Persistence Pays

by Arend | May 26, 2013 | (8) Posted in Reviews

How I earned my wings today: 

I try to get planes into the air for quite a while now, and today I finally succeeded! Here is the story of my first real flight, and about all the necessary mistakes I had to go through. I was already building planes as a kid, but I haven’t visited this hobby for quite a while now, however I recently saw a balsa model of a spitfire and I couldn’t resist any more. I have 5 year old twin boys myself, and I know how much impact my father had on me getting into building stuff that I thought this would be a good idea to encourage them myself. Two weeks later I had the rubber motor plane built. Enthusiastically we left for the park on a wind still Sunday morning: just to return home with broken self esteem and a crashed plane. It flew exactly 5 seconds: A steep looping and a nose dive ended that trip - a bad CG making the plane tail heavy was the reason. Lesson one learned the hard way: The CG matters a lot.

 

 

My enthusiasm wasn’t broken, so I got a Hellcat balsa kit and started building right away. However about three weeks into the way more complicated build, doubt started to appear. What if I crash that plane again? The cost and effort going into such a balsa build do not justify the 5 second stretch of hope between maiden launch and maiden crash. So I started browsing and found this amazing site. I decided to learn to fly on a foam flyer before I would try to fly my Hellcat! I think I saw every episode and I immediately order stuff, and also hot glued my own delta scratch build. Off to the park and about 15 seconds later I had a shaft broken motor and a ruined propeller - I used a too heavy motor and my battery pack, that I thought would carry my plane through the air for hours, just caused the plane to crash head first. Second lesson learned: A big motor will not fly a heavy plane - Use the right motor for the right plane!

 

 

I ordered a smaller motor and a smaller battery, but I still had a big second motor at home. What to do? I build the FT 3D! Amazing build and it looks super impressive. Off to the park! About 30 seconds later the plane crashed into the ground head first, breaking the propeller shaft and send the broken prop much wider that the plane ever got. Lesson three learned: Don’t fly a plane that you can’t handle! The smaller motor arrived, and the build kit from flitetest! I think I glued the delta together in record time. Off the the park! My kids that up to this point enthusiastically followed every excursion already decided that the spectacle of breaking a plane right at the start wasn’t worth the effort, so I could only convince one of the twins to join me. Delta to full throttle, launch, and ... It flew! For about 50 meters straight, my son was cheering, he never saw anything remain in air for longer than I could throw it. Then came my first remote control input. 90 Degree yank straight up, I was shocked, spinning the plane in a 720 role, another direction change, the plane hammers away in a more or less random direction, almost crashing, straight up, another role, two dives, avoiding the tree ... and crash, nose first as always. What looked to my son like a master piece of a choreographed air show, was nothing more than too sensitive sticks, an unexperienced pilot, and an elevon mix that wasn’t right. Yanking the plane up also banked it left, while a right role also pitched it down. The only positive experience was the prop saver that still crashed the prop, but somehow the motor shaft survived. Lesson four learned: Easy on the controls, and calibrate your controls perfectly!

 

 

Okay, lets try something easier. The Nutball was the next weekends victim! This time the other twin came along, after all last weekends air show, while being spectacular also took only about 45 seconds. The cracked prop, and I think I also broke the firewall prevented any second attempt. However, the Nutball is indeed easy to fix, so the next day, the next attempt waited. I also got more props to break delivered that day. This time I managed to keep the Nutball in the air for a couple of rounds, but controlling the thing was what Josh and Josh do, not what I did. And every flight ended head first breaking yet another prop. At least I got four “flights” out of the Nutball before the firewall broke again. And I think my sons started to think of the flying hobby as something that one better experiences through youtube than first hand. Lesson five learned? Well I think even the Nutball might be a little too fast for me... What to do now?

 

 

Old Fogey was the answer. I saw how slow that thing flies in the review video. It has wings high, huge lift and already looks boring - sorry. But after all the disasters and broken props I was ready to admit it: I needed something slow, simple, skill appropriate, and not a fast yank and bank delta, or something with a big motor. I needed something that my grandma could fly. An intense 6 hour night building frenzy started. I build it slow, carefully, and watched the build video step by step, followed all hints, and still messed up the tail a little. Off to the park on the next morning. I think the sheer size was enough to make both boys come with me, and I guess the idea that something that big would crash much more spectacular helped as well. The first three flights ended head first, breaking three more props. But once I realized that: Three errors high was about 5 times higher than I assumed, and that I could throttle the plane back to about 10%, I was flying! Many minutes in the air, and whenever I messed up something, I just climbed back to a save altitude. My build also was dragging to the left, so I flew mostly left turns - so what. Instead of crashing this flight head first, I had a couple of nice approaches and was on a perfect glide path down, when I cut the throttle, pulled up the nose, and I had a soft belly first touch down! The boys cheered, we had high fives and once we returned home, the kids told the story how “Dad flew the plane just like Josh and Josh from the computer!” ... not that this is true, but it sure felt this way!

