valleyk

A question for those experienced pilots that maiden/fly other people’s planes.In your rc flying years what was the best most enjoyable plane you test flew that was not your build? Conversely what was the worst?

flyinwalenda

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The one where I stood behind it on the runway as I took off ! HA !

wphilb

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I flew a ton of trainers for first time students, both back a ways when a lot were kit builds and later in the ARF era. I enjoyed the Horizon Next Star a lot in that category, and hated anything powered by a .049 as we never had enough power or run time for student purposes. The worst was when a guy begged me to fly a .40 sized scaled out heavy mustang in low light as he was leaving for??? The next day and not home for a year and just finished it. Engine died on climb out, did a flat turn back to the field, did not see a sapling (fall, no leaves) in fading light... Never rush a maiden flight! 

Chad Veich

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Clever flyinwalenda, very clever.

DavidAgar

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The best plane that belonged to someone else has to be any Ugly Stick or Tiger from Carl Goldberg. The worst has to be the one made from all the corrigated plastic and sold as indestructable. Every flight with those planes was a maiden flight as the trim's changed every flight depending on the weather. One of my personal favorites is the Carl Goldberg Chipmunk, which in my opioion, is one of the best kits ever made. Good Luck, Dave

R/C Art

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That made me chuckle!

abufletcher

OK. I admit I don't get the joke. I ALWAYS stand behind the model on EVERY maiden flight.

MajorTomski

See this thread

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_11...m.htm#11467946


The nicest I've ever maidened was a Kadet Sr with translucent orange covering and a 90 four stroke on the nose.

The worst was a 3-D something or other that was a student's second plane. He set it up with the throws shown on the plan. Even on low rates I barely got it down in one pieces. With the throws reset around 10% it flew something like his Kadet so that he could get comfortable flying it .

maukaonyx

I think the best one I tested for a friend is a small Osiris. He is an anal guy, so I knew the thing was going to be setup good. After testing on the ground, it flew so well. I was comfortable but not overconfident. Flew on rails, stayed in any attitude left at, landed like a feather. My scariest was probably a Funster, that large low wing plane. It flew well and all went fine, but it was just scarier because the owner is just not as meticulous in assembly and set up. I don't take em off the ground unless they pass my own comfort tests. Jon

flyinwalenda

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For me both were Cubs.
The best was a 25% Clipped Wing Cub, stick built, fabric covered with a 30cc gasser. They had the plane set-up almost perfect. It took off with just a little rudder needed and almost no trim once airborne and the engine ran great.
The worst was a 33% full wing cub. It was stick built, monocoat covered and it had a converted chainsaw engine. Found a few things wrong with it so spent some time getting them sorted out and got the engine running the best it would . The engine was on the bleeding edge for thrust and I really didn't want to take it up. They insisted and said don't worry about it if anything happens. Took it to the far end of the runway ,ready, set, go and 600' later it was off the ground heading for the trees and 700' later it just missed the tops. Barely climbing I kept it straight to try to keep gaining some altitude little by little before turning. Started a coordinated turn and it started to drop. Had to do a huge slow turn to bring it back. At that point I just wanted to get it back and land and almost back over the trees to the runway the engine started to act-up and it sank and sank and never made it over. After spending a few more hours getting it out of the trees he took it home and he wasn't upset....at the field anyway.

abufletcher

Thanks for clearing that up. Yeap, I always stand behind the model on a maiden and it's helped tremendously. As far as not being able to walk and fly at the same time...well, I guess some guys are just more coordinated than others. Bear in mind I fly at a small club and we don't even have fences or "flying stations" (and I'm glad we don't). There's a chalk line and everyone knows what it means.

Returning, sort of, to the topic of this thread, I run up against a unique student training problem. I live in Japan (as most of you know). All the other guys are Japanese and for the most part only speak Japanese. A couple of guys know some English. Well about a year ago, a Peruvian guy showed up with a trainer, wanted to join the club, and learn how to fly. We were sympathetic towards helping him out. Together (back at my workshop and then at the field) we got his trainer assembled and the engine running and tuned. But then the problems became obvious. First, while I speak fairly good Spanish, I had never taught anyone how to fly. And my knowledge of Spanish technical aviation terms is limited. And worse yet, I only use US Mode 2 radios but all the Japanese radios (including this guy's) are Mode 1. So I can't teach him. But the Peruvian guy didn't speak any Japanese so the Japanese-only guys couldn't teach him.

A year later, I still has his training hanging on my ceiling (since he doesn't have space for it in his tiny Japanese apartment).

BarracudaHockey

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US Air Corps!

What a hunk-o-junk!

