FT What Did You Do RC Today : Caution Offtopic At All Times

[Vimana89]

I'm going to replace the prop on my Arrowhead 4ch prototype, reinforce the leading edges with packing tape, and maybe paint the fuselage. I'm also going to adjust the thrust angle on my pusher Bee(will take a bit of work, would have been much easier to design the correct thrust angle into the nacelle from the beginning if I'd known).

After that, I may clean up my work space and take a break, or I may crank out my planky 4ch flying wing with the three vertical stabilizers on an A pack, it's a quick build.

 

[Wildthing]

If you wanna see my retract mod I've got a video up showing it. Can link it for ya

I did talk to my LHS and he agrees it's a good plane but the company changed hands and their dealer price and what they sell to the public is almost the same and no discount on the freight. He did mention there is another older club member that has hundreds of planes and would probably sell me one so we will see.

 

[JennyC6]

I did talk to my LHS and he agrees it's a good plane but the company changed hands and their dealer price and what they sell to the public is almost the same and no discount on the freight. He did mention there is another older club member that has hundreds of planes and would probably sell me one so we will see.

Guess that explains why the only SIG planes I see in my LHS are secondhand. They do have a 4*40 on the cieling with an LA40 on it for 100 bucks. Would slot in nice with the 20 and 64 I'll have...

 

[JennyC6]

Fired up my Mad Crusher today! Thing's fun as hell! Ya'll oughtta get one. They come in electric and glow variants...predictably mine's brap-tastic.

One of the most fun RC trucks on the market! I love mine to death. That's totally stock, too, and on mere 20% nitro. The engine will run fine on 30%....not that it needs any more power haha

I will say that, if you get the electric one, you'll probably want to re-gear it or swap the power system out for a 6s capable system. The glow truck is a good 15MPH faster on the top end because Kyosho used a 2000kV motor in the electric version and, IIRC, it is 4s only. The gearing on the VE is roughly equivalent to 2nd gear on the GP. On 6s it would probably have the same or slightly more up top as the GP does, and of course way more down low(not that the GP is lacking there haha).

 

[speedbirdted]

No time for airplanery today but I took the world's dirtiest Magnum XLS 46 out to see if I could get it to actually run. I've had this engine a while (it came on a really, really badly built Goldberg Skylane 62 which I'm scared to even taxi nevermind fly) but since I have much less disgusting engines to play with I generally just forgot about it until today. First order of business was I needed to get the carb freed up. The pictures don't do it any justice - this thing was absolutely caked everywhere in castor crap. After a combination of a generous amount of MMO and heat I got it working decently well. This carburetor is a pretty standard design with a LSN working by moving the low speed jet away from the spraybar at high throttle. Unfortunately this carb appeared to be pretty badly worn so the jet can be moved in and out regardless of throttle setting making the LSN adjustment pretty hard. Maybe it's just exceedingly gunked in there - I'll clean it more later...

Oh yeah, did I mention this thing has almost no actual compression? Down to it either having a very loose Dykes ring or just being worn out, I don't know. Doesn't matter either as it ran surprisingly nicely! As the exhaust all over the test stand will tell you. The muffler is not a standard part, it's just a loose one I had that fit. I could have just run it with no muffler but I like having functional ears.

I thought I would need the starter to get it running but surprisingly it hand started really easily. First or second flick every time. Maybe I just have a magic touch... The odd RPM fluctuations at high throttle were just because the HSN keeps moving around at high throttle. There's no clicker on it and it's not stiffened with tubing or anything, so it's really free to move around. Here I had it adjusted fairly rich but as soon as I throttled it, it leaned. No bubbles in the fuel line though, which is nice; these needles according to some like to leak.

The idle is good, too, judging by the wonky LSN. It came to me set pretty well; all I had to do was lean the LSN out maybe 1/10 turn and it was perfect. Here I think I can lean it a little further.

 

[JennyC6]

No time for airplanery today but I took the world's dirtiest Magnum XLS 46 out to see if I could get it to actually run. I've had this engine a while (it came on a really, really badly built Goldberg Skylane 62 which I'm scared to even taxi nevermind fly) but since I have much less disgusting engines to play with I generally just forgot about it until today. First order of business was I needed to get the carb freed up. The pictures don't do it any justice - this thing was absolutely caked everywhere in castor crap. After a combination of a generous amount of MMO and heat I got it working decently well. This carburetor is a pretty standard design with a LSN working by moving the low speed jet away from the spraybar at high throttle. Unfortunately this carb appeared to be pretty badly worn so the jet can be moved in and out regardless of throttle setting making the LSN adjustment pretty hard. Maybe it's just exceedingly gunked in there - I'll clean it more later...

