Veraster

So today I decided to try to fly in a feild next to my house. It's about as big as the one at the local club and I don't have to drive there and use up gas.

I asked my neighbor if I could fly over his feild and use the middle section as a runway and he said I could. He also said it was ok to mow the grass in the middle section lower if I needed to. I mowed the grass as low as my mower would cut it. This "runway" is about 12 feet wide and has trees lining both sides. Here's a picture:

The grass was still way too high after mowing it as low as my mower could mow it. So there was grass flying all over the place from my propellor. I even almost hit a tree the first time. I never got very much speed. After my last try, I starting going down the runway. I didn't get going very fast. Maybe like 5-10mph. When I got moving at about that speed my plane started wanting to swerve and I hit a tree and broke my wing. The whole thing was very poor judgment and I deserved it.

At first it looked really bad. I was worried it broke stuff like the metal arm that moves the ailerons and I wasn't going to be able to fix it and make it work the way it should again. After ripping off the cover paper, I saw that it wasn't as bad as I thought it was. Here are some pictures:



I guess the way the ground is curved is why it didn't want to go strait. I'm going to need to find a better place to take off and land or else spend at least 2x as much on gas going back and fourth to the club feild.

ckreef

Even if you would have gotten her in the air without incident you would have never landed between them trees. The field itself maybe OK but you need to come up with a better runway. I would look for a strip down one side that you can mow.

I would have never even tried that and I have already crashed many a planes in a much more open area (much, much, much more open area)

nitro wing

My Feedback: (1)

get big lite wheels and be ready to repair again

Scar

My Feedback: (3)

Now you have a story to tell the new guys!

Keep up the good work on the rebuild, and let us know how you fare next time.

Dave Olson

Luchnia

My Feedback: (21)

Wow...and I thought I had taken off in some small rough places but this is amazing. The roundedness of the ground would make a real challenge for sure. There may be enough room in the field ajoining if you could mow that regularly it might be smooth enough in time. Hard to tell from the picture though if you have enough distance. I don't have any planes that I could risk taking off in that congested of an area.

Hope your repairs comes along good. The damage does not look too bad.

raptureboy

Mama always said.... What were you thinking young man Welcome to RC rebuilding and better luck next time.

Veraster

Here is what it looks like to one side of the feild. Do you think that would be a good place to take off? There's an overhanging tree but I could ask the neighbor if it's ok if I trim his tree. Either that or I could try to take off and land further down. What do you guys think?



As for the repairs it hasn't been too bad. I just spent about 45 minutes cutting parts and glueing everything back together. Here's what I have:


I drilled a hole in the new dowel rod and put a small nail in there and glued it and put it in the end of the old one to make sure they're both attached real good. All I have to do now is wait for the glue to dry and put new covering on it. I'm glad this crash wasn't very bad.

ckreef

Defiantly an improvement compared to your initial runway. If you can get some of that overhang trimmed back it will only be an improvement. Takeoff shouldn't be bad. Landing well for a new pilot that might be a whole other issue.

klord125

I think your asking for a boat load of trouble flying there.. A seasoned vet would have there hands full taking off and landing there. Not that it can't be done but all day long? I think its worth the gas to go to the field. If you crash the plane beyond repair and or radio gear,motor the gas money to go to the field is a far cry from replacement cost. Just my .02

Veraster

I tried it and I just stayed further up away from the tree and it was fine.