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

PsyBorg

Wake up! Time to fly!
New video about venturing into glow and IC engines...


Nice catch up video mate.

Hey quick hint that may help you with that motor. You said somewhere that prop is stuck on the shaft if I remember correctly. there is a tool that screws in where the glow pug goes that has a rubber tip and reaches far enough in the cylinder the motor can not turn past that point. It is used for times like this or the reverse to be able to hold the motor from turning so you can tighten a prop nut good enough to not spin off.

There are also hard blocks of rubber that can be inserted into the exhaust port that do the same thing. Last tip is there is a solvent / rust remover better then Wd40 called PB Blast. That has never failed me in all my time wrnching on cars to free the most stuck or ceased up bolts and nuts to be found on old rusty cars. May try a squirt or two of that if you have exhausted all other physical methods to get that prop off. Just not sure if there would be a reaction to the prop as I don't know if that is a plastic or painted wood prop.
 

basslord1124

Master member
Nice catch up video mate.

Hey quick hint that may help you with that motor. You said somewhere that prop is stuck on the shaft if I remember correctly. there is a tool that screws in where the glow pug goes that has a rubber tip and reaches far enough in the cylinder the motor can not turn past that point. It is used for times like this or the reverse to be able to hold the motor from turning so you can tighten a prop nut good enough to not spin off.

There are also hard blocks of rubber that can be inserted into the exhaust port that do the same thing. Last tip is there is a solvent / rust remover better then Wd40 called PB Blast. That has never failed me in all my time wrnching on cars to free the most stuck or ceased up bolts and nuts to be found on old rusty cars. May try a squirt or two of that if you have exhausted all other physical methods to get that prop off. Just not sure if there would be a reaction to the prop as I don't know if that is a plastic or painted wood prop.

Interesting little tip about the tool. I did manage to get the prop off but used a sorta similar method. I ran some small diameter rope into the glow plug hole and with enough of it, it was able to stop the motor from turning so far. And with that I was able to get the prop off.
 

basslord1124

Master member
New video, and 1st video about the Wild Stick:


Hope everyone is still being safe during this pandemic. Just found out tonight my aunt, her mom, and one of their friends are in the hospital with CoVid. Prayers to them (especially her mom as she is older). They live in a further away but neighboring community and I haven't been around them in quite some time (definitely before the pandemic).

Normal life has been crazy...keeping up with a wild and crazy toddler. Meanwhile, plane life has been super slow. This is the year of balsa for me so been focusing more and more on my balsa kit and now the Wild Stick. All the FT/foamboard stuff has been put to the side...however I did bring my FT Corsair to the in-laws so I could tinker with it while I'm there. A part of me feels like I am abandoning FT by this balsa shift, but I think it was just time for a change. Time to dabble with some other stuff. And I know I've got probably 50 million half complete foamboard projects...maybe I'll finish them someday.

Oh, and here's some other good news...I just recently retired my old 2009 Ford Edge vehicle (121K miles) for a 2019 Subaru Crosstrek. This is my first ever Subaru and honestly, it's a pretty nice car. Maybe a tad smaller than my Edge which I should still be able to haul planes in it.

Oh well, that's all from me. Be safe out there.
 

The Hangar

Fly harder!
Mentor
New video, and 1st video about the Wild Stick:


Hope everyone is still being safe during this pandemic. Just found out tonight my aunt, her mom, and one of their friends are in the hospital with CoVid. Prayers to them (especially her mom as she is older). They live in a further away but neighboring community and I haven't been around them in quite some time (definitely before the pandemic).

Normal life has been crazy...keeping up with a wild and crazy toddler. Meanwhile, plane life has been super slow. This is the year of balsa for me so been focusing more and more on my balsa kit and now the Wild Stick. All the FT/foamboard stuff has been put to the side...however I did bring my FT Corsair to the in-laws so I could tinker with it while I'm there. A part of me feels like I am abandoning FT by this balsa shift, but I think it was just time for a change. Time to dabble with some other stuff. And I know I've got probably 50 million half complete foamboard projects...maybe I'll finish them someday.

Oh, and here's some other good news...I just recently retired my old 2009 Ford Edge vehicle (121K miles) for a 2019 Subaru Crosstrek. This is my first ever Subaru and honestly, it's a pretty nice car. Maybe a tad smaller than my Edge which I should still be able to haul planes in it.

Oh well, that's all from me. Be safe out there.
Great video! The wild stick seems to be in pretty good condition - it doesn’t look like it will need too much work.
 

basslord1124

Master member
Well on to a different note...

