Pretty funny

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Session 5 said:
I take it Don, you did not take any training from an Instructor..
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Norm, I built that plane when I was around 14. Never could afford the radio or engine. Brought it out to CA when I moved here in 1976 and got a real job. A few years later I bought the engine and radio. I went to a few places where guys were flying and observed. I watched this one kid, maybe 12 years old, flying and landing, and thinking, “how hard can this be?”.

Now I know the basics of how planes fly and maneuver, elevator, rudder and ailerons, so on a Sunday the GF and I drive to the local elementary school next to the freeway that has 4 baseball fields. Perfect I thought.

I get the plane fired up, I’m on home plate, and I goose the throttle heading to first base. Well it taxied, not enough throttle. Taxied back to home plate and turned around. Firewalled the throttle this time. Damn thing accelerated like a bat out of hell. I’m like, I got this. A little elevator and she shot right up into the sky flying directly away from me. FAST !

Did I say FAST ? Next thing I saw it was OVER the freeway ! Oh f#ck. OK, I got this, use ailerons to turn I said to myself. Now its really far away and getting hard to see its orientation. A little left aileron and I can see it banking, whew. Well it keeps turning and instead of a 180 it did about 270 before I reacted. Damn. Now it’s headed over the neighborhood. Ok, I need some right aileron. Needed a 90 but got about 180. Maintaining altitude? What’s that, I‘m doing everything I can to keep it from flying out of range. Stuff happens real fast! Not once did I even THINK of backing off from FULL throttle. This goes on for maybe 30 seconds and I get it back over the baseball fields, wings almost level at maybe 30ft. I’m staring intently at the plane right up to the point it flys into a row of 50ft trees. Well that was an adrenaline rush. Maybe a minute total flying time. I pick up the pieces and put them in that box. My GF, being nice, says something like, “That was exciting”.

I get home and think to myself, “I’m gonna need a little help”.
 
Don O said:
Norm, I built that plane when I was around 14. Never could afford the radio or engine. Brought it out to CA when I moved here in 1976 and got a real job. A few years later I bought the engine and radio. I went to a few places where guys were flying and observed. I watched this one kid, maybe 12 years old, flying and landing, and thinking, “how hard can this be?”.

Now I know the basics of how planes fly and maneuver, elevator, rudder and ailerons, so on a Sunday the GF and I drive to the local elementary school next to the freeway that has 4 baseball fields. Perfect I thought.

I get the plane fired up, I’m on home plate, and I goose the throttle heading to first base. Well it taxied, not enough throttle. Taxied back to home plate and turned around. Firewalled the throttle this time. Damn thing accelerated like a bat out of hell. I’m like, I got this. A little elevator and she shot right up into the sky flying directly away from me. FAST !

Did I say FAST ? Next thing I saw it was OVER the freeway ! Oh f#ck. OK, I got this, use ailerons to turn I said to myself. Now its really far away and getting hard to see its orientation. A little left aileron and I can see it banking, whew. Well it keeps turning and instead of a 180 it did about 270 before I reacted. Damn. Now it’s headed over the neighborhood. Ok, I need some right aileron. Needed a 90 but got about 180. Maintaining altitude? What’s that, I‘m doing everything I can to keep it from flying out of range. Stuff happens real fast! Not once did I even THINK of backing off from FULL throttle. This goes on for maybe 30 seconds and I get it back over the baseball fields, wings almost level at maybe 30ft. I’m staring intently at the plane right up to the point it flys into a row of 50ft trees. Well that was an adrenaline rush. Maybe a minute total flying time. I pick up the pieces and put them in that box. My GF, being nice, says something like, “That was exciting”.

