What a wonderful, wonderful, day...

I had today off for an appointment with my eye surgeon who unexpectedly dilated my right eye, because you know, I had a car-full of airplanes I was taking directly to the field... Dammit... Winds were going to get even better and I was off on a sunny day. I. Am. Going. Flying.

But even though I am an idiot, I waited a while and made sure I could see well enough to fly. I had also brought the Ultrastick to maiden today, but not with one eye, no matter how perfect the weather. The field will require me to fly high with that one and I wasn't going to risk losing orientation.

I did get over a dozen great flights in, and even trialed my field charger setup.

Hanging in the gang cover at NH Flying Tigers Field,

Derry, NH

Wanting to tune up my go-to plane and continue to re-train my thumbs, as well as  make sure I can safely fly with one eye, I flew half a dozen packs on the Alpha Sport 450 first. I have flaperons on it, to slow it down on approaches, but it's already really, really floaty. I think I am going to try spoilerons, and see if that will slow it and make it less floaty. I am beginning to see this revived version really wants to be nose heavy.

For the first time in years I took the vintage Eflite PT-19 Cornell out and up today. It's so light I put a Hobby King Orange stabilization system on it, and it makes a tremendous difference. Speedier and snappier than I recall, it flies on rails. Really enjoyed flying it after the first flight jitters, did about 3 packs.

Flight of the Cornell

I came with only four of ten or so 3S packs charged, so I got to trial the lead setup I ran from my hybrids auxiliary battery. I have to leave the engine "on" so the computer can sense when to, and to charge that battery. Worked perfectly!

I had psyched myself up to maiden the Ultrastick 10cc today, and by late afternoon the conditions could not have been better, and only one totally non-judgy pilot was there. I was sooo tempted, but my right eye didn't un-dilate until a couple hours after I got home. I was not adding that crash variable to the test flight. Benched. I am itching to get that plane up.

The even more exciting part of the day was when I got home, I used a suggestion from John Hayes to make it so the throttle closes when throttle cut is turned on. I had gotten the engine easily started on the first try after years of sitting, and tuned to to run superbly, quite easily. I did have to adjust both needles. But the throttle barrel would not close completely, so I had to manually choke the engine to stop it. John showed me which screw to adjust. There is a spring loaded screw on the back port side of the carb (top in the photo). This screw stops the throttle barrel at the desired position, which for me is fully closed. This is the last pic of that screw, because I didn't realize it was spring loaded, and to allow the throttle to close completely, it had to be fully withdrawn. Yep... Shot out of there like a bat out of hell... It went where screws go when the cross the edge of the workbench...  My vintage garage has a stone and dirt floor. 

It's in there somewhere, I think. Couldn't even find it with a magnet, but tons of iron chips and aged metals were everywhere.

Nice idle, nice slam to FOT, smooth mid-range, 

and throttle cut works now! I got an exhaust extender today 

and will install it soon.

Have to work the next 3 days. Sunday's weather is stormy, Monday winds 7 mph but not much gusting after 2p. Hope to maiden the Ultrastick. My rule is only one maiden a day, so the Goldberg Falcon 56 will follow that another day, unless the weather is pristine. A little nervous as I have never flown 3-channel and this field is tight. John says it will be fine!

Flight schedule is to get the Pulse XT60 26cc gasser, the Eflite Stearman (the real balsa one, not the overpriced foamie thing*), and the massive 30cc MX-Bach (MX2 fuse, Sbach wing). I also have the Cosmic Wind (I think a Great Planes 450 size speedster), and my helis airborne. Full summer. Need good weather matching days off.

* I so hate that Eflite went from making affordable beautiful and desired balsa ARFs to selling foamy overpriced crap. This is what kills this hobby. Foamies are fine, l just waaaay overpriced, and just don't fly like the balsa planes. Good small to medium balsa ARFs are hard to find. Muss my Eflite Ultimate, my Pulse XT25 (my all three me favorite plane), and eventually my Cornell and Stearman may expire with no decent replacement.

