Waco RCGF-USA 26cc All Set!

The Phoenix Waco is one of my absolutely favorite planes to fly. For that reason I didn't rush to program her into the Spektrum iX12, which is a good thing considering how it misbehaved recently. It hangs in a special prominent ceiling corner of my basement shop where I can gaze upon it in love and admiration. Since the iX12 is in the shop, and I haven't removed any of the aircraft from my DX8, I decided to go ahead and set up the Waco for the season. Its very late this year... but conditions have not been favorable for flying this summer with remarkably windy days, even for a big girl like the Waco. Today is clam but with frequent gusts to 20-25 mph... typical this year.

Last year

She had an Orange stabilization system that functioned quite well, but since I am moving away from Orange electronics, and have a Hobby Eagle A3-L V2 stabilization system on hand, I decided to replace it and give the A3 a try. Here it is, installed on a platform for it, that also keeps the battery pack and the gas tank in place. The foam covers up a rat's nest of wiring, but the wiring for the A3 is quite simple and basically what it is on all of these. None that I have had do dual ailerons, though the failed Spektrum Alpha6 was supposed to it never did. Now I had planned on using this on the 10cc Spitfire, but the instructions clearly state its not for gas engines. I don't think any of the stabilization are, technically, but they work quite well. She seemed to have no problems during engine run up tests.

The system allows on board button/LED adjustments to all of its settings, and is easy to use. I set up the Flight Mode 3 way switch through AUX1 to allow me to dynamically and remotely switch modes from ON to OFF to 3D (this mode holds the planes last attitude when activated, like a knife edge). I will let you know how it works out, but I have high expectations and plan to put one on the Spitty too.

I pulled the tank to change the clunk line from Tygothane (which was quite supple still) to Vygon, as I am doing with all of my gassers, expecting that to last a few years. The original lines are the yellow Tygon, which if not stiff on the external fuel lines I leave alone. I check them otherwise once a year. The NiMH battery packs for ignition and receiver I replaced with a 2S 2200 mAh LiPO with a dual Futaba plug line off an EC3 on the battery. Nice. I do charge these in the plane, being low voltage and amperage, at 1C, so its kinda buried, alongside the tank, port side under that middle platform. The wheel pants needed a touch up, and I had broken the attachment to the right one when I hung the plane up and almost dropped it last fall. Fixed it, repainted both of the pants, and reinstalled. I peeled all the cote and tape off around the junction of the gear gaiters, redid it much lighter, and painted the exhaust stain area under the fuse.

The dulcet tones of the RCGF-USA 26cc gas engine. This plane is planned for a 15cc, but the 26cc fits nicely and gives her a lot of power. There is a lot of room under that cowl, a 30cc would fit, but would be a lot for this plane.

To fit her in my car, let alone get her out of the basement, I detach the left wing. The plane does not come with supports for the wings, an idea I got from my Eflite Stearman (original). I never take the wings of the Stearman. The supports for it are too small for the Waco. I just made one out of a Amazon box.

Cleaned up, ran up, and coated with an "Armor All" knock-off, ready to go!

Flew the Waco, New iCharger in

Windy but gorgeous day on top of Mt Hudson. I had to go up.

Took out the Twinstar, the so long not flown Cosmic Wind, and the Waco 26cc. The wind was a gusty 90 deg crosswind from behind me. One moment almost calm, the next roaring. Usually Mt Hudson conditions. I stood and waited, trying to decide to flymormnot, understanding that as I had in Mississippi, if I want to fly I need to learn to fly in the wind.

The Twinstar flew well, but was 45 deg off centerline on approaches, which was challenging, and she for some reason needed to come in hot or she sunk hard and fast. Flew a couple of packs, and more or less did fine with landings.

The Cosmic Wind is one fast little bugger, and needs to go fast. And I found out she really doesnt fly upside down at all. At. All. I took her inverted and she dived despite full elevator and power. At the last moment I pulled full up and she looped hard, disappearing below the hill line, and whew, came screaming back up! Aviate, navigate... Landing this tiny plane not on Geotex is always a challenge. She comes in hot, and the moment her gear touch the grass she flips hard and fast. I brought her in, hot... can't lift the nose or she rockets up. Last minute cut the throttle, and ease back on the elevator, and FLIP! CARTWHEEL! Battery comes flying out, ESC comes off its velcro in tow. This plane is all fiberglass, so she now has few cracks I am repairing. But man, did she fly sweet and fadt, even in the wind.

