Kingbird
Posting Elsewhere
After several decades away from the hobby of building and flying model airplanes I decided to take the plunge into RC (used to be a control line guy). Imagine coming into the hobby after a 40 year absence to find airplanes made of foam, cheap radio sets and batteries that will fly a big plane for 5-15 minutes! My eFlight Apprentice complete and ready to go cost less than a just good radio tx/rx combo would have cost 30 years ago!
Then I stumbled onto FliteTest on YouTube and saw these guys building airplanes out of Dollar Tree foam board! For a scratch-builder we're talking $15 all up for a complete airplane! Needless to say, I had to give that a try so, taking my limited but advancing flying skills in mind, I selected the FT Explorer, 3 channel trainer version as my first project. I wanted something I could hand launch and belly land off of grass and other unimproved sites and this plane looked like it would fit the bill nicely.
Learning how to piece together the tiled plans from my printer was the first, and quite frankly, biggest challenge. Once I had that figured out the plane went together very smoothly. Granted, it took me many more hours than would have been needed had I ordered the kit. And, counting the cost of the printer ink, paper, the fact that I did have to buy a bundle of BBQ skewers and a package of coffee stirrer straws, I may not have saved all that much. But to me, half the fun of this hobby is building the planes.
I followed Josh's advice about the preflight checklist for a maiden flight. Then gave her a nice toss (my first ever hand launch) and she arced into the sky, did a smooth wingover and went straight into the turf! Crunched the nose but not much else in the way of damage. Looked very closely at the elevator and discovered a slight down-pitch. (Aha!) Trimmed that up. Trimmed in a little right rudder. This time with almost full power gave it another toss. She wobbled a bit but continued to climb gaining speed all the time. I got my heart back down out of my throat to where it belonged, found the joysticks on the transmitter and brought the plane back into reasonable control.
Did I mention that all the flying I've done so far has been with the eFlight Apprentice in the Intermediate mode? This was my first time flying an RC plane without the transmitter instilling limitations on the plane's performance.
After a very satisfactory first flight I brought her back around into the wind and plopped it nicely near my feet. I was completely stoked! A fresh battery and off again!
So the maiden flight was a success except for the damage to the nose. Here I discovered the beauty of having scratch-built the plane. When I got home I printed the appropriate sheets from the plans, grabbed some leftover foam board, and in about 45 minutes had a brand new nose for the plane. This one was better executed than my first one so the plane gained from the experience.
Below are pics of my Explorer when first completed. It was buck naked like this on its maiden flights. I have since given it a more presentable (and visible) coat of paint to wear and am looking forward to many happy hours with my new park flyer.
Thanks Josh and all for getting these planes out to us. Great build. Great how-to-videos. Good stuff at good prices from your store. Keep it up. I'm a fan!
Then I stumbled onto FliteTest on YouTube and saw these guys building airplanes out of Dollar Tree foam board! For a scratch-builder we're talking $15 all up for a complete airplane! Needless to say, I had to give that a try so, taking my limited but advancing flying skills in mind, I selected the FT Explorer, 3 channel trainer version as my first project. I wanted something I could hand launch and belly land off of grass and other unimproved sites and this plane looked like it would fit the bill nicely.
Learning how to piece together the tiled plans from my printer was the first, and quite frankly, biggest challenge. Once I had that figured out the plane went together very smoothly. Granted, it took me many more hours than would have been needed had I ordered the kit. And, counting the cost of the printer ink, paper, the fact that I did have to buy a bundle of BBQ skewers and a package of coffee stirrer straws, I may not have saved all that much. But to me, half the fun of this hobby is building the planes.
I followed Josh's advice about the preflight checklist for a maiden flight. Then gave her a nice toss (my first ever hand launch) and she arced into the sky, did a smooth wingover and went straight into the turf! Crunched the nose but not much else in the way of damage. Looked very closely at the elevator and discovered a slight down-pitch. (Aha!) Trimmed that up. Trimmed in a little right rudder. This time with almost full power gave it another toss. She wobbled a bit but continued to climb gaining speed all the time. I got my heart back down out of my throat to where it belonged, found the joysticks on the transmitter and brought the plane back into reasonable control.
Did I mention that all the flying I've done so far has been with the eFlight Apprentice in the Intermediate mode? This was my first time flying an RC plane without the transmitter instilling limitations on the plane's performance.
After a very satisfactory first flight I brought her back around into the wind and plopped it nicely near my feet. I was completely stoked! A fresh battery and off again!
So the maiden flight was a success except for the damage to the nose. Here I discovered the beauty of having scratch-built the plane. When I got home I printed the appropriate sheets from the plans, grabbed some leftover foam board, and in about 45 minutes had a brand new nose for the plane. This one was better executed than my first one so the plane gained from the experience.
Below are pics of my Explorer when first completed. It was buck naked like this on its maiden flights. I have since given it a more presentable (and visible) coat of paint to wear and am looking forward to many happy hours with my new park flyer.
Thanks Josh and all for getting these planes out to us. Great build. Great how-to-videos. Good stuff at good prices from your store. Keep it up. I'm a fan!
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