One Off Racer FrSky test plane
- Thread starter Tench745
- Start date
Tench745
Master member
I have a HobbyKing DSMX module that cost way more than that. Getting the settings right to communicate with my HobbyZone Champ took a number of hours of research and experimentation over multiple days. If another module works better I'd be happy to learn more about it. Do you have a link?
It is sad that you haven't been able to fly much in the last two years. @FDS turned me onto these receivers for FrSky:
https://hobbyking.com/en_us/catalogsearch/result/?q=frsky v6r4
15 bucks and great for all those four channel planes. I hope you get to fly more, soon!
Buzzbomb, I have a few of those recievers. They're pretty nice and I will usually buy another to switch out whenever I place an order from somewhere that sells them.
If I'm honest it's more that I haven't made time to fly over the past few years. I joined the Experimental Aircraft Association and started building a full-scale airplane. I dropped my AMA membership and didn't re-up my club membership in order to help pay for the EAA membership. On the bright side, that means I do have almost 300 hours into building my Junior Ace, 2-seat parasol.
On top of that, I was tired of crashing models. I don't fly a lot because I'm more of a builder, so I'm always a rusty pilot. I often come up with a design, build it, and try to tweak it into what I know it could be. This gets really frustrating when every model that goes up comes down in pieces because of rusty skills and then I have to start from scratch to figure out if it was me or the airplane that was at fault.
Without a club flying field I was limited to the school soccer fields or the local park. When just flying my glider or Champ those are fine, but the bigger, faster, or more complex models are nice to have a larger field so there's room to think ahead of them, and to watch them fly. The club has its own drawbacks; the nearest field is over half an hour away and often has others flying. Unless I have half a day to charge batteries, drive up, wait for open sky, fly, drive back, and storage-charge batteries it isn't really worth it to me when I can drive to the local park, burn a battery or two and come home in the half an hour it would otherwise take to get to the field.
TLDR:
Flying has just been too much work/hassle to be much fun for me.
And perhaps the worst part for a builder; my shelves and workshop are too full to build more planes!
I'm going to be keeping an eye on the weather for a nice weekend to get back out there and either make some good flights, or make some more room on my shelf with bad ones. If anyone in Central New York wanted to help me do that, I wouldn't say no.
buzzbomb
I know nothing!
Ok. I don't feel so bad for you now. That's way cool.
Michael9865
Elite member
Link not working.
Tench745
Master member
Apparently it's still awaiting approval.
Michael9865
Elite member
The link is working. Thank you
Tench745
Master member
Thank you, I'm glad you like it. It ended up being more of a mashup of the FT Racer and NerdNic's Mig 3 than I had anticipated when I started it.
The MK I had a 36" wingspan, but the current version is 39". Some day I may try a smaller wing again, but probably not for a while.
When I was going over my plans for the MK III I realized I'd left myself notes on prop sizes when I first started the design. I suggested using an 8x6 or 8x8 prop. All of my testing has been done with a 9x4.5, the plane has been under-propped the whole time. I wonder if this was part of my stall issues.
Tench745
Master member
I'm only going to run a 3S battery and an 1100KV motor, so the max pitch speed is only 68 mph with an 8x8. With the draggy, flat nose and fixed gear I'll bet it won't even go that fast except in a dive.
However, I don't know for sure as I have only flown it with a 9x4.5 SF which gave me a max pitch speed of about 38 mph and felt fast enough to be fun, but is not ideal for this airframe.
The local hobby shop didn't have an 8x8, so I bought an 8x6 which should give me a max pitch speed of about 51. I think this will be a comfortable middle-ground.
Tench745
Master member
I finally got the McB Racer back into the air again.
This was my third attempt at flying this plane this year. The first time I didn't realize I'd gotten poly in the pushrod guides and both the rudder and elevator were immobile. The second time I didn't have enough airspeed in the hand launch, got low and scrubbed the gear off while also breaking my only 8x6 APC prop.
This time everything worked out. I had a better battery retaining method, an 8x6 slowfly prop, warm weather, and light winds.
The grass is too long at the schoolyard for an ROG takeoff, but with a hand toss she gained speed nicely and flew absolutely beautifully. I love how well this plane slows down with flaps. I can fly around at speeds only a little faster than my FT Speedster with full control. After about 7-8 minutes of flying I started to get cocky, got a little too close to the ground on a low pass, and scrubbed the gear off (again) at a pretty slow speed. I need to figure out a better way to mount that.