FINALLY! Awesome flying day!

Today was that perfect golf swing kinda day! That one where you getting kinda frustrated, depressed even, and then you hit that sweet spot with a graceful fluid swing and the ball sails. It was that kinda day!

Yesterday was disappointing. The PulseXTs RCGF-USA 26cc was still misbehaving, and the once perfectly fine RCGF-USA 35cc decided it wouldn't start. Today I decided to see if the M4F sparky was the same as a CM4, it fit in the 35cc, and it ran sweet right away, so yes! I couldn't find M4Fs anywhere, so this was great! Have 3 CM4s. Since this worked, I decided to replace the M4F in the 26cc as well, and damned if that wasn't the cure! I thought I had changed it last year, but it being the unfindable M4F that wasn't possible. That was easy. She too now runs pretty smooth!

Beautiful day to fly! Solid steady cross wind, but easily handled.

PulseXT 60 with its now sweet RCGF-USA 26cc!

Sweet once again!!

Straight out 90 degree wind! At least it was consistent

The innards of the MX-Bach. So glad she is running wonderfully, and flying well. She is super sensitive to control inputs. Dropped the DRs and found the expos a bit much making her a bit sluggish (55% on the ailerons, 80% on the elevator). I dropped the DRs, and next time will change the expos (forgot to give that a try today). I had to dial in a minuscule amount of up elevator on the flaperons. These humongus control surfaces have such profound effect. The full down flaperons need me to max the DR for any control authority, so I need to decrease the throw of the flaps to give it some more authority and less drag. The winds were getting gusty up high and she spooked me a couple of times, so I landed and called it a day. Every takeoff was smooth, every landing greased.  I love the way these heavy planes land. Awesome day.

New spark plug, all is well!

Next, I think I need to fix the Waco! Ground looped it into the weeds and that torqued the wing. I think it won't be as bad I as fear.

So great to have an awesome flying day, that perfect swing kinda day!

RCGF-USA 35cc MX-Bach Ready for 2021

Today I took down the MX-Bach and fired her up. She started right up, of course! No setting changes required.

The fill-drain tube inside the tank broke off... pulled the tank, cleaned it, and replaced the short piece of tubing and reinstalled the tank. Will need to remember to out her nose down to get it all.

I also discharged the ignition-reciever pack and recharged it. She is all ready to fly!

Crushed it!

Today was a first! I flew 4 packs on a 450 sized heli and enjoyed all of it, even the crash at the end! I have never flown a full 450 flight set, and have never liked them, until today. As a novice heli pilot, even after 10 years of flying them infrequently until recently, I have been flying sport really well, confidently and with error free precision. I am making it a point to fly a heli everytime I am out, and a lot of sim time. Its paying off.

I brought out the MX-Bach to try once again to land her without breaking a prop, the Trex 600e FBL which I fly 10S. I will be doing more 12S though flying sport I don't need those headspeeds, I only have 5 of the 5S batteries, I think 4 of th 6S. I use the 5S batteries for the Trex 500e, though I can also fly it 6S, the latter getting a little tight under the canopy.

Winds were wierd. There was no base wind to speak of, but brisk gusts of 30 seconds to a few minutes would come from all different directions mostly cross winds, so I landed from the south in left and right hand patterns, and from the north.

The 35cc RCGF-USA engine happily swinging a 20x8 scimitar prop. With the taller tail wheel setup and that big prop, its clearing the ground on all three wheels by about 1 inch at best. I have to land her perfectly. Even even keel mains first and she will strike the prop. I am toying with changing to a taller set of mains I have, but today I landed time and again without any problems. We liked each other today! No broken prop!

She can be a nice flier, but needs really low rates and high expos for a sport flier. 

Twitchy if there is any wind or speed. Challenging to fly, but still fun.

Beautiful wierd plane. MX-2 fuse, Sbach wing.

Flew all told about 30 minutes, until I noticed in a preflight that the muffler was loose again. I haven't use JB Weld on this one, but will be. Removed the muffler, cleaned it, painted it with BBQ Grill paint (heat resistent), and will reinstall it tomorrow.

