RC planes/jets/heli

Evo makes some very lovely motors!
Radial Engines: Evolution Engines

Cool! The latest FMS P-51s look amazing, don't know how I'm going to be able to resist a B model....
http://www.facebook.com/FMSmodel/photos_stream?ref=ts

Congrats on the improved eyesight

Did you manage to balance the fan on the Vamp, or flying it as-bought?
How are the landing gear holding up?
Love the pics

A bunch of new EDFs have been catching my eye (Sea Vixen and Vampire in particular) but I've got quite enough planes to keep my busy at the moment

The JPower P-38 V2 is almost complete. Central fuse reinforced with 3mm CF rod running into the wing, all servo junctions secured with dental floss and heat shrink, 10A Castle BEC wired in and engine boom-to-wing joints smoothed. Getting the nose gear's steering linkage working well is taking some time and thought. Luckily still some time before the spring flying season starts...
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I haven't balanced it yet it sounds fine above 40% throttle IMO lots of wooshing.

Funny you should mention the retracts! The first landing the nose gear collapsed and scraped a lot of foam.

That was my own doing as I opened it up to replace the plastic bit with a metal one and now it doesn't lock well.

Other landings I kept the nose high and it did the trick!

 

well shes wired up and almost ready to go ............

 

Cool, same here with the P-38.
I just have to cut down the prop shaft adapters by 3-4mm on the Unimat to reduce the gap between the spinner and motor cover.
Really like how she sits on the sprung alloy gear. It's neat to push down on the fuse and feel and see the suspension compress.
She's not the prettiest, or most detailed, or most accurate Lightning out there but she'll be a sturdy, quick, powerful and sweet handling plane to fly.
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nice work , snapped a prop today testing the motor , but i have spares



and i just bought a trainer cessna

 

Had a strange incident yesterday with the vampire, waited all day to for the wind to die down then went for a fly at 5:30pm.

Everything was fine apart from the left rear retract folding on taxing for some reason, 4 minutes into the flight during a medium pass I hit full throttle and heard a weird sound then lost power (no throttle response).

Sounded like the motor spun without the fan on it, so I figured the fan must have come off.

Managed to land it fine yet on inspection I have noted two strange things,

1, nothing wrong fan is on spins fine everything is working.

2, Cracked canopy! looks like a scale model of a bird strike!

The canopy wasn't cracked prior to the flight so I have no idea what happened!

Maybe I hit a flying bug? Sucked it through the fan and got stuck hence no power. But I haven't found any proof for that outcome...

 

As I tinker with foamies, rather chuffed at getting retracts to work or a BEC successfully soldered in, these guys operate on an entirely different level.

Swiss airline pilot/RC wunderkind who made the incredible FPV Eurofighter I posted a few pages back is now working on his magnum opus: a 600 class, 5 bladed AH-6 Heli with numerous 3D printed and custom milled parts, moving controls, moving camera in the pilot's head, autopilot/GPS, pyrotechnics, and a WORKING GLASS COCKPIT with psuedo-FLIR, various warnings and other info that will be viewable from the pilot's POV. :O

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut5J18K-6Bk]AH-6 Dash sneaky peak - YouTube[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_FY0Tb3lIM]AH-6 animated cockpit controls - YouTube[/ame]

If you're into this kind of stuff get a big cup of coffee, set aside an hour and dive into his build thread here:
AH-6Z Littlebird Night-Ops build project
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Mind blowing "scratchbuilt" 1:4 Scale Yak-130 turbine from Russia:
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIsvW_yhhjs&list=PL1M_Wh0xPbFrqRYYx2zaYpn5MhNGkS9c8&index=10]YAK-130_RUSJET - YouTube[/ame]


Nicely done FPV compilation from one guy's various planes and quad copters:
Watch in HD on the biggest screen you got.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7z9dv6mVs8&list=PL1M_Wh0xPbFrqRYYx2zaYpn5MhNGkS9c8&index=3]FPV - Best of 2012 - My Year in Review - YouTube[/ame]

 

WOW, that guy should be put in charge of F22 and F35 production programs.

 

Yeah better hope Iran doesn't get their hands on him

 

Strange thing to say...

Copying an old subsonic trainer means being capable of working on real live US Military planes???

Hopefully your comment was supposed to be mostly a joke... Sometimes it's hard to tell on the internet

 

I'll go out on a limb and say it was (mostly) a joke.

What this thread needs is some crashes to lighten the mood!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=R1uB46lcMaA
Illustrating that a properly located cg is fairly important.

