Jerry Gollot, old friend, fly buddy...I miss you.

I learned today on visiting my old club's website, MCRCC in Gulfport, MS, that one of my friends has died. Jerry died on March 24, 2016. Jerry was a true southern gentleman. I loved him, and he was one of my first fly buddies. He taught me how to be an aviator, how to teach, how to be a club member, how to be a good man despite the few assholes at the club, and though I won't admit it publicly, he taught me to like some conservatives... My thoughts are with Sandra, his lovely and loving wife, and his family.

Jerry taught me how to fly. (Ron Johnson taught me how not to fly... just kidding!). He took me up with my Alpha Sport 450 on a buddy box on my very first day at the field, stuck with me every time I showed up, and had me solo with confidence shortly thereafter. He was my first "pusher' in this lovely addiction we call RC flight. He was one of the original Flying Monkeys. He taught me not to be afraid of nitro planes. He was always present, and he always helped. Always. 

LINKS TO MY BLOG POSTS WITH JERRY.

I miss you, Jerry. I really do.

(Dammit Kenny... you should have called me).

Totally Awesome Very Cool BMF Day!

What a great day of flying! Got off to an early start and enjoyed the best flying weather this spring. The crosswind breeze picked up in the late afternoon, but they really were light gusts. And very importantly, we took the shiny off the MX2 and the Cornell! I also got to have second lunches taking down a very tasty red meat sauce spaghetti ala Ron Johnson after my Subway Italian a few hours earlier.  Having some issues with my Spektrum Dx6i right gimbal being sticky and not coming back to center detente and doesn't move cleanly (sticky like). Took it apart, oiled the "bearings", improved but still bugs me now that Jerry Gollot brought it to my attention. I may need to get it serviced.

I LOVE my Dynam ERazor! She flew wonderfully in hover, sweetly and tightly tracking, handling awesomely with full rates and low expo. I was very excited and proud as I had her totally in control. After 5 minutes in the first flight I had to land to take a breath and get a grip I was so waiting for something bad to happen. The second pack also went great! Then I broke the deal with myself... I was going to stick to tail in hover. I fly the sim in all angles well, but I am very anxious about doing it for real. So as I turned the heli nose in, then tried to bring it from my left to right, it came forward a bit. I panicked, even though it was quite a bit aways, and instead of recovering a self fulfilling prophecy was fulfilled and as she dropped towards me I hit throttle hold and cognitively stopped flying, so she  drilled. But only a bent feathering shaft, main shaft, snapped off the tail fin and stripped pitch servo. Blades were fine!  I have already field repaired everything except the feathering shaft. I do hate trying to get the middle Jesus bolt aligned on the ERazor... it has one just above the tail power takeoff gear and one below the main gear. The middle one has to align the gear, and painfully, the one way bearing shaft, and the main shaft. Hard to get them all aligned just right.

My bench at BMF!

Flags up for Memorial Day Weekend. Busy flightline today!  Had about 15 pilots and a couple of drive up visitors. The visitor was talked into flying on a Buddy Box with Ron, and had about 3 flights! I am sure he's on the hook now!

Jim Williams and Jerry Gollot preparing a club trainer for flight.

Devon flying his brand spanking new Seagull Extra 540. He won't admit it, but he's a great kid and a very good pilot! I had the pleasure of meeting his grandfather, Jim.

We maidened my Eflite PT-19 Cornell today! Jerry took her up and trimmed her out, flew her for a bit and brought her in for a landing. On the second flight I took the controls. She is as stable, if not more so, than my Alpha. She does need a late clean flare on landing. Tomorrow I plan to solo her!

