Father's Day!

Had a great day of flying on Father's Day, made totally special by all 3 sons coming out to fly with me!  That was really special.  Tad flew his Kaos Two, Jer flew the rejuvenated Extra Soucy, Alex flew his Alpha trainer, and I flew my Intruder.  It was an exceptional day in another way...Alex qualified for his gold star on his membership card, meaning he can fly alone anytime.  He took three flights today where I did not have to handle the sticks at all.  He took off, flew, and landed on his own.  His landings were very good.  One takeoff was a little sketchy when the Southwind brought the plane over to the fence on the takeoff roll and lift off, but he escaped unharmed with good reactions to keep the plane away from the pits, unlike another pilot at the field today who let his plane go deep over the pits.  Not a good thing by Dave. Alex made lots of loops and rolls, and even extended inverted flight, wonderful flying for not having flown since last Fall!  I made about 5 flights today, a couple with Tad and Jer, making passes together over the field.  I think the Soucy is the fastest, while the Kaos and Intruder are pretty even in speed.  WHAT FUN.  Total satisfaction.

I also flew my Blade 130x for two packs, and had fun with it.  No crashes, and feeling good about it.  Watch out, something bad will happen soon, haha.  Jer flew his Hyper Taxi too, pretty crazy thing.

Flight Log: Last Weekend in September

On Saturday, I maidened my new 60 size GP Shoestring.  Flew well, just needing some down trim and aileron trim to fly straight and level.  The Saito 100 ran good, but needs a little more tuning to be great.  Sounds great already though, but I ran it rich.  Seems like it will be fast  and cleaner in aerobatics than the new 46 size version.  By that I mean it has less adverse coupling when in KE, less than even my 50cc AW Ultimate!  The nice thing about the larger Shoestring is that it slows down for landing much more than the smaller Shoestring, and the ground handling is docile.  It did not have any tendency to ground loop like the smaller one.  I think I had 3 flights with the new Shoe.

On Sunday, I flew my Giles 202 and it was awesome, and handled the brisk north crosswind (nearing 10mph) like it was non-existent.  That is still one of my best planes with rock solid and rail like handling.  The OS 160FX ran like clockwork today.  That leads me to Jer's Extra 300 with the same engine.  He put in new bearings and a new O-ring on the needle valve last night, and the engine still ran rich and weak today.  That was sad.  He only took one flight and set the plane aside for the day.

We flew our DLG's with Joe and had a good time.  Since Jer put the Castle Berg receiver in his Colibri on Friday, we can now fly simultaneously without interference to his Colibri.

Last but not least, Alex flew his Alpha 40 trainer today and I awarded him his smiley face on his KRCA membership card.  He soloed each of 3 or 4 flights.  He was doing loops, rolls, and inverted flight with ease.  All take-offs were excellent, and landings were very satisfactory.  I even made him get to altitude then throttle all the way to low idle to simulate deadsticks, and he landed smoothly and safely on the JB sod farm.  Actually after the second such landing, I made him takeoff again, and the engine quit moments later due to running low on fuel, so he got to do a real deadstick.  He did fine and landed without stalling.   The plane decended steeply though, but he saved it with a flare at the very last second that made for a smooth landing on the sod farm.  It was as good as anyone else might do.  Congrats Alex!!!

3 Days of Flight

After being in LV for five days, I sure needed to go flying.  On Friday, I took my Toledo Special and had a few flights with it, all smooth as glass.  On Saturday, I took out the Imagine 50 and had 5 flights with it, very smooth like butter.  And today I took the Intruder out and had 4 flights, smooth as grease!  Don't ask which is smoothest...glass, butter, or grease, I just know all three flew real graceful and in harmony with my brain and fingers.  Enjoyed it immensely, and had no mishaps.

On Saturday, my three sons flew too, and made it a real nice experience.  Unfortunately Alex slightly cartwheeled his plane on his first landing, jarring his nose gear loose, breaking the stock 3-blade prop, and cracking some of the fuselage wood that holds the tail group on.  That ended flying the Alpha 40 anymore for the day.  Later though, he and Tad got to fly Rudy's electric mini Ultra Stick, and had a ball with it.  It looks like Alex is already ready to advance to something beyond a high wing trainer.  At home in the afternoon, Alex and I repaired the Alpha 40 and it is ready to fly again.

I flew my Apache DLG on Sat and Sun too.  Caught small thermals for 5 minute flights a couple times on both days.

