I got up at 7:30am on Saturday morning itching to get to the flying field. The weather over the last three weekends had been atrocious for learning - sunny, but constant 20mph plus winds. Definitely not weather for me to be flying my LT-40! I'd been watching the weather all week; Sunday was going to be a write-off due to a thunderstorm front moving in (equalling the all-time record of 13 thunderstorms in July for Chicagoland) but Saturday was going to be warm and sunny with clear sky's lasting all day!

My batteries were charged and I was ready to go. I loaded the plane into the car (have you ever tried getting a 70" wingspan aircraft into a Nissan Altima? There's definitely an art to it) and started the half hour drive to the field.

I got to the field at 9:00am, eager to carry on with my training. Normally at this time in the morning there are a few club members flying, but this morning I couldn't see any cars I recognised in the parking lot. When I opened my car door the reason became aparent: the wind came blasting into the car straight out of the South.

Well I wasn't going to drive all the way to the field just to drive straight back home again, so I loaded my plane and field equipment onto my cart and walked the half mile through the forest preserve to the flying field. One and a half hours later, after sitting and watching the horizontal wind-sock pointing directly at me, I broke down my 'plane and went home resigned to the fact that the Chicago weather was going to mean yet another weekend on the ground.

Sunday morning came much sooner than I expected due to the fact that I'd forgotten to shut the blasted alarm off. Oh well, I was awake so I may as well pop downstairs, eat some toast and read the Sunday newspaper. I got downstairs and suddenly realised that there was sunlight streaming through the family room blinds. I thought it was meant to be stormy?

I stuck my head out of the front door and found a warm summer morning with barely a breeze blowing. Five minutes later, after getting a day-pass from my darling wife and due to the fact that I hadn't unloaded my plane from the day before, I was in the car and heading to the field. I pulled into the parking lot half expecting to be greeted with swaying trees and empty parking spaces. Not today! Three or four of the regular 'mobile hangers' were there.

What followed was a great morning of flying. I managed to get six flights in, practising my clockwise and anti-clockwise pattern, flat figure eights, take offs, landings, touch-and-goes, and rudder-elevator flight. My club has a very structured flight training programme: every 'newbie' gets a training card on which are check-boxes for twelve different areas of flight proficiency ranging from ground checks and safety protocols through in-flight manouvers to the obligatory take-offs and landings. Well what do you know, by the time the storm front finally arrived at 11:30am I had multiple ticks in all the boxes. One handshake from my instructor later and I was passed for solo flight!

A big thank you to all the instructors at PropMasters R/C Club who have worked so hard at creating and maintaining an excellent flight training programme. Special thanks go to Marv my primary instructor who must have taken a good couple of hours out of his own flying time to help me get to this point.

Feels good, doesn't it?

Cheers,
Neil.

P.S. Just a note to the prankster that shrank the length of the field by 20% on my last landing... It wasn't funny and I'd appreciate it if you didn't do it again! *ahem*

Neil,
I suspect that with your new wings, you'll become one of the "regulars" at your field. And someday the kids will wait for you to arrive so you can teach them!

Tom

great story. Glad your wife gave you the day-pass. Maybe yours should talk to mine.

Congrats!!!

She baby-sits when I go flying and I baby-sit when she goes stamping/scrapbooking. All the same though she's a pretty amazing gal!

Greenboot - I'd love to help out with the instruction one day, but I think I'll wait five to ten years before I give it a go

Mindwarp,
Congratulations! That's what I call serendipity. Expecting foul weather, wind up soloing.

Five to ten years before instructing sounds about right to me. But then it would; I've been at it for eight years, and just started instructing last fall. I find it as rewarding as anything else I do in this hobby.
Dennis-

Sounds awesome!! And where is the "attaboy"?

So, I am a beginner, but often my ambitions exceed my capabilities, so I feel confident doing things I know I shouldn't try.

Knowing this about myself, I intentionally tried to slow myself down. I built my GreatPlanes PT-40 kit, and am proud of it, and I don't want to crash it ... So, I took the spirit of all the advice in this forum, joined a good club, and had buddy box instruction. All of 3 flights. The wind has been really strong on all flying occasions, so the instructor would take off, hand the controls over, and later would land for me. On my first flight he had to recover the plane a few times from me ... we were being very informal about the training on this flight, and I was "getting a feel" for the plane. On the second, we took a more formal approach, and I flew rectangles, figure 8's, and threw in a few loops.

The third flight we did similar things, but started some approaches as well. He is a chatty instructor, and I appreciate that, but we were chatting on one particularly good/lucky approach, and he says "well, why don't you land this one....", so I did. It was as bouncy as hell, but it was sufficient.

Well, that was wednesday night last week, (wednesday evening, and Sunday Mornings are beginners sessions at the club).

On sunday, the weather was wet and windy, but my parents had come in from overseas (first time I saw them in a while), and I wanted to show off my plane. After lunch the rain was gone, and the clouds were dissipating, so I packed up the plane, and went with my father to the field hoping that there would be an instructor. Well, there was no-one at all. The wind-sock was horizontal, so I told my dad that I was not going to try to fly, but just taxi around the empty field, and get a feel for the ground handling of the plane. I had never actually taxied at all, the instructor had always flown the taxi/take-off.

So, I gear up, and head off around the field. For 20 minutes I circuit the field on the ground, and even my dad has a go. Finally, (I have a nearly full tank), I say to my dad, "well, I came to fly....". So I head off in to the wind and seconds later I am airborn. Now I am committed, and my legs are jello. Flew a few circuits, got the trim right (for some reason I needed to adjust the ailerons substantially to the left from the normally perfect center trim position). Got straight an level, and decided it was time to attempt a landing.

The wind is strong, but consistent (and in the same direction as when I was with the instructor flying approaches). I fly the pattern, and am comming in smooth and level, so I just let the plane follow it's own glide path to the ground. I was high to start, so the landing happened two-thirds along the runway, but it was soft until I turned (with too much speed), at which point it nosed over to the side on the tricycle gear, and had an at-idle prop-strike.

Having witnessed some other less than perfect landings, I can safely say that this one is pretty average for a beginner.

All in all, I was whooping from joy and relief. My dad was all worried about the plane because of the prop-strike, but I knew it was fine. My legs were shaking, and I was extatic.

Now, my beginner's question is this:

How do I tell my instructor that I have soloed without him getting mad at me .... ;-)

gus

Gus,
Good for you! Why do you feel you have committed a crime? I thought people were SUPPOSED to fly their planes.
If your instructor is mad, tell him I said to lighten up. He should be glad about your success.

This is supposed to be fun.

Tom

I suspect that MinnFlyer is beginning to wish that he'd never even STARTED with the "attaboy's"

Nonsense! (I've just been busy lately)

Here it is!

I tell you, "attaboy's" seem to be pretty much the only growth industry these days!

I want an attaboy!!!!!

Jokes, having my plane in once piece is Attaboy enough for me ;-)

gus

Sorry Gus. Didn't mean to leave you out!

Just what I have wanted ... how did you know?

Thanks again.

gus

My plane stays on the ground sadly look at my weather for the weekend/week

http://www.weather.com/weather/local...ocalUndeclared

Maybe I can sneak one in on Sunday or the following Sunday