Soaring with the Old Fogey...

[Mostly Harmless]

I don't know if this is common or not, but it was a first for me. I would not have expected it, but gained some serious altitude flying the Old Fogey, today. A little breezy, so things were a bit bumpy down low. Climbed a bit to get out of the rough air and found a strong thermal (combined with a bit of upslope winds).

I started circling around and watched the Fogey getting smaller, even with only 10 or 20% throttle. Pretty soon, I had a couple of turkey vultures circling with me, too. I started getting a bit nervous as it got tough to make out the plane's heading, so I bailed out and came down to 50 feet or so to try it again. I repeated this 3 more times before bringing it home. I got a lot of flight time and barely depleted a 3S 2100 mAh battery.

A lot of fun... and some good flight experience, today. Would have been nice to have a camera on board for this, but I'm not quite ready to take that risk, yet.

Has anyone else encountered something like this?

By the way, added a wee bit of down thrust (maybe 3 degrees) which went a long way towards resolving some of my earlier difficulties flying this plane. I'm still prone to occasional over-controlling, but can get it around the pattern and bring her down safely each flight. The Fogey is still a bit light for anything over a slight breeze, but it's been a big help getting back into flying.

 

[rcspaceflight]

http://www.flitetest.com/articles/old-fogey-way-up-high

I remembered commenting on this article. I'm still amazed he was able to fly his plane back.

 

[Mostly Harmless]

Wow! That was a long, high flight... impressive flight, especially with an unpainted aircraft. I certainly wasn't that far away... not sure if I got that altitude, either.

I was amazed that I could get so much flight time using so little power. And since this is my first exposure to 2.4gHz, I really have no clue as to the range limitatuons, especially with a low-end radio. Seeing the above video, I guess the range is pretty good.

 

[JohnRambozo]

I just looked it up and found another forum discussing 2.4ghz radio ranges. Someone said they were told by Horizon Hobby you can expect about 1.5 miles of range on 2.4ghz. I knew it was good, but I had no idea it was that good. There is no way you'd even see the plane at that distance.

Here's the thread: http://www.rcpowers.com/community/threads/maximum-range-of-2-4-ghz-radios.6190/

 

[rcspaceflight]

I just looked it up and found another forum discussing 2.4ghz radio ranges. Someone said they were told by Horizon Hobby you can expect about 1.5 miles of range on 2.4ghz. I knew it was good, but I had no idea it was that good. There is no way you'd even see the plane at that distance.

Here's the thread: http://www.rcpowers.com/community/threads/maximum-range-of-2-4-ghz-radios.6190/

Now I don't feel bad for never doing a range test. lol

On a related note, I can never seem to get my plane very high. Lately I've been trying to get it to go as high as possible, but after a certain height I can no longer tell if the plane is climbing or how steep it's climbing. So I end up stalling it or accidentally descending. I guess I shouldn't say "very high". I do get it up there, but there is a point where I just can't get it any higher because I can't tell what the plane is doing.

 

[rcspaceflight]

Today I was trying to fly my Skymaster as high as possible line of sight. I had a camera on board and it looks like the highest I got it was a bit above the tower next door. It's a 500 foot tower.

Screenshots: