All Us intermediate pilots, Lets Share

[Grossman56]

One of the guys was great enough to get a picture of me and Shangrila last Saturday!

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

Out of curiosity, does anyone go through a loss of confidence after a crash??
Man, ever since I lost My Little Gal I, I'm really having trouble shaking it. Then the first Spitfire augering in didn't help either. Yesterday, I took the second Spitfire up first and I was shaking, don't know whether it was because I was in front of strangers or what, finally settled down, but that first flight, I was shaking. In spite of it, I flew well and did a great landing, putting her right down on her mains, so that was something to be said, but then I had the incident with the Pitts, even though I've flown her several times since getting home from Nefi and had great success, I think I know what it is, but man its hard on a guy. I immediately took her off the runway and grabbed the Spitty and took her up. Again, flew fine and sort of calmed down. They say, when riding horses, if you get bucked off, get right on again, which is, essentially, what I did. Had BBD up as well and she has yet to let me down. She has more dings in her just from transport than I've ever put on her from flying, she's my go-to warbird. But with the P40 standing on her nose at Nefi, MLG-I nosing diving in, the Spitfire auguring in and the Pitts giving me fits, its hard on a guy. Do you ever get past it?

Grossman56

[Dewey H Lee]

It's just one of those things that happens to all of us. I believe they call it Murphy's Law. You Know what that is. The only thing we can do is keep on plugging. That's kinda the way after the first maiden with Pandora. She shook me up that first flight. I had never ever had a bird act like that. Sometimes it's best to just go back to your beginnings and just fly what you really trust until you get calmed down again. Hey get the wife to get a broom and beat that monkey off your back.

[Grossman56]

LOL!! Good advice though.
That little Spitfire is a joy. Once you get the Pandora nailed down, its definitely a bird to consider. Between the two, they are confidence builders or rebuilders as the case may be.

Grossman56

[farmflyer]

It happens to everyone at some point. It took me a while to settle back in after totally destroying my flyzone 190 and flyzone corsair in two weeks actually in two flying sessions. I had the shakes this year after not flying for a few months this winter. It felt almost like starting over. When I started back flying this spring I did three maidens on two of the planes they were really twitchy and hard to fly until I got the cg and throws set. I thought for a while I had lost my feel for flying. Then like others have suggested I went back to the plane I felt the most comfortable with and kept flying it until I didn't think about flying it just became natural again. I know I'll crash again but hey that's just part of the game. It'll either be by some type of failure or just by testing my limits. I feel that if I don't test my flying abilities occasionally then flying losses some of its appeal and kinda gets boring. Don't worry Gman keep putting them in the air you'll shake it soon.

[Grossman56]

Thanks guys, I never shook before, had me worried.

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

Well, this has been a strange year, The weather has been downright unusual here and for Motion R/C to be out of stock for this long is down right strange as well. I know the boys are undoubtedly feeling the pressure as a bunch of us are waiting for the much anticipated FMS Trailer. I've learned my lesson, I will be ordering a couple of the things I need, not just one and that may be something for you all to consider. With HH basically ruling over FMS and their prices being higher than Motion, things like props and spinners are a commodity you may want to consider having more of.
Meanwhile the guys are all at Oshkosh, so if you're in the area, drop in and take pics of them all. They're so darned shy, about letting us know what they look like, they didn't even identify them individually in the AMA magazine article!
My buddy Warbird Charlie aptly named AMA Headquarters as the Burmuda Triangle of R/C Planes, as we all walked away with some sort of damage. I think we were all so excited as we looked forward to it for months, that we were probably not at our prime, but hey, it didn't stop it from being one of the best R/C flying times I ever had.
Still waiting to see some of the video footage from Mike and Ryan, guess they've been busy shooting the latest planes, but hey, we were flying a lot of the latest planes, so let's see the footage!
Hope everyone's Summer is going well and the new planes are living up to your expectations. Enjoy it my friends.

Grossman56

[Dewey H Lee]

Hey buddy you almost sound really down there. Keep your chin up Dan. They should be coming in any time l hope. I need some parts also. Just got Ferouis Frankie in today and I want some stuff for it also. It's frustrating I know. I just hope that since HH is controlling things now that motion doesn't let this become a trend. I've noticed that force rc is running a clearance on just about all FMs planes. Makes you wonder.

[Grossman56]

Naw, more frustrated with the wind than anything.

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

Beautiful morning! Off to the field with the Spitfire and Old Crow, figured it was time to see how the 650 performed. Diane brought out the Apprentice.
Spitfire flew fine as she always does, its become a replacement for the Pandoras as my warm up plane. Again, I was shooting landings with her, got fairly good, but I'm still looking for that sweet spot to match the speed with her tendency to float. I'll have to take her up and stall it I guess. Anyway, made for some great touch and goes
We had some weirdness in the Apprentice again. The ailerons would not respond correctly. Check the servos out with the servo tester and they were fine, so I'm thinking its either in the leads coming off the receiver or the receiver itself. Anyway, put a couple of dings in her, but nothing serious. Diane does well on it and personally I think its harder to fly than the Pandora, so I told her we'd buddy box on Pandora two and see how she does. I think she'll like it much more.