Our area is slowly recovering from a rather large ice/snow winter storm. Early last week the skies dropped almost an inch of ice on most of our tri-state area. Power lines don't like the weight of ice so as a result, we had a pretty massive number of power outages. The closest ones are my mom's house and our house. Mom had a brief period of restored power but have heard it's back out again today...supposedly it will return back tomorrow evening. In the time being, my mom has been staying with my sister who lives closer to her. As for our house, it was out on the 15th (we had luckily escaped the storm and are staying at the in-laws house until things return back to normal) and we just got power back on yesterday morning. House got down to 44 degrees and I had turned off the water and drained the pipes before it got too bad. We have co-workers and friends that are experiencing power outages and other issues. Power crews from all over have been in our area helping restore things for everyone. I would bet there may be some in more rural communities that may be without power for another week or 2. Folks have been looking/using alternate sources of fuel and heat (propane, gas, burning wood, etc) and of course trying to get their hands on generators if they can. It's been pretty crazy! We're not in Texas, but we've been hit pretty hard ourselves.Chiseling an inch of ice off of a car is a lot of fun *sarcasm*

As long as we continue to have power, we will more than likely return home in the next day or 2. Big thing for us, is having to restock our groceries as I am sure we have lost some fridge/freezer things during the outage.

I am ready for spring now and some warmer temps. We do have some sunshine today and temps will be above freezing tomorrow.

Plane stuff has been very very minimal during this crazy week. I did get a little bit of simulator time though which was needed. Worked on some inverted flying which is not something I have done much of. Overall, I am getting the hang of it pretty good.

Hope everybody else out there is doing well and staying safe.
 

The Hangar

Fly harder!
Mentor
Well on to a different note...

Our area is slowly recovering from a rather large ice/snow winter storm. Early last week the skies dropped almost an inch of ice on most of our tri-state area. Power lines don't like the weight of ice so as a result, we had a pretty massive number of power outages. The closest ones are my mom's house and our house. Mom had a brief period of restored power but have heard it's back out again today...supposedly it will return back tomorrow evening. In the time being, my mom has been staying with my sister who lives closer to her. As for our house, it was out on the 15th (we had luckily escaped the storm and are staying at the in-laws house until things return back to normal) and we just got power back on yesterday morning. House got down to 44 degrees and I had turned off the water and drained the pipes before it got too bad. We have co-workers and friends that are experiencing power outages and other issues. Power crews from all over have been in our area helping restore things for everyone. I would bet there may be some in more rural communities that may be without power for another week or 2. Folks have been looking/using alternate sources of fuel and heat (propane, gas, burning wood, etc) and of course trying to get their hands on generators if they can. It's been pretty crazy! We're not in Texas, but we've been hit pretty hard ourselves.Chiseling an inch of ice off of a car is a lot of fun *sarcasm*

As long as we continue to have power, we will more than likely return home in the next day or 2. Big thing for us, is having to restock our groceries as I am sure we have lost some fridge/freezer things during the outage.

I am ready for spring now and some warmer temps. We do have some sunshine today and temps will be above freezing tomorrow.

Plane stuff has been very very minimal during this crazy week. I did get a little bit of simulator time though which was needed. Worked on some inverted flying which is not something I have done much of. Overall, I am getting the hang of it pretty good.

Hope everybody else out there is doing well and staying safe.
We got over a foot of snow here, but thankfully there weren’t any power issues, other than my car battery deciding to die...
 

PsyBorg

Wake up! Time to fly!
That's a pretty good bit of snow...I remember we used to get 2 and 3 foot snows, now we get a few inches anymore.

Car battery....ughh no fun. And usually winter time is the time for that issue to rear its head.

That or starter solenoids.
 

basslord1124

Master member
Hiya once again to who all may be reading. Figured it was time for another post even though I really don't have a whole lot to report on...although this is one of my things to give me a break from the usual stresses of life. Weather has been crazy...ice storm which crippled us, followed by snow, and then just recently some flooding. Luckily the flooding didn't affect us, but other surrounding communities weren't so lucky. Whew 2021 has been a doozy already.

A part of me would wishes I had a video at this point, but just been another slow time. Plus like I said, nothing much to report on. I have been slowly cleaning up the glow engine on the Wild Stick. Actually just using Dawn dish liquid and warm water. Also used some de greaser as well. And then using a toothbrush and a wire brush to clean it. I just need to clean the main engine block a little and it'll be finished. I have gotten some pics that I'll share of the progress. It has came clean pretty decently. Also found a lot of supplies needed in that tote of stuff I also bought from the guy I got the planes from. Starters, glow plug, glow plug wrench, fuel tubing, etc.

