Dad and I were able to get to the field on Saturday for some flying.  We got a s0lid 3hrs of flying in.  Both of us flew our Duraplanes with the Durabat wings.  I flew my Extra 330 for the first time with the new engine (YS .91FZ) and new radio/servos (Futaba 7ch 2.4 /w digital servos).

We also got a flight in on the Decathlon, but unfortunately one of the landing gear wheels fell off mid flight and I had to land her with 1 wheel.  The Extra flew SPECTACULARLY with the YS .91 swinging an 16×8 APC prop.  It flies clean and crisp,  just like I expected.  There was one mishap though, that was of course, a pilot mistake.

Not thinking about how much fuel that big .91 four stroker guzzles, I did a snap roll while low on fuel and the engine died.  I had to dead stick land her with a 10kt tail wind, BEHIND a structure in a field. Effectively the last 5-10 feet of the landing were done blindly.  Luckily the only damage was to the gear and gear mounting plate.  It snapped right out of the fuse so cleanly, one would think it was cut out with a saw.

I epoxied it back in place and added some reinforcement pieces of hardwood and it’s as good as new!

Check the vids out and see what happened!

Extra/YS.91 first flight

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Extra Deadstick and retrieval

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Decathlon one wheel landing

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So after a nice Easter breakfast, Dad and I snuck out to the field to maiden the Phoenix Model’s Super Decathlon ARF with an OS .46AX.  After some initial setup issues (wing struts), we got her in the air for 2 separate flights.

First impressions of flying are very positive.  The plane handles quite well with a very predictable nature.  A bit like a high wing trainer without the “lazy” feeling you get from those “high-dihedral” wings.  Aileron rates were a bit low because we had “flaperons” programmed in using the 6ch Futaba computer radio.   The engine was still in break in so we ran it a bit rich, the power was enough to fly the plane comfortably at just over 1/2 throttle.  Takeoffs were short and the plane landed very easily.  Dad got some stick time in and seemed to REALLY enjoy flying this spectacular looking and handling airplane.

Dad has a .70 size 4 stroke Magnum sitting in a box that will likely make it’s way to the Decathlon after a few more flights.  Here is a video Dad took using his Flip HD Video camera.

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