FT Mini Scout Newbie Challenge

[mayan]

@basslord1124 waiting to see how your flight goes .

 

[Kendalf]

@buzzbomb From 2 seconds to over 5 minutes, that's an over 15,000% improvement! I vote that you've earned the Most Improved Pilot award for that!

 

[buzzbomb]

Only got in a single flight this morning using a 1300 2S battery that is almost 2 years old and rarely used, (mostly stored at full charge). Sadly it turned out to be the last flight of my mini scout as it has now been stripped and gifted to a person who was visiting the field and showed a genuine interest in becoming a fixed wing flier!

As this is going to be my last challenge entry, (unofficial), i thought it should be better than before and so I claim 12 minutes 35 seconds. Video to follow as it is taking forever to process it down from many Gigs to a reasonable file size! Now sure of the seconds as I can access the edited file now that the saving and converting process is completed!

Link to video: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Jt1FIxLg2FG8MEa3bL4U4rTDmwqOl26n

I enjoyed the challenge and learned a lot!

Have fun!

Hoooly Cow! Yes I watched the whole thing. How could I not? I kept thinking, when does this flight end? Everyone you were flying with came in and landed. Then others went up, then they came in and landed. You were just flying around, doo, de, doo, de doo. No problems in the world. Just flying my plane longer than should be possible with that airframe.

Birds fly through, planes come and go. Do, dee doo, de doo. Just flying my plane. Beautiful! Yes, mate. You broke the "Ten minute barrier!" By the official timer you were up, flying an FT MiniScout for TWELVE minutes and thirty-four seconds!

Updated LeaderBoard!

The new, new unofficial World Record holder for the longest flight time with a Flight Test MiniScout, ladies and gentleman! I present you with Hai-Lee! *raises his arm and gives him a stupidly big belt with the buckle in the back.*

Hai-Lee, not only do you hold the record and have video to prove it, you then gave away the plane! The beauty of all that is stunning on so many levels. I thank you for sharing that with us. Twelve and a half minutes. Mind blowing.

 

[buzzbomb]

Well I'm pretty bummed out. I was close to 9 minutes (thanks to new batteries) and my motor destroyed itself. I put the throttle up to get some height for glide time and the bell pulled off the rotor!! The whole front end with the prop and everything sailed off to the wild blue yonder!! Plane flipped and flopped to the ground and somewhere in 1800 acres is the bell and prop!!! I guess I need to add a step in preflight, tug on the prop and make sure the bell is attached. The shaft is still in the housing. I was on the way to busting records and I only busted my plane. WAHHH😭😢😭😢😭😢

Oooh, that hurts! I was cleaning one of my motors and thought I had lost the Circlip. That would have been end of that. Thankfully upon careful brushing of my work surface with a horse tail paint brush, I found the clip and the motor was saved!

However, I cannot update the LeaderBoard with "close to 9 minutes." It's an unofficial entry. Give me a best guess minute and second count, and it's done.

 

[buzzbomb]

my projection is that you should easily be able to get 20 minuted from the Mini Scout without having to fill it full of batteries!

IF you don't fall asleep!

 

[buzzbomb]

Yeah, I've got 3 builds. A 75% bloody wonder, a scratch DR 1 and a mighty mini corsair and a new light mini scout. I'm set for things to do this week.😆

Oh my. You sound like me, you poor, poor soul!

 

[buzzbomb]

I've got the video of my Third Try at the Challenge

Yes! It was even better in person. No she wasn't scratch-built, but that darn bird can fly! If you are a new pilot, there is a lot to be gained from using the SpeedBuild kits. They are certainly not the only way to get in the air, but my gosh! That bird could fly! I haven't even scratched the surface of what she can do. Ya'll wait until I've the skill to take throttle to 100%, cut ailerons into it and get stupid with it.

It's going to be glorious. One way or the other!

Watching the vid on YouTube, I've got launch at about 0:11 and touchdown at about 5:28. Flight time of..... five minutes and seventeen seconds!

Updated LeaderBoard time!

We try to stop flying at around thirty percent battery. When I later checked the charge on that batt? 1%. I didn't crash. I fell out of the air. I hope I didn't kill the battery, but if I did? Darn, but it was worth it!

 

[buzzbomb]

Here is my son's first entry.

