FT Mini Scout Newbie Challenge

buzzbomb

I know nothing!
Ok folks, here is my entry into the challenge. Official maiden flight. Was pretty windy and it felt tail heavy at first but I got it trimmed out and it flew pretty well.

Heck yeah! The Maiden video of the FT MINI SCOUT NEWBIE CHALLENGE! I got launch at about the four second mark, and touchdown at about two minutes, eleven seconds. So, current record for the challenge is two minutes and seven seconds. Arcfyre! You hold the current (first and only) record, man! Well done! :D

I hope to do that well. My problem is I can't trim my plane yet. I can't keep it slow and level enough to free up the brain time to figure it out. I do have the benefit of not having a really big tree, right in the middle of flying area, though!

That was a really good flight, and very gratifying to me personally to see you take on the challenge. Thank you and again, Congratulations!

Edit: OK. I am now going to watch it for the fourth time. Why? Because it was beautiful! :love:

Edit: I gotta add, that was a truly amazing landing (and whomever you had recording it is a brave soul!) I expect mine is going to be just a leeetle bit farther out, and probably nose-down. Except for one flight, that's pretty much my M.O. :p
 
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mayan

Legendary member
Ok folks, here is my entry into the challenge. Official maiden flight. Was pretty windy and it felt tail heavy at first but I got it trimmed out and it flew pretty well.

@Arcfyre that was amazing. Congrats! I was so tired last night I could barely keep my eyes open to reply let alone upload the video of the first attempt at the challenge. Uploading it now, so will post it soon.
Also have a question how do you control it to fly so close in such windy conditions? What's you trick?

@buzzbomb you maiding today?
 

buzzbomb

I know nothing!
@buzzbomb you maiding today?
I don't know. I'm not even going to bed tonight. I take my mother to the hospital at 0430 local time for eye surgery. We get there at 0630, surgery at 0830. Then I've got to try to set up a meeting with the insurance adjuster. I've been driving a rental. Friday evening I got a voicemail saying they'd declared my car a total loss, and said they'd contact me on Monday.

The weather should be near perfect, and T.P. is as ready as I am. It's just going to depend on what happens during the day. If I have transportation to work on Tuesday, I am flying. If I've got hours to buy a car, it's gonna get ugly.
 

mayan

Legendary member
I don't know. I'm not even going to bed tonight. I take my mother to the hospital at 0430 local time for eye surgery. We get there at 0630, surgery at 0830. Then I've got to try to set up a meeting with the insurance adjuster. I've been driving a rental. Friday evening I got a voicemail saying they'd declared my car a total loss, and said they'd contact me on Monday.

The weather should be near perfect, and T.P. is as ready as I am. It's just going to depend on what happens during the day. If I have transportation to work on Tuesday, I am flying. If I've got hours to buy a car, it's gonna get ugly.
Wow seems like you have a lot to take care of at the moment good luck with that buddy. Wishing you luck.
 

buzzbomb

I know nothing!
Of course there is a video. I have no battery on my phone since I used it on the search efforts at the field so it will have to wait till when I get home. It was something around 2min from take off to crash. But I got to give it to you the take off from the ground and hand launch was amazing was so much fun. I was super happy I managed to get it to take off that way.
I know how long it takes to upload video to youtube. I'm on pins and needles, though! Arcfyre is being nice to us. I'm fairly certain he could have flown just as long as the biggest battery he has could allow. (Thank you, Arcfyre! (y)(y)(y))

Two minutes and seven seconds. That's what you've got to beat. Like I said, there's no use for me going to bed, so I've got nothing better to do than sit here and post on the forum, until it's time to get ready to leave. Twenty minutes or so, then I've got to start getting ready. *sigh*
 

Arcfyre

Elite member
Thank you for the compliments, gentlemen. :)

@mayan to answer your question I guess my trick is to keep the plane pointed into the wind as much as possible. You also need to be quick to modulate power as the wind changes. You see in my video that the plane swoops upward when I turn into the wind, and drops fairly quickly when I turn with the wind. In both cases you need to reduce or add power and use the elevator to keep the plane flying as level as possible. Minis are especially sensitive to stalling, as with their light weight they don't have much inertia to resist larger wind gusts. You kind of need to "ride" the wind as best as you can and not fight it too much.

Also I would not have flown this plane in this kind of wind if it didn't have ailerons. In my opinion, ailerons give you much faster and cleaner roll authority than waiting for the rudder to act on dihedral. In gusty conditions like this, seconds count and if the wind blows it over, you need to be able to correct it quickly.

Finally, @buzzbomb to set up a nice close landing, I've found it's all about the approach. First of all, decide before your battery is critical that you are ready to land. Second, fly the plane downwind a little bit, but not so far as it gets away from you. Make your base and final leg into the wind, and reduce or add power to adjust altitude as you glide to your landing spot. If your approach doesn't look good, or if you overshoot, don't worry about it. Power up and go around again. Keep trying until you get it right. Practice also helps. I've had my share of long walks.

The Storch for me with it's tough landing gear was my takeoff and landing trainer. I can't even tell you how many times I've taken off, flown one lap, and landed again. I posted a short clip in the video section not too long ago. Might not be exciting to fly like that, but it sure builds your skill.
 

