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

[Vimana89]

Got a Nice g rated flight of my RETjet. Not quite as impressive a bit of footage the other was turning out to be, but still enough to display the flight characteristics of the plane and a couple loops. As I type this I'm working to convert my files and get my YouTube squared away so I can finally share some of my journey!

 

[Vimana89]

So. Video converter is rock solid.No fancy editing or music yet, maybe I'll learn that in time, but...here it is! my first video upload, a short flight of the RETjet, raw and uncut. Feels good to finally share!

 

[Fluburtur]

I went to a guitar shop today and now I want to build another guitar however im not sure one, I wanted an epiphone casino so I was thinking about making a hollowbody.
so what do you say, full plywood guitar ot nice hollowbody guitar?

 

[mrjdstewart]

hollowbody.

 

[mrjdstewart]

i had very high hopes for today and had planned on putting on a show. i def put on a show, just didn't figure it would go like it did.

we will start with the maiden of the EDF delta. things were good last night when i did programing but it was quickly apparent that things weren't right. the first launch ended in an immediate, uncontrollable, hard yaw left and nose into the ground. on inspection it was clear that the left motor wasn't spinning up like the right resulting in the uncontrollable thrust diff. i attempted to reset the throttle range but due to my genius of putting both ESC's on 1 plug, i could not get both to activate and time together. i tried to launch 2 more times, each ending in the same. after that it was taken back to the jeep, the crowd was talking just not about good things.

next was the Twin Hacker. this one had the crowd giggling, especially after watching my last attempt at a twin. first attempt it taxi'd out and all seem good. as soon as it lifted it started a violent roll left and into the scrub it went. now the crowd was really talking smack. i quickly ran across field and grabbed it, and upon inspection the ailerons were reversed. duh... i quickly fix that, then taxi'd out again and pulled into the sky. on low rates the thing is active, on high rates @ 100% throw things are nuts! the thrust diff is working like a charm, snap rolls are insane! flat spins no problem. then, it started acting up. i would be fine, then loose it, then recover, it was so quick i wasn't sure if i was just not used to the plane or it was a real problem. well, it was real and few moments laters it took a nose dive straight into the dirt from about 40ft. now the crowd was rolling on the ground. they were getting a real joy out of the fact that i was failing.

after that i had no choice but to grab the F-22 and shut them all up. i have to say, this thing is hands down one of the best looking planes when in the air, it just has a presence. don't know what it is but it just looks amazing. flew it twice with w/o incident. used a higher C rated 4S-1300 and got almost 3 mins.

rest of day was an uneventful flight of the FT Spitfire which always flies great, and my 2M Radian. I think my timer was @ 35 mins when i finally decided to land the radian. with temps really beginning to climb here in tucson, thermals are everywhere. i love that i can just pull up a chair, sit and talk smack with the guys, while floating around. one of my first, and favorite planes ever.

i also finally got @Rasterize to fly his Big Corsair that we built. Told ya you could do it!

in all, not a bad day even with my 2 epic fails. both have been "fixed" and we will attempt again tomorrow.

laters,

me

 

[Vimana89]

Need to order parts and do some research before starting new builds, especially anything twin engine or forward swept or something else I'm really new to. Got a few parts and a couple good FB sheets left. Why not slap together something I know but slightly different? I'm making a ridiculously skinny delta of a more basic shape than my RETjet. Let's see how it does with a RET control scheme, dihedrals, and no canards...this ought to be interesting, maybe a bit sketchy. If it gets airborne and does some stuff for more than like 15 seconds, I'll be sure to share!

 

[CarolineTyler]

Was not the 'heatwave' we were promised but got some great flying in today at the club site. Flew the Mini Vampire, The FT-Flyer, the Seagull Swift 40, the TWE210 quad and the Flywoo Ant. Apart from running into long grass on the fist take off attempt of the Swift 40 no incidents!!!
That Mini Vampire is awesome - flew for about 8 minutes and only used up 35% of a 1300mAh 3S battery and that wasn't holding back with the speed!

 

[Vimana89]

Tons of wind today. RETjet is starting to show a bit of wear around the nose but still going strong. I put the vynil cockpit decals and a FT sticker on the funky delta I built in a few hours last night. Even skinnier than an hp-115! I built it for fun and a challenge to see how slim I could make a delta and still get it to fly. I don't have super high expectations for this one but if It works out, it will probably be the most slender RC plane that's still technically a plane anyone's ever flown. Here it is next to my second mini scout kit and FT radial motor. I've had this a while and plan to build it tonight or tomorrow.

