Thumprding

I am going to go against the grain here. I had a dura plane trainer 40 and it was a fun plane to fly. I will agree it is heavy and it does not float like a kite. I will agree it takes more speed to take off and land and even to fly. But the one thing I will say is that plane can take a beating and keep on going and that is exactly what some people need to learn to fly.


I instructed a number of people to fly. Some learn quick, some learn slow those are fine to train because they learn. The ones that are hard to train are the ones that go prompt stupid flying. I can handle it when there is time to recover but do they go stupid when there is there no to recover? Nooooo!!! They go stupid when they are on the ground or taking off or real close to putting a plane on the ground. It did not matter if I have a trainer cord or a buddy box because there was no recovery time before disaster struck.

The plane is coming in fine to land but the right wing tip is slightly down. No biggie it will land just fine and will level out during the flare. Do they leave it alone? No! They get close and the speed is down and then they decide to jam in a ton of wrong rudder or aliron to get that "perfect" landing. "Let it float, doing good, gentle, gentle, let it come in doing good" It is during this that you see the plane just jump and you hear WHAP and watch stuff break. The other when they are doing fine on a take off and just need to add in a little right rudder to straigten the plane up. That is when you watch the plane shoot to the right and if it is not at full throttle before that it is when it shoots right. Whap right in to post that holds the safety netting. Or better yet they jerk if off the ground before it hits the netting and now it is in the air behind the flight line and just waiting to stall out and crash.

That is when I look over at them and wonder are you that stupid and say to yourself I guess I will have plenty of time to fly my own planes today.

They know they did it but they cannot tell you why. They know they should have left it alone but they did not. You and he both know he can sucessfully land or take off a plane because you have see it and he has done it but this time the brain and thumb went stupid and the plane paid for it big time.

After watching two of these ham thumbed people trash out planes and this process repeat itself over and over is when I have told them go buy a duraplane 40 and build it and when you are done then come back to me. Ground loop it, put it nose first, stall it on a take off going vertical right off the ground it does not matter those planes can take a beating and these people need a plane that can take that type of beating and keep going. I actually remember watching one tail slide then the nose flip straight down and then bury the nose up to fire wall on the run way after a sever dumb thumb take off. The plane was literally vertical and stuck in the ground like a post and we went and plucked it from the dirt. A new prop and a carb pull to clean the dirt out and that plane was back in the air.

"Remember don't jerk the sticks on take off let it fly off the ground."

I have seen these same people just rip the landing gear right out of the plane. I mean tear holes in the PVC fuse. They have looked at me and said I guess I am done for the day. Done? Nope! Now is the time you get to learn how to hand launch a plane and belly land one dead stick. Check the switch to make sure on is forward, and check the prop to make sure when the engine stops it is level with the wing, then gas it up and start it and toss it. It amazes them that one can actually do that. "okay it is yours now fly it until it is close to running out of fuel then start gaining altitude and I will take over and show you how to dead stick belly land.

So before you tottaly write these planes off as a ugly boat anchor that flies like a brick with a engine, give their just due and remember they have a place. Like I said I had one and it was the plane I basically learned to fly with. I flew it and flew it and kept on flying it until flying was second nature and I was doing every stunt that plane was capable of. The only reason I normally quit flying it was the battery packs were getting low.