We also maidened the BlitzRXWorks MX2. Jerry and Arnie flew her for me (I prefer to have skilled pilots maiden my planes. I want to know that if something is wrong with the plane, a skilled pilot has a better chance of bringing her home. Good thing too... She had some serious issues right after takeoff). On takeoff all hell broke loose as soon as her wheels left the ground. She acted tail heavy, and nearly flipped on her back as she waffled wildly even though her CG was spot on, but Jerry, who was flying her, managed to land her right side up before the end of the runway. If I had been flying her she would be in with the Ents who live down there or coming home in a trash bag... The landing gear are way too soft, and bent back very easily (both in the crash and the repair). The wheel pants I pulled off after the first flight; they were rubbing the wheels as you may recall from the MX2 build, but they cracked off on the first flight/crash landing. I didn't like them anyway. Once we solved the balance/trim problems, she was easier to takeoff, but she is a squirrelly plane near the ground and with low power or high power, even in Arnie's very skilled hands. Once we got her up and trimmed she flew wonderfully with attention to power. Large control surfaces make for sharp and intense control. Arnie popped some moves and she controlled cleanly and sharply. She has great power, and she is way fast. On landing, time and again she would touch down and immediately fold over her landing gear. We got very good at removing them and re-bending them back into position. Her  nose likes to drop when the power comes off, and the three blade 12x9 prop has some serious breaking power, so coming in with power and flying her all the way to the ground (she wants to fly forever), with a very careful and late flare is the ticket. I think it will be a while until I fly her solo... I don't quite have the skills. She is NOT a beginner's plane, but when I do get schooled, she will be an amazing plane to fly! That being said, I would rather have gone with a ply/balsa and cote plane instead of the MX2. Can't recommend this one, but maybe time will improve my opinion.

This is going to be a busy flying weekend! I will be flying the Cornell, and the Alpha 450, which I also flew the cote off today. It looks like my 51mm feathering shafts are here, so I will also be maidening Franky! Oh, almost forgot, its so commonplace... Cubby flew fine, until she took a sudden rolling dive when her rudder fell off... oops.  Broke in the usual places. My wife (and my flying buddies) ask why bother, but its now a game and a challenge. I promise to fly her, and not bring her home in one piece, and she promises to break cleanly in the usual places. Works for us...  I have a feeling it will not be long before her wing is hanging near Phoenixcubby's on my wall.

Thanks for another great flying day, MCRCC Guys!

Happy flying, keep the lifties under the wings!

Its like a soap opera...

So much was going on today at BMF! There was love and romance (pilots and planes, of course, geez...) and paradise won, paradise lost, tragedy and comedy... Yup, a regular soap opera (sorry, I can't stop crying...).

Jerry's new high speed, low drag look! Looks great!

The space my Stearman used to occupy.... (sniff...).

(More on that tragedy here).

Antonio and his Champ! He also got some time on the trainer with Ron.

Say hello to Vincent Keyhae! He visited with a used plane he bought from a previous owner who might have oversold its flight readiness. Ron helped him sort out "the piece of crap" Hobbico Nexstar. Ron, who has two, hates them both, but he knows the plane and was able to get Vincent's plane to function. Got too windy to test. Vincent also flew his foamie T-28 Trojan in some brisk winds and showed some sound airmanship. Welcome, Vincent! (You can see Jerry's beautiful Chaos under the table...)

Ron has repaired the Harrier 3D's leading edge after its runway excursion. He has new wings coming, but this will let him play until then!

Oh, sadness... Jerry's really wonderful Chaos dies when he experiences a "radio problem" and it ended up out by the road...

Jerry, gentleman that he is, took it in stride. He will likely have it airworthy after a couple weeks of swearing it off... :-)

Oh, what a day... Spent 3 packs on the Alpha 450 getting my confidence before I flew, and lost, my Eflite Stearman to a loss of orientation compounded by a newbie panic. Panic doesn't help... if the plane is dying, why panic, the worst that can happen is that it will still die. Easier said than done... Tomorrow, I'm having waffles after a good cry tonight.

Another pretty darn good flying day!

Today was meeting day at MCRCC. It was windy, so I didn't head out to the field until around noon. I didn't get to fly my Cubby or my Alpha, but I did get to corkscrew my EXI 450 into the ground.

I had set her up with the new miniMEMS gyro and converted her to a tail boom servo. The latter because the original fuselage servo tray cracked off. The EXI require complete removal of the tail box from the rear of the fuselage to put the tail boom servo brackets on. A lot of work but easy enough. The gyro seemed to be set up fine, but I made a mistake I made once before... I lifted off the first time and the heli turned slowly.  I set it back down. I made the mistake of thinking it was that the gyro was reversed. I reversed the gyro, strike one. I then noticed that the blue light did not illuminate on the gyro after having reversed it. I figured it needed to be rebound, mistake number two.  Rebinding it did not solve the problem, but I decided to fly it anyway, strike three. It lifted off and twisted high and violently corkscrewed into the ground. Over in 2 seconds.

