Well yesterday was a little chilly in the morning...but the wind was fairly calm. Decided that it was a day to fly. It has been a long winter.[&o]

Loaded up the Sig four star...used purchase from a swap meet..... and grabbed the Hawk Pro Helicopter. Off to the private field we go..( had to include the flying friend also.... )

Decided to fly the heli first ... just to get the rust off of the flying cells of the brain. Everything went well... no major problems.

Time for the friend to fly his plane... not sure what it is.. other than a 3 channel high wing putter. I'm sure I could run fast enough to catch this thing out of the air... and I'm 250#
Had to fetch it out of a large pine tree after the engine stalled shortly after take off.... no damage done.
Fired it back up...leaned it out a touch... and away she went.... flight ended good after about 10 minutes.

Well time to fuel up the 4* 40 and put her in the air for the first time...

Had a little problem getting the fuel mixture set... maybe because the fingers were getting cold ??
Did I mention it's cooling off... it's about 32* now.
And the wind is starting to pick up..

But anywho...we get the mixture fairly good......
We are flying off of a really smooth asphault lot....
Throttle up some.....
Plane starts moving...
A little more throttle...
WWWHHHHOOOOPPPPPSSSS...... Not THAT much throttle.... ( can we say ground loop ? )
line back up... easy with the throttle......and up she goes......
Not used to flying a plane this far away from me....
Did I mention I have never flown an r/c plane before ??? Just helicopters.
I flew for about 5 minutes...engine was a tad rich..was sluggish now on full throttle...wound not run clean..
Decided it was time to land it... since my eyes were running from the arctic breeze blowing into them...
Line her up...throttle down...down more...down some more.....
Boy this 4* would make a great cliff glider ..
Finally got her on the ground...you have to almost fly this thing down..it just wants to float like a baloon.

Packed up and came home.

Get up this morning to 4" of snow on the ground...wish I had some skis...[>:]

You're one of the lucky ones who flew a plane for the first time without an instructor. Congrats! Sounds like a nice, but chilly, day. Glad you got to fly before the snow hit and yes, you need to get some skis!

4* 40 is a great plane, but as you`ve learned, it`s a floater of the first magnitude! On mine I used to go to idle while on down wind sometime just to get it down!

You must live a little farther North in MI than the state line. I hear just North of Indiana they got another 12" since Friday.

I use the "wag" technique to bring one in that wants to float. Just keep it lined up with the runway, and give left and right rudder alternately and it will help bring it down a little faster, but still well under control. You can use the same technique on the ground if you seem to be chewing up runway after it's on the ground to bleed off speed before you run out of runway. Don't forget to hold up elevator for the first part of your takeoff roll or while taxiing to keep the tail down and under control , and ease the throttle up from idle to help keep from ground looping. I suffer from the eye watering if there is a cold breeze blowing, wrap around sunglasses can help there. Good luck.

Thanks for the ideas...I'll try to remember them the next time I get out...it's still a little to cold...28* this morning.