Balsa build is still around. In fact, I have almost half the wing complete.

I love doing this stuff but some days it gets too exhausting with everything else, plus my mind goes so fast on so many different projects my hands (and time) can't keep up with the work. Although I've said this before...I figure we all have some unfinished projects. I have even pondered making a video of unfinished projects and taking a vote on who wants to see which project I should finish first.

Oh well, my mind and body are zapped for the day, so off to bed I go. Maybe I'll make some more meaningful posts later. Peace.
 

PsyBorg

Wake up! Time to fly!
@basslord1124 So with your build addiction growing along with your back log of RC projects now would not be a good time to poke n prod you into tagging into the Great Guitar Build off competition and have you crank out a bass?
 

basslord1124

Master member
Ouchie...

Well onto a whole different topic of discussion, I had to undergo some brief surgery this past Wednesday. I had been having some pretty severe tooth pain over the past 3-4 months. Basically I had one tooth that had broken off and thus was creating some severe pain. Had a dentist look at it, and it grew beyond the broken tooth. Turned out to be a total of 4 teeth that needed to go...the broken one (lower right side), 2 wisdom teeth on my left side (last of my wisdom teeth), and another partial broken tooth on my lower left side. The ones on my left side bugged me on occasion...but not as bad as the right side. Regardless, dentist recommended removing all 4 since they were in bad shape. And today has probably been the closest semi-normal day I have had in terms of pain, soreness, and eating normal...pain's still there, but not as severe. I figure it will continue to get better in the coming days. So yeah, I've been feeling pretty rough.

On top of that, we have been staying at the in-laws more b/c they recently got their last CoVid shot and keeping a close eye on them and their symptoms (which turned out to not be so bad) as well as some hectic work schedules, and watching the little one. So, it's been crazy as expected.

Onto some plane news...the only super cool thing worth mentioning is since leaving my FT Master Series Corsair at my in-laws my father-in-law has turned it into a little something for him to mess with as well. Even though I haven't done a bunch to it yet, it is more or less becoming a shared project for us both. He is fixing up some of my blemishes and started doing a little bit of paint to it. I've got some other things worth sharing in a video and pic form that I hope to upload here soon.

Something else I just did too was watch a cool video on Draco and Horizon Hobby's development of the model. Pretty neat. I love STOL planes and Draco is way cool and super unique. I don't know if I'll ever get to a point though to want to shell out that kind of money ($600) for the RC model though. I guess I'm so caught up in my ways of turning someone's trash into my treasure and doing budget conscious things in the RC hobby. Maybe someday when I win the lottery or if HH wants to send me one lol j/k.

Anyways, that's all from me folks...I'll try and get some more things posted here soon.
 

basslord1124

Master member
Popping in once again for an update....although I must say it's more of a life update than an RC update.

Within the past week, wife decided that we are not waiting any longer and that we are going to try and sell our house through a realtor. We've been talking about selling the house for a while so this isn't new news. We've been living in our home for a little over 10 years now, it's our first home, and we feel we have done our fair share of time here. It's an older house and we've fixed a lot of various things...so we feel it's time for someone else to take over and do more fixing to it.

With this in mind, there's been this heightened energy to pick it up, clean it up, and get it ready for pictures so we can sell it. Which with both of our hoarding capabilities (I tend to hoard RC planes, music, and technology stuff...wife hoards everything else) this is not an easy task. But we are making progress. As a result, planes have unfortunately taken a major backseat. I have actually stashed most of my foamboard/foam/FT planes in a corner for now. I attached a pic of them below. This is to keep them mostly out of the way for a possible walkthrough of a future buyer of our home. Prior to this, I was going to work on a PVC plane mounting setup but unfortunately this decision came before I could make it and the planes at the time were just laying in random places in the basement. So, this corner is where they reside for now. Maybe after the pictures get taken I can work on the PVC rack thing OR it may have to wait b/c the realtor says that they think once our house goes on the market it will get quickly snatched. So, we shall see.

So if our house does sell quickly, I think it may force us to have to move in with my wife's parents for a little while. Unless we can find a new house fairly quickly. So please bear with me through this crazy time. I personally am already at the point that I can't wait for it to be over as I guess I get too comfortable with things sometimes. Plus I dread the thought of moving crap, but I know it's part of it.

