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

JTarmstr

Elite member
This is in fact that museum. I wish FT would visit it and do an epicsode...

Ohh, I figured you mentioned in the post so I didnt guess, as a airplane nerd I know the only XB-70 in the world is in the museum at Wright Patterson so it was a bit of a giveaway. part of the reason I want to visit it actually, the XB 70 is my favorite cold war bomber design.

It would be pretty awesome if FT did an episode on it, I think its leaning a bit away from their usual content.
 

Vimana89

Legendary member
Ohh, I figured you mentioned in the post so I didnt guess, as a airplane nerd I know the only XB-70 in the world is in the museum at Wright Patterson so it was a bit of a giveaway. part of the reason I want to visit it actually, the XB 70 is my favorite cold war bomber design.

It would be pretty awesome if FT did an episode on it, I think its leaning a bit away from their usual content.
The FT guys have been doing a lot of random goofy stuff lately which is cool, but their lineup needs one or two good airliners and a hand full of Cold War fighters, bombers, and interceptors.
 

JTarmstr

Elite member
The FT guys have been doing a lot of random goofy stuff lately which is cool, but their lineup needs one or two good airliners and a hand full of Cold War fighters, bombers, and interceptors.

Yeah, personally I dont care to much for it, but whatever, its their channel not mine. I personally would like to see some more challenges (and cool ones, like the 100 MPH for $100 or Best glider, not the like the recycling plane). Maybe also some fun builds I really liked Andres' X-29 and the FT Viggen. I'm not saying the content rn is bad, it just doesnt suit me much. And that was really going offtopic, but hey, its in the thread name :p.

Some jets I would like to see

Ben Harbers F-16 as a FT kit

B-57 canberra

U-2

F-21 Kfir

F-86

The Mirage III
 
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Mr. Gandalf

Elite member
No flying for me today :(, It has been pouring rain since about lunch so I spent my afternoon building this little mirage 2000.

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Vimana89

Legendary member
Yeah, personally I dont care to much for it, but whatever, its their channel not mine. I personally would like to see some more challenges (and cool ones, like the 100 MPH for $100 or Best glider, not the like the recycling plane). Maybe also some fun builds I really liked Andres' X-29 and the FT Viggen. I'm not saying the content rn is bad, it just doesnt suit me much. And that was really going offtopic, but hey, its in the thread name :p.

Some jets I would like to see

Ben Harbers F-16 as a FT kit

B-57 canberra

U-2

F-21 Kfir

F-86

The Mirage III
Right there with you. Nothing wrong with flying pigs and toilets and Harry Potter cars once in a while, but there's a lot of holes in their roster and under or unrepresented genres of planes they could be building that are historically important and fun to fly, and would have a more lasting appeal with the community than a passing novelty.
 

rockyboy

Skill Collector
Mentor
Hosted the club's spring open house fun fly today - 13 pilots and 29 attendees total so a great crowd for us!

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It was a little gusty though and it took me 3 planes to make 3 flights in the fun fly! :eek:. Crashed my Ugly Stick when the battery hatch blew open and I didn't have enough height after the roll. Crashed my Telemaster on the fourth touch and go - gust of wind took me sideways into the high grass. So I finished the spot landing with a balsa flying wing! :ROFLMAO:

All planes are repairable and I had a great time hanging with @wilmracer and everyone who came out so I'm calling the day a win! :cool:. A good club is a great thing to have nearby - if you don't have one, start one!
 

Vimana89

Legendary member
Hosted the club's spring open house fun fly today - 13 pilots and 29 attendees total so a great crowd for us!

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It was a little gusty though and it took me 3 planes to make 3 flights in the fun fly! :eek:. Crashed my Ugly Stick when the battery hatch blew open and I didn't have enough height after the roll. Crashed my Telemaster on the fourth touch and go - gust of wind took me sideways into the high grass. So I finished the spot landing with a balsa flying wing! :ROFLMAO:

All planes are repairable and I had a great time hanging with @wilmracer and everyone who came out so I'm calling the day a win! :cool:. A good club is a great thing to have nearby - if you don't have one, start one!
I think there might be a club and proper flying field downtown by me. I should probably check them out, and if the club for some reason isn't a convenient option or doesn't have the right vibe, maybe I'll start one. I know if I started one it would be about all RC planes and quads, but I'd emphasize electric power systems,foam board and FT techniques . I think I'd have to pass on fuel turbine jets that can go boom and big fast fuel helis that can take a head off, and emphasize small, safe electric models.
 

bracesport

Legendary member
winters on the way in there in NZ and the weathers been iffy at best this weekend and raining now - I did get to repair my TT and set up and test the 3 Axis gyro I was gifted (video on my TT thread) - can't wait to try it!
 