On inital inspection the tally is: broken main blade, bent flybar (almost certainly bent main rotor shaft and feathering shaft comes with that), two stripped metal gear servos, bent tail tube, bent tail rotor shaft, broken tail blade, sheared off tail guard. I have the parts, but its a good week's worth of work.

Jerry and Bob setting up one of the MCRCC trainers for me.

Jerry was presented with the first AMA District ACE award for  excellence in contributions to our hobby today! Congratulations, Jerry! As one of your students, I am thrilled for your recognition by the AMA!

But here's the part that made it all better! It was too windy for my planes, so Jerry offered to buddy box me on one of the club's 40 class nitro trainers. We did three hops, and it went pretty well!  But the winds wreaked havoc and on the third landing attempt of our final hop a wind shear dropped it in the last tree at the approach end of the runway. It came to rest on the ground completely unharmed.

I continue to be really glad and excited to have joined this flying club! I enjoy the people and the flying field more than I imagined I would.

Cornell Sorta #3 Update

The little voice in my head is happy!

I took the refurbished Cornell out to BMF today, and after several flights on the Alpha and a couple Cubby flights, I took the Cornell out to the flightline. The little voice started up on me when I arrived at BMF (I actually think before that, like, last night). On the flightline, transmitter in hand, aircraft flight ready, I just couldn't shake it. I just didn't feel right.  She looked perfect, but if I flew her I wouldn't know if an ensuing crash was pilot error or porblems with the aircraft. Jerry Gollot had been coaching Joe, who had just sustained a hard landing. They were walking back across the field with his plane.. the voice was nagging me. Not in a wifey way, but in a way that kept my attention.

As he approached I asked Jerry if he'd maiden the Cornell for me, and with a laugh, he said yes, "I ain't got nothin' invested in her!"

Jerry had checked her balance earlier in the pits, and he was pleased with it. He checked out the controls and the rates I had set up. He spun the motor up... lots and lots of power. Her tail hopped right up. He hot taxied her then bumped her into the air keeping her in ground effect, then landed her. He was clicking away at the trims. He turned her around, and took off. She went nuts, tail heavy, rolling, heading for the flightline fence, over that, heading for the trees. He got her under control and took her to altitude where he went to work on the trims again like he was playing the piano! 

He got her trimmed out and we learned a few things. The plane is flying tail heavy despite the CG being fine as designated. We also learned that she torques like crazy with power, so she needs right rudder trim when going fast. She glides like a rock with one heckuva sink rate. She is tricky to take off and land. In cruise properly trimmed she flies awesome! Version 1 was far more stable.

So we will be experimenting with adding some nose weight, and see if I can get her more centered without making her too heavy. I am pleased, but still nervous to fly her myself until this gets sorted out.

But the little voice in my head is happy, and that's what matters! Thanks, Jerry!

"Here, hold my beer..."

Got out this morning, after a late night working on the MXS-R, and the fields were empty of lacrosse players, the sky clear, the wind calm. Perfect!

Took the Pulse XT, the 1000mm Sbach and the F-86 Saber jet out. Flew the Pulse, always a great flyer, and as I was flying Jerry came out and introduced himself. He's an RC pilot, new to the hobby, so I took him up on a buddy box with the Pulse. He did an amazing job, and is completely hooked if he wasn't already. I suggested the Alpha Sport 450 as a great first plane (he tried starting with the Pulse, but being an engineer, he over engineered it :-), and I realized I have the extra new one and offered to sell it to him. It will be great to have another pilot out at Joppa Hill.

I took the Jet up. Or tried to. She has to be hand launched, always a moment of truth, and she went to ground. The wind was behind us, what there was, so she ended up in the dirt, where she FOD'd herself.

 

See that? No blades. They went shooting out the back...

