Several weeks back I met Dave Harrington at Gizzie field to Maiden his 104″ Extreme Flight Lazer in the red / white / blue “Thunderbird” Livery. We did our pre-flight check and deemed her flight worthy after making a few changes to the settings in the Advanced Radio “Smoothflight-RRS” gyro to insure its correction directions were on par for stabilization. We fired up the DA-120 and made a few minor needle tweaks and taxied her to the flight light. After another run up of the DA-120 she was airborn and flying awesome with just a few clicks of up trim.
Approach Practice – Probably a few too many:
After flying her for a few circuits and checking her stall speed at altitude we setup to do some landing approaches to get Dave used to these big birds on approach. If you haven’t flow a plane this size before, there is one thing you quickly realize. Their size makes them look like they are going a LOT slower than they really are and they seem to be closer than they really are as well. After 8 or 9 practice approaches Dave was ready to set her down on the next pass and then, SHE RAN OUT OF GAS! Dave immediately turned to to attempt the runway but the speed dropped fast and he ended up putting her into the Pits!
This is where Sam Platt steps in:
The damage to the landing gear and motor box was fairly extensive but Sam Platt immediately volunteered to repair it for Dave. The damage and repairs can be seen in the following pics.
I want to publicly thank Sam Platt for his generosity and expertise.
Dave Harrington
With all of the selfishness that we see everyday this hobby constantly brings the best out in people or should I say, gives them the opportunity to demonstrate the kindness they already have. Nice work Sam.
