Inevitibility

Like most motorcycle riders may know…it’s not if you crash, it’s when.

Well, the same goes for radio control…and it happened this weekend.

The air was warm, the wind calm, and I was in a great mood.

I took off, flew around and generally had some good fun. I decided to bring it in for a touch and go then the wind decided to play a game and before I knew it I was in a tailwind with barely any airspeed.

I’ve flown here at my father-in-laws on quite a few occasions. Every time, I’ve given myself plenty of room to land incase of an abort. Well, this time the tailwind pushed me further down the field than I wanted to go and the engine quit. All at the same time.

Near the end of the landing area, is a small brush pile. You know, the country-style burning brush pile.

I found out that the plane is much less sturdy than it looks.

It may only look like a broken wind and landing gear, but it was also the wing braces, the fuselage-wing mounting pads, and the entire tail. All broken, and ready for the trash.

A more experienced flyer/builder may have been able to salvage this plane, but I cannot.

The good thing, it that the engine and electronics are perfectly sound and work just fine. A basic ARF kit plane is going to set me back from $100 to $300, but all I have to do it put it together and start flying.

Moar Pics…

The latest addition!!!

For now, this is a placeholder. Mine was assembled, and once I was ready to get the pitch ranges knocked out and blades tracked, I found that the motor is shorting out…NOT GOOD!

When I bought it, it was pre-assembled, but only for a display. I had to reverse some stuff, and stall a few small things, and adjust the head. I got everything ready, and once I finally finred it up, the motor started glitching. I dropped it back to a 3-cell battery (this one is a 6-cell…22v system) and tried a different motor. Works fine. ramped it back up to the 6-cell system and the motor still worked. The stock motor was fried, so I contacted my buddy and the new motor should be here on Tuesday, then I’ll be in the air.

The specs on this pony are:

• Length: 620mm
• Height : 210mm including head button
• Main Rotor Diameter: 775mm
• Tail Rotor Diameter: 157mm
• Blade Length: 350mm
• Main Gear: 150T
• Auto Rotation: 106T
• Tail Drive Gear: 25T
• Pinion Gear: 11T
• Flying Weight 780-850 Grams
• Black plastic tail blades
• White fiberglass 350mm main blades (Rotortech 350mm shown in pic are in storage)
• Painted fiberglass canopy (Different than the above pic)
• Black G10 fiberglass frame and landing gear and fin set

The motor included is the Outrage 1700kV upgrade, and a HobbyWing Pentium 40A. Nice high capacity ESC, even though the max amp draw is around 20A.

Mine has Hitec HS-65MG servos on the cyclic, and a S9157 digital on the tail with the new ATV-enabled heading hold Telebee/Zoom gyro. So far, I’ve got the gyro set up to avoid drifing, and regardless of the temperature it has yet to drift. Looks like my old one is going to be replaced.

It also included a new charger for the 6-cell battery…Maxpro X6. Instead of charging through the balance connectors, it charges through the main Deans, and uses the balances for monitoring. It’s not a fully automatic system. It can detect how many cells it is, but you have to manually put what type and the capacity. The good thing though, is that it can do LiPo, Li-Ion, Ni-MH, Ni-Cd, and Lead (car batteries). It works on all of them.

Now, I just need to get that motor in and start having some fun.

Such a sad thing…

It pains me to see such a nice model trashed….

Last flight

Well, today was the date of my last flight. More precisely, the last flight at my home airfield.

I learned how to fly at this airfield. Starting with helis, I really only brought it to the field on the weekends, but flew everyday behind my house so I never really got to meet most folks. Only when I got the trainer from Jason did I really start learning the names of everyone.

After learning to fly with the help of Jason and Dale, I eventually pushed the trainer to its limits. Jason offered to take the trainer back and give me his soon-to-be-retired Big Stik. I took him up on it and now I’m flying like everyone else.

I learned to fly at this field. It’s my home field. It will always be my home field.

Good thing it’s only 5 hours away. 3-day weekends and IMAC will be fun next year.

A bigger stick

Yes, I have a new airplane. I never got around to taking pictures of the trainer, but it was a fun plane to fly. It seems, though, that I learn fun things a bit quicker than others.

I was able to solo fly on my second day, and was starting to fly inverted on my second weekend. This weekend, I was doing inverted flight, knife-edge flight, and small hovers…something most folks don’t think a trainer can do. It wasn’t easy, but it was possible.

During my last Saturday flight, Jason (the guy from whom I bought my trainer) was talking to the guys about my fast learning. He hinted at the possibility of swapping his BigStik for the trainer. He would be getting his trainer back (for the kids) and I would be taking the next logical step up…the BigStik. After I landed, he brought up the idea to me, and we agreed. As of last night, I was a beginner/intermediate pilot!

