Mother's Day and Airplane...Take 2

Whereas the Piper Cub took about 5 months to build, the boys’ second airplane took about 5 hours.  Doug is committed to making this one last a little longer and has been working hard to learn the subtleties of keeping a remote controlled airplane in the air.

We broke in the new engine yesterday in the yard.  Nicholas and Donovan were very engaged, and Doug was careful to not even put the wings on.  He drove it in circles for an entire tank of fuel, and with no wings, there was no hope of it getting off the ground.  This is a small success for us.  The grass has been getting long, and we wound up mowing little tracks all through the yard with the propeller.  This was plenty exciting for the boys.  

At one point Doug asked Nicholas if there was a good way to turn off the engine since he was trying to teach the boys that there is a “kill switch” on the controller.  Nicholas, however, had been watching Doug’s driving, and just replied:  “Well Daddy, you can just crash it into the bushes again.”

After the engine was ready to run, we asked Nicholas if he wanted to take it to a larger field so we could just take off for short stretches, then immediately land.  Interestingly, Nicholas became very withdrawn and said he wanted to work on jigsaw puzzles.  It was a gorgeous day….certainly not one for sitting indoors…but it was clear that flight was not something he was interested in.  He confided that he was very afraid of crashing another one.

Today (Mother’s Day) we woke up and Doug supervised a card-making party in the kitchen before making a nice breakfast.  We decided that it was time to fly the plane, and Nicholas today said he would rather play mini-golf.  It was declared that since it was Mother’s day, Mommy got to call the shots, so we loaded up the plane, the fuel, and plenty of gritted teeth to go to the field.  

Doug was much more controlled this time.  He ran the plane on the ground in circle after circle.  At one point it went too fast and lifted off.  He completely cut the throttle, opting for a crash from 2 feet instead of another disaster from 100 feet.  The plane landed a little hard on its wheels, but was ready to be started again.  After this, Doug flew the plane in a small circle, then let Donovan fly in a small circle, then Nicholas.  Each time he landed we all sighed with relief.  The plane flies beautifully.  Even with no throttle and no controls, it glides quite well, so it lands without too much trouble.  Doug never took it beyond 50 feet into the air, and no flight exceeded 20 seconds, but this was a huge success.

(Note Doug's clenched jaw.)

We quit while we were ahead and packed up the plane to fly another day.  Nicholas was visibly relieved, so we went to play mini-golf. 

Mini-golf was uneventful.  The game was free for mothers, so we took our time around the course.  The kids spend most of their time throwing their balls in the various ponds and rivers that are part of the course, and Doug won (as usual).  This is the course where Aricca broke her collar bone a couple of years ago, so any time we walk away without serious injury, we’re pretty happy.   Ice cream followed, and Mother's Day was declared a full success.