 

[dodgebob]

Well. Here we go. I'm 99% done with the simple cub.all the servos are in and it rolled across the kitchen floor under its own power. No paint ..no problem. I will need to do some centering on the rudder servo as it really likes right more than left. The instructions for binding the receiver for the dxe are terrible. A call to horizon hobbies went unanswered,that sucked. After just pushing buttons for a while I got it to bind. I am going to wait for a day with no wind and make flight history.
Thank you everybody for your help answering my questions . I will try to post a video when it flys....or not

 

[mrjdstewart]

Well. Here we go. I'm 99% done with the simple cub.all the servos are in and it rolled across the kitchen floor under its own power. No paint ..no problem. I will need to do some centering on the rudder servo as it really likes right more than left. The instructions for binding the receiver for the dxe are terrible. A call to horizon hobbies went unanswered,that sucked. After just pushing buttons for a while I got it to bind. I am going to wait for a day with no wind and make flight history.
Thank you everybody for your help answering my questions . I will try to post a video when it flys....or not

you can download the .pdf manual but it still doesn't help much if unfamiliar with thing. make sure you have all throws going the correct directions. it is a pain and easy to mess up on the DXe.

good luck,

me

 

[mrjdstewart]

Tons of wind today. RETjet is starting to show a bit of wear around the nose but still going strong. I put the vynil cockpit decals and a FT sticker on the funky delta I built in a few hours last night. Even skinnier than an hp-115! I built it for fun and a challenge to see how slim I could make a delta and still get it to fly. I don't have super high expectations for this one but if It works out, it will probably be the most slender RC plane that's still technically a plane anyone's ever flown. Here it is next to my second mini scout kit and FT radial motor. I've had this a while and plan to build it tonight or tomorrow.

that is going to be a handful in the axial rolls. make sure to set a good amount of expo and drop your rates on the aileron mix. should be fun though if you get it right.

good luck,

me

 

[mrjdstewart]

so, to my day...

rewind to saturday and i had 2 epic fails. i am happy to report that both of those black marks have been removed from the record.

the EDF twin wing flew like a champ. sailed right out of my hands like i initially expected it to. plenty of power, still has a decent glide slope, and will do the craziest pinwheel spins i have ever seen. it doesn't do them flat, it turns vertical and spins like a crazy. to get out all you have to do is let off rudder input and it straightens it self. once the crowd saw this, it was game on. i am sooooooo surprised my battery didn't fly off i spun this thing so many times. flew it 2 times without issues

next was the twin Hacker. i switched to 2 blade props, a 6x3 and 6x3R to try and cut down on the amp draw. i had some issues on first take of and broke my 6x3R which i did not have a replacement for. i dug around and found 2 - 5x4x3 that were counter rotating and stuck them on. back to the line, and it took off and flew like a dream. crazy amount of throws and the thrust diff was insane. no issues with amp draw and was able to land w/o issues.

a few months ago i scratch built a Goblin that i gave to a friend at the field. this thing was stupid fast, 120mph easy. well my friend finally killed it a few weeks ago and brought me back the electronics. what else should you do with a dead Goblin but build a new one? started this morning after i got home from flying. gonna put a FPV cam up front this time. even if i don't fly FPV, i think the footage will be gold for recording. and of course i had to paint it goblin green.

can wait.

laters,

me

 

[IcedStorm777]

Just got my UMX mig-15 in the mail. SOOOO EXCITED!!

 

[Vimana89]

Just got my UMX mig-15 in the mail. SOOOO EXCITED!!

Was looking at that one to possibly go with my UMX transmitter. A replacement Trojan would be a bit cheaper, but that Mig looks like a lot of fun and I haven't heard anything bad about it. Let us know how you like it!

