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.