All Us intermediate pilots, Lets Share

[Grossman56]

Well guys, I can't believe it but here I am staring post number 1800 straight in the eye. Monumental, if only to myself.
I was just on the thread "What airplane did you solo with"
The answer, for me as I'm sure it was for a lot of us, was that the first plane I flew was the one I soloed on!!
That was Ol' Weedwacker if any of you didn't get a chance to read about my earlier escapades in my thread "All Us Newbies, Lets Share" which is buried in the archives of this section, "Miscellaneous RC Plane Chat"
Those were the days of having a handful of batteries, a DX4 receiver and a lot of dreams, standing on the side of a road in an undeveloped subdivision a couple of blocks from home.
Ah the thrill of trying to master that nasty prop torque and not even knowing what it was, other than frustrating!! Went through a few props and plastic cowling pieces, but finally, with perseverance and a lot of help from the guys on this forum, like Rocketeer and Hippie 64 and Lon and Lone Flyer and the list goes on and on, I finally found myself feeling comfortable flying her. Then on to Pandoras, I used the picture my wife took after my first successful flight with the Pandora for an icon for quite a while.
I have to admit that when it was suggested that I was no longer an "Newbie" and that maybe it was time to let the thread slide away, I did so reluctantly, it was like an old friend. I'm proud to say that, when last I looked, it was over 105,000 hits! I'm still very proud of it and I just know that others used it as a learning tool so we all got to the next level of experience.
Now, with the help of OV10, better known as Warbird Charlie, I'm traveling along the learning curve again. He's was kind enough to show me how to use the static thrust calculator for doing mods to the ESC and Motor. Thanks Charlie, it was all Greek to me until you explained it to me, much appreciated.
My little hangar has grown too, from my two original planes, Old Weedwacker and Big Beautiful Doll to 11 planes now, including Diane's Apprentice, technically no mine so I only have 10 planes. The basement is a little full, to say the least, but its sure a great place to hang on a miserable day.
I thought, for the fun of it, I'd revisit some of my favorite pictures from the past couple of years, enjoy!

Grossman56

[boomer108]

Hey Gman!

That's a nice trip down memory lane. You,OV10, Rocketeer and Doc are the people that I got good advice from when I first joined two years ago. Time flys, no pun intended.

Roy B.

[OV10]

Hello Gman and Boomer,
I really appreciate the affirmation of my contributions to the Squawk of trying to help you and other pilots.
I am still really very humbled about my selection as the first inaugural winner of the 'Join the Conversation' based on the quality content of my contributions.
Just because I've won doesn't mean I'll stop trying to help others because I've been doing this long before the contest.
I am fortunate to have an electronics background and I am all in to trying to give assistance to others in layman terms for understanding and resolving issues.
Best regards,

[Grossman56]

Hey Charlie, don't know who the others voted for, but you were number one in my books, still are. I'd have put bill' Rocketeer down on my list as well, but he's dropped off the forum, at least for now. I had an e mail from him not that long ago because I was getting worried about him, so I kept bugging him. But he's fine and been busy. Something turned him off of the Squawk, he didn't go into detail, but I hope to see him back one day.

Great guy, and no small loss for us.

Good thing we still have guys like you hanging in there, and its great to see Hippie Bryan back as well!!

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

So, it was off to the field this morning, the wind was slight at home so I couldn't resist checking it out. But, the wind was up and a cross wind at that, gusts were a little more than I wanted for a maiden. I normally wouldn't have a problem with that, but with an unproven airplane, I just wasn't willing to take the chance, although I may have if there had been a headwind.
I keep telling myself that the season is young.
Only two months until Wisconsin!!!

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

So who's coming!?
Ryan R and I are in the process of planning a get together at AMA HQ on the weekend of June 10-12 for NEFI the National Electric Fly In in Muncie Indiana. We'll definitely be there, check it out on the Events page under AMA NAFI Event
http://www.hobbysquawk.com/forum/the...ent-june-10-12
All you guys in the area that wished we all could get together, here's you chance to get together with a few of us.
Don't let me hear it's too far, I'm coming from Wyoming!!
Let's make the effort to finally make this happen, looking forward to meeting up with Ryan and Lon, maybe Captain Mike!?
And maybe some of the guys from Motion R/C!
If we can get this one going guys, there's no reason to think we couldn't do something annually.

Hope to finally meet a lot of the people I consider friend here on the Squawk!!

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

I was browsing through R/C Training Command, which , if your not familiar with it, is non other than Captain Mike and Pilot Ryan in their younger days.
Being a CMPR fan, I can't help but want to share this montage, its great, wish the guys would do something like this every year. Almost, but not quite, a blooper reel!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-B6ednDQgiY

Check it out, great job guys, even if its three years old!

