Twisted Sticks June 2007 Newsletter

COOKOUT JUNE 7th 5PM to 7PM
Les is bringing the meat along with a grill.  Paul said he was bringing Potato Salad, John Shears the Baked Beans, Tom is bringing Chips, Al Coleslaw and I'll be bringing an appetite!  E-Mail Les if you want to contribute.

What would you think of three trainers biting the dust with in a half-hour time frame on a Thursday night? 

I wasn't too happy because I was flying one!  John Shears wasn't too happy either because it was his plane I was flying.  The general consensus is that I took it off too quick.  I keep the ascent angle low but the plane banked to the right and I used left aileron to correct it and nothing happened.  Barry said I should have use left rudder but that he did not know if that would have saved it or not as he thought I was just going too slow.  I initially didn't think that was the problem but after both Dale and Barry mentioned it as being the reason -- well you just gotta admit when you screw up.  I felt terrible, I've never crashed someone else's plane.  I really would rather have crashed my own.  I think I've just been flying too much of the 120 Enya 4 stroke Stick.  I did repair the fuse for John, he wanted to fix the wing himself.  We spent Saturday morning at the filed getting the servos adjusted and the OS .40LA running well.  I hope he is flying again. 

Okay - onto the next.  Al put his into the side of the hill on landing.  A slight misjudgment on his part just a bit below the runway.  :)  His wife looked at the remains and said he should have another airplane ready to fly.  Goody says Al and straight to the Tower catalog he goes.  He now has a SIG 4 Star 40.  Hopefully he has it put together by now.

Last but not least Dale put his in after the engine died on take off.  He was unlucky enough to put it into one of the scrub trees that was cut down.  This put a pretty good sized gash in the wing.  He thinks the throttle arm was loose on the carburetor and when it slipped it simply shut the fuel off.  He based this on finding the Phillips screw that hold the throttle arm onto the throttle barrel almost falling out.  I can testify that the plane performed beautifully the flight before.  Don't they always?

It could be the wish that I had crashed my own plane instead of John's was granted.  It was pretty windy gusty.  I was landing the stick into a crosswind and pan caked the landing.  Dale said he did not think anyone could have broken the fiberglass landing gear on that plane.  Well it just goes to show I'm just not anyone!  I split them on both sides half way down for a good inch.  Hey if you got to do it you might as well do it right.  I found an aluminum gear at Armstrong's.  It  was for a 120 CAP.  I need to take it to work and cut an  inch out of the  width and have it heliarced back together.

I hope everyone had a good Memorial Day.  Hope to see you at the field.  Have fun flying.