Grifflyer

WWII fanatic
...Also have a question how do you control it to fly so close in such windy conditions? What's you trick?
FT did a video on flying in the wind

I find that flying in wind is actually quite easy (depending on the airframe) for me atleast I just need to be really comfortable with the airframe, and fast on the sticks. The first times I flew in heavier wind it was quite a challenge to stay airborne but after multiple flights I started to expect what was going to happen whenever I changed directions, and now I find it quite enjoyable.

Launching and landing stay pretty much the same (as long as you launch and land into into the wind)
 

Vimana89

Legendary member
Still waiting on motors, transmitter, and receivers. I can start on the wings and fuselage already, and possibly install the servos.
 

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FoamyDM

Building Fool-Flying Noob
Moderator
I built a skinned one as a test piece for this past weekend's cub scout lock-in where we build and fly planes... I will be putting electronics on it and see if a lighter system does it. add me in. Pictures coming
 

buzzbomb

I know nothing!
Did not get to try to fly today. :( Some things went well, others not so much. My mother is OK. I just don't want to hijack the thread with my personal life. (Not that I'd ever do such a thing... :whistle:)

I did not get to try to fly. Next opportunity is Friday, also depending upon what life throws at me. We'll see.
 

mayan

Legendary member
Next opportunity is Friday, also depending upon what life throws at me.
Good luck. May life throw at you only strawberries :).

You won't understand the lyrics and I couldn't find something with english subtitles. So I sum it up. He basically says "We have no reason to complain, because everything is fine thank god, our life is strawberries". He goes on to complain about everything, the hours of line waiting at the post office, the prices of things, and more. But after all the complaining he comes back to our life is strawberries and thanks god for everything that he does have.
 

Hai-Lee

Old and Bold RC PILOT
Does his thanks also include his having a strawberry allergy?? I sometimes feel as if I am allergic to the things happening around me!

Just joking!

Have fun!
 

buzzbomb

I know nothing!
Here's my first entry. Don't worry, it's short :)
I think it's good that I'm so excited when I get to fly. Also bad. Do a CRAP check and ignore the fact the CRAP didn't check out? Yep, I did that. Elevator was was off and I was like, "Oh. Whatever."

I've also read multiple times to launch at around 50% throttle. Nope. I'm used to the Tiny Trainer. 100% baby! I didn't even think about it except to get excited. Oops.

The combined end result was quick and brutal. I could hear the thump when it hit the ground. The GoPro captured it, if you turn it up a bit. Lesson learned.

Damage was actually pretty minimal. I broke the Power Pod, crunched the front a bit, significantly extended the length of the cut for the wings in the fuselage towards the rear on one side, broke a servo free, and completely filled the motor with mud, grass and other stuff.

IMG_0206.JPG


In the pic, I had already used a skewer in the field to clean out the biggest stuff from the motor and off the prop. That motor is not going anywhere without a thorough cleaning, though. It seems to be held together by a C-clamp. More on where that is going will be on my "First Scratch Build" thread, here:

https://forum.flitetest.com/index.php?threads/first-scratch-build.55846/page-11

No reason to post what that is liable to entail on the FT MINI SCOUT NEWBIE CHALLENGE! thread. What's important here is that you've my first entry! I get two more. Also I was able to wait until my son got out of school, and he was with me. If you can't hear it in the video, he got a pretty good laugh out of it. We laughed about it for a long time afterwards, and will probably continue to laugh about it for a long time to come.

We had FUN! That's what this is all about. Ironically my son had said I should rethink naming my plane "The Plow." He said it "might" have other connotations than just what Hai-Lee's helmet is made of. Yea, I love that kid. When you're right, you're right!

I've got a Leaderboard following in my next post. Get out there and have some fun!
 

Paracodespoder

Elite member
Here's my first entry. Don't worry, it's short :)
I think it's good that I'm so excited when I get to fly. Also bad. Do a CRAP check and ignore the fact the CRAP didn't check out? Yep, I did that. Elevator was was off and I was like, "Oh. Whatever."

I've also read multiple times to launch at around 50% throttle. Nope. I'm used to the Tiny Trainer. 100% baby! I didn't even think about it except to get excited. Oops.

The combined end result was quick and brutal. I could hear the thump when it hit the ground. The GoPro captured it, if you turn it up a bit. Lesson learned.

Damage was actually pretty minimal. I broke the Power Pod, crunched the front a bit, significantly extended the length of the cut for the wings in the fuselage towards the rear on one side, broke a servo free, and completely filled the motor with mud, grass and other stuff.

View attachment 123452

In the pic, I had already used a skewer in the field to clean out the biggest stuff from the motor and off the prop. That motor is not going anywhere without a thorough cleaning, though. It seems to be held together by a C-clamp. More on where that is going will be on my "First Scratch Build" thread, here:

https://forum.flitetest.com/index.php?threads/first-scratch-build.55846/page-11

No reason to post what that is liable to entail on the FT MINI SCOUT NEWBIE CHALLENGE! thread. What's important here is that you've my first entry! I get two more. Also I was able to wait until my son got out of school, and he was with me. If you can't hear it in the video, he got a pretty good laugh out of it. We laughed about it for a long time afterwards, and will probably continue to laugh about it for a long time to come.

We had FUN! That's what this is all about. Ironically my son had said I should rethink naming my plane "The Plow." He said it "might" have other connotations than just what Hai-Lee's helmet is made of. Yea, I love that kid. When you're right, you're right!

I've got a Leaderboard following in my next post. Get out there and have some fun!
Ouch!!! And it didn't break the prop? You must be a pro to not break a prop on a landing like that 😉.