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

Well, it is with a heavy heart that I announce the death of my newest P51, My Little Gal. She was doing her maiden and was flying great albeit a little tail heavy, had her trimmed out and flying fine. Dropped the gear and it was like I lost signal. She just nosed over and headed for terra firma. I honestly don't know what happened, but no response. Dang I hated to lose her, she was awful pretty.
Had a good couple of flights with the Flying Tiger in windier conditions on Sunday, and she maidened very well.

I can't figure it, but I guess in the long run, it doesn't matter, I have a lot of spare parts now, so that's one thing I guess

Grossman56

[Lon]

Dang!! An expensive yard dart. ...

[Grossman56]

You got that right, it would be better if I could figure it out, but, I'm stumped, I know I must have done something wrong, but I can't put a finger on it, oh well, onward and upward.
Hey, are you coming to NEFI?
I just got signed up and we're checking out hotels in Muncie, love to see you!!

http://nefi.modelaircraft.org/

Grossman56

[OV10]

Gman,
Well that just SUX. You know it is gonna bug ya until you can figure out the cause for the grave yard spiral. Post mortems on the remains as you found it are important but if you just scraped up the remains and made the WTF walk from the smoking hole you can still exercise the suspect parts looking for clues. I would look for one of the retracts stalling which can cause a brown out and if that occurred less than 100 ft AGL you get the inevitable. Sorry Gman........again that just SUX.

[farmflyer]

Dang Gman another failed attempt to penetrate the earths crust. We loose more good planes that way.

[Capt. Crunch]

Sorry bout your loss Gman. Pilot error is one thing, but when ya lose a plane due to equipment failure, that's a whole different level of Suck. Hope you can figure out what happened

[Grossman56]

The only thing I can think of, short of equipment failure (which I really hate to call it) goes like this.
We had a wind coming from the east and on the west side of the field, just beyond the hill, unbeknownst to me, is a gravel pit , maybe 300 yards in diameter, and about 50 feet deep, right in the middle of it sits the remains of my plane.
Does it make a certain amount of sense to say the wind could have been swirling around that pit and I got caught up in it?
The plane was flying beautifully up until that point, I had just dropped gear and they were down for sure.
I was making a turn to final to check out the slow flight characteristics in preparation to shoot my first landing. Throttle was back to about a third and at first it looked like I was turning into a tail wind so I gave her a click or two of throttle to make up for the lost lift. The thing is she was coming into a crosswind according to the sock, and would have had a gentle headwind on approach to land But she just wouldn't turn, almost like a tip stall, except I had already checked her stall tendencies and she mushed more than tipped.
It was like she just lost all lift and headed for a lawn dart. Having done a few hours of aerobatics to say the least, I know enough to get the nose down, pick up speed and pull her out, but there was nothing, no lift. At first I thought I'd lost reception, but when I think about all the factors, I'm wondering if I didn't get caught up in a nasty wind effect?
Either that or the receiver failed me, I really don't know...
Thoughts on this?

Grossman56

[boomer108]

Sorry for your loss Gman!

OV10 might be on to something. I use Castle eexternal bec' s on all my Warbirds to avoid potential Brown out' s.

[Shirty]

Sorry to hear it gman. :(

[Grossman56]

Thanks fellas!
Onward and upward.

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

Dang it guys, I just can't take this sitting down!!!
Lawn dart be damned, I smell a project!!
Fuse is totaled, wings are totaled, Spinner is totaled, but hey, the tail is still good, she's rebuildable!!
So, parts, which are in the discontinued are still available and so they're on their way.
She WILL fly again, this time with a new 7 channel receiver and a gyro.
All the parts are still serviceable, so we will see who wins this one!!
I just can't take this one laying down!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Grossman56

[Capt. Crunch]

Atta boy Gman! Show that plane who's boss! lol

Any pics of the wreckage? You should do a before and after pic when its all back together. Its amazing the beating these planes can take and still be repairable.

Here's a pic of my beloved Dallas Doll after an aileron servo locked up in full throw



A few hours later she was ready to fly again, although she's not as pretty as she once was

[Grossman56]

I stripped out all the parts and servos etc from the wreck, no pics but picture this:
The spinner was bashed off the nose was caved in and sideways both wings were broken, on main gear was hanging. The wing was caved in at the leading edge on one side, Carbon fiber rods took some damage, the wing was almost twisted off the fuse. From the trailing edge she was okay, the tail feathers survived very well, a couple of stress lines on the vertical and one broken clevis on the elevator. The motor looks to be okay, but I'll bench test it before give it the green light.

I have a new fuse and a set of wings coming as well as a new prop and spinner set, so the outside, minus the tail will be new. I will check out the gear as well before reinstall, but it would seem that they came through fine. Canopy and windshield were fine, so its just a matter of checking everything out.
Also, this gives me a chance to try something I was originally going to try, and that's covering it in Ultracote. I bought some chrome Ultracote and tried it on a piece of the old wing, looks great!
So, my plan is to have It ready for NEFI in Muncie in June, we'll see how it goes. Sure makes me feel better to think I can resurrect something out of this.
"My Little Gal II"

Grossman56