Me and my son took my GWS slow stick on it's maiden flight and it was amazing!!!

I've been wanting to get into this hobby since I was a child and actually built a Hobbico Flightstar 40 nitro powered trainer back in 1992 when I first met my wife, but ended up selling it and never flying it. I've loved aircraft and flying since I can remember and finally flew something, even if I couldn't be in it.

I'm pretty stoked about it and embarassed at the same time that it was so easy I can't believe I didn't do it sooner.

My son is a natural, I did pretty good but need more time on the sticks. Still, I made two successful flights and some mild aerobatics and two successful landings. Holy hell that was fun and relaxing!

Stock slow stick landing gear suck though. We lost a wheel on the first takeoff, still landed fine on grass though...

I have some better gear on the way tomorrow.

Just wanted to share.

what no pics, you know the rules.

Sorry, not yet. I'll get some up tomorrow , having beers right now.

I'll post pics of the other two, more advanced planes I have waiting in the wings as well. A select scale super cub and a SE5A.

Didja' get your shirtail cut?



That maiden flight is an adrenalin rush ain't it?

At first it was but then it seemed really quiet and amazingly relaxing. It was like nothing else in the world mattered. I was almost in the plane and it was a beautiful to look at as it flew low overhead.

We were the only two there but I don't think I heard my son either when I was flying. It was just the sound of the motor and the wind rushing through the prop as it went overhead.

I flew it at a county park down the road because there're less obstacles like trees and crops but should be able to fly it here next. Just wanted to make sure I could get back to our little strip out back.

Don't go here...

http://www.diydrones.com/

You won't have anymore free time.

Meh, I'll be too occupied with all the cool ww1 and ww2 aircraft before I get to that point.

RC groups is bad enough.

I fly every weekend in Roseville, live in Westland. C'mon out, we fly electrics at a junior highschool and then go have lunch. We'll have you flying proficiently in no time.

master the easy planes before you jump into something fast and more maneuverable. Also keep your rates low on your radio once you upgrade at first.   I learned that the hard way after smashing my first very expensive 3-d plane about 6-7 seconds into the first flight.  

Damnit... I want my own predator drone....

 

I got bit by the bug BAD just before I got married back in '88. Kept the hobby going up until 11 years ago.  little did I know it almost drove my wife to leave me about 4 or 5 years after we were married. I was obsessed. If I was not at work, or at the flying field, I was in the garage/workshop building another airplane for myself or someone else.
I really got hooked on the building more than the flying to the point where I was building giant scale kits (Ziroli, Balsa USA, plans built, etc...) and buying big motors like 3W twins, Zenoha's, Ralph Cunningham built engines from concrete saws, etc. I finally realized that my hobby became a bad OCD and with the 4 kids requiring more and more time (and money), there was less no time to fly. My flying skills were basically at your level, but I had $2K to $3K in some of these built aircraft.
Now that I think back on it, I had more fun with a basic Balsa USA swizzle stick and an Enya 53 or my Goldberg Clipped wing Cub and an OS .91 4 cycle than anything else I ever flew.
One of my most memorable moments was flying a giant Bridi Big Bee I had covered in yellow monokote  with a red, white and blue starburst on the wing and an OS 300 twin 4 cycle up front.  I remember one lazy fall evening with the sun setting behind me and doing a low pass over the field and the orange glow of the sun light bouncing off the yellow aircraft and the sound of that 300 twin growling through the air.
That is what it was all about.
But I sold them all off, bought a couple of guns and sunk the rest of the $12K into a vintage 1966 Mustang GT Fastback I'm still restoring 11 years later. Note my screen name.

If I hadn't put one in a tree. And a cornfield. And a tree ...... I'd be right there with you.

You'll want to use a nitro trainer to transition to 4-channel before trying to fly those planes. The Hangar 9 Alpha 60 is the gold standard, I think.

The Cub and SE5A need gasoline engines. I believe they make them down to .60-sized nowadays. Lower fuel cost, better sound.