A down period....

lobstermash

Propaganda machine
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I just seem to be crashing everything at the moment... Today was an awful case in point. My attempted launch of my Parkjet resulted in a belly flop and a connector to the motor popped out of its solder. So I flew my EPP Pitts. Was going OK, but got blown over the trees and couldn't see the plane, broke the prop. Long drive home after not much flying.

When I got home, I soldered up the connector and attempted another fly with the Parkjet. It started to roll soon after launch and I crashed it again. The plastic canopy came off, but I put the foam canopy back on, re-fitted the prop and launched it again, this time successfully. A couple of passes, and the low voltage kicked in while I was climbing. Plane stalled, and instead of recovering it went into a death spiral and nosed in hard.

Feeling very depressed about flying at the mo, after killing two planes on the weekend, one of which was a trainer... I've had a lot of rough patches when I used to fish all the time, but this is my first downer period flying. How do you make it stop!?!?!
 

colorex

Rotor Riot!
Mentor
lobstermash;22974How do you make it stop!?!?![/QUOTE said:
Yeah, I've had similar days, just not with planes. What works best is to put the problematic stuff away and go do something else, something that relaxes you. If you don't have to go to work, try spending time with kids, watch TV, or chill out until that day is over.

 

glydr

How many letters do we ge
Mate, no good.

I was there for the Pitts and the first parkjet mishap (thanks for making the trip LM).
 

lobstermash

Propaganda machine
Mentor
OK, the Parkjet may fly again, but the canopy doesn't fit as well as it did before. When it dries properly, I'll apply some tape and decals, but I don't hold as much hope of 100mph passes anymore...
 

lobstermash

Propaganda machine
Mentor
Yeah, I've had similar days, just not with planes. What works best is to put the problematic stuff away and go do something else, something that relaxes you. If you don't have to go to work, try spending time with kids, watch TV, or chill out until that day is over.


Haha, nice one Andre. I'm ready to start being awesome (where's that neckstrap gone...?)
 

jetpackninja

More combat please...
Mentor
Just keep flying (and fixing) everybody has bad days (weeks, months).
We've either gone through it or will go through it.
Just take a vacation to here sometime, we'll show you how to destroy a plane :)
 

glydr

How many letters do we ge
If its any comfort I just flipped my tri in the front yard because these nk wasn't calibrated correctly. One prop out of service, one slightly nicked. One spare :/
 

lobstermash

Propaganda machine
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Haha, I was banned from flying in the front yard a couple of weeks ago after maidening my Pitts there... and I didn't even crash badly!

PS the shiraz is in another league to the cab sav... I've done extensive testing to prove it!
 

glydr

How many letters do we ge
I'm looking forward to theft shiraz but didn't want to have two bottles open.

Onto 2nd glass cab sav.
 

lobstermash

Propaganda machine
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To take my revenge on my evil planes, I went out fishing today. Brought home some lovely rainbow trout and plenty of blackberry scratches. Was a stunning day to be out enjoying nature and I saw a lot more of the river and tributaries than I had before (due to some challenging orienteering problems).

Even with the few issues I experienced, with fish not hooking up very well and getting lost and being out much longer than intended, it was a thoroughly enjoyable day. Troublesome planes beware!!!
 

lobstermash

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No fish? Where about in Ecuador are you? I'd heard that Ecuador has some great places to fish, in the ocean because of the Humboldt Current and in freshwater because there's plenty of it, both cool (mountains) and warm (lowlands).
 

Mike oxbig

15% nitro is my cologne
I know the feeling. Up until two days ago I crashed my trex every time I went out due to either part failure or setup glitches. It gets frustrating fast but you got to stick it out. You got to go through hell to get to heaven sometimes.

Colorex, I've never been to a place without fish. Around here there are a ton of pike, perch, and a little walleye. If drive a couple hours west there are some of the best trout streams in the world.
 

colorex

Rotor Riot!
Mentor
No fish? Where about in Ecuador are you? I'd heard that Ecuador has some great places to fish, in the ocean because of the Humboldt Current and in freshwater because there's plenty of it, both cool (mountains) and warm (lowlands).

Colorex, I've never been to a place without fish. Around here there are a ton of pike, perch, and a little walleye. If drive a couple hours west there are some of the best trout streams in the world.

Well, I haven't fished out in the sea. My gear is only for up to 25 puonds, and in the ocean you get the big stuff. Rivers and "lakes" are extremely polluted. People here are really dirty, they throw trash on the streets and that ends up in the river. There are no real lakes here, just water gets dammed up in some places.

There is a big dam a few hours from here. It provides water for my town and some other places. But I've never been there.
 

Mike oxbig

15% nitro is my cologne
That sucks bro. People here are dirty too. There's just not enough people to pollute every lake. A local river has advisories about eating the fish due to mercury in the water due to pollution.

The real problem we have here for fishing is that limits on fish are a daily thing and not a possession limit. We have lots of people that keep their limit every time they go out. We see limits going down every year to save the fish population. We used to be able to keep 3 walleye and now we can't keep any. You can apply for a walleye tag for certain lakes to keep one a year. We have beautiful trout rivers out west that are fly fishing Mecca only because they have made them catch and release.

Anyway, off my soapbox. I'm a little down tonight too. After posting about that awesome feeling two days ago I went out in perfect weather to get some more flights in. I got about a minute into flying my trex and then the motor quit. I was in forward flight about ten feet up and there was little I could do to save it. I did use what head speed I did have to slow the bird down but I ended up snapping the landing gear, stripping a servo, and cracking a frame piece. I think the motor packed it in. It seemed boggy the last flight before the crash.

I also put my funjet out of action. Apparently the exceed rocket outrunner I bought wasn't made correctly. The grub screw holding the shaft to the can wasn't drilled through and smacking the prop on the ground caused the shaft to pop out. I emailed hobbypartz about it but I'm not holding my breath.

The only upside of the day was I brought my 450 clone out for the first time in a while. It's been sitting on the sideline since I put the genuine trex into action. I dusted it off and it flew like a champ for six flights before I had to shut it down as it was getting dark. This heli was the first one I made progress with in terms of learning to fly. It's got to have a thousand or more flights on it and has never let me down. As much as people frown on clones for quality this one is bulletproof compared to the brand name one.I've never had a part failure on the clone that wasn't crash related and with the genuine trex I've had a part break every second time out. I'm seriously contemplating swapping the fbl head and microbeast into my clone and selling the real trex.

Tonight I'm nursing my wounds with a good Dominican rum right now. I'm going to get back into the fray tommorrow with the nitros. It'll be the first time I take them out for the season and I'm stoked to get stick time on my su 31. I'll try to find someone to snag some vid of it, good or bad.
 

colorex

Rotor Riot!
Mentor
A local river has advisories about eating the fish due to mercury in the water due to pollution.

There are no mercury warnings here - but that's because people don't know anything about it. They throw those small clock batteries like they were banana peels. There is nothing like a recycling system here, except for paper. The rest is just reuse (plastic bottles, etc).
 

lobstermash

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In Australia the health of our recreational fisheries is highly variable. Canberra isn't renowned to be a great place for fishing, but I've discovered a few places that aren't too bad. Where I caught the trout yesterday is a great spot, but coming into winter it gets hit very hard by fishers, in spite of the difficulty of access to the water (difficult terrain, thick woodlands and an under-storey of blackberries). I'm told however, that access will be even more difficult once the new dam wall extension is complete... Half the river will be underwater! There's only one or two other trout streams nearby. The other rivers and lakes are turbid and unfishable following high rainfall, and due to poor catchment management they won't clear up for many months if at all. So the planes will ultimately win.