Vimana89

Legendary member
Got another nose job to do. This little slender delta is a grizzled veteran of several flights and a few scrapes and dings. On the rebuild after this airframe has finally had it, I will add a full box fuselage along the belly rather than the two sheet thick strip spine I'm using on the prototype. The belly box of the fuselage and the tail topper thingy will be painted a bright metallic color(receiver and antennas will be up in the nose not surrounded by metallic paint). I'll need more FT decals to decorate the wing. I want to use some nice 5g servos on the rebuild and test one of the 5x4 six blades props I want to run on my Dash 8 build. I'll add a hair to the rudder width and a finger or so to the elevator, and other than that it will be the exact same plane.
 

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Vimana89

Legendary member
Once I start this rebuild I'll document the process and start a new build thread to launch the the finished products of both "Skinny Minnie"(will be called the V-Sliver) and the RETjet, which also will get a full box fuse and the addition of a tail topper like the Sliver has. I'll link the old RETjet thread together with it for reference. Elevon and AET slender wings will probably be coming in the future, but for now I will polish up my RET designs while I start my Dash 8 twin engine project.
 

F106DeltaDart

Elite member
Got in a flight yesterday at one of the local Warbird events on my newest heli. It is an old Hirobo Dauphin painted as a Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphin. Spent the last few months converting it over to electric power. The field was partially flooded from heavy rain, so it was perfect for doing some mock water rescues.
 

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JennyC6

Elite member
Haven't done much to do with aviation lately. Spring in mid TN is just not very good weather for flying underpowered foamboard aircraft, yanno? Nothin's wrong with the nitro Spear or nitro Mini Sportster, though, they're all good to go.


In the mean time, I got my hands on a Traxxas Slayer Pro with a blown engine!


Engine was pretty sorry. The piston/sleeve fit was completely ruined, zero compression whatsoever, which is why it wouldn't start when I received it. This was known before I bought it, only paid $200 or so for the truck and that was primarily because of the engine. I knew I'd be able to fix it, but that it wasn't operable as-is, so seller and I came to a pretty fair agreement considering the rest of the truck was pretty much mint and that a brand new one is nearly $500.

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Quick way to tell if one of these engines will run at all is to try to do this. In an engine that will run, the piston will not come up to the top of the sleeve, and if it comes out this far it's totally hooped. This is why it failed to start.

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If it had started, it would have thrown a rod pretty quickly. Big-end bearing is walking out of the rod and has spun far enough off target that the oil hole in it isn't aligning with anything. I couldn't get my phone to snap a photo of something that small, but the wrist pin bore in the piston was also egg shaped significantly enough that the piston wasn't moving like it should have done, further reducing compression, screwing with port timing, and all but guaranteeing that this thing would have never run right if it even started at all.



Since Traxxas 2.5/3.3 conrods are notoriously weak links that like to spontaneously fail...and because this engine was already undergoing rod failure when I got it...I decided to upgrade when I rebuilt the 3.3. Gave it a Davis Diesel conrod, far more stout and far better engineered than what was already there. Shoutout to Family Hobbies in Smyrna, TN for stocking these rods and for popping one up onto the counter when I mentioned I needed a new rod for it!

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While I rebuilt the engine, I also rigged it for from-the-transmitter engine starting. Traxxas has an on-board electric starting system already, but they want you to use a wand containing a 7.2v nickel battery that you plug into a port near the back of the vehicle somewhere(You can see me using this in the first clip of it, where it failed to start). These wands work okay for cranking it over, but they're horrible about lighting the glow plug properly, and I wanted to be able to start the truck from the radio.

First thing I had to do was rig it to crank over from the transmitter. Since I use the same Futaba 6J to drive my cars as I do my aircraft, I had plenty of spare channels kicking around, and so I decided full right aileron would crank the engine over. A 10 amp relay controllable from an RC system handles the electrical side of things, and the receiver battery I use is perfect for this because it's high capacity and it has both servo-style and EC-3 high current discharge leads. The former I power the receiver off of, he latter I crank the engine from. Lithium-Iron-Phosphate chemistry, 2 cell, 2300mAh. Standard Rx pack in my surface and air fleet, and it really doesn't even feel the engine here.

