basslord1124 RC flight and Flitetest journey/diary - Perkyplanes & RC

[basslord1124]

Well getting towards the end of my isolation period and CoVid. I actually feel ok...even went out and cut the grass today. Wife is still having it rough...more fatigue than anything else. I'm hoping that will go away in the next day or 2.

Well here recently I fired up the glow engine (Supertigre) on my Carl Goldberg Wild Stick...posted a video on it as well:

https://forum.flitetest.com/index.p...ick-120-restoration-project.66268/post-721118

This is the first time I have started and ran a glow engine. The first plane I had when I was a teen had a glow engine, but my dad was the run who ran the engine for me while I manned the throttle. So it was pretty exciting to do it myself. Overall it was a neat and fun experience. And since I am over the hurdle that I can start one, now comes the challenge of tuning it. I should also mention that this plane has the biggest prop I have ever used...it uses a 16" prop!

It's kind of a flip to go from electric power to glow power. I know it seems electric is becoming more and more common, and that glow is on the way out. When I got this plane (and another glow one as well), I just decided I was going to try and keep them stock and give glow/nitro a try. At this point, I'm not really partial to the form of power I use. To me, it's all good. I also kind of think as hobbyists we should be well rounded and try some out new (or old) things.

Well something else came about recently that might be shocking to some. As I was going through my collection of planes in my building and seeing all the FT models, I thought to myself: "Wow, I have a lot of these, I should downsize or trash some of them." Noticed all kinds of past projects that were successful, not successful, could be successful, and everything in between. It was kinda overwhelming....I became a mad builder. So in a little bit of a state of confusion on what to do with some of these old projects.

Well that's all from for this time. Hope all is well with everyone else. Stay safe!

 

[basslord1124]

New video... more building/vlog style stuff this time.

Yeah due to Covid and other things, just didn't really get to do a whole lot. Hoping that June will be a better month for things. I will say, I am reaching a decent comfort level with Taranis/OpenTx. So I've got programming planes down pretty good...and I know some here are so used to Taranis/OpenTx radios and I'm basically a n00b even though I've been flying a while lol. Darn Spektrum!

Something else I touch on in the video is making the changes to build/design some sort of RC plane rack/storage system. Plan on mounting the planes in the upper parts/ceiling of the building. I have been very intrigued by the PVC options and hope to create some sort of PVC storage setup. There has been some difficulty and confusion with that as the upper parts of the building's ceiling are at a much steeper angle than the lower sections. BUT I have been given some other suggestions (pulley system) that may help with that.

 

[basslord1124]

Posted this in another thread, but I crashed the FT Seaduck. First flights of the year after a long hiatus. Happened to fly right in the sun and lost visual but I am think it went inverted before I had a chance to respond. It was a little bit gusty that day too, so I think that may have played a factor.

 

[basslord1124]

New video... recorded the same day of the Duck crash:

Not the typical foamboard plane flying, but still RC. With the 10mph wind gusts, it made flying this little drone tricky, so I figured to make it a good practice to try and keep it as steady as I could. I hadn't flown any drones in a while either. Kinda thinking I should've warmed up with it before flying the Duck, but oh well.

Life in the building is going pretty good. About finished with the main parts of insulation I was wanting to add. I will be getting a "new to me" workbench here in the coming weeks/month or so. Currently I am using 2 x 4 foot tables sandwiched together. The new one will be L shaped mostly all one piece. I have also taken the plunge into a little bit of plane organization:

Have seen many people making plane racks out of PVC. Seems like I have always avoided it or did something else...until now. This is probably a different type of PVC rack than what others build, but I think this type of setup should work well for my situation. The plan is to build 2 other racks next to this one...only difference is the next 2 racks will be able to hold 4 planes each.

Aside from that, nothing much else going on. Hope everyone out there is staying safe.

 

[basslord1124]

Couple new videos, first on the Wild Stick...

