First taste of the sky

[GrumpyGnome]

🤞

[Adrian Smith 1]

👍 ✈️

best of luck.

[aidan mcatamney]

All the best

[toto]

RESULT

 

4 flights in today including 3 take off's.

 

Weather was near perfect apart from a slight cross wind. Taking off from the grass today which meant a bit of a shorter run to get into the air but into the air I went.  Very happy with the take off's. 

 

As I suspected, my circuit flying had taken a bot of a beating having not flown for so long but by the end of the day, things were getting back to where I left off. Maybe a little bit to go again.

 

The dead stick was resolved on the Arising Star. My mentor ( who has changed back to the original chap ) decided to take the extension of hose I had put on the tank vent pipe off altogether and bend the internal vent nipple / stub at a slightly more aggressive angle. He also cleared the inside of the plastic nipple out with a pin as the air supply through it seemed a little restricted. This has maybe happened when heating it with a lighter in order to form the original bend. ( who knows ).

 

Anyway .... all seems well with the running kf the engine now without the dead sticks that were happening before. Good job done.

 

The transmitter settings needed to be altered ie .... low and high settings .... as even when on low .... they seemed a little too aggressive. These are now a little more sedate and maybe monitored for further slight adjustments as we go. 

 

For the first real days flying for ages though, a lot was achieved both in setting up / trimming the model and getting my thumbs back into the correct mode again.

 

Back to the flying field tomorrow ..... 10.00 am prompt and should get another 4 or 5 flights in all going well.

 

So ........ now its dinner time and then decant all the gear from the car back to the shed to let me get all my batteries and stuff ready to go for tomorrow again.

 

I'll maybe check back in again later tonight from the shed.

 

Cheers for now

 

Toto

[aidan mcatamney]

15 minutes ago, toto said:

RESULT

 

4 flights in today including 3 take off's.

 

Weather was near perfect apart from a slight cross wind. Taking off from the grass today which meant a bit of a shorter run to get into the air but into the air I went.  Very happy with the take off's. 

 

As I suspected, my circuit flying had taken a bot of a beating having not flown for so long but by the end of the day, things were getting back to where I left off. Maybe a little bit to go again.

 

The dead stick was resolved on the Arising Star. My mentor ( who has changed back to the original chap ) decided to take the extension of hose I had put on the tank vent pipe off altogether and bend the internal vent nipple / stub at a slightly more aggressive angle. He also cleared the inside of the plastic nipple out with a pin as the air supply through it seemed a little restricted. This has maybe happened when heating it with a lighter in order to form the original bend. ( who knows ).

 

Anyway .... all seems well with the running kf the engine now without the dead sticks that were happening before. Good job done.

 

The transmitter settings needed to be altered ie .... low and high settings .... as even when on low .... they seemed a little too aggressive. These are now a little more sedate and maybe monitored for further slight adjustments as we go. 

 

For the first real days flying for ages though, a lot was achieved both in setting up / trimming the model and getting my thumbs back into the correct mode again.

 

Back to the flying field tomorrow ..... 10.00 am prompt and should get another 4 or 5 flights in all going well.

 

So ........ now its dinner time and then decant all the gear from the car back to the shed to let me get all my batteries and stuff ready to go for tomorrow again.

 

I'll maybe check back in again later tonight from the shed.

 

Cheers for now

 

Toto

Good stuff Toto.  The sky's the limit now for you.  No holding back, the more often you get to the field the more your confidence will build.  Pleased for you that everything is working out well and before you know it you will be a very good pilot.   

[toto]

Here's hoping Aidan,

 

If I can get tomorrow out of it without any weather interruptions, I will have two days consistent flying with the same person. He doesn't mess about. As soon as we had the plane in a better shape, it was .... alright ..... you are taking off. .... music to my ears. 

 

Apparently another new member who I have not met yet started during the school holidays ( he's a teacher ) and was taken from newbie to achieving his A cert in the duration of the school holidays. .... pretty impressive.

 

He did of course have the advantage of consistently good weather and mid week training as well as weekend trading. Just shows what can be achieved if the flying goes are on your side.

 

If 0ossible, I want to hammer this over the next few weeks ( weather permitting ) and get myself into the position that I should have been in by now..... heading at least towards solo flying.

 

Back on a high for now. Fingers crossed for more of the same tomorrow.

 

I think I'll be having a chat with my mate John Smith later tonight.

 

Toto

[Trevor]

Well done. Glad to hear that you have a mentor who takes the trouble to ensure the model is set up right for you - makes all the difference!

[toto]

Absolutely buzzing for tomorrow to come around now ........ let me at it. 

 

 

[leccyflyer]

Made up for you Toto - sounds like you've had a grand day. 😎👍

[toto]

Came away today on a cloud.

 

delighted because I was flying but probably happier with the knowledge that the model had been subject to a better setting up and check over. I'm not bold enough to say that the troubles are over but things certainly look much better. for the best part of today she flew great where before hand .... she was down in seconds.

 

I have absolutely taken a step back in terms of my flying but by the end of the day i could see I was starting to get it back again. My aim tomorrow is by flight two, to be back to where I was.  then maybe I will see some tentative steps forward again. 

 

toto 

[toto]

Another good day had.

 

Four flights in. Still an intermittent fuel issue which caused a dead stick. Thankfully the model was brought down with no apparent damage. When we stripped the plane down a bit, we noticed air bubbles in the carburetor feed. One of the hoses looked a little perforated where it attached onto the bung so we replaced that and sent her up again. 