This was my third attempt at flying this plane this year. The first time I didn't realize I'd gotten poly in the pushrod guides and both the rudder and elevator were immobile. The second time I didn't have enough airspeed in the hand launch, got low and scrubbed the gear off while also breaking my only 8x6 APC prop.
This time everything worked out. I had a better battery retaining method, an 8x6 slowfly prop, warm weather, and light winds.
The grass is too long at the schoolyard for an ROG takeoff, but with a hand toss she gained speed nicely and flew absolutely beautifully. I love how well this plane slows down with flaps. I can fly around at speeds only a little faster than my FT Speedster with full control. After about 7-8 minutes of flying I started to get cocky, got a little too close to the ground on a low pass, and scrubbed the gear off (again) at a pretty slow speed. I need to figure out a better way to mount that.
Tench745
Master member
I changed up the gear mounts by adding larger plywood plates in the wing, and screwing a smaller plywood retaining strap over the gear wire. The end of the wire is held in with hot glue to give it a safe failure point. After three or four relatively hard landings today it has held up fine.
![IMG_1290[1].JPG](https://ftforumx2.s3.amazonaws.com/2020/04/294470_b932289899d4295cf1af0512f939d8b5_thumb.jpg "IMG_1290[1].JPG")
When I was figuring out how to program in flaperons I noticed my rudder servo is beginning to make some noise, which led me to the further realization that I built this whole plane using 5gram HXT500 servos. So far it hasn't been a problem, but it sounds like it may become one soon.
![IMG_1290[1].JPG](https://ftforumx2.s3.amazonaws.com/2020/04/294470_b932289899d4295cf1af0512f939d8b5.jpg "IMG_1290[1].JPG")
When I was figuring out how to program in flaperons I noticed my rudder servo is beginning to make some noise, which led me to the further realization that I built this whole plane using 5gram HXT500 servos. So far it hasn't been a problem, but it sounds like it may become one soon.
Tench745
Master member
A small aside here; I had a chance to try the McB Racer on an 8x8 prop a few months ago.
I had broken all my other 8 and 9 inch props but came across an unused bag of 8x8R props I'd bought for my Versawing. Figured I'd give it a shot, reversed the motor direction to use the reverse-pitch props, and took the plane out. The hand launch was a little more dicey but manageable; I could tell I had less thrust than the 9x4.5 or 8x6. The plane flew nicely at about 1/3 to 1/2 throttle. I got it up to about 2/3 at one point and was enjoying the way this plane felt with a little bit of speed on. A full throttle pass was up next so I throttled back to about 1/3 to line up for the low pass and then punched it to full. The acceleration was almost instant and then WEEEEEEEEEEE.... the prop nut spun off followed shortly by the prop. I was able to make a rather graceful deadstick landing and then spent the next half hour walking a search pattern to try and find the prop and spinner. Both were recovered. I definitely recommend trying the McB Racer with an 8x8 prop if you have one in your arsenal; just make sure it's the right rotation or use a locking method for your prop nut.
I had broken all my other 8 and 9 inch props but came across an unused bag of 8x8R props I'd bought for my Versawing. Figured I'd give it a shot, reversed the motor direction to use the reverse-pitch props, and took the plane out. The hand launch was a little more dicey but manageable; I could tell I had less thrust than the 9x4.5 or 8x6. The plane flew nicely at about 1/3 to 1/2 throttle. I got it up to about 2/3 at one point and was enjoying the way this plane felt with a little bit of speed on. A full throttle pass was up next so I throttled back to about 1/3 to line up for the low pass and then punched it to full. The acceleration was almost instant and then WEEEEEEEEEEE.... the prop nut spun off followed shortly by the prop. I was able to make a rather graceful deadstick landing and then spent the next half hour walking a search pattern to try and find the prop and spinner. Both were recovered. I definitely recommend trying the McB Racer with an 8x8 prop if you have one in your arsenal; just make sure it's the right rotation or use a locking method for your prop nut.
PsyBorg
Wake up! Time to fly!
Always and I mean ALWAYS use nylocks on all props. Its removes all the thinking and worry and just makes life more simple. (did ya see me look at the ceiling over my building bench with the props scrapes just then?)
Tench745
Master member
The McB racer is no more. I had some good flights on this plane between the last post and this. However, time and humidity took their toll and when I needed to make some space on my storage shelves, the McB Racer and the Cafe Racer (mk2) were the rattiest looking planes. Some day I will probably build another.