So with all this in mind, plane progress is even slower as are video updates. Still focusing on balsa though.

So I'm hoping that this house thing will be over quick so my normal ways of living can resume. Home buying/selling, moving, etc is all too hectic.

Onto some other RC news...had a club meeting this past Sunday. It went well even for a small group of us. Sounds like a fun fly/swap meet in June. Most club members (especially most of our older members) have been extremely worried about CoVid...so meetings are few and far between. There's a small population of members who still try to make it out. I generally try and at least show up for meetings to be be supportive even if personal life has got me too busy. I have no idea if I'll be making it to Flitefest or not this year. I'm thinking seriously of putting it off to 2022. Learned some surprising stuff too at the club meeting regarding some famous Youtubers that fly at our club...or well, used to fly at our club. Feels like with those whole pandemic, it's just made everything weird! Oh well, maybe it will calm down at some point.

All right, well I've typed enough for now and it's definitely time for bed for me. Hope all is well. Take care everyone and be safe. Thanks for readying if you've made it this far (I know my ramblings can be boring). Below is a pic of my foam/foamboard/FT planes in a corner of the basement...sorta just forgotten about. :(
planes in a corner.jpg
 

PoorManRC

Master member
I've got one of those piles myself! 😲
I'm actually happy for you three that you're moving. Leave the old House to the Ticks!! 😜😂 (Don't worry, I won't tell the Realtor!)

I know I said that I wouldn't post here, since being SUSPENDED for asking for help.... which of course NOW we no longer need any. 😁 But you're a true Friend, who never gave up on me.

Moving is never easy, but you'll get through. It's an exciting step. I wish you all the best! I know that soon you'll be back up and running with building and making Music. I hope all goes smoothly for you my Friend!!
 

OliverW

Legendary member
I've got one of those piles myself! 😲
I'm actually happy for you three that you're moving. Leave the old House to the Ticks!! 😜😂 (Don't worry, I won't tell the Realtor!)

I know I said that I wouldn't post here, since being SUSPENDED for asking for help.... which of course NOW we no longer need any. 😁 But you're a true Friend, who never gave up on me.

Moving is never easy, but you'll get through. It's an exciting step. I wish you all the best! I know that soon you'll be back up and running with building and making Music. I hope all goes smoothly for you my Friend!!
I'm glad that you're not suspended anymore! I hope you continue to post as I miss your build logs and flight videos!
 

basslord1124

Master member
I've got one of those piles myself! 😲
I'm actually happy for you three that you're moving. Leave the old House to the Ticks!! 😜😂 (Don't worry, I won't tell the Realtor!)

I know I said that I wouldn't post here, since being SUSPENDED for asking for help.... which of course NOW we no longer need any. 😁 But you're a true Friend, who never gave up on me.

Moving is never easy, but you'll get through. It's an exciting step. I wish you all the best! I know that soon you'll be back up and running with building and making Music. I hope all goes smoothly for you my Friend!!


Thanks...yeah, it's an old house that seems to have a never ending list of things that need fixed/updated.

Glad to see ya around here posting again. Hey I tried to help when I could. I know life isn't always easy.

Thanks again...sometimes I feel like my list of stuff will never get completed, although maybe the house change will re-spark my interest and drive for things.
 

PoorManRC

Master member
Hey Buddy.... YOU were never the problem!! I appreciate everything you've done for me. Yours is a special kind of generosity - because you couldn't really afford to do what you did. 😊 I will not forget that!!
I sincerely thank you. 😊💯👍👍
 

basslord1124

Master member
Popping in for another update.... here's a couple video updates:


And the latest one on an RC truck...


Well more of another personal update than a hobby one...

Still in the process of moving. We have narrowed it down to a couple houses (don't want to jinx it at this stage) AND still trying to sell ours. Ours has been on the market almost a month now...lots of folks looking but nobody jumping at it. The housing market around here has been crazy. Folks are going nuts over houses basically...some even offering more than what a house is worth to secure a deal. So, hopefully someone will come along and buy ours.

The stress of the whole thing plus having our little 3 year old has just made it hard to find a few minutes to sit down and do some hobby things...especially since some stuff is already boxed up and ready to be moved. But I have hope we will eventually get there. And I know in the end it will be better. We have soooooo been ready for a new house. Wish us luck.

Well guys that's all I got for right now, hope all is well around here and that everyone is staying safe.