Crash Free Friday

Crash free friday, and I did fly my planes. Five flights total with my new plane Ive built and designed and no crashes if you dont count a powered touch and go ( no wheels ), it was like a flying a lawnmower! The grass is about 2 inches high on the oval and lush green. Grass was going everywhere. It was fairly calm this morning so I figured I would use my 52 ft. .008 steel lines as I really like the extra sky. I was using my Combo 049 ( Surestart crankcase, TD cylinder, Killer Bee Crank, standard plug) for the first two flights but there really was no tension and it was coming back at me too much and a crash was going to be inevitable. ( I have made up a set of 42 ft .008 steel lines this afternoon, ready for tomorrow ) So I changed the engine over to a TD 049 for the last three flights and the TD was much better. Still had some moments though. Probably caused by me

I was practicing horizontal eights and inverted in each flight and was able to do consecutive eights and lengthen the inverted distance. This could be completely the wrong way to go about doing the horizontal eights but knowing no better, this is how I have found by trial and error a way of doing them reasonably safely and drama free. I fly the plane around level at about 5 ft. and just as I come into the wind I do the half loop to get inverted and by the time it is inverted its got the cross wind keeping the lines tight and then just as I come into the wind whilst inverted I do the half loop to get back to normal flight and as the plane does that and levels out it has the cross wind keeping the lines tight.

I also performed some very unplanned maneuvers by trying to start the eights up really high. Doing that, brought the plane very much toward being up over my head and I was very fortunate several times not to plant the jigger! But luckily I think Im just starting to feed the controls the correct way by reaction when inverted and or the plane is not going where I had intended :-) . I tried coming out of inverted several times by trying to do wingovers from inverted and then feed it back to normal flight as it came over the top. Although I didnt crash doing them, it was pure luck I didnt as they went badly wrong each time. I did my first loop (inside loop?) towards the ground and around when I was trying to do a Wingover from inverted to get back to normal flight. It was my own fault as always. I didnt think it through before I did it and had the plane overhead completely with the wind wrong and it seemed to want to fall out of the sky. I ended up doing the other type of loop and levelled it out and decided after that I should practice nice level flight till it ran out fuel. :-) The new plane flys really well and is built from a single sheet of 2mm balsa. I am drawing it up properly at the moment, so as that I can track the changes I make to the plane and how they impact flight.



The rubber band engine mounts work really well for me. I can change an engine over so easily and quickly. The TD seemed fine running without pressure and didnt miss a beat whilst doing the horizontal eights etc. I know the consensus is they need pressure but thought I would swap it over and see how it goes. Went fine. I am certainly no physicist but I wonder if the small half ounce tank made it easier to draw the fuel. Normally I use a tank that is a wedge and just under an ounce.

All in all, it was a very successful day and heaps fun flying session. If the wind does the right thing for me tomorrow morning I will go try again. Although Im a bit wary now of pushing my luck. Lol. Says me. Who used to say when racing bikes, If you dont crash now and then, you arent trying hard enough ( or going fast enough ). Its a bit of a nice novelty to go flying and do some stuff like the eights etc, and not have to build a new plane when I get home!

Yabby