hey all,

here the latest.

As a good novice, I seem to be reading and understanding the warnings from experienced fliers, and still make the mistakes they warn against.

I wanted to do just a short hop, get a feel for trim/balance. Note to self: if people on the boards talking about the SS taking off after 35ish feet, anything under won't cut it. Like, 10 feet is not enough to clear a 4" cement barrier (parking lot).
The gear got caught and the plane spun before getting airborne. broken prop, bent motor shaft, slightly torn attachment holes on the elevator.
So I fixed this up, and added a home-made tailwheel. The tw is a little hokey because a) the wire is a bit thin, and b) what a pain to install. Sure, I could have looked for a tw assembly, but I am in this to build, and to learn right?
Anywho - seems to help a lot for navigating on the ground at low throttle. MUCH better than just the tail dragging.

During testing the servo throws, I had the plane one, ESC was hot, and noticed I had the radio on the wrong plane. So I cycled thru the choices and hit one where the throttle was reversed. The untetherd plane shot forward and connected with the garage wall. The article in the AMA mag RE saftey (practise it because it not a matter of IF, but WHEN stupid/bad things happen) got new meaning.

Now i have the second prop on, and patched up the firewall where the battery tried to come through.

Then i noticed if the receiver is close to the ESC, I get a good amount of twitching in the servos - oddly, just putting the Rx on its side seems to take care of that interference.

Am now a paying member of an RC club close to home, and look forward to actually getting to the field.

Oh: I sunk $47 into a 3600mAh NiMH pack from Cheapbatterypacks.com. quick delivery, looks solid. No gear to actually test RE output etc.
Also got the AccuFlite Elite charger from Hobbico - pretty sweet. Battery memories, 12V/AC in, charge 2 packs independently, works for MiCd/NiMH and LiPos.

Cheers -