Well got it up and flying today only got one flight in due to the time I got to the field. It flew good and it will take me sometime to
get used to it. Flew really well and will be a fun airplane to fly once I get a few more flights on it.
John

John,

How did the thrust change do? Did you still have to push down to get it to land? We had to put two washers to kick it up, and I think it could use another.

Thats weird i had to add right to mine..

the more i tweak mine the more i like it...

it has been rainning all weekend here

T,
It flew nice and level without hands on the stick but I did not have the cowl screws with me so I really want to try it with the cowl on because I think
that can make a difference too. Next time I get it out there I should have the cowl on the airplane and let a friend of mine put it thru it paces agian to
see if the washers made a difference.
As far as the landing I ended up dead sticking it because I had to wait for others to land or take off and I ran out of fuel prior to setting it down.
Floated in nicely on the dead stick and the wind was calm so most did sticks should not be a problem with this airplan. Funny part I was setup for the
landing as it ran out of fuel.
John

Drumbum,

I see you "cartwheeled" your bird... how bad is it? Repairs? Pictures? We want to see the blood... we are cruel .

I know you trashed the underside of your F90... not having a good time, I can see. I had a run like that too. It's over now (knock on wood)...

didnt do nothing but bend gear and crush a wheel pant both are fixed .. I had to repair and repaint one pant.. its ready to go!!!

Okay, the rain has stopped and of course, it's now too windy! I made the repairs to my wing from where the landing gear came off ( 8-32 nylon bolts are too weak). I am looking forward to getting back in the air and trying the Cap Manic with my lowered settings. I set up my three position switch to have all surfaces go from low 15% to 33% and then to 100%. I won't be heading to the 100% until I get this 3D stuff down a little better.

...all I ask is for a dry field and a slight wind...

yea it was like hurricane season this weekend.. the wind moved my gass grill halfway accross the deck sunday. had to be at least 50MPH or more


Tman- I meant to ask what exactly didnt the guy that flew your plane like about the Eclipse? ive flown with a 9C and a JR 6102 and couldnt tell any dramatic differences.. I have an eclipse too

Lee,

His main complant was the feel of the sticks, and the poor programming capabilities. He was suggesting programming a mix for throttle to drop the revs on approach, but the Eclipse won't allow any throttle expo or mixing. He also complained that there was a latency, or delay in the plane's reaction to inputs at the Tx. He let my son fly his newest shock flier with his (expensive) JR Tx, don't recall the model. My boy said he couldn't percieve it either, just that it felt "good", but we are not so good that we could tell. I think this is a matter of extreme skill levels, kinda like real expensive Ping or Calloway clubs to a hacker like me barely breaking 100 on a good round. Fancy clubs don't improve my game a bit.

Got the Cap out for a couple of flights Sunday afternoon.
Got it inverted and brought it low to the ground and it got away from me, I got it right side up with the engine rpm pretty low.
Turned it away from the pits and towards a few trees. Somehow I ended up going in between two trees and exited without touching
any of the branches. It was out of sight for a split second, by this time I had applied power and pulled up on the stick the airplane flew
up and away from the trees. Recovered it for landing and brought it to a decent landing still shaking from the experience.
Still do not know how I made it between the trees without breaking anything.
This is going to be a good airplane to fly just have to learn and watch it as it can get ahead of me pretty easy.
So far (due to weather) I only have four flights on this plane and I'm starting to like it as it will be a new learning experience.
The second flight was without incident as I wanted to get it back up and calm my nerves down a little bit. The second landing was
agian decent as I was landing the speed dropped off pretty fast and it dropped right on the runway which supprised me as I'm used
to coming in with speed on my planes and bouncing the landing.
Wish I had this on video as it was a intresting flight.
Anyone else get theirs out this weekend, I know the weather has been bad for alot of fliers around the country.
John

You are a lucky guy John... maybe this bird is meant to be with you a long time. We took ours to the field Saturday, flew the Funtana 90 first, then the wind came up. Since we too have only a couple flights, we decided to leave it in the hanger. Maybe next time out...

Same here in Nothern Virginia, too much wind and too much water coming out of the sky. I have been waiting to see how the CM flies at 15% rates..

