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

Vimana89

Legendary member
Great vid! If you do have any random ideas floating around for a custom design some time feel free to shoot them by me, I'm still not a Jedi in aerodynamics but I've given myself a crash course in custom design and I'd say more of my designs are successful than not. I know what the process is like, and if I don't know something someone else will. My advice when you get to that point? Start with something you can draw up with a ruler and straight edge, that employs simple techniques and doesn't consume a huge amount of time or foam.
 

Ihichi Bolls

Well-known member
Awesome video, you did a great job!!
You're a killer bass player, I feel like we should start a FT band. We'll have you on bass, me and @Ihichi Bolls on guitar, and will give @FlyingMonkey some caffeine and a broomstick, now we just need someone for vocals:unsure:

Good luck with the ShrubSmacker!!

Funny you say that Grif. I was gonna poke @basslord1124 with a stick for a side project after seeing him rip Carry on my Wayward Son a while ago just before my phone got hacked. I been sorting all that out and just getting back to semi normal. Ill be reactivating my Psyborg account here in a few minutes as I see FM has unlocked it for me again.

@basslord1124 Im sorry you are having a hard time IRL mate. Its hard enough by myself keeping normal life in order. Having a family to support and keep safe and well is much tougher. I am just getting back around to catching up on things as I have now got back on real internet and not that pos cellphone. I may just have to have a good day where I can attach it to one of my quads punch out to the moon and release it over a hard paved parking lot while free falling inverted next to it to see it off properly.

Anyways been peek in on this thread here and there but now will be back more regularly. Well done on the 100th video shows as well as growing the channel. When I saw Stacy Abshire reply with a question I was like.. Wow brothers doing well to pull interest from someone of Stacys caliber in the rc world. Good on ya mate. Well done.

We probably should get together and bump heads on a collaboration project. I am working on redoing a cover of Sammy Hagar's "I Cant Drive 55" as my channels theme song. Have a video in mind and everything already. It hit me the other night to write Sammy and ask permission by telling him about the project and maybe sheepishly ask if it be ok he did the vocals to get me some real street cred hehehe
 

basslord1124

Master member
Thanks for the replies guys! ;)

@BATTLEAXE ...thanks man! It was a fun video to make but an absolute pain in the you know what to edit. I ramble on sometimes and repeat things...plus cutting out any time I would have to cough/clear my throat.

@Grifflyer ...I'm all for collab online music projects so I'm game anytime wants to do a little something. I was actually without a bass amp there for a little while as I was downsizing. Went from a 100lb+ rig to a 30lb rig. The new amp isn't as powerful as my old one, but still should be able to handle mainly what I do. Plus it's easier to tote around. ;) Thanks on the Shrubsmacker...debating on flaps or flaperons for it. And actually I've got a Bushwacker kit too.

@Vimana89 ... I'll keep you in mind. And yeah good idea with starting small. Yeah I think my biggest hurdle at this point for that is the computer software side of things. My stuff now would more than likely be paper drawn/sketch. Be kinda nice if I had a laser cutter too...but that's a long term dream at this point.

@Ihichi Bolls @PsyBorg ...things are definitely on the upswing now. This hobby is kind of my "release" from adult life, and lots of things of my adult life were consuming my time that I didn't devote much time to my release. Some of this I couldn't control, but looking back at it, there were some things I could've controlled too to allow myself that release time. But at this point, like I said, I'm on the upswing...I'm not much worried about it anymore. Just had a brief "crazy/hectic period" there, that's all.

I think an online music collab thing would be fun. I was pretty close to doing one with some other online friends, but it never even got off the ground. Like I said, I'm game anytime...bass playing definitely, and possible backing vocals if my sinuses are willing to behave. ;) Hagar is a cool cat and that's a cool song too.

Me doing well to get Stacy Abshire's attention...eh I just make goofy videos about my experience with Flitetest foamboard planes lol. It's more to do with me just being in the right area for that (and not really realizing it). I am pretty sure Stacy is kind of a local around here. Not 100% sure where but in one of the surrounding communities...never met the guy but would like to sometime as he is definitely great at what he does. I first noticed him through the RCSaylors channel...which they are locals too believe it or not (they are members at our RC field). Guess I'm just surrounded by RC greatness in this area. Our area is kind of a rural community anyways, so there's not a whole lot to do. But anyways, it seems Stacy and I just trade comments...I'll comment on his stuff sometimes, and he'll comment back. If I meet the great Abshire, would you like an autograph? ;):D
 

PsyBorg

Wake up! Time to fly!
Dont cut yourself short on what you do mate. Balancing family even without evolving issues beyond normal stuff is hard enough. The fact you are putting the effort to put yourself out there this day and age with all the keybd cowboys of hate that will rip on someone just for their fun is awesome. Not to mention You look a whole lot better then I would on camera hahaha.

