My RC experience is not going too well. I fixed up the elevator and tail fin real good, and I figured the front end of the fuselage didn't need to be that good. So I just wrapped electrical tape around it and headed out to the field. The first flight seemed to go ok, but the plane wouldn't gain altitude like it did before and I was having a hard time controlling it. I think that since the propeller shaft is so bent up it loses a lot of power. And the front end of the fuselage was so shaky that made it plane hard to control. So the first flight ended in a crash straight into the ground. That did even more damage to the front end. But the wings were fine so I just wrapped some more tape around the front end to hold it together and launched it again.
This time the plane headed right for the same tree I so skillfully missed the last time and wedged itself nicely between two branches a good 30 feet off the ground. Of course I wasn't about to leave it there, with $100 worth of radio equipment and servos just hanging in a tree for posterity, so I trudged off to retrieve it.
I soon found out that this particular tree was in an area, as of yet unexplored by mankind. It was a good 20 yards though thick uncut shrubbery full of sticker weeds just to reach the foot of the tree. Upon reaching the tree I found it to be a good solid tree, there would be no shaking the trunk to dislodge the plane from its lofty perch. And of course due to the thick under brush there were no low branches.
After pondering the situation for a few minutes I managed to shimmy up the trunk and grab hold of a branch and pull myself up. It would have been nice to get the plane and then simply glide it out of the tree clear of the thick shrubs, but it didn't work out that way. I had to remove the wings and toss them down and then climb down with the fuselage. Then I had to fight my way back out carrying the plane.
I tried a few more flights but accomplish nothing but a series of crashes and decided it was time to bring the plane home where I will have to totally rebuild the front end of the fuselage.
1. Don't bother to head out to the field with a badly repaired airplane. Sometimes you can fix it up in the field after a crash and still get a good flight in. But it is best to start with an aircraft in good shape.
2. Vibrations in the airframe can cause all kinds of problems. Lose of power and control. The propeller shaft needs to be fairly straight and the motor must be tightly mounted.
