well the g/f was away for the weekend so it was a flying free for all! went out on saturday to the field, cranked up the motor and noticed when i throttled up to full it would hit full rpm and then die down a little bit but thought it was just cuz it was cold and just started running (not the case). taxied out to the runway and away we went... nice take off and turn downwind. came around and heard the engine sputtering a bit, so i gave it full throttle and it died! trying not to panic, i told myself i have plenty of altitude to glide, just take it easy. came around for landing and realized i was going pretty fast ... watched as it sped by me down the runway and finally touched down, with a few bunny hops, towards the end of the runway. the momentum took it off the end of the runway and into some mud which brought it to a stop.

i was so happy to have it in one piece and to have landed my first deadstick by myself.

the lesson learned? when its really hot outside you need to retune your high end on your motor. the funny part is, before i went out for my flight i was listening to a few guys talking about the heat and having to lean your engine a bit on full size planes!

so i retuned my motor and had 2 more successful flights saturday and 2 more on sunday. i'm really starting to get the hang of this and the shakes are starting to subside a bit. i love this hobby!!!

John