robotman

Well let me start by saying hello and what a great informative site this is. I have been a member for sometime now, just trying to get a idea of what to start with. I have been wanting to fly for a long time but never had the leadership of a parent growing up to help me. I came across a heek of a deal and thought why not get into it now. I am twenty-four years old and I am a robot engineer so I can finally afford to spend a little money on things. I meet this guy that gets more enjoyment out of building the planes rather than flying them.So I bought a JRPROPO radio from him and also a a great planes F-14 Tomcat with a OS65 engine,full retracts and beautiful for one hundred dollars. I talked to a guy where I work and he told me that this plane was going to be a bear to train with and he recommended I start with something a little more slow. He gave me a Piper Cub that he had just laying around and said that he would teach me how to fly. He has fifteen years experience. Well anyway he brought the plane to me and told me to meet him at the Chillicothe r/c airport a couple days later, I said no problem. Well being the independent person that I am I decided that I was going to do this on my own. I sat in my garage just getting the feel for the controls and what does what and practiced in the garage on the floor just taxing around. The next day I went down to the Peoria Stadium and thought to myself !QUOT!alright now it is do or die time!QUOT!. I had my wife and son with me. My wife video taping and my son in his stroller and me on the field. Keep in mind this is a piper electric with only a 600 spitfire motor and a E-flight 30AMP ESC. So I went out and from what I gathered here on the site I decided to go with the hand launch. Gave her full throttle and a nice firm throw into the wind......next thing you know, I am in the air. I thought to my self !QUOT! Oh crap here we go!QUOT!. Now before I went to the field I charged the batteries and let them stay on at full throttle while I timed it to see how long they would last. I got about 8-10 minutes per pack. So I set my timer for 8 minutes. Now back to being in the air. So I got her elevated and trimmed out and started making my passes. I flew around the field for about four minutes and then remembered that I still have to land. I made a couple slow approaches to the baseball diamond and finally on the last approach I got here to touch down with out any harm. Not to bad I thought to myself. Granted that there were several nerve racking moments in that four minutes that felt like an eternity. Well that following Friday the guy from work wanted to go fly. He still did not know that I had flown it by myself already. So I went out to the field with him. He has a nice Cap 232 and then some other plane that I cant remember the name of. So while he was getting his things out of his car I thought that It would be funny to get in the air while he wasn't looking. So I waited till his back was turned and gave her throttle and a nice toss. He turned around and run over and was like what are you doing. I said flying. He goes I thought you never flew I replied while I have flow once. He said that he was pretty impressed with how quick I caught on. Well to make a really long story short I have now graduated to a PT-40 with a OS65 engine and having a blast. I plan on taking my Tomcat up at the end of the year once I feel comfortable with the PT.

Iturnright

Cool, you did better than my first flight, I crashed into a tree.

Oh well, I'm the master of innefective quick fixes so it all works out

Goog luck flying!