New Lawn Dart

[HPIguy]

Finally got my maiden in today! Winds were 10-12mph with gusts of 16mph. I'm not really sure why, but I'm much more comfortable with my rotor based aircraft, planes intimidate me, yes even the cub. I almost stuffed it on landing approach due to tip stall, but I'm happy to report that I pulled it out, made another approach and set her down in the grass fairly gently. One minor scuff on the wing tip I drug on the pavement, but other than that, she's in one piece. If I've learned anything in ten plus years of flying, it's knowing when to say when, so I put the plane away and flew the quad the rest of my packs due to the wind. I have video I'll try and get up in the next couple days.

 

[SMaxxin]

Congrats on a successful maiden, looking forward to the video!

 

[HPIguy]

Thanks Pete. Here's the video, a bit too much rudder on take off, and the one wing scrape, but I'll get a feel for these weird fixed wing things eventually.

 

[SMaxxin]

Nice flight for a maiden, it looks like it flies well and seemed trim out pretty easy. My only advice is alway take off and land with the nose into the wind, it adds lift to the wings witch gets it off of the ground faster and slows it down an almosts floats in on landings. With a cub into the wind you should be able to go dead stick on the landings as long as you ease in and don't pull up all at once.

 

[HPIguy]

Thanks Pete. I would have taken off into the wind but as you can see in the end of the video, some idiots have gotten in there on an ATV and torn the field up pretty good. So even with the bush plane tires, one good rut and you're in trouble. There's also power lines back there you have to clear and I wasn't sure how much punch the plane had. Now that I know it has enough punch to clear them, I can take off that way for sure. If you noticed the climb at around the 2:40 mark, that was me playing with the flaps. As I get more comfortable with them, and the plane, I'll be working on slower and slower landings. This is the first plane I've owned (I don't count the UMX planes I've had that I barely messed with), and the second plane I've spent any time with, so it's baby steps right now, don't want to tip stall it on approach, which sport cubs of all sizes are apparently famous for. Thanks for all the advice, I'll work on it next time out.

 

[Rolex]

You need to stop using the rudder. It's not like yaw on a heli. Even on a 1:1 plane the rudder is just used for crabbing through cross winds. Steer and turn with the ailerons ONLY. You'll get a much more enjoyable flight.

 

[HPIguy]

Rolex, I'll keep that in mind, thanks. Flying the tail is so pre-programmed into my gray matter it's gonna be a hard habit to break though.

 

[SMaxxin]

A little aileron a little up elevator and it will turn as smooth as silk....This coming from a guy that did a node dive into the roof of the house today lol. I hit the shed last week, the house this week, the only thing left in my yard to hit is the camper and I plan on having new props for next week!

 

[Rolex]

This coming from a guy that did a node dive

It sounds like you have alergies. Have a code in your doze?
Unplug the rudder servo till you break the habit. Just make sure the rudder is straight.

 

[HPIguy]

Unplug the rudder servo

You sound like my Dad when I was a kid. Hey Dad my car is making a noise. Turn the radio up, it'll go away. To be fair, I've had one airplane flight in the past three years, I'll work at it, thanks for the advice Rolex.

 

[tmaxxfreek]

i have been eyeballing these since they come out, and since the trailing has died around here the itch has gotten worse for another aircraft, nice job on the maiden!!

 

[HPIguy]

Thanks Patrick. Doing a lot of flying Saturday actually, headed out early with three different aircraft. One of each, heli, multi, fixed wing.

 

[HPIguy]

Just got done a with a little tinkering that should put a bit more sport in the sport cub.

Out with the old, in with the new.

Old prop was a 9x6, new prop is a 10x7

Had to trim the spinner, but it's all done and ready for my first morning at the club tomorrow!

 

[hamz9561]

Nice. You might have enough power to hover that bad boy.

 

[HPIguy]

Maybe, but not the skills.

 

[HPIguy]

I took to the plane pretty quickly, learned some basic aerobatics like flying inverted, knife edge, etc. BUT, today during a low altitude high alpha turn, I had a failure of some sort (think one of my old packs failed), and it stalled and went in hard nose first. Gotta survey the damage, but it's fixable I think. Oh well, so it goes. I will say, planes are a lot of fun in a different way, and I already have my next bird picked out. Going to Joe Nall next month too.

 

[hamz9561]

Remember that there are 2 kinds of planes: Those that have crashed and those that will.

 

[HPIguy]

Very true hamz!

 

[HPIguy]

Figured out the failure. I was using a Turnigy ESC with a low amp linear BEC and had a brown out. Going back to stock for now since it's free to do so. All the fuselage and wing damage was able to be repaired with glue and packing tape, just need my new motor, which is inbound now. I couldn't get the shaft out of the old one as apparently the factory uses red loctite, and I didn't know that so the grub screws stripped that hold it in place. I called Horizon asking for advice, and they sent me a new motor, and gave me advice for replacing it when it inevitably happens again. Can't beat that for customer service!

 

[SMaxxin]

HH has always had good CS, I'm glad to hear they took care of you!