Ah, the Waco, my favorite plane. She started sweetly, ran smoothly. She has an OrangeRx stabilizer system on her, but I took off without it. The crosswind was brisk, and on takeoff she dropped her upwind wing hard. I corrected, and she was off. She did keep wanting to drop the upwind wing, and it took a few minutes to get her trimmed in the wind. Constantly correcting dips and dives, she gets pushed around with thw wind. I turned on the stab system and everything smoothed out! She became a joy to fly and her behaviors settled down predictably. Landing in the crosswind was a challenge, she really floats with it, and I managed a decent 45 deg approach. She floats on any up elevator. On touchdown I botched something and her wheels touched and she flipped coming to an unseemly wheels up rest. No damage, but I really sucked the landing. Needs work. I flew her a couple of times and each landing ended rough. 2 out of 3 flipped. One take off she flipped on takeoff power despite up elevator, apparently not enough. I was rough on her, but she took it wel, no damage.

The new iCharger arrived today. Slipped right in, fired up familiarly despite being 8 yrs newer than it predecessor. The quality of the build is better than its already quality build. Glad I stayed with it and ProgressiveRC.

Waco Adjustments

 Last flights with the Phoenix Waco RCGF-USA 26cc, I noticed the need for a LOT of right up aileron to correct a left roll.  Back in the workshop it was apparent that the left wing, which is the one I remove for transport, had a small neg deflection in the leading edge of the upper wing. I corrected this with a shim and a re-drill of the alignment peg hole inboard and installed a small shim on the outboard side. This gave her a good incidence which I think will alleviate the problem. We'll see next time I take her out.

Outboard shim.

Inboard peg hole adjustment.

I had taken off the 17x8 APC prop to clean and paint it, and since I had an 18x10 and the RCGF-USA 26cc engine is rated for it, I threw it on. It looks amazing. Its much beefier than the APC. I think with the reduced throttle curve at the low end, this will be sweet, and she will try to rip the wings off at WOT.  I had planned just to repaint the tips of the APC prop, but since I was painting it I decided to paint it silver (allegedly chrome. Is there a real chrome rattle can paint out there?), with white warning tips. Came out pretty nice. 

The paint is "chrome", more of a shinier metallic silver. 

Waco is all set for our next outing!

Waco up!

I had problems with a bad Optical Engine Kill Switch on the RCGF 26cc equipped Phoenix Models Waco. On the field I had tested the circuits and found that the switch was bad. Taking it out of the circuit the engine and the engine ran fine. So I purchased a new Optical Switch. As I reconfirmed the issue on the workbench I found the ignition battery pack was shorted, and had to replace that. It came in yesterday, so I installed it, checked everything out, and found out the LED that was part of the original Optical switch was burned out. Did it short too? What the hell? I had to leave it in place because it was glued in, and had soldered a new plug in, cut the wires on the LED attached to the new switch and put a plug on there too. I ended up having to force the old LED out, and put in the new one I had just cut off the switch, repeating the solder work. Jeez...  This RCGF 26cc engine is one of the best running engines, and represents the brand well, and she has a sweet sound. She is happy again, and I am happy again.

Yay! New LED works! Thosre are the aileron leads hanging there, Y into the Stabilizer.

Everything tucked in and clean. The Waco is sporting a Hobby King Orange 3-Axis Airplane stabilization gyro there in the middle. I had bought the Spektrum Alpha 6 system that I could never get to program right (so I have two little Alpha 6 bricks), but this one is on a couple of my planes. The Spektrum Receiver is on the port wall across from the foam cover and its satellite is forward in a 90 degree orientation form the receiver. Underneath that is the gas tank and battery packs.

When I pulled out the old Optical Switch the VHB tape holding it in place pulled the wall of thick balsa behind it right out leaving a jagged hole in the balsa but the cote intact. It was right above the switches. I had to put a plate of balsa over it on the inside, leaving a funny dent in the cote. I ended up having to cut that cote out, filled in the space between the new piece of balsa and make it level with the surrounding original balsa, and re-cote it. To get this smooth took a couple of tries, but I got it. You can't see the seams unless up very close. I had to redo the switch labels. When I replaced the LED and housing just forward of that I reinforced the balsa skin and used the same outer hole in the fuse; the balsa patch actually holds the housing for the LED, neither of which I glued in this time. I put the black cote there to cover the edges of the hole and to contrast the switch for better visibility. All in all I am quite happy with it.  One of my favorite planes, I can't wait to get her in the air!

