59 year old newbie - adding more planes

[buzzbomb]

It's a mystery. I'd never seen anything like it before nor since. He literally had to keep using up-elevator to hop over the hedges and fences.

I haven't flown a plane yet, but I understand his reasoning. Fear.

My last toy-grade quad was actually a work of ingenuity. It had a FPV camera glued on, glued on Q-tips to protect the fancy antenna, three blade props, hi-vis paint on the front end to help with orientation when not using FPV. It goes on. It was a total kluge that I worked on and thought about a lot and it was beautiful to me.

The first FPV flight with the three blade props? Up, over and behind me in like an instant. Then I dropped it in the woods before it totally flew away. We found it, came back with ladders and poles and string with weights, but couldn't get it out of the tree and it was dark and there was a frackin' hurricane coming!

We went back after the hurricane and it was gone. I've never seen it again. Intellectually, I understand the reasons for flying high, especially when new. I'm also afraid of it. It's a TINY Trainer, and my eyesight is not that good. My gut is going to tell me to stay low, when I know from what I've read is I need to get up in the air. That's something I hope the sim is going to help me overcome before I actually take my TT out.

If I were that guy, and I put all that time and effort into those piles of splinters and ruined electronics? Even if I didn't know it, I'd want someone to explain all that to me. I hope somebody did, and he didn't just give up.

 

[mayan]

@buzzbomb high or low flying keep your throttle at half point once you’ve balanced off from the launch. It’s super easy with the TT because of the way it’s launched which is already at level. I know what I am saying is hard to remember and do especially where it’s your first few times because we are just worried about staying in the air. If you treat the throttle stick as a switch you will have a crash and it will be a hard one. I really can’t seem to find a better way to stress out the importance of this.

 

[Hai-Lee]

The only thing I will add is that the plane is designed to fly. You are only needed to steer it through the sky. It is not like you need to flap your arms or something. When you learn to let it fly itself and that you only need to make minor trim adjustments and direction changes you will be well on your way to flying almost any RC model aircraft.

Most newbs panic because they feel that they must do something to make it fly when in truth they need to do very little, especially on a trainer design.

Have fun!

 

[mayan]

Adding something to what @Hai-Lee mentioned. The best way for you to understand what he is taking about is by launching the plane and not touch the controls and the plane should fly straight if everything is nice and true. Otherwise it will take a turn to some direction and that requires a trim to fix it. Once the plane flies straight without touching the controls it’s all on you.

Good luck...

 

[buzzbomb]

@buzzbomb high or low flying keep your throttle at half point once you’ve balanced off from the launch. It’s super easy with the TT because of the way it’s launched which is already at level. I know what I am saying is hard to remember and do especially where it’s your first few times because we are just worried about staying in the air. If you treat the throttle stick as a switch you will have a crash and it will be a hard one. I really can’t seem to find a better way to stress out the importance of this.

Oh, I get it. That's not my problem. (Are we hijacking here, I do that and I don't want to do it.) I KNOW that to me the throttle is a switch, and I'm afraid to go high. Both bad. I'm just hoping the sim will help me overcome both before I lose my nearly irreplaceable electronic parts in the woods. Again.

@buzzbomb high or low flying keep your throttle at half point once you’ve balanced off from the launch. It’s super easy with the TT because of the way it’s launched which is already at level. I know what I am saying is hard to remember and do especially where it’s your first few times because we are just worried about staying in the air. If you treat the throttle stick as a switch you will have a crash and it will be a hard one. I really can’t seem to find a better way to stress out the importance of this.

You're experience, video and pictures have taught me a lot. The thing is, I KNOW to maintain throttle control. What I don't know is if I can do it. If it were that easy, it wouldn't be such a common post. I recognize a kindred soul when I see one. That guy with those beautiful planes? He know's how to build, but (I'm guessing here d8veh help me out), he didn't want to listen to flight advice until he's crashed two, and that's just the two spoken of.

I'm guessing that wasn't his first time to the field. One just doesn't get to that level of building on their first try. So we've got this guy who spends a lot of money, time, effort and then just crashes everything, until he sees reason and doesn't even fly the third plane. After crashing how many beforehand?

It's really not my flights I'm concerned about. I've stuff to learn, and I'm learning. It's that poor guy. Please! Somebody, anybody walk up to this guy and offer to teach him to fly! Starting with a foamboard TT. I've heard they're really good to learn with.

 

[d8veh]

If you practice on the stimulator, you'll be in a strong position when it comes to the real plane because you'll know what to do and how to do it as far as basic control is concerned. The real plane will most likely be different to the stimulator one. The biggest problem is when it's out of trim because it takes some experience to figure out how to fix it, and you'll be too busy concentrating on trying to keep it under control to worry about adjusting the trim switches. You can also get problems with thrust angles that make the plane behave differently at different amounts of throttle, while as the stimulator one always flys straight and true. Finally, there's wind and turbulence that can move the plane around a lot, especially over hedges and trees and around buildings. Wind is not such a problem in an open field. Planes are much easier to control when there's no wind. You can add wind in the stimulator, but I didn’t find it to be realistic.