As far as Stacy.. heck yeah Id take an autograph but would appreciate you point him in my direction so I can pick his brain on race setups so I can progress more.

The RC Saylors rock. they do a ton of work for products and marketing. Specially for new people. In fact I watched one of their vids last night about a p38 lightning that they absolutely ripped on. I have never seen them not be "encouraging" about a product so that one MUST be seriously wrecked outta the gate.

The hardest part about doing an online collaboration in music is it cant be done live and work. I tried it a few times back when I was a gamer dj for an internet radio based in England. Lag was a #$%#%$^ and trying to get in time was a fail of epic proportions. What has to happen is each person needs to have some kind of recording software that is at least compatible for export so someone in the group can merge the tracks into one piece.

Ive got the software and the skills to do the mixing. My playing is not the best as I am not trained other then being a monkey that tries to copy what I hear. But as far as tone and mixing I have a few skills. Being in and out of bands as well as doing sound mixing for other bands I learned a lot. I actually have a TON of live sound equipment I partnered with a friend on that has been sitting dormant far to long due to life circumstances.

It would have been used as income if I could move or lift most of it. As it is the effects rack alone is well over 300 lbs. At last count we had close to 10k watts in just power amps between mains and monitors and such.
 

basslord1124

Master member
HA thanks @PsyBorg ! Although I wouldn't say I'm that good looking for the camera. I might have looked good when I had my epic beard or something.

As for the Abshire...I will definitely see what I can do.

As for the Saylors...they truly are great people. What you see on the channel is basically what they are like in real life. With our crazy schedules it's tough to coordinate anything, but I have caught em at the field a handful of times. Ran in to them at Wal Mart one time too and we chatted RC for a bit. Sometimes I think they prefer flying and doing their channel stuff when no one's at the field. Which I can't say I would blame them. Wal Mart tends to be the place to run into folks from our RC field...I've ran into some other ones too. And yeah, I'm sure their channel is helping folks in the hobby with finding good deals and such. And unlike some other channels, they tend to share a not-always-positive view of DJI. Which DJI is nice....but definitely too much money.

What you described was how I pictured doing online collab. Live would be bad for the obvious lag you experienced. Basically one person lays down the main track, and then just overdub the other parts basically.
 

PsyBorg

Wake up! Time to fly!
Yeah I run Live 9 to do my recording. I been in and outta bands pretty much since I picked up my first set of drum sticks in the 70's Took a few years of lessons in school for that starting in 8th grade. Swapped over to guitar as lugging a set of double bass pearl drums with 8 toms and half a gazillion cymbals in the Navy was not in the cards. Took like a week of guitar lessons around 13 til I messed up my fingers on my right hand. Took two years of having my fingers broke and reset to save them. 37 breaks in one and 15 in the other. Killed any hopes of a career in baseball back in the day.

Everything else is nothing more then a monkey trying to copy what I THINK I hear. Years of smoking really took its toll on my ears early. I been focusing on retraining them since I moved in this apartment but its hard with limited play time and space. Before my neck surgery I was playing bass in a cover band and built up a nice PA system with a friend. If I had a place to set all that up I would be making an attempt at running a recording studio. Thats a rough gig now days with so much stuff that can be done on a home computer.

Here in the apartment I have my Peavy tx810 cabinet I rewired and disconnected the horn from to be 2 ohms in two channels of four speakers. At normal 16 ohm wiring it put a 30 foot crack in a basement when I got bored one night and hooked up a Crown CS4000 power amp to it hehehe. I use it as my guitar amp as you see in my crappy videos. That gets pushed by a 1983 crate 50 watt head minus the spring reverb I picked up in the Good will store the next town over for 30 bucks. On top of that sits my 1982 Peavy Mark IV 400 watt bass head I am scared to plug in here as at 2 ohms that would crack every wall in the building on the lowest of volumes as cheap as these buildings are. Specially with the 5 string low B. Which reminds me I should probably pull them out and give them a once over to make sure they are still in good shape.

Most of the time I just plug my Digitech RP500 processor into the Firewire 410 on my computer and goof around in headphones. I love the programming aspect and spend more time trying to reproduce a pro musicians guitar sounds then I do trying to learn their songs. I think I do better then most on that aspect.