 

Cheers Arend

COMMENTS

Jaxx on May 30, 2013
Awesome story! One of the reasons I believe this is such a great story is because many of us can relate. I learned to fly with the FT Bloody Wonder. It was my first scratch build. I think I have gone through 3 of them and two of my own design since my first flight (about 3 months ago). Every flight is a learning experience, but once you start to get the hang of it, there are now words to express how much fun you will have. Another suggestion that might assist you, if your transmitter is capable, and you haven't already tried it, is add some dual rate and expo to your setting to soften the response a bit. This helped me tremendously. Good luck.
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Arend on May 30, 2013
Thank you for the encouraging comments. I will totally fly (and crash) again! I have a mac, and I haven't seen a simulator for it. Any suggestions on this end?
Cheers Arend
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Johnny Danger on June 2, 2013
On Mac there seems to be one: aerofly. I haven't personally used it being PC, but I have friends who learnt on it.
http://www.aerofly.com/afpd/
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Villalji on May 31, 2013
Well, if it is an intel based Mac, you could install windows in an emulator and install Phoenix that way...but it's not as straightforward...
Look here http://www.phoenix-sim.com/support.asp
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sailorJohn on May 31, 2013
Always a good idea to find a local rc club to check out your plane and help you achieve your first flights usually you will be welcome as a prospective member.
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tjrecon on June 13, 2013
Great story. I thought at first you had been watching me and just told my story. So many similarities. Five second flights, head first crashes, multiple and I mean MULTIPLE broken props, way two many power pod rebuild, and more than a handful of "acrobatic flights" with spectacular crash landing. My kids, I also have twins thought that anything other than a nose dive landing was impossible. I also went through pretty much the same learning curve. The Old Fogey was a God send. I was so frustrated and ready to abandon the hobby, even after all the money and time I had in it. The old Fogey saved the day. My kids finally saw "dad fly a plane". I was able to take off circle, climb, dive and land with that plane. I love the Old Fogey. Thanks for sharing. now I don't feel like im the only one who went through that much trouble.
If you havent tried a GWS slowstick you really need to get one. easy build and flys like the Old Fogey. it may be one step up but still really easy to fly.
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sstokes1971 on June 3, 2013
Great story. Hang in there. You'll keep getting better and better. As someone said above, we can all relate. Simulator would definitely be a good investment. And the great thing about the swappables is you don't have to be out $100's to learn on the real thing. Good luck to you on future flights!
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Villalji on May 30, 2013
Great story, thanks for sharing! If I can give you some advice is get a flight simulator, this investment will save you lots of propellers, shafts, firewalls, re-building time... The first radio I got was a spektrum DX5 bundled with Phoenix 4.0 flight simulator. I learned most tricks there first, I would never dare to try inverted, rolls etc with a real model first! With a sim you (and your kids) can crash at will, and the feeling is pretty much the same as the real thing, since you are using the same radio at home as in the field.
Also, try the FT flyer, it's lots of fun to fly, even my 5 yr girl has managed to fly!
Good luck!
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eagle4 on May 30, 2013
hey mate, great story, glad you didnt give up. one thing i might suggest is get your hands on a flight simulator. i got a cable that connects my transmitter to the computer so i can fly in the simulator as if its the real thing, i found it really helpful with orientation, but the biggest thing was no fear of crashing as i just restarted it and i had a brand new plane.
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rcspaceflight on May 30, 2013
Glad to hear that you hung in there. This can be a hard hobby to get into. By that I mean it can be hard to get to the point where it is enjoyable flying. Instead of worrying about crashing something you spend hours building. I myself just recently got to the point where I can comfortable take my plane out and fly it. Not for very long, but at least it's a lot more fun now.

It's all about finding the right plane. The right CG, the right power to weight ratio, the right prop, the right motor, the right battery. Finding that is all trial and error.
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kenton on May 30, 2013
Great story, and effort! This hobby can feel a bit unforgiving some days...but others you have so much fun that you just can't wait to do it all again.

I think you would do well with the Nutball if you throw it up again...just bring your throttle WAY down. The Nutball can fly incredibly slow and still just float through the air. Give it a shot.
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nickatredbox on May 30, 2013
I know the feeling that why I like foam builds when they get munted its not as sad as with a balsa build with loads of hours
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Persistence Pays