Maiden flight finally happened today - small win after months of building

Mine sat on the shelf for nearly three months for the same reason, a little high wing balsa kit I built over the winter. I'd get home from work, look at it, and find somethig else to do. What finally got me out was a guy at my club offering to give it the first toss while I flew. Knowing someone else was standing there holding it made it feel less final somehow. The sim hours were the big one for me too. I prolly put forty hours into RealFlight over that winter, and the first time a gust pushed me around on approach my hands alredy knew what to do. Only difference was my pulse was doing about three times what it did at the desk.

One thing I'd mention before Sunday, check your trim on the ground with a couple of glides from waist height onto grass. Mine turned out nose heavy and I burned half my first battery fighting it before I figured out the elevator was trimmed for a faster glide than I wanted. Two or three little hand launches would have saved me that.

As for the camera, I strapped an old keychain cam under the fuselage for flight four and the footage was shaky garbage, but I still watch it more than any of my good videos. Do it.

I never touched a sim before my first flight, and I paid for it. Built a simple foam pusher over one winter, took it out to a sod farm in March, and got maybe ninety seconds of airtime before I over-controlled it into the ground. Snapped the fuselage right behind the wing saddle. Rebuilt it with hot glue and a new boom, flew it the following weekend, and it clicked a little better each time out.

So I figure there are two kinds of learners and I'm clearly the other kind, the one who needs to break something first. My buddy learned entirely on RealFlight and flew his first maiden like he'd been doing it for years. Watching him that day is what convinced me sims aren't cheating, they're just cheaper crashes. One thing I'd suggest for flight two: leave the GoPro off. Extra weight up high on the wing changes how a light foam plane handles more than you'd expect, and I lost a camera learning that. Wait til you've got five or six flights under your belt, then mount it on the fuselage where a bounce won't snap it off.

Congrats on getting past the two months of staring at it, that part is honestly harder than the flying.

That battery half spent thing is real, I burned through way more nerves than charge on my first one. Only tip from my build would be the roll of velcro I got for mounting the battery. Mine used to slide back on landings and the balance would go off between flights, taping the pack down with a proper strap fixed that and it flies the same every time now. Made trimming way less confusing.

That double bounce on landing is acutally useful information for Sunday, because it almost always means the last few feet were flown faster than she wanted to touch down. A foam trainer will float nicely if you get her level a couple of feet up over the grass and let the speed bleed away with small elevator inputs instead of holding her down at flying pace, so next time try reducing to a low idle well before the spot you picked and let the plane decide when she's done. On the camera, be careful taping anything rigid to a foam wing, since it will pick up every little flex and the footage comes out as shaky jelly regardless of how stable the plane is. Something mounted near the balance point on the fuselage tends to look smoother.

Out of curiosity, what motor and prop are you running on her? I found mine needed a smaller prop than the instructions suggested to get a nice lazy climb out of the hand launch.

Not sold on the waist height glide test idea from the first reply. A foam board trainer glides nothing like it flies under power, diffrent speed, different attitude, so all that test really tells you is how she behaves dead stick. Mine glided dead level and still needed four clicks of down trim once the motor was pulling. I just flew the first tank high and lazy and worked the trim levers up there, no drama. You already flew her once so you know roughly where she sits. Save the grass landings for when a launch actually goes wrong.