Spoilers!

Monday found Kenny Chandler and me alone at Bob Miller Field on a beautiful afternoon burning holes in the sky flight after flight after flight. Kenny had his foamy Edge and his Ugly Stick, I had my A-10, Eflite PulseXT, and Eflite Ultimate, along with my EXI 450 BeastX FBL heli. We flew for over 5 hours non-stop! The field was perfect, low cut and dried out, the winds light and variable with not a cloud in the sky. It was wierd... only Al showed up to visit, and Vinsen stopped by to toss his big Yak in the air between clients. A gorgeous afternoon and no crowd? Especialy since winds and weather have kept us grounded for many, many days.

Kenny programmed some spoilers into his Stick, about 35% and 50%. The performance on landing at 35% was pretty remarkable. She sank smooth and sharp, down at the tail, very controllable and perfect 3 point touchdowns without a bounce. I had been toying with the idea and decided to put spoilers into my DX8 on the PulseXT, 45% and 80%. It was impressive! So much better than flaps! I thought for sure it would stall the wing and create havok, which is why I had been reluctant to try it, but the spoilers did exactly what they should do. She settled quickly, cleanly and much more stably with the spoilers. Cean landings, tail down, no bounce on roll out, very stable and predictable on final with stable charateristisc spoilers deployed in flight. Spoilers... the future for all my dual aileron planes!

The Ultimate finally had a flight mishap after nearly a hundred flights. Coming around with a nice crosswind, I realized too late she was on high rates and I over controlled on final when a gust lifted her wing. Having done some stunning aerobatics on high rates I failed to drop down to low rates on approach. She caught a wing and her prop struck. She looked undamaged, surfaces worked, motor ran fine, so I took her around again. I could hear something wrong as the sound changed when I leveld out of climb. Landed her clean and saw the motor drop down. The motor was free in the cowl! Surprised she had flown at all. This wasn't evident at takeoff, so I think it was cracked and this last flight broke it free. The cowl is chipped and cracked, so I have some minor Bondo work ahead of me, and will need to rebuild the firewall. Toying with the idea of making more room to put a 3300mAh in there, but honestly she flies so awesome as built, and the added couple of minutes of flight probably aren't worth to trouble and changes in flight characteristics. Pics with the repairs to follow.

The EXI flew well, but I think there are some issues with the setup of the heli, and balance. On startup she wobbles a little like she is trying to find her balance. Once airborne she needs some right rudder (I have her set up with the tail rotor with Finless Bob's Trailing Edge control so this definitely should not be happening, let alone the gyro should not allow it). I flew her a bit, did not crash her, but she tipped over after a nice sideways landing and I input the wrong aileron having stopped paying attention as I was hitting Hold, pushing her to the right and suffered a blade strike. Stripped the elevator servo, no other damage. I am not sure I like the EXI D213f servos on her, for no particular reason than I wonder about centering and persistent movement since the BeastX and the heli are setup well. I ordered some Solar digital MG servos from Hobbypartz, 11g instead of 9g as they measure the same size, with about 1.7 kg torque, 0.11 sec at 4.6V. The EXI are frequently NIS, so I think they want to move people to the Solar. They are being sold by Hobbypartz with the point the recenter very precisely suggesting they also move precisely. More on that when I change them out.

Speaking of changing them out... I have had the Hitec HS-82MG servos for my 500 heli for a couple of weeks, but have been very distracted of late and haven't swapped them on to the 500. I need to do that... she is my favorite heli (though the Align 600 FBL I have NIB is likely going to be my go to heli when I build her). The EXI is my fun trainer, easy to crash, easy to fix, stable fun flier. I can't love her or I would never advance my skills...

As I noted in the previous post, the AR600x for the Sbach is here, having been sent a new one. The tech said there was nothing wrong with my original, but to keep me happy they were sending me a new one. Really? I am pretty sure the original one had issues as you can see in the vid... I have replaced the ESC/BEC with a 40A from HeadsUPRC. I wonder if its enough? I really need to get an inline wattmeter... I will get the ESC and receiver installed and get her up as soon as the weather and my schedule allows. The SBach is easily one of my favorite planes!

Closing this post with my pirateyness! Had my pirate sandals and one of my piratey T-shirts on! Get your inner pirate on!