 

Two more successful flights with good take off's and some reasonable circuits. I'm going a bit heavy handed into my turns. Maybe need to reign in the control surfaces a bit. I'm a bit gutted about this as before I went on holiday, I was doing really smooth and graceful turns. I'm sure I will get back on top of it again. There was improvement as we headed towards the end of today's session.

 

We had a new member join today so he was up for a demo flight as well. I donated my Arising Star for the flight as 5he club trainer was not playing ball. It's quite enjoyable being able to sit back and relax whilst someone else ( my mentor ) took the newbie through his paces. Thankfully it didn't come down but there were a couple of heart stopping moments. 

 

Anyway ..... another good day in general and the Arising Star ( again ) looks like it is working well.

 

Now .... to look forward to see what the weather throws at us for next weekend.

 

Cheers for now

 

Toto 

[GrumpyGnome]

Sounds a good day toto.  Soon, it'll click and from then on, it's much like riding a bike - a layoff makes you a lityle rusty but you soon recover.

 

Onwards and upwards!

[toto]

Bring on the day .... a little like riding a bike ..... I hope.

[Fun Flyer]

Well done Toto.  You do reasise that once you are afflicted by this bug there is no known cure, you are infected for life!

Keep at it.  Autumn can provide some lovely flying weather.

[toto]

Well,

 

It's Thursday and creeping closer to another weekend of mystery  ...... will he fly ..... or will he cry. 

 

The weather is holding out quite well in terms of being dry but there is a bit of a breeze. The forecast has been promising so tonight, it's off to the shed to charge some batteries, glow ignites and the like. Just on the off chance that I will have a bumper weekend like last weekend. 

 

Hopefully this weekend will see me achieving some nice smooth circuits, catching up to where I was previously and possibly excelling towards moving forward again.

 

My overall target would be.

 

1. Take off's

2. Credible circuits 

3. Continuity of controlled, banked turns

4. Start to achieve correct placement for landing approaches

 

 

Not too much to ask surely .....  let's see how many of the above I actually achieve. Maybe the threat of a bit public humiliation might help to focus the mind. 

 

Until the updates

 

Toto

 

 

[aidan mcatamney]

The forecast for this weekend is very favourable for model aircraft flying.   Saturday and Sunday is to be both dry and calm with a gentle breeze.  So you will get back to the flying field Toto with all guns blazing.  I can't wait to get down to the South Derry on Saturday afternoon with the Tiger 40.   Let's hope its happy landings for both of us.  

[Ron Gray]

5 hours ago, toto said:

Credible circuits 

I would suggest incorporating fig 8s (if not already done)to your trainer.

[toto]

Hi Ron,

 

I've been doing figure 8's since before I went on holiday to Cyprus. they were a bit rough in places in terms of getting an equal balance but the actual curves into the bends were actually not bad. however when going back to them last weekend ..... i had went backwards a bit. figure 8's is one of the things that I would deem basic circuits.

 

I am hoping that if I can string two weekends together ..... ie ..... last weekend and this weekend, I will get my form back again. I think that the drought in flying time over the last few weeks has just came at the wrong time as I was beginning to find my feet. It'll happen again. If I get at least 4 flights in each day I fail to believe that I can't nail it again. 

 

The Arising Star does handle well now that the fuel issue seems to have been taken out of the equation. my mentor has demonstrated this. Its a pleasure to watch when in the correct hands.

 

In fact .... even in mines, there have been several periods of reasonably controlled flight. its just a case of achieving that consistently. I'll get there.

 

toto

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

If your eights are a bit ropey Toto, do two fours instead. 😉

[toto]

Mines are a bit more like .... trapeziod hexo pentagons ☹️

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

I have faith in you Toto, you set goals, it'll come coz you want it.

[Simon Chaddock]

toto

Don't worry when I started full size gliding I fairly quickly learned to keep the glider steady but on aerotow the reactions of the tow on the glider meant my control inputs were all 'out of sync' so things got out of hand rather quickly however as soon as the instructor took over control it all calmed down almost instantly and he then kept perfect position behind the tug with virtually no visible control inputs. I remember thinking "will I ever get the hang of aerotowing?"

It did all 'click' soon enough. I did eventually became an instructor and several times had to encourage pupils by pointing out I was just the same when I started to learn.

Persevere!

[toto]

I will,

 

I have the will to get there. ..... I'm also in it up to my neck ....  .... I reckon if I had more of an uninterrupted journey ..... I'd be solo by now. There's been too many variables .... instructors, weather, models .... it just needs to be tied down which seems to be happening slowly. 

 

I don't know what kind of a timescale is " normal " , I guess everyone is different .... I'm just trying to keep faith and hang on in there. It'll come.

 

Toto

[Outrunner]

Toto

 

It took me well over a year flying most Sundays and several broken models to become proficient enough to fly solo. Did I care? No. Did I enjoy it? Yes. 

Remember it's the journey not the destination, don't flog yourself when you haven't progressed as fast as you hope, just enjoy flying as often as you can.

 

[Zflyer]

It takes time, took me a good long while, same things, weather trying to sync with instructor aircraft issues but I got there. Well actually not quite true, have my A but still learning, that's what makes it interesting. Thing is its all fun, even the bad times when you stop and take stock.

You'll get there.