Grant-KS

Yep, you guessed it. Here's what I posted on my blog.
Well, well, well...as Roymac says, "every plane has its number." I pretty much pile drove my trainer into our planet earth this afternoon. To start with, my engine died on a failed landing attempt pullout, and I was deadstick right over a bunch of fresh dirt clods. (Phil worked the field around the strip, so I couldn't just land there anymore) So, I turned it around, and tried to stall it so she wouldn't rip out the gear, but it did anyway. So, epoxied the main gear back in with 5 minute epoxy, and took her up about an hour and a half later. Flew around a bit, did some rolls, loops, and then brought her around with a a half inside loop, and flew inverted for a bit. The dihedral was messing with me, but I had it pretty well controlled. Then......................well, you guessed it. I brought it past us inverted, pretty low, and then the dihedral started pulling it around again, so I gave it aileron to level it out again. It was getting pretty far out there, and there were clouds so I couldn't see as well, and I thought it was upright, so I gave it a bit of up elevator to see for sure, because I had to do something soon. So, the plane was headed for the ground, so I gave it all the down elevator I could give it, which wasn't much at all considering it was a mild trainer, and in the process, dihedral started rolling it again. At that point I just plumb lost it, and she cartwheeled into the ground blowing it into pieces. And not only that, my landing gear came out again! LOL Oh well, that's how we learn...........the hard way. The first word was Desert Aircraft Monocote Nose gear after it hit. Anyway, so, I'll probably be buying another trainer ARF to slap all this gear in, it get a fairly mild second plane to put it in. Thinking about buying Steven's blue plane with a Super Tigre .90 in it with pretty good elevator, rudder, and ailerons. If I would have stayed higher where I should have been, I could have continued up elevator, and made the inside loop. Nope. I still want to get the Somethin' Extra with an Irvine .53, but there's alot of money that has to be made, and go different places before I can spend more on airplanes. I took all the servos out, and took the engine apart after we got back to the shop, so I should be able to slap the gear into another plane and fly.

DBCherry

My Feedback: (4)

Sorry to hear about your trainer, but you're right, every plane has an expiration date, and that's how we learn.

Just get something back in the air as soon as you can. Ask around at the club, someone will have something they'll let you have for cheap.
Dennis-

Kaos Rulz

Sorry about the loss Grant-KS.

The main thing is that you learn something from each crash. (nothing worse than a wasted crash)

In this case I'd have to say, "When flying inverted, down is up and up is expensive."

bruce88123

Sorry for the loss. At least you know what caused it shich means you should be able to avoid that failure mode next time. Get back on that horse ASAP, they're all gonna go to the glue factory sooner or later.

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

Yep, IT happens.

Here's something to consider:

When your plane gets into a bad attitude, a person's first impulse is to use the elvator to correct.

You need to train yourself to chop the throttle, and use the ailerons to correct your attitude (Get the wings level) first.

THEN you can use your elevator!

Pilot Chad

My Feedback: (4)

Grant,
Remember what happened herem because if you don't you will do it again, and i know from experience[&o]If i were you, for low inverted passes, I would have to be able to to and outside loop and fly the whole field inverted. Thats also what i am going to make myself do before flying the four star

Grant-KS

Yeah, the problem was I wasn't really trying to do a low pass, but when I started fighting the roll I'm guessing I let off of the down elevator, which brought it lower. I now know what I should have done in this situation, and hopefully I'll remember it for any future situations. I should have rolled it level instead of fighting it to keep it inverted, chopped throttle, until level, gave it full throttle to get out of there before it stalls, and to gain altitude.
I'm not sure right now which to do...get the SIG SE kit and start building it fast and furious, or get another trainer or a stick, or Steven's blue .90 sized plane. I think I'm basically ready for a second plane, but I still need to get the inverted thing perfected...probably on simulator first.

