The Champ and the Balsa Glider

The other afternoon Arend and I went off in search of a nice open field to fly our RC planes in. It's funny how once you have flying on the mind, every large open area pops out to you and you really start noticing them all. After a bit of search on Google Maps we came across a large open field just a few miles away. It turns out this is a practice field for Polo, and just so happens to be the perfect open area for flying planes too! (Short mowed grass and large open area with no trees, perfect!)

Unfortunately, as I expected, it is not really public property that you can fly RC planes on :( What a waste! So we soldiered on to find another field, and it didn't take long for us to find a suitable one. The field wasn't as nicely manicured as the Polo club's field, but it was mowed at least and had lots of room.

Arend went first with his hand built Balsa wood electric glider. It has an impressive wingspan of around 6 feet, and it can really ride the wind with ease. Since this plane has no landing gear you have to launch it with an easy throw into the wind.  It really only needs to use its engine on the ascent, and once you get some altitude you can just let the wings do the work sailing the air currents. Once it was in the air he let me try the controls for a while, lots of fun! We flew the plane for a good 6+ minutes until the battery started to wear down, then it is time to get the plane on the ground safely! Attempting to drop altitude with such a light and large-winged aircraft isn't as easy as it sounds, unless of course you just nose dive it into the ground. Arend did a nice job though, and the plane landed safely in the grass with a nice belly slide.

After flying the glider I took out my little RC plane named the Champ made by HobbyZone. It is a very light, small and foam flyer. It's a 3 channel plane with throttle, rudder and elevator controls. Being so light it does tend to be buffeted by the wind a bit, but I feel that just adds to the challenge a bit! This was about my 5th time flying the plane and I am very comfortable with the controls and the aircraft now. I decided I would attempt some more acrobatic tricks this time around, such as an inverted loop and inverted flight. This can be a bit tricky with a 3 channel plane since you don't have any ailerons to help you control the banking of the wings. I gained some altitude and attempted my first reverse loop into some inverted flying, and to my surprise it worked! I did the trick a few more times and we decide to get it on video then, and of course this time I crash and burn! But the plane lived up to its name, no damage done at all landing in the long grass, so I picked it back up and it was off and flying in no time.

Andy with his Champ

Arend

Arend and his sailplane

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