ive been flying for about 8 months now. and i can fly low wing aerobatics. and can fly inverted. knife edge, loops etc. although most of my stunts are still being done about 2 mistakes high. my question is my first 4 planes i always let someone take it off for its maiden flight. the plane i am finishing this week i have done all on my own. and i feel the urge to maiden it on my own. at what point with experiance should i maiden a plane. the plane is my uproar 40. or is there just no pride and let someone with alot more experiance maiden my planes for the next year or so?

mrbass111,
I've seen pilots with 10 or 15 years experience have somebody else maiden flight new planes. Whether you can do the maiden flight is a personal choice you are going to have to make. The question you need to ask yourself is are you ready to recover the plane from any situation or orientation and can you adjust the trims while the holding control in the sticks at the same time. I've done the maiden flight on planes that were so out of trim that it's all I could do to just keep the plane flying with the sticks let alone adjust the trim, in those cases I've had somebody else move the trim tabs while I flew the plane. In fact that may help you in your decision, see if you can find an experienced pilot to stand beside you during the trim flight to help you out.

IHMO it's part of building a plane to trim flight it, but I know that I'm in the minority with that thinking. I know a lot of experienced builders out there have somebody else trim their plane, I know this because I do a lot of trim flights for people at our field.

Hope this helps

Ken

Go for it! I maidened my third plane. Just check and double check everything, don't trim until you have some altitude. If you are still wary, have somebody beside you to adjust the trim. Good luck, it is a feeling you will never forget!

It really has less to do with how many planes you've flown and how the plane you want to test fly compares to what you've flown before.

If you've flown planes that at least as tricky to fly as the Uproar (and it sounds like you have), and you are confident that you set the plane up correctly, then you can handle it.

Also, a lot of guys don't maiden their own planes just for nerves.

It also pays to talk to someone who'd done a lot of test flights to see what they do and why. When I test fly a plane, I have specific things in mind that I want to do and things I want to avoid doing. Most of it is common sense, but it never hurts to go over it in your mind before the flight. Some pointers (at the risk of being obvious):

- Have a spotter/helper stand next to you. Get the full sky if you can.
- If the landing gear set up is new to you, a fast taxi or two isn't a bad idea. But I've seen guys spend all day running up and down the runway, which may or may not be a good thing for you.
- Make sure the engine is well broken in and reliable. A deadstick on takeoff of a brand new plane is often fatal since you have no idea what the glide "feels like".
- Get altitude first after take off. Lots of it.
- Throttle back as soon as you have altitude. Fly fast enough to be well above stall, but the slower you fly, the more time you have to figure things out. (I've seen crashes where the guy never backed off the throttle, and never had time to get ahead of a badly out of trim plane)
- Trim levers, get the plane flying hands-off straight and level. If you need to re-program the radio in the air because you are out of trim, you fly, and get your helper to program. You can land out-of-trim, but it's harder than in-air programming on most radios. But it's a judgement call here, some people will tell you never to reprogram in the air.
- As soon as you are trimmed, try out low speed flight and do some missed approaches. You'll want to land eventually, do don't get caught up trying acrobatics and end up doing your first low speed flight on a deadstick because you are out of fuel or something.
- If you have time and everything is going well, I like to do a straight ahead stall just to see what the plane will do, again because you have to land it some time, so the more you know about how it handles for landing the better off you are.

Have fun. Personally, I love test flights.

How good are you at building, and how confident are you of your flying skills? If you build straight and within the confines of the design, you should have no problems taking it up on the maiden voyage. If you can competently handle dead sticks, stalls, spins, and inverted, you should be able to maiden a plane. Those are the four worst thnigs that could happen. The absolute worst is the engine dead just after takeoff. DO NOT try to turn the plane! Keep the nose down and land it straight. The other worst is reversed control direction. Make SURE of the proper controls!

I'll give you an example. I jumped into giant scale with both feet. My first was a 1/4 Fokker Dr.1 (my favorite plane). I built it myself. I'd only built one other giant scale plane, a Lanier Stinger. This was my first giant scale, and my first multi-wing, to fly. There was no one in my club who could help me. One cool, overcast November day, I took it out. I was by myself. I fueled the plane, and made several test taxis and aborted takeoff runs. The engine was running good. I gathered my courage, relied on my 20 years of R/C flying experience, and made a serious takeoff roll. At 3/4 throttle, after a 150' run, I gently lifted it off. To make a long story short, it flew great, and I had no problems with it!

Dr.1

just do it i maidened my trainer without any instructor i taught myself and i did ok trimming it too,just get it up high before you trim it!!.just make sure shes balanced right before you take her up and you,ll be fine!!.i flew mine a dozen times without an instructor before i crashed []but the crash was my fault not because she wasnt trimmed!!.my advice is just do it if you can fly you,ll have no probs as long as the planes balanced!!,remember to check the latteral balance too!!.

If the plane is set up properly, then a maiden flight should be no problem. I always make my planes nose heavy for the maiden then gradually move the weight back. Yes it makes them fast on landing, but it makes stability so much better and I would MUCH rather it be nose heavy than tail heavy.

thanks for all the imput. it sounds like a maiden flight will be exciting. i will have someone with me to do my trims. and i guess ill go for it. unless my trainer shows up and tells me otherwise.

You could actually PRACTICE part of a maiden flight with a plane you ARE familiar with. Take a plane you are familiar with and put it on a buddy box with YOU on the trainer system. Have the instructor get the plane to a safe altitude and turn the plane over to you but have ALL of your trims WAY-WAY off to the ends of travel(don't look at the trims before taking control - let it be a surprise which way it goes, just like real life). This will give you an idea of just how bad an airplane can be to handle and see if you can fight it and trim it at the same time. It won't be as severe as taking off an out of trim plane but it will give you an idea and you will have the instructor to save you if worse comes to worse.

Just a thought.

Is the plane a kit or an ARF? It's been a while since I've seen an ARF done bad enough to be that dramtically out of trim. However, it is possible, esp if you did the hinging and control linkage set up yourself, and don't have expereince doing it.

Even if you're going to fly it, it could pay to get another set of eyeballs to check over the plane and make sure everything is good.

it is an arf. but its the 5th one ive done so i feel fairly confident that at least my hinges and glue jobs are good. (if not it wont matter who flies her anyway hehe). the only concearn i have is the manuel keeps talking about the plane being nose heavy after the build. so i know i may have to make some adjustments if its to nose heavy. but as stated before better to nose heavy than tail heavy. but this is the first one ive done head to tail.

What RCKen says. Think about it carefully, & if you feel, confident do it yourself, but have a buddy stand beside you to move the trims for you -- just in case.

Good luck