Teaching My Children To Fly - The Diary

mayan

Legendary member
I didn’t take the kids to practice flying this morning as I wanted b/c I woke up late and we still have a long day ahead of us. What we did though is finish the paint job and decided that tomorrow we’ll go flying. That will also give me time to make sure my batteries are charged up. While they were painting I was working on my DR-1 build you can read more about on the Triplane Tribuild thread.

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mayan

Legendary member
Damn it’s amazing how kids learn things, even if it seems that they are not. Yesterday was the first time we went to practice flying, the kids and I. It was great! I was debating between going to the field or the park and decided I’d go to the park in the end. That decision was a good one, cause I let the kids run around the play ground first which made them lose energy. That helps focus kids with A.D.H.D after which they were calmer and it made sitting them down easier.

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After that we went to the flying area where I gave them a quick explanation of how the sticks work and reminded them about directions. Then we balanced out the plane and gave it a go. We did one turn each so that if something breaks at least both would have tried flying. Both did very well at least in my opinion, of course we need to do this practice once or twice more.


Nothing really broke but I do have a problem with the hinges of he elevator and rudder I must have forgotten to re-enfoece them with hot glue so it paper is peeling off. I fixed it at the field a few times but it’s something that will keep happening unless I find a better solution.

Any ideas how I can fix that for good?
 
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Jimun

Elite member
Damn it’s amazing how kids learn things, even if it seems that they are not. Yesterday was the first time we went to practice flying, the kids and I. It was great! I was debating between going to the field or the park and decided I’d go to the park in the end. That decision was a good one, cause I let the kids run around the play ground first which made them lose energy. That helps focus kids with A.D.H.D after which they were calmer and it made sitting them down easier.

View attachment 130037
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After that we went to the flying area where I gave them a quick explanation of how the sticks work and reminded them about directions. Then we balanced out the plane and gave it a go. We did one turn each so that if something breaks at least both would have tried flying. Both did very well at least in my opinion, of course we need to do this practice once or twice more.


Nothing really broke but I do have a problem with the hinges of he elevator and rudder I must have forgotten to re-enfoece them with hot glue so it paper is peeling off. I fixed it at the field a few times but it’s something that will keep happening unless I find a better solution.

Any ideas how I can fix that for good?
The kids are doing great and they have a great instructor.
 

rockyboy

Skill Collector
Mentor
I have heard of people having good luck with white PVA glue (like a common school or craft glue) being used to glue the paper back down on the foam. I haven't tried it myself - when my paper hinges started to come off like that I peeled the paper all the way off and replace them with a tape hinge - but the kids will need to redecorate going that route.
 

buzzbomb

I know nothing!
Damn it’s amazing how kids learn things, even if it seems that they are not. Yesterday was the first time we went to practice flying, the kids and I. It was great! I was debating between going to the field or the park and decided I’d go to the park in the end. That decision was a good one, cause I let the kids run around the play ground first which made them lose energy. That helps focus kids with A.D.H.D after which they were calmer and it made sitting them down easier.

View attachment 130037
View attachment 130038


After that we went to the flying area where I gave them a quick explanation of how the sticks work and reminded them about directions. Then we balanced out the plane and gave it a go. We did one turn each so that if something breaks at least both would have tried flying. Both did very well at least in my opinion, of course we need to do this practice once or twice more.


Nothing really broke but I do have a problem with the hinges of he elevator and rudder I must have forgotten to re-enfoece them with hot glue so it paper is peeling off. I fixed it at the field a few times but it’s something that will keep happening unless I find a better solution.

Any ideas how I can fix that for good?
Another great day with the kids! The playground was an excellent idea to wind them down a bit before the lesson. I'm with you. It's amazing how much they picked up in one flying session, just a few seconds at a time. That's not much time to process everything they've got to process, and they got it right on more than one occasion.

