Outstanding Weather!

In the last couple of days I've been able to fly the Tex RC Cub, the Delta Ray, the EZ Hawk, the FMS 800, and the Firebird Stratos, several times each. I fly in the morning, afternoon, and evening. It looks like today will be just as favorable. I'd like to do the Cub some more, and the FMS 1280.

Tex RC J-3 Cub

It was an easy build. I had to make a little shelf above the servos to support the receiver. I had to modify the hatch and battery area slightly to accept the E-Flite 1000mah 2C batteries I wanted to use. I decided to glue on the wing. I used colored electrical tape to reinforce the landing gear and glued in the landing gear. I launched at full throttle into a light wind and went almost straight up. Backing off the throttle and using a few clicks of down trim got the plane flying right. The plane feels a bit heavy for the size of the wing but it climbs nicely and seems to have enough power for loops, although I haven't tried that yet. It lands easily. Just fly upwind and back off the throttle slowly and it descends slowly. Flare for landing and kill the throttle. This is a nice plane and it looks great. Landing in grass requires more of a full stall and drop in to avoid nosing over. I have no complaints!

New Stuff

At an estate sale not too long ago I got a nice coax copter with a good transmitter and lots of spare lipo batteries. I found that these batteries will fit a TEX RC cub from nitroplanes, and since they had one on sale, I bought one. I can use an Orange receiver and an eBay DX5e transmitter. The cub arrived yesterday and it looks good. I hope to get it in the air soon. I have experimented with the helicopter but have not really tried to fly it yet. It is trimmed out. It had not been bound to the transmitter but I got that done and found the controls were reversed and corrected that. I doubt that the guy I bought this from had ever flown it. That whole package, of six lipos, spare parts and transmitter (DSMX, good for planes or copters) was only $40! I'll have some pics soon, and a review of the cub.

Gibson/Baldwin/Epoch/Maestro

Here is the pawnshop LP copy with its new bridge, all intonated and properly set up-- this bridge and some modest fret work made a good guitar out of something quite mediocre.

 

It's Good To Have A Lot Of Hobbies

When the wind is high I can work on/play my various guitars. I have been playing the Johnson strat copy intensively since I got it, and grime is still coming off the fretboard and strings. Talk about dirty fingers. I removed one string tree and modified another because of ridiculous tension over the nut. Very hard to tune until I did that. Also a few more tweaks to the bridge saddles. I put more tension on the neck truss rod. I've got the action where it needs to be. When I feel more ambitious I'll replace the current strings with a set of GHS .010 to .046. That should do it. Eventually, I'll post pics.

Some Flying And A New Guitar

Day before yesterday I was able to use the FMS 1280 and the EZ Hawk. The FMS 1280 flies much better with the ailerons deflected down, slightly, to create some under camber. The EZ Hawk is showing signs of age. And the battery overheated. I thought it best to discard that battery, since it became puffy. Can't take any chances with lipo batteries.


Yesterday my wife and I checked an estate sale we had visited earlier. Then, Saturday, items were discounted 20%. Sunday the discount was 50%. I got an old Johnson Stratocaster copy for less than $100, sales tax included. I had an awful time getting it to play in tune. Every fretted note was sharp. The bridge needed major adjustment and modification. It took hours of work to get it to play well. It still needs work on the string trees and a fresh set of strings. But at least I know now that it sounds good. Every electric guitar I've ever purchased has needed a lot of set up work, a lot of intonation adjustment. Am I the only guitarist  who can tell when an instrument is out of tune? I got this strat copy from the estate of a guy who must have been a serious musician, judging by the numerous instruments he owned. But if he ever used that guitar it would never, ever, have played in tune. To me, initially, it sounded like crap. Maybe he used it for slide. That's all it would have been good for. Now, after all my work, it plays pretty much in tune all over the neck. New strings will probably improve that, since it came with very grimy strings, with the third somewhat corroded as well as greasy. The whole guitar stinks of cigarette smoke but I'm hoping that will go away. If necessary I'll use detergent on the finish. It has a maple neck, medium jumbo frets, Duncan pickups, a three-ply pickguard (wbw) and is light yellow.