Happy To Get Some Flying TIme

In the last few days I've flown the Hawk Sky, the Cessna Champ, the Firebird Stratos. Great flights every time! It's probably time to get out the Easy Hawk.

RC Scratch Build Update

I've made a lot of progress with my junk airplane. It is mostly assembled, from pink foam insulation board and Dollar Tree foam core, with very little balsa. I left the paper on the foam core board to help prevent warping. The wings have a balsa spar. It turned out very light, so I will add some ply or basswood sheet to the forward part for strength and to provide a sturdy support for landing gear and the battery mount. If it will fly well enough I'll spray paint it and make it look nice. Note the tip plates. 

 

Tenergy Centura AA Batteries

Here's a progress report on the low self-discharge Ni-MH rechargeable Tenergy Centura AA batteries I got from Amazon a few months ago-- I've gotten excellent results using them in my RC transmitters and different digital cameras. They last at least as long as high quality non-chargeable batteries, and can sit dormant after being charged without losing significant charge. I've had them sitting around for up to a month after charging and they work fine. I get a dozen flights on the transmitters before recharging, and that's only for the sake of safety. I'm sure they would go a lot longer. Low self-discharge batteries, in theory, can hold up to 80% of their charge for six months and have a life cycle of up to 100 charges. I will never again use the old style Ni-MH batteries. Tenergy is not the only manufacturer, but their prices are more reasonable. Panasonic, I believe, also offer these new kinds of batteries.

Construction Project And Delta Ray And Guitar

I'm putting up a few pics to show progress on the RC plane I am building from scrap material and spare parts. I'm also showing the Delta Ray, as it hangs on the wall in my "office", and the new guitar. Actually, I have yet another pawn shop bargain but I will post pics of that guitar after I have done fretwork and installed a new bridge. The NEWEST guitar is also a pawnshop item, not such a bargain, but I saw possibilities in it. I believe I can do a little work and have a really good instrument.

 I got a Dynam 6-channel receiver on eBay and will use it with this 2.4 ghz tranmitter from my first Hawk Sky. In fact, I already have it bound and everything is working great with the old FMS servos and speed control.

 Above, the Delta Ray, and below, the Cordoba guitar.

More Flying!

Very calm yesterday and not cold, so I took out the little Cessna Champ and two batteries. I flew for about a half-hour, putting the plane through "extreme" maneuvers, as extreme as you can get with rudder and elevator. It's also fun to fly low and slow with this plane.

At Last, Some Flying Weather!

Yesterday I got to fly the Delta Ray, the 800mm FMS Easy Trainer, and the Firebird Stratos. It was calm enough to fly the Delta Ray on the novice transmitter setting and this time it worked really well. Very easy to cruise around the park, do figure eights and lazy circles. The mixing at this setting prevented altitude loss in turns-- no need for up input except in rare cases turning into the wind. I tried a more forward battery location and that helped too. I did more aerobatic type flying with the Firebird Stratos, more extreme this time. I noticed the battery got warmer than usual. Loops were much better.

Firebird Stratos Aerobatics

I took advantage of good weather yesterday evening and flew the Firebird Stratos with the rudder and elevator mods described in an earlier entry and found that it would do tight loops and tight turns and corkscrew rolls. I got it to hover, briefly. I'm going to turn off the automatic stability augmentation and use this plane as an aerobatics trainer. It has some surprising potential.

Radio Control Introduction

Last Friday I flew the Hawk Sky in the usual park and attracted a crowd of children and their parents. Well, it was Thanksgiving holiday weekend and everybody had family members visiting. The weather was really nice to be outdoors. The kids were very interested in the plane, so I landed it and showed them how it worked, then launched it again. They had lots of fun. The parents looked on but had no comment. I'd say, getting a child interested in model aircraft would be better than sports or video games. The kids were avid to learn. I hope I got some interest going, in a terrific hobby, in at least a few of those children.

Scratch Building From Foam Core Board

I started this plane to use left over parts. It uses pink foam, Dollar Tree foam core board, and some balsa. The airfoil is very simple.