He didn't even know he was entering the Challenge! He just wanted to fly. I gave him a broken plane and half a battery from a previous flight with the TT. What he did with that? Yea. Awesome.

Updated LeaderBoard!

@Arcfyre still owning the official record. Hai-Lee with the unofficial, but he had the video. Ya'll beat that! My son, @TacoShako was handicapped with a broken plane and a used battery. He did awesome! 05:11.

I am so very thankful that I've got a place where we can do this. Thank you all for participating and making my personal Journey into RC flight, that much better. Thank you.

Let's do some more!

Edit. Did I mention my son's flight only ended because the wing folded? Yep. He was going into a loop and it just folded and the dot you can see falling to the ground is the plane. My little Crafty glue gun failed, and I knew it did (I've since bought another glue gun) right in the middle of that wing build. It just wasn't hot enough.

I am heating the new glue gun right now. Glory should be able to fly on our next outing.

 

[buzzbomb]

Oh, the folded wing destroying the MiniScout my son was flying? How do we feel about that?

There you go. THAT's how we feel about crashing! It's foamboard, and we are having fun!

 

[TacoShako]

Oh, the folded wing destroying the MiniScout my son was flying? How do we feel about that?

View attachment 127378

There you go. THAT's how we feel about crashing! It's foamboard, and we are having fun!

I didn't break the plane,I had a sudden unplanned experiment in weight reduction!

 

[Hai-Lee]

I didn't break the plane,I had a sudden unplanned experiment in weight reduction!

It is obvious that the wings were built as a sacrificial element!

Have fun!

 

[slembcke]

This is great. The Mini Scout was by far my favorite plane last season. I built it with a 2204 2300kv T-motor (one of the old rebranded RMRC "blue" motors) on it with a 5045 Dal mini quad prop. The day I maidened it was dead calm and I remember getting 10+ minutes with a 450 mah 3s, and over 20 for an 850 mah 3s. Whisper quiet and it flew like butter. I tried an EMax 1806 motor and a 5030 prop, but it actually did much worse. Dunno if that helps anyone with the challenge. A bigger prop and an efficient instead of powerful or small motor did wonders for me.

Eventually I loaded it up with more servos for ailerons, an old leftover Naze FC, and an AIO 20 mw camera. Best FPV plane ever. Reasonably fast if you pushed the throttle, reasonable endurance if you throttled back, and surprising dexterity. Even after I plowed that plane into the ground a dozen times it still flew immaculately when the FC stabilization was turned on. The best thing to do with that plane was to fly FPV a foot off the ground, inverted, at full throttle! Pow!

 

[mayan]

The best thing to do with that plane was to fly FPV a foot off the ground, inverted, at full throttle! Pow!

Take that on in this challenge that’s a dare.
https://forum.flitetest.com/index.php?threads/fly-it-inverted-the-challenge.57949/

 

[buzzbomb]

Take that on in this challenge that’s a dare.
https://forum.flitetest.com/index.php?threads/fly-it-inverted-the-challenge.57949/

Like a BOSS! That's not a Pow. That's a BOOM!

 

[basslord1124]

So let me update on what has happened over the past week.

So I had replaced my thrust angled power pod with a straight power pod. I flew it this past weekend on what was supposed to be a pretty calm day. But by the time I got out to the field the wind picked up AND I forgot to bring my camera stuff. Winds were probably 5-7mph I'd guess. Had 2 batteries charged and was at a local high school football field. Gave the 1st battery a go and got probably a good semi-squirelly 5 minute 15 second flight despite the wind conditions. My radio timer is set on 6 minutes and I landed with 39 seconds to spare. Gave a few seconds too for revving up throttle for hand launching. I had also forgot my battery tester but as I later found out, I landed with still about 70% on my battery...so I'm thinking I could've squeezed another 5 minutes out of it. I tried battery 2 but as soon as it got a decent altitude at launch a wind gust pushed the plane back behind me and I wasn't able to get it back ahead of me. I ended up ditching it in the nearby baseball field. No damage luckily.

