eric's model flying blog

After waiting for all parts to arrive, and repairing the plane to the best of my limited ability, it was now time to maiden the repaired Tundra. I must admit that I was a little nervous about flying her in the same location she ended up in a tree, the last time I flew her. Therefor, I decided to start off with only a take-off, and directly land straight out. Just to see if she needed major trim adjustments before flying properly. And that seemed to be the case. Major roll and yaw to the right, directly upon take off. Left main gear came loose first, and the righthand wing tip almost touched the ground before I could intervene. I dialed in roll trim to the left, as well as rudder trim to the left (yaw will induce roll too), and tried again a couple of times. Take-off, land, taxi back, adjust trims, repeat until flyable. Once I thought I could compensate for deviations by steering the plane, I dared to fly a corner before landing. With the number of landings, my confidence grew...

Pfff... I got my Tundra back from sitting in a tree for ten days! Storms, rain, sunshine, and more rain, ... we've seen it all in those days. Now it was time to make a plan for repairs. What needed to be done, and what materials would I need to get her up and flying again... First of all, the battery had died, obviously, from being connected all the time. A LiPo battery that is discharged that deep, won't be easily brought back to life. And if that should ever work, then it is still questionnable if the remaining capacity is worth keeping the battery. Putting in another battery (after removing the propeller!) revealed that the ESC and motor were still fully functional. Same for the servos that move the ailerons, horizontal stabilizer, and rudder. Unfortunately, the flaps switch did not move anything; those servos were completely unresponsive. The rudder, including the plastic piece that holds the rear wheel, was completely separated from the fuselage. In the right-hand hor...