Chipwillis
Sep 07, 2002, 07:02 PM
A few years ago a fellow club member set the handlaunch duration record at 2:09 or so.
A couple years later, the record was broken and went to 2:19
Today was an attemt to break that record.
I drove almost an hour to this field I had heard about- one of those fields with unbelievable lift.
I got there and Bill was already specked out. He made it up on his third toss evidently.
He was coming up on 2 hours already- then I learned the bad news. One of the stop watches failed so even though it was kind of evident he was going to break the record, It was going to be all for not.....
So the time was reset, and he wondered if he could make another hour and a half or so.....
He tried, but could not. Looking up into the sky for over 3 hours had taken its toll.
We all know he flew past the previous record by one hour, but those are the things storys are made off.
Bill will get it soon!
And- that field!
Usually I have little problem getting my Omega 3 specked out. First flight, went into a thermal, didnt quite spec out, but cruised out at medium altitude, shopping for thermals..... didnt find any.
Launch 2- Same deal, wide search pattern, nothing.
Launch 3 - Man, this is starting to suck. Is my trim off.... cant find good lift... dammit...ok, im low, and far away... theres a bubble.... circle 1, not much gain, but some. Circle 2, no gain, no loss.. Circle three- what the!?!?!? Ok, im in a safe place to land ( decision to come from Corn field and dodge 3 trees, 300 yards away.... dammit... dont like those trees.... lets land in the corn.....
So, Half an hour later walking thru 8 feet tall corn, sweaty, corn leaves scratching my neck, then feeling the burn of the salt... Yikes... this really sucks.
Me, Bill, and my son Marc were going thru this field. I think its over here, but again, it has been established my depth perception aint what it used to be.....
Bill said, make sure I wiggle the controls every now and then an listen.....
Well finally, found heard it, and then found the plane. Intact.. Resting halfway up between rows of corn.
Getting out was funny.... Took awhile but we made it.
So, I had this post about taking risks....
I took one, made a decent decision I think, and things didnt pan out as good as I have liked. Will I do it again..... If the conditions are the same, and the landing area is the same.... You bet, albiet for the first few flights ill be alittle more cautious...
hehe.... was a great afternoon.
The best part of the day was soloing my son with his GWS Beaver.... Hes flown it alot, but never taken off on his own. Handed him the Tranny, and opted against the buddy box....
He did a good take off, and flew very well for 3 or 4 minutes. Had him bring it in for a landing and he did great at that too!
So he practiced taking off and landings for 4 or 5 times, then id grab the tranny and do a touch and go cus he was having all the fun....
He was pretty happy, and when his DAW 1-26 foamie gets here, hes going to learn highstart lauches!
To make this post even longer- I have a quickie pilot report on a new airplane too... Im too lazy to do another post.
Its the Kelly 1300. You can find them on Hobby-Lobby.com. I got one at a local store ( the sales guy new of my weakness for cool looking planes, esp. Gliders ).
So I put it together yesterday. It is mostly built and all you really have to do is chop off the nose and put in a speed 280 motor mount/firewall deal. No prob.
Got it installed and charged a 8 cell NiMh 300 mh pack I had from a GWS Cub. Balanced it by moving the battery for and aft ( its under the wing, on top of receiver). I handnt sold my futaba 3 channel single stick so put it in, and tested it last night.
First flight was pretty impressive. I hoped I could get 3 one minute engine runs from it. Went out over this school and searched for lift as I climbed. Went into a boomer thermal, and shut down the motor. Went up pretty high, trimmed the plane some, and basically got used to it. Left that thermal cus I was getting too high, and cruised all the way across the field tot he other side... and finally go low to do another climb....
I think the first flight lasted 13 minutes or so, and I really wasnt trying to keep it up that hard.
Recharged it, and got into lift so strong, it took me a full 4 or 5 minutes trying to get it down. Spiral dives built up alot of speed. Wouldnt spin. Could only fly inverted for a few secs and that didnt help much. Finally decided to roll as steep as possible, then pull back and keep doing these until it built up too much speed.... finally got it down.
The wing is pretty fragile on this thing, and I would not do a high speed dive our any kind of abrupt pull.....
Other than that, wow... this is a fun airplane.
It thermals much better than I had expected, and getting 3 climbs to altitude on one battery, well, Im glad I bought it. Now, to strip the wing covering and put on something dark! Transparent yellow does not work too well.....
All in all, It was a great day!
Chip
Ps. Im 50-50 on selling an Omega 3 meter. With servos. If interested make me an offer. It has HS 81s mostly (6 ). And a spare wing, that is unbuilt. Fuse has normal wear ( couple cracks under wing saddle area that alittle glass will fix nicely ).