With the engine turning, I then had to get the glow plug lit remotely. Parts wise it was easy, an off-the-shelf SwitchGlo system for RC helicopters and aircraft with a twist-lock plug connector did the trick. Now I could have mixed it into the cranking system and basically had it function exactly like the Wand, but there's situations where I might want to use one but not the other. Priming the truck, for example, I plug the exhaust and crank it over to force fuel up into the carb. This is done without glow heat. And on a cold start I want to leave glow heat on for a few seconds after I've stopped turning the engine over, as well as if I need to leave it idling for an extended period as this is when these engines are most prone to randomly shutting off. So glow heat I put on the Ch5 toggle switch instead. And hey presto it's running again!

Following that I had to get it broken in properly...

and then got some good wheels and tires on it.

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It's lookin' boss and running sweet!

If any of ya'll are at FPVFest 2019, be on the lookout. I'll be there, and this truck will come with me alongside my other two nitro surface rigs and all of my aircraft. And it will go screaming across the grounds at some point, full throttle, second gear, flat out hard as she'll run! Hopefully by that point itt'l have FPV, reverse, and some additional tuning to make it drive even better. Needs thicker diff oil, sway bars wouldn't hurt, adjustments to spring rates, toe settings...mm.
 

Vimana89

Legendary member
My extra slender plane is so battered and needs a serious new airframe, but still flying pretty well. My RETjet is getting there too, and I will either rebuild that one too or try a different project with the parts, maybe a forward swept plane or flying wing. I am looking at getting a nice quad with long range and FPV as well as a parts list to maintain my foamies and build the Dash 8. Maybe I will build the new air frame today and paint it nice. I have neon yellow and ultramarine blue for non metallic options. One of these will be used for my main fuselage nacelle to avoid surrounding the antennas with metallic paint. I then have the option to do the main wing the same color, or use a metallic color for that. The belly box and horizontal tail surface will definitely be a metallic color. But what colors:unsure:
 

PsyBorg

Wake up! Time to fly!
hands down best FT kit ever. had this kit for awhile, not sure why i waited. haven't finished but know enough at this point. bravo! (y)

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don't mind the mess.

me :cool:

I will second the quality of the design. It does however have a weak spot and that is the front plate and motor mount. It does not take much of a hit to require a total rebuild. With that complex cowel ypu will want the internals as strong as possible.

Double up that front plate and side walls. I even put triangle supports under that plate back to the firewall on mine the 3rd time I re constructed the nose.
 

FoamyDM

Building Fool-Flying Noob
Moderator
Last night was gorgeous but windy. It had been a long while of building without flying, so I flew anyway.
FT-Mini-scout that I maidened... with a continuous roll issue.
The Synergy, (I hadn't marked CG) managed a Dirt nap, (freeing up a F-pack motor). Last I pulled out the tried-and-true FT Simple Soarer. The wind was from my back making launches difficult the whole time. So I slope soared with mid-throttle motor to go up and down the runway. it required attention. When bringing it down to land, about 3' from a landing a gust took it and cartwheeled it into the ground. the tail broke off at the rear of the wing...

Well, I do love building... and I now have two F-pack motors freed up. :)
 

Vimana89

Legendary member
Over tonight and/or tomorrow I'll be rebuilding my V-Sliver slender delta with a paint job, full box fuselage, and a bit more elevator and rudder presence. I will probably tone down the dihedral angle on the wingtips a bit too. This will be documented for the build thread. I believe after that I'll build my scout kit for a good quick easy plane and rejoin the challenge. Friday I'll be ordering a new FPV quad and parts for the Dash 8 build. Some time between the scout and finishing up the prototype Dash 8, I will rebuild the RETjet with all the bells and whistles too and document it for the build thread too.
 

LitterBug

Techno Nut
Moderator
I fixed up the mower at the flying field. One of the deck wheel mounts broke off, so had to get it welded back on. Sharpened and balanced the blades while the deck was off, and put a new belt on. Tested it all out by mowing and sweeping the evening flying area. (faces east). Seriously considering setting the mower up with ArduRover and FPV.....

Cheers!
LitterBug

PS: Drove my traxxas at the field last night when I was picking the deck up. Grass needed mowed, it did not move well.