It's official : I'm a CAF Pilot!

Well RC plane fans, after a work/weather/time caused break from my RC plane advanetures, I packed up the Laker Plane into our new 2006 Saturn Vue, and headed down to the field today.

I flew 1 flight with Al's supervision, and 3 solo flights from take off to landing, despite the heavy wind, and had no problems! So, I have officially been given "the nod" by Mr. Al himself, and I am now clear to fly solo any time I like!

Now I just need to get my Dad up here for a weekend/day trip and the real fun will begin!

A good day

This past Sunday, I headed out to the field to meet up with Al. Was a very nice day, We got about 6 flights in.

I landed the plane 3 times, and took off 4 times! Things are really starting to get interesting :-)

All I have left is another Sunday of practice with Al helping me out; and then I just need to take off and land 3 times without problems and I'll officially be a member in good standing, with a plane that I can fly anytime :-)

Thanks Al!

P.S. First flight.. the front wheel fell off the plane at 6' up... can't have 1 Sunday without a problem..

Un.. believable!

Not 24 hours later....

Hello ,

My stepdad saw your ad and I believe I have found your plane. I know he already emailed you , but I wanted to make sure it went through.

You can call me at XYZ-8259
I'll be available most of today and all of the rest of the week.


Andrew..

Incredibly... someone actually found it!! Even more amazing.. it's brokenhalterfarm@somewhere.com ! So, a farmer found the plane, had internet access, uses Craiglist, and thought to check for an ad!

So, I called, and drove over there the next day. As amazing as it was that they found me.. the condition is even more astounding... PERFECT condition. It's like Al landed the plane himself! Rubber bands, prop, tail.. every thing is exactly as it was when we took off... short 10 minutes of fuel, of course.. not another scratch on it tho!

It looks like I messed up the battery moving the prongs around in the adapter... so I've picked up a new battery, and 2 extensions that I can mess around with when I need to.

So.. a bizarre, yet happy ending that makes this panda.. happy again :-)

See ya at the field on Sunday!

Calling all cars!

Craiglist ad posted:

Training, Day 2

Got home from Training Day 1; plugged the plane and the transmitter into the charger, and let them charge overnight (8-10 hours). Then, while the lights were still shining, I unplugged their batteries.

I got the to field this past Sunday, banded her up, fueled her up, switched her on... nothing. No radio response at all. This makes Drew a sad panda... so I pulled the battery out and tried reconnecting.. checked the connection at the receiver... nothing. So, I threw the battery on a field charger.. and the beep beep beep 5 minutes later meant we were ready for flight.

2 Flights : no problems. 3rd flight was a diff story. Al took off, pointer her at the sky, 3/4 throttle, nice upward gradual left turn... and thats how she stayed. Completely lost interest in what we were doing with the transmitter... just kept climbing, and climbing.. and slightly turning... and 12 minutes of shock and horror later, the little black spec that was the purple plane... disappeared behind a tree line, some 3+ miles away.

My plane... is gone.

"Put your name/number in it?" -- "Nope"
"Set your fail-safes, in case the Tx/Rx stop talking to each other?" -- "Nope"
"GPS/Transmitter in it in case you loose it?" -- "Nope"

Al was very kind and drove me around for an hour or more looking for it. No luck. 2 other people at the field went out looking for it.. no luck.

So, I'll put an ad in Craiglist.. in the lost and found... and hope/pray that someone finds it and checks CList, or calls around to the RC clubs in the area.

... speaking of sad panda...

Reserved : First day of flying!

Reserved

Taxi!

Saturday.. beautiful day, plane's ready.. instructors... who knows, they *might* be at the field :-)

I packed up and headed over to the Klendestine field. I figure, worst case I just taxi around for a while, making sure that the control surfaces are all good to go, the right direction, etc.

I got to the field, and it was empty.. no one in sight; so I set up to do some taxi'ing. Turns out the Rudder was reveresed; but that's easy to fix on my new radio! By the time I got it back to the line Joe pulled up in his truck. He'd been out looking for Lawn Mower parts and figured he'd swing by to see if anyone was out; Just my luck!

So, he helped me tune the engine up a bit, and volunteered to test fly it for me. Got it taxi'd out; and up... about 50' when the motor quit!! He was able to level it off and came in for a nice soft landing on the soy beans. Matter of fact, it didn't even get near the ground.. lol! Soy beans ftw!

No damage to the skin; but as we were trying to get the motor started again to try again the prop nut popped and since I didn't have *any* tools with me, we were dead on the field.

He did have some suggestions for alterations to the aleron servo disc to get more throw out of them; which I plan to handle before going out again tomorrow.

Thanks for your help Joe!! We'll get her in the air :-)