I cant see why some guitarists use a few pedals for every song they play. They may play well but its so bland and generic sounding after 4 or 5 songs. I listen to old recordings when I was doing that and gag now but we all know Im a weirdo so thats all worth less then a cup a coffee.
 

basslord1124

Master member
Haven't really given a hobby update in a while...so here's a hobby update PLUS other things...

I'm nearing the final stages with the Edge. I have posted some of these updates over in the Edge thread.

https://forum.flitetest.com/index.php?threads/at-the-edge-of-the-world-we-meet.59425/

Basically the main things left are putting in some velcro for securing my battery, checking my CG/balance (which may more than likely result in me adding weight), check my prop clearance with the front cowl (still haven't done that yet!), charge up a battery, and go! I got the landing gear situation taken care of as well as getting my receiver secured. There are a few places that need some more paint, BUT I am not going to worry about that right now. If it survives the maiden it will get more detailing done. Hoping for a maiden by the end of this week or weekend. Also hoping for decent weather. We had seen a huge weather shift around here. One day the afternoon high was around 60, and by the evening they were predicting an overnight low in the 20's...it was crazy feeling the temperature drop throughout the day! Last night was our coldest night so far hitting 15 degrees. High today is supposed to be mid 30's. Oh, and we already got some snow too. I don't think anyone was expecting snow quite yet...maybe in another 3-4 weeks. The crazy weather has begun! For the maiden, I would prefer not anything much lower than mid 30's (I have a Tx glove) , very little wind, and I would accept old snow accumulation as a minimum. Don't want to be flying in a blizzard! I definitely would prefer better conditions but I suppose we shall see what ends up happening.

I really haven't touched any other planes at this point, not even the KFM Wing. After the Edge flight, I'll give it a go. Also got my Spit to finish up too.

Some other "non-hobby" related news... our pest problem is nearing the end so we are going to start getting back to our "crazy, wacky, & abnormal" normal lives. I see very little of the buggers now and when I do see them I kill them immediately. We had a deep clean done to the house too yesterday so I'm sure that helped for any stragglers. I didn't expect fleas to send us on this roller coaster ride...I've known folks who have had flea infestations, but never experienced one ourselves until over these past few months. It was hell plain and simple. And come to find out, around the same time my niece who lives 2-3 states over was battling flea infestation too. So anyways, the basic plan is that we will be gradually moving ourselves back to our home within a week or so. Also planning on having Thanksgiving at our home this year too. Didn't want to move abruptly as we had some appointments lined up already, plus gathering up our stuff, getting things back in order at the house, etc.

What this also means... is that once we get back in the house...I can resume back hot and heavy on foamboard airplane craziness without the worry of being attacked by fleas. :D I'll just have to pick up some things first before I can start.

And on the subject of the house, the wife is pretty well set (and I'm on the same page too), that we will probably be on the lookout for a new house in the coming year. Need something that is more single level. Make it easier on us and the little one.

Well that is pretty much all that is going on for now. At work now and will be going to the house on my lunch break to try and get a few things done. ;)
 

basslord1124

Master member
Just an FYI....getting back to posting videos again after a little break. This one's a more formal announcement of the FT Spitfire which I mentioned in my Q&A video.


I'll also be putting a video together about my FT Edge flight and what little footage I did get which I'll have out before long.

Also, since I have been bringing up some personal stuff, something I do wanna share that I haven't yet is health related stuff. I'll first start off with the latest news in that I recently had a sleep study done. Turns out I have severe sleep apnea. There were many times that I would quit breathing while sleeping. Scary stuff! :eek: I will be picking up a CPAP machine this week to help with this. The only other major thing that I deal with is high blood pressure which I take medication for that. I also deal with good ol sinuses and sinus drainage...which where I live, sinus issues are common. AND...I'm a big boy and need to lose weight too. Which it seems around the holidays is the worst time to try and lose it. I have lost weight in the past but I always seem to manage to gain it back...used to count fat grams/calories a loooooooong time ago and have also done low carb diets as well. But anyways, that's kinda the extent of me and my health.
 

basslord1124

Master member
Oh forgot to mention, that yes I did finally get the FT Edge in the air...for a few seconds at least. My camera goofed up so I didn't capture the flight on camera. I did end up crashing shortly after takeoff. Here's the Edge thread post and a link to the crash pics

Main flight post:
https://forum.flitetest.com/index.php?threads/at-the-edge-of-the-world-we-meet.59425/post-513637


Crash damage part:
https://forum.flitetest.com/index.php?threads/at-the-edge-of-the-world-we-meet.59425/post-513908

Despite the crash, I have such a huge sense of relief now. It's like a huge weight has been lifted or something. And the crash and all that didn't bother me. So I am figuring the next flight with it I won't be so worried. :)
 

basslord1124

Master member
Yeah I run Live 9 to do my recording. I been in and outta bands pretty much since I picked up my first set of drum sticks in the 70's Took a few years of lessons in school for that starting in 8th grade. Swapped over to guitar as lugging a set of double bass pearl drums with 8 toms and half a gazillion cymbals in the Navy was not in the cards. Took like a week of guitar lessons around 13 til I messed up my fingers on my right hand. Took two years of having my fingers broke and reset to save them. 37 breaks in one and 15 in the other. Killed any hopes of a career in baseball back in the day.

