On flying model planes...

Those of you who know me know that I've been interested in airplane flight.... for a long time.

I can't afford to fly a real plane, so I've taken up the hobby of radio controlled flight. The first challenge? Buying the right first plane!

I considered 2 planes: The Hangar 9 Alpha, and the Hobbico NexStar. Both aircraft are aimed squarely at the new flier, and both are about the same price.

What interested me about the NexStar was the hi-tech wing. It has leading edge droops and fixed-position flaps, which act as half speedbrake and half lift-inducing flaps. The Alpha, on the other hand, is traditionally configured aerodynamically, but has a 3-bladed prop with a very flat pitch.

Other than that, the two planes serve the same market: the new pilot. Both planes are .40 size They both have a wing span of somewhere around 5 feet, are powered by a .4 cubic inch engine, (That's right: 4 tenths of a cubic inch.) and weigh in at around 6 pounds.

However, a wrinkle worked its way in to my plan: I came across a used plane for sale. And the guy was selling everything: radio, field kit... everything. The catch was, the plane wasn't a NexStar or an Alpha. It was this thing called a Giant Kadet Senior.

The Giant Kadet is a .60 sized plane, with a 6.75 foot wing span, but it weighs the same as the NexStar. So where the NexStar goes for drag & gimmicks on the wing to keep the speed down and the lift high, the Kadet does it by just having HUGE wings. Of course, the tailplane is huge, too. The elevator and rudder account for about 1/3 of the tail surface, so you get a ton of control authority.

On my first flight with this thing, which was my first flight in any nitro powered plane, I greased it in... the landing was perfect. Half of that was the fact that I've spent a lot of time on the computer, but a lot of that was due to the fact this plane glides very well. Because the wing is so large, you can cut the power while still on the downwind leg in the pattern, and you just kind of float in to the runway. I actually ran it out of fuel yesterday, and I just kind of tootled back to the runway, made a left turn, and set it down. Basically, you point this plane at the runway, kill the engine, and it just kind of floats above the ground, slowly settling in.

Now, I did say that this was my first nitro plane. It is also my first plane with landing gear. I actually started on an Easy Star, which is a fun plane to fly. In fact, I recommend that everyone who wants to fly buy an Easy Star, fly it for a couple of weeks until they learn to land without crashing, and then jump in to Nitro... but not without spending some time at a simulator first. (FMS is a good sim to practice with if you don't want to spend the money for RealFlight.)

So back to the Kadet: This plane is versatile. Because it's so light, you can power it with an engine designed for a smaller plane. You can use it to carry payloads or to tow gliders. You can even do some aerobatics... at much slower speeds than the sport planes out there.

Of course, now that I've gotten used to flying on fuel, it's time to get in to something more interesting. Pics of my first "assembled by me" plane coming soon....