Regarding the suggestion of transitioning this design to high wing, that's not something I want to do. My goal was to design this as a low wing (again, call me stubborn), and I'm hoping that what I learn from this experience will transition over to when I design and build my PT-19 (which will be a larger plane intended for either a B-pack or C-pack size motor with somewhere between an 8in and 10in prop).
@CapnBry - your flight feedback is invaluable. Of the 3 of us that have built this design so far, I completely agree with
@BATTLEAXE's assessment that you are a more experienced and more capable pilot than both of us combined.
To further expand on my RC flight history (experience post Control Line days). ~10 years ago (just before 2.4GHz radio systems) my brother talked me into buying a 3-channel Styrofoam high-wing cub-style plane from a local hobby shop. Cost me a couple hundred dollars for the RTF box kit.
I flew it a few times and cracked the fuselage several times. It got to a point where the fuselage seemed to be more CA glue than foam. Then I finally cracked the wing in half. When I started looking at buying replacement foam bits (fuselage and wing) I was completely turned off by the price of the parts: $30 for a wing? $40 for a fuselage?
I gave up due to escalating repair costs and being downright afraid to crash. I had no one to buddy box with and after buying the plane I couldn't afford a simulator program. I sold what was left of the plane to my brother.
A couple years later I decided to give RC helicopters a try. I figured "Hey, I can keep it in the same XX-sq.ft. of space. Plus it's a more challenging form of RC to learn and I like challenges." I bought a Blade CX2 coaxial and got decent at flying that in my backyard. I then bought a HobbyKing 450GT (clone of the TRex 450 SE V2) and managed to hover it a few times. Then the set screw on the tail rotor worked it's way loose and the copter took a dirt nap. Wrecked the rotor and tail boom.
I was in the last couple years of my mechanical engineering degree at university and as a class project I completely redesigned the frame for the helicopter and even got prototype parts cut out on a CNC. And then it sat, and I completely forgot everything I had learned about programming radios for helicopters and flying them. Today that helicopter sits on my desk at work as a cool paperweight and reminder.
Sometime in 2018 a buddy sent me a link to the FliteTest video where they prototyped the A-10 warthog (my all time favorite aircraft). I watched it and enjoyed it but didn't think much of it. Then late 2018, YouTube recommended the FliteTest channel to me again and I was hooked.
It was at that point I saw the potential to alleviate a MAJOR source of flight anxiety by building cheap airframes. Suddenly, crash anxiety would be a thing of the past. Electronics usually survive a crash (receivers and such), and if the airframe costs mere dollars (and can often be repaired with hot glue and packing tape) then I have little to worry about with crashes.
My main fear these days is a fly-away. Much like how
@BATTLEAXE lost his plane, it's not the loss of the airframe per-say that hurts, but the electronics. Even my 1 sheet prototype is carrying ~$80 in electronics when you tally up Rx+servos+ESC+motor+battery.
That's a very long winded post and I may have lost sight of my original message that I wanted to convey. Right now you could probably make the analogy that I'm much like John Overstreet (recent guest on FliteTest), in that I am likely a better designer than a flyer. *John is still a FAR more talented and experienced designer/builder than I so I am in no way trying to say I'm in his league*
I do need flight experience. I also need the confidence to get out there and fly. *It would also help if California would stop being 100+ degrees on the weekends and/or windy*
I believe we can get this design refined. I an intrigued by
@Headbang's comment about this design being a truly legal park flyer in Canada where they (I guess) have a strict 250g weight limit. I do mark my planes with both my FAA certification number and my AMA membership number so I can park-fly without issue, but that's US rules not Canada.