I took the Sbach up, and she was twitchy, hated the grass, but she was settling in and becoming fun to fly. She needs a lot of power to keep flying. I brought her down and started to toss her around. I decided to do a low loop. You know that thought, where you say to yourself, "I really don't think she can do this, but WTF, let's see what happens?" The "Here, hold my beer..." moment. And then without thinking about it much you start the manuever and it ends a badly as you expected? Yeah, all too well. In talking to Jerry, I realized this, and that I really wasn't upset at all. TLDR: I tried a low level loop, she couldn't pull out, she dieded.

 

Oh well, parts for a new project!

It was nice to meet Jerry, and I look forward to flying with him again soon!

Oh, BTW, in our last of three buddy box flights my Master box started doing that disconnect-reconnect thing again. Recall I had sent the DX8 to Specktrum to see if it was my box, and it wasn't I changed the cable and the problem resolved. It's back...

 

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Jerry's pics of me at MCRCC

Jerry Gollot caught me at MCRCC yesterday!

Happy me, working the Stearman over.

Flame soldering bullets on the Suicidal Cubby in our clubhouse.

Thanks, Jerry (and Sandy too!)!

No fun at all...

Okay, maybe a little.

I decided to take advantage of this gorgeous day and took some time off fom the job search to fly. It sort of felt like mandatory fun... my heart wasn't in it.

I flew the PulseXT first, and as always, she performed awesomely. I haven't had my hands on the sticks for a while, but she made me feel like I had never left. I only flew her twice today, but both so pleasant.

I then took the ill mannered, ill fated Green RC Super Cub up. It took about 8 tries to get her off the ground, and we only managed when Jerry held her on the ground at full throttle. She waffled up, I got her steady, then pulled back hard to clear the fence. She was wobbly, but I got her trimmed out and started to enjoy flying her in basic maneuvers for several minutes. I had had an 8x8 prop on her, and I think it was too much pitch. I changed to an 8x4 that Ron Johnson gave me, and she finally had good thrust, and that's when she got off the ground. I took her to altitude and throttled back for stall, she settled with a good sink rate but remained stable. At about 30', still in control, I powered up, she rolled hard right and spiraled into the ground. Just like she has done on every single flight. POS. I picked up the pieces, her broken fuse and crushed undercarriage, walked her back to the pits, and did what any good friend would do. I gave her to Ron. The curse is now upon him...

I also brought out the Sbach. Powered her up, she bound, and I started out to the flightline. In the 10 seconds it took me to get there she hard rebound 3 times. She would continue to do it evey few seconds. Crap. Took her back to the pits, tried another battery, checked for loose connections, etc. I think its the BEC on this HobbyWing ESC. Didn't I just have this problem? Wasn't it this ESC, on another plane? I need to look back through my blog. I have a HeadsUpRC 40A ESC that I will replace it with. So, I did't get to fly her, and I hope its not my new AR6000.

 

I did get to fly the EXI 450 BeastX Heli, and she was fun. It has been some time since I flew heli, and my initial flights were very over controlled. Got a couple of flights in, nothing much since I was not in the mood to rebuild a heli. Flew the PulseXT again and called it a day...

If it wasn't for the good company it would have been a bust. I got a hung from Sandra Gollot, spent some time chatting with Harold, Jerry and Steve, and Tony even dropped by.

Maybe tomorrow. Maybe if I can get Kenny to show up...

 

KAMS Fly-In Ocean Springs, Mississippi

Today Luke and I spent several hours at the KAMS Fly-In. I brought several aircraft to display (did not intend to fly, I have enough stress flying without doing it in front of a crowd of strangers...). We enjoyed watching several pilots, including two of my favorites, Paul and Bobby, put their aircraft through their paces. We also enjoyed watching Alex Ayler from the Azealea club in Mobile, Alabama, fly his 1/3 scale Piper Cub. Wow, can he fly! Special thanks to Lee Carroll and his group from KAMS for a great time!

Me and Luke with our aircraft (the MX2 is behind us).

Jerry's club hat with the MCRCC logo.

My PT-19 Cornell by E-flite.

My HDX 500 and Frankenheli 450st.

My PT-17 Stearman from E-flite.

Stuka Dive bomber.

