What Did You Fly Today
- Thread starter Wildthing
- Start date
Monte.C
...
Do not try to
speedbirdted
Legendary member
How I know that it's been a good day of flying: I break something on the LA racer that I haven't broken before!
OliverW
Legendary member
Did you discus launch it?
speedbirdted
Legendary member
No though I wanted to try it since it's already broken everything on it so there's nothing new to fixDid you discus launch it?
This was caused by finding a previously unknown pothole in the runway. I'm guessing the gear was already loose judging by the splits in the covering around it, so it would have happened at some point anyway...
Wildthing
Legendary member
Well we had a good day of combat wars yesterday amidst the heatwave we are having right now and no sight in end of it, was waiting for all the planes to start unfolding as the hot glue warmed up . We were 33C yesterday, today it is going up to 35C and by the end of the week 38C , in Lipton BC they broke a Canada wide record of 49.5C.
I suffered no real damage this time, one burnt motor, one motor pulled itself off of the mount after wrapping up a streamer and I caught one motor mount screws just starting to pull out so all easy fixes.
Sorry no editing.
https://youtu.be/PypYIDHlgR4
I suffered no real damage this time, one burnt motor, one motor pulled itself off of the mount after wrapping up a streamer and I caught one motor mount screws just starting to pull out so all easy fixes.
Sorry no editing.
https://youtu.be/PypYIDHlgR4
tesseract
Master member
deep *inhale* *exhale*
TheFlyingBrit
Legendary member
I finally got out to fly today, the first time in nearly a month. Between work, some bad weather and being plagued with back pain I haven't had the chance to fly anything and I missed it.
The first plane to take to the air was my Old Fogey - after many previous attempts in the past I finally seem to have got the rudder setting right for today, I had no Dutch rolls it just cruised around at snails pace turned like it was on rails.
Next plane up was the Sea Otter for its maiden - straight away I could tell there was something wrong when I throttled up, it just wanted to push the nose to the ground even on low throttle settings. I decided against better judgment give it one hand launch and gave it max elevator to see if it would take to the air, but it just dived to the ground sustaining minor nose damage. Obviously the motor mounting is incorrectly positioned and I have a serious thrust angle issue (back to the drawing board with that one).
Third plane to fly was my beloved Spitfire. I recently fitted a new stiffer landing gear and replaced the original burnt out ESC. I fitted the new ESC externally on the power pod to improve cooling. I hand launched it (the runway wasn't as smooth as I would have liked, remnants of grass cutting, piles of cut grass everywhere) and it flew off into the wide blue yonder. Then on the first turn I noticed something fall off, before I realised what it was, or had time to react it fell to the ground. Turns out the Lipo battery had come loose from the Velcro and fell out. As it hit the ground nose first I have some extensive nose damage, but it should be possible to repair it with some time and patience.
Next I tempted fate and decided to fly my Simple Cub. The Cub and Spitfire where the last two planes I had programmed in my Spektrum DX6i and I recently swapped them over to my Radiomaster, so wanted to try them out and trim them again. Amazingly for once it took off easily with no issues, I also had a great flight no tip stalls and a nice sedate landing. The second flight was just as uneventful and the highlight of the day.
Next model was my old favorite the Hobby King AXN Floater, I love this plane for just throwing around the sky and having fun with. The first 3 flights and landings where as usual fun but basically un-eventful. However, on the 4th flight I was struggling to gain altitude and the prop was making a strange noise when I increased throttle. Unfortunately I couldn't see anything at that point, as it was too far away. I therefore decided to bring it in to land for a closer inspection. When I finally got it down, I discovered the motor mount had come loose from the foam (it had been glued direct too the foam with a minimal amount of adhesive, not a very secure method I might add). Unfortunately as a result the fuselage had suffered sever prop rash and needs some foam splicing back in to repair it.
The final plane to fly was my WOT trainer. Having recently strengthened the landing gear mounting, recovered the fuselage section and replaced the standard metal bolts with M4 nylon bolts. I was keen to see how it performed on landing and would it stand up to it. The first flight was a pleasure it just cruised around effortlessly, I still get a sense of achievement when I fly a balsa plane compared to foam models. The landing was straightforward and it coasted to a gentle stop, I then taxied it back to the pits. The second flight was very much the same as the first, uneventful. The landing was also very straightforward, this plane does like to glide though so it finally stopped at the far end of the runway.
Inspecting the landing gear afterwards one of the heads of the nylon bolts was damaged, I therefore decided to replace both to be on the safe side. Although the runway had recently been mown last week, the grass cuttings where still clumped around in large mounds in parts. I suspect the landing gear hit one of these and the nylon bolt partially sheared under the impact.
The new nylon bolt system doesn't appear as robust as the original metal bolts system. However, they obviously do there job by breaking/shearing off before imparting any damage to the fuselage and landing gear mounting.
