The little things that add up to a lot....

[Al Czervik]

With just about one year in the this addictive past time I was curious as to how long many of you were flying before you decided to go bigger. I'd like to within the next year or so but I've got a few hurdles to get over.

Through countless hours on the sim and as much time as I can make to get to the field, I've learned a hell of a lot in a year's time. I'm currently flying a Funtana 90 and have also flown a U Can Do 60 a fair amount. The U Can Do has the roll rate of a fat slug.

The biggest difficulty I've had in this hobby are the "little things" that end up being big problems once in the air. It seems that I get so stoked to get flying once I get to the field that end up crashing due to technical problems rather than a true dumb thumb.

For example, a recent flight last week with a U Can Do 60 included a four and eight point roll, followed by a upright flat spin into a regular blender, then a high alpha knife edge, a rolling harrier circle followed by a straight rolling harrier with pauses at each point of the roll.....

THEN ON LANDING...the rudder that had an intermitent sticking problem "sticks" again and I have no rudder upon a cross wind landing and CRACK...the fuselage is gone.

Probably the worst situation I put myself in was taking off without a wing bolt. A guy was b.s.ing with me as I was putting the wings on and the second wing bolt fell off the table and I thought it was already on. I learned that four rolls DO NOT work as well without one of the wing bolts in as you take off. That day really sucked.

Does anyone else out there suffer from these stupid misstakes from time to time? I'm considering a checklist and actually completing 100 flights or so on my next plane before I even considering starting to push the envelope again...although again..it's the technical crap that is causing my planes to go in.

I eventually want to move up to a 50 cc..I think my flying skills are there but it's my scattered brain that's the problem.

Do you guys flying large scale have an incredibly cautious mindset? Do you use a checklist?

Do you have an number of flights you try to attain before bringing it down low and getting the adrenaline going?

[Temptation]

I never talk to anybody when I am putting my plane together, and I always do things in the same order. That way it is automatic. Not talking during assembly is a pretty good policy.

Mike Darr

[Comparf]

I also found out the hard way that wing bolts are quite importatant. My 3 month old 2.6 meter Fantsy red comp-arf Yak went in when a wing fell off during a snap roll. While I was assemlbing my Yak I noticed that one aileron was not working ,and as usual there were 10 experts telling me how what the problem was After a couple of minutes of testing everything a small voice from behind the gang of experts said to me " Have you got the right plane on the transmitter" Problem solved .Put on the canopy and straight up after 10 foot take of roll a perfect stall turn pull to horizontal flight 4 point roll finishing with a snap @#%$% > Wing seperation all the rest goes BANG, CRUNCH SMASH nose first . a couple of minutes later the only good part left fluttered down to a perfect 3 point landing without a scratch. Was I ever P.O.ed at myself.
At least I know why it went in . I do not have to worry about the tranny or receiver.

*****BIG LESSON***** Do not let yourself get distracted during the assembly stage of your flying day. and stick to an assembly routine.
Stay with Big planes, they fly better. My small plane is a 2.3 meter extra and I am ordering a 40% soon I allready have a propeller for it.

[Al Czervik]

Comparf...

Thanks for the advice. I suppose I want to be as careful as I can before I start making investments in a plane of $400 on up.

I know those Comp arfs are beautiful planes...dealing with that loss might put me in therapy.

The day of my wing bolt incident, I had actually purchased a backup Funtana from the guy at the field. Realizing I was buying a back up, he kept joking aloud..."well I want to see him crash this one" over and over again as I was setting up. I'm not superstitious but always appreciate more constructive commentary. Well he went off to get a drink and by the time he came back, my Funtana was in pieces. It wasn't his fault but his joking took my mind off of the task at hand..putting the damn plane together correctly. Needless to say, I was quite pissed and decided to call it a day.

By the way...you look young for 45!!! (joke) I guess you didn't enjoy the malt beverages like I did in college!

[SleepyC]

Hey here's one to remember...

NEVER and I mean NEVER do either of these (comming from experience)

1) NEVER say : I'm going to take one more flight and pack it up for the day...
OR this is my last flight of the day... either one assures a dead plane.

2) NEVER EVER when letting someone else fly your plane say (right before takeoff)
if something happens, don't worry I won't hold you responsible....
(ask JeeUm about this and my 30 second maiden flight of my 33% extra.. )
RIP.

[bodywerks]

I have a count before I bolt my hatch down, and it's 9:
1. rx battery #1 plugged in
2. rx battery #2 plugged in
3. ignition battery plugged in
4. left aileron plugged into the left aileron lead and secured.
5. right aileron plugged into the right aileron lead and secured
6. left wing bolt #1 installed and secure
7. left wing bolt #2 installed and secure
8. right wing bolt #1 installed and secure
9. right wing bolt #2 installed and secure
It's called a preflight check, much like on full-scale aircraft, where the pilot checks for basic stuff, like pulling the gear pins and chalks and making sure tires aren't flat and the wings aren't falling off or something.I have done the rest of the install during the build with enough foresight that I know there shouldn't be a problem during preflight so I don't have to worry about it until I get the plane home and do my routine maintenance, like my receiver xtal is taped in and all the leads that go into the rx are secured with a bead of silicone on them, and have no logical reason to come loose during transport to and from the field, but are worth looking when I get it home. This is called routine maintenance, much like on the full-scale aircraft that I work on. They have a 5-7 day grace period between routine checks, where we go through the general condition and security of panels, hydraulic components, tires, etc., and do functional checks of the primary operating systems. Then they have a 40 or so day period between A-checks, where we actually pull panels and do visual inspections, check bonding straps, change filters, etc. A giant scale model airplane should be maintained in much the same manner.
As for servos that lock intermittently, that's is called a no-go situation. You should have never taken off until you got that problem fixed.