You never know though, let's be optimistic. Your plane might be perfectly built to fly straight and true, so it'll soar around the sky by itself, just requiring the minimum from you to steer it around.

 

[mayan]

The biggest problem is when it's out of trim because it takes some experience to figure out how to fix it, and you'll be too busy concentrating on trying to keep it under control to worry about adjusting the trim switches

I second this. Recommend having someone do it for you or take a friend that you can trust to help you trim it while you keep it in the air, make sure you explain to him how to do it .

 

[SlingShot]

Why would you fly something so massive that low?
I would want to go high enough to appreciate the size a bit and give myself room, you could make a real mess of someone on the ground with an aircraft that size.

Why fly that low with no apparent ability is the better question. Flying with an abundance of ability is a different thing. I have posted this video before, but I think it warrants a repeat.

 

[buzzbomb]

Why fly that low with no apparent ability is the better question. Flying with an abundance of ability is a different thing. I have posted this video before, but I think it warrants a repeat.[/QUOTE]
That was amazing! I was completely mesmerised both the pilot's skills and that beautiful plane in the air, and then "OH Shoot! He's flying sideways!" I hadn't seen that video before. Thank you.

That is a fitting end to this conversation we've been having. I got it. Until I can fly somewhere close to that level, stay high. Whew. The Journey Continues. Thank you my friends.

 

[Jimun]

Yay, Got to go Fly today after church. Winds were about 6 to 10 miles an hour, with an average or 7 to 8. There might have been some stronger gust. My plane was standing still a few times. All in all it was a good day flying. No hard landings, kept the thumb off the throttle, tried to keep the throttle just over half and no broken props, just a couple of chips. I cut out my walks to get my plane, it took a minute or 2 to get back and I forgot to stop the video. I need to land closer.

Pardon the videos, one is angled to high and was going in and out of focus.

Hope you enjoyed my videos, I think I am improving. What do you think?

 

[kilroy07]

What do you think?

Looking good!

See, as soon as you have a ton of props you stop breaking'em!

 

[mayan]

@Jimun great job. Keep it up! How was flying with ~50% throttle? Seems like you got the hang of it.
I think you are getting better. Just remember practice makes prefect...

 

[mayan]

Another thing I seemed to have forgotten to mention. There were times when you were flying and the sun was at your face. It hard to fly with the sun in your face, I am sure you realized that. Next time try flying with the sun at your back.

 

[Jimun]

Looking good!

See, as soon as you have a ton of props you stop breaking'em!

Yep I was thinking the same thing. I was thinking about those props (6x4.5) if they would have worked better in the wind then the 6x3's.

 

[Jimun]

@Jimun great job. Keep it up! How was flying with ~50% throttle? Seems like you got the hang of it. I think you are getting better. Just remember practice makes prefect...

Thanks, Flying slower sure did make it easier to react before hitting the ground and made my ground contact less destructive. I was practicing figure 8's. I was doing ok but the wind would blow the plane behind me when I over or wrongly corrected.

 

[Jimun]

Another thing I seemed to have forgotten to mention. There were times when you were flying and the sun was at your face. It hard to fly with the sun in your face, I am sure you realized that. Next time try flying with the sun at your back.

I would if the wind would cooperate, I would prefer to. Josh Bixler has said in the training videos to fly up wind so if anything happened the wind would blow the plane to you and not away from you. What has been your experience?

 

[buzzbomb]

I'm impressed. That looked like some high wind and you were cruising around pretty good. Almost like you knew what you were doing.

Are those antenna wires sticking out of the bottom of the plane? If so, that seems like a bad idea for a belly-lander.

 

[Jimun]

I'm impressed. That looked like some high wind and you were cruising around pretty good. Almost like you knew what you were doing.

Are those antenna wires sticking out of the bottom of the plane? If so, that seems like a bad idea for a belly-lander.

Thanks. I feel like I am in control about half the time the time now, maybe more, compared to barely in control at full throttle in my earlier post.

Yes those are the antenna wires. In the build video Josh Bixler shows the wires being pulled through the bottom hole like that. I am just learning and trying to follow what Flitetest shows and what you guys on the forum are sharing with me. You all are helping me a lot. It would have taken me a lot longer to slow down on my own, and you guys seeing what I was doing and telling me about it, has got me ahead on the learning curve. I hope that I will be able to help others along the way as well.

 

[Jimun]

I noticed that I duplicated a video and missed getting one uploaded. So I removed the duplicate and here is the other one I wanted to show.

 

[buzzbomb]

nevermind. rectracted. I'm so brain dead after work I can hardly type. I had a senior moment that I deleted. What? Did you think I was perfect? It's understandable, of course, but no. Sadly I'm not. Not even close.