The Hanger

So I acquired four more planes in various stages of, um, crash remains (!) from Dangerous Dan! One is the plane he had to shoot out of a tree with a shotgun I will get pics posted later today after the sun comes up, but they are:
(2) Four Star 40 low-wing sport planes
Fantasy (?) low-wing sport plane
Hangar 9 ALPHA 40 high-wing trainer
Looks like the trainer and the Fantasy are closest to being fly-able. So I'll get to work on them and get some motor/ESC combos ordered (they are all setup for nitro now). Got to make a run for some balsa and Monokote, maybe some more epoxy also.

Got my Slow Stick all setup (finally) so today at Redwood will be its maiden flight Got a pretty agressive prop on it - 10x8 - it was already drilled-out to the right size for the prop adapter so I went with it. We'll see...

Took the Slow Stick, Piits Bipe, and Oregon Ducks F-18 to Redwood today and put my new DX8 through its paces. MAN DO I LOVE THIS RADIO!!!!! Got to mix elevons and flaperons on the F-18 for the first time and was able to cut my take-off distance by almost half! AND, it floated back down like I actually knew what I was doing The Pitts flew excellent as always, and the Slow Stick was a complete joy to fly! Setting the throttle-position-activated timer was the best thing of the day! Flew the Pitts for 13 minutes and still had plenty of juice left in the battery. The F-18 flew for 8 minutes with room to spare, and the Slow Stick went for 20 minutes before my fingers made me land Warmed up the hands and flew the 'Stick for another 15 minutes. Never knew I was getting such great flight times! The Pitts and 'Stick both fly on 1800mah 3s 20c LiPos, and the F-18 on 1300mah 3s 15c LiPos. Getting time to replace some of my batteries so I'm on the hunt for more mah and c without adding too much in the size/weight areas. A great day of flying with no broken props, no crashes, and only one incident (sorry again Jeremy!) I flew the F-18 right through, yes through, Jeremy's Champ Cub He was able to fix it and fly it again at the field so no permanent damage other than my guilt for basically exploding his plane. On the up side, all the extra CA holding my wings together made for a bullet-proof leading edge and the F-18 sustained no discernable damage Seriously - sorry Jeremy!

Yes he did! And he actually flew it twice That thing is a BEAST!!! He still has some issues to iron out with the flaps, but even without them he was able to take-off/land on the asphalt with room to spare. When I first saw it, my immediate thought was "no way this will take off at Redwood" - man was I wrong. Those four engines have an incredible amount of thrust! He was shaking after the first flight it made him so nervous. Chris helped him trim it out and it flew GREAT - axial rolls, loops, no problem! Didn't get any scale fly-by's, thinking back it would have been nice to snap a few pics. Oh well, maybe next Sunday!

I'll definitely get some pics w00d! Meanwhile here's the link to this beauty, and a pic

http://www.bananahobby.com/2216.html

Tiger - yes, we left early. I had my autistic nephew with me and I needed to get him home as he was getting too cold. So, darnit, I did miss the finale'.

GPS - In theory your switches and other programming should be set and checked before you leave your house. In theory. Dan's radio isn't computerized, so functions and programming are VERY limited. If a switch has the potential to set a value to zero, it should be avoided while setting up the aircraft. Dan was having settings issues at his house before he even came to the school, but I'm not sure what they were excactly so I can't say if any of thoses were suspects in his catostrophic crash. I did see him pass the radio to and from Chris on both of the flights I witnessed and saw no problems with those exchanges.

It really is too bad as that was a great flying plane and certainly the mose impressive with its size and four motors. I'll get in touch with Dan later this week and see if he is planning a rebuild.

That actually went to his son, Jason.

That's what I told him, but he's had his radio gear forever and stands by it. Its good equipment, just old and without all the nice extras that we take for granted these days. Besides, as he put it to me "old dogs, new tricks!"

I'll try to get by his place in the next day or two and keep him motivated to get it back in the air 8)