Tom,

My day started a little earlier than I hoped. Dad called me at about 3:30 AM and said I needed to take him to the ER. His heart rate was up to around 140 and he had some chest pains. By the time we got there his pain had stopped, but the Dr. said he had a touch of Pneumonia, so is keeping him for a few days. He'll get out of ICU today and get a real room. I left the hospital around 3:30 PM and his heart rate was down to 70 or so.

I did go flying. My instructor, Ron, pulled a big surprise on me. After I did a few rounds of just pattern flying he brought the plane down and told me to do take-offs. Well, first, I got 3 minutes of practice steering the plane on the ground with the nose wheel. Boy! The new experience of adding the handling the left controller sure felt awkward. I was hesitant to give full throttle while trying to steer the plane straight down the runway during take-offs. When I finally accepted that it must be done, on the first take-off, the Eagle lifted off the ground not exactly parallel the runway.

I did about 8 take-offs altogether. Four or 5 of them looked like Keystone Cops with the path of the plane resembling an Anaconda, and 2 or 3 take-offs were at a 90 degree angle to the runway. The 8th one was almost straight down the runway and most of the time the descent was nice and smooth in spite of the crooked trail I made.

After I got the plane up in the air and decreased throttle I stalled a few times, but recovered without needing help.

My Daughter brought my 2 Grandsons out to watch. They're ages 10 & 11 or so, and are typically adventerous. After we all got back home I asked them if they would have liked to have been a passenger in the plane while I was taking off. They both let out a ressounding "NO!." I told them I felt the same.. ha

I didn't bring the plane home with me this weekend. I've been flying it with one aileron. I don't know for sure what repair needs to be done, maybe a new servo. The engine is an almost new OS .46, the FX model, I think. It either is still a little tight or was just tuned a bit too rich. My feeling is (from the way it sounded) that it was just set rich. I asked exactly what would come with it and he said he can put a 6 channel radio with it for me. I didn't ask which model of a radio at the time, but I e-mailed him later asking for that information and what repair is needed to get the other aileron working.

Actually, I need a bit of time to clear out some storage place for the plane before I bring it home.

I'll wait until after I solo before ordering a flight box and electric starter. There is another item I need to research. After watching the guys start their engines I'm wondering if a modification can be made to an electric starter that will allow it to be connected to a foot switch. That way the starter could be fastened into a box, and the plane could be started and adjusted without the typical crooking of the hand around the spinning propeller. If that can be done, starting the plane and adjusting the carb would be a lot safer.

I went back to the hospital to check on Dad just before bedtime. His heart rate was up to 110, and they had begun respitory therapy for his Pneumonia because he started having trouble breathing.

elad