Did my first perfect circle today!!!

[Canhos]

I also broke the stupid thing, but it'll fly again!!!!

Today had to be a highlight day in my modelling days.

Yesterday, I bought a little 24" stunter from a local shop. It's made by Bratco, and is called a Hexdrone. I bought it for 120, they wouldn't give me any more off even with all the dust on it.

Anyways, I broke in the Norvel yesterday, and took it to the field today. An old timer, who's kinda our "head" trainer, said he'd help me with it. We ran the motor, checked that it all worked, then he gave me some tips on tossing it for him.

First chuck was bad, and it bounced.

Second chuck, and he had it zinging around like crasy. He had said to run in to him, so he could help me fly it, but I elected not to. I just rolled on the ground, laughing my butt off at him, as he had this huge grin on his face the whole time he was spinning around in circles. He successfully flew it until it was out of fuel, even puilled off a loop with it.

Then it was my turn.

I half filled the tank, and he chucked it for me. Unfortunately, I had the handle upside down, and it plowed into the ground.

2nd chuck, I did a bit better. Got around 1/4 circle before it hit the deck. Did a loop in that span though. (accidently)

3rd chuck. 1/3 circle before I bit it.

4th chuck, and I oscillated up and down for the first half, then away I went. Zinging around, about 10 feet off the deck. 3 complete turns and the engine died. He started to yell "RUN LIKE CRASY". I stood there with a dumb look on my face as it nose dived into the ground. I asked him "Why run???" He then reminded me about keeping the lines tight!!


The little wing will fly again, but I'll never forget the look on his face when he got done with his round with it. He was grinnning like a 12 year old.

I'm really looking forward to getting my Super ringmaster going now, but I will be looking at getting something that's a little bit more of a trainer before I do that.

This has to be the most fun I've had on 3 ounces of fuel in a long time!!!

[hillmanr2]

Take it off any sweet jumps?

[wise guy]

So you joined the circle flyers club and found out that if is not easy to keep those small planes in the air long. Actually your flight reminded me of my first flight and it took awhile to fly a tank of fuel empty . Larger planes are easier to fly and you do not get as dizzy because of longer lines. Try launching plane with no up elevator and down wind . Hope this helps , have fun.

[ModelBuilder]

Are you working your way up to your Super Ringmaster??? As long as you can fly different little jobs around repeatedly, sucessfully, the Super RM will make it all worthwhile. Make sure it is balanced of course. In my early days, as long as it was nose heavy we were good to go. Balanced is better. Keep at 'er. Good show!!

Bill

[benjhind]

Take it off any sweet jumps?

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

[TLyttle]

Fly that 1/2A until you find it boring, THEN move over to the larger model; the extra time on the 1/2A will help you immeasurably to get used to going round & round, and orienting yourself to position, wind direction, etc.

If the model is tanked for inverted flight, try to master that before going larger. Start with horizontal 8s, the lengthen the inverted section.

I would hate to see the Ringmonster trashed through lack of experience! :cry:

[Canhos]

LOL.

I'd hate to wreck it too, as I have to finish the stupid thing. I've decided to finish it in tissue and dope. (plastic finish would just be wrong).

The little 1/2a had a mishap last time out. I flew it 3 times total since my previous post. 1st time, I grabbed the handle the wrong way, and on launch, I had held the handle a bit "up". Well, the plane did a beautiful outside loop into the ground. Busted up the firewall area. I put a bunch of 5oz glass around it, so it won't happen again.

I took it out again, and after a couple test launches (the firewall held this time), my launcher got the procedure right, and I held the handle the correct way, and I spun around until the tank was dry. I think the added weight in the nose helped me out alot.

After I could see straight, and doing some RC, I fired it up again. Went around a couple times, and tried to see if I could get it to do a loop. I found it marginal, so after a couple more rounds, I really yarded on the top of the handle. I'm not sure what the plane did, but the lines went slack, and I remembered to run, after which the plane did a beautiful 3 point landing. Right on the front of the engine. The stupid tank/mount broke and I cried. Good news was the LHS had one on the shelf, so I can do some more circles again with it!!!

I'm gong to stick to the level flight for a while, and try to meet up with some of the guy's who fly CL in the Vancouver area. I need to see how this is done.

The way I figure it, I can't compete with the big planes everyone is coming out with these days, so I'm just going to go for the unique stuff!

[ModelBuilder]

Inverted flight is the hardest to do repeatedly without an incident. I do it at altitude so that I can recover from a bad action. That won't cut it in competition though. Flying the "pattern" is a good idea. It can be downloaded from the PAMPA site. It takes the what do I do next? aspect out of it, and if you ever do compete, you will already know the pattern.

I just do what I enjoy. I'll never compete and (my) scale models don't do the pattern well. The nice thing about control line "scale models" is they don't require a lot of fuss. Take it down from the ceiling, fly it, clean it, oil the engine. Hang it back up. Art that flies.

[TLyttle]

We fought for 7 years to get the flying site on Rice Mill Rd. in Richmond; until recently it had a sign on the fence acknowledging the old club, Sea Island Model Flying Club. Now it is under the control of Vancouver Gas Model Club, and still in use (look in the events page of MACmag for listings of events).

Should be a number of knowledgeable guys out there, willing to help. If they don't, tell them that I will turn all their firstborns into wombats, I worked too hard for that site for beginners not to be welcome!!! :twisted: