Well, After staying up half the night doing finishing touches to my Dragon Lady, because I had decided that today would be the day I would Maiden her. When I got up this morning Mother Nature had other things in mind!! It was raining & blowing pretty hard. Then my flying buddy calls me & says it's gonna clear up so meet him at the field. So we go, when I get there the wind is blowing around 10 to 15 mph it's still raining off & on. Then it starts gusting well above 20mph. So I decided at least I could run some fuel thru the Saito & get it broke in. After about a 1/2 gallon she was starting to run really good & it had stopped raining for the time being and the wind had lightened back up to 10 to 15 mph again. I could see the next wave coming in, a big black Thunder-Bumper just a few miles south of us. I said it's now or never I got a small window of time before this next down pour hits, so I cut her loose & rolled out the throttle, she took to the grey skies like a big ol' bird. A couple laps around the pattern had her trimmed out as well as I could in the wind so I brought her around for a slow speed approach to see how well she would slow down & how well she would behave in the wind on final. She slowed & behaved so well I just went ahead & set her down for a touch & go nice & smoothe. This is a very well behaved airplane for my first Tail-Dragger/Low-Wing. I flew her around a bit more did a few loops & rolls, by that time the Thunder-Bumper was upon us so I brought her back around & set her down as soft as I could & with the increasing wind she just floated right in & sat down just as pretty as ya please & stopped right in front of me so I could get her out of the rain & back under the shelter of the pits.

I know I should have had someone with more experience with me for her Maiden flight, but I new she was ready & I new this time that I was ready as well.
All in all I said Gary & I had a pretty great day for it being in the middle of a storm with flood warnings all over the valley!! Didn't know about the flood warnings until I got home & turned on the news.[&:]

So if anyone happens to be wondering if the Dragon Lady makes for a good #2 plane as well as the 4*, or the Venture or some of the other favorite #2 type planes, the answer IMO is a definite yes!! Given the adverse conditions in which I maidened her I couldn't ask for a more well behaved airplane, sh'e now my new favorite.

Mark,

First thing, you just found out that doing a maiden can be pretty easy when you do the build. My nerves kick in when I do one myself on a plane I own, but it's worse when I do it for someone else, but that helps me stay on edge and be ready for anything.

Second nice flight report. See, ya were worried over nothing but that's OK, we all get that way

3rd. I got the packet you sent me today but I have not had time to read through them

That's great Bill, I'm glad they got there, enjoy! It was a little nerve racking I must admit, but I knew I was ready, it was just a matter of saying "ok here goes nothing" not much point in building it, if ya aren't gonna fly it.

Man, that story sounds great! I sure wish there was some video to go along with it!

Elenasgrumpy,

Congrats on your successful maiden. AND DARN YOU for sending all this RAIN down here. Can't you guys keep your weather to yourselves??[:-][:-] I will spend tomorrow doing paperwork and catching-up on the things I have been neglecting in order to fly.[:'(][:'(]

I want to maiden my UCD today, but looks like Thursday will be the first opportunity. I am still too newbie and chicken to maiden it myself. I Like to have my instructor maiden and trim my planes for me. I may be chicken, but all my planes fly at least twice.

Later Mark,

Mark

I was still a little chicken too, but Gary kept egging me to fly it before the next Thunder-Storm, & after all the running of the engine then running in out of the rain, I kinda got to the point where I said screw it, I can do this & it turned out ok. But like I said earlier I new I was ready for this plane because I've been holding off along time, & keep in mind that I bought & started this plane before Christamas so I really don't feel like a rushed into it. But I was still a little scared when I first rolled out the throttle & committed myself by a touch of up elevator,[X(] That's when you're beyond the point of no return, & I'm glad I did it!!

Rain tomorrow too....

Goody I get to do paperwork and pretend I have a real job whilst NOT FLYING.

BTW Mark, I saw a beloved Dragon Lady crash today at the field. It was sad. The poor guy did a short range check and did not catch the lack of range. On the post-mortem, we found that his TX worked great inside a 10 ft circle with the antenna down, and a 22' circle with it up.

He lost it on take-off. Just rolled right and exploded on impact. Had an OS 120 surpass with a pump in it. Sure sounded great for like 11 seconds or so.

The culprit was a radio TX that did not quite live to the hype.

(Yeah, I know this post does not fit in this thread, but .... it was a Dragon Lady).

Later Mark,

Mark

Poor guy, that really sux! What kind of Tx was it ?

Polk

After building my HotsII, I had to fly it. I went out to the park where I flew and got set up. There was water laying around, but the runway was clear. It was raining off and on so I went under the shelter and fought with the engine for 45 mins or so. Finally getting it to run I went to the runway to take of. A small stream of water was crossing about 1/3 of the way down the runway, but not enough to cause me worry.
I amde a couple short flights, adjusting the engine and trimming it out, filled it up for it's first full tank flight and took off.
I walked to the end of the runway (the highest end) and managed about a 1/2 tank when I felt my feet get cold. I looked down to see the water was topping over my shoes.[X(] A quick look back and I noticed the entire runway was now under water. I managed to land on high ground and get back to the shelter, pack up and wade to my car through 3" or so of water.
I drove through up to 6" of water crossing the drive on the way oput of the field, and watched as the water quickly rose up over the parking blocks in the lot, and up over the cement in the shelter area. Had I not landed at the first "second third whatever) sign of flooding I would have had my first water landing.[sm=drowning.gif]

Hey Grumpy,

Was this a Kit or an ARF? Sounds great! Congrats on the maiden.

-MA

It's an ARF.

http://www.globalhobby.com/public/mo...ery/123761.asp

He was nervous, but a good nervous. He asked me a little while ago if I thought he was ready and also egged him on a bit. He decided to wait a little while longer, which is a good thing. He now has found out that there really wa not much to be worried about.