gphil

Been away from the forum for a while but I always like to come here and see what new information is handy. I decided to just go ahead and fly my plane a few weeks past. It was a good day and feeling slightly cocky as it is said I readied up the old trainer and proceded to fire her up. My buddy IP said what you going to do with that and I said fly or die. So at that point I had opened my mouth and had to fly. All went well, just landed a little long but was able to taxi back. Felt like the time I really flew solo. The next Sat tried it again and was sucessful except landed off runway. Long story short have had four flights now and by golly seem to be getting worse. Broke a prop on last flight. It is coming together but now beginning to get cold feet for I feel a runway plant coming up. Still gonna keep at it and hope I do not splatter the plane for it is the only one I have, so time will tell. Just goes to show that newbys are never as good as they think at first. I am however beginning to fly the plane instead of the opposite. One habit I have started is brushing the trim by accident while flying. That can get exciting. One fella aske me what was all that about and I replied, survival. Thanks for the good site here for sure. gphil

Wayne Miller

Hi,

A great way to practice and also to get your skills up to speed is a flight simulator for your PC. Check around, and if you find someone with a simulator on their PC, give it a try and see what you think- it is a great help and crashes cost nothing!

Fly4Fun,

Wayne

Stick 40

Hi,

welcome back, I was away for 15 years. It took some time to get back into it. Its fun don't give up, I struggled with it for a bit but got back.

Just don't quit, keep at it, you can make it.

sticks

gphil

I purchased a simulator and it is harder to fly than a real plane. It has however imporved my perception considerably. I give it most of the credit of the early solo. I would guess prior the first solo I only had accumulated about two hours of flight time. Each time I would only fly maybe two times each weekend at ten minutes per flight maybe fifteen. This was spread of a period of time, one summer to be exact. I would fly the sim one hour or two three or four times a week. Now please understand the flights were not pretty to say the least but mine. Like I mentioned earlier, seems to be getting worse. The last flight I had another club member give me some directions while standing behind me and that helped. Guess I was just lucky. I will let you guys know if I try to move the earth out of orbit once more. Love this hobby, just hope to get good enough to fly without really thinking every move and getting my shirt soaking while doing it. lol gphil

Wayne Miller

Hi Gphil,

I came back to the hobby after 30 years and I thought it would be easy to get back into. However, I found orientation was one of the more difficult things for me to learn again, especially when making distant turns. It took a while, but it came back. After that it was just a matter getting out, practising and enjoying each flight.

One of the rewarding things of the hobby to me is the difficulty in learning - once you become comfortable with flying again you move on to learning new building techniques (foam, balsa and ARF), programming new radios, learning the new pulpulsion systems (glow and now electric), adhesives etc. It keeps your mind active and creative.

I'm glad you came back to the hobby. Keep us updated on your progress.

Fly4Fun,

Wayne