pywackit

Hey Guys,

I've been flying for awhile with my Alpha 40 and had 6 good landings right on the runway! I've been so happy about this, I finally feel like I'm getting somewhere with this flying. I have no trouble taking off and flying around and now the landings are getting better. I still need more practice but I'm drooling about switching over to my Big Stick 40 hanging in the basement....I won't do that just yet so don't worry. When I don't have to straighten out the landing gear on the Alpha 40 anymore is when I'll switch over...LOL.

Wild Foamy

i know the feeling mate, i did my first landing on my 2nd or 3rd lesson and its not as hard as you may think, keep practicing!

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

pywackit,
Great job on sticking the landings. IMHO landings are one of the hardest manuevers to do CORRECTLY. Everybody can land, but a lot of times they are more of an "arrival" than a landing. Nothing beats the feeling you have when you absolutely grease your landing!!!! I often go out and practice my landings. I will go out and fly entire tanks of fuel doing touch and goes. As soon as you touch down power up, take off, and immediately bank right back into your landing pattern. You'll be suprised just how quickly your landings will start to improve. It won't be too long before you get to the point that you can start spotting your landings, by this I mean that you can pick a spot on the runway and start to try and touchdown on that spot.

Ken

bigedmustafa

My Feedback: (2)

There's nothing quite like the feeling that things are finally starting to "click" like they're supposed to! Take RC Ken's advice and make a point of practicing your touch-and-goes whenever you get a chance to use more than your fair share of runway.

It's easy to lose focus on making smooth, precise landings and instead simply focus on learning different aerobatic manuevers. I caught myself getting a bit sloppy on my landings and I've been making a point of practicing them more this spring.

You're going to have a great time flying your Big Stik when you decide to take it out to the field. It won't be much different from landing your Alpha trainer, but I think you'll enjoy how it flies aerobatics a little better.

Have fun shooting touch-and-goes with the Alpha, and remember, it's wheels-side down.

pywackit

sounds great to me guys.......practice the touch and goes is fun even at my stage of learning. I see guys doing it all the time and some love just doing that, I can see why! Right now I have a Magnum .61 on my Alpha which I thought about putting on the Big Stick but have decided not too. I think I want some thing a little more powerful in a 4 stroke engine. I know what some of you are thinking....what happen to the Evolution .46 on the Alpha? That engine gave me nothing but trouble so the Magnum won over that piece. The magnum isn't as powerful as the Evolution but it's dependable and gets the Alpha around fine for me. No need for a fast plane at this stage anyway.....Don't fly faster then you can react right.

bigedmustafa

My Feedback: (2)

Your Magnum and your Evolution engines were probably both manufactured in the same Sanye factory in China.

The Magnum 4-strokes are ringed engines and they will tend to develop more power over time. Your Big Stik .40 would be a lot of fun to fly with a .70 4-stroke on it. I have Thunder Tiger Tiger Stick .40 that I fly (very similar to your Big Stik) with a Magnum .52 2-stroke, and it is really, really fun.

ag4ever

That is about all I do is touch and goes.

I want to have my landings PERFECT before I even try to progress to any other type of flying. If you dork an aerobatic maneuver, you can usually recover with enough altitude, but if you dork a landing, it is all over.

I can almost spot my landings, but I am still working on spoting my landings in strong cross winds. Not too easy with an LT-40 that like to float and gusty winds. Last time I had it just touching down and a wind gust came and lifted the plan 5' then it stopped and the plane fell back on to the run way. I was able to control it so it just kissed the run way and landed without a bounce. I consider that much improved over previous attempts.

pywackit

ag4ever, your so right in your thinking about the landings...get it perfected better before moving to another plane, just what I was thinking.
Sunday at the field there was a kid with a Hanger 9 Mustang with out the trainer parts on and he was always coming in too slow and high. The gusty wind with a slight cross wind got him good! He was trying to float her in about 3 - 4 feet high when the gust stopped and his plane dropped like a rock! What amazed me was the plane wasn't even damaged from what we could tell....LUCKY! Then he did it again....VERY LUCKY! Hope he gets it figured out since that Mustang is very touchy on landing. I've decided to get another radio and engine for the Big Stick and leave the trainer as a back up. You know what I need to start saving for now so it'll be some time before I get the new stuff which means more practice with the trainer......This is just so fun!!!!!

Here's a pic of my Big Stick, just waiting for her maiden.

rclement

My Feedback: (1)

danny31292

Great job. The guys who go out and can do 6 absolutely perfect touch and go's are usually the best flies. Those are the ones who turn my heads. To bad the many focus on who can do the crazy 3d instead of who has all the small tedious detail down.