Everything else is nothing more then a monkey trying to copy what I THINK I hear. Years of smoking really took its toll on my ears early. I been focusing on retraining them since I moved in this apartment but its hard with limited play time and space. Before my neck surgery I was playing bass in a cover band and built up a nice PA system with a friend. If I had a place to set all that up I would be making an attempt at running a recording studio. Thats a rough gig now days with so much stuff that can be done on a home computer.

Here in the apartment I have my Peavy tx810 cabinet I rewired and disconnected the horn from to be 2 ohms in two channels of four speakers. At normal 16 ohm wiring it put a 30 foot crack in a basement when I got bored one night and hooked up a Crown CS4000 power amp to it hehehe. I use it as my guitar amp as you see in my crappy videos. That gets pushed by a 1983 crate 50 watt head minus the spring reverb I picked up in the Good will store the next town over for 30 bucks. On top of that sits my 1982 Peavy Mark IV 400 watt bass head I am scared to plug in here as at 2 ohms that would crack every wall in the building on the lowest of volumes as cheap as these buildings are. Specially with the 5 string low B. Which reminds me I should probably pull them out and give them a once over to make sure they are still in good shape.

Most of the time I just plug my Digitech RP500 processor into the Firewire 410 on my computer and goof around in headphones. I love the programming aspect and spend more time trying to reproduce a pro musicians guitar sounds then I do trying to learn their songs. I think I do better then most on that aspect.

I cant see why some guitarists use a few pedals for every song they play. They may play well but its so bland and generic sounding after 4 or 5 songs. I listen to old recordings when I was doing that and gag now but we all know Im a weirdo so thats all worth less then a cup a coffee.

Meant to reply back to ya.... sounds like quite the experience in music...both playing and recording. :eek::) Man that's a lot of breaks on your hand...whew!

Would you believe in my bass playing life I have never owned any 8x10 cab? Ampeg is the most common one and many bass players I'm sure have had one. But yeah never owned one...played through one once. Just too much to lug around for me. I'm sure the Peavey is a beast! I'd love to hear it cranked to see what it could really do. And those Peavey Mark IV's were pretty common too...I didn't own any, but played through some before. A Peavey I did own and still wish I had was a T-40 bass. All kinds of tonal options and very easy to play. Many complained that T40's were heavy basses, but its weight never bothered me.

So far my list of basses throughout of the years:
-Gibson Epiphone Jazz bass
-Peavey T40
-Steinberger Spirit
-Fender 5 String American Deluxe Jazz (Mexican made)
-1979 Fender P Bass
-Musicman Stringray 5 string

...I only have the 79 Fender P bass and Musicman now. I have sold the rest long ago. Still wish I had the Steinberger too...it was neat.

Amps...a mix of combo amps and separate cabs/heads
-Crate 100 watt combo amp
-SWR Workingman's 15
-Carvin R1000 and Carvin 4x10 (hated it)
-Sansamp RBI preamp/Yamaha 2000 watt power amp/Avatar 4x10....loved it! used this rig for years!
-TC Electronics 200 watt 1x12 combo....current rig. Still got some power and much lighter than my preamp/poweramp rig

Played in my dad's band for a while as well as some punk/rock bands when I was younger. Now I just jam around the house and play in church. And with our daughter, that's probably how it's going to be for a while...and that's ok with me. Sometimes I think I would prefer skipping band drama and just sitting down and creating something or just mess around.

Used to use a desktop computer for recording (old version of Cool Edit Pro/Adobe Audition and Fruityloops for drums), but it ended up crashing on me. Plan to sometime down the road fix up another desktop computer for recording but I'm in no rush right now with my daughter and all. Besides my laptop can do ok if I want to record a little.
 

basslord1124

Master member
I promise I'm not dead...although some days with my age I feel like it sometimes. Speaking of which, I don't think I had ever mentioned it on the forums but my birthday was back on Nov. 24th (It's what the 1124 in my username stands for. :) ). I turned 39...hard to believe I'm so close to 40. For the most part, sometimes I still feel like I'm 20 but other times I can definitely tell I'm older...so, sometimes it's a mix on how I feel in terms of my age.