 

Canadian Geese Wintering In Lubbock

Despite that fact that it was cold and rather windy I took out the Firebird Stratos with the little camera attached and got some photos of a playa lake with a lot of Canadian Geese. Canadian Geese winter here, and have been doing that for a long time.  I had hoped to fly my plane into a flock circling above the lake but they were all on the ground or in the water. Even so, the shots turned out well.

No Flying!

Winter weather! No flying lately. I'll post some pics.

The first one is a model car I built when I was a teen-ager, from a Lindberg Mercer Raceabout plastic kit. It was about 1/16 scale, I think. There were several released. I had the Mercer and the Stutz Bearcat. This is the only one that survived long enough to photograph. I thought about restoring it, but it was too badly deteriorated. The second pic is a model my sister built long ago.

The final photo is an airplane from the first phase of my RC hobby. It was given to me by a gentleman who got me into the hobby. In fact, he used to be my boss. A very nice guy. This plane flew well. It had a 55 inch span and the engine was a McCoy .40. I would never go back to this kind of RC plane. Electric is the only way to go. No storing fuel, no mess, no noise, no prop flipping, no backfiring, no bruised fingers, no tweaking of needle valves. 

One more model car, another one my sister built:

 

Hawk Sky On 7.4 Volt Battery

I had a couple of 2 cell lipos left from a crashed FMS 1280. They have the same connectors as the 11.1 volt battery that I've used in the Hawk Sky. I decided to try a flight on the lower voltage and it worked fine, although power was down. I got a pretty long flight, about normal, from an 1800 mah 25 C 7.4 volt battery. I used full power a lot but the battery never got hot. Wind was very light. A few hours after that flight the wind picked up out of the north and now we've got a strong winter weather system moving in. Cold and getting colder and very windy. Probably no flying for at least several days. Maybe I can work on a scratch built plane to use the components salvaged from the 1280. I've got pink foam and lots of balsa. I have not had much success building my planes from scratch, but maybe this time...

Cardoba, Remote And Lonely!

Well, no. Actually I'm really impressed with my new guitar. It has a truss rod! All Cardoba classical guitars have truss rods and that is a major innovation. These guitars are highly regarded, and the high end models are quite expensive. I'm always pleased when I can spot something that a pawnshop owner did not see. In this case they did not do their homework. That happened to me several years ago, when I found an old Guyatone electric, all neglected in a corner of an EZ Pawn. I got it for $50 and sold it on eBay for more than $700. I use a pick to play classical guitar because I never got the hang of finger-picking. The best pick for it is one I found many years ago at Jent's House of Music (now defunct) here in Lubbock. It is copper.

Too windy lately to do any flying but I painted the undersides of several of my rc planes dark blue, as it really aids orientation. I like to fly them far out and high up.

Guitars Too

Yes, I'm also into guitars. At one time I had a nice collection but I sold them on eBay. Now I have a sunburst Stratocaster, and a Fender Squier steel string acoustic. This afternoon my wife and I checked a pawnshop on 50th Street near Avenue Q and I found a very nicely constructed 3/4 size nylon string Spanish guitar. It was going for $100 but I offered $75 and they took it. Come to find out, it is a Cardoba Iberia Cadete and it retails at over $300! Typical street price is about $250. The one I got is in perfect condition and seems to have never been played. Perfect strings and no smudges or nicks. And it really is a nice sounding instrument. Excellent intonation all over the neck and that is surprising on a guitar with a 24" scale. Actually, 24.1 inches. My next electric guitar will be a Jaguar or Mustang, so this gives me a chance to get familiar with the scale. Now I think I'll list the steel-string on eBay.

Rotating Airplanes

This past week I've flown the little T-28, the Cessna Champ, the FMS 800, the Easy Hawk. I try to keep batteries and planes in circulation. I flew the Easy Hawk with the Thunder Power 1350mah 25c three cell. Great battery. I can fly a long time with it. I am still bugged by the amount of up elevator it takes, hand-launching this plane, to keep it from diving nose first into the ground. Almost two years ago I tried to get back into radio control flying with a Dynam Hawk Sky. I destroyed that plane without ever being able to fly it. I thought it was awful. But no, the plane was very good. The problem was me. Give it a good toss and haul back on that stick! UP!