MCRCC gang at lunch.

Al Warburton, having lunch with his friends...

This amazingly accurate 1/3 scale Piper Cub was something else to behold. It came with a pilot figure.

Even the engine was completely accurate!

Luke with Jerry's hat.

Alex Ayler of the Azalea City Model Aeronautics flying club of Mobile, Alabama, with his Cub. Amazing pilot.

Bobby and Al firing up Bobby's plane. Very nice watching Bobby's graceful style.

Paul Verger with his Aeroworks Extra 300. Paul's pattern skills bring flying to a fine art!

We had fried chicken for lunch (I am told it was from Walmart. Wow, who knew... best fried chicken I have ever eaten!). Looking forward now to our MCRCC Fly-In on June 18th! I hope to be ready to fly all my aircraft by then!

Another Heli of a Day!

Took to BMF today with my eFlite Ultimate, and my darlings, the EXI siblings, as well as my new HK500cmt. It was one heli of a day! Kenny Chandler, Jerry Gollott, Ron Johnson, and I flew, Greg Reed showed up and visited with us. It was oppressively hot and humid...
 

 

 

Jerry Gollot, and Ron Johnson

 

 

Looking over my bench at lunchtime.

 

 

Kenny out behind his truck brokering a deal for a new motor for his Edge from a guy on the West Coast.

 
I took the EXI 450 Sport out to play. Set her on my heli pad, spun her up, and she threw a tail blade within seconds. Darn... I need to start bringing things like that... Changed out to the EXI 450 FBL with the Tarot ZYX on it, and flew her like crazy. On the third pack I brought her in nose first, hovered her, she got a little close (the wind was blowing down on me), so I flew her back away, and gained some altitude. But when I came in again she got too close, I gave her full up pitch, she cleared well, but got over my head off to my right, and I had no idea what she was doing so close above me, so I dumped her and hit throttle hold. Bent the main and feathering shaft, no other damage. I decided to take her tail blades and put them on the EXI Sport, and took her up. On her second pack she threw her gyro! Total loss of tail control, brought her down to ten feet spinning like a crazy top, and finally just had to hit throttle hold and try to set her down in autorotation. She landed gear down, a bit hard with a lot of yaw rate. Broke the gear, bent the main shaft, and likely the feathering shaft. Everything else looks good! Orientation mishap with the FBL aside, I had such a blast mastering the helis. I am truly getting comfortable with them!
 

 

The bad girls in time out... after their crashes.

 

 
The HK500cmt with the BeastX FBL system flew just sweet! I had only hovered her briefly over a week ago, and she did great. Flying 6S (two 3S 2650mAh packs in series) with a lot of power, getting about 6 minutes of circuits, figure eights. etc. A couple of little tweaks on gyro gain, and I flew her for three packs. So much easier to control her than the 450s, so much more stable and less twitchy. A real joy to fly!
 
It is so exciting having finally moved to fast forward flight with the helis! I ordered some parts (all out of landing gear, skid tubes for the 450s). The Jesus bolt on the Sport stripped its hex head... so I had to cut the bold out damaging the autorotation one-way gear. I had one to replace it, but when I installed it I held it in a pair of pliers to rotate it and I crushed it! I did not realize it was so soft! So I had to order replacements. Put in orders for one set of landing gear, and the one-way gear from AMainHobbies.com, which should arrive before the end of the week. The movers come on Sunday, so I want to have everything repaired before then!
 
Planning on trying to get some more time in tomorrow at BMF with both 500s and the Frankenheli 450 FBL, but have some work stuff to get done first. Oh, I found that the holes I placed for the canopy grommets on the HK500cmt were a bit close with the larger 2650mAh packs, so I had to really pull to get the canopy latched on. I decided to do two things. I ordered a wicked cool Align canopy for $25 on eBay, and I Bondo'ed the holes to redrill tomorrow. I will sand it, and repaint it, then redrill. Come to think of it, the canopy will not be ready to fly tomorrow, so I may only take the HDX500...
 
I am pretty sure that I will be concentrating on my helis from now on: once you go heli, you never go back... not really. Only flew the Ultimate twice. Once to warm up, and later because I felt sorry for her...
 

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