Oh yeah, did I mention this thing has almost no actual compression? Down to it either having a very loose Dykes ring or just being worn out, I don't know. Doesn't matter either as it ran surprisingly nicely! As the exhaust all over the test stand will tell you. The muffler is not a standard part, it's just a loose one I had that fit. I could have just run it with no muffler but I like having functional ears.

View attachment 175173

I thought I would need the starter to get it running but surprisingly it hand started really easily. First or second flick every time. Maybe I just have a magic touch... The odd RPM fluctuations at high throttle were just because the HSN keeps moving around at high throttle. There's no clicker on it and it's not stiffened with tubing or anything, so it's really free to move around. Here I had it adjusted fairly rich but as soon as I throttled it, it leaned. No bubbles in the fuel line though, which is nice; these needles according to some like to leak.

The idle is good, too, judging by the wonky LSN. It came to me set pretty well; all I had to do was lean the LSN out maybe 1/10 turn and it was perfect. Here I think I can lean it a little further.

That thing works pretty nice! Leave it patina'd I say.

It's an ABC engine, no ring. Magnum tended to clone more known brands such as Super Tiger and OS, rather than design their own engines. Their 4-cycles are dead ringers for Surpasses, to the point I'm gonna be putting a genuine FS26 carb on my Magnum 30! The carb is one thing Magnum did tend to do on their own and Magnum carbs are hit and miss. My XLS15 and my 52RFS's are both dolls but my 30 will NOT dial in right. LSN closed fully and it still floods out. Dunno what's wrong with it, dun care, I'ma just replace it wit hthe carb off an FS26 Surpass and be done with it. Already tested by borrowing the carb from the FS26 I do own and it ran 895949 times better.

The one you have is a clone of an OS 46FX(People will grab the piston/sleeve for your engine to repair genuine OS's with peeled liners; it drops right in and works perfect~!). Weak compression means it's got a lot of time on it, but if it still runs, then run it!

I wouldn't worry too much about the slop on the carb barrel itself. All of my engines have slop there. They should have a small spring inside the carb to push the barrel against the screw holding it in and take this slop up. The fact that yours idles and transitions nice and consistent tells me this spring is present and hasn't lost tension; I wouldn't worry too much about how much it moves when you adjust it beyond remembering to crack it open to about 1/4 power when you do so.

Get it tuned in nice, slap it on a plane you don't much care about, and fly it till something yeets out the side of the case!

 

[speedbirdted]

I'm almost dead sure it's a ringed engine. I can see what to me at least looks like a ring through the exhaust port, and there's absolutely no pinch whatsoever at TDC when cold. Not sure why it would be though - never heard of a ringed 46FX, and I don't know why whoever was in charge of stealing OS' blueprints would make that change either. Right after I made the post I actually took the carb off and disassembled it because there was so much gunk inside the carb it was actually restricting the barrel from sliding back and forth some of the time - here it seemed to be fine though, not sure why. Cleaned it out thoroughly anyway, carburetor is a lot less gummy feeling now.

I've used Magnum/ASP parts on OS engines and vice versa time and time again. The ASP 52AR in my Cub has a carburetor from an OS 52 grafted on, simply because I couldn't get the standard one to idle consistently worth a crap. Not sure why yours worked though - I doubt it, but maybe the Magnum engines have a better carburetor than the ASP ones?

 

[JennyC6]

I'm almost dead sure it's a ringed engine. I can see what to me at least looks like a ring through the exhaust port, and there's absolutely no pinch whatsoever at TDC when cold.

They did have a groove machined into roughly that spot for oil retention and yours might just be full of black gummy castor schmoo.

If it does genuinely have a ring, you'll be able to tell soon as the slug comes out of the engine. and if I'm right and it's just castor schmoo in an oil groove...leave it be, that castor schmoo may just be acting as a ring.