Great Flight Day!

The weather was perfect, occasionally gusty, but right down the runway North-to-South. I packed out the RCGF-USA 26cc PulseXT 60, and the newly repaired RCGF-USA 26cc Phoenix Waco F5C. Excited to get to the field, and fly, fly, fly!

Love this plane, the Pulse XT60! It flies sweet, is fast as anything I have, with power to spare!  

SO much frickin' fun!

Since replacing the sparky the  is back to her old reliable self again. What a joy to fly!

The Waco was ready to fly, and fly she did!

I flew her for a 20 min flight, getting her trimmed out. She needed a bit of nose down trim, but roll was fine. It was a bit gusty up high, but she handled it well. Take off has to be done gracefully, slow power up, just like the real Waco. She is squirrelly on the ground with a tremendous P-Factor (that's how she ended up in the weeds last year). A bit touchy in flight, but I was getting used to her and in the end was feeling very comfortable with her.

On my second take off as I was gaining speed she caught a clump of grass and tipped enough to ground strike the prop, breaking it, and flipped. This side of our field (the gasser side) is lumpy, adding to the take-off challenges. Fortunately I have another 18x10 at home, and she is already back up.

I expect to take this duo out again next flying day!

Psyching Myself Out

I had a beautiful day, no wind really, even on top of Mt Hudson. I took the Waco 26cc out, and the HobbyKing HK 500 with its BeastX FBL system. I could not have had better conditions. As is common here, I was all alone.

The Waco was as charming as ever. Turns out up high there was a bit of a crosswind, so I working on my approaches and landings, I had to contend with a crosswind behind me that clears as I got closer to the ground, no muss, no fuss and it was fun. On my last roll out she tipped a bit forward and caught her prop, tipped over on to her back, and knocked her rudder loose, ending the day (already fixed). But what fun!

LOVE that sound! She ran perfectly.

Aw, I love my HK 500! I have worked hard and finally had her perfect. The setting were spot on in the programming, the gyro tight, the tracking perfect. I have been practicing on the Phoenix Flight Sim and have confidence there. IRL is the trick... Nice pre-flight photo!

I took a moment before lighting the fires and chanted to myself, "Just fly the little fucker... Just fly her!" My hands stopped shaking, and I felt in control. Pushed the throttle and as she spun up put her into Flight Mode (my normal is zero pitch all across), lifted up into hover, and she was rock solid, just like the big boys. I inched forward, and then started to fly her! I took her out in circles, figure 8, see-saw back and forth, tail in, tail out, and had her in perfect control! After 4 minutes, with another 2 left in the tank, I landed her perfectly, exactly where I wanted her, and shouted out! I jumped up and down! I have done it!  I have done this before, but was always on the edge of who-is-flying-who, but this time I was in complete control. It felt awesome!

Big Smiles! Happiness!

I felt wonderful, and having wanted to focus on getting my basic flight heli skills, have been working on it. I was moving forward! I put another battery in and did it all over again! As I was coming in from my left and began to bring her nose in, she rolled a little to her right and I corrected, my subconscious moving her left, a little gust rolled her a bit more, and I corrected thinking... in my conscious thought she is nose in, in my subconscious thought she is not. Conflict arises, panic rises, conscious thought wins and I roll to correct INCREASING HER ROLL! Subconscious hits HOLD knowing I have lost her, conscious starts the lamenting wails of all the hours and perfect setup about to pretzel into more hours! Anger and bitterness!

I am so mad I can't see straight, and the sun blinds me from seeing the screen, so I barely catch the scene of the crash, and forget to scour for cast off parts.

On the bench. Tail is pretzeled, the belt is cut in two places and I had to walk back out to find the tail rotor. The main shaft is slightly bent so will be replaced, and will check the main feathering shaft. The blades are completely delaminated. HOLD protected the main gear, and luck is mine as the servos are all fine. Not so bad after all, but will take a lot of time to set up again.

Not so happy face...

