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Old 06-21-2003 | 02:52 AM
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Justme
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Joined: Jun 2003
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From: Somewhere in, IN
Default First Solo...not pretty!

I am half way through my second bottle of fuel and couldn't wait to solo. I went out yesterday to fly. It was windy, but I figured I could handle it. I started down the runway and a gust of wind blew my Hanger 9 Alpha right off the runway. It got real gusty at that very moment. The guy training me on the buddy box, Richard, wasn't there, but I figured I would go for it anyway, since I had had three real nice flights with three decent landings. I decided to swallow my pride and try again today. Another flier was at the flight line but was a ways off. I started down the runway lifted off, but my trim tabs were not set properly. I had to fight to keep it in the air, because it was turning very hard to the left and the rudder trim tab was dropping the plane down. I was applying almost full right ailerons just to fly straight. I fought to bring it around and right into the sun... not making it up. It was ugly. I called out to Sam and he came running over and took the transmitter and was trying to adjust them. Lucky for me that Richard showed up and got everything squared away. I landed fine (a relative term), and had two more great flights. He had me mark the trim tab locations with an ink pen. I do not have a clue how they go that far off, since I don't have small children and I never mess with them. If I had gone ahead with flying the day before I would have lost it, because the wind would have been an even greater factor. Not exactly how I wanted my first solo flight to go, but I sure learned from it.