Looks like a decent size compared with the PZ T-28, Today I found out what happens when accidentally inverting the radio timer, it was counting up despite me setting it to count down from 4 minutes. I only had 4 minutes left on the battery so I was flying around waiting for the timer to start beeping to make a landing, issue was that never happened... Following a downwind low pass I noticed it wasn't climbing and had no power and instinctively I hit the gear down toggle, made a left turn and landed like a rock in the rough grass which is NOT retract friendly! Damage? Broken nose wheel and main landing gear doors, not too bad but gives me an excuse to upgrade all the retracts to metal as stock they are plastic and weak so I can continue rough glass operations. This was the Durafly T-28, waiting on parts now!
Vampire arrived, I'll just say that it's 8:25pm now and I really regret starting it... Swapping out the fan with the CS 10 blade unit was an absolute b!tch First off all, it seems they used half a tube of glue to hold the unit in which required me to cut the fuselage in half and undo the two glue halves also Now that I made sure everything fits I have glued it all up and it's ready for the CS EDF to be dropped in then I can glue the wings on and do all the wiring. Still waiting on the 100 amp ESC so there isn't much I can do anyhow. GOOD NEWS is that I how have 1.5hrs worth of batteries for the MQX ...now to clean up the mess
Excellent report. Sucks to hear swapping the fan is such a pain. As good as it sounds though, it will be worth it! When I get a little more free time I plan on getting the exact same setup.
How did you figure on needing a 100A ESC? Just received one of these watt-meters, very interesting to see what different props & motors pull: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=10080 I don't plan on changing the fan or motor in my Sportjet anytime soon, but it is dead easy to do (4 bolts to remove the wing, boom there it is) if I ever feel the need for more speed and a cooler sound: [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvWGDk1htjw[/ame]
Kurt- Where did you get your keychain camera you use for video? I think I want to get one to play around with. Any particular model that is considered the best to use? I have looked at several on Amazon and they seem to get mixed reviews at best.
Just from info I gathered running the stock motor with the CS 10, it'll probably be less but I want to be on the safe side. Chris, quadcopters are great aren't they! I should invest more into them, they are the way of the future
Nathan - Mine is a 1 yr old 808 #11 keychain cam which has quite good, smooth 1280x720 video, decent colors and sound. Been really happy with it for ~$40 off Ebay. Checking in on the definitive keychain cam site http://www.chucklohr.com/808/C16/index.html#111126C16 I see there's a new #16 version with a bunch of improvements including various lens with wider field of views and TV out! FPV ready! I can't vouch for this seller (linked from Chuck's site), but here's what you're looking for: http://www.ebay.com/itm/180937263580 Don't bother with the $15 and under versions - they're going to be crap compared to the latest. To my knowledge Ebay is really the only place to buy these online, you might also read back through the past few weeks of posts on this rcgroups thread to get a better feel for good/bad Ebay sellers: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1556994
My friends PZ Spitfire ESC burnt randomly today lots of smoke! Completely stock no idea what caused it. I can still smell it, horrible stench! Once again water got into my A5 and shorted out the rudder servo in flight it started wagging the tail all over the place managed to land and taxi back. Left it to dry once more, might have to move it or send an angry letter to Parkzone... No more planes for me, have too many! Selling a few off and will fly what I am left with till something new comes out.
Where is the rudder servo located? You could try covering it with a thick coat of Vaseline, that is a trick I have used on a couple of seaplanes to protect the electronics from spray. Of course if the entire servo is getting submerged it probably won't work, but if it is just spray and splashed water it may help.
Bottom of the inside fuselage, so basically exactly where water collects when/if it enters. I have a feeling water is entering via the motor intake, pretty sure I can seal that bit off otherwise I'll just relocate it. The reason it's in that place is due to the fact it also controls the front landing gear steering which I don't use anyway so it doesn't need to be located there.
Rainy weekend so did some work on the jammed Mustang retract (caused by my own stupidity: flipping the gear switch instead of flaps after landing). Good time to upgrade them to big-daddy "514" worm drives and sprung aluminum struts. Takes some pretty good design and fabbing to mount them well, but these are WAY stronger overall. Plus a lot heavier (145g vs 85g each stock), but removing the 105g chunk of steel that came in her nose (can mount the battery further forward to compensate) makes it almost a wash. Also been messing around with ideas for a frankenstein Radjet. Love the first one so much (over 30 flights, and 3 good crashes) I bought 2 more with the idea of cutting the forward fuse off one to replace the bashed up one on my first, and making an X-Wing with the other, possibly with thrust vectoring motor mount. But then I got to thinking about how nice it would be to have a twin pusher with differential thrust.... so laid out a few ideas with the two un-built airframes. She'll be faster than hell with twin 2826-6 2200kV motors, counter rotating 6x4 props and twin 3S packs, and look pretty boss. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Great description of the flight characteristics. I raced 1/10 scale electric touring cars for a long time but never got into the planes. Really enjoying this thread.