I spray painted the undersides of the wings on the FMS 800 and Easy Hawk with a very dark blue. I used ordinary spray enamel. This helps with orientation.
 

Ultra Micro T-28

Yesterday it was very calm so I tried the little Park Zone Ultra Micro T-28. I got a better flight than usual out of this very twitchy little plane but I had to be on the sticks constantly. It's a handful and I don't fly it very much because it just isn't very enjoyable. It still is not trimmed perfectly. I'm glad I got it cheap at a swap meet because I'd hate to have too much money in it. I might list it on eBay, along with the transmitter and battery and charger. It is a little beat-up though. It has had some tape repair.

A UFO, Of Sorts

This morning I flew the Hawk Sky. This is the oldest plane I have and it is showing signs of wear and tear. About a year ago it crashed in a tree and the outer half of one wing got sheared off. I repaired it and modified it and it hasn't taken any crash damage since then but the ailerons were coming loose. I made hinges from reinforced packing tape. I painted the undersides of the outer wing panels dark blue and that helps with orientation. This plane has a lot of tape reinforcement and a spruce spine, all adding to the weight. But it still flies great and will go as high as I want. In the early evening, about 4:30 PM, the weather was still very calm and clear, so I took out the Firebird Stratos. I flew it really high as well. With the plane near the zenith, in a perfectly clear sky, I noticed something odd in the background. I represented it as well as I could in this picture I made in a drawing program:

This is what I had in my field of view, as well as I can recreate it. The upper dot was dark red, not a light source, and seemed extended, as a circle or sphere. Two smaller blue dots, darker than the sky but brighter, clearly light sources, were below the red "object". I was wearing grey polarized sunglasses. I moved my head to be sure that I was not seeing spots on my lenses. The objects seemed stationary in the sky. I kept my RC plane in a position that allowed me to keep these three things in view while I removed my sunglasses. Without the sunglasses, the blue lights were not visible. I guess I managed to keep these things in view for about 30 seconds. Then I had to attend to my airplane. When I got a chance to look back, they were gone. I guess I had a UFO experience while flying RC! Surely that doesn't happen every day...  just before I noticed these things, something that I took to be a high-flying aircraft, a jet by the sound of it, passed through the patch of sky where these three things appeared a few minutes later. Maybe something was jettisoned? It isn't unusual to see commercial jets flying overhead. In clear weather, if there's no contrail, you can faintly make out the wings. I'm pretty sure an ordinary jet aircraft flew over earlier, since the tiny moving white dot I tracked briefly in this area had the look of an airliner at a great distance. What the other things were, I have no idea.

Estate Sale Bargains!

Here's some stuff I got dirt cheap at estates sales:

And yesterday I found a Dremel Variable Speed Moto-tool 105 piece kit, in box, with all the original paperwork (manual etc.) for $15! It is in perfect shape and looks unused. It had a bunch of small jigsaw blades as well, and these blades fit in a large x-acto knife handle. That was a bonus!

I should also note that I'm getting great results from the TENERGY CENTURA low self-discharge NI-MH rechargeable AA batteries I ordered from Amazon. I've got them in two transmitters and my digital camera.  They really do hold their charge. These are rated at 2000 mah 1.2 volts. My camera is power hungry but I've gotten many pics out of the the first set of these batteries and after at least a month the camera still shows a full charge. In one of my transmitters I got ten flights and re-charged the batteries, just to be safe. They were probably good for more but I don't take chances with the RC aircraft. These batteries are advertised as being able to hold a 90% charge after a year in storage.

The One That Got Away

A few days ago, before a norther blew in, I flew the Hawk Sky I'd lost and crash-landed. After I made a few minor repairs I clipped the wing tips and I think because of the wing mods it flew better than ever. Here is a pic of that plane:

Here are a few pics of the Firebird Stratos I've been flying a lot, showing the rudder and elevator set-up:

 

Pics of a plane near completion...

