What a Donkey
 

So guys, see if you can picture this:

I just came back from professional rc flight school last night.

I have wanted to fly these planes ever since I flew model rockets when I was about seven years old and now about thirty years later I finally have the resources to get serious about this hobby. With much anticipation and having been an AMA member for almost a year, and getting almost no airtime, I left early Sunday morning and drove over 500 miles to be at this school bright and early Monday to start my training. From the beginning the school was everything I had hoped it would be and I got about two hours of flight time per day. Take offs and landings were the overwhelming focus of the school, which makes total sense to me. After all if you can take off and land you can fly right? Within the first 30 seconds of flight time at the school I had already done my first takeoff and my first landing, with the instuctors help of course. From Monday morning till Wednesday afternoon this is all that was done and I must have hundreds if not thousands of take offs and landings under my belt now. Thursday morning came and my instuctor and I feel that it's time for me to solo. We decided that I would use the instructors trainer instead of mine just because it was bigger and reacts quicker than mine. I was extremly nervous about soloing until I finally got the radio in my hand. All of a sudden all the practice I did turned into instinct. I went around twice and did two beautiful touch and goes and on the third one his requirement is that I land and I rollout. I did it unbelievabley well. Not only did I do it, but the instructor also capurted all of it on DVD video. Boy I sure was releaved and excited. Not only that, I've also got video documentation, a certificate and even a t-shirt in honor of my solo. I couldn't have been more thrilled. I have waited thirty plus years for this moment in time.

After talking about it for a little while and getting over the intial excitment of being able to say that I'm now a solo pilot. We decide it's time for me to take up my trainer and do some solo flights. My trainer starts right up I taxi it up and now it's time for lift off. I give full throttle but hit a couple bumps in the runway which sends my plane off to the right. I pull back on the elevator, the plane gets off the ground barely missing a bush and heading to the right I try to correct. Oh no, no......NO! I do a cartwheel right into the ground busting my plane right where the fuse meets the landing gear. So much for icing on the cake.

So I drive 500 plus miles home and have three days of vacation left in which I was going to spend practicing what I had learned out at the local field and now I have no trainer plane to practice with. Instead I'm telling you all this story.

What a donkey I am.

RE: What a Donkey
 

Sh-t happens:D Repair or repalce and move on and have fun.
Good Luck
chopper man

RE: What a Donkey
 

as stated repair it if the fuse is all there is a day or two should have it ready by the third,

RE: What a Donkey
 

I guess he forgot to show you the "OFF" switch (throttle). Oh well. Ya got three days to repair or replace. Did he offer a Professional RC Repair School?:D

RE: What a Donkey
 

Sorry for the bit of bad luck. What they may have failed to do is teach you abort proceedures. In any instant that the take off roll is not under control reduce the throttle or even kill the engine, if the plane is headed toward the pitts, and try again. Never force the plane to take flight when you are not in 100% control. Well now you get to learn another part of this hobby... repairs. Best of luck to you in the future and do not be discouraged by the crash... there will be more.

RE: What a Donkey
 

OUCH!!!

My worst fears right there...

RE: What a Donkey
 

bang

RE: What a Donkey
 

I may be out of line by asking but how much did this school cost? It sounds like you learned alot in those few days. I'm sure some others might be tempted to go to one if they knew a price. As for the crash, In seven weeks of being at my club (i go once a week) i have seen about 12 planes crash. Anywhere from trainers to jets. It seems like there is a high mortality rate with things that defy gravity. I hope to be very careful and out live the odds there.

RE: What a Donkey
 

First of all Bruce88123 there was no repair school part that I know of. This was all about getting solo in the least amount of time possible.

Skeeter the cost was 60 bucks an hour for flight time only. 30 bucks to check out your plane if you are bringing your own. I brought two planes out for him to check out and we flew both. However the second one was my Twist 150 and I wanted to log quite a few more hours on a trainer before I start flying this regularly. Roughly it cost me around 400 bucks total. That of course doesn't cover the gas, hotel and food. One thing I didn't mention also, I did solo the Twist after crashing my trainer.:D It was my first ARF.

RE: What a Donkey
 

Sorry to hear about your loss, but most likely everything is usable but the plane, so it shouldn't cost you too much:D, Any pics?

RE: What a Donkey
 

Ya' know.....thinking back about the many crashes I have induced almost all were avoidable had I thought about the "what-ifs" before-hand. Its usually something I didn't think to check that bites me in the butt or something I became complacent about, such as.......just another take-off! Best of luck to you and welcome to the sport!

RE: What a Donkey
 

Take a look.

