Hang in there newb your way ahead of me at this point. i was suppose to go go flying today would have been my third time but my uncle was sick so we didn't go. Maybe next weekend. Keep on keepin on.

I would say go ahead and repair the hole where the gas tank is. Since you've got the plane apart, now is as good of a time it will ever get. I had a VMAR stick that had holes in the wood under the fuel tank. I flew it and flew it with no problems. I gave it to my dad and he resheeted the whole plane. Funny thing. It's a lot better looking plane now than it was, and to pick it up feels a lot sturdier in your hand, but it still flies exactly as it did before.

And here it is folks! The first solo t/o and landing to a full stop with the prop still turning. He did a few landings after I pulled the cord that ended in a prop strike, so I didn't count those. After he was shooting touch-n-go after touch-n-go, I just left him alone so he could concentrate one really good landing. I got the camera, turned around and shot this video. He has probably done about 5-7 touch-n-goes at this point, and been off the cord about 5-10 minutes. Talk about awesome! All this in about 5 flying sessions! What a difference a diligent student + real flight G2 makes!

http://www.knology.net/~rainman/

The video is 1stsolo.mov

My camera encodes using QuickTime (tm). So you will need that to play the video.
Also, I will put up some pics of us full-scale flying that same afternoon. It was my treat for him soloing. We went up to 8,000 ft. MSL just for the heck of it.

Last year, I was on the cord until my instructor had a Pattern meet. I wanted to fly but could not wait until someone showed up that could help me. So, I taxied around for a while getting in some much needed taxi practice. No one was there so it was nice. Then on an upwind taxi, I added a little to much throttle and the NexSTAR started to climb so I went to full throttle and continued up. Ok.. now I'm up. So, I flew a few orbits and then said to myself.. time to land. Just then, an alternate instructor showed up and was watching me. I greased in the landing. He came over and congratulated me on my solo!! Yeah!!! felt good.

So, I flew about 10 more flights that day, burned up a lot of fuel, and had a great day.

The next week, I was back at the field, another pilot was there that had also just solo'ed. We both had NexSTAR's both on channel 48 so we alternated flights. It was a windy day with a pretty good crosswind, but we both managed to fly and land without incident all that morning until it really got to windy to fly so we packed up and went home. I found that I needed another plane cuz the trainer was now not doing what I wanted to do.. so to the LHS and bought a Goldberg Tiger 60 which I have been flying since last August or so.

Don't sweat the minor dings. Just fix it and get back. My NexSTAR has lots of patches and repairs to the fuselage, mainly where I crunched the landing gear a few times during training, but it still flys, but I tend to fly the Tiger 60 99% of the time now. It has a brand new Super Tigre .75 and flys like a gem!

Best of luck!!

Dick.

newbtoRC,
congrats on the solo. I know how you feel. But just because you have soloed doesn't mean that your training is over. I see too many people do a solo flight and then think that they are completely trained. A lot of times they will move on to a second plane and find that they are in over their heads because the moved too fast. I am an instructor and just because the student soloed doesn't mean I am done with them, but rather the solo flight is just another step in their training. I still have things to teach them. Plus, plus on top of that there is a lot of practice the student needs to do before they move on. I tell my students that good way you can tell when you are ready to move to a second plane is to take off, climb, roll to inverted, fly a complete circuit of the field inverted, do a loop inverted, do a roll inverted, roll back to normal flight, climb to a couple of mistakes high, cut the engine, and then land dead stick on the runway. When you can do that you are more than ready to move to a second plane. With those skill under your belt you will find that you can really enjoy the next planes you get, instead of always feeling afraid that you are going to crash them. After about the 5th-6th flight a student makes they have about 90% of the skill that every pilot has, but what they are lacking in is practice.

IMHO a pilot is never done practicing. I know that I'm not. Every summer I set goals for myself and I keep practicing the current one I am working before I move onto the next. Right now my goals for this summer are (in order that I want to learn them), a GOOD 4 point roll, a knife edge loop, and a GOOD vertical 8. I say good on these because I can (kind of) do them right now, but they are ugly. I want to work on improving them

Ok, I'll get down off of my soap box now.

I hope this helps some out there

yes, we talked about the more lessons. He said whenever I want to practice let him know. I hvae began reconstruction of the fuse it should be done with all the gluing by tonight

Dicksousy: I too have a tiger 60. I'ts my fav plane in my hanger. I hung a Saito 100 on front of mine. It yanks it into the air no problem! I was flying it the other day in crosswinds and greasing every landing. The LHS owner was at the field (who I bought the plane from) and said "Boy those tigers will make any pilot look good"! I told him to GIVE ME LITTLE CREDIT and we both laughed it up, but you know he's right. Those things fly so nice and easy......

I have managed to slavage everything. Inlcuding the nosegear piece which i looked at and only neeeded gluing. tonight i will try to re iron the covering down and begin on the wing.

Congrats on the solo, and sorry about the plane! After I yanked the main gear out, I actually had alot of fun rebuilding it, and still have a black customizing and working on planes. On the nose gear....I'd have someone look at that before you fly it. I wouldn't want to risk having nose gear break off on a rough landing or something. And most importantly, have fun!!!!!

grant, Before i placed it back on the plane i tried my hardest to snap it off numerous times. No problems..

Minnflyer,
I'm waiting....

I wonder where your solo certificate is....

Cause you know MinnFlyer works for RCU He should only have a 10 minute turn around time for certificates.

haha

I was just thinking.... I remember i tried my best to move the ailerons.... And i also remember that i had to reglue in my servo tray for aielrons.... I think that might have been the problem... Cause i really am not sure about the tip stall....But it is really all a blur...

Nice going newbtorc. For a Superstar, that's only a flesh wound.

Sorry, been busier than a one legged man in an *****-kicking contest lately.

Better late than never!

Minn,
Time to buy another leg!!

RCKen

I think I have one "laying around" here somewhere. [&:] that I can send to him.

[:'(]

thanks min v