So that ended the day, as I had only brought the two. In accordance with my agreement with myself I don't count heli crashes now, as every flight is a crash and I would never make progress. I am not counting the tip over of the Waco as she is fine, just a little epoxy on the rudder hinge.

I have ordered the belt, and deconstructed the wreck. Later I will take the main shaft out, rebuild the feathering shaft, and put Humpty-Dumpty back together again.

Today I cleaned up, lubed and lit up the ancient Hirobo HDX 500se. I love this heli, but parts are getting harder and harder to get, nothing left from HeliDirect. She was my first non-450 sized heli and I got her for a steal many years ago. She is a flybarred 4S heli. She flew great for years, but over the past couple I have had a problem where she electrically twitches. I think not just in power up, but also at rest, all of her servos are quiet then a sudden destabilizing twitch. It comes in quick irregular succession. For years I have tried isolating it, from grounding the frame, to oiling the crap out of the tail belt (decrease the charge build up). Nothing. The only thing I haven't changed is the motor. I have set her aside because this makes her unflyable, and since I wasn't looking to invest anything in her now, I have a cheap Assan GA 250 MEMS AVCS gyro on her. It doesn't hold her tail well at all now, though she used to (and it has on my other previous flybarred helis, perfectly). My only other Flybarred heli now is an Align Trex 600. It has a Quark gyro, which I love (I used to use Align gyros, but haven't had much luck with them).

She is a beauty.

Her CCPM mechanism is WAY Rube Goldberg in design. Its leverage system allows smaller swash servos to drive the flybar. They are all micro Hitec HS-81MGs. Pretty ingenious, but complex. 

I lit her up today, she tracks perfectly, all the settings have stayed put. She is super responsive, I had her swash pitch set to 12 degrees, and had to turn it down to ~10. Her tail drifts, and oscillates... mixed messages. She doesn't have any slop in her tail. I ran her for a bit and I think she only twitched once! Maybe that gremlin has departed. I will keep running her and see it this twitch thing comes back, and if it doesn't will pick up a new high quality tail gyro.  I fear crashing her since parts replacement is a problem, but my policy is no hanger queens... We'll see how this goes. Too windy today to do much else.

Nitroplanes Pitts Model 12 20cc Build Continues

The joy continues!  The past couple of days have seen some progress. Here's some work over the pat couple of days.

 

Put the wheel struts on. These babies are some sturdy underpants. The kit comes with some really good quality upper fairings that are made of fiberglass. I wish the Phoenix Waco had come with something like these. There's some rubber tubing to use along their edges. More on that when I install them.

Sorta on her legs. Won't put the wheels and pants on for now.

This is the Pitts next to the 20cc Phoenix Waco. When the cowling goes on she will be several inches longer.

I permanently joined the lower wing halves.

On an aside I painted the tips of the Master Airscrew 15x7x3 prop I have on hand. This is the same one I use on the PulseXT with its 20cc engine. 

Aileron servos are all on their hardpoints ready to install. These generic servos are really amazing quality.

I didn't do this with the Waco, but the YouTube video of the Pitts with a 20cc engine shows the canopy popping off despite the latch. This suggests there is some kinda internal air pressure, so I decided to put a exit vent on the back underside. I had one from a previous build hanging around.

With that "popping off of the canopy" I also wanted to add a couple strong magnets to help secure it.

That's them in the corner. 

I don't have a lot of faith in wings joined with a short wood beam rather than a wing tube, because one of my PulseXT 40's folded like a diaper pulling out of an easy loop. Since then any design with that I tend to want to put a couple layers of thin fiberglass on the underside. I peeled back the cote, taped it off, sanded it (there was an epoxy sine from the joining seen here).

Sanded smooth.

I used 15 min epoxy thinned with alcohol, painted the wood with it, laid down a sheet of fiberglass cloth, layered it with more epoxy, laid the second sheet, and more epoxy. Smoothed it out.

 Letting it dry. Once it's dry enough I will cut the edges clean and pull the tape, let it dry a day or two, then cote it after a light sanding.

This is the fine fiberglass cloth I used. It is kinda hard to work with in that it un-weaves with even the slightest traction.

Today the RCGF-USA 20cc engine arrived today! I am expecting the ZYHobby fuel tank, and the rudder and elevator servos to arrive today as well, along with the voltage regulator, so I hope to make some progress. It will be a few days before the flag-and-pin switch arrives.