RE: What a Donkey
 

Sorry about your crash Snacker, but in my language URDU we say "GIRTAY HAIN SHAH SAWAR MAIDAAN MAIN" MEANS GOOD HORSE RIDERS FALL ON THE FIELD, its a part of life, and I have gone thru 2 plane crashes, and one lost by my friend in the air, never found, but its a part of life. KEEP IT UP,

Best of Luck


Mody

RE: What a Donkey
 

Well, that's a Nexstar. I have a Nexstar. You should be able to fix it. Or, you can just buy the fuse from Tower and R & R your radio equipment. Or (this is what I am going to do someday) turn the plane into a tail dragger, which will take a litte bit of work, and I am sure you want to get back to flying. Just a thought. And no, you are not a donkey. You have just advanced to the group that "have crashed".:D

RE: What a Donkey
 

400 bucks is not that bad for people who have more money than time.

I see alot of people that seem to be flying beyond there skill level, because they want that cool plane and not that boring trainer. When you can buy an advanced flyer and have it flying the next day, there going to do it, even with a great chance of crashing. Keep flying your trainer until you can almost fly it with your eyes closed and can't do anything more with it before you start flying the Twist.

RE: What a Donkey
 

Sooooo, do I understand it, that you soloed their bird, then they cut you loose on your own plane? No check ride?

RE: What a Donkey
 

What do you mean by check ride? We had been flying my planes for most of the week. It's cheaper if you bring your own equipment.

RE: What a Donkey
 

snacker, that looks like a easy fix,one I have done a couple of times on my NEXTAR,before I turned it into a float plane.
one thing to keep in mind when you glue the gear retainer assembly back together make sure the gear leggs are tight in the slot at the fuselage and the pressure plate, the plywood piece, isn't loose.

if the gear leggs are too loose they won't snap in properly and can fall out in flight,I used wax paper to prevent the glue from sticking to the gear when I was repairing mine.

if you still have the broken sheeting then carefully put them back together and use thin CA glue to reassemble the parts.

if not, then when you replace the broken section, if you wet the replacement sheeting with a alcohol and water mix the balsa will become very pliable to bend around the curve of the fuse, if I am doing a curve I usually tape the piece around the area and let it dry overnight then you have a nicely formed piece of wood.

I crashed a rebuilt several parts of my NEXTAR and flew it for Quite a while as a trainer, it was a real warhorse for me

RE: What a Donkey
 

bigtim,
It looks like in the close up pictures that his gear is bent a little. Have you ever had to straighten yours? If so, was there any problem? Just curious, because I am using my Nexstar to teach my son.......not that he is going to crash, but just in case he does.[:o]

snacker,
Looks like the AFS is bent. Might be a little damage there that you will see when you remove the covering. If you are not using the AFS (and I hope you aren't) now might be a good time to remove it and sheet over the hole. Just a thought.

RE: What a Donkey
 

mesaflyer I have had to bend them back in place after a few hard landings, you need to pull the gear out and clamp them in a vise to do it they bent back easy.
you dont want to try it with the gear in the plane the mounts are just not strong enough for the force needed to do it.
its not if he crashes its when and how hard:D a landing is just a controled crash at least mine are.
I also removed and patched over the sensor hole on my NEXTAR, fuel was soaking the wood where the sensor was.

RE: What a Donkey
 

another thing I did since we are talking landing gear, after breaking and buying a couple of sets of wheels,I got fed up and bought DUBRO lo-bounce rubber wheels they worked much better than the stock ones even on med hard landings the hubs were breaking the DUBRO's are very durable.

RE: What a Donkey
 

Thanks for all the suggestions. I have never rebuilt a plane before and questioned whether or not I even want to bother. The trainer that my instructor had was a Sig Kadet Senior. He had an OS 91 on it and it was so much easier and way more fun to fly than the Nexstar. I have been thinking about ordering one of these to replace the Nexstar instead of repairing it. My twist is on the Dx-7 so I don't know if I can even use the servos out of the Nexstar for anything because I'm putting all future planes on the Dx-7 also. Does anyone know if Futaba servos can be plugged into a Spektrum reciever?

RE: What a Donkey
 

Yes it can. However, the futaba servo has a little tab on it. Cut it off or sand it down and itll work.

RE: What a Donkey
 

According to your post, you had been flying their plane and soloed. Then, they cut you loose on your own plane, without taking you up on a buddy box or at least without an instructor standing next to you. Different planes fly differently. It seem very unprofessional for these folks to get you comfortable with one plane and you expect a different plane to fly the same way.

You solo in a 152, they don't cut you loose in a 172 until you have a check ride.

RE: What a Donkey
 

Like I said I had been flying my trainer all week. Shouldn't those count as check flights? He probably thought that I wouldn't have a problem after how well I did on my solo. I was confident about it myself at that point.