I managed to sneak to the field SAT morning before the wind went to hurricane force and the rain poured. when i got to the field i was supprized that it wasnt bad. but i didnt bring my cap.. i have just put a YS 110 on my UcanDO AND WAS TRYING IT OUt ( my shift key sticks) now i want to put a 110 on my cap. My U-can-do weighs 8# 2 oz my cap weighs 7# 5oz man that 110 would make it a all out 3D machine.. my ucan do sure woke up

Drum,
The YS is a sweet engine as a friend has one on his mayhem and it flies sweet.
If I were to look for a another airplane the size of the cap or larger I would also look at getting
a YS110 engine to put on it.
I was talking with some one at the field the other day and he told me he has a Dragon Lady and is
going to put a YS110 on that airplane. That will be a monster on that airplane, I could only imagine how
the Cap would perform with that enigne on it.
John

T,
Got it out agian today since it looks like the next couple of days will be a little wet.
She holds pretty good when coming into land I really do not have to push down to get her
on the ground I can reduce the throttle and she will settle down to the ground pretty good.
Had a landing a couple of days ago that when she was about two feet off the ground it just
dropped right onto the runway without any input from me.
The more stick time I get on this airplane the more I will get used to flying it and hopefully grow
with what it is capable of doing. It is a very capable airplane, more so than my skills at this point so
I have to be very careful in what I do with it because it can get away from me very quickly if I'm not
careful. That happend as I mentioned in an earlier post this last sunday and I was very lucky that I did
not endup with a pile of balsa sticks.
John

Okay, I flew today probably had a 10-15 mph cross wind other than that great. My problem: bad coordination. I hit a wrong switch killed the engine in a KE and found out that the Cap Maniac has a large crumple zone! The plane (fuse) is basically totaled the wing is untouched - go figure! It would cost me more to rebuild it than to buy it new. So with that I am saying good by to my Cap Maniac, stripping all the electronics, engine and radio out of it and heading out to the scale world. The Cap Maniac was a great airplane and I'll miss it, but I have a brand new 1/4 scale PT-17 Stearman (89" wing) that I will be putting a 7 cyl radial engine on. That project will consume a good bit of time and money. So I am not getting another CM form BME. Mine was a free CM from the contest and I thank them for that. But I am going back to the standard acro and scale world.

Have fun with your Cap maniac's! I hope to see more activity on your flights...

I will post two more photos of the damage in the next post.

Sorry about the double post of the one pic...

Here are the other pics...

Chasman,
Sorry to hear about and see your lose.
John

Damn Chasman, that SUCKS! Sorry to see one go in... I think you are the first (except for drumbum's cartwheel)... enjoy the Steerman!

We have not flown the CapManiac for a while, been windy and just not risking it. Flying the Funtana in the wind, and leaving the CM in the truck for fear of bad stuff.

Thanks for the words guys...it does suck. I liked the plane a lot. When I picked the plane up out of the dirt I thought yep gotta fix this one and then I turned it over and saw that ALL the internal cross platforms and braceing and 3/4 of the fuse walls were shattered the top decking was broken in two and the fire wall was broken in 3 parts. I am amazed that I did not break a prop or the wing.

I hate hearing Taps play in my head when I see a plane go in...[]

Thats a bite man. I havent flown mine in 2 weeks.it has been with me but i was having too much fun with my U-can-do with the YS-110 it has kinda spoiled me. I wish i had another 110 for my cap. I am supposed to go to a fly in sunday. i will fly it then. it has been windy here too..

So I guess y'all are out flying since there is no update to your Cap maniac's. C'mon I still want to hear how yours is flying since I put mine in the dirt!

I have been flying mine up untill last week. I had elevator servo failure on a downline. with 1" horns was too much for hitec HS-425bbs. I let loose and went snappy on me. I am switching to HS-645MGs all the way around. and a YS-110. each time i fly the plane i like it better.. it rolling harriers FAST. hovers great. harrier great. It is still a great flying plane. ALSO i had radio failuer on my Eclipse 7. i switched over to a JR 6102. so it should be back in action soon

BTW when the servo failed i barely got it down in one piece

Went out flying last night and tonight and the plane flew great. I'm also liking it more and more.
It is my only plane right now I retired my Razzle this last week and I'm trying to move everything
from that airplane to a vectorflight extra 300 that I have had in the basement for awhile. Actually bought
that airplane before the razzle and Cap Maniac. Hopefully I will get some more time on it this weekend before
the summer heat hits us. The wind has been a problem for the last couple of weeks here to along with rain and
thunderstorms. To bad they do not make this in a ARC or white only might be kinda fun to have two of them but
different coverings.
John

Drumbum, you were lucky to get that plane down! So you've lost surface control and had a bad RX and the CM still flies!

Like you guys I really liked my Cap M. I had a lot of fun with it until it went in...at least it did that in a KE!! I'd get a new one, but I have a 1/3 Laser I am recovering right now.

Later