Is it time for my now annual "Back to Flying" post.

With many other things going on, and a rather wet and windy winter, until a few weeks ago, I had not flown my model planes since last summer. I had also not done very much in the way of completing partly built planes or repairing existing ones, which has limited my two flying days (and a couple of hours one evening) so far this year.  However, I have now spent some time in getting things ready for flying, and so hope to be able to get some flying in this weekend. My current hanger has ten planes - although not all are ready to fly at the moment.

I have two Wot 4s - an electric, foam, version and a normal IC version.  The foam Wot 4 is one that I have already flown eight to ten times so far this year.  It is very easy to fly (especially if there is no wind), and being electric is very clean and requires the minimum of gear - just a transmitter and batteries.  The IC version has not yet been flown this year.  This Wot 4 was a replacement for my earlier Wot 4 which had suffered a bit over the previous few years.  However, on its maiden flight last year, the new Wot 4 had an engine failure (possibly due to a loose exhaust) and deadsticked a long way out needing to fly against the wind to get back to the landing strip.  The wind finally overcame the plane's forward motion a few meters too soon - just as the plane was coming over the top of a row of trees.  The plane dropped, and just caught in the upper and outer branches of the tree.  Although it was not easy, the plane was recovered - with no real damage to the fuselage, but with a lot of holes in the covering of the wings (and of course the loose exhaust).  I had fixed the exhaust, but had done nothing about the wings, thinking that I had an old set of wings from a previous plane that I could use.  I therefore took the Wot 4 with the old wings for my first day of flying.  However, the holes through which the wing bolts go to attach the wings to the plane were not in the right place, and therefore I could not attach the wings, and therefore could not fly the plane.  Since then, I have repaired the damaged wings (put some new covering on to cover the holes), and so I hope that the Wot 4 is again ready to take to the air.  Hopefully, it will have its first outing of the year this weekend - although I think that first I should check it over in the garden - at least to make sure the wings fit and the plane starts.

The next plane is a Spacewalker - a plane that I got second hand last year.  It has clearly been flown a lot - giving the number of patches on it.  The plane has an open cockpit with a pilot (well, at least head and shoulders stuck onto the plywood base of the cockpit).  On my first visit to the field this year, I had turned the plane upside down to bolt on the wings and pressed down a little too hard, pushing the pilot into the cockpit and breaking some of the plywood base.  A bit of duck tape has done the trick for the flying so far - although I have since glued it back in place.  Other than that, the first flight was going well until the landing.  My landings have never been great - but I though that this one was going fine.  However, despite a relatively soft touch down, some of the plastic bolts holding the undercarriage broke.  No great damage - but it should have warned me that things were not entirely right.  After replacing the bolts, on the next flight I tried a touch and go – essentially a landing where, as soon as the wheels touch the ground, you put on full power to take off again.  The problem was that as soon as the wheels touched the ground, one of them came off so the plane was in the air with the two metal struts forming the undercarriage below the plane as normal, but only one of them with a wheel.  It was not going to be easy to land.  As soon as I touched down, I knew that the strut without the wheel would dig into the ground and was likely to flip the plane over.  I did call for help, but in the end managed to do a very slow approach to the landing strip, angled the plane so that the wheel side was a little lower and then touched down as gently as I could.  As expected, the plastic bolts holding the undercarriage broke, with the undercarriage putting a small hole in the underneath of the wing, but the plane did not turn over and was otherwise undamaged.  Considering the possibilities, quite a good outcome.  I have now patched the wing, refitted the undercarriage, and have put the wheel back on, so hopefully this one is ready to fly again.

The next plane in the hanger is my TravelAir.  I have had this plane a few years, and is the first plane that I built and gave its maiden flight – for all the previous planes that I had put together, I got someone else to fly it first and trim it in.  The TravelAir was a cheap plane to buy (at least it was cheap compared to other model planes), flies very nicely and is able to do as many aerobics as I can do –which at the moment means loops, rolls, stall turns – and is pretty robust.  It has had the undercarriage ripped out on a few occasions, but had now been repaired in a way that has added strength (by one of the he people at the flying club) and is, much like the Spacewalker, a very reliable, nice to fly, steady plane.  One thing that I would like to do, now that I have had a bit of practice in applying coverings, is to patch the wings.  Although there has been little damage to the wings during flying, I did manage to get a hole in hole in the wing covering in the garage – not quite sure what went through it, but something did – and at the moment the hole is covered with clear tape.  I have some white covering, and so it would be nice to try and do a better job.  (To try and avoid non-flight damage to my wings, I have now got most of them in bubble wrap sleeves).