Windyish but Great Flying

The winds were out of the South this AM, and fairly healthy at 5mph+, but the flying was great.  Tad had fun with his Kaos Two, and was happy it made it through its second flying day.  Alex did great with four solo flights.  Tad and I did not touch his transmitter at all!  Al had all good takeoffs, avoiding the fence and the pipes laid along the south edge of the runway.  He also made 3 outstanding landings, better than Tad or I have ever landed that plane. They were straight down the runway, with no hops, fairly greased on!  The other landing was decent, but snaked around the final moments before touch down due to the crosswind, but had no hops.  Alex'es flying progress is phenomenally fast!  He was looping more today, as well as doing many rolls, and inverted flight, and all of it seems to be getting lower and faster.  He IS learning throttle management though, witness throttling back on the back side of loops, and making low approaches in practice for landings.  He knows to be at full throttle with that flat bottomed wing inverted.  Very enjoyable to watch his improvement each time out.

I flew my Stinger II a few times, twice with Tad.  His Kaos and my Stinger are fairly evenly matched in speed so we had fun making passes together, but he did try to keep lots of air between us so that he went home with the Kaos intact.  :)  Another fun day.  Too bad Alex will head back to college very soon.

Frustration

What a great day for flying, but I got zero flights, haha!  First, I got to the field and had chosen the wrong wing tube for the Giles 202.  I brought one for the Yak, arg.  When I did get the right joiner, very happy that Tad brought it, I promptly started the Giles and went to the pilot box to run up the engine.  I ticked the corner of the left stab with my foot as I lifted my left foot to straddle the tail.  That SNAPPED the control horn and made control non-existent.  Luckily I noticed it did not center the same as the right stab.  I thought maybe the servo gear stripped, but found the broken control horn.  I removed it, and at home installed a regular nylon horn, screwed into the ply support of the  stab.  Used CA to make the holes tight, and just screwed the horn on rather than using a backplate for bolts completely through the stab.  It should work fine with the ply plates and CA hardening.  Got in one partial flight on Alex'es trainer, who continues to show quick skills  on the Alpha 40.  :)  Alex got in 2 flights, one with a takeoff, and one with a landing before we stopped flying the plane due to rudder servo probs.  That later turned out to be a badly binding nose gear strut in the nose gear mounting bracket.  We reamed it out with a drill and it should work great from now on.

Talk About Quick Study!

Tad and I took Alex out to fly the Alpha 40 trainer today.  He took off for several flights, but get this...he did more loops, his first rolls, some were even two point rolls with controlled inverted flight, AND he had his first landing.  The landing was entirely on the runway at that!  I mean it would be great to accomplish just one of those things in a day at the field, but he had multiple accomplishments.  Yup, I AM proud, lol!  We had Spencer along, his roommate, because Spencer wanted to see Alex fly, and he enjoyed the experience.  (Later in the day they played with my Real Flight simulator at home.)  Rudy was another witness to the awesome events and progress.  CONGRATS ALEX!!!

I had my Stinger II along, and got two flights with it.  The engine was hard to idle, and it seems the idle mixture screw got loose and vibrated downwards.  I just guessed at how far to bring it out, and the YS 63 ran pretty good after that.  I need to find a way to get the screw to stay where it is set.

Update on YS 63:  I got the idle mixture screw out with the cowl still on (could not remove it due to stubborn muffler that would not come off engine).  It needs a new O ring.  Hard to find those...I cleaned the screw and added a very small drop of blue thread locker on the threads.  Re-inserted.  Hope that holds.  My next idea is a small bit of plumbers tape.  If that fails too, then I will try ACE, and next ordering an official O ring, lol.

Alpha 40 and SNAFU

Alex flew his Alpha 40 today, 5 flights!  After Tad took off the first one, Alex made takeoffs on the next three flights.  With the strong crosswind, this was no small accomplishment.  The first two suffered from not enough left rudder, so he had S curve takeoffs to the right toward the fence, with recovery back to the left, thus the S.  On his 3rd takeoff he compensated a little too much resulting in a takeoff over the left edge of the runway, and as he put it, the ground dropped off rather than him lifting off with up elevator, lol.  I took off for the 5th flight.  Alex showed really good and consistent control of the plane at all altitudes, making both left and right turns, and many passes of descending altitude in prep for landings someday.  Awesome!  Tad had lots of fun training Alex today.  I also flew my SNAFU a number of times in prep for the Valley Challenge flyoff this Saturday.  Almost biffed the plane up good on one taxi practice when I dropped the xmitter and the throttle went up, as I was checking a stop watch.  I quickly throttled down when I righted the transmitter on the ground, and the plane stopped short of any accident out on the sod farm.

Who Flew?!

On Friday, August 10, 2012, Alex flew his new Alpha 40 today after Tad maidened it.  Tad gifted Alex with the complete RTF consisting of plane, engine, and RC gear (Spectrum 5ch), so he had the honors to maiden it today.  All went well, and then Alex got to fly three flights once either Tad or I took off.  We also landed the plane, but it won't be long till Alex can takeoff and land, as he exhibited positive and consistent control of the Alpha 40.  He did rectangular circuits, figure 8's, and even a handful of loops.  The plane flies well and the Evolution 40 starts, runs, and idles really nicely.  CONGRATS ALEX!