Andy,

Sounds like the RSRA had a reaction rotor powered by air, but I don't see that in the specs I found? And are you saying that after the RSRA rotor was stopped, they continued to blow out the 'horizontal flight' trailing edges for some reason?

I was assuming that there may be some loss of altitude during the vLazair 'push' to forward flight. Part of the 'push' transition procedure could not only be 'only push when you get to a certain vertical speed' but also a minimum height above ground to make allowance for a slight height loss. Or worst case it might be 'climb straight to X altitude and then push over, it will dive some but you'll pull out of it In the early 3D flight RC model days I had a model with not much over 1/1 thrust. I have never been able to hover very long but I don't remember ever having much altitude loss or control problems coming out of a hover attempt. I know Mr Reynolds and a lot of other things likely skew that example but I can't wait to see what my 1/4 scale will do on these transitions (btw I am planning a tether system for 1/4 scale testing).

Fortunately I believe the stability through transitions will be augmented by the multirotor controller which is closed loop on heading and pitch until the throttle command is shut down to it when horizontal flight is achieved..

I also think it is possible that the aerodynamic controls are not needed at all below their un-stalled AOAs.

Wow, that video clip is awesome! I think of my electrics on the vLazair as a sort of re-chargable JATO system