August 1, 2013 10:44:35 PM EDT
Got back to the flying field tonight with all the glider & engine modifications having been made. I replaced the original engine with another one I had which had an extended fuel tank and no muffler. It was a bit windy at first and I ended up having a gas leak with the replacement engine’s gas tank so the first flight was ‘brief’. I made a field repair to the gas tank and the engine performed better at that point.
A different pilot took over at this point and 3 more flights were made by him with each one being longer, higher and better than the last. He even did loops with the glider including 3 consecutive loops in a row! With the replacement engine and tank, the engine runs were more powerful and a minute longer than the first session runs were so the plane achieved a much higher altitude tonight but the flights are still too short for me to get much ‘stick’ time at this point. I only got about 1 minute in tonight but I was just thrilled to see the glider work so good. When done, this second pilot declared that it was a ‘really nice flying plane’!
What I need at this point is an real trainer plane to actually learn to fly on. I have the new kit for that and it will be a winter build for me. In the meantime, I’ll take the glider out a couple more times before the snow flies.
The guys that head up this club also said that as a club member, I can use the field (3.8 miles from my house with 42 acres of grass and nice fields!) whenever I want during flying hours and…most importantly of all to me…I CAN FLY MY CONTROL LINE PLANES THERE!! I will be joining the club! They also told me of another club that meets weekly all-year round at a large church gym in Cicero (next town over from Clay where I live) where they fly small electric indoor R/C planes and….indoor free flight rubber band planes similar to the kind I saw at the meet in Geneseo 2 weeks ago. I have several free flight rubber band kits so I also need to get busy building them now that I know I’ll have a local place to fly them.
Here is a brief video of one such plane flying indoors. In fact, I actually have the kit for this exact model…a Curtis Sparrowhawk:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hycyPRhEE80
And finally, next week (Aug. 9 & 10), I’m still on tap to work on the ultimate model airplane…the real WWII P-40 Warhawk!!
…so many planes, so little time!!
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