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

[foamtest]

I forgot this thread existed for a while, whoops...

Well yesterday I went to the field and flew a few planes including the discovery and the newly named "death ball". It was a fun day at the field and met someone new. I will have footage out some time but nothing too exciting happened on my part.

Our club however wants to do more challenges in the future and could use some inspiration from you guys

It would help make the videos more interesting, and more fun!

 

[rockyboy]

Challenges?

A couple categories of challenges that come to mind:

- Building
- Flying
- Outreach

Any particular area you're thinking about?

 

[foamtest]

I would love to build a plane with the guys in three hours and get it to fly but I am not sure if its feasible or not, I have been looking at a 300w inverter on amazon for a while though. That might be my excuse to get it...

The most realistic at the moment is flying, we have already thought about combat (obviously) but we just need something fun to bring everyone out to the field and maybe bring some newcomers as well.

 

[DamoRC]

I would love to build a plane with the guys in three hours and get it to fly but I am not sure if its feasible or not, I have been looking at a 300w inverter on amazon for a while though. That might be my excuse to get it...

The most realistic at the moment is flying, we have already thought about combat (obviously) but we just need something fun to bring everyone out to the field and maybe bring some newcomers as well.

You could knock a Bloody Baron out in three hours including the cutting etc. If you wanted to make it challenging or competitive you could scale up by X%

DamoRC

 

[foamtest]

Giant random motor bloody baron?!?!

 

[CarolineTyler]

Reasonably good day at the field yesterday except for one thing.

My handsome Canuck.....

View attachment 114940

....took a full on nose dive after I gave it a terrible launch (launching was always a butt clencher because she is a little over 4 pounds and I am not getting the thrust I should be getting from the twin 70mm EDFs).

View attachment 114941

To be fair - she took the hit pretty well and only a couple of sections in the nose were trashed - these came off pretty cleanly.

View attachment 114942

Problem is, did you ever build a plane with which you have a love-hate relationship? The Canuck is one of mine. I love how it looks and how it cruises in the air but I have always been disappointed with the performance. So I will let it sit for a couple of days before deciding to fix it or just reclaim the parts and hang the carcass on the hall of fame.

DamoRC

That was a pretty plane, I expect you will rebuild it

 

[rockyboy]

I would love to build a plane with the guys in three hours and get it to fly but I am not sure if its feasible or not, I have been looking at a 300w inverter on amazon for a while though. That might be my excuse to get it...

The most realistic at the moment is flying, we have already thought about combat (obviously) but we just need something fun to bring everyone out to the field and maybe bring some newcomers as well.

For fun fly challenges at the field....

- Timed Flight (2 minutes from takeoff to landing - either no timers allowed for anyone, or a caller hollers out at 30 second intervals)

- Bomb Drop (rubber band attach a flat popsicle stick with a nail sticking up to the top of the wing. Slide a washer with a streamer tied to it over the nail. When the plane rolls over, or even does a sharp quick dive, the washer and streamer will come off. Closest to the target wins.

- Spot Landing (stick a ballon on the field, closest touchdown wins)

- Loop and Rolls (quickest time to takeoff, perform 3 loops and 3 rolls and land)

- Lots of Loops (from level flight, 1 minute timer for as many loops as possible)

- Taxi Races (pin several balloons in the field to make a ground race course - quickest time around the course 1 time without taking off wins)

- Formation Flying (for the very brave - two circuits of the pattern maintaining a formation position - behind right or behind left)

There is also a good Model Aviation link with some ideas - I like the "dice loops" https://www.modelairplanenews.com/10-great-fun-fly-events-and-ideas/

 

[thenated0g]

Had a pretty great RC week so far. Maidened a PSS ship and got to a big air slope spot down by the Golden Gate bridge with the owner of aloft hobbies.
Als picked up a Cricut vinyl machine and been having fun making some decals for my planes and my friends Rubicon trip for their vehicles.

And i finished my own design/copy of a DS style slope plank. Just need to get my transmitter setup with it.

 

[DamoRC]

Had a pretty great RC week so far. Maidened a PSS ship and got to a big air slope spot down by the Golden Gate bridge with the owner of aloft hobbies.
Als picked up a Cricut vinyl machine and been having fun making some decals for my planes and my friends Rubicon trip for their vehicles.
View attachment 114954 View attachment 114955 View attachment 114956
And i finished my own design/copy of a DS style slope plank. Just need to get my transmitter setup with it.
View attachment 114957 View attachment 114958

That is SO cool! Just watched the video on their website - quite a machine!

