BajaNomad - I got a Cessna for Christmas!

I got a Cessna for Christmas!

oxxo - 1-16-2010 at 02:47 AM

I got the flying bug as a result of a friends enthusiam. So I got a high wing, tail dragger Cessna for Christmas. Though I had no flying experience, I couldn't wait to take it up solo that next Saturday morning. An expert took it up the first time to check the controls and response. He was doing loops from the get go. Then it was my turn! Take off was no problem with full throttle. I did a couple of lazy circles and then came in for a soft crash landing in some weeds. I went up several times the first day and crashed it several times but after an hour or so, I was getting pretty good, cutting the throttle and doing some nice flare outs just before landing. The only damage I suffered throughout that first day is a cracked motor cowling, a chewed up propeller, and a ding in the starboard wing. Cost of repairs under $5. I'm hooked!

My plane is a radio control "park flyer." I have a wingspan of 48" with an electric motor that is almost silent. The plane is made of compressed foam and weighs about 1 1/2 pounds "wet" with battery and receiver. Top speed is about 30 or 40 mph depending on the charge of the battery. Flight time on one battery is about 10 to 15 minutes. I have two batteries, so I charge one on the car 12v outlet while flying with the other.

The transmitter features a joy stick for rudder and elevator control with separate trim adjustments for both. There is a seperate control for throttle. I am a novice so, airlerons will come later. Range is about 2500 feet.

There were about 25 other park flyers out that morning, many of them experts doing barrel rolls, hammer heads, inside/outside loops, and many other tricks. The experts were very encouraging to me and said that I was a natural flyer on my first day (ha, ha). They said in about two years of weekly practice, I will be at their level (in my dreams). Age range of flyers was 10 to almost 90.

I'm told this is about as close as you can get to the real thing, without all the time and expense. Same general techniques are used for a safe and fun flight.

This is serious fun! Any other Baja Park Pilots out there?

wessongroup - 1-16-2010 at 06:42 AM

Enjoy your new plane.. can only imagine your excitement, seems like a lot of fun ... used to build and fly models when young.. going to go look and see what our new tech as done.. know I will be amazed

Phil S - 1-16-2010 at 07:57 AM

oxxo. Glad to see you were able to 'survive' those bumpy landings. Had me going there with the $5.00 repairs. Then the "owning up". Have several friends that have discovered this hobby. One in Nopolo , who must have eight or ten of them hanging in his garage. Building them from scratch now. Experimenting with different designs. don't recommend drinking & flying. Applies to both The Real World, and the model world.
Enjoy your new hobby. Fly fast. Fly safe.

Tail Draggers

bonanza bucko - 1-16-2010 at 09:56 AM

OXXO:
Re tail draggers...with our son we have three of them...the big ones. Flying an RC version is harder than the real thing but, if you don't know about Tail Draggers you probably need to. Here's the skinny...more than you wanted to know.

Before WWII we didn't have good brakes on airplanes. So airplanes used a skid at the tail to stop...haul back on the stick and drive the tail into the grass/dirt "runway". ....the runway was always on an "Aerodrome" which was a patch of turf where you could always land into the wind.

After WWII we had good brakes so most airplanes were built with a nose wheel and good brakes on the main wheels. The big change was that the main wheels, which are IN FORNT OF THE CENTER OF GRAVITY on the airplane in a Tail Dragger were moved aft to behind the CG. That made airplanes A LOT more controllable on the ground.

Tail Draggers have the mains IN FRONT of the CG....CG point is always just forward of the Center of Lift on the wing which is usually at about the mid point of the chord (depth) of the wing. That means that Tail Dragger REALLY want to go down the runway backwards!...they have the manners of a wheel barrow. The also weather vane....turn into the wind because the wind blows in the vertical tail and pushes the airplane around into the wind...they are very hard to taxi in a wind.

AND...they are a pure b-tch to land in a CROSS WIND....today we have runways which don't alway face the wind as the old square patch on the edge of town did. That means that you have to land across the wind....land with the upwind wheel down and the downwind wheel not down. The airplane would love to "ground loop" which usually means you drag a wing and wreck the airplane..and maybe your body.

So tail dragger pilots have a lot of bragging rights at the airport....they have very difficult airplanes....usually pretty old. Tail draggers are also almost always made of tube (wood or metal) and fabric....nose draggers are almost always "Spam Cans"...aluminum airborn versions of a Chevy.

...Hope this is not more than you wanted to know...but, if you're gonna be a pilot you need to be ready to brag about your skill at flying a TAIL DRAGGER.

Bonanza Bucko....our other airplane is a nose dragging, spam can Beech Bonanza that goes to Baja at 200 MPH and hauls The Boss and me and all of our stuff.

k-rico - 1-16-2010 at 10:02 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by wessongroup
Enjoy your new plane.. can only imagine your excitement, seems like a lot of fun ... used to build and fly models when young.. going to go look and see what our new tech as done.. know I will be amazed

.049 Babe Bees??

capt. mike - 1-16-2010 at 11:05 AM

well said Bucko. post us a pic of your bird sometime parked at home on gonzaga bay.
after 3000 plus hours i have zero tail dragger time.
some day....maybe.....i love the 180/185 owners fly in to Mulege every spring. wonderful birds on display including a few 195s show up, the kind Arnold started his mex airport surveys with way back when.

Bob H - 1-16-2010 at 11:11 AM

Bucko.... my favorite tail dragger!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_DC-3

Bob H

oxxo - 1-16-2010 at 11:51 AM

I have just been corrected. I do not have a Cessna 180, I have a Piper Super Cub. I'm still learning.

oxxo - 1-16-2010 at 12:10 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Bob H
my favorite tail dragger!

