What Did You Fly Today

Hoomi

Master member
I got one flight each on all four of these before the wind started kicking up this morning. About 80 degrees with just a little breeze when I got to the field just after 8, and surprisingly, despite nice conditions, I was the only one there. By 9:30, the wind was building in strength, so even though I had three more batteries charged, I decided four good flights would do it. I even managed to land the Stinger EDF without bouncing it today.

Earlier this week, I disconnected the WISE stabilization system in Fawkes, which I suspected was causing some of my stability issues. The new foamboard wing's ailerons are reversed from the original wing, and even with the stabilization set to the advanced mode, the WISE system would try to keep the plane level with no stick input. The problem was, if it started banking a bit to one side, it would end up throwing aileron in to make it bank more to that side. It was much more stable without the WISE system today.
Flytoday081119.jpg
 

buzzbomb

I know nothing!
I got one flight each on all four of these before the wind started kicking up this morning. About 80 degrees with just a little breeze when I got to the field just after 8, and surprisingly, despite nice conditions, I was the only one there. By 9:30, the wind was building in strength, so even though I had three more batteries charged, I decided four good flights would do it. I even managed to land the Stinger EDF without bouncing it today.

Earlier this week, I disconnected the WISE stabilization system in Fawkes, which I suspected was causing some of my stability issues. The new foamboard wing's ailerons are reversed from the original wing, and even with the stabilization set to the advanced mode, the WISE system would try to keep the plane level with no stick input. The problem was, if it started banking a bit to one side, it would end up throwing aileron in to make it bank more to that side. It was much more stable without the WISE system today.
View attachment 138915
How the heck do you do that? Every time I want to fly, I've got repairs to be done, sometimes whole rebuilds. I'm swapping motors and esc's and changing transmitter settings, and moving receivers, and deciding what prop to try next and remaking power pods and it doesn't end.

It's an hours long production each time I try to fly. How do you consistently just go out to the field and fly your pretty birds around and then come home and then do it again?

I'll admit to a bit of jealousy. You've seriously got it going on! :D
 

Hoomi

Master member
I don't know. I'm not a real aggressive flyer, so I'm not doing too much that pushes the envelope of the planes, and I have spent quite a bit of time playing around on the Realflight simulator.
 

bracesport

Legendary member
@buzzbomb - you summed it up well - I have the same issue faffing around when the opportunity presents itself, then with all the scrambling to go, something gets missed - I dream of a whole day where I can go slow and enjoy the ride! :D
 

buzzbomb

I know nothing!
@buzzbomb - you summed it up well - I have the same issue faffing around when the opportunity presents itself, then with all the scrambling to go, something gets missed - I dream of a whole day where I can go slow and enjoy the ride! :D
Not quite. It's more like a maniacal road race to get everything ready so I can fly some planes. There's no "faffing around." I've got other planes that I'm building and I have to put them aside, so I can bum-rush repairs and modifications and rebuilds, usually in just a few hours of actual, usable time, and then I get to to take them out and crash them again. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. :p
 

KSP_CPA

Well-known member
I’ve always been curious how fast my FT Arrow was and so with my wife’s prior iPhone, I strapped it to the bottom with rubber bands started a video recording and gave it a toss.

First time trying to take any pictures or videos with my planes. I was very pleased with the results.

I wanted to give it another go but with a speedometer app. Bad launch and the extra weight of the phone, caused a nose first impact ripping the wing. It has been repaired but I’m gun shy about trying the phone again.

A review of the footage shows I crossed a soccer field end to end in about 3.5 seconds which is about 100 feet per second or about 65 MPH. I am a bit skeptical of that speed, but does anyone have reference for the actual speed of an FT Arrow when you’re nearly firewalling the throttle in straight/level flight with a good motor?
 

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Hoomi

Master member
There used to be some nice little GPS data-logging modules you could pick up, that would record such things as max altitude, max speed, average speed, distance traveled, etc., but the last time I looked for one, they'd all been discontinued in favor of the telemetry modules that work back through the Rx to the Tx. Those are great if you have the radio system to support them, but not exactly useful to those of us that don't.

I was thinking about trying to make similar measurements to your soccer field pass with the Stinger EDF, only trying to time how long it takes to pass from one end of the runway to the other (after finding out just how long our runway is), but the biggest issue I'd have, is determining exactly when it passes the line at each end and measuring that interval with any degree of accuracy.

Maybe I need to look into one of those "radar guns" used by sports teams to measure baseball speed. :)
 

Piotrsko

Master member
Hmmm possinbly the ultimate use for an iphone. Should be a gps automotive app that records data. In Android I can use TORQUE to record data like acceleration.
 

moret

Well-known member
There used to be some nice little GPS data-logging modules you could pick up, that would record such things as max altitude, max speed, average speed, distance traveled, etc., but the last time I looked for one, they'd all been discontinued in favor of the telemetry modules that work back through the Rx to the Tx. Those are great if you have the radio system to support them, but not exactly useful to those of us that don't.
:)


Not cheap but here is a standalone one
https://www.motionrc.com/collections/gps-speed-meters

I would bet that in the next few years the FAA will require we have altitude reporting receivers so we can set alarms for the 400 foot limits and speed would be a nice addon
 

KSP_CPA

Well-known member
Hmmm possinbly the ultimate use for an iphone. Should be a gps automotive app that records data. In Android I can use TORQUE to record data like acceleration.

There were quite a few automotive apps which track g-forces using the onboard accelerometers on smart phones. I was excited to get that data on subsequent flights but... you know... crashes. Too bad I didn’t have the g meter app on during the crash, that would have been interesting to analyze.