Flying the Trainstar

...in the mist

This morning, as I've done regularly for the past while, I packed the Trainstar and Radjet for my regular morning fly.

The latter has become a regular, now that I can launch it almost faultlessly, and the former because it's such an engaging plane with a lot of personality. Also, having undercarriage large enough to enable grass field takeoffs and landings is another endearing feature.

Being a Cessna-type craft, however, does mean the Trainstar has a lot of drag. In fact, considering the size of the motor, and using the same battery, the Phoenix would literally fly circles around it's vintage-styled cousin, despite it having a bigger wingspan. The appalling aerodynamic efficiency of the Cessna design (even without the wing braces in this case) is audible - cut the power and you can immediately hear the amount of noise it makes trying to push all that air out of the way!

Nevertheless, as I said before, it is a very endearing model and has a lot of character, and certainly wasn't chosen as a high-performance upstart!

Returning to this morning, the flying was somewhat unremarkable as it is some days, probably much to do with the pilot's frame of mind, but still pleasant enough. It was a misty morning and, as happens quite often, the mist thickened as the day dawned. I wasn't concerned, however, as I was flying in a clear pocket sheltered by the trees, 

Flying the Trainstar over the dividing fence, I turned the plane for a run back before it strayed too far. For those familiar, the Trainstar drops like a brick in turns so, as it turned, it sank into the thick mist settled on the field, and completely disappeared.

Now trying to fly a plane you can't see is tricky. If fact near-impossible; I didn't know whether to put on power to get it climbing out so I could see it, or whether just to leave it and let it's naturally stable nature take care of things. I decided on the latter, and kept staring into the mist where I thought it should appear and, lo and behold, a second or two later, the Trainstar came sweeping into view, its ample dihedral having dampened any wayward behaviour.

Overjoyed at it's reappearance, I floated it down for a lovely smooth landing before packing it in. I certainly wasn't going to be trying my luck twice in the same morning...