ORIGINAL: JimBrown
ORIGINAL: viper65
five of the six reactions from leamington last weekend
What you can't see in the picture is the temporary duct tape covering the hole on the bottom front of the wing near the fuselage of my R54 (now repaired.)
I inadvertently discovered that a Reaction 54 will fly just fine with an overflow/taxi tank sitting on the wing, although the roll and pitch trims were just a little bit off.
Seems I was so anxious to get into the air that I completely forgot to disconnect the overflow/taxi tank before taking off. And for some reason I never noticed it snuggled up against the fuse. Someone yelled over just after I rotated and raised the gear asking if the tank was still on the plane and at that moment I realized what I'd done. Since the plane was flying ok (but a bit out of trim) I decided to complete a circuit while assessing the situation. As the plane flew past me, I could see the tank sitting on the wing, up against the engine, but it was not near the hot section. So, I decided the best thing to do would be to just land the plane. However, since the tank was pretty much on top of one of the flaps, I decided to do a no flap landing. Due to the lack of flaps, I ended up going long and landing in the grass off the end of the runway. Fairly smooth, but due to the faster stop, the tank slid foward, dropped off the front of the wing and rolled under the wing, poking a 3 inch hole in the sheeting.
That was on Friday. Flew 8 more flights over the rest of the weekend
with duct tape covering the hole.
...jim