59 year old newbie - adding more planes

mayan

Legendary member
I think I have a bad servo. Am I correct?:(
You are right about that!

Get some hobby plywood. Or go to the dollar store and look around the craft section for pieces of thin plywood turned into paintable decorations or whatever. Got me in the air without having to wait a month (I'm in Canada) for my next FT order to arrive. A sharp knife, a drill and some sandpaper and you're good to go. That firewall is still on the plane and working well.
Works great for me, I can't order FT stuff shipping would be the over kill here, so this is what I do and it works great.
 

Jimun

Elite member
Had to repair a broken connector wire on my motor. Looks more spare parts to consider having around.
2579418A-8781-4724-98E3-D58AAAAE887F.jpeg

Trying to get ready to fly again. Waiting for my Flite test order, the mini firewalls are on back order:( and they hold the order till complete. I thinking of cancelling the firewalls so my order will ship. I know I could make my own but my tools are for bigger things. I would have to get smaller saws to cut small parts like this.
What kind of tools have you guys use for making the mini firewalls?
 
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Hoomi

Master member
Have you considered a camera on your plane for some of your flight videos? I use one of these for most of my flight videos, attaching the camera to the plane with some Velcro. They're lightweight, have a small frontal profile, inexpensive, and take pretty decent video for something so cheap. Plus, with the low cost, I'm not worried about the financial hit if something happens to it (though, using one for over a year, and I've never had an issue).

Keychain Camera

Here's one of my in-flight videos taken with one:

Air Hooterville, Flight 2
 

Jimun

Elite member
I have to help get the house ready for my wife's parents that are visiting in the next couple of weeks. So as I am waiting for my order from Flite Test with the servos I need to repair my TT I think I will build my FT Explorer and Simple Cub speed build kits I got for Christmas. Then I will have 3 planes to take out. But I do want to get more practice in with the TT before flying these. But I will have a back up to try if the TT becomes unflyable (I don't know if this is a real word):p when I am out flying. The weather got real warm today and it brought a good stiff wind with it. Hoping to fly this weekend but don't know if it is going to happen.:(
 

Jimun

Elite member
Have you considered a camera on your plane for some of your flight videos? I use one of these for most of my flight videos, attaching the camera to the plane with some Velcro. They're lightweight, have a small frontal profile, inexpensive, and take pretty decent video for something so cheap. Plus, with the low cost, I'm not worried about the financial hit if something happens to it (though, using one for over a year, and I've never had an issue).

Keychain Camera

Here's one of my in-flight videos taken with one:

Air Hooterville, Flight 2
I haven't really thought about that yet but it looks like a good idea. I think as I get to flying more stable I will give it a try. On your video it looked real good and clear. Thanks for the idea:)
 

Jimun

Elite member
2 noses cut out, waiting for my glue sticks to come today - trying out the Gorilla glue sticks. Firewalls are do in Monday and my servos on Wednesday :D

tt 2 noses.jpeg


Also painted the tops of my wings with some leftover paint from when I built a teardrop trailer

TT Painted wings.jpg


I am getting ready :pi
 
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Jimun

Elite member
Something wrong in this picture?
somrthing-wrong.JPG


Now I need to Check my Crap before I glue:ROFLMAO: Darn darn darn. Oh well I got 1 right.

Painted nose.JPG


Here is what it will look like altogether

Painted.JPG


I was thinking of leaving the fuselage white as well as the bottom of the wings. But now I don't know:unsure:
 

buzzbomb

I know nothing!
Something wrong in this picture?
View attachment 129629

Now I need to Check my Crap before I glue:ROFLMAO: Darn darn darn. Oh well I got 1 right.

View attachment 129630

Here is what it will look like altogether

View attachment 129631

I was thinking of leaving the fuselage white as well as the bottom of the wings. But now I don't know:unsure:

Ha, ha, that's an oops! I did that with a power pod. A-fold on side and B on the other. Doh! It looks like your getting some nice coverage with the paint. For me lighter colors are better. I seem to be able to see the plane better against the sky when it's white than with the brown foamboard. Either way, she's looking good!
 

only1bobert

Active member
Wing repair after first time out. A little glue more tape.


Repaired wing after 2nd time out when I hit the chain link fence.


And the nose after a hard day

I think this is quite common as a newbie myself with the wings, I crashed mine into a soccer goal post and ripped the wing on my storch. I also have a sport cub S which both wings ripped when I crashed it as well. Mind you that the sport cub weighs less than a small paperback and it still managed to obtain damage from a tiny crash. If your wing is gonna rip it'll be down the line to the next cut line like a flap or aileron in my experience at least. A little glue and some packing tape had me fixed. I also began to notice my flaperons looked off center. Turned out to be the back piece between them (note the Popsicle stick for reference had bent in the crash when the wing got pushed back. I put a piece of paint stirrer to reinforce that area. The dowel on the front as well was because the rubber bands were digging in pre crash so I added them. Always be sure to re check your CG after gluing because glue adds weight. So far I haven't had any failures from sticks being backwards, I almost did when I changed to an orange to play around because both rudder and elevator were backwards but caught this on inspection before she left the bench. I have remember this by using the following looking from the back of the plane. Right aileron stick makes the right aileron go up, right rudder stick makes the rudder go right and down on the stick gives you up elevator. I limit it to those three because the opposite travel is a given if they're right. A few minutes on the bench checking this any time you work on the bird can save a huge headache on the field. And remember, whenever its on the bench with power take off the prop or at least have your kill switch engaged and double check before beginning work.

Storch right after the crash into a pole nearly hitting the fuselage but instead the front of wing at the joint took the hit. You can see it crushed the front edge. The flap looks up but its actually the middle piece creased and bent down I put a paint stick under it.
IMG_1190.JPG

Popsicle stick to reinforce the contact area. The crack was filled with glue and then covered in tape to reinforce.
IMG_1194.JPEG
You can see here again the back area where the rubber bands are creased down and folded under making the flaps look like they are up. I found this on my second time working on this. Before flying again.
IMG_1195.JPEG
 

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Jimun

Elite member
TT Painted and ready to go

TT Painted and Ready to go.jpg


Power Pod ready with Acrylic Firewall Provided by @buzzbomb to try out.

TT Power pod with Acrylic Firewall.jpg


Also have a backup power pod with motor ready to go. Could not get out today, I am going to try to get out there tomorrow morning and hopefully the winds are calm. The winds are 15 mph right now forecast cast 10 to 15 tomorrow. It was down to 4 mph today.

Thanks again @buzzbomb and @sundown57 I will let you know how it works out.

Also picked up a 5 n 1 battery checker and I am learning how to use it. I was able to center my servos with it. I will use the balancer and discharge functions after I go flying. I did not realize I needed a different battery to hook up and use the servo testing function, something to think about if you are going to use this type of battery checker to test and center servos.