4th Flight:

 

Well, my youngest boy, Noah and I were in the hobby shop the other day and guess what followed us home.  It’s a Firebird XL from Hobby Zone.  It’s supposed to be the easiest thing in the world to fly.  We’ll see if I’m the only idiot who can’t fly it.

 

Did I give up on the Wingo?  No, but I’m still waiting on the props.  Here’s my reasoning (rationalization) on the new plane– I can get some nerve up by flying this cheaper model that’s easy to fly.  Then, if it survives it becomes a trainer when my kids are old enough.  Of course, this was my reasoning when I bought the Wingo.  If the Firebird XL doesn’t work out, I’ll have to step back to paper airplanes.

 

Feb 2003

 

I flew the Wingo again today.  My flight lasted a little over two minutes until my son said, “I bet you can’t land it dad”.  Well, he was right.

 

Here’s how it went.  I was impatient for the new props still coming and found another one at the local hobby shop.  The prop was a replacement for a Firebird XL that I bought so I thought I’d just get an extra and then try it out on the Wingo.  It made a HUGE difference in propulsion.  I was doing the range test of the radio and I gave the throttle a blip and the plane wanted to roll forward.  So, I did a rolling start from the grass.  It was off the ground within just a couple of feet.  It still wanted to climb kind of steep, but I had my hand on the radio (since I didn’t hand launch) and was able to compensate easily with the elevator.

 

My setup was different as follows:  Less elevator and rudder throw.  The battery was mounted much more forward.  This puts the center of gravity farther ahead than the instructions said, but since it wanted to climb so much before I thought this would be better.

 

Once the Wingo was in the air, it flew pretty easily.  I had been practicing on FMS freeware simulator and it helped me get the feel of it.  I circled the park a few times and got the feel of the plane.  I climbed gradually and descended gradually.  There was no wind as it was early morning.  I was pleased!

 

The crash resulted from pilot error – nothing else.  I was bringing it in for the landing that my son had challenged me to do and the nose started to dip.  I think I gave it some down elevator as I cut the power – I should have just cut the power.  When the nose started to dip I panicked.  I’m not sure what I was doing with the controls at that point, but I think I was trying to give up elevator and increase the throttle, but really I gave down elevator and increased the throttle.  It accelerated nicely straight into the ground.

 

I’m not a bit disappointed. It was very fun.

 

Here’s the damage.

 

 

Below is a picture of how it looked after the fourth flight.  (The black streaks are where I marked out my phone number in the photo editor).  I put my phone number on there in case it flies away I may get it back. 

Read the final entry on the Wingo.