First Flight

VertigoFlyer

Just Another Flyboy
Hey folks,

M Horizon Hobby Sport Cub S arrived yesterday along with a Spektrum Dx6i transmitter. I was able to get the binding and the configuring done easily. I verified here at home that all the flight surfaces worked as intended and that the prop spun up. I did a bit of taxiing in our little cul de sac just to test it out.

Today I headed out to the local RC flying field which is a mere 10 minute drive from home. It was blowing/gusting a fair bit. A glider pilot pulled up and we got to chatting as pilots will. He pulled out his handheld wind gauge and it showed winds of 5 mph gusting to 10 or more. Hmmm, that might be asking a lot for a first flight kinda dance but I was all in!

Now some of my flight confidence comes from having spent a couple days in the most helpful Phoenix RC Flight Simulator. This proved to be a huge help in getting comfortable with using the sticks and seeing how the plane reacted.

So I girded myself and plugged in the battery and powered up my transmitter. The systems on the plane fired right up and off we went! YIKES! That wind is no BS! My new toy felt like a paper towel in a windstorm! After several wonderfully unintended but spectacular acrobatic moves I was able to land it I mean tumble it to the ground and sit out the wind while I watched a couple glider pilots do their dance!

Across the parking lot from where I was sitting is a building with a bathroom and upon walking back from that I noticed that the building created a bit of a calm spot to fly in. So I brought my plane and transmitter over there and got a few good up and downs in. Admittedly the "landings" were more of an barely controlled crash! But no damage done - yet.

I decided to get one more flight in and it went alright then chaos struck and the wind tossed that little plane almost into some nasty bushes but I was (I thought) able to save it and bring it to a happy tumble to the ground. Off I went to retrieve it. Ugh, it nosed in harder than I thought. The gearbox broke off it's styrofoam mount and the nose cracked quite a bit. Yup that hurt.

I brought it home and initially was going to buy a new fuselage to remedy this oops. But upon inspection I found it could be quite possible to fix this um "oops". Out came the Xacto knife, the super glue, and the Scotch tape. Fifteen minutes later I think I have it ready to try again tomorrow!

This for me was a PERFECT introduction into joys and tribulations of a new hobby!

Thanks Flite Test for doing an awesome job of prepping me up for my first of many good flying days!
 
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