My Flip almost ended its life. ALMOST...

[SleepyC]

Well this weather here in Ohio has too good to be true... 58deg in december?!?! I'll take that.

Top that off with the wife telling me that she was going to take the kids to her Aunts house on Saturday to make Christmas cookies, and have an old fashion sleepover.

WHAT!! OH YEAAAA!!! Sleepy gets a 24 hour full on RC day!!

I just bought a new Futaba 12Z radio, and have not set up all my planes yet... so Friday night I sat down with the manual and slapped some programming into her to control my Flip 3D.. got it all set up, and did some mixing from memory (ie. I knew it pulled to the wheels during KE.. so I started there)

Saturday Morning comes... and the wife and kids leave around 10am... Oh yea! At 10:01am I was loaded up and off to the field.

To my astonishment... I was the only guy at the field!

Oh yea... time to get silly.

I remaidened the flip with the new radio, and really didn't have to do anything... (I have digital Hitec servos that I used the programmer on, so basically with all the surfaces zeroed out in the radio.. everything was still lined up!)

5 flights later and I was starting to get into the groove, but the wind was picking up...
so I started to play with the wind a bit... trying my best to do rolling Harriers (I'm still learing these) into the strong wing with the plane hardly moving forward... it was a ball... I'd mess up and pull out with about 3' of air before the ground...it was really fun.
Then I started popping the Flip up into some nice low hovers... once again big grins!

Even with the gusting wind i started to get some good hovers going... 2 - 3 ' off the deck... holding still (not torquing) but letting the plane blow from right to left with the wind... it was sweet... and when the wind picked up.. it would blow quickly from the right side of the landing strip all the way to the left at about 5 - 7 MPH... I was loving it...
I had a few close calls, but was able to maintain some decent hovers...

I landed and decided to go up again before leaving for the day.

This time I was out to kill the flip... or leave with some BAD ASS flying under my belt - full on - 10% past my abilities flying the entire flight was my goal! I took off and immediatly threw full speed snaps at it... the most violent full throttle blenders I could muster... and that little flip took it all.... then I brought it down to hover again...
I got it right in front of me, about 2' off the deck... the wind suddenly died down, and I started to let it torque... I got one roll in and WHAM the wind gusted to like 15 mph+...
the plane tipped 45 deg to the left wing tip... immediatly... WHOAAAA unexpected!!
I instantly applied right rudder, and it was in a fast moving high alpha KE... with the wind pushing it HARD after a few feet it was dragging the wingtip and eleavator through the grass... I increased throttle and tried to roll it up and out... but it kept dragging.. finally the wing tip lifted.. but the elevator was still dragging... I rolled it finally onto its back and gave it down elevator and it climbed out...BUT As I did this i heard a NICE balsa snap sound... and the plane jerked and dashed skyward...

Then i noticed....... my entire left Elevator half was still on the ground...
Oh Ohhhh.... 1/2 an elevator... this might get interesting....

Suprisingly the plane didn't fly that badly, just pitched towards the missing elevator.

I brought the plane around and was able to land it with out further mishap...

The plane is un damaged... the elevator just pulled straight out... didn't even split the balsa! The force of the ground pulling on the elevator was more than the expoxe could handle... and the flip uses some weird metal hinges.. they just didn't have the grip!

I have to admit, that was the most fun I have had in a long time...

Something about knowing that even if you wad it up, your not loosing a ton of money makes the flying really fun....

BUT.. MAN... talk about wishing someone else was there! DAMN.. the one day I look like a pimp, just me, and the cows in the field over were able to see it.

[maeu2003]

lol. i know what you mean about the weather. Here in southern illinois its been great. i'm glad the flip is a tough bird. I can't wait until mine gets here. Sounds like you had alot of fun.

[IMACmike]

That story sounds like the death of my 2nd Flip! I was hovering/torque rolling about 1-2 feet off the ground when a gust came along and pushed her over. Like you, opposite rudder, power and hoping to straighten/climb out, but my tail surfaces caught a large weed (bush) on the far side of the runway and the Ol' Flip was body slammed into the dirt! It actually was kinda funny to watch. And as always, nobody was there...

[ShortBus]

it was like 65* today...WTF?!

[rick sheau]

i never use the metal hinges i trade them out for ca hinges and will for all future planes in the 40 size to .25% class u cannot beat their ho;ding power! what is your cg at by the way, and what weight are u at?

[SleepyC]

	Quote: Originally Posted by rick sheau
	i never use the metal hinges i trade them out for ca hinges and will for all future planes in the 40 size to .25% class u cannot beat their ho;ding power! what is your cg at by the way, and what weight are u at?

CG - I'm usually very careful with this on my big planes... BUY... with the flip I slide the battery back until it "feels" right.

And weight i have no idea. I do know that it has ridicules power with the Saito .82.
Will hover at 1/2 throttle or less....