I've used Magnum/ASP parts on OS engines and vice versa time and time again. The ASP 52AR in my Cub has a carburetor from an OS 52 grafted on, simply because I couldn't get the standard one to idle consistently worth a crap. Not sure why yours worked though - I doubt it, but maybe the Magnum engines have a better carburetor than the ASP ones?

Magnum, AP, ASP engines all come out the same exact factory. The carbs are just hit-and-miss like that. One of my 52RFSs will idle nearly 400RPM lower than the other, and my 30RFS won't idle at all because of the afore-mentioned carb issues.

 

[Ketchup]

Today I finished gluing in ribs and sanding down a little wing. I started building it yesterday and right now it weighs between 5 and 6 grams. Before glue it was around 4 though, so I guess I have to use a little less next time. Now I have to add in all of the gear like torque tubes for the ailerons and stuff.
Here it is:

By the way, the span of this specific wing is 9 inches (so 18 inches for both wings) and it is for an FW-190 (D9).

 

[Grifflyer]

Today I finished gluing in ribs and sanding down a little wing. I started building it yesterday and right now it weighs between 5 and 6 grams. Before glue it was around 4 though, so I guess I have to use a little less next time. Now I have to add in all of the gear like torque tubes for the ailerons and stuff.
Here it is:
View attachment 175205
By the way, the span of this specific wing is 9 inches (so 18 inches for both wings) and it is for an FW-190 (D9).

Looks good!! Just by looking at it, I don't you need as many ribs as you have. You might be able to get away with about half of what you have.

 

[Ketchup]

Looks good!! Just by looking at it, I don't you need as many ribs as you have. You might be able to get away with about half of what you have.

yeah, I realized that and I'm planning to remove some. A few will have to stay though since they are needed to keep the proper wing shape after covering. I can probably remove the most from the outside section since there is not really any special stuff there.

 

[BATTLEAXE]

The kid has finally taken to the skies...

 

[Wildthing]

The kid has finally taken to the skies...

Awesome, you have some competition now

 

[BATTLEAXE]

Awesome, you have some competition now

I should be worried, he is better on his third flight then I was

 

[Wildthing]

I should be worried, he is better on his third flight then I was

Better then I was also , mind you mine was scratch build , no fancy safe board or an experienced pilot leading the way beside me plus 0 simulator time so I crashed a ton of times.

 

[BATTLEAXE]

Better then I was also , mind you mine was scratch build , no fancy safe board or an experienced pilot leading the way beside me plus 0 simulator time so I crashed a ton of times.

I agree he does have many advantages

 

[LitterBug]

Upgrading my X9D+ from OpenTX 2.2.3 to 2.3.9. Going to play with a multiprotocol module and potentially get rid of my Spektrum DX8 if all goes well. Should also be able to bind my Traxxas, and misc other cheap drones.

LB

 

[Vimana89]

Yesterday I was flying and dialing in my custom Bee with the high pusher prop. I have the thrust angle pretty much good but I'm tweaking the reflex so that it doesn't climb with throttle application(as I still had some positive reflex set in which it looks like I'll have to eliminate entirely now that the thrust angle's good). It's not 100% there yet, but I noticed I can fly it much faster now in level flight(that F pack motor on a 24" KF1M wing can get up to some serious speeds too). One more battery testing/tweaking and it should be good to go.

I think today I'm going to do a bit of building.

 

[mrjdstewart]

i may have ordered one of these today... Eachine e160.

other than the cheap-ish wal-mart heli's this will be my first "real" rc helicopter. it looks like it is pretty capable and a good platform to test the waters w/o going crazy expensive.

anyone else fly heli's?

laters,

me

 

[PsyBorg]

i may have ordered one of these today... Eachine e160.

other than the cheap-ish wal-mart heli's this will be my first "real" rc helicopter. it looks like it is pretty capable and a good platform to test the waters w/o going crazy expensive.

anyone else fly heli's?

laters,

me

That one doesnt look too bad set up wise. Aluminum flybarless head. Futaba compatible system. and the BIG part a brushless tail rotor motor instead of weak sauce brushed that usually cant keep up for any serious flying. I havent lookked at any non seller videos yet to see what reactions are but for the most part the newer stuff out now is much more solid then it was back when I was messin with them.

It is a whole other world from fixed wing and multi rotors. Id get some stick time in a sim as much as possible for anything other then hovering to start. These dont bounce as good as quads and any blade strikes is usually disaster and major rebuilding.