Overall, while I hate the setbacks with the Wild Stick, I feel like it'll be rewarding in the end. To be able to run and tune a glow engine properly, or as best as I can. This is sort of a dying art and I'd like to at least try experience it for a little bit. Plan on running the SuperTigre engine on a test mount so I can run it, tune it, and learn basically. Not sure how long it'll take, but I'll take as long as I need.

And the latest video....while I continue to work on the SuperTigre engine, I figured I'd drag this thing out. So I'm finally featuring this thing even though I have had it for a while.

Figured it'll give me something to have some fun with in the mean time.

 

[basslord1124]

Some more video updates....

Yes I have literally dropped Diet Mountain Dew...and now I'm drinking coffee and water mainly. I used to be very anti-coffee and my how things have changed. Also, my first attempts at building a PVC rack for plane storage.


Latest video of this round...I have just came to the conclusion I have too many unfinished plane projects. Also talking about RC clubs, AMA, communities, etc.

 

[basslord1124]

A successful flight!. Here is a maiden flight of my E-Flite T28 using a Taranis/FrSky radio setup and 3S 2200Mah battery.

 

[basslord1124]

Latest video:

 

[basslord1124]

New video:

Life is going fine here. I feel the bug for me has returned full force and projects are starting to take off and hopefully this means planes will be taking off too. Wish the timing was better though b/c now it's getting freaking cold! Ughh. Corsair's been a big focus. Plane was about 75% done, so catching up on the last bits. Aiming to get a maiden as soon as I am able to.

After that, not sure which plane will be next.

This past weekend was the Fall Fun Fly at my RC Club...Fri and Sat. Had to work Fri but made it out for most of the event on Saturday. It was fun! I brought my Syma drone, Bloody Baron, and T28. The highlight was one of our club members brought his paramotor and actually took off from the airfield. Did a few laps around and landed. It was neat. Hadn't ever been that close to one of those.

Aside from that, not much else going on...just resting after yesterday's fun fly.

 

[basslord1124]

New video is up....

Starting a Q&A on my channel for this year. Video is up to ask your questions and I'll answer them in the coming weeks. Deadline for questions is Halloween. You can post a question on the video itself or go to my channel's Facebook page and comment on the Q&A video post. You can ask me RC questions or personal ones.

Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/perkyplanesrc

 

[basslord1124]

Thought I'd pop back in and share some video updates since I haven't updated for a while. Some fun and laughter and probably plenty of boring too lol. Hope everyone out there has a happy and safe New Years holiday.

Highlights from my RC field's October fun fly

Q&A 2022 Answers Revealed

Flying in the winter time

Merry Christmas...and I ended up in the hospital

 

[basslord1124]

Been a while since I have posted anything although I have popped in from time to time just to sort of be a "lurker" lol.

I have been somewhat active on my youtube channel so if anyone has ventured over there I still post things on there.

Here are some highlights from my YT channel:

And speaking of youtube and the social media side of things, I have actually just recently started a new venture....

Podcasts

I had been pondering for a while that my videos were all chat and not much else. Life changes, some hobby changes, etc and I just felt like I was at a standstill. And yet I still felt this pressure within myself to keep churning out videos....even if they were chats. Sooooo....that's part of the reason I decided to give podcasts a try. I figured at this point, I will post videos only when I have some sort of action or just something to show. And then save the podcasts for the chats. I'm thinking (and hoping) that this will be a better format to use.

Here's a link to the podcast for anyone wanting to check it out:

Perkyplanes & RC Podcast | a podcast by Chris

An accompanying podcast to go along with the Perkyplanes & RC youtube channel and Facebook group.

perkyplanesrc.podbean.com

I look at myself in the early days of RC and how I am now and lets just life has just gotten much busier. I don't get out and fly most everyday like I did in the early days. Nowadays, it's more like once or twice a month. If it's not a busy work day, it's a busy home life.