I guess its a testiment to how many I've test flown that I can't remember any real stand outs. I remember I fussed with a RC Guys Cherokee for way longer than it should take to build an ARF but it flew great and was actually worth the aggrivation (except the crappy covering)

Top_Gunn

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First time I flew somebody's Sig Kadet Senior it was so much fun I got one for myself. Then I flew one with ailerons, and it was even better, so I made myself a new wing.

fourstar40

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I maidened a Greatplanes Super stearman Bipe and the 81" Top Flite Cessna. They both were really sweet to fly. The only times I have ever flown a plane that big. I do a lot of maiden flights in my club but those two were by far the best.

jaav

I hate maidening ppls planes....My knees tremble the whole time. The worse plane I had to do was a NextStar..The wing was twisted some where and would try and kill itself just on the roll out. Never did find what was wrong with it, still sits in the hanger as a one day. the best plane Ive flown was a BH 60 P47..So I have one as well.

kaosindayton

Best Sig Kaveler
Worst Swizzle Stick

vertical grimmace

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I did the same thing. I was not happy with how his Kadet was built, but it still flew nice. I built mine stock without ailerons. I made mine a taildragger as It is good practice for the WW1 models.


Otherwise, I have done a ton of maidens for others flyers. I really liked an Astro hog I flew. Probably the best. The worst for sure was a GP Cub. It was built so terribly, I did not want to fly it. I had to fix hinges and a bunch of stuff to make it flyable. Got it in the air, but sure enough, I noticed it handling odd, so decided to bring it down. The rudder had come unhinged as I could see on final, right before touch down. Then, suddenly without warning, 2' off the ground, It just snapped in. That rudder screwed it all up just before the stall. So it hit the runway pretty hard and it got kinda busted up.

One thing I tell pilots that ask me to maiden their new planes " I can fly your plane, but I cannot compensate for a mechanical, structural failure, and cannot be held responsible for such occurrences."

invertmast

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I cant even begin to think of the best, theres been to many good ones.

The worst though that stand out:

Davis D1 monoplane. The builder is pretty good, but his technical skills (silver soldering, rigging, etc) and attention to details are below average IMO. The plane was so badly rigged and built (even though all the control surfaces were centered). It took full down elevator and full right aileron, just to keep it from climbing at 1/2 throttle. It still rolled to the left! The left roll was so bad, i had to go into my radio while flying and add in all of the left subtrim i had. By the time all the subtrim and normal trim was inputted, the plane was only able to make left hand turns!!

The second worse was some chinese Hellcat arf. It was originally designed for a 90-120 glow motor and the owner put a 30cc gas on it. It needed full right rudder on takeoff to keep it from doing a left hand U turn, all this before even getting to 1/4 throttle. Then about the time i got the heading on takeoff sorted out, the think literally pitched up dragging the tail along the ground to a vertical 3D style takeoff. My response was full throttle which got the model climbing vertically, but then i needed full down elevator to keep it from doing a figure 9 into ground. Full down elevator didnt keep it from still pitching up, but it atleast allowed me to get about 100' of altitude before it was inverted and i was able to roll upright and pull the power back to less than 1/2 to get it flying sort of level. Again, full down trim and full down subtrim had to be put into the model to keep it flying level at about 1/4 to 1/3 throttle, anything more than this and it would start climbing. Once i figures all this out, it was actually a decent flying plane.

vertical grimmace

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The problem with the Nextstar are all of the stupid add on they put on them. Take off the droops, air breaks, Needle restrictor, Self rightening thingy (auto pilot!) and put a good prop on it and get the engined tuned out properly. Even after all of this, I still do not like these planes. But the gimicks they added make it even worse.

Chad Veich

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I've test flown more airplanes for other folks than I can count but the only ones that immediately come to mind as being stand outs were a 1/5 scale Pica Waco and a Hangar 9 T-Craft. I'm sure there must have been some others that were particularly enjoyable but my less than stellar memory is just not pulling any up at the moment! The worst was a scratch built "trainer" that was put together by a guy my brother worked with. He was a pretty good craftsman and the airplane was built satisfactorily but he was no aeronautical engineer and it suffered from some design challenges. It had a very thin flat bottom airfoil with an exceedingly sharp leading edge and no dihedral. The result was an airplane that was impossible to trim for straight and level flight and would pitch nose up or nose down without warning. As I recall there were some other less than desireable flight characteristics that resulted in the airplane's retirement soon after the test flight.

kberk222

mine was a 1/3 scale cub on floates on a lake as the sun was setting worse a 45% yak 3 1/2 pounds tail heavy on its maiden, every thing turned out ok but i think the guy that owend the plane **** himself.

Dreddi

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Best was a Lazy Bee. Worse was a .40 size trainer a friend of mines fathers built several years earlier but never flew.

Airplanes400

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So do I! And I stand behind my planes and jets on EVERY flight. It also makes for a awesome viewpoint.

Like all those people that park thier cars at the ends of airport runways to watch planes take off and land at airports, I do the same at my local field. It's just friggin' AWESOME to stand at the end of the runway and watch my plane make its final approach, fly over my head, and land on the runway. It's the best vantage point ever!

abufletcher

Umm.....

invertmast

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Not even worth it.....