Thanks guys! I'm really glad to finally have it in the air... and to bring it home again in one piece!

I uploaded the video from maiden day to youtube. You can find it here:

35% Decathlon Maiden Flights (12 min 38 sec)

You get to watch me pacing around like crazy as I assemble the plane.
The first flight the camera was pointed out the front of the cockpit.
The second flight I pointed the camera out towards the left wing tip.

One thing I noticed in the video is that the left cockpit window seems to be de-laminating a bit - I need to add some more glue there.
There also seems to be a ton of vibrations at mid-throttle. The plane doesn't seem to shake badly at all in person, so I'm wondering if it's just hitting a resonant frequency of the GoPro mount. I'll look closer next time I fly.

Cheers!
Tom

Fantastic job all round mate! An inspiring thread from start to finish. Congratulations!

So where did you get your Friends don't let friends fly ARF's decal? I would love to put one on my sracth built Cap 232 that Im getting close to finishing.

Originally Posted by cbarnes0061

So where did you get your Friends don't let friends fly ARF's decal? I would love to put one on my sracth built Cap 232 that Im getting close to finishing.

I actually drew it up myself in "inkscape": http://inkscape.org/

Then I gave it to a friend who works in a sign shop and he cut out the vinyl for me.

I attached the .PNG as well as the Inkscape vector file. Inkscape is basically a free vector drawing program.

Tom

A long overdue update on the Decathlon.

I haven't been able to fly it as much as I would have liked. On my second outing to the field with it, a radio glitch during landing flare caused me to rip the landing gear out. With all the hours I put in during March to get this thing finished, I needed to set it aside for a little while and get on with Summer.

Anyways, I patched up the fuselage and finally got her back in the air. I also replaced the Eq6 which I think was the source of the radio glitch. I've had about 10 flights on it since the repair and am finally starting to get used to it. After flying a Dalton 260 heavily for 4 seasons, the Decathlon sure is taking some getting used to. I'm going to have to troll the Hangar 9 Decathlon threads to get some tips on mixing.

Here are some pictures from yesterday.







...

...
And a couple more:





Cheers,
Tom

She is a Beauty

Have been following your thread as I have built several of the AMR kits and really enjoy them. I also own the H9 Decathlon. Differential is your friend with the Decathlon. Most of us are using at least 15% differential and minimal rudder throw. Great looking plane, Jerry.

Read from Start to finish, I must say you did a great write up as your build quality was fantastic.
really enjoyed reading it all.
Well done.

Im about to embark on a Build of a EMHW Bellanca XXL (34.666%)

After 7 Years are you still flying it? Did you ever setup mixing?

Very nice! thank you for sharing!