I bought another new plane; when will it end?

Thanks to Larry out in MO; he mailed the kit on a Saturday, and I had it on Tuesday. THAT'S FAST!!

Anyway, it was just a $50.00 kit, quite the bargain. It's K&A's Mini One, a very small, low wing, aileron/elevator sloper. It has forward swept wings, with high taper, and should be a "blur" on the rolls.

I find it amusing that I've bought other planes, costing over 10 times as much, that I still haven't made my maiden with! I've already started construction:

Fuse is built, and 3oz glass twill went on last night. The wings were sheeted night before last with West Systems, and now have a pine LE and the balsa tip blocks, and balsa sub TE drying with PU glue. I love that stuff, so sandable!

Will post pics later.

T
/seonline/pdf/WEB_6-8_Mini-1XL.pdf

Well, I finally got to winch launch the Airtronics Thermal Eagle at Field of Dreams, on Sunday, March 5th.

It seemed that the odds were stacked against me, when I finally got to the field when they had the winch set up. The previous SULA club meeting resulted in no winch, just E-planes flying. This time the winch was there, and after the club secretary launched his Compulsion just one time, the battery was dead. He felt really bad, since he knew that I was hoping to get my plane up over a flat field this day. He went home, and retrieved another car battery, but that hadn't been charged, and brought it back. The other battery was weak, but since my Eagle has a rather "wimpy" joiner, and required a light pedal pumping, he felt it would do.

And so, the Eagle was hooked up to the winch, and tossed off with the line being pulled back onto the drum. Up she went, not at too steep an angle, but no "weaving" either. I dove at the end for a mini "ping". Altitude was MAYBE 300 feet, is all. I flew around, checking out the trim, and camber settings. Landing was fine, nice and soft on the soccer field grass.

After landing, I took a little bit of lead shot out of a small ziplock bag in the Eagle's nose, to get the CG back a bit. It was time for the second ever launch.

This time, I used some droop in the flaps, that I had programmed in as a launch setting. This launch was ok also, but nothing to get really excited about. Might have had something...Continue Reading