maiden flight today.

[sarconastic]

I went out today and did the maiden flight on the RC Help Trainer. I had my son video the whole thing, but apparently he is not a very good videographer. So I have some work to do on the video before posting. Anyway, Went out, it was 23 wonderful degrees when we left the house, the wind was 2 mph. No problem. Got everything in the car and drove to the parking lot a the local high school. Got the plane out. set it up and realized I forgot the bag of rubber bands for the wing. Back to the house, pick up the bag and head back to the lot. Got back and hooked everything up and adjusted a few things. the wind seemed to pick up quite a bit but I thought oh well. Take went well, but the wind immediately rolled her over to the right. I caught it and leveled her out got down wind a little bit an did a nice turn to come back, the wind caught the port wing and rolled her over, corrected again and spent a couple minutes trying to figure out how to get back against about a 10-12 mph wind. Finally figured out to throttle down to make control a little more manageable. The wind had picked up a bit and I was flying dead still into the wind at 1/4 throttle. I came down, did a really nice landing, a little nose heavy, enough to scuff the vey tips of the prop. Of course my son missed the landing and the take off.

So I check everything over and decide to try it again. Nice take off, and make a couple laps around. Fight the wind a few time and make good recoveries. Wasn't pretty but I saved her. Land again, all good except wind rolled her over after we had touched down. This is where I should have stopped. Put the plane back in the car and went home. But know I have to keep going. Take off one more time, and the wind had really gusted up no, it took her down wind from me and I lost orientation on the bird. Should have out the stripes on the wing tips, my fault entirely. I fought it for a little bit and made a wrong correction and Lawn darted the plane from about 50-60 feet.

I was really surprised at how much damage it did. I will need to rebuild the entire nose, new motor, dented the battery a bit, but I am glad I put the foam and two layers of foam board in the nose now. Busted the prop adapter and the prop. Haven't tested the esc yet to see if it smoked it or not. But all in all a good learning experience for me lol.


Next up repairs and a less winding day lol.

WOody

 

[Tony]

Oh, that sucks Woody. All part of learning though. However, this one is going to cost you about $20 whereas if you had a balsa plane this size, it would be well over a bill. Rebuild and fly again.

 

[EyeStation]

That is a tough hit there Woody. And forgetting the wing bands is not something that you have a monopoly on. It took me two times to learn to check for that once everything is loaded into the car.
It is good to see that Tony's new battery tray design accomplished its goal.
Good luck on a speedy rebuild.

 

[sarconastic]

Thanks guys. It was still a balst. Tony its only about $8 for the motor with mount so that's cheap enough for a learning experience. I have some left over foamboard and will patch the nose back up. Will not use plexi glass again though. It shattered. Wood at leas would have held together. Of course 23 degrees didn't help any lol.

For the protection of the battery I added a couple things that I think helped save the battery even more. I used your new mount, then put a piece of 1/4" adhesive foam rubber on the inside of it between the battery and the foamoard. then I also put a loose square of foamboard directly behind the motor mount bolts to protect it even more. When I post the video you will see this battery looks great for the crash it survived. 50-60 feet direct impact, straight down. So I am sold on the design for sure.

Having blast though. and I still have the white plane ready to go. just pop in the servos and here we go again lol.

Woody

 

[Tony]

Ah, I was thinking a $15 motor, so that is even better.

 

[Lee]

Bad luck on the crash Woody, but its all part of the fun.
Enjoy rebuilding and get her back up there

 

[Graham Lawrie]

Unlucky Woody all part of the fun but you are not alone we all forget things good account though and good pics Thanks for sharing

 

[sarconastic]

I got a new Nose cut out and ready to mount up tonight.

I gotta look a the motors more closely when I get home. I found a site that sells replacement shafts for the outrunners, gotta see if this one is replaceable. That would be awesome.

Woody

 

[Gerald]

Wow, hard core hit, bent motor shaft, been there! Finally got motor shaft for my plane and replaced it. Now have 9 more shafts, bought them from bulk supply source for $7.50 including shipping. Took a month to get them! If your motor is a 3.17mm dia. and 40 mm long shaft, I would be glad to send you one to get back up in the air. Let me know !

 

[sarconastic]

Gerald

yes those are the same shafts as mine, but I cant get the shaft out of the housing yet. I have a spare motor and will install it for now.

It seems to have bent it up pretty good. Did your shafts come with additional eclips when you ordered them?

Woody

 

[Gerald]

Sorry no clips, just reused my old one. The shaft was tight in the out runner shell had to fabricate a press out of 1/4" sockets and my small bench vise. When I pulled the clip, the shaft came out of the bearings easy, Then removed the set screw from the shell and pressed it apart. The tricky part was getting the shaft in to the right depth, don't want pressure on the bearings when the clip is in.

 

[sarconastic]

[video]https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos?pid=5957370190079377698&oid=105191347946075 855140[/video]

See fi this works, terrible video on google plus site. son was watching plane too much and not phone screen. But you get the idea. This is actually the third flight of the day an the wind picked up real quick, and every time I tried to come back into the wind it would roll the plane over one way or another. I guess I just didn't have enough experience to overcome it. I successfully flew and landed twice prior to this though in the wind, so it says something anyway lol.

Woody

- - - Updated - - -

Ok that didn't work. Ill just upload it to YouTube then.

Woody

 

[sarconastic]

OK one more try, unedited video.

[video=youtube_share;Owt3tNaCDkU]http://youtu.be/Owt3tNaCDkU[/video]

 

[Gerald]

Looks like a hard fought battle aginst the wind and gravity won! Great to see a video of it in action!

 

[Tony]

Looks like that thing was very tail heavy. Was that the V2 or V3 trainer?

 

[treff]

Very bad luck for a maiden. Like Tony said tail heavy by the looks and you should have put in some down trim. Better on the next outing. Good C og G and a little
extra in the nose so that its always going forwards. On the first flight regardless of weather put in a few percent extra. ( It's far easier to fly a nose heavy model than a tail heavy one. Build her stronger and better on the second run. Good luck

 

[sarconastic]

Center of gravity was exactly where it should have been according to plans but it did fly tail heavy. but I couldn't get it to balance out. but doing on a windy day was a dumb idea anyway. Next one will definitely be a nice calm day. that was the third flight of the day and the windiest. when the wind gusts would break it actually flew really nice.

That was the version 3 trainer and the wind was gusting from behind us which was why I was chasing it towards the red building. I was fighting to get it down before it flew onto a roof or something.


Woody

 

[Tony]

A strong tail wind would explain why it looked the way it did. Also, next flight, reduce your throws by 25%. It should help the plane out quite a bit.