I forgot...
...all about the blogs here. Thanks Dan for asking to be my 'buddy', but this doesn't mean we'll be swapping spit in the showers!
Blogs... endless words about what's going on in one's mind of life. Huh, let me think...
Oh, I know. I'd like to say thank you for all the Cycler orders lately. The AMA magazine Model Aviation printed a few words about it and BOOM, I'm flooded with orders. You guys have cost me about 20 hours sleep this week, but it's been fun seeing these move out the door, not to mention the boost in my bottom line. Thanks guys!
What else.... nope, that's about it. See ya!
Blogs... endless words about what's going on in one's mind of life. Huh, let me think...
Oh, I know. I'd like to say thank you for all the Cycler orders lately. The AMA magazine Model Aviation printed a few words about it and BOOM, I'm flooded with orders. You guys have cost me about 20 hours sleep this week, but it's been fun seeing these move out the door, not to mention the boost in my bottom line. Thanks guys!
What else....
nope, that's about it. See ya!
First Blog ever. Recent flight experiance...
It's Tuesday. 5 more days until I can go flying :(. Need I say more?
This weekend will be interesting (oh yeah, right). I have Arnold chomping at the bit to get the maiden flight in on his Piper Arrow. I'm the test pilot and it's his $1500 pride and joy.
The first $1500 "pride and joy" of Arnold's I test flew (Cessna 182) ended up in 10 feet of water (lake at the end of runway - oops, my bad :o). "We" had a receiver battery unplug itself on final. Drop the flaps and the battery slid forward a bit. Enough to unplug from the harness. Judges gave the swan dive a 9.2 (points marked off for the large splash :eek: ) .
Cessna 182, part two. Arnold goes out and gets a new plane and finishes it in two weeks. Ready to take off and nothing. Then everything comes back on. Check and check, all is good. Arnold says "lets go fly". I'm not happy.
I notice one glitch in the receiver and insist that we look at it again. Sure enough, Arnold had cut through the battery wire with an Exacto blade while widening out an access hole. With the wire fixed, we fly. It is a good flying plane.
Next test flights are on Arnold's $1300 Lancair. It's a fair plane but snaps as fast as you can say SNAP. Pulling thru simple 30 degree banks at mid speed and the next thing you know it's inverted and 100 feet lower. Uh, "dude - when you fly this thing keep the speed up and for God's sake, use the opposite rudder input to stop the spin. BP 185 over 110.
Any who... I roll the plane and the door flies off at center stage. The wind blows it over a fence where there are big cows and bulls. Halfway in the field I find the door, but so have the bulls. They all line up side by side, then start charging. I run past Arnold who's standing there saying "If you just stand your ground, they'll stop". I never looked back as the bulls did not look like they wanted to talk about Arnold's logic. Soon Arnold decides it's best to discuss his idea from the other side of the fence.
Last week we decided to get the maiden flight on the Piper Arrow out of the way. I taxi out, lineup on the centerline, advance the throttle and BAMB! The nose gear fails and the plane falls on it's face. Uhhh "It wasn't me, I promise"!
Looking over the plane it looks like maybe the gear didn't lock on extension. Every time we cycle the gear, it locks down firm. So we round up a new prop from a fellow gas flier and start again. Taxi out, line up, advance the throttle and once again the chin of the Piper is resting on the ground. This time I thought I noticed a stumble in the motor just before the plane got its gear pulled out from underneath it.
Sure enough, if there is a prop on the plane with about 1/2 power, the range of control is less than 30 feet with the antenna fully extended. At home, We try everything under the sun to get the noise out. We now have the range up to about 150 feet, which is in the back of the houses with 4 rows of chain-link fences between the plane and transmitter. As a test, I ran my C182 with same controller and an AXI motor and I only got about 170 feet. So we think it's fixed.
So... he's wanting to do this again on Sunday. Yeah, sounds good. Morning temp should be 27 degrees. I have an open class sailplane contest at 9:30 and I'll get done with that at about 2:00. Then it's a one and a half hour drive to the gas field. By then it should be about 40 degrees and windy.
I might be in a bad mood by then. And if the plane fails to fly or gets damaged... Auggggghhhhh. Lets just say that there will be a shallow unmarked grave off the south end of the runway. :eek:
{sigh}
Gary
--
This weekend will be interesting (oh yeah, right). I have Arnold chomping at the bit to get the maiden flight in on his Piper Arrow. I'm the test pilot and it's his $1500 pride and joy.
The first $1500 "pride and joy" of Arnold's I test flew (Cessna 182) ended up in 10 feet of water (lake at the end of runway - oops, my bad :o). "We" had a receiver battery unplug itself on final. Drop the flaps and the battery slid forward a bit. Enough to unplug from the harness. Judges gave the swan dive a 9.2 (points marked off for the large splash :eek: ) .
Cessna 182, part two. Arnold goes out and gets a new plane and finishes it in two weeks. Ready to take off and nothing. Then everything comes back on. Check and check, all is good. Arnold says "lets go fly". I'm not happy.
I notice one glitch in the receiver and insist that we look at it again. Sure enough, Arnold had cut through the battery wire with an Exacto blade while widening out an access hole. With the wire fixed, we fly. It is a good flying plane.
Next test flights are on Arnold's $1300 Lancair. It's a fair plane but snaps as fast as you can say SNAP. Pulling thru simple 30 degree banks at mid speed and the next thing you know it's inverted and 100 feet lower. Uh, "dude - when you fly this thing keep the speed up and for God's sake, use the opposite rudder input to stop the spin. BP 185 over 110.
Any who... I roll the plane and the door flies off at center stage. The wind blows it over a fence where there are big cows and bulls. Halfway in the field I find the door, but so have the bulls. They all line up side by side, then start charging. I run past Arnold who's standing there saying "If you just stand your ground, they'll stop". I never looked back as the bulls did not look like they wanted to talk about Arnold's logic. Soon Arnold decides it's best to discuss his idea from the other side of the fence.
Last week we decided to get the maiden flight on the Piper Arrow out of the way. I taxi out, lineup on the centerline, advance the throttle and BAMB! The nose gear fails and the plane falls on it's face. Uhhh "It wasn't me, I promise"!
Looking over the plane it looks like maybe the gear didn't lock on extension. Every time we cycle the gear, it locks down firm. So we round up a new prop from a fellow gas flier and start again. Taxi out, line up, advance the throttle and once again the chin of the Piper is resting on the ground. This time I thought I noticed a stumble in the motor just before the plane got its gear pulled out from underneath it.
Sure enough, if there is a prop on the plane with about 1/2 power, the range of control is less than 30 feet with the antenna fully extended. At home, We try everything under the sun to get the noise out. We now have the range up to about 150 feet, which is in the back of the houses with 4 rows of chain-link fences between the plane and transmitter. As a test, I ran my C182 with same controller and an AXI motor and I only got about 170 feet. So we think it's fixed.
So... he's wanting to do this again on Sunday. Yeah, sounds good. Morning temp should be 27 degrees. I have an open class sailplane contest at 9:30 and I'll get done with that at about 2:00. Then it's a one and a half hour drive to the gas field. By then it should be about 40 degrees and windy.
I might be in a bad mood by then. And if the plane fails to fly or gets damaged... Auggggghhhhh. Lets just say that there will be a shallow unmarked grave off the south end of the runway. :eek:
{sigh}
Gary
--
