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Post by toff on May 18, 2012 21:30:21 GMT 1
With the UK's weather. Face it, it's pretty much rained since march, and when it's not raining, it's too bloody windy! Went out today with the 3200KV enabled twinjet. Windy, but so fed up thought I'd chance it. First flight, I lost the plane! ( My fault, as I had little control due to tail heavyness, I misplaced the battery in the Fuz, but forgot to check COG - Weird, as I checked everything else inc range check!) It wasn't that high, roughly 100ft or so, I had no control, shut down the motor, and hoped for little damage, as at this point there was some serious gusting going on. This is what happened......  Dosen't look that bad on the map, but all that green outside the pitch is LONG grass, and I didn't think it had gone that far, so it took nearly an hour of searching before I saw it. Once checked out ( Way to go Multiplex! No damage at all!), and battery moved forward, launched again. Woo...., zoom, wiggle, waggle, zoom, wobble, wiggle, zoom...... Yes it flew, but, If I'm honest, it wasn't fun. I spent so much time just fighting against the wind, that fun stuff just didn't happen. Fast landings ended as practical hover landings. Probably looked cool, except for the gusts which slammed it in the ground a few times. It's supposed to be summer for F's sake! Anyone with nice ( continual) weather in America willing to sponsor me, just so I can do some decent flying?  |
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Post by renard80 on May 19, 2012 2:30:16 GMT 1
Chris, like you I am absolutely peed off with our weather. I can understand you poor northeners having it bad, that's your punishment for living up there, but we Soft Southerners are getting it just as bad down here on the south coast. We haven't been able to fly for over a month now due to rain and / or wind!  At last, it was dry all Friday morning and forecast was for light winds on Saturday. Great, the grass will have dried out and we can go for it! Then, bugger me if it didn't start raining again mid-afternoon and into the evening! That means the field will be sodden again tomorrow, no good for take off or landing. I blame the government . . . |
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Post by geoff2474 on May 19, 2012 10:02:55 GMT 1
Hi GuyI am in between you up there and you down there and have had some good calm days lately. Reynard, you mention rain. I get the impression that you guys do not fly in the rain? Am I right? It is just that I do and have never had a problem, in fact I find it good fun in light rain. Obviously have to be carefull to let everything dry out afterwards. Geoff Chris, like you I am absolutely peed off with our weather. I can understand you poor northeners having it bad, that's your punishment for living up there, but we Soft Southerners are getting it just as bad down here on the south coast. We haven't been able to fly for over a month now due to rain and / or wind! At last, it was dry all Friday morning and forecast was for light winds on Saturday. Great, the grass will have dried out and we can go for it! Then, bugger me if it didn't start raining again mid-afternoon and into the evening! That means the field will be sodden again tomorrow, no good for take off or landing. I blame the government . . . |
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Post by renard80 on May 20, 2012 0:17:49 GMT 1
Reynard, you mention rain. I get the impression that you guys do not fly in the rain? Am I right? It is just that I do and have never had a problem, in fact I find it good fun in light rain. Obviously have to be carefull to let everything dry out afterwards. Geoff Hi Geoff Our problem is that the field soon gets very soggy with rain. Wheels dig into the mud on take-off and landing, pitching the plane over and fouling the cowl area, with soft mud squidging into the cowl. I can hand launch, of course, but landing is still a problem. As it happens, today (Saturday) was dry and warm, with light winds. The ground soon dried out and all the gang turned up, many with their winter builds. Some of us hadn't seen each other for months! Had some good flights, spoiled by my usual downfall: "I'll just have one last flight, nothing will go wrong . . . " I lost it for some reason on take-off, and snapped the tailplane as she hit the dirt at an awkward angle. That 'last flight' jinx never fails!  |
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Post by geoff2474 on May 20, 2012 23:32:25 GMT 1
Hi Renard Good to hear you got some flying in. It has been too windy here today. I too fall for that one more flight. It was the main reason I fitted LED lamps, gives me just enough light to drain a battery pack before total darkness. The question is, which flight was going to be the last? Answer: the one before the one that crashed!!!!! It is a bit like cleaning and servicing the lawn mower after the last cut of the year. How do you know you have done the last cut? Consequently, get mower out at the start of spring all clogged up with grass and going rusty. Geoff [/quote] That 'last flight' jinx never fails! [/quote] |
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Post by toff on May 21, 2012 19:11:35 GMT 1
YEAH!!!! Luvverly, luvverly SUNSHINE, with no wind! Twinstar, twinjet AND Squall EDF all flown today, with gusto and aplomb! (And lost 2 hours of worktime doing so!  ) And the weatherman says...... More tomorrow! so - Twinjet, starmax F5E and supercub. Work - curse of the flying classes! ;D |
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Post by renard80 on May 21, 2012 22:49:42 GMT 1
Good for you, Chris.
Down here in the beautiful south, the forecast was "gentle northerly winds".
Hah!! It's been blustery all day, no one has been up (flying, I mean . . . )
Let's hope tomorrow's forecast (Tuesday) is more accurate: "Less windy than today".
(Do they actually PAY weather forecasters, or is it just some jokers having a laugh?)
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JDMN
Flying officer
Posts: 18
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Post by JDMN on Jun 30, 2012 22:33:37 GMT 1
Hopefully the weather has turned for the better. I find that the weather in my part of the world is calm in the early AM and calm in the late PM. Strangely I was chatting with a flyer in the local hobby stores and he said the RC fields are very popular in the middle of the night. He said that when your eyes fully adjust to the dark, seeing a white plane in the sky is no trouble.
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cubfanatic
Flying officer
Take off is optional, landing is mandatory!
Posts: 17
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Post by cubfanatic on Jun 30, 2012 23:22:33 GMT 1
In the south the wind hardly ever drops below 15mph or so recently, but when the wind drops in rains!
As the BBC would say: "Rather breezy, with summer showers"
Was hoping to maiden the T-28 Tojan but the wind was pulling it out my hand when I got it out the car, but anyway good luck to those who brave the wind and rain!
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JDMN
Flying officer
Posts: 18
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Post by JDMN on Jul 1, 2012 0:30:20 GMT 1
After posting I took out my cub to a new area I found while driving about. This place was perfect, two adjoining schools with very large, completely empty parking lot with trimmed grass everywhere and no trees!!
Here I did some of my best flying, a couple of nice simple loops, stallouts, etc. I even went for an personal altitude record where I had the cub so high it was just a small white dot against the clear blue sky. To bring it down I essentially glided down in a spiral and as I did I noticed I need to implement the wing stiffening mod. My wings looked like they were about to fold in half.
I had one crash where I made a complete noob mistake. When I took off a gust of wind rolled my cub into a right bank dive. I tried to counter with left rudder, but I did not think to ease off the throttle -- nose dive into the grass. I only cracked the cowling, but with it wrapped in tape it did not shatter. However, my keychain camera case split open and the electronics went for a bit of a ride on their own. It appears the keychain camera survived and I will upload the videos to YouTube tonight.
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