[NSRCA-discussion] Off topic, nothing like a crash to keep us humble

[Bob Kane]

Now that the season is finished (at least up here in
the soon to be great white north), I am making some
cosmetic repairs to my Temptation. For a little change
of pace, I decided to test fly my Top Flite Nobler ARF
CL plane on Saturday.  CL you say? Yup, this is yet
another facet of the hobby I wanted to revive from my
youth. The last time I flew a control line plane was
about 1977, and then nothing bigger than 1/2A. I
picked up the Nobler and then spent two years putting
together at somewhat of a leisurely pace.

First flight, engine running too rich . .take off . .
. try a little up and down . .  hmmm, not very
responsive. I was expecting it to be twitchy, after
all this is a "real" stunt ship. Did a loop or two,
ran it out fuel.

Second flight, leaned the engine a little, but still
too rich. Plane is still pretty unresponsive. Some
more loops . . . let's try inverted. Oh-oh . . . 
lines are slack . . .  plane heading for the ground .
. .  I back up sharply and the plane pulls out with
inches to spare . . .  back to upright flight, run it
out of fuel. My mentor suggests I pay attention to
where the plane is relative to wind direction when
doing maneuver, I had picked the absolutely worst part
of the circle to try and go inverted. OK, tuck that
one in the experience drawer.

Third flight, lean the engine some more, but
apparently still not enough. More level laps, couple
of loops, let's try inverted again. Oh-oh, thought I
picked the right part of the circle to start but now
it's not looking good. Lines going slack again, I back
up . .   plane starts to recover so I think I have it
and stop backing up. Plane continues at a 30 degree
downline until the Earth jumps up and grabs it.
Crunch!!!! . . . followed by silence. Heavens to
Betsy, I crashed my Nobler. Could not blame this one
on frequency control, just a loose "Nut" on the
handle.

The short flights were fun, and I will probably try
this again. 

OK, back to Pattern.



Bob Kane
getterflash at yahoo.com

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