Apart from a couple of minor mishaps, it was a good day's flying. As always it was a good learning experience and a nice way to enjoy a summers day
The first plane to take to the air was my Old Fogey - after many previous attempts in the past I finally seem to have got the rudder setting right for today, I had no Dutch rolls it just cruised around at snails pace turned like it was on rails.
Next plane up was the Sea Otter for its maiden - straight away I could tell there was something wrong when I throttled up, it just wanted to push the nose to the ground even on low throttle settings. I decided against better judgment give it one hand launch and gave it max elevator to see if it would take to the air, but it just dived to the ground sustaining minor nose damage. Obviously the motor mounting is incorrectly positioned and I have a serious thrust angle issue (back to the drawing board with that one).
Third plane to fly was my beloved Spitfire. I recently fitted a new stiffer landing gear and replaced the original burnt out ESC. I fitted the new ESC externally on the power pod to improve cooling. I hand launched it (the runway wasn't as smooth as I would have liked, remnants of grass cutting, piles of cut grass everywhere) and it flew off into the wide blue yonder. Then on the first turn I noticed something fall off, before I realised what it was, or had time to react it fell to the ground. Turns out the Lipo battery had come loose from the Velcro and fell out. As it hit the ground nose first I have some extensive nose damage, but it should be possible to repair it with some time and patience.
Next I tempted fate and decided to fly my Simple Cub. The Cub and Spitfire where the last two planes I had programmed in my Spektrum DX6i and I recently swapped them over to my Radiomaster, so wanted to try them out and trim them again. Amazingly for once it took off easily with no issues, I also had a great flight no tip stalls and a nice sedate landing. The second flight was just as uneventful and the highlight of the day.
Next model was my old favorite the Hobby King AXN Floater, I love this plane for just throwing around the sky and having fun with. The first 3 flights and landings where as usual fun but basically un-eventful. However, on the 4th flight I was struggling to gain altitude and the prop was making a strange noise when I increased throttle. Unfortunately I couldn't see anything at that point, as it was too far away. I therefore decided to bring it in to land for a closer inspection. When I finally got it down, I discovered the motor mount had come loose from the foam (it had been glued direct too the foam with a minimal amount of adhesive, not a very secure method I might add). Unfortunately as a result the fuselage had suffered sever prop rash and needs some foam splicing back in to repair it.
The final plane to fly was my WOT trainer. Having recently strengthened the landing gear mounting, recovered the fuselage section and replaced the standard metal bolts with M4 nylon bolts. I was keen to see how it performed on landing and would it stand up to it. The first flight was a pleasure it just cruised around effortlessly, I still get a sense of achievement when I fly a balsa plane compared to foam models. The landing was straightforward and it coasted to a gentle stop, I then taxied it back to the pits. The second flight was very much the same as the first, uneventful. The landing was also very straightforward, this plane does like to glide though so it finally stopped at the far end of the runway.
Inspecting the landing gear afterwards one of the heads of the nylon bolts was damaged, I therefore decided to replace both to be on the safe side. Although the runway had recently been mown last week, the grass cuttings where still clumped around in large mounds in parts. I suspect the landing gear hit one of these and the nylon bolt partially sheared under the impact.
The new nylon bolt system doesn't appear as robust as the original metal bolts system. However, they obviously do there job by breaking/shearing off before imparting any damage to the fuselage and landing gear mounting.
Apart from a couple of minor mishaps, it was a good day's flying. As always it was a good learning experience and a nice way to enjoy a summers day
TheFlyingBrit
Legendary member
Just a quick amendment to my last posting regards flying this week. The nylon bolts used to retain my landing gear on the WOT are actually 5mm not 4mm as mention in post.
I ordered some extra bolts as spares and only realised my error when the 4mm versions arrived today. They will always come in useful for some other project.
I ordered some extra bolts as spares and only realised my error when the 4mm versions arrived today. They will always come in useful for some other project.
BlockerAviation
Legendary member
Did some P-51 formation flying today. The air was a little too bumpy to really get tight but we still put on a good show!
BlockerAviation
Legendary member
We also had some flak going off in the background making it just that much cooler!
FlyerInStyle
Elite member
Is the red tails one a foaming, like pnp?
Matthewdupreez
Legendary member
i flew my first ever plane succesfully first ever successful flight.... i am terribly sorry to say this but i've now really been bitten by the rc bug....
this was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING...............
this was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING...............
Matthewdupreez
Legendary member
it is the most fun i've had in years
speedbirdted
Legendary member
I didn't know there were any Mk1 PTS Mustangs still in active service
BlockerAviation
Legendary member
They aren't, they were replaced by the Value Hobby P51-Ds a few years ago because of the higher top speed and greater manuverability. The VH P-51 also has the additional bonus of retractable landing gear.I didn't know there were any Mk1 PTS Mustangs still in active service
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