How about helping your student, who has mastered flying a Train-Air .40, with his first low-wing, a Sport-Air .40.
Said student was having a great time and flying inverted. Then, Something falls off the airplane. Hmmm... that
was the tank hatch. Something else falls off. Hmmm... piece of foam rubber. Something else falls out... there goes
the tank. Silence from the engine... as another bit of foam rudder and the Rx battery pack drop out... Said
student then hands me the transmitter(!), as he has done SOOOO many times before while learning to fly his first
airplane... Try and get out of that one!!!
Actually, I did that! I have a Goldberg Skylark 56 years ago. I had just learned to do outside loops with it when I saw something fly off the plane. It was the hatch, fuel tank, foam and the battery. This time I was lucky though. It decended in a perfect gliding, inverted circle until it landed...WHEW! The only damage was a broken vertical fin.
That WAS a good thing!
HOWEVER...I watched as my good flying buddy was adjusting pitch curves on his heli transmitter with it still in idle up. The heli was on the ground and about 10 feet in front of him. He wasn't watching the heli, but looking at the transmitter screen as the heli ever so slowly started tipping to the left. I yelled, but he couldn't hear me over the heli noise as it struck the ground and did the "Dead Chicken Dance" right in front of him!.............
NOT a GOOD thing!...but was funny...later.
Rod
