andybenton
NERD!!!! :)
well, I decided to cruise on over and check out the flitetest forums, and I like what I see, so I signed up.
after lurking for a few hours I decided I should post my first post over in this section... lessons learned.
the tale of my first rc airplane
My father in law has flown for several years, and has gotten me into flying rc helicopters, he trained me on a blade cx2, and I made the standard progression threw the ages,from coax, to fixed pitch, then on to collective pitch, but that's not the focus here...
he had his micro corsair out one afternoon and I was observing him, enjoying myself quite a bit, I started asking questions, before I knew it, I had the transmitter... what a joyus thing, watching that tiny scale warbird zip around my front yard!
Of course as you can imagine, it didn't take long at all for me to decide I needed my own! a few days passed and a trip to my LHS and I came home with a UM P-51d with as3x from parkzone. I took it out, bound it up, charged her, preflight checklist and I was out the door. the little airplane flew wonderfully, almost effortlessly. considering all the horror stories I had heard about warbirds, and low wing aircraft in general, how terrible they are to learn on, and all there bad tendancies I was just amazed. Low and behold I got a HUGE HEAD...
diretly after my first successful flight and landing (first battery) I was feeling pretty good about myself and my capabilities, and called upon my brother in law to join me while I flew my second flight on the tiny mustang. I sat it so gently on the runway (my driveway) nose to the wind, slowly poured on the throttle and took her off nice and scale, slow glideslope up and a nice wide banking turn back over the runway, then my big head made a big bad decision. (bearing in mind that this is my second flight of a fixed wing aircraft) I jerked the elevator to full up, hammer head stall. recovered smiling from ear to ear, aileron roll, recovered even bigger cheesey smile... then finally it dawned on me, INVERT!!! in one smooth motion I rolled it over onto its back and marveled at how easy this was... im flying inverted, with a warbird, on my second flight... What are people talking about??? this is too EASY!
then, the unthinkable happened... dumb thumbs... I jammed my elevator the wrong way and drove her right into the ground, full throttle. Let me tell you, nothing is worse than the sinking feeling you get, when you destroy something while trying to show off.
when I got to the scene of the crash, the motor had removed itself from the airframe, the battery had ejected, and I think I found most of the wing. several dollars later in parts and a few hours of labor, I was back in the air tho!
so I guess my hard knock style of lesson in this case... is ultimately take the proper steps to learn to fly, orientation is really something that you should learn early on, and aerobatics aren't something you should go trying on your second flight, no matter what kind of rotary wing experience you have.
well if your still reading, thanks for sticking with me, and im looking forward to contributing my knowledge and experience (not to forget learning some myself) to the wonderful community that flitetest has started over here...
also let me say that having used most RC forums on the net, it saddens me to compare the enviroments of this place and some others. not bashing any one or any place in particular.. just saying ive had less than ideal experiances on several other forums. some big ones to boot.
glad to see that this place is an exception to the rule, and has so many willing, and knowledgeable members
good luck and blue skies
Andy
after lurking for a few hours I decided I should post my first post over in this section... lessons learned.
the tale of my first rc airplane
My father in law has flown for several years, and has gotten me into flying rc helicopters, he trained me on a blade cx2, and I made the standard progression threw the ages,from coax, to fixed pitch, then on to collective pitch, but that's not the focus here...
he had his micro corsair out one afternoon and I was observing him, enjoying myself quite a bit, I started asking questions, before I knew it, I had the transmitter... what a joyus thing, watching that tiny scale warbird zip around my front yard!
Of course as you can imagine, it didn't take long at all for me to decide I needed my own! a few days passed and a trip to my LHS and I came home with a UM P-51d with as3x from parkzone. I took it out, bound it up, charged her, preflight checklist and I was out the door. the little airplane flew wonderfully, almost effortlessly. considering all the horror stories I had heard about warbirds, and low wing aircraft in general, how terrible they are to learn on, and all there bad tendancies I was just amazed. Low and behold I got a HUGE HEAD...
diretly after my first successful flight and landing (first battery) I was feeling pretty good about myself and my capabilities, and called upon my brother in law to join me while I flew my second flight on the tiny mustang. I sat it so gently on the runway (my driveway) nose to the wind, slowly poured on the throttle and took her off nice and scale, slow glideslope up and a nice wide banking turn back over the runway, then my big head made a big bad decision. (bearing in mind that this is my second flight of a fixed wing aircraft) I jerked the elevator to full up, hammer head stall. recovered smiling from ear to ear, aileron roll, recovered even bigger cheesey smile... then finally it dawned on me, INVERT!!! in one smooth motion I rolled it over onto its back and marveled at how easy this was... im flying inverted, with a warbird, on my second flight... What are people talking about??? this is too EASY!
then, the unthinkable happened... dumb thumbs... I jammed my elevator the wrong way and drove her right into the ground, full throttle. Let me tell you, nothing is worse than the sinking feeling you get, when you destroy something while trying to show off.
when I got to the scene of the crash, the motor had removed itself from the airframe, the battery had ejected, and I think I found most of the wing. several dollars later in parts and a few hours of labor, I was back in the air tho!
so I guess my hard knock style of lesson in this case... is ultimately take the proper steps to learn to fly, orientation is really something that you should learn early on, and aerobatics aren't something you should go trying on your second flight, no matter what kind of rotary wing experience you have.
well if your still reading, thanks for sticking with me, and im looking forward to contributing my knowledge and experience (not to forget learning some myself) to the wonderful community that flitetest has started over here...
also let me say that having used most RC forums on the net, it saddens me to compare the enviroments of this place and some others. not bashing any one or any place in particular.. just saying ive had less than ideal experiances on several other forums. some big ones to boot.
glad to see that this place is an exception to the rule, and has so many willing, and knowledgeable members
good luck and blue skies
Andy