Pilot Chad

My Feedback: (4)

grant, get another trainer or a low wing trainer. it would be better for you i beleive

bruce88123

The "Stik" series has a lot of trainer attributes to them and yet can be quite sporty. The Tiger 2 is also a good low wing trainer if you feel ready to move up a little bit. Both can be had in 40 size ARF or kits I believe and probably 60 size too. I'm thinking you already have 40 engine?

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

Grant, have a look at this plane:

http://www.rcuniverse.com/magazine/a...article_id=164

Grant-KS

Thanks for the reccomendations guys! Minn., the Midwest Aerobat was the first plane that came to my mind when thinking about aerobatic straight wing trainers. I'll definately look into that. For $125 ya can't beat that. I've got 4 servos, receiver, battery, the works, except that I'd need one more servo for aileron. Steven wants $150 for his .90 sized blue plane, but I think I'll wait on that. Also, since I'm out of a plane, Steven told me if I wanted to set up his tiny li'l aircore I could fly it. PVC square fuse, aircore wing, vert./horizontal stabs, O.S. .40 ball bearing glow engine. Gonna put my JR 700 receiver in it, and a few 537 servos. I fired up the engine this evening, and it runs great. The .40 is probably overkill, but it'll fly it. This thing is a straight wing pretty small plane, so it should present a challenge to me in the next few weeks. And...If I manage to crash this thing, I think about all i'll have to do is wipe it off and fly it again. LOL I put my Evo. .455 back together this evening, but haven't run it yet. Didn't have time to mess with it.

TexasAirBoss

My Feedback: (22)

Actually hotdogging a trainer like that is pretty difficult. You might find that a more advanced plane will be easier to fly for you. Something that is as capable as you are. I am a little too old to know what the advanced trainers are nowadays. But in my day they were the Ugly Stick or a Super Sportster, the Kougar, Kommander and the likes. They are still good kits and can be found for sale. I think you would do well to build something with a symmetrical wing.

wrig0335

Grant,

I completely agree with kingwoodbarney on the difficulty issue. My Eagle II was quite a bit harder to fly inverted than my P-51 and the Tiger. I found that when I went to the Tiger from a trainer, my flying improved greatly. What is a virtue for the trainer plane becomes a hindrance when you want to move beyond the basics, in my opinion. I could manage to keep it inverted as long as I wanted, but it was quite a bit more work than on a more maneuverable plane. Outside loops were also really quite weak. Almost got myself in trouble a lot of times thinking I had more down elevator than it really did. That said, some of the more advanced planes can get you in trouble a lot quicker, which I'm sure you already know. But.. I think if you have the basics down and were comfortable enough for inverted flight in a trainer (barring, of course, the dumb thumbs that turned it into splinters), maybe a second plane will be a lot better for what you want to do. If you take your time with the second plane and don't hot dog it right away, I'm sure you'll be having a LOT more fun doing outside loops and inverted patterns- and will probably get a lot better a lot quicker.

I like the Super Sportster, and it looks really cool to boot! Can't go wrong with the Tiger, and the Midwest Aerobat looks promising too! I like the Sig 4* also, but I'm assuming you have a .40 to put in it and they only sell the .60 size ARF on Tower. Never flown the SE, but have seen a lot of them at the field and they look really cool!

Whatever you do, keep us updated and let us know what you think of flying your second plane....

-Pat-

LuckyArmpit

Boy, I know all about toasting planes!!!! Did my Twist in a few weeks ago due to a faulty battery/and or connection to the rx.
One of things however when your doing repairs like landing gear et al, use 30 minute epoxy instead. Much stronger bond. I had the
main gear break out of my U Can Do 46. I used 30 minute epoxy with fiberglas cloth for strength. She aint broke since!!!

Dave...

Grant-KS

Alright, Midwest Aerobat it is. I read your entire review, and man is it ever thorough! I also watched the video, and was very impressed. I have that same engine sitting on my desk right now from the Extra Easy2, and all the radio gear except one servo. Thanks for the reccommendation!