Lost a plane this morning...

... but I don't think wind had anything to do with it. It was the FMS FHX 1280. It had control issues and went in nose first, sustaining too much damage to make repair worthwhile.  I took it apart for parts and found a spot where two of the wires from the ESC to the motor had fused together. Some sort of solvent could have done that, and I suspect it happened during manufacturing. This plane did have an occasional glitch, from day one, but I thought that was the fault of my piloting. Maybe not. At any rate, with that fault repaired, I've got all the electronics and the motor ready to transplant into one of the new gliders.

Hobby King

The receivers arrived Saturday but I wasn't home. They were shipped via registered mail USPS. I collected them from the PO this morning and picked one of the five at random to connect to servos and ESC and battery. It seems to work fine. Each of them came with a bind plug. Probably, all of them are good. Considering the distance shipped, from Hong Kong, it did not take them overly long to arrive and they were packed well enough. I look forward to getting more planes flight worthy!

More flying and more planes--

Yesterday morning I flew the EZ Hawk. That afternoon I took out one of my Firebird Stratos planes (those thing fly great!) and a young guy living nearby walked up to me and asked me if I wanted some planes. He'd seen me fly and had a couple he didn't want to take with him when he and his wife moved (they were going to move soon, it seemed, but only about five miles away)-- and of course I agreed to take them off of his hands. I got a pair of 2 meter gliders, covered, sans radio equipment. One had an .049 engine and the other was set up for electric flight. Well, I've got a bunch of receivers ordered, and I'll need two motors, speed controls, and four servos. I think I've got enough servos. A couple of folding props for the motors will complete the picture, and I've got two more planes. This morning I started covering the Sophisticated Lady wing. That will make three 2 meter powered gliders with traditional balsa construction. This is starting to be a lot of planes! And I got another flight in this hot afternoon, with the same Stratos I flew yesterday. I have NO ROOM for any more planes!

Hubsan X4: Crash!

I used pink foam wall insulation board and made a "saucer" in which to embed the X4. That was not hard to do. It flew OK indoors but when I took it outside the inevitable and unavoidable wind here caught it and the aerodynamic forces seemed to make the gyro go nuts. It oscillated wildly and flipped into a wall. One of the motors got damaged beyond repair: the motor shaft got driven into the motor so hard the plastic end of the motor can cracked, splitting what appeared to be almost microscopic brushes. Impossible to repair that. I didn't want to throw it all away so I took the wreck apart and used the circuit board, battery, and the two "forward" motors to make a propulsion system for a balsa hand-launch glider. You can use differential thrust to make turns but the transmitter has to be held in reverse position, so that right stick on rudder gives the right turn. This puts the rudder and throttle stick on the right, and pulling the throttle stick BACK increases thrust. I don't think this thing will fly very well but I might put up a photo before I try to fly it. I will NOT be getting another quadcopter unless I can find something with protected blades. If you have a Hubsan X4, find a way to beef up the back end of the motor housing-- use epoxy or something. That part of the motor is vulnerable if you crash upside down on a hard surface!

Another flight, despite wind...

... with the FMS FHX 1280. It was a struggle because the wind was gusting over 15 mph, maybe 20 to 25 mph, but I got a decent flight. 

All I need to complete the Sophisticated Lady is a receiver and I'll use one of the five I ordered from Hobby King. A few weeks ago I made the power pod for it. The power pod is permanently attached to the wing, motor facing backward. I can cover the wing any time. I'm in no hurry. The size and weight of this plane might require me to use an actual AMA legal flying field. I'll have to drive over five miles to get to such a field. That will be a nuisance. I'll post pics of this plane when it is done, and describe the modifications. I got the kit partially assembled at an RC club swap meet for $20. At least, I've got my full AMA membership and I have my card with me whenever I fly.

I'm getting better at flying the little Hubsan X4. I still wish it had something to protect the props. It is all too easy to bump into something. It just now occurred to me that I could carve a sort of fuselage for this thing from light foam and embed the X4 in that. That would be an interesting project. I'll look into it today...

Pics of the Gowland & Gowland and Revell Action Minatures models from eBay...

I got all of these for $15 (best offer) and a nominal shipping charge.

Not much wind this morning...

... so I was able to take out the little Cessna Champ and get a long flight. The lipo batteries that power these micro rc jobs last a long time. The airplane does pretty well in light wind, but, really, total calm is what these things need.

The old Gowland & Gowland and Revell 1/32 model cars arrived today and they were in better condition than I expected. With a little superglue and accelerator I got all the loose parts glued back on, and clean up was easy with a soft brush.

More Flying Time

This morning I flew the Hobb-E-Mart Stratos and this afternoon I flew the Grayson Hawk Sky.
Really good flights in both cases, with moderate wind and high clouds. The area where I fly is starting to turn green, finally. I can land in grass or weeds rather than dirt.