 

[Vimana89]

so, to my day...

rewind to saturday and i had 2 epic fails. i am happy to report that both of those black marks have been removed from the record.

the EDF twin wing flew like a champ. sailed right out of my hands like i initially expected it to. plenty of power, still has a decent glide slope, and will do the craziest pinwheel spins i have ever seen. it doesn't do them flat, it turns vertical and spins like a crazy. to get out all you have to do is let off rudder input and it straightens it self. once the crowd saw this, it was game on. i am sooooooo surprised my battery didn't fly off i spun this thing so many times. flew it 2 times without issues

next was the twin Hacker. i switched to 2 blade props, a 6x3 and 6x3R to try and cut down on the amp draw. i had some issues on first take of and broke my 6x3R which i did not have a replacement for. i dug around and found 2 - 5x4x3 that were counter rotating and stuck them on. back to the line, and it took off and flew like a dream. crazy amount of throws and the thrust diff was insane. no issues with amp draw and was able to land w/o issues.

a few months ago i scratch built a Goblin that i gave to a friend at the field. this thing was stupid fast, 120mph easy. well my friend finally killed it a few weeks ago and brought me back the electronics. what else should you do with a dead Goblin but build a new one? started this morning after i got home from flying. gonna put a FPV cam up front this time. even if i don't fly FPV, i think the footage will be gold for recording. and of course i had to paint it goblin green.

View attachment 130563

can wait.

laters,

me

Really happy to hear the twin EDF flew so well. I like the dead basic design with the twin EDFs, looks real clean and no-nonsense.

 

[Vimana89]

An idea for a custom flying wing hit me today, so I had to do a quick sketch up. I wanted something basic to build and fly but with a unique profile that would turn heads. I came up with this pentagonal design with basically a poor man's KFM2 air foil. Single slotted pusher prop, AET control scheme, the very end of the wing tips would be swept up on a sharp dihedral. This is a quick top view, have not decided where I want my vertical stabilizer(s?) yet.

 

[IcedStorm777]

Was looking at that one to possibly go with my UMX transmitter. A replacement Trojan would be a bit cheaper, but that Mig looks like a lot of fun and I haven't heard anything bad about it. Let us know how you like it!

Ya my friend had one and after watching him fly 8min on a battery i went home a bought one. Can fly SUPER SLOW like SUPER SLOW not slow for an EDF just straight slow. It does take a while to get off the ground though but i live at 7500ft. I have only heard good things from people and have only watched my two friends fly theirs. I will let you know how fun it is! 3 friends+3 mig 15s=mig formation!!!

 

[mrjdstewart]

An idea for a custom flying wing hit me today, so I had to do a quick sketch up. I wanted something basic to build and fly but with a unique profile that would turn heads. I came up with this pentagonal design with basically a poor man's KFM2 air foil. Single slotted pusher prop, AET control scheme, the very end of the wing tips would be swept up on a sharp dihedral. This is a quick top view, have not decided where I want my vertical stabilizer(s?) yet.

i would not bother with aileron controls and instead keep it simple and light using just elevons. the shape is a little wonky but no reason why it wont fly. may want to go to ecalc and do some CG calculations just to be sure, then make sure you build everything around that.

good luck,

me

 

[Vimana89]

i would not bother with aileron controls and instead keep it simple and light using just elevons. the shape is a little wonky but no reason why it wont fly. may want to go to ecalc and do some CG calculations just to be sure, then make sure you build everything around that.

good luck,

me

There are two things that I really don't like about elevons that I'll eventually have to overcome. One, they are totally unforgiving of any slop or difference or discrepancy in building and linkage. One rod is a hair longer, or a control horn is positioned just a millimeter further forward or back than the other one or anything at all, and I can trim all I want, have the elevons start completely level, but during elevator function they will always move at slightly different rates, causing the plane to roll or bank when I try just to straight climb. This is especially annoying on takeoff when trying to gain altitude. Another thing, is with RET and AET,I can give my elevator a lot of authority and larger size and keep my ailerons or rudder smaller for less drastic rolls. With those angled ailerons on my wing, I would really only need one servo with the double thingy and two rods and no Y harness, reducing the third servo and extra wiring. I'd spend more time and effort trying to get the elevons perfect than just building with ailerons.

 

[PsyBorg]

I did this for most of the afternoon with no crashes at all today.

Perfect low wind sunny day just after the park guys mowed and made it all pretty.

The only thing wrong is my crappy dvr recorded 80% of the footage as black screen with sound. This was the only full flight video for the entire runs. Really sucked as this was like the 3rd pack and the last one was way faster.

STILL cant land properly with 55+ Degree camera tilt