acdii

Well, it may still be hot and humid, but the winds are very calm, the day I have been waiting for. Flew my 120SR, only a few mishaps, as usual, but considering it was outside, I call that a good day. Went out to my back pasture, the one with electric tape and Tposts for fencing, about chest high. With a width of about 60 feet, by length of mayber 150 feet. Flew my little T-28. Ealier today I ran the mower and 900 pound roller over the grass, hoping the rain we had this week sofetned the ground enough to smooth it out, but even with the horses chewing the grass to nubs, it was still too tall for the t-28. Hand launched it, flew it, with the slight breeze, a challenge to keep level and on course, landed a few times to swap out batteries, the landings were about as good as can be, like landing on a carrier, short and quick. Finally 2 batteries through and no damage to the plane.

OK I finally built up the nerve to fly my big plane, the Apprentice 15e. Brought it out to my "field", plugged the battery in, walked to the far end, set the radio to radio check, powered the plane up and bounced it to the other end of the field, and flipped the trainer switch, all is good. the ground is still rough, so it will take a few more rolls to get it smoother. Confident all is well, rolled the plane over to the other end of the field, and started my take off roll. 10-15 feet and I was in the air. Plane needed some trimming, it was its maiden flight, a few clicks down elevator, a few clicks right aileron, and it was stable, so a few circuits around my farm, got some altitude, did some fly bys, and got going in the wrong direction, oops, did a half loop and roll and lined up with my runway, cut throttle to 1/4 and glided in over the fence, but was drifting left towards the other fence, gave it throttle and went around, this time lined up better, and just as I hit the fence line, chopped throttle to 0. This bird has a long hang time, finally touched down on all 3 wheels, 15 feet from the fence and managed to line it up right between two T posts. I Finally soloed!!!

I am going to go out and pull those posts out, it was a temp fence I havent removed yet, it will give me about 30 more feet and less chance of hitting a fence.

I have to say, for my first real flight, IE taking off and landing something that weighs more than an ultra micro, in an area with nearly 5 foot high fences on either end, I guess I did OK. By the time I was lined up for my first landing attempt my knees were knocking and my hands were shaking, but I was able to bring it in for a perfect landing, it landed just to the right of me, in the middle of my runway, but a little too close to the fence.

The plane itself, Very good flyer, once it got trimmed out, it can fly nice and slow, and yet zip up and away when given throttle. Handles nicely, I have my expo set to 50, and the clevices on the last holes, and yet still responsive. I can imagine with the expo to 100, and the bottom holes used it will be a snappy plane. Good choice as a first plane.

jdetray

Well done! It is always a pleasure to read a nice success story.

I wish you many more great flights in the future.

- Jeff

acdii

Thanks, flew again last night at my friend place, I did OK, the grass wa a bit tall, so the prop was hitting the grass, making takeoffs a bit hard, but overall it was good. My friend however lost control and slammed his huge Piper Cub into a gravel hill at the quarry near his place. Long walk of shame, it was at least a 1/2 mile away. 

He had just repaired the tail wheel on it and put a new main wheel on too, but I guess that is what happens when you say its time to do some work on the plane, his canopy needed to be replaced.  We still arent sure why he lost control, it went into a spin, and he was able to recover but it kept going into a spin.

jdetray

That's too bad about your friend, but at least you were successful again!

- Jeff