Samuel Loops the Skyray .35

[mike londke]

Time to teach him lazy eights I guess.       

[Tim Wescott]

Cool.  Nice round loops, too -- I judged Profile yesterday at the Portland contest and saw lots of misshapen loops to compare to.

Please allow me to kick off the flood of unsolicited advise by saying that you need to challenge that kid to fly upside down, maybe starting with the Coreplast trainer -- for either stunt or combat you've got to be comfortable upside down, and that kid's a natural.

[pat king]

Fantastic flying!!!!!!!!!! Tell him he is doing  a great job.
I think inverted is easier to transition into from lazy eights. He will be doing part of the eight with the airplane inverted. I have found it easier to just get a new pilot to stretch the inverted portion more and more until they are doing half a lap or more inverted.

Pat

[Dan McEntee]

    Yes Yes!! World Famous Sam needs lazy eights and inverted. Start off with FORGETTING about the reverse of the controls, and get him thinking "Top Control" and "Bottom Control."  This is ALWAYS correct no matter what attitude the airplane is in. Even if he thinks he's not ready yet, he can still fly where he's at and think top control and bottom control. From here on out, it's build some skills and confidence at what ever pace he's comfortable with. He looks a little nervous and tense, I hope he's happy with his progress. he should be having fun and be relaxed while flying and I hope he is. He's a shy, quite type from the one time I've met him, and hard to get a grasp of his personality. Tell him to keep it up[ and hope to see you guys in Paducah this year.
   Type at you later,
    Dan McEntee
   

[Target]

Did that engine run make anyone else nervous? Maybe it was the audio on the camera, but it sounded like the engine sputtered quite a few times.
Your boy however, is a solid runner. I now have a long term smirk on my face from watching the "man" handle that plane.
Well done!

Vr.
Chris

[mike londke]

Did that engine run make anyone else nervous? Maybe it was the audio on the camera, but it sounded like the engine sputtered quite a few times.
Your boy however, is a solid runner. I now have a long term smirk on my face from watching the "man" handle that plane.
Well done!

Vr.
Chris

  There was some dirt in the fuel tank. It did make me nervous but Sam was flying so well I didn't tell him to stop looping.

[john e. holliday]

That young man is doing great.  I was in my teens before I could do a loop.

[RknRusty]

As I just said on the other forum:

Dang! I "Hot Dayummed" out loud when he did the third loop despite the engine cutout. The closeups really show how he finesses the controls. That's quite impressive. I think he's a natural, Mike. You better start a fund for trips to future Jr. Nats appearances. I'm not just being funny either.
Rusty

[RknRusty]

That young man is doing great.  I was in my teens before I could do a loop.

Haha, I was in my 50s.

Ditto the tip of the hat!

[jim]

Time to teach him lazy eights I guess.       

Fantastic, puts a grin on my face.Great dad.

[Steve Helmick]

Give my congratulations to Samuel. I would suggest shimming the rear end of the tank outward, or perhaps moving the leadouts forward. Unless, of course, this was the first time it did that burping nonsense!  Steve

[Tim Wescott]

Please allow me to kick off the flood of unsolicited advise by saying that you need to challenge that kid to fly upside down, maybe starting with the Coreplast trainer -- for either stunt or combat you've got to be comfortable upside down, and that kid's a natural.

I didn't notice the original comment about lazy eights.  It looks kewl!

[mike londke]

Give my congratulations to Samuel. I would suggest shimming the rear end of the tank outward, or perhaps moving the leadouts forward. Unless, of course, this was the first time it did that burping nonsense!  Steve

This was a new development for this plane/engine. Sam has over 75 flights on it and this was the first time it happened. My guess was crud in the tank, so I am going to flush it and check the spraybar for dirt as well. And if the old Fox is just worn out we'll hang another one on it.

[mike londke]

Finally, on a "level" field. That one next to the house mad me nervous, but not him. Great kid. Encourage, don't push. One father I knew kept pushing his kid and the kid just up and quit. Let them be boys in between flights.

Don't worry Ty I'm not pushing him. Sam is the one who wants to learn more stunts. I couldn't slow him down even if I wanted to. I have been pretty clear with him that he can do as much or as little as he wants to in regard to learning CL. It's his decision. Right now he is really jazzed about what he can do so I'm taking advantage of it. Our time together is always fun and there is no yelling or bad feelings when he crashes or makes mistakes. Like I've said before I will build him as many planes as it takes as long as we are still having a good time.

[Tim Wescott]

Did that engine run make anyone else nervous?

I just watched it on my 'puter with sound.  Goodgawd!  I'd be doing nothing but level laps until the thing finally cut out for real!

So will Sam, right after the first time he has one cut out in the middle of a maneuver.

[RknRusty]

I just watched it on my 'puter with sound.  Goodgawd!  I'd be doing nothing but level laps until the thing finally cut out for real!

So will Sam, right after the first time he has one cut out in the middle of a maneuver.

Tim he actually already did, last week with the arrowshaft trainer. The Big Mig sucked air at the top of a loop... didn't faze him lol. I love how relaxed he looks when Mike zooms in and you can watch Sam's easy wrist motions.

[MikeyPratt]

This was a new development for this plane/engine. Sam has over 75 flights on it and this was the first time it happened. My guess was crud in the tank, so I am going to flush it and check the spraybar for dirt as well. And if the old Fox is just worn out we'll hang another one on it.

Awesome job young man.  Keep up the good work and have a Blast!!!!

Later,
Mikey

[Tim Wescott]

This was a new development for this plane/engine. Sam has over 75 flights on it and this was the first time it happened. My guess was crud in the tank, so I am going to flush it and check the spraybar for dirt as well. And if the old Fox is just worn out we'll hang another one on it.

It's kinda hard to tell from 1500 miles away, but it could be tubing or tank -- check for leaks, cracked tubes, kinked tubes, that sort of thing.

[Target]

My gut says it could be a tank problem, but I really know very little about glow.
It was interesting that the burp was in the exact same place in the lap (or appeared to be) for several circuits. The burp seemed almost timed or rhythmic.

[Tim Wescott]

My gut says it could be a tank problem, but I really know very little about glow.
It was interesting that the burp was in the exact same place in the lap (or appeared to be) for several circuits. The burp seemed almost timed or rhythmic.

Given that it's a Fox, probably with no muffler pressure and a uniflow tank, wind could make it do the same thing at the same spot in the circle each time.

[mike londke]

To solve the mystery for everyone---- There was grass/dirt in the tank.

[RknRusty]

To solve the mystery for everyone---- There was grass/dirt in the tank.

We have that problem a lot with the dry Winter grass at our Fort Jax field. We had to start cranking standing up and wait till the pilot is putting the thong on before setting it all the way down. It's also one reason I usually use muffler pressure so I don't have an open vent, grass bits can't get into a closed loop. Not so much in the Summer when the grass is green.
Rusty

[Target]

Thanks for the update, Mike, and glad to hear that it's likely to be running more smoothly now.
Go Sam!

R,
Chris