Even when you threw the glider back up hill towards them, they did well. They'll be flying before you know what happened, if they want to. If they decide it's not their cup of tea, that's still OK. Look at all the time you are spending with them! The building, the decorating, the field trips. Now practice flight! That's a whole lot of really good memories, just this far into the Journey!:)

In my humble opinion mayan? They not only have a good instructor, they've got a good Teacher as well. ;)

As for the delaminating, unless the hinges are simply made differently as we've seen elsewhere, the only recourse I can think of is glue and tape. Like you said, my models haven't lasted long enough for it to be a problem, yet. :p
 

PsyBorg

Wake up! Time to fly!
Ok now Im depressed. They BOTH did better then me their first time out.

I have fixed delaminated ends and hinges by taking some gorilla white wood glue and a paint brush to the peeled up areas. Just be sure to spread the glue out as much as you can otherwise things get all wrinkly. I also do this to all exposed edges when I build them. Seems to seal them well and have not had any delamination since I started. I dont get to fly fixed wing much so no real air time yet to confirm this as a long term solution.
 

mayan

Legendary member
Thank you all so much for beliving in my ability to train the kids and the tips for the delamating issue I have. I feel bad b/c I forgot to get them to give it extra stregth with the hot glue. Looking for a day to take them again during the week. I have realised that they had more success when the wind actaully picked up as opposed to when there was no wind at all, so I plan on trying to go again when there is a little wind. It seemed like the plane would go higher and gave them more time to glide it down. I think that I will try build the bungee launcher soon too :).
 

mayan

Legendary member
I wanted to take the kids to practice flying today but my son didn’t want to tag along. Last time I offered my daughter didn’t want to go. Unlike last time today I my wife was at home so I left my son at home and went with my daughter only. She seems to enjoy it until she crashes and wants to quit. I tend to say it’s alright when she crashes to make her feel ok with it, it just works for me. We practiced for ~30 minutes and then wrapped everything up and went to the play ground. She played for a bit and then we headed towards the car to go home.

Hoping to get some more practice time with both of them soon.
 

mayan

Legendary member
Not much luck with this lately :(. Any time I offer to go one of the kids says that he doesn’t want to go and I either can’t leave him at home or end up losing the want to go. Trying to think how to tackle this but not much luck. Tomorrow I plan on trying a different approach so we’ll see how it goes.

More tomorrow.
 

Hai-Lee

Old and Bold RC PILOT
Not much luck with this lately :(. Any time I offer to go one of the kids says that he doesn’t want to go and I either can’t leave him at home or end up losing the want to go. Trying to think how to tackle this but not much luck. Tomorrow I plan on trying a different approach so we’ll see how it goes.

More tomorrow.
Perhaps you need to sweeten the offer! The way I used to keep the kids interest up in the boating I used to do was to include the trip to the local MacDonalds or an Ice-Cream parlour after the boating was completed! After doing that I NEVER had a refusal!

Have fun!
 

Hondo76251

Legendary member
Looks like you're doing great! Don't get discouraged with them not wanting to go all the time. Little kids like novelty. They're programmed to seek new experiences. I keep mine hooked by bringing out a new dollar store glider, launcher,or some flying toy of some kind. They throw it around for a while, get the fidgets out, then I bring out the 2 channel chuck glider and make them see if they can beat their distance with it vs their new toy, or some challenge like that.

As far as launching, I used a high start line for a while (50' of string with 25' rubber band steaked to the ground) but I found they liked me throwing it better (ive since learned I can throw nearly as high as the little high start line could now that my kids can kind of guide it with the elevator while I throw) that Hawkeye twin engine I have in the one video started its rc life as one of my kids first 2 channel chuck gliders!

I hope to have the kids into 3 channel here pretty soon now that the winter is finally breaking. (Last snow just melted off this week) It shouldn't be too much of a step as they have been flying fpv drones in the house this winter with me. I plan to use my Dx8 and my DxE to buddy box with them...

Good luck and happy flying!