Anyway, time for Old Crow. Go to take off and one of the wheels comes off!!
What the H---!!!
So, of course, it breaks the cheesy little pins that hold the retract door to the wing, no biggy, just pull it off, out with the tools and put the wheel on, cinch it down tight, try again, wheel comes off!!!!
This time it takes a prop blade with her, time to call it a day.
Turns out that the grub screw isn't coming out to connect with the axle when it feels tight. I have a strut that I use for pieces so I pull the grub screw out of it and work it through the retract so I can see the darned thing coming into the axle hole. I actually had to work it a few times to get it to do that, so don't trust brand new retracts boys, these were right out of the package!
Anyway, I also put some Foam Tack on the end of the axle for added safety, it should be fine now, I hope.

Mike and his brother are working on some upgraded retracts for the Freewing P51's, can't wait til they have them completed, I'll be the first in line if I can bump Lon out of the way!!

Grosssman56

[Dewey H Lee]

Dan when the holes are threaded they use a starter tap and then it's suppose to be backed up with a bottom tap. That day they must have skipped a process or forgot. I've actually checked most of the gear parts I've ordered for the grub screws and found this not uncommon. Having a machinist background of course I have my own tap sets. Alot of companies will run an intermediate tap to handle both operations at one time to save time but it leaves a bevel at the bottom of the hole where the tap actually bottom because there's not enough clearance to get the full thread through.

[boomer108]

Hey everyone!

. I had a great flying day today. I had the Pandora, Waco and FMS Corsair out today and no mishaps with the Corsair which has been my hanger queen from day one. The Pandora is always a great flyer and the Waco once you get it off the ground flies beautifully. Love days like that. Good flying to all!

Roy B.

[Grossman56]

I hear you Roy, nothing like packing up at the field, knowing you just had an awesome day. Stays with you for the rest of the day.

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

Had a great day with a little bit of excitement thrown in as well. Thought I'd get wise and fly Pandora One this morning and practice my touch and goes, probably burned through 8 or 9 batteries. Did real well, but I'm still building the program in the brain to adjust throttle to control descent while maintaining the fuse at a level position. Anyway, that went well, very well in fact. the excitement came when all of a sudden I had no elevator!!
I was turning onto final approach when I noticed this and she kept descending, I had full back elevator!! I increased throttle and managed to get level flight long enough to get over the runway and got her down, a bit rough, but no damage. Whew!!
The only thing that I can figure is that a wire may have got tangled around the elevator servo while I was flipping it around and wouldn't allow the servo to pull back. I checked it all out and tucked any wire that was loose into a convenient hole and tried her again, it was fine, so that must have been what it was, gave me a scare because to lose old Pandora One (the red, white and blue one) would have been just too much.
Anyway, she lives on, even though she still has the smell of fire inside her from two years ago, she surely lives a charmed life!

Grossman56

[RCjetdude]

Nice recovery. I always love to hear stories like that. Flew the snot outa' my Super Scorpion, and 1700mm Corsair today. The Corsair gave me a bit of a scare when dropping the gear for landing. They didn't drop... cycled them one time and they worked. Whew... My F-16 didn't fare quite as well. Had to abort a take off and bent the nose gear strut. No biggie. Part is already on its way. Overall a good day.

[Grossman56]

I had that happen a few times with both FMS P51's. Cycle the gear on the ground, works fine, get in the air and fly, go to drop the gear and one side stays up! So I do a go around and cycle it and they both come down, whew!
I found that the problem went away when I replaced the retract mechanism sides with the cnc smallparts aluminum replacements, but man when it happens in the air and I'm thinking that I might have to belly land a P51, its enough to give a fella grey hair!

Grossman56

[RCjetdude]

I saw also that overtightening the screws that secure the plates can create such a problem as well. Where did you get the cnc side plates from?

[boomer108]

You can get them from SMALL PARTS CNC.com. I have them on my FMS Corsair and P51B models, worth there weight in gold. No more gear collapses.

Roy B.

[Grossman56]

http://smallpartscnc.com/index.php?r...product_id=193
They also have the rotating retract replacement sides that will work on the P40, I have them on mine.

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

Well, here she is boys, post number 2600!!
Got the long awaited spare parts order from Motion R/C arrived today, so I can finally put the Nefi trip to bed. The new spinner and prop are on the P 40 (Last Nefi damaged repaired!!) and she's ready for the air again, can't wait!
We have a pretty sizable fire going on just out of town and its keeping it pretty smokey around here, fortunately it's not coming this way and its on the other side of town from us. Still, we have friends and coworkers in the area.
Been flipping around the Pitts and the Spitty, time to strap on the Tomahawk and the P51s again. We have a local air event going on as well as August 20th is the Annual Wings and Wheels which is as close to an airshow as we get around here. The club usually has a setup out there so we'll take a few planes to show off. Good thing I have at least one Motion R/C business card!! Been asking the boys to throw in a few with the orders but no response yet.
As I mentioned before, I put the Small Parts CNC side pieces on the landing gear to beef it up. They work absolutely great on the Mustangs and the 1400 mm Corsair ones work on the P40.
Got to make them last as that will be the last FMS airplane I will buy at the new prices they expect us to pay!!

But, at least the one bright star on the horizon (no pun intended...well, maybe just a little one....:) is Flightline. Can't wait to get my hands on the Bearkitty and that will be it for me for a while. I can drool, but the wife wants a nice trailer so we have to be fair.
Well, that's about it, have fun flying out there, check out some of the newest features here on HobbySquawk.

Grossman56