A couple years later, the record was broken and went to 2:19
Today was an attemt to break that record.
I drove almost an hour to this field I had heard about- one of those fields with unbelievable lift.
I got there and Bill was already specked out. He made it up on his third toss evidently.
He was coming up on 2 hours already- then I learned the bad news. One of the stop watches failed so even though it was kind of evident he was going to break the record, It was going to be all for not.....
So the time was reset, and he wondered if he could make another hour and a half or so.....
He tried, but could not. Looking up into the sky for over 3 hours had taken its toll.
We all know he flew past the previous record by one hour, but those are the things storys are made off.
Bill will get it soon!
And- that field!
Usually I have little problem getting my Omega 3 specked out. First flight, went into a thermal, didnt quite spec out, but cruised out at medium altitude, shopping for thermals..... didnt find any.
Launch 2- Same deal, wide search pattern, nothing.
Launch 3 - Man, this is starting to suck. Is my trim off.... cant find good lift... dammit...ok, im low, and far away... theres a bubble.... circle 1, not much gain, but some. Circle 2, no gain, no loss.. Circle three- what the!?!?!? Ok, im in a safe place to land ( decision to come from Corn field and dodge 3 trees, 300 yards away.... dammit... dont like those trees.... lets land in the corn.....
So, Half an hour later walking thru 8 feet tall corn, sweaty, corn leaves scratching my neck, then feeling the burn of the salt... Yikes... this really sucks.
Me, Bill, and my son Marc were going thru this field. I think its over here, but again, it has been established my depth perception aint what it used to be.....
Bill said, make sure I wiggle the controls every now and then an listen.....
Well finally, found heard it, and then found the plane. Intact.. Resting halfway up between rows of corn.
Getting out was funny.... Took awhile but we made it.
So, I had this post about taking risks....
I took one, made a decent decision I think, and things didnt pan out as good as I have liked. Will I do it again..... If the conditions are the same, and the landing area is the same.... You bet, albiet for the first few flights ill be alittle more cautious...
hehe.... was a great afternoon.
The best part of the day was soloing my son with his GWS Beaver.... Hes flown it alot, but never taken off on his own. Handed him the Tranny, and opted against the buddy box....
He did a good take off, and flew very well for 3 or 4 minutes. Had him bring it in for a landing and he did great at that too!
So he practiced taking off and landings for 4 or 5 times, then id grab the tranny and do a touch and go cus he was having all the fun....
He was pretty happy, and when his DAW 1-26 foamie gets here, hes going to learn highstart lauches!
To make this post even longer- I have a quickie pilot report on a new airplane too... Im too lazy to do another post.
Its the Kelly 1300. You can find them on Hobby-Lobby.com. I got one at a local store ( the sales guy new of my weakness for cool looking planes, esp. Gliders ).
So I put it together yesterday. It is mostly built and all you really have to do is chop off the nose and put in a speed 280 motor mount/firewall deal. No prob.
Got it installed and charged a 8 cell NiMh 300 mh pack I had from a GWS Cub. Balanced it by moving the battery for and aft ( its under the wing, on top of receiver). I handnt sold my futaba 3 channel single stick so put it in, and tested it last night.
First flight was pretty impressive. I hoped I could get 3 one minute engine runs from it. Went out over this school and searched for lift as I climbed. Went into a boomer thermal, and shut down the motor. Went up pretty high, trimmed the plane some, and basically got used to it. Left that thermal cus I was getting too high, and cruised all the way across the field tot he other side... and finally go low to do another climb....
I think the first flight lasted 13 minutes or so, and I really wasnt trying to keep it up that hard.
Recharged it, and got into lift so strong, it took me a full 4 or 5 minutes trying to get it down. Spiral dives built up alot of speed. Wouldnt spin. Could only fly inverted for a few secs and that didnt help much. Finally decided to roll as steep as possible, then pull back and keep doing these until it built up too much speed.... finally got it down.
The wing is pretty fragile on this thing, and I would not do a high speed dive our any kind of abrupt pull.....
Other than that, wow... this is a fun airplane.
It thermals much better than I had expected, and getting 3 climbs to altitude on one battery, well, Im glad I bought it. Now, to strip the wing covering and put on something dark! Transparent yellow does not work too well.....
All in all, It was a great day!
Chip
Ps. Im 50-50 on selling an Omega 3 meter. With servos. If interested make me an offer. It has HS 81s mostly (6 ). And a spare wing, that is unbuilt. Fuse has normal wear ( couple cracks under wing saddle area that alittle glass will fix nicely ).