The Little Plane that Could

Yesterday was another visit to my airfield to fly once more. This time I took down from the ceiling a little plane I built over 2 years ago. It was made of stick and tissue and built much like a plane from the WW1 era.

The kit was a good kit made for free flight. But I turned it into a radio controlled electric powered plane. There were many question marks that went along with this conversion and one never quite knows what to expect on that first flight. Although I have built many kits and scratched built planes over my many years there’s always that question mark. Will it fly?

My friend Mark Helmick put it on the runway because as the full sized plane the model didn’t have a tail wheel but rather a tail skid.

Once placed on the runway I slowly ran up the motor until the little plane got on the step. That is to say the tail came up off the runway and she started turning to the right. I easily corrected this with a little left rudder and she went straight down the runway. A little up elevator and she took off the runway and started to climb. 

Suddenly she pitched up at a steep angle of attack. Mark saw a piece of nose wait come out of the plane through the forward battery hatch. This was a worse case scenario. She was now a bit tail heavy and this is always bad for any flight let alone a maiden first flight.

I trimmed the elevator with as much down trim as I could and throttled back to about half throttle. I was able to level out the plane. Amazingly, she responded well. Still I could feel she was tail heavy and to be safe after a circuit of the field I thought it best to land if I could.

I throttled to about 1/4 power and she held nicely as I descended to the runway. I lined up straight and eased her down. I reduced power to about 15 percent and she was about 5 feet up and slowly descended to the runway and landed perfectly on the main wheels. I cut power and dropped the tail. The plane hit a crack or something in the runway which caused her to nose over but it was gentle enough there was no damage.

I can’t begin to describe the feeling one has as a result of such a flight. Not only did you build the plane well but your experience as a pilot just saved what might have otherwise been a disaster.

I have a few more adjustments to make before I fly her again this Sunday but this plane flies well and I’m pleased. It was all worth the effort for such an experience.