The latest addition to my plane collection (although a plane that I have had for almost a year but have only just got round to putting together) is a Weston Cougar.  This is a vividly coloured purple and yellow plane in which the wings are attached to the fuselage by rubber bands (thick and strong ones!).  The plane is very light, being powered by a small .36 cubic inch (about 6cc) engine.  The wings, whilst not having a huge wingspan, are wide (from the front, leading edge to the rear, trailing edge) with very large flaps which should be capable of giving a lot of movement.  I had completed the basic build, and had tried to get the engine running in the garden, but with no success.  I had not planned on taking the plane to the field until I had resolved the engine issue, but when I got us there the other week, someone offered to look at the engine and try to start it for me, so I went home and got the plane for them to look at.  The engine was very tight – as the prop was turned to turn the crankshaft in the engine case, there was a sound of metal of metal inside the engine.  However, with a lot of fuel poured directly into the engine through the carburettor and some continued turning of the crankshaft, it began to get lubricated and turn more easily.  Eventually, the engine was able to be started, and then ran like a dream.  The suggestion was that the Weston engine, with their preferred fuel , did not need to be run in, and so it was not long before the plane was up in the air, and had already done a series of rolls and loops (and an attempt at a prop hang In which the plane hangs vertically in the air, hovering like a helicopter beneath the propeller, when I lost all control.  The problem turned out to be a flat battery.  I suspect that when I was trying to get the plane running in the garden, I had left the battery on.  Therefore, after a few minutes of flying, the battery, which powers the receiver and also drives the servos that move the throttle and the flaps, had given up the ghost.  Fortunately, the plane almost landed itself, once the remaining power in huge battery had pointed it in about the right direction and had been able to cut the throttle, with the only damage being – again – to the undercarriage.  Again, this has now been repaired and the plane should be ready to fly again.  I think that I would like to spend some time with getting to know this plane, and so hope to make his my plane of choice for my next flying session.

All the planes above (with the exception of the foam Wot 4) are IC planes – planes that have an internal combustion engine and run on fuel.  I also have some electric planes. The first of these is a glider, a Solaris.  I got this plane last year and it has only had a couple of flights.  It has a very large wingspan – ideal for gliding.  The idea is that you use the motor to get the plane up high, and then shut the engine down and let the plane glide around, trying to find thermals to keep it up.  Since the motor is not used most of the time, the battery only needs to power the receiver and the servos controlling the flaps, and therefore the plane can stay up for much longer than a normal electric or IC plane.  I also have a Funbat – a plane that was built from scratch to a plan from foam board  http://bloodymicks.com/Funbat_plans.pdf).  As its name suggests, this is a fun plane to fly – being very small and light, but very manoueverable.  The last time out, one of the electrical connections failed.  I have now resoldered this, and so I hope this plane is ready to go.  My intention is to build another one of these – I have all the materials and a spare motor – so it is just a case of cutting out the bits and putting it all together.

The last of my electric planes is one that I have recently assembled, and which is waiting for its mainden flight.  It is a Ripmax Zephyr, a simple plane which has only three controls – rudder, elevator and throttle (i.e. no ailerons on the wings).  I am hoping that this is a very easy plane to fly in a warm, still, summer evening.  I hope that it will be able to float in the air with minimal motor, and therefore it will be a bit of a cross between the electric planes that fly more like IC planes – able to do loops and rolls etc., and the glider.  We shall see!

Now to some planes that I do not fly – or at least not yet.  I have a Lancair, which is a large plane with wing tips that point up.  I got this plane second hand a few years ago.  I did have it flying once – but there was a problem with the fuel line and so the flight was a little curtailed.  I have fixed the fuel line – but have not flown the plane since.  There is another second hand plane which I have still to fly (and indeed which does not yet have a receiver in).  At the moment, this plane has skis rather than wheels on the undercarriage – ideal for landing on snow.  My intention is to get that set up with wheels to fly this year.  Finally, there is an almost complete mini Capiche – another plane from Weston like the Cougar.  This plane has been “almost complete” for some time – indeed I cannot remember what needs to be done to complete it.  Perhaps something to do before I get any other planes.