Post by clipper453 on Apr 7, 2008 16:47:48 GMT 1
I took my wife up to Sedona, Arizona for our 5th anniversary this past weekend, and I managed to bring my Super Cub along without her getting too upset. Unfortunately, it was very windy Saturday, so I spent the day shopping, seeing the sights, and going to dinner and a movie with my wife ("21" is very good by the way).
When we got back to the resort, I looked up Weather.com and noticed that I would have a very small window of opportunity to fly on Sunday morning before 9:00 AM. After that winds were forecasted to be in the 15 - 20 mph range. So I got up at 6:30 this morning, let my wife sleep in, and headed down to the local high school that I scouted out using Google Earth.
By the time I got down there and got set up, it was almost 8:00 AM, and the winds were starting to pick up. In addition, the high school is nestled right up to a large slope, so that presented some interesting flight factors that I was not used to. I set up the first flight to take still photos, and pretty soon I was up in the air without any problems. The only downside was the sun was still glaring pretty good from the east, so the mountain range in that direction was not clearly visible in my photos.
The second flight, however, did not go so well. I was going for video on this flight, but upon takeoff my plane just wasn't gaining altitude quickly enough, and it started to stall. Looking back on it, I think one of the cells in that battery pack may have been dead, which caused it to be under-powered. Since it was headed toward a four-lane road, I decided to ditch it in the soccer field. I cut power and tried to turn it back towards me, but it just nose-dived into the ground. It's repairable, but it's going to take some time and some parts. Maybe it's time to upgrade to that Slow Stick that I've been wanting.
On the bright side, I did get some good pics from the first flight, one of which is shown below. More pics, along with the crash video, can be seen on the link below which takes you to my RCGroups posting. Enjoy.
www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=845873
- Matt
When we got back to the resort, I looked up Weather.com and noticed that I would have a very small window of opportunity to fly on Sunday morning before 9:00 AM. After that winds were forecasted to be in the 15 - 20 mph range. So I got up at 6:30 this morning, let my wife sleep in, and headed down to the local high school that I scouted out using Google Earth.
By the time I got down there and got set up, it was almost 8:00 AM, and the winds were starting to pick up. In addition, the high school is nestled right up to a large slope, so that presented some interesting flight factors that I was not used to. I set up the first flight to take still photos, and pretty soon I was up in the air without any problems. The only downside was the sun was still glaring pretty good from the east, so the mountain range in that direction was not clearly visible in my photos.
The second flight, however, did not go so well. I was going for video on this flight, but upon takeoff my plane just wasn't gaining altitude quickly enough, and it started to stall. Looking back on it, I think one of the cells in that battery pack may have been dead, which caused it to be under-powered. Since it was headed toward a four-lane road, I decided to ditch it in the soccer field. I cut power and tried to turn it back towards me, but it just nose-dived into the ground. It's repairable, but it's going to take some time and some parts. Maybe it's time to upgrade to that Slow Stick that I've been wanting.
On the bright side, I did get some good pics from the first flight, one of which is shown below. More pics, along with the crash video, can be seen on the link below which takes you to my RCGroups posting. Enjoy.
www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=845873
- Matt