I suppose I am long overdue for an update. Given the holidays and everything else that has been going on, I haven't been as present here on the forums as usual...hopefully I didn't worry anyone. Been fine...just been busy with other things. I hope to one day, catch up mostly on things that go on here...I catch little bits here and there when I can. Not sure about others, but sometimes I can't follow ALL the excitement that goes on around here. Never fails, I still manage to miss something. I used to be big into message boards/forums in my early days on the interwebs...nowadays, I do my best to keep up sometimes. Regardless, if you are reading this and I have missed something super important OR you wonder why I haven't posted on a certain topic just tag me in it or message me with a link or something to get my attention. I promise I'm not intentionally ignoring you.

First and foremost, a new video has just been posted. It's a quick video on how I did the battery hatch on my Spit.


Also posted this on the Spit Roasted thread. Super easy mod to do and it makes battery access easy. I have grown to prefer my batteries inside the power pod...not underneath. Figure the more protection I can give to these fun but dangerous little packs of energy that power our RC toys the better off I'll be. Save one from destroying lipos in crashes, etc.

Holidays and everything went well, had Thanksgiving at our house which is something we hadn't done in a while. And considering the pest fiasco we had to deal with, it's a good relief to be back home. We had an enormous amount of food and tons of leftovers. The pest/flea fiasco is really honestly down to a bare minimum now. Right now, the basement seems to still have a few lingering around (probably another time or 2 with the vacuum should do it), and the rest of the house seems fine. I feel I have become kind of an expert on the topic, so if anyone out there needs advice on dealing with flea infestation, let me know. lol. :)

Something else that has been going on is redoing my plane hangar/man cave. I did have most of my planes hung up on the walls. Now I've decided all planes are going to be hung from the ceiling. Probably post some pics of the progress here soon. I've also been cleaning up my hangar/man cave since we no longer have the cats. I've been able to clean up a lot of the clutter and to create a better work environment for myself on plane projects.

Another thing that I've been going through is mine and my wife's computer data. I think I have brought this up here before in another thread (we have accumulated quite a bit over the years). But, I've been doing some cleanup of our data in terms of helping keep it backed up better. Old pictures, pictures of our daughter, documents, etc. In the process, I have also came across a potential 2-3 video projects that I never uploaded to my RC youtube channel Perkyplanes & RC. So....I may be doing that within time too. It'll sort of be older footage, BUT I'd love to share it and hopefully someone out there might enjoy it or make use of it.

Well I think that pretty well summarizes everything for now. Hope everyone out there reading this had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday and is doing well. :)
 

basslord1124

Master member
Well here are some pics of my updated work area. The table on the right used to be my main work area and then I would try and work elsewhere if need be...just wherever I could find some space. I have since upgrade the area as you can see from the pic. The main counter area (where the cutting mat is on) was left in the house when we moved in...there is a similar one that is out in the garage. I'm convinced they came out of an old business or restaurant. I have both doors on the counter area but I plan on just removing them and leaving that storage area open. The table on the right has some tools piled on top of it for which I am going through and putting away. The KFM wing is sitting there too. :)

The plastic storage contains my ESCs, motors, servos, receivers, soldering station and supplies, velcro, rubber bands, servo extensions, camera supplies, etc. The previous home owner also left behind a bunch of old empty Folgers coffee cans and I've definitely been making use of those too. Got some stuff mounted on the walls as you can see. Also, the 2 pieces of wood on the wall (I may add a 3rd piece) are what's going to be used to mount some peg board.

rc work area resize.jpg



I have also been mounting some planes up. I used to mount them on the wall, but have changed my mind and decided everything is going to be mount on the ceiling. Here's the FT Edge (still needs repaired as you can see).

Also the green plane in the background is an FT3D that doesn't have any electronics in it.

edge hung up resize.jpg


The newly built FT Spitfire... in the background you can also see the balsa Mini Funtana, balsa Beaver, FT Bloody Baron, and a little bit of the FT Storch (on the left). My wife's FT Baby Blender is still hung on the wall for now.

spit hung up.jpg



Another view from the front....

plane mix 2.jpg



Better view of the FT Simple Storch

Storch hung up.jpg


And of course the FT Tiny Trainer...

tt hung up.jpg



I still got more to hang up like the FT Simple Cub, wife's Baby Blender, my old Dynam Piper Cub, and so on.
 

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