Loading her up

The 'mockup' of the Canon S110 camera I plan t use.
I felt it was time to load the Skywalker X5 up to the final AUW I expect for when she is flying with APM and camera. So today I created a mock camera out of coreflute, the same size and weight as the original and have mounted that in the Skywalker X5. It's AUW is now 1.25kg.

The 'mockup' camera fitted into position ready for test flight.
It was an anxious first launch now that she was an extra 200g heavier. However it didn't seem to make too much of a difference. We had an 8 knot wind from the SE but all went well.

I took her up for a couple of circuits to trim the Skywalker X5 out at the new weight. It didn't really need much at all, I'm guessing because I balanced her correctly before flight. A couple of extra hand launches and landings to check everything was right and I was happy.

One thing I did notice was that the Skywalker X5 was more stable in the air this time, she wasn't being bounced around like before. This extra weight could be a good thing.

The Skywalker X5 was super stable with the new AUW of 1250g
I only took her up for a few quick circuits as I had Harry with me this morning so we had 'other' more important things to do like run around the paddock and explore the creek line!

All up the Skywalker is launching and flying very well with a new AUW of 1250g.

Harry uncharacteristically shy during a photo shoot