Take 2

Date: 07Feb2009

Conditions
Equipment: (Super Cub- Stock Plane and Electronics)
WX: Windy at altitude- high gusts, Temp ~20F
Ground Conditions: Snow 3-5 inches
Field: (large Soccer / Baseball Field)

Flight Summary
Determined to shake off the ill-fated maiden, I took to the sky's again after brushing up a few quick simulated SC flights on my Clearview R.C. flight simulator.

As mentioned, the SuperCub sustained almost no damage from the maiden flight. With my hopes high I took another swing. Little did I know that my 5 year old's words of wisdom "ground Daddy" mentioned in the maiden flight log would be prophetic description of what was to come.

I decided to try the hand launch and this worked very well. The problem I had was now an aversion for altitude and the control-loosing wind that I had experienced before, so I kept her low. This caused its own set of problems as the many mistakes I made where amplified by the plane striking the ground- sometimes violently. Nevertheless I persevered with several re-occurring thoughts going through my head such as: "$130 dollars for a new plane will not be so bad as long as you can get this one to fly for a few 100 yards" and "your good enough to fly this thing it's only a 3-channel set up and you have at least 50 hours on the Sim with at least as many SC landings"

Toward the end I did get a few nice circle passes and just about the time I thought I had it down. We had a "rough landing" which resulted in the well known dangling battery box issue.

Hey it still flies with a dangling battery box! It just doesn't land very nicely that way.....

For those that don't already know, the battery box looks like this:

Things I learned from these flights:

• It is hard to learn to fly in the wind- start when its calm if you can wait

• Those plastic pieces on the SC landing gear get in the way when you are learning to land- or rather learning to bend the gear back after landing- take them off

• When you start off fly high enough that a single mistake doesn't result in a forced landing- start when the wind is calm if you can wait

• I think the wing struts are aesthetic- she'll fly without them...

• The SC is remarkably durable

Damage
Wing- leading edge received some damaged- fixed with nice red "airplane" tape
Wing Struts- The hooks broke off of one side. I flew the plane anyway ~$1.10
Battery box- The batter box broke loose- fixed with red "airplane" tape ~$3.50
Electronics- Super Cub ESC / Receiver went bad- ~$26

Stats
Cumulative Flights: 2
Cumulative Hrs: 0.3
Successful Landings: 0
$ to date: $184