3rd Flight: (Success – kind of)

 

OK, so this flight will be from a rolling start because those hand launches just aren’t working.  I took the plane out behind the house on the road in the park.  The wind was around 5 mph.  The setup was the same as I’d had for the 2nd flight.   I faced it into the wind and gave her full throttle.

 

As soon as the plane got light on its wheels it wanted to turn and touch the wing to the ground.  I did this several times without success, but at least I didn’t smash the thing.  That was refreshing!

 

After the novelty of not smashing the plane wore off, I decided to try the hand launch again.  After all, I was getting pretty good at fixing by now.

 

I took the plane to the soccer field and faced it into the wind.  I gave it full throttle and made a wish.  The plane went straight out and then up into a stall.  Once again, I pulled full elevator and this time it pulled up just in time to land flat on its wheels.  It had gained about 15 feet of altitude instead of the 12 from the prior flights and this was just enough.  It seems the minimum stall recovery altitude for a Wingo is 15 feet.

 

I decided that, it must be the plane’s settings and not my launches as I had concentrated every time on a moderate straight toss.  I decided to adjust the plane by moving the elevator trim all the way so that there was some down elevator.  Always before, the elevator was even with the horizontal stabilizer.

 

I gave it full throttle and sent it off on a nice level toss.  SUCCESS!  The plane went straight forward and slightly up as I reached for the transmitter.  This is exactly what I thought should happen.  As I grabbed the stick I pushed forward to level it off, but pointed it down instead.  I quickly pulled up just enough to correct it and it was flying!

 

There are some trees at the other end of the soccer field.  NO, it’s not what you think.  I banked the plane slightly to the right well in advance of the trees.  I had plenty of room and was doing fine.  Unfortunately, I banked the plane right into the middle of the setting sun.  I couldn’t see a thing.  I panicked a little as I thought the plane was heading slightly down as it turned.  I was still at full throttled and pulled up on the stick.  Then I realized I had pulled full elevator and was greatly overcorrecting, so I pushed forward slightly – guessing since I still couldn’t see it.  The plane was visible again as it nose dived into the ground from about 20 feet or so.  The whole flight was probably 10 seconds and it was fun.

 

Here’s the damage:

 

 

I was a bit surprised at how slow the plane seemed to be going given the rate of climb it had just had when I crash landed from 15 feet just moments before.  It was heading straight away from me at first and probably this made it look like it was going slower. 

 

The kind gentleman from the web sight answered me back and gave me some good advice.  He suggested that I need more nose weight and that I should trim the elevator down – he has to do the same.  He also said the Wingo has difficulty with rolling starts and to use full throttle on hand launches.  I was suspecting these things, but it was good to have them confirmed.

 

I noticed on my way home from work the other day a field near a railroad track that has tall, uncut grass.  I’m thinking of heading there for my next flight as the tall grass should offer a softer crash.  I’ve cleaned up my old gas truck tool box and it’s now my flight box so I can take my epoxy with me.

 

Here’s how it looked after the 3rd flight.  It’s all fixed now, but I’m still waiting on the props I ordered the other day.  The shipping costs more than the props.  Read about the 4th Flight