Christchurch and District Model Flying Club
Sloping Off - our newsletter

Diary of a Flier
by B Leonard Wise.

Mr Wise is an experienced Pilot who has decided to go electric. His last plane caught fire in the air.

After the funeral pyre of my first electric plane I decided that I ought to buy  one which has the power train etc already fitted. I had seen some of the foam aircraft flying and decided that a person of my intelligence experience and skill should really ought to go for something better. We all have to start some where and a PNP Foamy would do for starters. At least it should not catch fire in the air.

I went to the model shop and all he had was the Riot. It looks like a trainer and I have moved beyond such craft ages ago. However the model shop man said it was a good starter. If I put the control rating high enough it would do some aerobatics. The best thing would be that it would get me used to Electric power. Be careful of the flying time you should not run the battery down too low he told me.

It was easy to put together the only problem was that the wing is held on by three long thin screws which go through the wing into retaining nuts in the fuselage. I was worried that I could miss the nut and stick the screw into the foam instead.

The plane flies well, if a bit sedate for me. I am an aerobatic pilot . For some reason the examiner will not take me for the B certificate. He says I am not ready an opinion with which I heartily disagree. The plane will loop and with a lot of encouragement it will roll but it does not like it. I am rather disappointed that a man of my skill has to start with such a plane. However it does get me used to managing the battery.

Recently I was doing a loop, as I pulled out at the bottom of the loop the wing came off.  There was not much wind but enough for the wing to float off on its own.  Itdid not go end over end but twizzled round and flew well on its own. I shouted for someone to watch where it went and it did go a long way. The fuselage then did a gentle curve into a gorse bush. Being light it came down slowly and fairly gently so the damage was not much. Usually a built up plane would hit the ground hard and . smash up but not the Riot. The reason as I suspected was that the retaining screw had missed the nut and gone into the foam. It was because someone was chatting to me when I was fixing it up.

I live and learn

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