Bartman
Defender of the Noob!
Other People's Problems
After a long hiatus from fueled fixed wing aircraft I finally made it to the field today with what I figured was a solid airplane and perfect weather.
Flight number one was ok, the engine (a new Zenoah G-26) was a little rich but I got back on the ground with a nice landing after about five minutes.
Refuled, talked smack with my flying buddy @Cub Man (aka Bill, aka Billy, aka Special K, aka The BK Broiler) and started up for another flight.
Another club member, a really good guy named Dave with a collection of slabs in the back of his stationwagon, took off and was in the air for a minute or so before I took off.
A few minutes later it happened.......
Dave called out that he had no elevator, naturally I looked up to watch as the plane rolled and dove behind some trees. As I went to look for my airplane which was still flying Dave yelled out if anyone saw where it went and I looked over towards the trees and commented where I thought it went........by the time I looked back at my airplane it was out of control and I had lost situational awareness unable to recover before it spun and crashed.
I basically let Dave's problem distract me to such a degree that I lost control of my plane.
The moral of the story, told for over 100 years by airmen of all nationalities, FLY THE AIRPLANE!!
I bought this airplane, a Lanier 73" Edge 540 ARF from a friend that I sold it to a couple of years earlier but when he never flew it I figured it would be a good airframe for getting back into giant scale. I learned a big lesson today about focusing on the airplane you're flying and unless someone yells "Hit the deck!" in your direction YOU SHOULD ALWAYS KEEP YOUR EYES ON YOUR AIRPLANE! It's a lesson I somehow forgot after four and a half years of almost exclusively flying multi-rotor helicopters which usually have the benefit of assistance from the flight control system so you can manage other tasks such as monitoring a camera feed.
So my low-cost Giant Scale project is no more. A new low-cost giant scale project will begin tonight when I go pick up a Hangar 9 27% Cap 232 that Bill has in his attic. The engine and electronics from the Edge will live on in the Cap that Bill offered to give me, probably out of sympathy but also probably because I sold him my awesome 2M Chip Hyde Hyde-Out so cheap that I've been tempted to break in to his house and steal it back!
I learned something today and luckily didn't lose very much other than an airworthy but inexpensive airframe. It won't happen to me again and I hope that by posting this it won't happen to you either!
Bart
After a long hiatus from fueled fixed wing aircraft I finally made it to the field today with what I figured was a solid airplane and perfect weather.
Flight number one was ok, the engine (a new Zenoah G-26) was a little rich but I got back on the ground with a nice landing after about five minutes.
Refuled, talked smack with my flying buddy @Cub Man (aka Bill, aka Billy, aka Special K, aka The BK Broiler) and started up for another flight.
Another club member, a really good guy named Dave with a collection of slabs in the back of his stationwagon, took off and was in the air for a minute or so before I took off.
A few minutes later it happened.......
Dave called out that he had no elevator, naturally I looked up to watch as the plane rolled and dove behind some trees. As I went to look for my airplane which was still flying Dave yelled out if anyone saw where it went and I looked over towards the trees and commented where I thought it went........by the time I looked back at my airplane it was out of control and I had lost situational awareness unable to recover before it spun and crashed.
I basically let Dave's problem distract me to such a degree that I lost control of my plane.
The moral of the story, told for over 100 years by airmen of all nationalities, FLY THE AIRPLANE!!
I bought this airplane, a Lanier 73" Edge 540 ARF from a friend that I sold it to a couple of years earlier but when he never flew it I figured it would be a good airframe for getting back into giant scale. I learned a big lesson today about focusing on the airplane you're flying and unless someone yells "Hit the deck!" in your direction YOU SHOULD ALWAYS KEEP YOUR EYES ON YOUR AIRPLANE! It's a lesson I somehow forgot after four and a half years of almost exclusively flying multi-rotor helicopters which usually have the benefit of assistance from the flight control system so you can manage other tasks such as monitoring a camera feed.
So my low-cost Giant Scale project is no more. A new low-cost giant scale project will begin tonight when I go pick up a Hangar 9 27% Cap 232 that Bill has in his attic. The engine and electronics from the Edge will live on in the Cap that Bill offered to give me, probably out of sympathy but also probably because I sold him my awesome 2M Chip Hyde Hyde-Out so cheap that I've been tempted to break in to his house and steal it back!
I learned something today and luckily didn't lose very much other than an airworthy but inexpensive airframe. It won't happen to me again and I hope that by posting this it won't happen to you either!
Bart
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