flyinredneck

After tryin 3 planes (Air Boss, Slow Stick and GWS Beaver), and having no luck, I bought a Hobbico Red Hawk.


An ROG was not happenin, so I decided to try a hand launch. Full throttle, face the wind, threw it, and she took off!!!! It was amazing. Was a bit too pumped tho, cause I kept "slammin" the sticks, so I never did get her straight and level, but she stayed airborne for a good minute or 2 before my first landing (crash).....lol No real damage done, so off for flight #2.

Again, got her in da air, playing with the throttle cause its a bit to fast for me, losin altitude, gettin close to the baseball diamond, so I power up, clear the diamond, (phew), throttle back to slow up a bit, get the controls mixed up tryin ta turn and WHAM! right into a tree that grew outta nowhere. Still no serious damage except the prop has eaten a bit of the trailing edge.

Lost a wheel on a rough landing on the baseball diamond, so I took the wheels off and decided to do a belly landing instead since its a pusher prop and prop is above the fuse anyway. Good thing I did cause on the next flight, I'm doin a turn and lose some altitiude, comin up on the goal post in the soccer field. Add throttle and clear the post by about 2 inches. (wheels wudda caught it if they were on).

Gettin set to launch again, and the damn transmitter batts go low on me, so I gotta call it a day. A few chunks outta the wing, and a lost wheel collar are all that I gotta fix to fly again, so I'd say it was a pretty good solo for a rookie pilot tryin ta fly with no help.

It wasn't pretty, cause I was all over the place, but I managed to get in a few kinda, sorta, oval type circuits. Figure I got around 10 minutes or more of actual flight time, so I'm thrilled. It's more than the Slow Stick and the Beaver combined, and the fact that I did a few circuits each time was a rush to say the least. Can't wait to get back out there and try again.

Jim

Leo L

Congratulations! Keep us informed of your progress.

flyinredneck

Thanks Leo. Like I said, the flights weren't pretty, but they were flights none the less. This may be the wrong forum for this question, so feel free to re-direct me anyone. Here goes:

After yesterdays flights were over, I got home and set out to repair the damage to the trailing edge(2 small but nasty looking chunks out of it. Should I repair it? If so, any suggestions as to materials or steps to do so? If not repair, any ideas as to a new wing, or shud I just buy a new one?

Thanks,



Jim

Hatty

If they are just dents, then take some clear packaging tape and tape over it so that it is basically just a new layer of skin. I've done this a few times since I also taught myself how to fly and ran into a few trees in the process. If they are large chunks, try to glue whatever you can back onto the plane and then tape over it. That should work well. Check out http://sweb.uky.edu/~mahatf2/rc.html to see what I'm talking about. You can kind of see the dents to the leading edge of my wing and the clear tape that I placed over them. If not then let me know and I will send you some better pics.

Nice job on your flight. I remember when I started. SCARED TO DEATH! But I eventually got the hang of it, just like you will. Make sure you don't go the the extremes with the controls when turning, climbing etc. You usually just have to "bump" the controls to make the plane do what you want. A way I practiced since I didn't have a flight simulator was by visualizing myself flying. I would close my eyes and fly the plane with the radio (not turned on of course). Since you kind of know how the plane flies, then you should be able to visualize it fairly easily. If not then watch videos of RC airplanes flying on youtube.com. But, remember to "bump" the controls. The plane will do what you want, you just have to give it a little bit to get to where you want it to be. But, enough of my rambling. Keep up the good work. I love hearing about people who take up RC flight. What a wonderful experience.

Leo L

I agree that clear packing tape is the easiest way to repair the wing's edge. If its a small missing piece, just run a section of tape along the edge, folding half over the wing and half under. If a bigger chunk is missing, you may also want to run one or two pieces perpendicular to the wing's edge.

flyinredneck

Thanks for the advise Hatty. Tried that tonight and did notice a difference. It's definately gonna take more time to get used to the planes response, and probably even more time to calm myself down and relax......lol. Damn thing got outta range (I think) on me earlier, just stop responding to inputs, but the motor did quit. Bounced of a tree limb and landed in a guys driveway............just missed his van (phew). All was good tho, the gentleman picked it up and met me in the field and was jokin about an invasion. Planted it a couple more times after that and I think the wing is near done. Might hafta go buy a new one if repairs seem to be out of the question. Will report back.

Happy flyin guys!!!



Jim