Hey guys,

Yesterday i flew for the first time with my custommade spitfire. The first time i let my sister throw the plane but she didnt throw hard enough. Crash but nothing broken. Then i did it myself with a lot more of power and again, Boemm! Just a little hole. So i fixt it and then i throw it very hard and i corrected the plan just above the ground and it flew fantastic. Now my question is if there are special trixx to throw an airplane on your own. Or is there maybe a easy to build launching tool? I don't want that it happens next time.

A new combat pilot!

Chris

Getting that first flight to trim the plane can be a problem if it is way out. (Sounds like you needed a bit of up trim on the elevator.) When you get it back after that flight look carefully at the elevator. If you have down trim on the elevator you are set up for a crash on the next launch. It is almost certain that if you have down trim you will crash on the next launch unless you correct it to neutral or slight up trim. You can correct a down trimmed elevator by moving both ailerons down. You have to experiment to find out how much.

Planes that take off from their own wheels aren't bothered by this as the pilot gives up elevator just as the plane lifts off. ,

Some people use an overhand launch, some people use underhand, but I have never seen a launching tool used around here.

Take a look at this thread (if you haven't already):
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/Ques..._461558/tm.htm

D

HI CKOK! If you were able to get the plane to fly on a hand launch that nearly missed the ground, then that means to me that your plane is either too heavy or under powered or both. Trying to make your plane lighter is usually the best solution. You might try setting your ailerons so they are slightly down in the neutral position, but not so much that it creates other problems when you get up to speed. GOOD LUCK!

I had this same problem. Most of my hand launches were marginal at best and it just didn't seem to work well, so I built a catapult from Warbirds ltd. It worked well but wasn't very powerful, and some of the launches just barely missed the ground, but at least they were level. I modified the catapult so it ran on ball barrings and added 2 pegs that hold back the airplane when the launcher is pulled back so I can throttle up to full power before releasing the launcher. Ever since I made those modifications I haven't had a problem launching. The design is fairly straight forward. I'll have to dig through my pictures to see if I can find good shot of the catapult if your interested in it.

It's not really that the plane has no power. The three times i tryed to launch the plane, he bended imidiately to the left. And the third time i was able to correct it before it crashed. But i will try next time the underhand throw and i maybe have to keep the ailerons stick to the right( thanks for the link DEMON).

A lot of combat planes go left on a launch. My scale planes last year did it a lot.

I fixed it though a combination of a few things.

- I added some right trim to the rudder.
- I started aiming my throws to the right of where I wanted the plane to go (really)
- I'd try to throw the plane harder and more level to get more air over the tail surfaces.
- I was going to add some right thrust to the engine, but I never got around to doing that one, but it would likely have helped.