Fast forward to yesterday. Beautiful day, a decent 60 degree temperature, light 2-3MPH wind, camera rolling. Perfect day to fly. And with a non-cooperative FT Mini Scout. My constant left bank problem was back. So I ended up recording about 15 minutes of constant left bank short flights and crashes. Think of Bixler and his constant tinkering with Bullet Bill...yeah that was me with my Scout. Fly, crash, retrieve, re-adjust battery, check CG, look for anything else...and back over again. Even a close call of almost being hit with it. Thinking of making a Mini Scout bloopers video OR compile a crash video for the end of the year. So....I've got plenty of footage from that experience. And right now my Mini Scout is hanging back up so I can investigate the left bank issue AND to fix a motor that has broken away from the firewall (yeah that happened too in my many crashes)

So....the fun unpredictable times of flying RC planes. I know I'd like to get video of 1 good flight out of her for the challenge. Makes me wish I was able to record that 5 minute flight as that was my best one so far.

 

[mayan]

@basslord1124 it's a good practice to learn to analyize issues with a plane and try to fix them. My tip though is don't over do it, don't let that break you after all building a new airframe is cheap and easy .

 

[Hai-Lee]

So let me update on what has happened over the past week.

So I had replaced my thrust angled power pod with a straight power pod.

My constant left bank problem was back.

The mini powerpod has the right thrust angle to counter the "P" factor generated by the propeller wash striking the fuselage and vertical tail causing the plane to want to roll constantly to the left. Only with very low kV motors can the thrust angle be zero or close there to).

My unofficial entry used a 1400kV motor and I still required the side thrust to have the plane launch straight and level.

Please refit the side thrust and then see if the left turning once again disappears!

Have fun!

 

[basslord1124]

@mayan ...believe it or not, the whole plane is still in decent shape. Some wrinkles on the paper but that's the extent of it. Really a tough little plane! I've kinda often felt that for any of these foamboard planes, I would just fly them until they couldn't take anymore. That point where all the extra glue is causing it not to balance like it used to or the performance is definitely impacted. Besides scuff marks add character!

@Hai-Lee ...my motor is a 2280KV, running a 5x4 prop. I actually had made an extra side thrust pod so I can try it. A few things I've wondered:

-Perhaps I am applying too much throttle...usually start it at 2/3 throttle and give it a pretty hard launch. I've been seeing from others that this plane does best flying slow.
-Maybe the area that I was in has some sort of side cross-wind thing going on.

 

[Hai-Lee]

@mayan ...believe it or not, the whole plane is still in decent shape. Some wrinkles on the paper but that's the extent of it. Really a tough little plane! I've kinda often felt that for any of these foamboard planes, I would just fly them until they couldn't take anymore. That point where all the extra glue is causing it not to balance like it used to or the performance is definitely impacted. Besides scuff marks add character!

@Hai-Lee ...my motor is a 2280KV, running a 5x4 prop. I actually had made an extra side thrust pod so I can try it. A few things I've wondered:

-Perhaps I am applying too much throttle...usually start it at 2/3 throttle and give it a pretty hard launch. I've been seeing from others that this plane does best flying slow.
-Maybe the area that I was in has some sort of side cross-wind thing going on.

On launch I like to launch with a firm but somewhat gentle launch. I like to concentrate more on the release than on the power behind the launch. In the past I have found that I tend to twist or turn the plane when trying to throw at high speed and get the release of the hand a little late.

My launch settings are about half to three quarter throttle, a launch to a point about 5 degrees above the horizon, and the thumb on the elevator ready to pull up if for some reason it does a nose dive on release!

So far I have avoided any launch related dramas. Full throttle invites disaster and trying to launch at high speed can come with a release problem.

Just what works for me!

have fun!

 

[mayan]

@mayan ...believe it or not, the whole plane is still in decent shape. Some wrinkles on the paper but that's the extent of it. Really a tough little plane! I've kinda often felt that for any of these foamboard planes, I would just fly them until they couldn't take anymore. That point where all the extra glue is causing it not to balance like it used to or the performance is definitely impacted. Besides scuff marks add character!

Today I was flying a mixed up TT cause I had broken my two other wings that I had, and I don't know why or for what reason but the TT flew different, different in a good way, felt lighter .

Maybe the area that I was in has some sort of side cross-wind thing going on.

Others might disagree but I think this plane flys best with little to now wind espically if flying as a 3 channel.

About launching I agree with @Hai-Lee no need to through hard if the plane has enough power it should leave your hand easily so a genetle toss should be enough.