Did you Fly today?

[The Dude]

8 flights yesterday, 4 on the T-rex 600 and 4 on the Raptor, awesome day!
Did a loop each, I have to start giving a little negative pitch when they go inverted at the top of the loop.

[Gabe]

Nice! As you do, and you get comfortable, start giving it a little more negative each time until you hover it there for half a second, then a full second, then two seconds. Baby steps!

[Doozer]

Well... took off for the first flight ... I guess being a heli guy I was expecting it to jump in the air. After a sketchy power up, I failed to take off and the plane went into some bushes. No damage ... I just had to pick some stickers out of the foam. It kept pulling to the left though. I'd run it up... get a little worried that it wasn't taking off and let off the power and it would pull to the left. I'd cut power and go get it. I'd bring it back to the starting point, give it some sub trim, then try another take off again. I did this a few times until finally I just said "screw it" and shoved the throttle all the way up, pulled back on the stick until I got it in the air. I took off right into the sun which hurt, but I was up.

I flew for several minutes doing loops, rolls, and no power stall turns. What a blast! Then the timer went off and I got my game face on and landed it. It wasn't the most beautiful landing in the world, but I pulled it off with only a slight scratch. I scuffed it a bit on the curb.

So I put my Hyperion pack in and take off the same way I did the first time. Again, into the sun, which sucked as much as the first time. I flew for 7 minutes doing loops, rolls, fig 8's, stall turns, gliding a bit (helis don't glide well)... just having a lot of fun. The timer went off, and I circled it around to get it ready to land............ wait what.... out of nowhere comes this cyclist in full cycle gear. I mean the spandex, aerodynamic helmet, the whole shmeal.

First of all, I've flown there many times now, and my kids and I have never, ever, seen a soul. Second, I don't know why he was dressed like he was riding the Tour de France because if he were riding any slower, he'd have fallen over. So... sweating a bit because this battery is a bit old, I make another pass hoping hoping he'll be out of the way so I can land. Wow, I mean Holy sh!t.... along comes a jogger, and he's moving about as fast as the cyclist. What kind of luck is this? So I make another circuit getting pretty worried at this point. I got some altitude, dropped the power to land, check the runway and there's the cyclist coming the other way. F*(k!!!!! so I pull up not thinking I had much juice left and was going to try to circle around one more time.... I got altitude again... circled, did a runway check..... I mean come on man.... there's the jogger. WTF over. I tried to bring it around again but I had zero power in the turn and it fell like a stone.

Wings are split, but I think I can fix them, engine cowling is toast, motor mount, and wing supports all broken beyond repair. Good news Gabe, the landing gear made it.

Anyway, I'll post the video up in a bit. Just thought I'd post the flight report first.

[Doozer]

I failed to mention... I was going to fly my Gasser but I must have deleted the profile in my radio when making the profile for the Stinson. Than hurts a bit because I had the throttle curves tweaked perfect. I was a bit heated at myself when I left the field. Murphy's law I guess.

[akent]

Wow, what a bummer deal!!
Idiots abound. They seem to try to get in the way.
Those guys were most likely watching you when they were going in slow motion.

I have yelled out before to bozos in the area that I need clear space to land and they need to move away. They generally move out of the way, but not always... If you have another with you it's easier as they can shoo them off.

So, what plank is this that you are flying?!?!? It almost doesn't sound right with Doozer flying a plank!!

At some point, you should see if you like SPEED!! I am completely addicted to it...

I can't quite work out another new Funjet Ultra, yet....That is what went a little too fast and exploded in mid air a few weeks ago!! It was AWESOME!!!

My fun hotrods now are E-F1 (Electric Formula 1) racers. I have been to two races so far (I won first in Novice at the first race). It is fun. These go about 110mph (maybe a little more). The ARF's are the Eflite Pogo and soon the Eflite Shoestring and two more from other manufacturers. These fly great!

I also have a ~2000 watt 60 inch Revolver. It is way fun to fly. It is about a 100mph plane and is rock stable. It goes the same speed vertical as straight!

I flew all of these on Sunday. It was a great day!

After a meeting with the south Austin club, they have set aside Wednesday mornings as Pylon time. We can set up a 3 pylon track then and practice racing. Two pylons are at one end 100 feet apart. The third is 375 feet downrange. You stand between the two close together pylons! I am still trying to keep from getting dizzy...

With other flying, I am teaching a couple of other guys at the field how to do the stupid maneuvers with the Stryker Q!!! So far, they can't do much, but they love to watch me abuse mine! I can't believe this thing still flies! I pancaked it hard again on Sunday a couple of times!! I almost have what I call the 'gyro' worked out. This is similar to the 'boomerang' or super fast inverted flat spin, only it's at WOT!! You move the sticks in a certain way and the super fast spins start to move their centerline to where you are inverted one moment, then it moves to sideways, then to upright and back!!! It's really strange looking!! The problem is that the Stryker doesn't like to come out of it. So, if I carry it too low, the thing pancakes!!

