This is my diary of my attempt to self teach myself to fly my Ripmax 40 Trainer.
Introduction:
I have wanted to fly nitro RC sincee I was 15. For my 15th birthday I got a precedeent HI Boy trainer with a Magnum 40 GP engine. Leter I bought the Hitec Optic 6 radio gear. It was all put away without flying for about 8 years until I was 24 and I got it out again. The Hi Boy was badly build and possibly not even airworthy. Regardelss I took it to the local sands and tried to fly it. I crashed on take off so I ordered a Ripmax trainer and bought a second hand Irvine 40 engine to go with it. Then golf came along and away went the planes again for another 9 years. I'm now 33 and have decided that I will fly the Ripmax if it kills me.
So I bought new battery packs, got fuel and plugs and started preparing for a solo flight.
May I add that the advice I gathered in the weeks running up to my first flight was invaluble but may I also add that there is a lot of other knowledge and know how that you can only be shown in real life at a club or by another enthusiast who will spend time with you. For this reason, and as advised by a hundred forum members, it is probably quite advisable to joing a club. It may save you money and help you progress faster. My view was that I simply don;t have time to spend at clubs going through the procedures and club teaching programmes before I am allowed to fly on my own. This may be seen a little arrogant but I can assure you it has little to do with pride and is more to do with what works with my lifestyle and how I want to be able to just turn up in a field and fly my plane without and queing or waiting like you get at clubs. I don't want this thread to turn into a "join a club" - "don't join a club" but thought I would give a quck overview of my choicee and reasons. Despite not beeing a club member I stil feel that the seasoned members of this forum area able to offer more advice than you would get from any club but bear in mind that you will also lack the physical assistance when it comes to engine tuning, pre flight checks, radio programming, trimming and most importantly take offs and landings.
Okay so lets start the diary:
Flight 1
I had the ripmax trainer ready to fly and had all my batteries charged. The engine had been tuned so all I had to do was het it in the air. I went to the local field which has open fields to two sides and some houses on the othersides. My friend also attended with his Thunder tiger ready. He had never flown before either. My friend went first and he had what I can only call a very erratic flight. He didnt even try to trim the plane and he was lets say a little excited. He eventually crash landed into some bushes in the field. No real damage done so he went up again and after two circuits he got too erattic and he nose dived and smashed the plane into mother earth at full throttle. The result was total destruction. Everything that was glued to something was no longer glued. I have the videos but this is a diary of my flying so wont post them. I only mentioned this part as it goes to show that without any sort of preparation or thoughts of what you are going to do once airborne you will crash and lose control. So before you take off make sure you know what your plan is once up there and have a friend handy to help with trimming the plane because no matter how flush you think your control surfaces are there will still be trimming required to some degree.
So now my friends plane was out of the way it was my go. I started her up and pointed her into the 5mph wind. First attempt and the plane tracked badly right so I had to adjust the fixed front wheel. Next attempt was even worse. I got the plane up to what I thought was take off speed and eased back on elevator. Possibly too hard as the plane lifted to around 7 feet and then roled right over and smashed into the ground. This crash smashed the fuselage in half and ended my days flying quite promptly. Looking back now and knowing the aileron trim was way out the the right I think I stalled and the misaligned ailerons made it look worse. I originally thought I had probably failed to check control surface directions prior to take off but I can't be sure if any channels were reversed. So my advice here is to make a list on paper of the pre flight checks so you can go through them and not forget any. You've no chance if the plane isn't even set up to fly properly from the ground. Thats before you have to trim it in the air.
Here we are after the first venture:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.n...49597949_o.jpg