jpuke

I went out to fly the airplane 3 times over the last four days and finally got some good flights in yesterday.

The first night I went out and promptly crashed and had to take it home to mend the fuselage.

I went out the next day and got in a good flight of about 6 laps before crashing and then on the next run my pit man (25 yr. old "little brother") got his finger mixed up with the propeller while adjusting the needle valve so we had to cut it short and head off to the ER for stitches.

I was out again yesterday and managed to run a tank dry without crashing and found the plane to be responsive and fun to fly, though I'm still getting used to the dizziness.

Here's a few things I've learned: (I'm sure you have all figured these out already)
1) I should have started with a genuine 1/2A handle. My first flight was with a Sullivan adjustable handle and I think it had far too much movement for a beginner. I switched to a smaller handle that Ifound in an old Guillow's kit and that seems to be better.

2) I didn't need the nose weight. After crashing twice yesterday the nose weights fell off and then I managed to get in better runs. The roller coaster effect went away - I didnt' have to keep pulling up to avoid crashes and was able to fly it reasonably level.

3) The plane tends to dive when I'm flying into the upwind side of the circle. Itook off downwind but found myself having to pull up from a dive almost every time I came around to the side where the wind was blowing. Do larger planes have this trouble? Should Ibe worried that there won't be many good days to fly here in Nebraska if the wind is genuine problem?

I flew with the prop on backwards and it was plenty fast. Not sure I can keep my head from spinning too much if Iturn the prop around and let the plane go full speed.