aircargo
Sep 08, 2002, 12:00 PM
Well, I finally experienced my first successful flight with my highly modified (due to the crashes and repairs) Goldberg Electra. I'll spare everyone the long winded details of my previous four attempts at flying the Electra, which is my first airplane. Let's just say the repairs to the fuselage have been extensive enough, that the Electra is no longer a 'tapered balsa box' fuselage. It has mutated into a scratch built balsa pod and fiberglass boom (piece of an old fly rod) design, with the wing and tail being the only remaining pieces of the original kit. All I need are a couple of empty, tin-can headlights, and this thing would look like one of those go karts from the old Little Rascals show. I know, first time builder + first time flyer + first time scratch building a fuselage = very short, disasterous, flights. True, and I was wondering if this Frankenstien was even capable of flight at this point.
Well...it flew, and to me it was absolutely the biggest, knee shaking thrill I've had in a long time. Nope, didn't speck it out, didnt even find a thermal. A nice, smooth shallow climb to about 250 ft, where I cut the power, and made a nice, graceful circuit of the field. My friend was there as 'coach', (a go fast glow flyer), and kept saying, '3 mistakes high....get it way up there' but I guess I wasn't listening very well. I was too enthralled with just getting the feeling of actually controlling the aircraft, and the gracefullness of it in the air. I kept climbing to about 250 - 300 ft, and cutting the power, and getting the feeling for maintaining level flight and nice smooth turns. Every time the energy would bleed off, after a circuit or two of the field, I'd power up the motor and climb out again. Over all, including the 4 or 5 minutes of battery time, I suppose I got in about 12 or so minutes of total air time, finished off by a nice slow CONTROLLED landing.
Still can't wipe the grin off my face
Well...it flew, and to me it was absolutely the biggest, knee shaking thrill I've had in a long time. Nope, didn't speck it out, didnt even find a thermal. A nice, smooth shallow climb to about 250 ft, where I cut the power, and made a nice, graceful circuit of the field. My friend was there as 'coach', (a go fast glow flyer), and kept saying, '3 mistakes high....get it way up there' but I guess I wasn't listening very well. I was too enthralled with just getting the feeling of actually controlling the aircraft, and the gracefullness of it in the air. I kept climbing to about 250 - 300 ft, and cutting the power, and getting the feeling for maintaining level flight and nice smooth turns. Every time the energy would bleed off, after a circuit or two of the field, I'd power up the motor and climb out again. Over all, including the 4 or 5 minutes of battery time, I suppose I got in about 12 or so minutes of total air time, finished off by a nice slow CONTROLLED landing.
Still can't wipe the grin off my face