Very excited on getting started, and good learnings - such as be responsible and steer clear of fields being used by others for safety and space reasons.

crazycalvin
Nice Plane    but u need training
and its your first flight so it happens 
 

For your first flight, you did well for using a model designed to be flown for advanced pilots.  Try a Slow Flying High Wing Trainer for longer flights.

@crazycalvin

I read RCPs comment on your youtube page. It was indeed a good first flight!

You built her well. Full marks for that!

Nice build. Seems like you have really worked hard on this. Try learning flying on a simulator and then come to real flying. Otherwise whatever happened at last would repeat... and its very painful too... Also, you have chosen a very fast model, try learning on a slow stick or high winger trainer.

  Well done. Keep flying 

This is too much already for a first flight. mine just hit the ground on launch and broke almost everything except a lipo. If he could handle this plane this good he should already be a good pilot for a 40"glider. All the best for you future endeavors.

P.S the hatch is not locked. am i the only one looking at it.

Ashok.P

Thank you all for your encouragement!

Ashok, the hatch is ideally supposed to be held closed using a couple of magnets (which I finally received today). Since I was impatient and keen to get on the flight, I used a piece of velcro (same that I used to secure the battery inside the hatch) that secures the hatch when it closes, and that join seems pretty sturdy (takes effort to rip open).

I think Ashok sir was referring to the video. You just launched the jet without securing the hatch.

Maybe I am making the first time mistakes!

The hatch (I assume you are referring to the part with the hinge that is open over the nose / cockpit area before launch) has a hand grip, and hence the aircraft is launched in this configuration. As it gets launched, the wind forces the hatch shut, where it gets secured with strong magnets (or velcro, as in my case).

I still feel there is something that missed my attention or I didn't understand - request your patience here!

Oh, okay. My bad!
That mechanism isn't evident from the video. The lingering hatch just catches an in-expert eye as an anomaly!

The second flight - everything went well till the disastrous loss of control towards the end! Still trying to work out why the controls stopped responding - any ideas or questions that could help get to the root cause?

It is damaged pretty bad, but I intend to repair it and get it in the air again (as long as it is air worthy and not too heavy after the repairs). After all, what are homebuilt scratch builts for?!

The expo really helped with the controls this time - much smoother.

If you did your post crash check and found all controls working, two things come to mind right away.

1. RX shadowed causing temporary loss of signal.

2.  ESC brownout from heat buildup

Whenever I crash, if there's no obvious cause like a torn control horn or a burnt motor (both has happened to me) , I hook everything up and start troubleshooting right there on the spot, including a range check.

Can you give me link for plans please?

i like it good going 

Great work crazycalvin...
I'd have had cold hands much much before a esc brownout

Great Work... happy landings.

Very nice 

Nice flying ground too! Is that the FBD Golf Course?

Thanks theleabres. I am not sure how I can check for a possible RX shadow - any tips on this?
I need to run tests on the ESC to be sure, but I've read plenty of other inputs by now regarding the Red brick 30AMP ESC (with built in BEC) not behaving up to it's rating on a variety of situations. Do your ESCs generally warm up (mine was HOT)?

I take this as a learning from you - good tip - that a basic round of trouble shooting should have done on the site itself, rather than get home and mull over it . I should be doing range checks in my preflight as well; serves me right for not being patient enough (which is strange, because when I do simulators I have the patience for a 10 minute preflight and startup sequence!)

Thanks.

All the details that you need (including plans, instructions, etc.) can be found at http://rcpowers.com/community/pages/home/. This is from the V3 package, but I believe they are going to come out with a V4 in a couple of months or so.

Thank you for the encouragement!

I wish I had the luxury of access to that
This is the running track in the stadium. I chose a Sunday afternoon with the sun out so that there wouldn't be any people there.
https://www.google.co.in/maps/place/Sports+Complex/@28.3867543,77.3256081,17z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x462828f258a2617c

Make a trip to Gurgaon via the Pahari rasta ... It will be fun flying together... 

unless you are using any CF / metal objects radio should not be a problem.
Even if ESC brownouts your BEC should be working fine and you should be able to control its landing.
a few question:
What brand radio are you using.
what antenna does it has. pics please.
is that a new or old radio. any history if repairs to the radio.
antenna placement inside the plane.
do a ground run and see if you can reproduce the fault.
give some specs on motor/esc
how about your esc to rx connection are they strong enough to hold the vibration.

Ashok.P

So, the Hobbyking redbrick is a budget ESC and probably overrated.  The BEC is probably weak.

How many servos are on that plane?

Another issue is heat, do some static testing and see if the ESC gets warm only or gets very hot.

As for RX shadowing, it's common if you're using a budget RX with one short antenna.

An RX with dual and lengthy antennas around 20 - 25 cm each would be ideal.

Another simple check is to know your TX battery voltage.  I don't use rechargeable AA nimhs, only alkalines. My DX6i has a voltage meter for the batteries.