Taking to the Skies

[JoeyG]

This video should help:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MeL5hg5VY0

That did the trick, cheers.

I've set the three way flaps switch too:

0 = 0%
1 = 25%
2 = 50%

I'm thinking those values are too extreme, I wanna be able to line it up for a landing switch to 1 bring down the speed then switch to 2 to being it to a soft landing speed. What would be better values?

J.

 

[colorex]

That did the trick, cheers.

I've set the three way flaps switch too:

0 = 0%
1 = 25%
2 = 50%

I'm thinking those values are too extreme, I wanna be able to line it up for a landing switch to 1 bring down the speed then switch to 2 to being it to a soft landing speed. What would be better values?

J.

Remember, if your plane gets pitchy with the flaps, then there is something called Flap to Elevator mix. Use it to adjust the elevator so that the plane flies straight even when flaps are on.

 

[JoeyG]

The weather was no good today :-( I did however go and check out my local club. Had a nice chat with the guys down there they had a couple scale models out (HUGE!!!).

Whats the rule of thumb on Battery life in your aircraft? I have telemetry so can monitor the voltage remaining but Im wondering at what minimum to set my alarm?

J.

 

[PaulT]

What I do is run the motor at around 3/4 throttle and wait for the motor to die. I said run it not fly it. That should give you an idea where a safe point to start and also allows you to check your esc for heat and such. Others with WAY more experience should chime in any minute now. Right???

 

[colorex]

This might provide some info: http://flitetest.com/forum/showthread.php?437-Understanding-Batteries-101

 

[JoeyG]

What I do is run the motor at around 3/4 throttle and wait for the motor to die. I said run it not fly it. That should give you an idea where a safe point to start and also allows you to check your esc for heat and such. Others with WAY more experience should chime in any minute now. Right???

I'd considered something similar, just thought the ESC would get too hot as it wasn't moving more air..

This might provide some info: http://flitetest.com/forum/showthread.php?437-Understanding-Batteries-101

I'll have a look. Cheers.

J.

 

[JoeyG]

Well, the MET Office say 3-5MPH winds with no gusts set for tomorrow, look like a day in the sky for me. I'll try and capture some of it this time.

J.

 

[elemental]

I hope you have a good flight!!!

 

[JoeyG]

I hope you have a good flight!!!

Cheers, it turned out to be quite windy so only managed one flite, once again I didn't film it :-( it was great fun all the same. Was able to get the dual rates and expos programmed in nicely, went with .90 dual rates on ailerons and elevators with .30 expo all round. Also toyed some more with the flaperons, still not quite right but getting there, need a little less elevator compensation. Too much lift before and now it tip stalls. I'll back it off and should hit the sweet spot.

Hoping for some nice weather over the weekend.

J.

 

[pgerts]

Have you thought about using all the fine programming that can be used with a glider like yours?
There is a really neat way to cheat when using a DX8 - download a setup, copy to your memory card and import.

The glider pros are using the throttle for the (crow) brakes, not for the throttle!
The throttle is just on/off to get the glider up in the sky.
There are also 3 flight modes : Normal, Speed and Thermal .

There is a timer starting when you apply the throttle, beeps/vibrates after 30 seconds to inform you to shut of the motor. Then you will get a beep every minute and more frequent beeps when closing to 6 minutes when it is time to land on the spot ;-)

Search for Radian Pro DX8 Setup and you will find a few different setups to try. Just copy to the SD-card and import them to check all different features.
You need the ackompanying 8 channel receiver or similar to be able to get all features.

The difference between the Radian Pro and your Blaze could not be hard to adjust for in the radio. There may even be a special program for the blaze somewhere on the net to download.

Check som videos on the tube for Radian Pro to see the features. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7AYMpxaYk0&feature=related

 

[JoeyG]

Have you thought about using all the fine programming that can be used with a glider like yours?
There is a really neat way to cheat when using a DX8 - download a setup, copy to your memory card and import.

The glider pros are using the throttle for the (crow) brakes, not for the throttle!
The throttle is just on/off to get the glider up in the sky.
There are also 3 flight modes : Normal, Speed and Thermal .

There is a timer starting when you apply the throttle, beeps/vibrates after 30 seconds to inform you to shut of the motor. Then you will get a beep every minute and more frequent beeps when closing to 6 minutes when it is time to land on the spot ;-)

Search for Radian Pro DX8 Setup and you will find a few different setups to try. Just copy to the SD-card and import them to check all different features.
You need the ackompanying 8 channel receiver or similar to be able to get all features.

The difference between the Radian Pro and your Blaze could not be hard to adjust for in the radio. There may even be a special program for the blaze somewhere on the net to download.

Check som videos on the tube for Radian Pro to see the features. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7AYMpxaYk0&feature=related

Ive not tried that yet, but the ability to load preset profiles for models was a feature I liked when picking the DX8. Trouble was once I got the radio I didnt know where to look for the profiles...

Thanks for the heads up, I'll certainly give it a try. The Radian Pro has flaps so can do crow, something the blaze is missing. Would love to find a great Blaze preset.

cheers

J.

 

[JoeyG]

...

Took a ride out to Newark today to visit Gliders UK, Had a vision of doing some upgrades to the Blaze. I'd read the 33 pages on it over at RCgroups so followed the same tried a tested upgrade path. I bought a 40A ESC and 10x7 prop which gives the model a real kick up the arse.. some 0.5mm x 3mm carbon strips for the elevators a Alu light weight spinner to replace the black plastic stock option, a scalpel, some solarfilm (gonna put some black strips on the under side of the wings) and a bottle of Zap-A-Gap.

