I met my instructor at the field Saturday afternoon. He made a couple of adjustments on my engine and we went flying. He had me doing figure eights and started me making approaches keeping it around four feet above the field but not touching down...then I'd give it power and go around for another approach. I ended up taking off a couple of times and landing a couple of times before my battery got a bit low. I was on the cord and buddy box the whole time. Today I went over and cleaned up a large area of the pasture by my house and made three successful flights on my own. It was a blast. After a couple of takeoffs and landings yesterday, I was confident I could do it on my own. I will still get some more time with the instructor but I'll likely fly some here as well.

Sounds like the wait for an instructor was well worth it. I'd hold off flying by your self until you get a bit more time with the instructor. You need to learn how to handle a dead stick situation before you fly on your own. Probably another day or two with the instructor practicing landings and some simulated dead stick landings will have you set up. A couple of actual dead stick's thrown in probably wouldn't hurt as the plane will fly a bit differently with out the engine running. You also should practice a few advanced maneuvers while on the buddy box just to learn how to do them correctly, they you'll be all set. No reason to rush the last few lessons with an experienced pilot when they can do you a lot of good.

Hogflyer

Way to go! [sm=thumbs_up.gif]

Good news. Like the others said, don't get overconfident. You're at a dangerous point in the learning curve.

dead sticks are more different than you think, on a trainer your speed will increase and your glide ratio is large but if done incorrectly, it can do some damage.

p.s. congrats and remember this hobby is about fun, it's better to pack up angry than to leave ticked.

That's awesome to hear, YellowHawk! Glad to hear you're enjoying the Nexstar.

Now all you have to worry about is Four Star or Tiger 2 next...

Speed increases on a dead stick? So to get more speed out of my trainer at any time all I need to do is kill the engine? I don't think the physics of that will work out too well.

Glide ratio is large? I assume this means the plane will glide well? Most but not all qualify on this.

ALL landings can do damage if done incorrectly. Dead stick landings have the additional problem of no prop air over the elevator and perhaps insufficient elevator travel to raise the nose at flair time.

I fly 1/2a stuff too and almost all of my landings are deadstick so I usually do it with my larger planes too,,once with my .25 trainer I was a bit low and it died and I sort of paniced and went to make a sharp turn to get back to the landing approach that I wanted..well, it absolutely fell out of the sky and no room to recover...I know now just to let it glide down and go walk to get it....slow,small inputs...Rog

I've done a lot of dead sticks on the sim, but I realize it'll likely be a lot different on the real thing. It crossed my mind to try that yesterday but I think I'll wait and let my instructor show me how to properly do that.

great job yellowhawk...you're on your way. enjoy