R/C Cessna 182


Last night K and I went to a nearby park for the second "first flight" of my radio controlled Cessna 182. Why second “first flight”? Because on the real first flight I crashed it within 5 minutes. That left the airplane with multiple broken parts and a one-year prison sentence in the attic (that’ll learn ye!).

Last weekend I finally used the extra parts I ordered to fix it and realized that there was a reason I felt the ailerons didn't work properly the first time - they were installed incorrectly from the factory (more specifically the servo mount was not properly offset from center in the middle of the wing). After putting on the new wing and horizontal stabilizer and correcting that servo mount the ailerons seemed a little better (they actually traveled fully in both directions this time).

We took it out to hand-launched it for the test flights. It took a little while for us to figure out how to properly hand launch (how much power and at what angle) but we eventually did (75% and a slightly positive angle of attack) and managed a couple of 100 yard flights before darkness set in. The grass was rough at the chosen field so the landings were all quite abrupt, many causing the nose wheel to pop out.

On the last flight the nose wheel dropped out from 30 feet up because it was loose. K did her best to help with the situation (she giggled) and I did my best to hold the nose off the ground when landing. That worked for all of about 10 millisecs before the nose went in the dirt. Didn’t break anything though! Apparently the little airplane is fairly tough as long as you don’t fly the foam wing into a tree at 40 MPH.

So the mission was accomplished. We actually flew it for a little while and STILL brought it home in working order. Imagine that.

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