RC planes/jets/heli

Just like in the real thing, it's nice to have that second engine, right?

The F-82 is an interesting idea. I'd like to see a video when you get it in the air.

 

Funny thing - real P-38's props rotate reverse from most twins with the tops moving away from the center. I haven't been able to find out exactly why; wiki says it had something to do with the gun's accuracy (turbulence hitting the center fuse enough to cause bad vibrations?), other sites say the booms vibrated or airflow over the horiz stab was disturbed, until they switched L/R rotation.
Anyway, P-38 pilots had a lot of training on how to fly on one engine when either one is "critical", but I certainly haven't so I made mine with the props rotating inwards so the motors' torque will help to keep it level in the event of a motor failure.
I'm quite sure that if they had been rotating like the 1:1 version she would have snapped completely over and plowed into the ground before I throttled back or thought to slam on full rudder.

The F-82 Twin Mustang's props counter-rotate "correctly" i.e. tips moving inwards at the top. I read somewhere that the first prototype had them like the P-38 but it wouldn't take off, presumably because of the way the prop wash hit the center wing. They then reversed them and it flew like a champ.

You don't see many RC F-82s. They're not as elegant looking as Lightnings but are historically important, bridging the gap until jets took over and chalking up the first kills of the Korean war.
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Haven't finished painting her but she's ready to take to the skies tomorrow AM...
Tally ho!


In other news, took a break from the Twin Mustang build to do an easy build of a "Horten BV-38" i.e. the Nazi plane from the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark.
$140 to my door and complete except for a receiver (I use these with my Spektrum DX8 transmitter) and $10 battery and only takes an hour or so to build it was too cool to pass up.
Cuts an imposing figure on the ground and in the air.
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Kurt- Great looking F-82. Hope she flies well.

 

Thanks Terry!
Since the outer wings are unchanged and the center wing has a similar airfoil I assumed that the CG should be about where the P-51's is i.e. 75mm back from the leading edge. The 1:1 version has slightly longer/bigger outer wings which I didn't feel like messing with so the center on mine is ~1" wider than it should be based on the overall wingspan and length. The two fuselages look a bit further apart than they should, and there's more weight further away from the centerline so it won't be as eager to roll. Nothing to do about it now but set aileron throws to max and get her in the air.
The WCL is ~15 so I expect her to be something of a "pilot's plane". Will be keeping speeds up and not trying any fancy low altitude moves at first that's for sure!

 

Very cool on the Raiders of the Lost Ark plane! I always loved that thing. Although, the one in the movie is a twin engine design. Works better at chopping up bad guys that way.

 

Quite well!
CG was pretty much spot on, only took a couple clicks of elevator and aileron trim but I will add a bit more expo to elevator and may install a gyro on the rudder to stop some minor tail-wagging. Other than that she's got a great combination of power, stability at various speeds and efficiency. Didn't go above 3/4 throttle on the new motors and came down after 3.5 minutes with 80% left in the batteries. So they've got 8-9 minute sporty flights in them easy.
Orientation was a bit of an issue going right to left. Basically looked like the silhouette of two P-51s flying in impossibly close formation with no idea which one was higher... Will hook up the wing-tip LEDs and may paint the tails yellow to help a bit.

I did almost have a heart attack when she lost the TX signal about 2 minutes into her maiden.... I went sprinting down the runway after her praying it'd reconnect.... and after an agonizing 3-4 seconds thank god it did... and she was wings-level going away from the flight line. This happened in the same general area that my P-51 lost signal, only to regain it headed straight for the ground in a spin. Other pilots have tin-foil-hat theories that the government is testing radio jamming equipment (so they can protect public spaces from home-built drones) nearby, since others have lost their signal in the same place and once after a number of crashes they saw a truck with a radio-array on it pull out of the woods between the runway and the shooting range. I dunno.... you'd think they could spend a couple grand and build their own damn RC planes to destroy in the desert somewhere, on the other hand doing it at a public field with virtually all of the various protocols/frequencies in use has an evil logic to it.
I'm using Orange RX (Spektrum) with a satellite, and am thinking about switching to another protocol. Or switching to a different flying field....
Anyway, after that scare I brought her in for a nice touchdown, flew the X-Wing and then called it a (successful) day before the wife suffered from heat stroke.

At least I went away much happier than the guy who totalled his ~$700 electric biz-jet, coming uncomfortably close to crashing into the pits area at high speed where my wife was sitting :/

Great to see Gregg and Jason there as well! Cool of you to come out, Haley and I really enjoyed talking with you.