I had the thrill of riding in a DC-3 from San Pedro Sula, Honduras to the Bay Islands on a scuba trip about 15 years ago. What an experience! Oil was dripping off both cowlings, and I knew whether we were climbing or descending because the lock on the pilot c-ckpit door was broken and the door would either swing open or shut as we changed altitude!

It was a wonderful trip, one I will remember forever! Maybe that's why I'm deaf in my right ear now!

capt. mike - 1-16-2010 at 01:07 PM

love the old radials....
radial engines - use and carry oil by the gallons....opposed flat pistons use and carry oil by the quart!!

at 5-6 dollars a quart for good oil radials are not cheap to operate anymore.
but you can't beat that sound!
beech 18 still my fav plane of all time!!
just like Sr. Munoz used to fly all over the peninsula as Cortez Airlines.
Don Johnson once told me Munoz was not only fearless but the best technical pilot he ever saw based on the short strips he used constantly.
many times lifting off exactly at the point the mains were out of surface.....and he knew it and planned it that way every time.
cajones man!

Bob H - 1-16-2010 at 02:52 PM

DC-3's used to fly low over our house in Miami when I was a kid in the mid 50's spraying for mosquitos! I loved that sound only 50 feet off the ground, flying low over our homes. Used to follow that spray plane in my bike for hours.

And, years later, in my DEA days... a DC-3 brought in a load of weed, landed in the Everglades and then abandoned. I guess the money made on the weed paid for that plane and then some. It had to be somewhat dismantled and then towed out of there, in the muck.
Bob H

[Edited on 1-16-2010 by Bob H]

dtbushpilot - 1-16-2010 at 03:08 PM

For a few dollars more you can have the real thing.......
bucko, thanks for telling me about the physics of driving one of these, all these years I thought it was because I sucked at driving it.....

[Edited on 1-16-2010 by dtbushpilot]

Floatflyer - 1-16-2010 at 07:47 PM

This is how a taildragger IS meant to be! :yes:

dtbushpilot - 1-17-2010 at 12:28 AM

Sweet ride!......but if you're dragging the tail in that configuration something bad's about to happen :lol:

...dt

bonanza bucko - 1-17-2010 at 10:04 AM

Guys:
Capt Mike asked for pictures of our bird...here's the link to our photo site with a slide show of a flying trip to Baja in 2004....same now so I don't need to update anything except the instrument panel shot which now would include some new goodies.

http://web.me.com/wingswest/Site/A_Flying_Trip_to_Baja.html

BB

oxxo - 1-17-2010 at 10:42 AM

WOW! am I out of my league! So much experience and such beautiful planes!

bonanza bucko - 1-17-2010 at 11:05 AM

OXXO:
You are in our league to da max if you love airplanes...whatever size...and fly them and learn about them and tell others about them.

Us old...and not bold...pilots are starting to see the edge of our flying lives. We need a lot of young ones who love flight to take over or the wold will not be as wonderful a place.

There are lotsa kinds of airplanes. The best ones are the ones that go to small places without a gummint overhang...or even a runway. Jets are good for going fast and far but they only have one lever and you don't need to know much to fly one.....you also can't usually land one on a dirt strip.....much less one that is under water at high tide such as Alfonsina's...our home strip.

Also....lotsa hours and lotsa airplanes in your hangar only signifies that such a pilot has priorities that are different from guys/gals who spend their time and money elsewhere....like on boats, trips, houses, poker, booze, girls/boys or all those other things that don't measure up beside an airplane.

I was an airport bum without an airplane for almost 25 years before I bit the bullet and bought my first bird...a 1957 Cessna 182...still one of the best airplanes I have ever flown. Before that I spent all my weekends and a lot of effort to get every flying ticket in the book...Commercial Pilot, CFI (Certified Flight Instructor), Multi Engine rating, Instrument rating, aerobatic pilot letter and like that. Then I bought my second airplane....a 1948 Piper Vagabond...first tail dragger. Then I bought another one of those that flew at 100 MPH instead the 75 that mine flew....then I traded the C-182 for my Bonanza...then I gave the the Vagabond to my son with the stipulation that he would rebuild it. That was my only tail dragger then..sold the slow Vagabond. So I bought a 1951/1946 (two wrecks nailed together) Aeronca Champ. Then, son complained about too much rebuilding and not enough flying with his Vagabond so I bought a 1946 C-140 with him and he gave me the parts for the Vagabond back (his mother insisted that was the way for him to "pay" for the C140). Then I retired and spent 10 months full time with another airport bum and restored the Vagabond.

So now we have a Bonanza, a Vagabond, a Cessna 140 (son is almost done beautifully rebuilding it) and an Aeronca Champ. The Champ has a history....everyone, including the guy I bought it from, insists that is was the inspiration for Charles Shultz to put wings on Snoopy's dog house....his ranch and studio had a grass strip under the window and above Petaluma airport and the Champ did a touch and go there and a barrel roll every Saturday morning.

....enough.....but there's a lot more. I have been an Airport Bum for a long time. I even founded PIABA.....Professional, International Airport Bums' Association. My hangar at Gillespie Field is World HQ and Aviation Liars Center. !! I have free coffee (beer after flight) hangar flying and aviation "stretchers" all the time. Our membership is in the millions because there ain't no dues and you don't have to know you're a member until you show up and act like one.

Be very very careful

vgabndo - 1-18-2010 at 02:51 PM

If you should go all the round the bend, you could wind up at this level of WHOA.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RVxSn9P568

oxxo - 1-18-2010 at 04:56 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by vgabndo
If you should go all the round the bend, you could wind up at this level of WHOA.

OMG!

Is that what you did with the 10,000 pesos you sold?