A Tough Day at the Field ( Updated! )
by Eric Lyon
I had an interesting day at the flying field today. The weather was great with 5-7mph wind, so off to the field I went. It was getting late in the day and I guess i was in a bit of a hurry getting everything ready. I got out my trusty old homeade Clip Wing Cub and turned on my transmitter and hooked up the battery and off it went. The take off was unevenfull and a few clicks of trim and it was flying great. I was flying around and then banked it over and something white came floating down. I closed the throttle way back and started coming in for a landing having an uneasy feeling something realy bad was about to happen. I got in closer and could see the battery dangleing around under the plane. I throttled it back to a crawl and brought it in for a landing giving it just enough power to mush it in. I got it down with no damage! I could not believe it. I do need to make a new battery hatch and work on a better battery restraint. Lesson learned, check out your planes frequently. Today could have been a dissaster!
I then, go to my other plane. It's my new E-Flight UMX Beast 3D which I have not got to fly yet. I must say I was a little nervous, hearing how tricky some of the micro planes are to fly. I got it out of the box and carefully checked the CG. After that I checked to make sure none of the controls were reversed. I also dialed in bucket loads of exponential on all controll serfaces. I must say, with it throttled back and trimmed out it was a pussy cat to fly. It was not jittery at all. In fairness though this is the new AS3X gyro stableized model that came out not too long ago and I was running a lot of exponential.. I was disapointed by only having one battery for it right now. I must have more, lots more! I am hoping for decent flying weather this Sunday that we can all enjoy! I'm looking forward to seeing my friends and lots more flying.
I have flown the Beast quite a bit now and can say it is a reel hoot to fly, especially on a calm day. It will handle the wind quite well, it is just more fun to try new manuevers on a calmer day. I am fairly new to aerobatics. After I got comfortable with it and was able to pull off a manuever I have never done. I did an inverted flat spin and made it out of it much to my amazement! I learned this on a flight sim and wasn't even sure it would work. It did! The Beast has a very quick roll rate and lots of rudder and elevator control and plenty of power. It will do a really nice knife edge too as well as most other aerobatics! This a great little plane that comes in a small package.