 

Today was relatively warm 40F, calm and clear so took the Wing Wing over to a local park for a fly. First one in at least two months, I was jonsing!

The WW is such a fun, simple plane. Super efficient (only burns ~100mAh/minute with mixed throttle, easy 9 minute flights from a 1300mAh 11.1V pack), QUICK (1:1 T/W), docile or sporty, and glides forever. Floating in for gentle belly landings in the snow is a snap.

Removed the green and black stickers and shot the top surfaces with flat desert tan. Looks pretty cool I think and vis is quite good. May spruce her up a bit more with USAF stickers and a few wing "cannons".

HK just released a big brother version with almost twice the wingspan. They're marketing it as an FPV platform but it'd be great as a big, simple parkflyer as well:
Phantom FPV Flying Wing EPO Airplane 1550mm (KIT)

Also finished up the P-38 but it'll be probably another month before she'll be making the trip down to Bong field for her maiden.
Got the fixed gear doors done, props and spinners balanced (this gadget is pretty pricey at $30 but it's the best: Du-Bro 499 Tru-Spin Prop Balancer: Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific ), some basic weathering and gun smoke with the airbrush and a couple light coats of clear satin lacquer to smooth everything out.
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Really nice job on the gear doors. How'd you'd cut them? They look like they were CNC machined. You're getting into the too nice to fly territory.

 

NC machined? When I was a kid building models I did that stuff by hand and it looked that good. Of course we didn't have much then in 1938 but a sharp single edged razor blade and some files. I wish that I still had some of the things that I built. I have fond memories of watching my 6 foot wing span Carl Goldberg pylon free flight soaring into the blue with the sun shining through the clear doped (nitrate) orange silk covering. Then there were many hand carved hand launched gliders that I flung into the air and watched them glide for what seemed to be for 1/2 hour. Great days before the war.

 

Thanks Chris - she's looking pretty sharp I think as well (even if the colors aren't period correct) but will definitely not be a hanger queen!

I did the gear doors old-school:
Traced around the thin plastic stock doors on 1/32 basswood, cut with an exacto then steamed and glued two layers around a spray-can form. Then sanded the edges to fit the opening, cut a cardboard template for the gear pass-through and cut it out with a fresh blade. Reinforced the underside with mounting plates, went through several rounds of fitting and sanding the cut-out then a couple coats of primer and silver paint.

You have any new additions to the hanger for the upcoming flying season?

Bob - you would really enjoy meeting a guy named Jack Boone that I got to know at our local RC field and later visited at home. The rafters in his basement are absolutely filled with beautifully crafted balsa and paper covered rubber-band powered, free flight planes he's built over the last 60 years or so. Next time I'm over to visit him will have to take photos.
Jack send me the last pic below of him demonstrating one of his planes for Wisconsin's Governor (Tommy Thompson) during a visit to Bong Recreational Park in the mid 80's. The Governor was so impressed that he asked Jack what the state could do to make their sport better. Jack said it'd be nice to have a paved runway for the planes. Within a few months, with Jack's directions, one was put in and we're still enjoying it today.
Neat guy. He also graciously arranged for me to visit his friend's workshop where I got to sit in a real P-51 and T6.
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Thanks, Kurt. I wasn't as dedicated as your friend and I would love to see his collection. Family, Boeing, flying the real ones, and art took most of my time. I have a friend who is still at Boeing, an engineer, who designs some great ultra light park flyers that are amazing. He sold the rights to a company that sells them and they are very popular. One is a seaplane with the engine nacelle cantilevered off the vertical fin. Can't remember the name but you probably do. The doors that you built are nice pieces of work.

 

What's perhaps most impressive to me is that his planes are still in tact, likely airworthy with a fresh rubber "motor", after many decades and a large number of flights.
Makes me feel guilty about destroying a couple of my foam planes after less than 50 flights, one with less than 20....

I'm envious of the career you had Bob. There's nothing wrong with mine (power generation industry) but from what I've read the work you did at Boeing was amazing. Part of me wishes I had gone further with Engineering after getting a BS, specializing in aerospace. Of course things are different nowadays and in the 90's when I was in school, than they were in your days but I'll never know since I never tried. Eh in my next life!

Sounds like you're describing a Seawind?
Great Planes Seawind Seaplane RXR - Motion RC
Pretty plane.

 

I think that you are correct. I'll check with him again and let you know.

 

No new planes. I moved in Nov. and most planes are still at old house. Good news is that I now back to a large farm behind the backyard, and the front yard is large enough to fly the 48" Super Cub if I'm careful. A quick 90 degree turn to avoid phone lines, and on approach to a tree free 200ft of driveway.

