Last saturday I took the CAPRONI Ca-60 model to a gilder’s club Fun Fly and had a few very short flights with it. Since I was unsuccessful in trying to have the model takeoff from water or from a dolly, I installed a release mechanism in the nose of the plane in order to have it towed into the air. I asked the tow plane pilot to tow my model but after he had a close look at the CAPRONI Ca-60 he came to the conclusion that it would be very unsafe to try to tow the model using his relatively fast plane. I agreed with his decision. I was disappointed that I would not have the opportunity to see the CAPRONI Ca-60 in the air that day. I had my BKB-1 flying wing with me and so I had three good flights with it. Then someone suggested that I could try to launch the CAPRONI using a bungee cord. I jumped on this idea instantaneously. One of the members had a bungee cord with him and with the help of a few of the members we proceeded with the setup. We placed the model on a dolly and attached the release mechanism to the model. I checked all the controls and then powered up all eight motors full power. The model was released and to my surprise and to the surprise of everyone present, the model took off from the dolly and started to climb. It was a shallow climb but the model was very stable. It climbed to approximately 15 to 20 ft. when all of sudden we heard a noise and the model began to descend. The model landed safely and what we found was that the tow line got wrapped around the two front props. It was my error. With the excitement of the first take off, I forgot to release the line before it became slack. After I un-tangled the line we made a second attempt to fly it. Again, I forgot to release the line while it was still under tension. On the third attempt the line was released but the wire hook did not come out completely. Again, the plane landed with the tow line dragging it down. With the hard landings, the bottom of the fuselage was damaged. Originally this plane was never designed to land on a hard surface.

Here are my observations from the first few short flights;
The model is flyable. The center of gravity is correct. It appears to be very stable. In fact, it might be too stable. I’m not sure if the ailerons will be effective at a relatively slow speed. My differential control on rear motors might help. I’m definitely going to repair the bottom of the fuselage. The next time I’m going to have the bungee cord attached to the dolly instead of to the model. One of the members of the glider club, Dick Colley took a several pictures where one of the pictures shows the model climbing under its own power. Over all, I’m very pleased with the three short flights. It tells me that the full size CAPRONI could have flown if it wasn’t for that un-explainable crash on its first takeoff.