Fun stuff!!
Kent

[Doozer]

Yeah, and I really hate to say this... but I really like it. I can't wait to fly gas.

I'm making a video right now (it's rendering) of my first flight. I had a total of two today. I'm flying a PZ Stinson Reliant. It's foam and very fun to fly. And yes, I'm already thinking of speed, but I want a Bipe and I want a gas engine. I need to get landing covered first though. I did ok today, but I'm not sure I'm ready to land a plane that I invest time and money into. After today I realize I need to do some reading.

Edit: Here's the video

[The Dude]

Oct 23, 2011 19:33:56 GMT -6 The Dude said:

8 flights yesterday, 4 on the T-rex 600 and 4 on the Raptor, awesome day!
Did a loop each, I have to start giving a little negative pitch when they go inverted at the top of the loop.

Onboard the T-rex 600 esp

[Solitaire]

That was an amazing first flight, Dooz. I'm impressed despite the multi attempts at takeoff. Loops and rolls the first time out...good stuff.
Get your rudder trim back to center and give it just a tad of right rudder on takeoff. And a bit more power to get some lift earlier.

Nice to have your own personal ground crew and videographer along for these flights. Good job.

[19000rpm]

Excellent Doozer! glad you enjoyed it. Your heli experience and sim practice shows.

Like sol said, that tendency to veer left on take off is prop torque. Add a little right rudder as you apply throttle. The other thing to check is if you might have the left wheel rubbing against the wheel pants.

Generally speaking, landing a tail dragger is just a matter of reducing throttle, keeping the wings level, steering with the rudder and cutting throttle to zero, or near zero, as you flair a foot or so off the ground. The idea is to keep enough airspeed above stall as the wheels touch down. Add some up elevator once you're on the ground. If you actually stall on landing, or come in too fast, you get a bounce. Each plane lands a little different depending on wing loading.

Some times it's unavoidable to take off towards the sun. Have a flight plan that steers you, ASAP, away from, and below, the sun.

Ah, Murphy's law having people barge in on your first flight with a low battery.

You'll be back in the air in no time. That's one of the big advantages foam has over wood and film.

[Doozer]

It was fun for sure. The ground crew are my kids. I know they really don't want to be there, but come because I ask them to. I couldn't get video without them.

I wasn't really pissed about the jogger and cyclist being there. I mean, we were all trespassing really. They had as much right to trespass as I did. I was just shocked that they just popped up out of nowhere, and it screwed up my concentration. I know they don't normally come in there though because they didn't know the roads... kind of just did a pass back and forth. In other words I don't think they'd have been there if I weren't flying. But whaddaya gonna do It was a learning experience. If that ever happens again, I'll just try to land in the dirt. I think that would have been better than going nose in. I think I can fix the wing, and the rest should cost me about $13 tax included.

[Dave]

The street you fly on Robby, how may ways in and out?

If there is only one you might block it with your car and see if that helps

[akphill]

Dude really like your flight
You have a nice wide open place to fly lot of room

[akent]

That was an AWESOME job, Doozer!!!

That's a perfect place to fly, too! I love it!

One thing, though. You chose the Stinson. That may look like an easy plane to fly only because it has a high wing. That is no beginner plank, my friend! When you can fly and land that well, you can fly and land pretty much anything!

I have never flown one of those, but a few folks at the field here have them.

One plank that you would perhaps like to learn on too is the Parkzone T-28. That thing is very aerobatic and it's also almost indestructible. Once you are tired of the way it flies stock, you can hotrod the thing to amaze you. One fellow in the club here has crashed his maybe 100 times! It's mostly glue now, but hey, it still flies!

Your Stinson is made from the same foam, I think.

A good glue to use if (when?) you damage yours is Welder glue. It is available from Lowes, but not Home Depot here in Texas. It is like a contact cement. It dries in 15 minutes to an hour. Once dry, the joint is usually stronger than the foam around it. It comes in two red tubes per package.

Landing is the hardest thing to do! And tail draggers are the hardest to takeoff and land!

You'll get it!

Man, I'm impressed!!
Kent

[Doozer]

I had to work today so I'm making the second flight video now. The landing is not quite so pretty, but I would like some opinions on how to fix the wings. Give me a few hours and I'll have it posted. I'll just edit this post when I'm done.

Edit:

[The Dude]

Oct 26, 2011 18:55:09 GMT -6 akphill said:

Dude really like your flight
You have a nice wide open place to fly lot of room

Thank you, that is the industrial park we affectionately call "the truck farm", close to home, 2 miles, and nice.
Our regular flying field is better, a little further away, like 20 miles