Jim
02-11-2001, 10:37 PM
Does anyone else have this kind of luck in this hobby?...
Parked Litestick about 60 feet up a big Douglas Fir about 3 weeks ago;2nd time,2nd tree. Sawed them both down to retrieve airplane. First time broke the fuselage stick, 2nd time wiped out all of the foam parts. Could have ordered wing kit for $13,or whole new Litestick for $27 but thought "Hey, why not try increasing the wing area a little, maybe it will float around better." Spent next 3 weeks designing,building,repairing,recovering,etc. a new set of wings,horiz. stab,elevator,rudder,fin. Busted my tail all week so I could free up the weekend to finish and fly my "new and improved" Litestick. Put in about 14 hrs. Saturday, finally back together and ready to fly about midnight. Sunday morning peaked both battery packs, grabbed airplane and tx and plodded off through the snow to my clearing (using the term loosely) to fly. About 22 degrees and not a breath of air moving anywhere on my 10 acres of beautiful north Idaho (read frozen wasteland, is spring ever going to get here?). Bent Tx antenna trying not to drop it in the snow while plugging battery pack in, one last control check and launch. Hey, it flys! Flys good at that! Seems my 300+ square inches of area has paid off. Will now sustain flight at about 1/4 throttle and I got an honest 10 minutes out of my 270 mah Ni-Cd pack. Elated, I quickly switched battery packs for another flight and throughly enjoyed one more flight. We'll, it flys again, guess I better put it away and go saw up some firewood. Well, maybe I could get away with one more flight. Peaked the pack and headed out. Was having too much fun, batteries getting low, should have landed but decided to go around the big tree again. Well the low voltage cutout bit me as the airplane went around the backside of the tree at about 15 feet AGL,yep,still falls out of the air like a brick without power, maybe I can use my left wing for firewood... Wonder what I should build next? God, I love this hobby!
Parked Litestick about 60 feet up a big Douglas Fir about 3 weeks ago;2nd time,2nd tree. Sawed them both down to retrieve airplane. First time broke the fuselage stick, 2nd time wiped out all of the foam parts. Could have ordered wing kit for $13,or whole new Litestick for $27 but thought "Hey, why not try increasing the wing area a little, maybe it will float around better." Spent next 3 weeks designing,building,repairing,recovering,etc. a new set of wings,horiz. stab,elevator,rudder,fin. Busted my tail all week so I could free up the weekend to finish and fly my "new and improved" Litestick. Put in about 14 hrs. Saturday, finally back together and ready to fly about midnight. Sunday morning peaked both battery packs, grabbed airplane and tx and plodded off through the snow to my clearing (using the term loosely) to fly. About 22 degrees and not a breath of air moving anywhere on my 10 acres of beautiful north Idaho (read frozen wasteland, is spring ever going to get here?). Bent Tx antenna trying not to drop it in the snow while plugging battery pack in, one last control check and launch. Hey, it flys! Flys good at that! Seems my 300+ square inches of area has paid off. Will now sustain flight at about 1/4 throttle and I got an honest 10 minutes out of my 270 mah Ni-Cd pack. Elated, I quickly switched battery packs for another flight and throughly enjoyed one more flight. We'll, it flys again, guess I better put it away and go saw up some firewood. Well, maybe I could get away with one more flight. Peaked the pack and headed out. Was having too much fun, batteries getting low, should have landed but decided to go around the big tree again. Well the low voltage cutout bit me as the airplane went around the backside of the tree at about 15 feet AGL,yep,still falls out of the air like a brick without power, maybe I can use my left wing for firewood... Wonder what I should build next? God, I love this hobby!