Oh man what a feeling. I've been the safety officer of our club and heli instructor for about 3 yrs now. Love helping folks fly heli.....BUT dang what a feeling when you see the mains leave the ground for the first time and no buddy box to cover your butt.
I was looking for something to break up the time with heli's and one of the guys in our club who flies planks told me " You need a plane to yank around the skies". So after a little bit of looking and alot of reading on here I decided on the P-51 PTS. I think my heli's are going to be getting real upset with me.
Anyway yesterday was the day... Overcast w/ wind blowing straight up the runway at 3-5mph. The little EVO started on the first flip(of course) and I lined up on the runway....check the windy again....flaps down......(Wish the wife or someone would call) so starts the roll out. Plane starts down the runway with no problems at all....tail comes up...rolling on the mains body parts start to clamp shut on me.... eyes watering knees banging, hands shaking sweat pouring into the eyes then it happens the D@$m mains leave the earth. Well its do or die now. Slowly pull up into the pattern (GOTTA REMEMBER TO BREATH) slow into the turn. The the landing starts flashing into the brain. Flying nice slow patterns around the field trying to remember what my plank instructor said about landing......Oh crap brain fart...what did he say....Oh yeah slow easy and in one piece. Ok check the wind..... line up down leg...... flaps down.....(Face blue now..Forgot to breath) planes all fuzzy.... knees starting to hurt...hands shaking BAD...... make turn and line up on the runway... cut throttle to 1/4 .......looking good..... cross runway head level... little more off the throttle...... THEN BAMMMMM....Grease in a nice landing on all three. Fall over into the grass from lack of oxygen..
Good god I love these plans. All total was 5 flights and all were error free with nice landings except one which had a nice HIGH bounch to it.
Its been a LONG time since I've been that nervous in the air.. God I love this hobby.

Got home and the wife saw the smile on my face the first words out of her mouth was " I'm gonna get it tonight huh.." Yeap...
In the time I've started lessons on the PTS I've now got a CG Eagle II kit I just finished and on RV-4 kit waiting to be started. 4 helis and 3 planks...I think I need another plane.
Sorry for the long story but I just had to share....
I SOLOED AND I LOVE IT...

Congrats! Got time flying, and time with the Mrs.... Sometimes it's difficult to decide which is better!

Very cool story and well worded and also congrats.

I am actually going the other direction. I started out on planks and decided to get into heli's. I spent several weeks on the sim and one day I was at the field when one of the better heli pilots was there who had seen me fly the sim. He was training his brother on a Century Sport 30. Anyway, he comes up to me and spends 10 minutes talking me into getting on the box. I finally agree and since we both have JR9303's we decide to setup my radio exactly like his, including setting my Synth module to his channel.

Needless to see I was able to lift off, hover tail in, nose in and side in, land, hover at head height and slow forward and sideways flight. So I land for the last time and he says fuel it up and start it. I do and he walks up next to me does not plug in the box and tells me to have it at, instant case of the sweats and nerves but all goes well.

So I run home, finish up my Century Hawk Pro and the next day head out and do the maiden shaking so badly, the poligrip that holds in my dentures comes loose but I did it. [X(]

Gotta love those shakes/sweats, they keep you on your toes

Well Congrats to you also bubbagates. Amazing how you can fly something for so long then try something new thats still flying related and bam another case of the sweats.. Oh yeah and that BIG grin.

You speak the truth there my friend.

The heli pretty much lives in my truck now along side either my 4* 60, CG Sukhoi, GP Extra 160, Cap232 or Ultimate.

The nice thing about the heli is I can head out to the parking lot during lunch and practice my hovering. It's kinda fun nose in hovering around small trees. Just point the nose at the tree trunk, and circle the tree keeping the nose at the same altitude/atitude, sorta like drawing a line around the trunk. Hard as heck but it's turning out to be tons of fun and seems to be helping me a lot with stick control. I thought of getting a battery operated (read that as cheap) laser pointer that works well in bright sunlight, taping it under the heli, then putting a 1 inch wide piece of tape around the tree and keep the laser on the tape.

It's definitely helping me with flying my planes. I consider myself to be a good plank pilot, but I am seeing more precise control of the plane.

Bubba,
Beware of the dark side. Yes, it is a quick way to great power. But it corrupts your soul. Come back to the light side bubba, come back!!!!!

Ken

Bubba dont listen to him.. The force is strong with the heli.... They do make for alot of fun at lunch. Keep mine in the car also.. Sounds like your on the right track though. after your comfy with the nose in I STRONGLY recommend learning the auto's. An airplane with still fly when the engine quits a heli will drop from the sky.
Hey Ken I thought you were comming on here to give me my cert. so I can wrap some fish up. Not give someone a hard time that's trying to broaden ther horizon..[8D] As long as its in the air it's all good..

KEN IT WAS YOU.....!!!!! As soon as the plane left the ground your tag line popped into my head and I found myself wondering why I ever left the ground.. Oh well were still in one piece and ready to go again today..

I've been working on auto's on the sim and am improving. I have several lists of things to practice, from the person that is helping me and also from the Raptor Technique we site.

I do admit, I've had a secret thing for heli's but my former club outlawed them as too dangerous, notice I said FORMER club. The new club I belong to encourages things like 3D flight, heli and giant scale and all but my 4*60 is Giant Scale, basically 28% up too a nice new on the bench 35% Extra.

Don't worry Ken, I'm not giving up my planes, I have WAY too much money and time invested in them, besides, flying the heli is definitely helping me be a better plane pilot as it is forcing me to be much smoother and I see it in my IMAC routines

Bubba,
Oh, you can give up planes. Just remember that I've got dibs on the Ultimate!!!!

rcCVN-71,
I've got your solo certificate done, but I've been getting error messages from the servers every time I've tried to upload this morning. I've sent an email to RCAdmin, and as soon as the problem is taken care of I'll get your certificate to you.

Ken

Your gonna have to wait until you have to pry my dead warm fingers from it I say warm because I know you will not wait until they are dead cold fingers

Yep, I just tried to upload a pic and got the error 500 which means the SQL server is unhappy again

Hmmmmmmm!!!!! [X(]


I've already sent an email to Marc. He's pretty good about getting the servers rebooted when the SQL hiccups.

Ken

rsCVN-71,
Sorry about that, I had missed the fact that you had soloed.

A solo flight is a great accomplishment and that wins you one genuine RCU ATTABOY (Suitable for framing, wrapping fish, or lining trashcans).

Ken

Thanks Fellows.
Bubba, I'm not much on the 3-d side of things my love for heli's is all Scale. Working on an OH-58A right now that I hope to compete with at IRCHA this year in muncie ID.
Ken no prob. and thanks for the attaboy.

Bubba the thing that everyone at our club that flies planes notice was my use of the rudder. That was the one thing along with FF that just FELT like I was supposed to be using. My turns from the first flight are really smooth and I guess I owe that to the heli flying. YOU will use the rudder on a heli.
I saw a thread on here not to long ago from someone about using it. The funny thing was I saw responses about yes do use it and some saying no not to begine with. You got me but I'll use it and fly the snot out of it.
Now lets go burn some more holes in the sky..

Randy