Remote Control (RC) Planes

A few months ago, I drilled a .60 engine sport plane (that did about 80 with a pipe) into the runway. The biggest piece was the size od a pack of smokes! I was teaching a guy with a buddy cord between the two radios. I made a REALLY close fast pass and the guy jumped back about six feet causing my thumb to jam the elevator down!

 

Looks like a blast Rob. I was figuring you for more of the Heli type. Good for you for taking on this hooby. Do you have future plans for what you want to be flying?

 

I know what you mean about how crazy the heli's are. I'm not into that either. I was building a Hughes 500 scale heli went my first daught came on the scene and have not seen the heli since. I wanted to go completely scale and even throw some floats (to land on the water at the cabin). I tried some of the 3d flying on the sim and about all I could muster was to hover upside down and do some flips. Too much money wrapped into those to be taking that big of a chance.

 

Hey Rob, that's a beautiful field! IM me and I will send you a few sets of my crystals that will guarantee you to be glitch free. Poor crystal cuts can 'drift into other channels (There is only a 20KHz spacing between channels) causing Interference. Also, when you lean out your engine, you should use a decent temp gun and lean it out just under the engines max temp spec (NOT BY EAR!).

Question: Do you ave your ailerons and rudder mixed together?

 

If you would like a JR 4 Ch radio, I'll mail one to you. It should be an upgrade from the radio you described. As for the mixing, some flyers use a Y patch wire that allows to couple the ailerons and rudder. This will allow you not to worry about your left thumb on the stick for the rudder. It does take away your ability to 'crab' the plane on a cross-wind landing.

 

Most flyers (unlike surface users, i.e.: cars, boats) will not change out their TX crystal, as they adhere to the FCC rules, but will use the same radio for multiple receivers, thus just buying a new RX crystal for the new receiver module.

If you have yet to become a member, join www.rcuniverse.com. Awesome chat board!

 

Futaba transmitters cannot talk to JR receivers (and Airtronics I think), and visa versa.

But, regular Futaba Servos will work just fine in JR receivers, and visa versa, with just a little plastic trimming. I don't know about those new fangled 'digital servos' though.

 

i think hobby-lobby.com is the best to buy plane kits

 

Rob: It takes time but the engines are pretty easy to learn. You should read the instruction manual and the construction diagram to see how the parts all go together. It is your typical 2 stroke engine that uses the larger fuel mixture needle to adjust the mixture, but it also has a small set screw that allows you to set the idle fuel mixture as well. There are various glow plugs on the market, with the Fox brand being the most common but I use the OS plugs for both my 2 and 4 stroke engines. OS actually does make a small rotary engine but it is pretty expensive.
As for the radio, get a JR 663 or the Airtronics or Futaba equivalent that has multi model memory and will also allow you to expand when you decide to get a plane with retracts and/or flaps. They also allow you to digitally adjust the servo travel and servo movement rates from the transmitter so you dont have to continually fool around with the pushrods trying to make very minor adjustments. Again, I reccomend the Hitec flight packs, but if you do go to a larger plane, upgrade to a larger capacity receiver battery. The weight increase is minor compared to the benefit.

I'll post a pic of my fleet later tonight.

 

I never did the planes because of my love for crashing. I have run boats for about 6 years and cars for about 3 years. The boats are by far the most run time for the maintenance required, and also the most fun for me in Florida. I have used JR and Futaba radios and servos, the Futaba seems to be more available locally, though the JR was pretty durable. I did not like the sensitivity of the JR, seems like the futaba is a little more forgiving of overreaction. Anyway, the sound and smell of R/C nitro is addicting as I'm sure you are now aware of.
If the planes get frustrating due to maintenance / crash repair I recommend trying the Dumas Hot Shot sprint (ABS) 1/8 scale tunnel hull boats with an outboard 3.5 CC motor from Thunder tiger. I flip and flood the motor with lake water probably about 15 times on an average day and repairs usually are limited to a new flex drive shaft for about $4. Good times. Hope you enjoy your new hobby.

BT

 

Yep, exactly right. I agree with the suggestions to get a radio with the setup and mixing functions done electronically - it is worth it during the setup and they don't cost too much nowdays. Only wait till your second or third plane, so you know what you like.

After several radios, I finally bought a JR 783 from http://www.horizonhobby.com/ and a couple of receivers sized for each plane. It's overkill for a 4 channel trainer, as it's intended for a 6 channel glider setup. They make nice radios though.

 

My God do I love this question!!!!

Many flyers swap out Hitec and Futaba receivers and crystals. The receiver is one thing (using a hitec receiver with a Futaba radio), but placing a Futaba crystal in a Hitec receiver is a BIG TECHNICAL NO-NO that NOBODY ever pays attention to! Here is the fact that you can tell your buds at the field that came from a crystal designer AND by somebody that looks at the differences in crystals on very expensive HP scopes:

Futaba and Hitec has different load capacitances in their respective crystals. Since the oscillator circuit in the radio is tuned to talk to their respective receives, it tunes the right through the crystal to the receiver. The differences in the load cap's between the crystals CAN and DOES promote 'Glitches' or 'Hits'. It's a BAD practice!

With that said, one can use Futaba, Hitec, JR or Airtronics radios and have prefect transmission of the channel frequencies. Bias is OK, but it should be for the right reasons.

As for the crystals, after you get your first Glitch in the air, try one of my crystals. Why are we (Performance Devices) so good?....We are probably the only brand that gets the crystals closest to the actual frequency.

In a 72.130MHz crystal (Ch 17), we see +/- 2ppm as an average (or 72.1302MHz). This is what the Military requires (At a minimum) for most components (and there are applications that hit -10ppm over 5 years over Mil temp ranges!). Being so damn close to the crystal frequency, we guarantee glitch-free operation. Most other crystal brands we have tested have a hard time getting as close as we do (And we see some real garbage out there!). How do you get so close? The crystals are lapped to near the exact frequency.

After the lapping, they are close, but not perfect (Maybe at 72.135MHz). The crystals are then etched. After a timed etch bath, the crystals are around 72.1330675Mhz). What we do after the etch bath is hand etch. This is where a technician paints the etching fluids on the crystal and peridoically checks the frequency against an HP frequency scope. Once we get around 2ppm, the crystal is completed. Once assembled in a carrier, we five days, we do the added step of aging the crystals over temperature. Many 'cheap' crystal manufacturers will not do this. The aging picks out the infant mortality.

Is that enough techno-babble?

 

Yes, right here! http://www.performancedevices.com/reliability_study.htm . It's not what you would expect for a silly crystal!

 

Thanks Peter, that's good info. Do match your crystals for JR receivers?

 

Yes we do. It's our PDV970-00XX found at http://www.performancedevices.com/72mhz_air.htm

 

Thanks Peter, I should have checked your site first

(and proofread my previous post too)

 

Knock on wood!

 

I got hit by a car while on my bicycle last spring and spent all summer in a back brace so I got back into RC planes for a while. You can get a GWS Slow Stick electric parkflyer for $300 or so with everything you need. It's the most amazing thing. 14oz or so. 48" wingspan. Flies at a slow jog for up to 40 minutes and you can fly it anywhere. I got my exercise by walking to a local park where you could never fly a 'gas' plane. Or I'd just walk to the end of my driveway and fly in the cul de sac. Later I bought a foam pattern plane that, right out of the box, had performance similar to the 60 powered sport plane I had as a kid.

Plantraco in Canada is now selling an indoor plane for $239 that weighs 4 GRAMS. That was not a typo. Fly in a 12X12 room.