A friend took some video which came out all right, will post up on Youtube hopefully in next days.

cheers!

lol yeah it wouldn't be TOO hard to convert to twin motors, but in the air you can't tell anyway. Couple people on RCGroups.com have installed retracts which is cool, but the one in the movie had massive, fixed gear.
Took it up again today. Not exactly a relaxing plane to fly (yet) despite it's slow speeds but it looks positively wicked especially doing a barrel roll
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Thanks again for the invite Kurt. It was a cool experience. Great to see so many people enthusiastic about this hobby.

 

1964, I helped to build the big one and designed and built the small one. Flew both of them on the same day. Times have sure changed. Still have the drawings of the small one.
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Sure thing glad you enjoyed it!
Also really glad the big crash you witnessed wasn't mine...

Bob I can't remember if you said it before, but that model is a free flight one right?
Did it have a timer to switch the elevator after a certain time climbing, or just start the motor and letter go?
Both the big and little one are lovely.

Here's the flight vid of the F-82's maiden. Too bad there's no footage of me sprinting down the runway with the TX in the air when the signal got lost for a few seconds...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lxy0af7H2bg

 

Thanks. The little one was an RC with a Fox 15. Rudder and elevator.

 

kurt, i see your a local guy. me too. that is my radial engine corsair and big camo hawk in your bomber vids. i plan on goin to scobee tomorrow with my hawk. you going to be out there? barry

 

Looks great flying. Not to worry about roll rate. The P-38 was a very slow roller, too. One reason it did not do too well in northern Europe, besides the cockpit freezing up. Could outturn anything in plane with the maneuvering flaps, but took a while to get in plane.

 

Hi Barry good to see you here! I noticed you had a Ferrari cap on at Bomberfield last weekend but didn't stay around long enough to say hi.
Awesome assortment of machines you've got, and very very nice flying.

Unfortunately I'm leaving in a few hours for a month in Germany so I won't be flying again until August but look forward to seeing you around!

Thanks Taz.
She did in fact roll just fine. Can't wait for future flights with full power climbs, big loops, majestic barrel rolls etc.
I wasn't aware the P-38 had "maneuvering flaps", will have to check this out sounds interesting.
My little Lightning doesn't have any flaps at all and I didn't even think to try the F-82 ones yesterday. It didn't need them for landing even with virtually no head wind.
cheers!

PS: somebody on RCGroups made the astute observation that my transmitter's antenna is pointing almost straight out from the box. Apparently the way the 2.4ghz signals emanate from the antenna leave a "dead area" running straight from the tip so one should always orient it pointing straight in the air, or 90 degrees to the left or right.
I remember hearing this long ago but got fixated on checking the plane's systems and this slipped my mind. Won't forget it again!

 

After a month travelling finally got back got back behind the sticks today on a beautiful but gusty day at Scobee Field for flights #2 and #3 of FF^2.

Velcro'd the trusty 808#16 keychain cam to the underside of the horizontal stab for some inflight footage.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JMuPj9fbEM][720p] F-82 Twin Mustang 2nd and 3rd flights - YouTube[/ame]

Dialed in a little less throw and more expo (40) on first elevator D/R setting which felt great.
Her first (and second, and third) barrel roll looked and felt beautiful. Didn't feel quite comfortable enough to try an immelman, 1/2 cuban 8 or loop. Next time.
The final landing was interesting with not only a 5g15 crosswind but also a dude wandering around just off the end of the runway looking for parts from the lovely 120" PT-19 he crashed earlier. I had to swing way in then back late to avoid flying right over his head and then semi-doinked the landing, but the gear took it in stride.

Performance wise she climbs strong and cruises at 1/2 throttle fine but I wouldn't mind a bit more poke at the top end.
~900kV motors (vs the stock 750s in there now) and 12x8 APC props would be perfect I bet.
She's now only burning ~175mAh/minute per motor at fairly heavy throttle use with the ESCs and 2700mAh 4S 35C Zippy Compacts coming back barely warm so could easily get 8+ minute flights out of a slightly hotter setup.

Still need to cover and paint the center wing, apply a few decals and will likely program in differential thrust to help with ground handling on windy days but otherwise I'm REALLY happy with how she flies. Just about leaps in the air (probably didn't need to make the center wing section quite so "lifty" i.e. thick) and she floats beautifully on final approach. Haven't felt the need to use the flaps at all yet.

This camera angle would be neat for FPV flying, good view of the plane and horizon and also the gear for landings.

Tally ho!

