Ｉｃｈｉｒｏ’ｓ Ｄｅｍｏ－Ｆｌｉｇｈｔ １
文字数 4,117文字
Doc told me ‘You are like two peas in a pod.’ and besides I was wearing my fathers’ snobbish sunglasses, there were no one in the apron who doubted me. There the demo flight was going to be ready in exactly the same manner as we’d watched through the window of the car with Doc’s binoculars.
As soon as I arrived, one of the staff walked up to me and we did the ‘preflight briefing’ for the demo flight. He said, “You know, the end points of the ailerons are 12mm and 13mm right and left respectively and you know, with 30% of exponential. Then, rudder-elevator mixing, you know, is 5% and you know…” He was speaking very technically and so complicated that it was completely impossible to understand. So I simply replied “Roger!” though I wanted to tell him "I don't know!"
Then I looked back to find the executives of the company most of who were very fat and already sitting on the folding chairs with an air of importance and smoking cigars. And another staff member introduced me to them. So I made a bow. And since everything seemed to be OK for the flight, I made a gesture of ‘thumbs up’ to one of the staff that was holding the aircraft ‘No.1’.
He started the engine. I could hear the sound like ‘Vueeeem pom pom popom pom pom popom…’. Then he made a gesture of ‘Thumbs up’ and released the aircraft. So I moved the right side stick a little forward to increase the rotation of the engine a little. The aircraft began to move slowly leaving the exhaust smoke behind. And since I’ve operated R.C. cars, I could just manage to control the aircraft taxiing to the end of the runway and to turn. So it seemed that the aircraft was cleared for takeoff!
But I’d never flown any R.C. aircraft! So I didn’t know what would happen. And I believed at that time that any aircraft takes off with max power like the airliners. So I unhesitatingly moved the right side stick forward to the maximum power saying to myself 'Check stabilized!'. Then the engine began to roar and the aircraft dashed fiercely.
Just then I remembered something that I had heard from Doc that, R.C. aircraft relative to their size are usually equipped with very much more powerful engines compared to airliners. So we should be careful at the takeoff. But I did it quite carelessly. So the aircraft ran faster and faster on the runway and reached tremendous speed in an instant! I was so scared and didn’t know what to do. But I had to do something somehow. So I decided to move the left side stick to the back to maximum. And this meant that the elevator was in full-up position. Then the aircraft took off violently and soon it took extreme nose up position ending up flying in a loop.
In fact, it had extreme power and kept on flying in a loop for a long time while I kept on pulling the left side stick to full-up position. And it was no longer a demo flight but an aerial stunt. But I remembered the story i.e. my father performed the demo flight perfectly succeeding in the business meeting going to the party ending up in lying sprawled out on a crossing and being run over! So I realized, all I need is to fail in the demo flight! This meant that I should fly the aircraft as unstable as possible. It meant that the more unstable the better. So I took great care not to touch the switch that is in the left anterior of the transmitter, because it might convert the transmitter to autopilot mode. And in the mode, the aircraft flies stably as my father showed to the executives.
And I wandered what I should do watching the aircraft vacantly. Then I had an idea by chance to move the left side stick from full-up position to neutral position i.e. to move the stick to the original position. And this means that the aircraft flies in a straight line.
By the way, the aircraft was flying in a loop in clockwise direction and was just passing through ‘3 o’clock’ position. So, as soon as I moved the stick to the neutral position, the aircraft flew in a straight line, i.e. vertically to the earth! ‘Bang!’ And the aircraft crashed to be broken into pieces and every tiny parts splattered all through the runway.
As soon as I arrived, one of the staff walked up to me and we did the ‘preflight briefing’ for the demo flight. He said, “You know, the end points of the ailerons are 12mm and 13mm right and left respectively and you know, with 30% of exponential. Then, rudder-elevator mixing, you know, is 5% and you know…” He was speaking very technically and so complicated that it was completely impossible to understand. So I simply replied “Roger!” though I wanted to tell him "I don't know!"
Then I looked back to find the executives of the company most of who were very fat and already sitting on the folding chairs with an air of importance and smoking cigars. And another staff member introduced me to them. So I made a bow. And since everything seemed to be OK for the flight, I made a gesture of ‘thumbs up’ to one of the staff that was holding the aircraft ‘No.1’.
He started the engine. I could hear the sound like ‘Vueeeem pom pom popom pom pom popom…’. Then he made a gesture of ‘Thumbs up’ and released the aircraft. So I moved the right side stick a little forward to increase the rotation of the engine a little. The aircraft began to move slowly leaving the exhaust smoke behind. And since I’ve operated R.C. cars, I could just manage to control the aircraft taxiing to the end of the runway and to turn. So it seemed that the aircraft was cleared for takeoff!
But I’d never flown any R.C. aircraft! So I didn’t know what would happen. And I believed at that time that any aircraft takes off with max power like the airliners. So I unhesitatingly moved the right side stick forward to the maximum power saying to myself 'Check stabilized!'. Then the engine began to roar and the aircraft dashed fiercely.
Just then I remembered something that I had heard from Doc that, R.C. aircraft relative to their size are usually equipped with very much more powerful engines compared to airliners. So we should be careful at the takeoff. But I did it quite carelessly. So the aircraft ran faster and faster on the runway and reached tremendous speed in an instant! I was so scared and didn’t know what to do. But I had to do something somehow. So I decided to move the left side stick to the back to maximum. And this meant that the elevator was in full-up position. Then the aircraft took off violently and soon it took extreme nose up position ending up flying in a loop.
In fact, it had extreme power and kept on flying in a loop for a long time while I kept on pulling the left side stick to full-up position. And it was no longer a demo flight but an aerial stunt. But I remembered the story i.e. my father performed the demo flight perfectly succeeding in the business meeting going to the party ending up in lying sprawled out on a crossing and being run over! So I realized, all I need is to fail in the demo flight! This meant that I should fly the aircraft as unstable as possible. It meant that the more unstable the better. So I took great care not to touch the switch that is in the left anterior of the transmitter, because it might convert the transmitter to autopilot mode. And in the mode, the aircraft flies stably as my father showed to the executives.
And I wandered what I should do watching the aircraft vacantly. Then I had an idea by chance to move the left side stick from full-up position to neutral position i.e. to move the stick to the original position. And this means that the aircraft flies in a straight line.
By the way, the aircraft was flying in a loop in clockwise direction and was just passing through ‘3 o’clock’ position. So, as soon as I moved the stick to the neutral position, the aircraft flew in a straight line, i.e. vertically to the earth! ‘Bang!’ And the aircraft crashed to be broken into pieces and every tiny parts splattered all through the runway.