If the hangover isnt too killer, I'll fit everything tomorrow. All in all, should give my Blaze an edge over the stock version. Excited.

J.

 

[ananas1301]

Nice stuff!

Show us how it flies if you can find someone to make a video

And don´t forget the pics!
Btw. I can see a Graupner package on the right German brand!! GERMANY FTW

 

[JoeyG]

Nice stuff!

Show us how it flies if you can find someone to make a video

And don´t forget the pics!
Btw. I can see a Graupner package on the right German brand!! GERMANY FTW

Indeed, I wanted a Graupner spinner too but they didn't have the right size.

I'll take photos of the swap out. I doubt the weather will be any good for flying, it's proper English weather at the moment. I wanna pick up a GoPro and mount on top of the Blaze, will have to wait for more funds thou..

J.

 

[JoeyG]

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Thought I'd fit some of the upgrades I picked up over the weekend. I've now swapped the ESC,changed out the Spinner and fitted a 10x7 prop. Also added two small strips of 0.5mm x 3.0mm carbon strip on the elevators to help reduce flex when pulling out of a dive.

I took a whole bunch of photos, thought I'd walk through it. Might help someone else.

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I removed the wing so I could better work on the model.

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Removing the two screws on the spinner allows it to come away nice and easy.

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I took a pair of mole-grips to the nut which allowed the rest of the assembly to come away from the motor shaft.

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ST Model Blaze stock 10x6 folding prop next to it's replacement, the Jamara 40mm Alu spinner (4mm Shaft) and Aero-naut CAM-Carbon 10x7 prop.

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Put the assembly onto the motor shaft, made sure it had about a 1mm gap after the spinner goes on.

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The spinner attaches with a single thin flat head bolt. Pretty good fit. just how tight should you go when securing a prop to the motor shaft?

Then I moved onto the ESC, I picked up one of Glider Distributions own brand 40a ESC's all the wire connections were already done so just needed to pull out the old and put in the new.

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Sans ESC

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Wiring everything back up took a little while as there really isnt a great deal of room in there, I needed to make sure I could slide the LiPo right to the back.

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I have the RX and the Telemetry unit velco'd in place one above the other. I then run the RX aerial up and attach to the underside of the wing.

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I popped in a fully charged 2200Mah 3 cell and tested the ESC and prop/spinner. Had to change the two outside ESC connections over as the rotation was wrong but other then that it seemed ok. The new ESC seems great, cool little tune when you power it followed by a number of beeps to ID the battery. I pinned the glider down and ran it at 1/3rd stick for a few mins. I could see no wobble on the spinner so felt happy she'll do.

I removed the control horns on the elevators just to find my replacement Graupner horns to be too thick, I put the stocks back on and added two small strips of carbon. Not really sure it'll make any difference but meh.. why not.

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I still need to add my stripes to the bottom but I'm leaving that for another day. The fella at the store told me many of his customers have used water based hard varnish on foamies to strengthen them (I was asking him about GOOP). So thought I might try that, it'll mean removing all the decals which sucks a little but I guess I can always find more stickers.

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iPhone is lame in low light, sorry about the quality.

J.​

 

[ananas1301]

Man that looks like a very nice hotliner you got there. Even though many do doubt the Blaze and co. as being hotliners at all.

I think you built it up quite nicely and cant wait to see it fly.
I´ll tell you. It will fly pretty much out of your hands and doesn´t need a toss at all!

Good luck with your maiden!

 

[JoeyG]

Man that looks like a very nice hotliner you got there. Even though many do doubt the Blaze and co. as being hotliners at all.

I think you built it up quite nicely and cant wait to see it fly.
I´ll tell you. It will fly pretty much out of your hands and doesn´t need a toss at all!

Good luck with your maiden!

I've flown it stock about 4 times, the send flight ended in crash but the last couple were great, little wind and really starting to get used to it. I guess it will be a maiden flight now it's been upgraded. It'll be a while before it flies, the weather needs to get colder first, once we have frost and hard ground we often have crisp windless days, for now its just too wet and windy.

Gonna get it hardened and the black stripes put on between now and then. Thanks for the kind words, I'm looking forward to seeing what it can do.

J.

 

[balsa or carbon]

I'm impressed that you're flying a Blaze first time flying RC - that's a FAST plane , and difficult to slow down for landing !

 

[JoeyG]

Paint Job...

Hey Guys,

Thought I'd update this thread a little. I'm up to three models now in my hanger (hung in my room) this hobby has really taken a hold on me. After the poor efforts with my TekSumo over Christmas i was over to the moon to successfully fly it just a few days ago. I'm hooked on the Phoenix RC sim spending at least an hour a day on it. I feel the sim has truly improved my skills. I'm not great by any means but considering I got into the hobby at the back end of last year and have only flown 5-6 times I'm comfortable with orientation, stall recovery, high speed manoeuvres, hand launches and landings, inverted flight, knife edges and snap rolls (ish). I'm loving it all.

My last few posts on this thread showed how I'd changed the ESC and Prop/Spinner on my ST Model Blaze, well I got bored sitting in with all this English weather and decided to tart it up a little more. yup.. I'm talking about go faster stripes!

Check it out.

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I brush varnished the foam with water based floor varnish, I put two coats on and left it to harden (very little weight gain which is fine as the bigger 10x7 prop gives it more power then the stock config). I bought some Acrylic model spray paint (four cans of primer and 4 cans of satin finish black) and set about giving it a make over. I used black and white solarfilm to do the identification stripes.

I'm yet to fly it... but it certainly looks cool (IMO).

J.

 

[colorex]

Awesome! Definitely looks cool! And you reminded me that my Bixler is almost invisible in the sky, gotta do something about it!