For slightly over $20 with shipping I got a bunch of complete but rather dirty Gowland & Gowland vintage model cars from a seller on eBay. They have been assembled and are rather dirty but they will help me complete my collection of significant items I recall from my childhood. When they have been restored to the best condition I can manage, I will post pics.

Cessna Champ

Too windy for it, but I wanted to see whether the weight I added to the Hobby Zone Cessna Champ would help. It did. More stable in wind. I managed to get a reasonable flight. These very small and very light planes benefit from a more forward cg.

From Hobby King I ordered FIVE Orange Spektrum DSM compatible six channel receivers, paying less than $40, including shipping. I intend to use them with the DSMX5E transmitter I bought recently. I needed one receiver for the Goldberg Sophisticated Lady, which nears completion, and then I can use the rest for four more PNP or receiver-ready aircraft. You can NEVER have too many RC planes! I never ordered from Hobby King before. If they seem OK I'd like to get a BIXLER for fpv work.

Progress with the Hubsan X4 Quadcopter...

... continues. After recalibrating the inertial platform, following directions I found on You Tube, control became easier. I could then center the trims. This can only be done in Expert mode, by the way. I also found that it was a bad idea to adjust control sensitivity down-- since it can get away from you pretty fast, control authority has to be high. I restored both normal and expert mode to default sensitivity. Only a little trim was necessary to get a stable hover indoors. In the wind, outside, you must compensate with the controls. I find that it is easier to control in Expert mode, indoors or out. Just be very gentle with stick movements. So far, I've found the Hubsan X4 to be durable, more than adequately fast, and well-engineered. It would help to have some kind of prop protection, since it is all too easy to hit something. Then a prop comes off. I've been lucky enough to find the prop each time but a bumper of some sort around the props would be nice. And if we're doing that, why not set up the props as ducted fans?

Hubsan Quadcopter arrived...

... and it works as advertised but is very tricky to fly. It will take a lot of practice. Amazing little gadget!

Hubsan Quadcopter

You can track things on eBay-- they make it easy. The Hubsan X4 Quadcopter has arrived at a local postal sorting facility. It might actually arrive today and if not today then surely tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to this one because I can fly it indoors, in the yard, in small parks, and,  if it will lift my keychain camera from Newegg.com, I can take this thing very nearly anywhere for aerial views. These Quadcopters do not seem to be very much affected by wind, and that will be another plus!

Yesterday I got a really good flight out of the EZ Hawk. The cambered aileron extensions are working fine. It does require a long landing approach because it floats forever in ground effect.

More flying today than I expected...

 ... and that was fine with me. I started off in the morning with the Hawk Sky, took out the FHX 1280 in the early afternoon, and in the evening I tested the Firebird Stratos from Hobb-E-Mart (my second recent eBay purchase). Even though the Stratos was sold as "used" and for "parts", I really couldn't find any defect apart from the fact that the left/right motor leads were not labeled. It's important to get this right because of a differential thrust feature. But I felt that I could easily get the right connection by trial and error. My first guess was correct. This plane flew perfectly. It was trimmed correctly right out of the box and the transmitter did not need to be bound to the receiver. All parts were present and nothing showed any signs of prior use, much less damage. HOBB-E-MART is worth looking into. They sell a lot on eBay, planes in various states of use, some defective items for the parts bin, but at prices determined by auction, and some of their items, like the Stratos I got at a deep discount, have only a very minor problem or defect. Everything they sell is inspected and tested and deficiencies are described in some detail. I will surely buy from them again.

EBAY DELIVERY

Last evening UPS delivered the used Cessna Champ micro rc. It had all the parts, including manuals. There were some minor dings and dents. The receiver and transmitter needed rebinding but that was easy. A test flight revealed a cg too far back but I compensated with trim and got a nice flight, despite wind. After the flight I made more trim adjustments, applied transparent tape here and there, and added a bit of nose weight. A nice little rc 3-channel flyer at a good price! It's nice to have another one of these, taking the place of the one I lost last year. I seem to be a better flyer now, and that certainly helps.

Way too windy to fly today!

 I've gotten upgraded batteries for a couple of my planes, crashed one into a playa lake several weeks ago due to a receiver problem (broken antenna) but, just like the last one that went into the drink, the plane washed up after a few hours and I found that it could be repaired. Someday I will order a new receiver for it and I can bind it to the good Dx5e transmitter. I might have to replace the ESC but I'll test it first. The Hawk Sky pnp from Grayson, I should note, was assembled with down thrust and substantial reinforcement of the fuselage, and a more efficient prop. And I should also mention, in regard to the Firebird Stratos, that I'm using a 64 rubberband to hold the wing on in back, rather than the pin provided. Not as neat but much easier to use.

I've been on a spending spree! From a local guitar outlet I bought a Line 6 amp. Nice! It is a Spider IV, a small one, but the effects sound great and it is plenty loud enough. Guitar is yet another hobby of mine.

Air Hogs Hawk Eye Blue Sky-Estes U2 Hybrid

This plane turned out to be underpowered.