How was your flight today?

[ted]

How was your flight today? 
My flight this evening went well.  It was a test flight after a crash of a week ago and subsequent repairs.
It had been rainy today, but late afternoon the rain quit and the air was fairly calm.  Went to my flying field and had to wait for about 10 minutes for the church parking lot to clear of youth group cars.  Then the whole parking lot and the surrounding open fields were all mine.
Nice flight which included 5 landings. 
I decided to recharge, which took about 25 min, and check the wind conditions after the recharge.  But the wind had picked up a bit, so I decided to put my SC back in my Dodge Caravan and go home.
It was a good evening flight.  My repaired SC flew just fine.

[jklong03]

Glad to hear all went well, congratulations!

[ted]

Thanks for your words, jklong03

[coupe1942]

One of the worst newbie urges I have to fight off is to go fly when the wind is actually too high or weather too bad for my abilities to handle well. Today is suppose to be in low 80's and clear, so I hope to get some business completed and head on down to my fly field area later. Congrats on your good flight and the repairs working well for you.

[robert]

one handed flight... can't say i'll try that anytime soon.

[robert]

finding that balance between the urge to fly and the caution of weather conditions is a very fine line. i'm happy to read that your repairs were adequate and you've gone back to flying with two hands on the transmitter. one handed action is okay for the simulator so you can smoke and drink with the other, but in the real world application... i'll leave that up to you ted.

[coupe1942]

Well, I got out to the local field I wanted to use to practice flying on. The grass was pretty high in this location and my first attempt simply ended up with a nose over at maybe a 2' run on the grass. It was then that I decided to hand launch the cub by hand. However, once I got it into my hand and revved up the motor fully, I just felt it was wanting to take an immediate nose dive if thrown. The motor seemed to be pulling the bird downward. I had my flaps in the correct position, but could just somehow feel it in my had that the plane was pulling downward. At full throttle, I could feel the wind blowing backwards into my face, but the front of the plane just felt like a brick was pulling on it. I had on my "ouchie" wing that has been repaired. For once, I listened to that little voice in my head that told me not to launch this baby until I had figured out just what was going on. I followed that voice for about the first time in my life and didn't toss the bird up into the air with a launch. Instead, I took the cub to the nearest parking lot and spent some time in trying to taxi about. It did that flawlessly. Even with my 3" wheels, the grass was just too high in this field, I suspect. I could have gone to another road nearby and tried a take off from there, but I decided I didn't want to chance it at this point. Something just felt wrong to me on this attempt. I have replaced my cracked firewall, replaced the prop shaft, repaired the wing, put on a new prop (number pointed forward and the prop was secured on the shaft), prop is correct for plane, rudder and elevator controls adjusted and seem to be okay, the prop shaft seems to be angled where it should be and the batteries were fully charged. Nothing seems to be holding the plane back, as the wheels spin great on the axles. Everything is still basically stock on the SC, as to motor and such.  I will have to prepare my other spare wing and use it to see if that may be the problem, but from what I view on the old "ouchie" wing it looks okay to me and feels okay when I put it onto the cub. Not sure I can get back to the field today, as I have some commitments to take care of, but just wondering if there is anything obvious I am missing in getting this ol' gal to fly correctly? The TX was turned on before the battery was inserted.

Anyone got any guesses as to what I am dealing with? I removed all cameras, but I don't believe they were the issue.

I hope to finish out the new wing and try it as soon as I can. My shadow photo from the camera mounted beneath the belly of the Cub. Those dark areas to each side are the wheels.  Maybe I was launching away from the wind, but I didn't think so at the time. In hind site, perhaps that was the issue, but I don't know for sure.  






 

[robert]

Coupe,
It sounds like if everything looks right and your firewall is installed on a straight fuselage evenly the only way to check out if your inner voice was right would be to get it in the air.

I know that you are super cautious so I'll ask you this question. Have you hand launched before? I have and from where I held it I was way behind the cg so of course it felt very nose heavy from that position. As soon as I launched it I added a little up elevator and it was lovely.

I'll ask another question, did it feel like it was pulling down more with throttle on than it did when no throttle was applied?

I would take it to a good launch zone and attempt to rog it with the intention to immediately land it after it only lifted off. A long straight road, goose it up, see if it lifts off and then immediately throttle off to glide right back down.

My inclination is that by you holding it behind the cg gave you the impression that it was pulling down when all it may have been was your holding position.

If I'm totally mistaken by that assumption I apologize.

Report back my friend.

[coupe1942]

I'll have to check it all out. No, I have not hand launched this plane before. Yes, it may have been held at an incorrect location when launching, but I don't recall for certain at this point. Hard to find a good launch zone at the moment. I spent some time yesterday searching for that very thing, but when I finally found a soccer field that would probably be suitable, there were several different teams on the field practicing. I am currently looking for a better field to play about in. The one I used during this last attempted launch has one other area to it, but I have not explored it just yet to see if the trail-type road there is okay or not. There is a pond in that area and I sure don't want to crash into it with the plane as it is currently configured. Floats will be added at a later time, but not for a bit. I have put on my new spare wing during the night and have added new struts with it. I still have my Mobius camera on-board, but located in a different area. CoG all checks out. I need to put on a new prop before testing this configuration to see what gives. May not get it done today, as I have some other commitments go get accomplished. Thanks for the input. I'll post my experience with the changes when it happens.

[robert]

Cool. But holding it behind the cg is not incorrect, it just makes it feel heavy. As soon as you let go she's balanced. All is correct with your method.

[renard80]

Coupe, I agree with all that Robert has said.

Go for it, being prepared to increase / decrease throttle as she leaves your hand. But beware of giving too much throttle, otherwise she may go straight up and over. Also be prepared that she may veer off to one side, so be ready to give appropriate correction on the rudder. And ALWAYS, only light corrections on both sticks, no violent or full throw movements. That aircraft is like a woman, she responds best to gentle movements.

Incidentally, I too suffer from footballers taking over our flying field. Seems they are always there during light winds. A pox on them! 

(Different subject, posted with good intent: please can you (and others to whom this applies) break up your long posts? Use the return key to make some paragraphs. It makes posts much easier to read. Hope you don't mind me saying. )