Getting the hang of it!

I had a great flying session at SEFSD on Saturday afternoon 5/21/16, while the TNS race was going on at SDRC. 

I also got to try out my new wind speed gauge!  Turns out the wind speed was about 8 mph on average with gusts up to 10 mph. Lol!

This was the 1st session with my 48" P51 Mustang where I was able to fly around, retract the landing gear, and was able to land without tipping over onto the prop (mostly). It was great!

I was also able to fly my UMX Habu, taking off and landing from the runway :)

SEFSD Sunday afternoon session, 5/8/16

I broke my prop!

My prop finally had enough of my tip over landings and broke on my 2nd landing attempt of my 1st battery. Oh well. 

The stock Eflite prop was out of stock everywhere, but I was able to find a cheaper aftermarket prop from a new online hobby shop I found :). I ordered 4 of them and got them in only 3 days!  Winning!

Birthday flying

I took my Birthday off from work for the 1st time ever and headed out to the field to fly my new 48" P51, despite the threat of rain. Unfortunately it was a bit windy, but I tried to fly anyway. 

My session was going ok, but the wind caused the plane to pitch up, then stall, as I was trying to land and it came down hard!

Crinkled nose. 

Dented wingtip. 

Waiting to fly. 

Club members getting the pad ready for the drone race on Saturday. 

1.2m P51 Mustang Maiden!

I maidened my new and 1st big plane Sunday 5/1/16!  At 1st I tried using the flaps, but with the wind, the plane floated too much which made it hard to land! Lol!

I basically practiced my landing approach  and landings. I didn't fly around much other than getting in position to land. By my 5th landing I was starting to get the hang of it!  But I was landing really far down the runway!

I can't wait to try flying it again :)

Ready to fly!

Windy!

Blade 230s and Trex 250 repairs completed!

I managed to finish repairs to both my 230s and 250, which I crashed a couple of weeks ago within days of each other.  The 230 was simple to fix. I glued the cracked frame back together, replaced the broken main gear, and installed a new set of landing gear. I checked both the main and spindle shafts; both were not bent :).  There's no way to set the blade pitch as the links are a fixed length. You can only level the swash and set the max and min pitch, which shouldn't have changed as the swash links were not damaged. Repair and setup done!

The 250 on the other hand required much more work. Both dfc links were broken, a dfc rod was bent, and a blade grip arm bent. The spindle shaft didn't break this time, but was bent. I also had to replace a bearing block that I broke while trying to get the main shaft out of the locked up one way bearing. However, all the parts have been replaced with new ones, but I still need to repeat the head and tail setup. 

Next time I fly the 250, I'm only doing 1 test flight, then grounding it for at least a month!  This way I won't crash it for at least a month. Lol!

Big ass plane is here!

My new 48" P51d Mustang arrived last night. This thing is bigger than I expected!  The box didn't even fit in the trunk of my car!  I had to put it in the front seat!

Box contents. The box's length came up to under my chin!

Assembly was pretty easy.  I did need to solder a Deans connector onto the speedo though as I don't use EC3's, which is the connector it came with. The hardest part was deciding how to route the servo wires from the wing into the fuselage and keep them tidy. I also needed to figure out how to tape the 2 antenna wires in a 90 deg position to each other. I ended up orienting the short antenna up and routing the long antenna towards the back of the plane in parallel to the fuselage. This way the 2 antennas were 90 degrees to each other. 

After figuring that out, I plugged in the battery and tested the control surfaces, flaps, and landing gear. The retractable landing gear was cool!

Size comparison between my 14" UMX P51 and the 48" P51!

What am I getting myself into?!?

Big ass plane on the way!

I caved and bought a 48" wingspan P51D Mustang!  It flys on a 3s 2200mah battery, the same packs as my Trex 450. 

It also has flaps and retracting landing gear :)

It is my bday present to myself this year. Last year it was the Goblin 380.