Phoenix Waco F5c Maiden - Wowser!

I took my Phoenix Waco F5C out for her maiden flight this afternoon, and it was stunning. Simply. Stunning. Curiously I wasn't as nervous as I thought I would be. Somehow I just knew it was going to go well.

This plane is designed to fly with a 15cc engine, but who's got time for that. I found myself in possession of a used RCGF 26cc gas engine, and I had planned on putting a 20cc engine in it, so, what's 6cc more? I don't think its much, but 11cc is a whole other engine, and baby does she have some power.

My Phoenix Waco from Tower Hobbies is powered by a RCGF 26cc gas engine, and equipped with a Spektrum AR6210 with a satellite receiver, and a Spektrum Alpha6 Stabilization System. She has a Quikfire Fuel Balancer. The Receiver and Ignition packs are Turnigy 6V NiMH 2300 mAh.  The servos on the ailerons are Hitec HS-5645s and the throttle, rudder and elevator servos are Hitec HS-5685 servos. she has a 18x7 carbon fiber prop.

A Boy and his Toy

I have to remove one wing to get her in the car. I made a cardboard jig to hold the unsupported left wing when its not on the aircraft. It makes it so I don't have to remove the pins that secure the N-struts on the outside of the wing and the connector between ailerons.

I love the bullet spinner I got from China. Arrived in a week!

The wheel pants didn't get torn off! The 26cc is a bit big and does come out about 1 cm more than is cosmetically perfect.

The video guy David stopped videoing as he thought the camera had stopped. He actually did a pretty good job!

She flew smooth, clean and well trimmed.  A nice breeze had picked up but was steady in direction and force. The first take-off was, well you saw it (video above). That was about 1/2 throttle! Surprised me, to say the least. After that I did some touch and go's at a bit less than half with a nice smooth climb out. I flew most of this flight 1/4-1/2 throttle. She has good control response and I think will be a great sport aerobat. She rolled crisply on high rates, and looped clean. On the second flight I had her full power going vertical, and after a few seconds still going strong, the engine quit. I dead sticked her to a perfect landing. I restarted the engine to make sure there wasn't a problem and she started right up. There are some long fuel lines but I am still not sure why she would have a fuel flow issue in vertical as the 26cc should pull some vacuum. I was very impressed with the Spektrum Alpha6 Stabilization System. I don't think she will need any further adjustment from the default settings. I flew her in RATE and didn't turn the system off, or into HEADING HOLD. I will do that in later flights. I can hardly wait to fly her again!

I had some problems with the Spektrum Alpha6 that weren't problems with the Spektrum Alpha6, but with a bad model in my DX8 that wouldn't let us communicate through the FMODE switch to AUX1. That took me some time to sort out. In the meantime I worked with Spektrum/Horizon Hobby Tech Support (very awesome) and learned a lot about the Alpha6. The Alpha6 is a wonderful device once you get past the poorly written manual.

The manual's problems:

1. It leaves out critical steps like assigning a 3 position switch like FMODE to the AUX1 channel on the receiver, and plugging that into the G6 channel
2. It doesn't explain why one would chose Rate Mode or Heading Hold Mode
3. It doesn't explain what the 3 positions are. They are RATE MODE(green)-OFF(white)-HEADING HOLD (purple). The colors on the unit indication these are also not explained but they change with the 3 position switch. There is some confusion in the community who think that the positions are On-Off-Panic Recovery Mode. The box it comes in says there is a Panic Recovery Mode, but there isn't one according to Spektrum.
4. It doesn't explain that to change the gain of each surface of the Alpha6 you must use the software connected to a PC, and you have to buy the cable separately. There's supposedly a way to use an Android or iPhone, but its not clear how or what cable to use.  (I may try my USB cable with a micoUSB adapter).
5. It doesn't explain the software at all, what each adjustment does and when you would change them.

The box says there is a Panic Recovery Mode, but there isn't one.

Spektrum let me keep the original Alpha6, so I will be putting that unit in the 10cc Sukhoi. I had though about putting it on the 30cc MXS-R, and still may, but she flies very stable being so big. If I don't put it in the MXS-R, I will likely get one for it. I will be staying with the Spektrum unit, now that the deficiencies in the manual are overcome.

It has been a very goof flight day! I didn't want to screw it up b taking a heli out...