FWIW, I used to race 1/8th gas cars in the UK - Much rain, which unfortunately isn't 1/8th scale..... We used to put the receiver inside balloons - A couple in the wet, sealed "each way" with ty-wraps and a dab of silicon sealant. IIRC, "good" servos were pretty much waterproof. Cheers, Ian
Petie's got a new pair of legs. They're about 10mm longer than stock, and the biggest wheel that will fit the new struts is 2.5" (correct scale would be ~3") but they should be much stronger than before. Saturday they get put to the test... hopefully not TOO big a test with nasty cross winds. Forecast looks good. Getting psyched to build the twin-Radjet this winter. Thinking that a 2-3" foam extension between the fuselages will be a good idea for extra lift, to space out the motors a bit more (6" props would just about be touching without any spacer) and also to increase the differential thrust effect. Could also put a supplementary control surface at the rear to help out on pitch. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Shot over to a nearby park today to take the Radjet up with a new servo-mounted camera. Just fixed it in the fuse about over the cg, plugged into the previously empty RUD channel. Slowed down the servo speed and set a bunch of expo so it wouldn't be jumping back and forth. A bit tricky to pan back and forth while flying (moving the rudder stick around without it affecting the flight is weird!), but results are very cool! According to google maps the shore of Lake Michigan was 6.5 miles away from the park; I had her up to about the edge of my eyesight maybe 500'-750' or so? You can also see Gen Mitchell/Milwaukee Airport to the right of the road running underneath the plane. Tomorrow's supposed to be another beautiful day, a bunch of us are meeting at Bong RC field so should be fun! Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
I glued the cr$p out of it! Put a couple of flights on her with no issues, I figured out that due to me using 3000mah+ batteries (flys fine) the nose is a lot heavier and thus sometimes the nose can scoop water over so I'll have to seal that area better. Sadly after 200+ flights in just over 10 months my Parkzone T-28 is retired, more like written off... Firstly my friends Spitfire decided it would try eat my T-28, then later that evening I lost orientation too low to the ground and bam! My first real crash Have no idea what to replace it with now, all the electronics survived including my LIPO shame there are no ARF kits just PNP. Nurburgringer, Your camera mounting is a lot better than how I sticky taped my phone inside the canopy... It's great landing and looking at the footage! Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Supposedly my local hobby shop got a bunch of new stuff in yesterday. May have to cruise by later and see if they have anything I need. Wish me luck!
Who can resist a Spitfire?!? Not this guy. Picked up the parkzone ultra micro Spitfire Mk IX. 16 inch wingspan, 1.65 oz flying weight. Lots of great scale details including a 4 blade prop, wing mounted cannons, and cockpit gauges. This one is their first single-cell micro warbird with the gyro stabilization system. It will be interesting to see if it flies much differently from my other similar size warbirds such as the Corsair and Mustang. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Quick flight report: Alright. Flies great. Extremely smooth. Cruises easily at half throttle. Very axial rolls, probably best of any RC plane I have flown. Also needs a lot of rudder input for coordinated turns. Probably the most of any RC plane I've flown. Wants to pitch up out of turns if you just bank and yank. Will stall one wing and roll out of loops if entry is too slow or too abrupt. Kind of drops a wing in stalls but not bad at all. In other words, has a nice distinct personality and flies like a warbird, but no really bad habits. Landings are slick as glass. I think the gyro system in these planes probably helps landings more than anything and makes the most difference there, as it damps out any pitch or roll turbulence. My Gee Bee, MiG, and Spitfire all make landings look super smooth.
In that case I'd recommend a trainer first + sim perhaps, EDFs are good 3rd or 4th planes, or in my case 11th
That Spitfire looks very cool. I've got a couple planes to build over the winter otherwise this, or the Micro Mosquito, would be on my short list. Heads up: the 7th version of FMS's excellent 1450mm P-51 is now available for pre-order on Banana Hobby for under $200 shipped: Petie: http://www.bananahobby.com/petie-giant-p51-d-mustang-v7-rc-warbird-airplane-arf-81374-prd1.html Gunfighter: http://www.bananahobby.com/gunfighter-giant-p51-d-mustang-v7-rc-warbird-airplane-arf-81376-prd1.html Big Beautiful Doll: http://www.bananahobby.com/beautiful-doll-giant-p51-d-mustang-v7-rc-warbird-airplane-81375-prd1.html These require a TX and RX, but full "ready to fly" with transmitter and RX is only about $50 more. Not what I'd recommend for a beginner, but very well mannered and amazingly detailed. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5efb1LzNjlE#! I'm really happy with my V6 (especially now the gear are updated), but for the price I don't think there's a cooler, warbird or non, out there. Now if FMS would only get to work on a V2 of their P-38....