In the last few weeks I've pushed this plane much closer to completion:

 

Good Flying Weather Yesterday

I launched the Delta Ray in beginner mode, since I had no wind to deal with and found that it just didn't turn very well-- any turn in any direction took up too much space due to limited elevon deflection. Switching to intermediate gave me a much better flight. And later, around sundown, I got the usual long, relaxing, flight out of my little Cessna Champ. Day before yesterday I tried the 800mm span FMS powered glider and got a great flight.

Now that the garage is not so hot I can work in there again on the Goldberg Sophisticated Lady that I am converting into a pusher powered fpv platform. Lots of progress! I will be posting some pics of that plane soon.

Relaxing Flight With Cessna Champ

Yesterday evening it was very calm. I managed to get a long, relaxing, flight with the little Cessna Champ. Even though this plane was a used eBay item, purchased on the cheap it's flown like a-- champ.  If you want to learn RC flight, AND you live in a place where the wind is normally very light, such a plane is ideal. Even if you pay the full price from Hobby Zone, it is a great value. And even after your skills improve and you advance to bigger and faster planes, it is still fun to fly.

Near Catastrophe!

I flew the Hawk Sky yesterday. It caught a thermal and was almost out-of-sight in no time. And then I managed to get it lost in the glare of the sun. I thought it was gone for good. But it crash-landed about 5 blocks away, in the street, and a guy in a van picked it up and went looking for somebody with a transmitter. And there I was, walking back to my car, transmitter in hand. I was really relieved. The plane had only minor damage and was easy to repair. Best of all, it didn't DO any damage! This plane will fly again. I had some amazing good luck. The guy who found my plane had flown radio control, and I'm sure that helped. Talk about a good Samaritan!

Later in the evening I flew a Firebird Stratos and had a much less stressful experience.

Two Flights On Modified Stratos

First flight, I found that I had too much elevator. I changed the clevis position on the elevator control horn to give minimal movement. I also adjusted the rudder for maximum deflection. The second flight, yesterday evening, was very good! So this well-used airplane still has life in it. I'll fly it until it won't go anymore.

Firebird Stratos Problems

I've been flying the Stratos I got on eBay, used, a lot. Lately it has had some problems making right turns. Not as responsive. Yesterday it was just not as responsive turning in any direction. It seems that the differential thrust feature has stopped working. So, this morning after a difficult flight in wind that the plane would once have handled well, I made a few modifications, by increasing the elevator area to the max (there is provision for this, cutting through two little patches and using tape to make one large elevator) and increasing control movements on both elevator and rudder by relocating the clevis locations in the control horns. I still have rudder/elevator mixing. When I've got less wind, I'll see how it flies with these mods. It'll be more like a conventional rudder, elevator, throttle airplane. I have no idea why the differential thrust stopped working. It seems to have failed in one channel first, and then in the other channel. I've been storing this plane in the garage and it got really hot this summer. Could the electronics be heat-sensitive? I never store my lipos in the garage. That would be asking for trouble.

Delta Ray, Fouth Flight

Wind was very light and for the first time I used "beginner mode". It launched easily and seemed to have mixing to give some up elevator effect in turns. Unfortunately, even in a 5 to 10 mph wind, the beginner mode did not allow enough control authority to be able to turn the plane against the wind. I was forced to switch to "intermediate" and in that mode there seems to be no "up" mixed into the turns, and the plane loses altitude in turns without a manual up input. Remember, this plane uses elevons, but even so, a programmed mix of up along with the right-left inputs would keep it more beginner friendly in turns. That said, it flew great. But if you want to teach yourself to fly I still think the Firebird Stratos is the best choice. The Delta Ray would be a great second plane for a beginner, something to advance to and then grow with as skills improve. These two planes sort of complement each other.

Estate Sale Balsa Find!