This morning I took it out at 730 before the winds picked up, and flew it around. A small bit of trim here and there, then hands-off flying. Perfect trim. More rolls, loops, inverted, knife-edge, and even some high-speed low-altitude passes. Such a FUN airplane.

Now it was time for landing. I wasn’t sure how it was going to react. I started to bring it in. It slowed down MUCH easier than the Nexstar, and flew just a slowly. Right on the runway. First landing with the Stik and it was right on. Same for the next 3 flights. I love this plane!

On another note, as a WoW player, I found this:

I thought it was funny. Kind of nerdy, but funny.

As of right now, I have 10 days, 21 hours, 25 minutes, and 32 seconds until I leave for Oklahoma. Give me another 5 hours and I’ll be with my family. Lisa and Anthony left on the 30th of October to get a head start up there, but it seems like they just left and we still have forever to go. less than two weeks is the reality…2 years is what it feels like.

First real flight!!!

Today I had my first REAL flight of an R/C airplane.

Today was our R/C club’s fun-fly and swap-meet. It started about 8:30 this morning, and ended around 6pm. After my earlier post about wanting to go into airplanes, I jumped on an offered deal and bought my first airplane. It is a Hobbico Nexstar 46. The wingspan is around 6 feet, and it’s about 5 feet long…maybe less. It didn’t come with a receiver, so I pulled the one from my helicopter.

The first flight was a little weird. I was trying to get used to the aircraft, get it trimmed out…basically getting a feel for it. The person I bought it from stayed in control using the main transmitter and I was on a buddy box. He can hold a switch to let me control it, but if he senses anything wrong he can take control immediately.

My second flight was fun. One of our main club members was on the main transmitter, and he only controlled it during take-off and landing. I did do a few mock landings to get used to where to turn, how to manage the throttle, but I got uncomfortable after the third try so he landed it for me.

On my last flight, my trainer was confident enought to let me take off on my own, and after about 10 minutes I started the landing tries. He told me to go further out so that I had more time to line up and get my speed down. After my third try, I landed it. ALL BY MYSELF….from take off to landing…all mine! I think I know what WIlbur and Orville Wright felt when they flew for the first time. EXHILARATING!!!

Obviously I’m still new to the whole airplane-flying thing, but I’m sure after a few more flights on a buddy box, I’ll be good to go without it.

Now I just need to get my own support box (charger and starter) and fuel.

A new addition on the way?

This weekend, I had some time to think.

When most folks think about R/C flight, what do they think of? Airplanes! If most folks think about airplanes, then why did I start with helicopters?

The story of my start in R/C was posted a while ago. The short story…a 2-channel Christmas present for my son led to my now-third heli sitting on the shelf. I can hover it just fine as long as the tail is pointing to me, and every once in a while I feel comfortable taking it for side-to-side flight…which ended in a crash last time I did it. While I was waiting on my latest heli to arrive, I basically spent my time watching the airplane pilots (95% of our club) fly around and have fun. When my heli showed up, I worked to get the tail to work right and even now it still doesn’t work right. Anyway…back to the point…

While I was watching them fly, I decided to come home and try flying planes. Well…last night I spent 4 hours…with no crashes!

There are times when I wished that I’d started with airplanes, and times when I absolutely LOVE flying the heli…but right now isn’t one of those times. I think it was because my last heli was set up damn-near perfect. The only problem was the crappy battery that I wasn’t aware of its fault until after the crash. The new one is good and has TONS of power, but the tail…I know…upgrade the servo and gyro to fix that. There’s also a vibration in the tail (or head) that I can’t get rid of, and it causes the tail servo link and boom supports to vibrate…anyway…back to the point again…Right now isn’t one of those times when I want to fly the heli.

A friend at the club flies both helis and planks (nickname for airplanes because the wings used to be made from a plank of wood), and he just got a new plane…a Turbine Ugly Stik. (Look up Das Ugly Stik to see the basic design). When I first met him, he was flying his helis around, then one weekend I saw him with his Ugly Stik. I asked where his heli was and he replied, “Sometimes I just fly my Stiks because the heli takes too much concentration, and I lose the fun.” Lose the fun? How could you NOT have fun flying a heli? …now I know.

Flying the heli takes so much concentration. You have to keep it in line up/down, left/right, and forward/back…as well as the tail. 4 things to keep track of, and any minor distraction can cause it to go anywhere…like balancing a marble on the bottom of a bowl. When I’m flying my heli, I can’t keep a conversation or look away for anything. 5-7 minutes of pure concentration…even when hovering.

