually because it is not small like K2m but rather more easy to see like D80.
The new stronger stiff wing center panel and updated stronger fuse tail boom are working very well together. Next time we have 40mph or higher winds, for sure I will install the 4 brass ballast bars and steel joiners and see it holds up.
In the meantime, I really enjoyed the video Ernst posted of Martin DS'ing his Excalibur in such perfectly consistent laps. That was really something great to watch.