Needle 115 maiden flight

Yesterday, I took the opportunity of a few hours weather window to maiden the N115.

It weights 2371g, but I needed about 300g to obtain the right CG at 89mm. With the new fuselage coming, I hope I can go down to 2200g which should be ideal from my point of view.

The first flight was in light condition, let's say around 6m/s. The Needle has been launched and every thing went perfect, no trim needed! In the air, the N115 was very smooth, tracks exceptionnaly well, less noisy than average, and already showing a good speed in straight line, and excellent energy management turns capabilities. No bad habits detected.

Later in the afternoon, the wind increased a bit, so I put first 200g in the joiner, then later 1 slug in the wing compartiment (240g) and 1 more slug in the joiner (total 640g), as the CG is approximatively located on the rear half of the joiner.

I did some runs starting with altitude and has been impressed by the acceleration, the speed and the energy in turn (EM turn). the Needle is happy whatever the turn style like bank and yank or larger turns like energy management.

My settings need definitively some adjustements, and I need more flying time, but first feelling is extremmely positive, and I see an excellent potentiel in the N115 for F3F.

I did plenty of pictures you can find below:


I also filmed with my GoPro and my EOS 650D so I would be able to edit a first video about the N115 in the coming days, so stay tuned !

Anyway, I'm excited to fly it again !