Post by wjcjr1 on Feb 8, 2009 21:11:24 GMT 1
As posted earlier I just picked up this Apprentice yesterday. Assembly was a breeze, almost the exact same thing as our stock Super Cubs.
My maiden was dramatically shortened due to a few variables. Wind was dead this morning but picked up picked up to 8 mph with gusts of 14mph. We are very new to this area and my choice of flight area was smaller than I envisioned. Remember it has been 1 1/2 years since I touched a plane.
After contemplating taking off or not due primarily to the wind I just did it. The plane handled GREAT. I was quite nervous as the 8 mph sustained wind's gusts to 14 were not gentle breezes but short fast bursts. In addition this was the wind speed and gust read from the television supplied data and at the field I feel it was higher.
Nonetheless the maiden take-off into the wind was easy as I kept remembering do not pull up too much the wind will flip her back. This is a decent sized wing on this plane, a lot of lift for something so light. I took half a dozen laps around this field that was no more than 800' square. No aerobatic attempts, nothing for throttle above 1/2-2/3 just careful flying with the wind. My landing wasn't very graceful at all, boy this plane floats. I had an area picked out 300' long to land but going into the wind I felt like I was going to stall the plane it was going so slow. So I circled this site three times and then committed. As the plane floated and floated and floated through the gusty winds eating up my runway I gave her some small down elevator and the plane's downward movement was instantly enhanced and accelerated by a quick bursty gust. So boing she slammed down/bounced on the landing wheels pretty hard and rebounded back into the air and my second ground touch although not perfect was much smoother. Only visible damage from slamming it down was some minor scuffing on that flimsy prop provided with the plane.
I guess all in all an OK outing. Probably should not have flown it in this area with the current wind conditions but, well you know how that goes, we all love to fly!
Next flight larger area, boy this thing eats up ground, and less wind. I do look forward to putting more time/air under this plane's wings and will lwt you know how that goes. This I think will be a good step into aileron flight, although I have seen many of you here makng this mod to your Super Cubs, not so sure I am as artistically patient for that attempt.
Wayne
My maiden was dramatically shortened due to a few variables. Wind was dead this morning but picked up picked up to 8 mph with gusts of 14mph. We are very new to this area and my choice of flight area was smaller than I envisioned. Remember it has been 1 1/2 years since I touched a plane.
After contemplating taking off or not due primarily to the wind I just did it. The plane handled GREAT. I was quite nervous as the 8 mph sustained wind's gusts to 14 were not gentle breezes but short fast bursts. In addition this was the wind speed and gust read from the television supplied data and at the field I feel it was higher.
Nonetheless the maiden take-off into the wind was easy as I kept remembering do not pull up too much the wind will flip her back. This is a decent sized wing on this plane, a lot of lift for something so light. I took half a dozen laps around this field that was no more than 800' square. No aerobatic attempts, nothing for throttle above 1/2-2/3 just careful flying with the wind. My landing wasn't very graceful at all, boy this plane floats. I had an area picked out 300' long to land but going into the wind I felt like I was going to stall the plane it was going so slow. So I circled this site three times and then committed. As the plane floated and floated and floated through the gusty winds eating up my runway I gave her some small down elevator and the plane's downward movement was instantly enhanced and accelerated by a quick bursty gust. So boing she slammed down/bounced on the landing wheels pretty hard and rebounded back into the air and my second ground touch although not perfect was much smoother. Only visible damage from slamming it down was some minor scuffing on that flimsy prop provided with the plane.
I guess all in all an OK outing. Probably should not have flown it in this area with the current wind conditions but, well you know how that goes, we all love to fly!
Next flight larger area, boy this thing eats up ground, and less wind. I do look forward to putting more time/air under this plane's wings and will lwt you know how that goes. This I think will be a good step into aileron flight, although I have seen many of you here makng this mod to your Super Cubs, not so sure I am as artistically patient for that attempt.
Wayne
