New guy here

[dod488]

The last RC sailplane that I flew was an Aquila using a Kraft transmitter in the late 70's. I'd been watching a lot of Youtube videos and stumbled across FliteTest. My travel budget this year was for an SF convention out of state. After I watched over a hundred DT videos, I said screw it and canceled the trip. Bought a Tiny Trainer Speedbuilt kit. When you're new at this foamboard stuff, speed is nowhere to be seen. I watched Josh B's build video and had the misconception that I could build it in a couple of hours. I'm sure I put 20 hours into it using the 3 steps forward 2 steps back method. Today, I did the first range test and hand launch. CG was right on. For some reason, I launched with the 2mph wind. Nosedove into the ground. Straightened everything out and relaunched into the wind. It went straight then veered right into the ground. Oh, the battery in the plane was dead as I had been playing with it at home and never disconnected it. Went home, put a 50% charge on, hot-glued the bottom of the nose back on and went back out. Wind was now up to about 10mph. No better results. Learned a lot! Not discouraged. Pulled the ESC plug out of the receiver.

I'm Hal and live in Humboldt County on the coast in California. Plane I had the most fun with was Cox .049 Sportavia in the 70's. Flew it above a field behind where I worked at lunch. A terrific lunch break. The handle I'm using here, dod488, has personal history for me. The dod is for Denizens of Doom from the 80's internet newsgroup. Motto is, jokingly, "Ask and I'll have to kill you." 488 was my AFM race number.

 

[Merv]

Welcome to the forums

 

[JTarmstr]

Welcome to the forums! Speed build kits get faster to build with practice. I think the motto for most people on the forums is build, crash repeat. Thats the advantage to a $5 airframe.

 

[dod488]

Watching Josh's video over and over as well as figuring out the new techniques took most of the time. I want to get a lot of air time. Need to get my flying skills back as I want to eventually get to a DLG.

 

[Bricks]

Hardest part to learn is trying to keep the builds as light as you can, it is way to easy to get carried away with the hot glue. More glue does not mean stronger, a light plane will fly much better then a heavy plane except in wind.

 

[dod488]

Just picked up 4 sheets of foamcore from $Tree. Ready for a lot more crashes!

 

[sprzout]

LOL you've got the bug. This is a great way to learn or re-learn how to fly. Foamboard is cheap, and it can make some AWESOME designs.

You'll find that you'll make a LOT of mistakes when you first start out, building and flying and crashing, but it's actually a lot of fun. And you learn SO much doing it, from "Hey, this works, and this doesn't work, and that was...Well, I THINK it worked until it crashed..." LOL