Wow, Heart Stopping Stuff

Enough to make you take a train instead.

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I’ve heard the train ride to Hawaii is a bit too humid.

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Jets can barely glide. The glide slope is terrible but with enough altitude

Copters can do an auto-rotation. They’re fun if you do them right. Negative pitch for the decent builds up rotor speed, gravity from the fall will rotate the blades and build energy. Then before you smash the ground, flare, stick just enough positive pitch to arrest the decent, level, and land softly! It’s like landing on/in a bubble. Don’t flare too much or you’ll shoot up too high and then have no rotor speed to control decent and drop like a rock. They’re actually quite easy once you know what to do and are still a part of pilot training afaik. Of course all mine were done on an R/C helicopter. :laughing:

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All I know about planes I learned through youtube over the pandemic. Stol planes are cool, haha, Mike Patey builds real cool stuff too.

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All I know about planes I learned working as an engineer at Boeing and a research wind tunnel facility.

They’re designed to fly with an engine out. Granted it’s a bit more of an issue with only two engines. In any event, looking out the window and seeing the engine on fire and pieces missing is disconcerting.

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You should get on to fly! You can practice a sim on the computer. It cost money, but saves you in crash parts as they say. These type are quiet easy to fly once you get the hang of it. Mainly, coming at you, controls of L/R are reversed.

Choose a size of a STOL.
UMX (Ultra Micro) You need low wind to not get knocked around.

1.2m (theres a turbo 1.5m too)

The Durafly Tundra is really good too.

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Yes, you do get used to it after a bit. I’ve heard it said that dentists are a natural given that they work a lot with mirrors.

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Lol 3D with a brush plane, nice

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Interesting! Makes sense. Their brains are already wired for it.

I started on 450 class helicopters, so most planes were an easy transition.

Right. :slight_smile: Electric can overpower anything these days, why not a Cub with big flaps!

The heli’s have ridiculous power also. I thought my Align 600 with 35C discharge lipo and a custom wind scorpion motor I did was powerful 10 years ago. It doesn’t hold a candle to present batteries/motor combos. I could bog at 10/10 pitch, they run at 15/15 now. The skills of pilots today are something else too.

Sorry to off topic.

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Wow. The parts almost hit their house. You can’t see in this photo but something smashed the rear cab of the truck in too.

Need to watch Donnie Darko again.

:+1: Do you fly R/C or real?

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One of the first articles I read that showed the picture of the cowl piece you included said that it first hit the white RV shown behind the truck in the driveway. Can’t find that pic or article now. So it probably bounced on to both of them.

Used to fly RC gliders - 8 to 10 ft wing span. Flew RC power planes, 3 to 4 ft span for a bit but liked the gliders better. Haven’t done it in awhile.

Here’s one I designed myself. That one has an 8.25 ft. wing span.
Pic is old. Still have the plane.

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Nice! I’m glad you still have the plane but the real question, still have the hair? :laughing:

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Some of it. :flushed:

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Do you recall how long it took to build that plane? Looks pretty amazing.

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Just a WAG but I’m thinking 20-25 hrs over a 3 week period. Drawing up the plans was probably another 8 hours.

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Nice! I flew a powered glider with folding prop. It was a 2meter. Lost it in a strong thermal one day. It was a lot of fun learning to find and fly thermals.

I designed and built some FFF (flat fold foamies) mainly with Kline-Fogelman airfoils. Easy to build and quite stable. I did a couple of speed planes too once I taught myself how to lay fiberglass and carbon fiber. I had a mini wing (14" wingspan) that was 5mm thick with a custom wound motor and 3x3" prop that did 65mph. Always meant to build a 200mph pylon plane after getting to the 150’s. Now you can buy a 200mph plane and motor.

The dynamic soaring was amazing to learn about. Faster than any motor powered plane.

That old cheesy show ‘1000 ways to die’ had one of the pilots when the mid 300’s was the limit come out drunk and hit himself in the back to make the show. The wings are so strong you can sit the tips in a chair and sit in the middle. Barely any flex.

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Yes, I’d never heard of that before.

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Have you seen the nitro turbine or EDF?

So much fun. I had a $99 EF16 kit from HobbyPeople that I glassed and ported to 70mm. Reached 165mph plus. The EDF category was wild! Kerosene was blowing up, but electric was equal or beating them!
Our top competitor reached 176mph with a $99 kit. Foam based. :laughing: Still no where close to the true gas ducted fan. A 2.2lb fan reaching several pounds of thrust! Fun Fun Fun!

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Nearly 2/3 the speed of sound!!! That’s crazy! Does seem a bit dangerous for the spectators to be honest! :grimacing:

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I could post some crash video if my laptop drive didn’t break. I was new and ignorant. Tore an aileron (glassed and carbon fiber tow reinforced) off at 150+mph dive pass and missed my own head by feet. I played it off cool though. :slight_smile: Some smile and a ‘wooo’ that was close comment. I adjusted my flight pattern afterwards. A 2200 mah battery and motor at that speed would hurt… at a minimum lol.

Oh yeah, the spectators are at a safe flight line distance.

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