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R/C airplane stuff

I built a GWS Slow Stick (300 motor) and have flown it a few times. Some minor wrecks (no damage other than the prop) and a couple of good landings. In June 2004 I finally got to where I can fly a full pack without wrecking. :-) I think the main thing was doing the cut-wingtips mod everyone talks about. Makes all the difference in the world.
In a moment of genius/stupidity, I rubberbanded my wife's digital camera onto the Stick and took a short, silent video. You can't really tell what's going on but it's about 50' in the air over a grass field.

I practice on FMS, using a simblaster joystick buddy cable with a Hitec Eclipse.

Had to learn it the hard way

I am stubborn and so have made many crashes. Here are things you can learn from my mistakes; I've certainly learned from them.
  1. If you get confused, center the sticks. A trainer or 3-channel bird may just correct itself. No input may be better than wild beginner overcontrolling.
  2. If you think it might be too windy to fly, use the sim instead. (slow stick launch in wind, ~350k)
  3. If you think it might be too wet to fly, use the sim instead.
  4. Watch that radio antenna and wings when waltzing through the door.
  5. If you get it in the air and it acts squirrelly, put it down ASAP and figure it out while it's on the ground.
  6. Let off the throttle before you hit the ground or you'll buy a lot of props. :-)

stuff from the dark past

My first model was a line-controlled Cox airplane with an .049 nitro engine in it, when I was 7 years old or so. The plane looked like the inset picture. It was a strange pink or red color. It was quite heavy, made of plastic. I smashed it rather dramatically, which is not really all that surprising.

models I'm considering

I am interested in two somewhat-contradictory things: slow flyers and "full house" models (with three-axis control surfaces). Seems like most of the slow stuff uses elevator and rudder only. The GWS e-starter seems to be an exception, and I hear many of the stick planes can have ailerons cut fairly easily.

Right now I'm spending most of my stick time flying sim models (FMS/RealFlight).

Planes I'm currently crashing

Model wingspan motor channels price
WildRC IFO
I like the minimalist approach, and the crash-worthy aspect is also a draw! Bought it RTF off eBay, for about 1./2 price.
GWS Slow Stick 1010
The model and the flight pack were both on sale at Mike's, so I bought/built it.		 ? 370 ? 35
GWS E-Starter
I really a 4-channel plane, so this may be where I'll start.		 37" 370 geared 4 $39.99 + gws 2090/2095 ($84.99)

planes I'm trying to justify to my wife

Model wingspan motor channels price
Hangar 9 Aero 63" .40 4 ch

$Id: air.orb,v 1.21 2004/10/30 03:49:34 mouse Exp $

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