I came to a realization with me and the hobby. I felt like I looked for reasons to get more planes and not fly them. Or just look for a new venture/project to do. Of course, I think many of us get addicted to having many planes. I'm gonna try and get back to flying more in 2023. I have been firing up the simulator a lot here recently to sort of warm my skills back up. Get outta my comfort zone a little bit and try some more advanced maneuvers....maybe not 3D, but just something more than basic flying. I tended to be one of those pilots who just did more scale like flying and just cruised along.Going to try and get away from that some...inverted, rolls, knife edge, just whatever I can try and tackle. And as the weather gets warmer, I want to get out and fly more. Just gonna focus on a small handful of planes at first then add on as time goes. Try and work extensively on the small handful at first. I have enough planes lol. And if I don't get to a certain plane just yet, I'll eventually get to it.

I bought a new action cam to go with my progress....RunCam 4K. Had to retire my old Polaroid Cube cam as the battery quit holding a charge.

I had also switched radios. My progress was from Spektrum (DX6)...next was FrSky Taranis X9D...NOW, it is a Radiomaster TX16S. Super happy with the Radiomaster and it's versatile with the multi-protocol feature. So far, most of my receivers are FrSky/ACCST. The radio switch sort of slowed me down as well. But now that I have it and have gotten familiar with it, I feel it's about time to get out and rock again!

Well that sums up things pretty well. Hoping for a successful 2023 year of flight and hoping to learn some new things and get out of my comfort zone. Not sure how and when I will post back here again....but I'll try to always post on youtube and now my podcast. Hope everyone out there is doing well.

 

[basslord1124]

Well it has been a while and thought I'd pop back in for a few. Flitetest has been on my mind a little bit.

Mainly b/c I actually went to Flitefest 2024 this year. Been wanting to do Flitefest for many years but it seems like there was always some sort of road block that prevented me from going...Covid, life/family emergencies, etc. Had a great time at Flitefest and the whole family crew went with me...well except the dog. My wife and daughter both went. My wife tried to enjoy herself but I think the heat was pretty unbearable for her. It was a hot one...averaging low-mid 90's during the day. My daughter, I think, enjoyed herself more than my wife. We even got my daughter to do one of the builds in the STEM tent. And to our surprise the build we were doing didn't even require a hot glue gun to build! She enjoyed making it and enjoyed watching folks fly their planes. As for me, one of my big things I wanted to do is combat....so I participated in 1 of the combat sessions and had a blast.

Due to the intense heat we didn't stay super long at FF unfortunately. We drove up and stayed in a local hotel. We probably enjoyed a total of about 1-1.5 days at the event. On the other days we did a little bit of sight seeing around the area.

I didn't pack super heavy for the event. I packed my old Bloody Baron, an FT Tutor, and a Tiny Trainer kit. I first off intended to use the Tutor for combat. Bloody Baron was my backup for the Tutor and the Tiny Trainer was my backup if everything else was destroyed. Ended up only using/needing the Tutor. Didn't have to use the Baron and TT. And honestly my Tutor survived combat...had some very close calls, she lasted until I lost control towards the end. Damage was minimal. So I guess that means I'm saving it for the next Flitefest.

I did capture some video footage from Flitefest. The first one is just some general highlights of the event, and the 2nd one is sort of like an FPV of my Tutor plane during combat (recorded it using a Runcam 4K attached to the plane)

I've been quiet with the podcast as of late, but I am thinking of adding a Flitefest 2024 podcast episode.

Overall Flitefest was a blast and I would definitely go back.

Outside of that, I've been working on my other projects. My youtube channel sort of speaks for itself what i've been working on. If I'm not out at the field flying a foamie (a few of my go to Eflite foamies) then I'm in my building working one of my many balsa projects. The balsa bug has really hit me hard. AND I am accumulating even more glow engines. I've been tackling things that very new to me with balsa projects...applying/removing monokote and ultracote, doing the technique of fiberglassing, etc. So kinda doing some old school type of stuff. Some of which I have gotten decent at....and other things I'm still trying. Hey as long as I'm learning right?

Well, that is all from me for now. Hope everybody out there is doing well.