When I’ve been on the sim, the airplane goes. I don’t use the rudder, and I only have to worry about rolling, and elevation. Thats it. Kind of a set-it-and-forget-it thing. I can look away for a second or two. I can talk when I’m not turning. I can relax a small bit. Plus, with an airplane I can do loops and rolls using one movement each (with the heli, I use all 4 for ANY movement) and they’re the basic tricks…something I can’t even do on my heli after 9 months of flying.

On the sim, I can do whatever I want with the heli, but it usually results in a crash. Airplane…take off, fly around, do a couple of tricks, and then land it. The only reason I’ve crashed a plane in the sim is because I can’t see the ground and there is no depth perception…something remedied immediately at the field.

So in 9 months, all I can do it hover with the helicopter, and less than 1 week on the sim with a trainer I’m able to take off, fly around, do a couple of tricks and land it. I know it’s a simulator, but this plane, a Hobbico Nexstar, was designed and tested for the simulator. The actual trainer comes with a lite version of the sim that has the plane because it acts so realistically. So, hopefully when my next job is steady, I should be able to buy the actual trainer and fly it easily.

At least I’ve got the 2 nearest fields marked on Google Earth until then.

Warning: This is not a toy!

OK…so I’m flying my heli out back, and doing just fine. Some kid decides to come up and get real close to get a better look. I decided he was a little too close and I pulled it up and away from him. While it’s up there he starts to come ask me questions about why I pulled it away…he was trying to look.

Yeah…another person that doesn’t realize how dangerous this is. How this is not a toy. I’ve flown this thing around for a while, but never had someone come up like that. “Oooh…what is this? Let’s touch it!” Touch it, and have a finger torn off!

The rotor head on my current heli spins at around 2750rpm on average. 775mm rotor diameter (30.51″). That puts the tip of the blades spinning at around 249mph! Now…these aren’t wooden blades. These are carbon fiber blades with a safety wire in the core that prevents the blades from being thrown off in case of a crash. A 1/32 piece of wire traveling at 249mph. Think that won’t take a finger off, or fracture a bone? Think again!

Most folks that happen to walk by think it’s a toy. Sorry, but they’re only toys when you run thru the yard with your heli over your head making rotor sounds! My son summed it up best, they ARE real, just smaller!

Anything that can draw blood, burn skin, break bones, explode, propel itself at speeds faster than you can run away from it, leave the ground on it’s own power or compel you to carry liability insurance on it cannot be considered a toy! Well, it can, but shouldn’t.

They say that a difference between a man and a boy, is the size of his toys. In that case, my truck is a toy. My motorcycle is a toy. My neighbors boat is a toy. And they can kill. Just because some folks think it’s a toy, doesn’t mean it is.

Updates

Well, the time is close at hand. As of tonight, I am 57 days from my final-out of the Air Force. On November 21st, I will be on my first day of terminal leave, and actively searching a job in the OKC area. For now though, I’ve just been relaxing, enjoying work, and having fun at the r/c air field on the weekends. I’ve also been working on my resume, preparing my master application list, and list of references, but I’ve got everything ready just in case.

We’ve already gone through most of our junk and packed up what was needed (DVDs, games, books, etc.) The rest can be done by the movers. I didn’t realize that we had so much crap. LOL

Oh…word to those who don’t know… A voluntary separation from the military DOES NOT grant you 20 days of house-hunting. A retirement, involuntary separation (ie. kicked out) and a medical separation do. Something about how it’s my choice to separate, why should they give me 20 days to search for a new house and job. Asses.

Anthony has been doing good in the 1st grade. Bringing home homework like counting, reading, and drawing pictures of places he could meet friends, what his mommy and daddy do, and people he likes. He’s actually writing small sentences now too. :)

Lisa has put in her notice, and will be taking 2 weeks off at the end of October/first of November to pack everything and head up to Oklahoma with Anthony. She’ll complete her transfer when she gets up there and should have money rolling quite nicely by the time I get there 2 weeks later. In the meantime, I’ll be finishing the final paperwork, supervising the packing/pick up, and paying the final bills.

The new heli is quite nice! I had a bad 3-cell battery so I was using my underpowered ones until my new one came in. I puffed one to the edge of existence and thought I’d lost it, but the next morning it was back down to normal and charging nicely. Good thing they are only my test batteries now. The could never get the crappy stock wooden blades tracking correctly because the grip ends weren’t even, so I’ve got new Rotortech 350mm blades on order. Should be here tomorrow and this weekend will be a BLAST!