Hey all,

I am not exactly a beginner as I flew r/c planes when I was 9. They were my dad's friend's planes though, so all I did was flying, no ground work on my part.

So now that I have bought 2 planes, a Hobbico Superstar MKII for my son, and a Global Decathlon 51-62 for me (which is not finished yet) I have gotten back into R/C Planes.

I have been practicing on Real Flight for a few days before the flight of the superstar and I must say, that is one great R/C simulator.

I then piled up the minivan with the wife, our 3.5 year old triples (1 boy, 2 girls) and the Superstar and then headed to a near by field where I met with an experienced flier who was to help me fly. My kids were excited about it, yet the wife was not too enthused. (Something about the possibility of me crashing a $300 plane makes her uneasy) Well the instructor walked me through the preflight, showed me how to do the range check, which was good and then how to check the engine and flight surfaces. As we went through this it all came flying back into my head from when I was 9. Although I don't ever remember them doing range checks...could explain why my dad’s friend’s crash record was quite high. LOL

Anyway, the instructor took the plane up for the trim check and it was actually quite stable with minimal trimming. After the flight I waited for the instructor to get finished with someone else before getting back into the sky.

When preparing for the second flight the buddy box that they had for some reason wouldn't trim correctly, so he asked me if I would be comfortable flying (Not taking off or landing, just flying) solo, and I was up to it. He took off and got up about 3 mistakes high and then let me have the controls. Did an oval pattern for a bit, and then he said "Pull back on the stick and hold it" so I did, and the plane did a graceful loop which I came out of perfectly. The instructor said I was flying great and he should have me landing in a week or two. About 4 or 5 minutes of flying went by which was awesome, then the instructor landed the plane, which looks so cool for some reason.

That was the last flight of the day as I had to get home to finish working on my house. I can't wait to get back in the air though. It was so good to get back up and with my own planes this time. (The Decathlon is almost done, and I have been practicing with tail draggers on the sim as well. They are a little different, yet not bad. Just need to practice in some cross winds now.) Anyone have suggestions for me with the Decathlon I would appreciate it. I have already have screwed down the wing servo blocks per the recommendation of one poster on this board, so any more suggestions would be great. Thanks in advance.

Don't want to drag this out to long, but just can't express the feeling of my first flight in 20 years! (I am sure some of you know what I mean)

Sorry it’s such a long post.
This board is great, keep up the good work.

HelixDaKat

P.S. A little about my experience with aircraft and flying, my dad use to fly single engine pipers when I was a kid so I was around them a lot and was taught the concepts and dynamics of flight at that time. Over the years I kept the love of flying and would jump at any chance I could to get in the air. Now with my own son who loves airplanes (We live near an Air force base) it seems like a good time to get back into R/C again as this is a cheaper way to fly.

Congratulations! I know the feeling. I've returned from long layoffs before. Somthing about going to college, getting married, haveing kids, can't quite remember.

I had a similar size Decathlon (Great Planes kit) and I loved it. It was real pretty in flight. I crashed it by turning too sharply at low speed on final approach for landing. A wingtip stalled and it went down. I don't know if your Decath will behave the same way but keep your airspeed up on your final turns before landing anyway.

With 3.5 year old triplets and a house to take care of your flying time may be limited but that's one great thing about this hobby, you can spend odd spare moments working on your planes. There are times whin I spend as little as 15 minutes in the shop, a little sanding a little glue and then back to the real world with a new attitude.

Have fun!

Congrats, Helix! I had essentially the same experience this weekend after about a 17 year layoff. My knees were sure shaking the first few minutes!

Helix,
Don't know if I'd recommend the Decathlon as a second plane. They tend to be squirrely on the ground due to the short coupled tail, and tip stall pretty easily.

Be sure to get a working buddy box and have an experienced pilot there if you attempt it.
Dennis-

Commander_Drake: Thanks. Yeah, the lack of money, then the getting married, having triplets, and buying a house kind of kept me from the hobby. Now that my son has been asking about airplanes and wanting to see them a lot I figured it was a good time to get back into the hobby. I am quite aware of the tip stall issue with the Decathlon, as I have been reading up on it a lot. The wing tips don't exactly help much with the lift as they are rounded off.
I love the look of the plane, as it is very pretty in flight and on the ground. I have been researching things I can do to strengthen the planes construction as well as make it fly more efficiently.
Currently it seems my flying time is going to be Saturday and/or Sunday mornings. So yeah, limited, yet eagerly anticipated. I try to get something done on the plane when I can, even if it is 10 to 15 minutes just to glue one piece on.

Jagnweiner: Thanks, I read your post and responded to it. Good to hear you didn't throw up.

DBCherry: Thanks for the concern. I have been reading a lot on the Decathlon and have been practicing with tail draggers on the sim. I will defiantly be on a buddy box when I first fly it. (My wife is so convinced that I will crash it and she isn't to thrilled about me crashing a $500+ toy...err...plane. )
My instructor is a really great guy who has offered to help me through the "Becoming Solo" process so I am sure he will be more than happy to help me with the Decathlon. He did say that I centered the control surfaces on the Superstar really well as he barley had to trim it out. Just in case I got lucky I will have him check over the plane before I even fly it so I can make changes and adjustments to it to limit any and all possible mechanical failures that I otherwise might end up with.

Thanks for the comments.

Helix

Well, welcome back. Sounds like you're taking a good logical approach to it all, doing the research will help prevent crashing and will help keep your wife happy.
Dennis-

DBCherry,

Absolutely. Logical is who I am. Kind of a flaw of the career as I am a Senior Level Software Developer.
I also want to get into scratch building as I have a plane that I designed when I was in Engineering Class
in High School. Really cool looking design, and I have always wanted to test it out by building an R/C model
of it.

Yes, keeping the wife happy is most important as it will make or break my hobby. Something about needing the money to feed the kids...

Helix

Yep, it's always something like a wife, kids, house or job that interfere with this obsession. [:@] Well, I guess without the job part I couldn't afford it.

I'm kidding by the way. I have a wife who is very supportive of my addiction.
Dennis-