Last year I made an unplanned vertical landing of my 16 years old Tutor
40.
I had learned to fly with that model and since those early says I have always kept it in
flying condition as a model I can always go back to or make other uses
of: a bomber, snow aeroplane on skis, camera plane or just fun. So it's
demise just had to be made good.
After a year of waiting I finally bought a hardly used model from some
very nice people via Ebay, (thank you).
Early on with the original model I experienced some flutter on the rudder and fitted snakes to both the rudder and elevator which produced accurate and faultless control from then on. Consequently I fitted sankes to this model too. The noseleg had been "locked off", there is no good reason for doing this, however it's popular in certain outdated ways of thinking. To refit steering I 3D printed a steering arm and mount in some very strong and durable nylon and gave it it's own servo. Whilst I had the 3D printer in action I also printed some snake exit covers, just to be tidy.
As we all know the pandemic has interfered with so much and in this context suspended model flying. Having missed out so much the previous year due to some personal down time and mixed weather, I've been longing to get flying again. So once I'd fitted my own radio equipment and a fresh battery, it was time to go to the SCRCS field.
Down at the field it was time to start the engine for the first time and once it had spat out the the good glug of after run oil I had treated it to, it started easily. Final setup for idle on the transmitter was needed and the usual pre-flight checks followed. Next job was to take it to the strip and do some taxi tests, after that though there was nothing else that could be done; except to fly!
I let it have a good long take off run, pulled the stick back and it took off gracefully, then a bit of dip as I eased the elevator off - some elevator trim needed. There was also a tiny roll to the right. Once trimmed it flew just as expected and when the stall test revealed excellent low speed handling I knew the landing was going to be a doddle. A few rolls and loops confirmed all was well and so as expected a very nice landing followed.
After checking that no issues had developed a second flight followed and the tests from the first flight were repeated, together with a few wing overs and brief spells of inverted flight during which the engine did not miss a beat. So, two good test flights over and all was well. Next few flights may involve tinkering with control surface adjustment ranges too suit my preferences and I may also adjust the CG a little to make it just a touch tail heavy as this helps models such as this to stall into a spin more easily (when required of course!).
Here's a video of those first two flights recorded by my wife:
