I finally got to fly yesterday. 72 degrees and almost no wind, at least at first. This time I took the Black Rc-Help trainer I rebuilt out and flew it in the field behind my house. I had put a new nose on it and rebuilt everything. redistributed weight. It should have flown like an angel. It didn't . It flew like a pIg. I struggled to keep it in the air, it was all over the place and couldn't get it trimmed out. So I landed it (that is a relative term at this point). Then found why it was flying like crap.
Apparently in my first big crash I had failed to notice that the entire tail was cracked almost clear off. So when the rudder pushed it was actually turning the whole Elevator rudder assy to the right and opening a large gap in the tail fuselage. I wondered why just a little right rudder did a 180 turn around. The pic is after I repaired it later in the day.
So that plane was done for the day so I went and got the White one I had built but never flown. This is the one made from the walmart foam that is a lot heavier than the dollar general foam. In my back yard it is tall grass so I was hand launching. SO I set it up and throttle up give her a toss and sh goes about 15 feet into a nose dive. bent Motor shaft. Apparently not enough thrust to take off with. Go inside straighten motor shaft (sort of) Upgrade from 8x6 to 8 x8 prop thinking more thrust is better) still made it 15 feet and nosed in) Need either more motor or prop or both. I can't believe it bent the motor shaft that easy though. The other plane has crashed half a dozen times and this one only once. But oh well.
Still had not had a pleasant flight so I decided to go back in and work on the black plane. My stress relieving hobby wasn't so much. So I went in and repaired the tail with a little hot glue. Set it up for a per flight check and found the rudder servo would onnly move in once direction, Swapped that out. Reset all surfaces and took her out back. Tossed her in the air and she flew like a dream. I had added some nose weight that made a huge difference on level flight. She flew nice and level and smooth, all the way down to about 1/3 throttle. The wind had picked up a bit y this point but she still flew pretty nice for me. I got about 5 minutes of flight time before I decided to land. I brought her into the grass strip really nice and smooth and throttled down, She was about 25 feet up when a big wind gust came up and drove her straight in the ground. Lawn dart #2 for the poor black plane. LOL. Oh well, getting pretty good at rebuilding the old girl. It isn't as bad as the first time but I will have to replace the nose again. BUT it STILL didn't bend the motor shaft on this plane. LOL I love this motor. This is why I am still flying the helpers for now though and not the new 182 yet. I am pretty sure I still have a lot of crashing experience to get yet.
Funny thing in my neighbor came over and asked if we were going to have to put a landing strip in the back yards. I very calmly told him the pavers were coming on Tuesday to measure for a 250 foot runway. He about crapped himself
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Oh BTW. It is snowing here in Iowa today LOL Love this weather.
Later
Woody