DamoRC

 

[thenated0g]

 

[DamoRC]

X5 Pro UBEC - Reverse Polarity Warning Feature.

I learned today that my recently acquired 5A BEC unit has a reverse polarity warning feature. If you connect it to a battery the wrong way around, the electrolytic capacitor on the input side explodes, loudly and clearly informing you that you have connected the unit incorrectly. A useful feature I think.

DamoRC

 

[DamoRC]

So lucky to be able to hang with creative minds and great pilots at my local field.

Look at this flying runway from @Ran D. St. Clair!

DamoRC

 

[BS projects inc.]

I ordered a 90mm edf for a 3d printed rc V1 rocket i'm designing.

 

[PsyBorg]

Giant random motor bloody baron?!?!

ROCKET BARON!!!!

Vertical launch, longest glide time wins.

I am sure if you ask David he would do a sound bite for Rocket Baron instead of his trademark Rocket Knife for the video of tbe event.

 

[foamtest]

ROCKET BARON!!!!

Vertical launch, longest glide time wins.

I am sure if you ask David he would do a sound bite for Rocket Baron instead of his trademark Rocket Knife for the video of tbe event.

*frantically emails him*

 

[Fluburtur]

I removed the nose of the VG-33 once again because of the last crash.

It needed to be changed anyways because I designed a new one with yet another thrust angle, also it was already quite damaged. Goodbye nice paintjob!

 

[thenated0g]

Paraphrasing from memory here, but Adam Savage has a saying he likes to share about how in the beginning of your hobby materials are expensive and your time is cheap. Than as you get more experienced your time is expensive and material is cheap. Not that you are all of the sudden making more money but that you have moved on and your time is precious to you. When you go to build you want to do something new and exciting not spend 3 hrs just getting stuff ready to build.

That actually made a lot of sense to me this past week. I used to horde like anything i could find that might possibly maybe someday probably i could use that...maybe. Wood, foam, metal, electronics...i have a huge box of wall warts. You know all those ac to dc plugs all your electronics come in. But how much time is it going to take me to convert those things into usable parts? Is it really worth it or wouldn't it just be easier to drop $5 on amazon and have it in 2 days new and working already.

So this than has led to my workshop being filled with stuff and it only takes one or two projects and all my area is overflowing. Recently though this started bothering me. And i would go out in the shop and just not feel like working on anything. I thought that having all this crap would inspire me to use it for something but really i was just moving the junk with me everytime we moved and than storing it. It wasnt accomplishing anything at all. In fact i think it was stopping me.

So i have been on a cleanse this week throwing out anything that i haven't used in a couple years. Honestly most of this stuff is stuff i should have thrown away a long time ago, stuff others were tossing. But i also really looking at old planes i dont care about and removing them.

Its pretty interesting walking into my cleaned up and much emptier area. Like having that empty and clean work area, my mind has all these ideas and is motivated to work on stuff.

 

[SlingShot]

I rescued this one-eyed kitten and got her through her first surgery. Once we get the telemetry and bionic eye installed, she'll be a tree climbing and plane fetching cat

 

[CarolineTyler]

Grabbed a Saturday afternoon of calm winds to fly the Rainbow Wing.
Lost orientation and hit the only telephone pole there, deflected onto the very top of a very dense tree.
Went home disappointed.
Got the telescopic ladder and a 2 metre plastic water pipe.
And....after a lot of struggle, scratching myself on brambles, stinging myself on nettles and nearly falling off the ladder... I got my wing back ... YAY!!!!
Only very minor damage and all repaired ready for Monday's flying on a day off

 

[CarolineTyler]

Grabbed a Saturday afternoon of calm winds to fly the Rainbow Wing.
Lost orientation and hit the only telephone pole there, deflected onto the very top of a very dense tree.
Went home disappointed.
Got the telescopic ladder and a 2 metre plastic water pipe.
And....after a lot of struggle, scratching myself on brambles, stinging myself on nettles and nearly falling off the ladder... I got my wing back ... YAY!!!!
Only very minor damage and all repaired ready for Monday's flying on a day off

Darn, was checking the wing out and the left servo had stripped its gears, cue cutting and adjusting to replace the 5gm servos for 9gm metal geared ones, that should be better