What wheels are those on the Mazda5?

 

Congrats on the new place! Flying from your front yard will be great.

Wheels are generic 17" with winter tires I bought off Craigslist in late 2011. Guy had them for two winters on a leased Mazda6. I had just missed out on sweet MazdaSpeed3 wheels (with TPMS), winter was fast approaching and these looked ok so bought them (cheap).

Nice(ish) day today so met some buddies at the local park for some cold weather flying. The guy with the F4 Phantom (a beast to fly, especially with skis!) has an LiPo battery-powered heater for his transmitter bag! Wasn't really necessary today so I asked him if his panties were also electrically heated
Tomorrow is supposed to be a bit warmer and calmer, may try taking off from the snow with the red EDF jet instead of tossing it. They were all egging me on to try a belly take-off but I was afraid of ingesting ice/snow into the 50,000 rpm fan.
The motor and fan from Don's Wicked RC (700W 4000kv motor, dynamically balanced 5-blade fan) cost me almost as much as the whole airframe :/

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPLRNYfIgxI]Wintertime RC flying March 2 2013 - YouTube[/ame]

 

I've been flying RC off & on since 68, and have a basement full of planes and helis; 3D, scale, old timers, gas, glow, and electric. They help relieve stress, as they make one concentrate and you forget everyday worries. Building kits in itself is a favorite aspect for me, and seeing ones handiwork take to the air is truly amazing.
I never tire of the hobby.

 

This week Spring was finally able to land a blow on Winter's chin here in Milwaukee so I eagerly shot down to Bong RC Field for some flying in sunny, breezy 45F weather.
Three maidens were attempted, two succeeded....

The freshly finished 1.5m P-38 acquitted herself beautifully. Needed about 10 clicks of down elevator trim to fly level (CG was ~5mm too far back and somehow I had set the elevator about 1/16" up at zero stick) but she looked glorious swooping around the clear blue skies. Handled like a dream and despite the weight of the chunky gear and copious carbon&glue airframe reinforcement she climbed with gusto and stalled very smoothly. Gear worked great, except that I undershot the runway by about 3 feet and the nose gear pulled out the cruddy wood screws. Oops. Should have used 4-40 capscrews and blind nuts like the main gear, that's been remedied.

The X-Wing exceeded all Xpectations. Was a tad nose heavy but once trimmed she was rock solid even in 5g15 winds. Slightly over 1:1 thrust to weight, very quick (and axial) roll rate, smooth pitch response, just a joy to fly.
I think she also looked really cool in the air. The front wheel doesn't really enhance the looks but does help with orientation. I also landed this one a few feet short of the runway and when the lower left control horn caught the grass the clevis linking the top and bottom elevons broke. So we didn't get to try out the left/right thrust vectoring planned for the second flight. She now has ball and socket ended links between the elevons so no more worries about that.

The only tears came after the Dual Radjet suffered a left motor ESC failure about 20 feet after taking off majestically from her launch dolly. The sudden, extreme thrust imbalance put her into a snap roll/end over end tumble. Luckily she just about pancaked just off the tarmac in softish ground so only partially cracked both fuselages in front of the wing. Already repaired with hot glue and carbon fiber so as soon as two (quality, this time) ESCs arrive she'll be ready for another go.

Good old Petie the P-51 was happy to be airborne again, probably have 50 flights or so on her now.

I forgot to lock my hat-cam's focus so the video is pretty bad, will try for better next time.

Anyone else got their RC planes in the air?
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I have mine in the air, but never really shut down for winter either. The wind during winter is really the limiting factor for me. Cuts down on flights per week. Need to get some fresh lipo's soon. Why don't they last more than a year for me? Anyone else have this issue?

 

I "lost" one 4S 3A Nano-tech battery over the winter, forgot to discharge it to 25-50% (~3.75V) before storing it for the winter. After fully charging now it's tripping my low voltage alarm set at 3.6V almost immediately after taking the P-51 up. I even ran it through a few discharge/balance charge cycles but seems it's terminally damaged.

My three 4S 2.7A Zippy Compacts and four 3S 1.3A Nano-Techs appear to have made it through the winter in good shape, but I did use these a few times during the winter.

What's the longest your batteries went between uses? What brand? I assume you're babying them i.e. letting them rest for 5-10 minutes between charge/discharge cycles, not running them down below 3.7V static/80% mAh gone, etc.

This is only my second year using LiPos so curious about this myself, they're not cheap!

Here's a screengrab from a sortie last weekend:
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