 

Picked up this little gem yesterday, haven't had a chance to fly her yet. I got it to use it in the little cove of the Santa Rosa Sound behind our condo. After looking at the model though, I am worried about saltwater intrusion getting to the electronics. There are cooling vent holes in the main canopy and in the aileron servo covers on the wing. After briefly reading on a couple of the forums, it seems like a lot of guys spray CorrosionX on the electronics to protect them from water. They are dealing with freshwater though, not salt.

Anybody ever dealt with waterproofing a seaplane?

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Well that's a neat way to get delivery of a production A5 and beat the long queue

 

Nathan - you'll have fun with the micro A5!
I put about 40 flights on mine, but haven't flown it in a while. Water handling is tricky in anything over ~5mph gusts. It weathervanes pretty strong and is easy to catch a wingtip and flip over even at low speeds, which I did 3 times. Luckily there was enough of a breeze to push it to shore each time, but the last one took ~15 minutes. It was freshwater and the board stayed mostly dry, don't know how it would have fared with salt water though.

Since crashing my Stinger 64mm a few months ago (for the last time... was already on a spare fuselage and 2nd EDF) a few days ago I broke down and ordered one of these:
Freewing YF-16 Thrust Vectoring EDF RC Jet PNP

Uses the same batteries as the Stinger so will just need to pop in a RX and go. Have always wanted to try thrust-vectoring, and a Viper in red/wht/blue is just an awesome plane.
Will use the fixed gear for at least the first few flights to dial her in, then fly her without as a hand-launcher/belly lander.

It was a toss up between the F-16 and the PT-17, but $199 for a relatively simple plane is just too much IMO.

Let us know how you like the A5!

I'm not as good as this guy but here's what the F-16 can do in expert hands:
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAbBcRA5esU[/ame]

 

As an FChat public service announcement, it has been confirmed that the Icon A5 box was apparently custom measured for the luggage compartment of an F355.

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heh, like it was made for that!
Take a sharpie and write "Schedoni" on it
Have you had her up yet?

Yesterday was gorgeous weather and finally got the Lightning's replacement motors so had both twins at the field at the same time. Really fun to go back and forth between the F-82 and P-38; similarly wide and forgiving flight envelope but quite different ground handling.
The F-16 is neat. Flipped on elevator thrust vectoring during the second flight for a couple backflips, maybe next time will also activate the rudder TV for flat spins.
Between 95F ambient and heavy motor draw it's hard on batteries though. Have to make a few cooling holes in the nose to get some air through there.
BTW a good trick if you're outside when it's super hot: keep a synthetic shammy in your cooler, wring it out 1/2 way wrap around your neck. It's like AC for the body. I had to take it off after ~30 minutes because I was TOO cool. Will wet your shirt and keep you cool for a while.
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Those are some really neat planes. The F-16 must've very fun. I was at Balboa park the other day. They have an airfield there. I am not sure what kind of jet it was due to its distance, but man did it sound awesome. It was like listening to a scaled down fighter jet.

 

thanks!
Electric EDF jets have come a long way. The F-16 has a 6 bladed 70mm fan spinning at something like 50k rpm at WOT. Puts out around 1.3kg of thrust on a fresh 16.8V battery, or just about 1:1 T:W. Guys running higher voltage packs and bigger diamteter fans can top 200mph with 10kg+ of thrust but those airframes are carbon fiber and fiberglass not EPS foam (reinforced with CF) like my F-16.

The green and white gas turbine jet in the pic with my F-82 topped out at around 250mph and has a smoke system that costs ~$12 just in fluid for one flight's worth of intermittent smoke use. Like you said when it screamed by at WOT it really did sound and look like a real plane, going so fast the exhaust roar trailed behind it 100' or so.

Besides the monetary investment (~$5k+++ for a ready to fly a gas turbine jet) they're a whole nother level of maintenance, storage size, transport logistics etc vs. my smaller foam electrics. The turbine needs to be sent back to the factory every 25 hours for rebuild, pneumatic system for retracts must be checked every time, redundant radio systems and electronics, etc etc. Nice if you have the money and time, but I don't so will stick with my little guys.

 

Just hearing the sound of that thing sounds worth every penny
Love the P-38 too.

 

thanks, the Lightning is looking a little rough around the edges but will always be my favorite.

Here's one that doesn't look like the most relaxing plane to fly but someone put a good amount of time and money into it
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u44eSAd3ngc]16ft. DO X1a at the HORIZON AIR MEET 2014 - YouTube[/ame]

 

That's pretty awesome. That thing is huge. it's like a flying Fiat. lol