This is my first plane. I had no experience with any form of RC. That being said, here goes.
Yesterday, after taking plenty of time (about five months), I finally finished building a Sig Rascal kit. My son and I visited the local RC airport this morning. My little Rascal was inspected from top-to-bottom and stem-to-stern and after reversing the throttle servo and moving the rudder to a different channel on the receiver, it was granted permission to attempt her maiden flight.
Because of his skills, Steve, an employee at Hitec, was nominated to be the test pilot. Because the Rascal is a relatively small plane and with the wind picking up, Steve and his friend (Roger?) decided to hand-launch. Three steps later and with a light toss, my Rascal was airborne! Yee-haw!!! Bucking winds at the end of the runway, Steve managed to get the plane turned. Granted, it was up the wrong side of the pattern, but ... hey, it's still flying. He managed to cross the runway to the proper side and fell into the patten. He brought it around once in front of us and near the end of the runway found a thermal. Ten minutes later my plane was a speck in the sky! What a rush! Hell, I not even flying it and I was excited! Steve passed the radio to my 14yo son. Billy, in his infinite wisdom, decided to fly the plane as if it were one of the sims we've been playing with for the past two months. Hey, dad! Watch this! Can you say "Elevator down?!?"
500 vertical feet straight down, spinning the whole time! Steve tells my son to knock off the elevator routine and my son pulls the plane out of the dive. Meanwhile, I'm calming going nuts over here. "Bill, give him the radio!" -- Over and over and over. Finally, my son passes the radio back to Steve. We decided bring the plane in. Steve brought the plane down and into the pattern. On landing, he set the plane down in a near-perfect, 3-point landing, right in front of us.Post flight inspection indicated that I need to adjust the rudder throws slightly.
Darrell
p.s. I forgot to mention; about half way up the climb on that thermal, the engine quit. For nearly ten minutes, Steve flew my Rascal as a glider. What a bird!