Thank you both, Battleaxe and Hanger.
Update: I got some flying in early this morning, with zero wind. Another crash free session. I flew most of the morning in "experience mode", it's a bit sloppy but I flew better today than Friday, so I'm excited. I'm using beginner mode (flip the switch) to pull me out of uncomfortable situations sometimes. Part of that is I fly pretty low and slow (I know altitude is my friend but), I like the feed back and seeing exactly how the aircraft handles to my inputs . I've accepted that I'm going to hit the dirt a lot more with this approach, but I find the feedback very helpful for learning. With the beginner mode, I can save myself most of the time.
Because of this, I'm going to upgrade my transmitter, I was stuck between the DXe and DX6e. There is a sale on some of the spektrum products, 15% off, and the DX6e is one of them. I can get a receiver (620) and the DX6e for $169. If you guys know of a better deal, let me know, I'm pulling the trigger tonight.
Losing communication: This is starting to happen more and more with the Sports Cub S, I'm flying and suddenly, no control, the plane motor shuts off, plane starts fall descend in circles. Sometimes it will reattach and will continue for the rest of the plan flight (battery time).
You all know way more about this than I do, so I thought I'd ask before I start searching for answers on the internet.
Here are my thoughts: Could it be the $3 gameboy transmitter? (it has happened fairly close to me, but most of the time is farther away) Something wrong with the receiver in the plane? Loose wire on the plane (poor connection) or something over heating on the plane? Thoughts? It didn't do this when it was new, and it seems to be happening more often.
Battleaxe, I had no idea they made the boards in all different colors. I did see your Spitfire(just now) with the black wings and I like it! ( I have a lot of your stuff to review that I have not yet done). As far as the Ras stuff, I was pursuing that, but I quit following that approach when I saw a video (maybe a write up) of him saying you had to peal off both sides of the foam (otherwise the board would curl) before building and this was not for newbies. I'll restart my learning about the Ras stuff.
A couple of lessons learned from a newbie:
1) lots of different cutting tools, hobby knife, simple blade, box cutter, dull tipped box cutter. They all have their place in the build
2) work on a perfectly flat, clean surface or put down cardboard or poster board under the build (all phases) if you don't want micro dents in your foam board (if you are a little OCD like me).
3) Paint: Quality really matters. I used Rustoleum Ultra cover (satin) and it was really great stuff. I had a few tiny parts to paint black, so I bought some "cheap" $3 paint at Ace, called Now Paint and is total watery crap with poor color (it's black, how hard is that!). The Rustoleum was only 3.97 at Wally or HD. I'm sure there are plenty of great spray paints, but I had great success with Rustoleum Ultra. I picked up some satin black on the way home from flying. I put too much time into my model to ruin it with cheap paint. I wonder how the cheap walmart black $1 works, but I didn't want to experiment anymore, just bought what works.
Battery Run time: I can't find a published number the safe run time of a 1300mah with power pack B motor for the Simple Scout. You guys know?
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