I get home and think to myself, “I’m gonna need a little help”.
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Best I ever got was control line with my dad before he started doing RC. I just didn't have enough interest to follow him. Was more into cars and girls by that point in time. In hind site, I blew it. Could have been a dad/son connection we never totally had. Not that we didn't. Just could have been better.
 
iblive said:
Best I ever got was control line with my dad before he started doing RC. I just didn't have enough interest to follow him. Was more into cars and girls by that point in time. In hind site, I blew it. Could have been a dad/son connection we never totally had. Not that we didn't. Just could have been better.
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And for the record I did eventually get ”the right stuff”. A neighbor and I flew from this large industrial complex, they dozed around 50 acres and put in the blacktop roads but didn’t build for about 5 years. I had my little air force. This was around 1983-1988.

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Don O said:
Norm, I built that plane when I was around 14. Never could afford the radio or engine. Brought it out to CA when I moved here in 1976 and got a real job. A few years later I bought the engine and radio. I went to a few places where guys were flying and observed. I watched this one kid, maybe 12 years old, flying and landing, and thinking, “how hard can this be?”.

Now I know the basics of how planes fly and maneuver, elevator, rudder and ailerons, so on a Sunday the GF and I drive to the local elementary school next to the freeway that has 4 baseball fields. Perfect I thought.

I get the plane fired up, I’m on home plate, and I goose the throttle heading to first base. Well it taxied, not enough throttle. Taxied back to home plate and turned around. Firewalled the throttle this time. Damn thing accelerated like a bat out of hell. I’m like, I got this. A little elevator and she shot right up into the sky flying directly away from me. FAST !

Did I say FAST ? Next thing I saw it was OVER the freeway ! Oh f#ck. OK, I got this, use ailerons to turn I said to myself. Now its really far away and getting hard to see its orientation. A little left aileron and I can see it banking, whew. Well it keeps turning and instead of a 180 it did about 270 before I reacted. Damn. Now it’s headed over the neighborhood. Ok, I need some right aileron. Needed a 90 but got about 180. Maintaining altitude? What’s that, I‘m doing everything I can to keep it from flying out of range. Stuff happens real fast! Not once did I even THINK of backing off from FULL throttle. This goes on for maybe 30 seconds and I get it back over the baseball fields, wings almost level at maybe 30ft. I’m staring intently at the plane right up to the point it flys into a row of 50ft trees. Well that was an adrenaline rush. Maybe a minute total flying time. I pick up the pieces and put them in that box. My GF, being nice, says something like, “That was exciting”.

I get home and think to myself, “I’m gonna need a little help”.
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Yes indeed Don, I know exactly what you are saying, and when that plane fly's away from you and gets too far out, orientation becomes a real problem. I have witnessed many crashes from this very problem, majority of time from learning students.

Our Club does a local mall show mostly every year. We set up a flight sim for those interested. This guy about 40 comes over with his son, tells me his son would be able to do this with no problem. The father said he play all kinds of video games, so he could handle it.. So as I chuckled to myself, ok I said, I set him up on a trainer plane like a top wing Cessna.

I gave the kid the controls, and explained to him that when he moves the gimbles on the transmitter what each one operates, he say's no problem.

Well He never made it a quarter down the runway he kept nosing it into the ground. 5 times he did this, then the grand finale came about he was able to run it down most of the runway he went up to fast had a stall smaaash! right into the ground.

His Father grabbed the TX from him, clunked it down on the table and left.. There was a few of us had some laughs over that. They both found out , it wasn't that simple after all.

We have some guys who fly full size in our clubs, like Cessna's. Who will tell you it's more difficult to fly R/C than their planes, some of the reasons being,

1. You are not in the aircraft
2. Orientation of plane , Knowing when its in upright or upside down. Orientation is crucial. When you become more experienced this drops off. But never the less, if you don't remain focused , it will come back to bite you, I know from personal experience. If I get to the field and I feel tired, I DO NOT FLY;):)
3. When plane is coming toward you right on the gimble is left and left is right
4. Not sure why, there are a few Pilots that have trouble making right hand turns, in fact there is one guy I know who has flown for years who cannot make right hand turns to this day..
 
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