Hmmm... battery or wiring?

I fitted a magnetic switch (fantastic piece of kit available from T9 Hobbysport) into my Skorpion during the week and had to do some re-wiring and also changed the battery pack from an Eneloop pack to a Vapextech pack (both NiMh).

I charged it on Thursday in anticipation of some flying this weekend and was pretty excited to be able to get out to the VR Slope at the Bwlch this afternoon for a play in decent conditions.

I rigged up and did my usual pre-flight check consisting of switch on, wiggle wiggle, no alarms, good to go and launched. 30 seconds to a minute later my very helpful Taranis let me know that A1 was critical (receiver battery pack nearly empty) and I started to make my way to the landing area. I watched forlornly as my fully ballasted Skorpion circled over my head, over the road and was heading for Nant-y-Moel. In the hope that some form of life might creep back into the battery, I held in full down elevator as I watched her sail away and just before I lost sight, she managed to either stall in the attitude of full down elevator or the inputs finally worked.

3.7kgs of Skorpion digs quite a deep hole! and after some significant digging and effort I finally got the nose cone out of the ground and trudged back to the car with my Skorpion in 5 &1/2 pieces.

Andrzej tested my battery for me back at the car and it had 1.5v available which is pretty flat! I have a feeling I might have introduced a short in the wiring somewhere and will re-do the wiring in the fuselage when I repair it this week.

As I was collecting the pieces (Thanks Wayne and Clive for your help and support!) I was thinking that it was a bit of a mess but in reality, it's not too badly damaged at all! The control surfaces on the wing are all going to need to be re-attached and some epoxy or superglue will fix the very minor damage to the wing root on one half and that is all! The fuselage took a bit of a battering and will test my newly refreshed repair skills thanks to Paul Naton's glider repair lab series of videos.

I took a picture when I offloaded the bits into the garage this evening.

I did managed to have a bit of a play with my Wasabi and that helped to improve my mood a little. 

The VR Slope is a lovely slope with amazing views ............ but it gets ridiculously cold!!

Anyway, speaking of cold, I've got some repairing to do in the garage!