Yesterday I found two large kit boxes at an estate sale, each filled with high quality balsa strips and sheets, plus some finished parts for the kits. I got all of that for $8.00! And for $7.50 more I got a sturdy parts box with sliding drawers and clevises, bolts, screws, control horns, blades, and all sorts of miscellaneous parts in each drawer. But that's not all. A couple of bucks more got me some nice props. This was a good find, and compensates to some extent for poor flying weather lately. I tried the Hawk Sky yesterday morning but flying it in the wind was a real struggle and no fun at all. At least I can do some sort of building project, if I get antsy. This is the second time I've gotten lucky at an estate sale. Summer before last I found a box of balsa that turned out to have several vintage engines at the bottom. I got all of that for $10 as I recall. I sold the engines on eBay for a nice profit!

Three Flights on the Delta Ray

On intermediate it is not really a hands off plane. And I find that it can be quite fast. The battery compartment is a bit tight and the battery usually ends up in a more forward position. It will lose altitude in a turn and requires up elevator. Someone used to the Firebird Stratos will find this plane more challenging. You could argue that the Stratos is not challenging at all. Someday I'll try the Delta Ray in beginner mode to see whether it is really suitable for a beginner. Because of the shape of this plane, orientation is not so easy either. Still a fun fly but maybe not as beginner friendly as advertised.

Hobby Zone Delta Ray

It arrived yesterday and I flew it this evening, using the "intermediate" setting on the nice DX4 transmitter. It flew great! I hand launched but used the landing gear because the props are vulnerable in a belly landing. I would say that the plane is faster than the Firebird Stratos, handles better in wind due to the advanced stability features, and has a lot of visual impact. The twin engine delta wing design gets people's attention. It came with an extra battery as well, and I was not expecting that-- a nice bonus. If you have a Firebird Stratos those batteries will work in this plane, and vice-versa. This is just a great airplane and it can offer more as your flying skills improve. I should mention that it has a very gentle stall. It simply drops the nose and starts flying again. The wings stay level. Very forgiving! This is a great addition to my modest stable of rc park flyers.

Memories of Fliteline Products

Weekend before last I took my wife with me to a location on 34th Street, to photograph what used to be the home of Riley Wooten's Fliteline Products. Riley Wooten, of course, is a control-line combat legend. I have a link to a site with some biographical info and nostalgic pics. I bought my first plane, in Lubbock, from him in 1969. It was a 2 meter glider. A college buddy and I planned to toss the plane off the roof of Weymouth Hall and see how far it would fly. We were not ever able to do that, but we did get it off the roof of the Psychology Building, for a test flight. We had the help of a friend in the Psychology Department. I'm sure we broke all sorts of rules. I remember the fun I had building that plane. I used tissue covering for the wing. The plane survived that experience and we were able to recover it. It circled around and around and finally landed in a grass area on campus not very far from where we started. After that it acquired swirls of day-glo paint and became part of our apartment's psychedelic decor. I don't remember what happened to it after that. Then, in 1980 or 1981 I was back in Fliteline, same location on 34th, and bought a Goldberg Eaglet 50, an engine, a Futaba radio set up, and got started in RC. I spent a lot of money at Fliteline Products. I was sorry to see it move, years later, into the south part of town. Walk-in customers were no longer welcome. I did give Mr. Wooten an old Air Trails magazine, so he could work up a kit for a particular aircraft featured in that issue-- a Monocoupe, I believe.
Here are the pics:

 

Finally got the 'New Plane" in the air...

... even though conditions were not ideal, due to wind. I took it to the city maintained field west of town, a long drive. It turned out to be tail heavy, but not by a lot. I got a brief flight out of it and landed it safely on the paved runway. I used the yellow "sport wing" in the background of the pic below, and even with that wing it turned out to be a floater. So I can safely fly this in my local park. I can either add more nose weight next time or put in a few clicks of down trim. Trim adjustment will be the easiest course. So I'll have another report on this cobbled together job soon. Meanwhile I've flown my usual aircraft and I ordered the Delta Ray from Hobby Zone.