Trex 600e FBL. What a great flier! See her smaller sis behind her.

Nice bits on the 600e.

The EXI/Trex 450 Sport with its beautiful flybar! This plastic head was sweet. Tight and responsive, perfect disk, and flew great. I did find her better on her low to mid rates. On high rates her collective was really touchy and over reactive. I think I need to use 14 degrees instead of 11 to give it better resolution. 

Everything is so small!

At the end of the fourth pack I lost her. Now, I know what you are going to say, but this really was a signal loss. She was starting to become a bit slow to respond, and I was bringing her left to right to land, high to lower when she topped responding to all inputs and just continued right down to the ground as her disk was slowing. The main head is toast, many of he plastic parts great for sport flight, didn't survive the crash. I think I have enough parts to build a nice flybar head. The servos at first glance survived. All three shafts are bent, the featuring shaft is almost 45 degrees off at both ends. The tail shaft is also bent. There is a dent and a barely perceptible bend in the boom. The gears are okay so far. This is going to take a bit of work.

UPDATE: I suspect I flew the pack too low. It was an old one, and signs were the sketchy behavior just before the crash. Need to check the pack. It was a bit puffy.

Last beats of her dying heart...

When I got there the reciever was disconnected from the ESC , likely from the crash itself, so I wasn't able to tell if there was signal loss, but I am pretty sure. I wasn't doing anything but a slow descent in straight line. I haven't ever had problems with Orange recievers. This one is several years old. When I rebuild this I will use a new Spektrum AR620 I have NIB. 

I so enjoyed flying the 450 that I think after rebuilding the Sport here, I will rebuild the waiting 450 FBL with its Tarot XYZ flybarless system and have two of these. I have so many spare 450 parts. I think I am really going to enjoy these!

New Turnigy Scimitar Prop for MX-Bach

 A few weeks ago another crappy approach and landing lead to breaking the prop on the MX-Bach. I ordered a couple of Turnigy Scimitar blades from Hobby King, in most part for the price, but also because I like that shape.  For safety and looks I like to paint the tips, re-balance and then install.

Tips painted fluorescent green with white center stripe over white primer.

Props are very nice quality.

Installed. I went up from 19x8 to 20x8 as the smaller prop was the lower recommended prop for the RCGF-USA 35cc engine. See what diff, if any an inch makes (easy, killer...).

Flying the Hacker MX-2, MX-Bach RCGF-USA 35cc

Hot, Mississippi HOT!, But virtually windless. I wasn't entirely feeling it, but once I got everything in the car, I was pretty game! Took the Hacker MX-2, flying 3S. Its the first time on the iX12, had to program it at the field, made a few adjustments. Before leaving I decided to put slightly bigger wheels on the mains and tail, which helped, but she still would trip over the mains if ai wasn't careful. She has really super flexible mains, almost like paper... but I can land her super light, she's such a great flier, that its not much of a problem.

Fun flier!

First flight of the day with the MX--Bach. I was really distracted, not focusing well on the tasks at hand. I wasn't even there while flying my plane.  Unstable approach, unstable landing, tipped a little and prop strike...that was the end of the day. No other damage, so I'm not calling it a crash, though I guess technically it is... okay, fine, resetting the crash clock. I was flying a 19x8on this 35cc, the smallest recommended. I am 9ut of props for this one, so ordered two Turnigy 20 x 8 props, scimitar shaped. They'll be here in a week. Can't eat the price, $14 a piece.

Anthony was there with his 350, on the left, the 250 on the right benched for a split in the tail belt. He be humble, but the boy got skilz and it was fun to watch him enjoy himself. He prefers the smaller helis, something unique among pilots.

Well, the heat is something else, but that wasn't my excuse for anything. I wasn't feeling it today, though I flew the MX-2 well, but I was absent flying the MX-Bach. I just haven't felt much like flying lately, mostly because of the cost of the risk of a crash repair,and partly because I have been blue with all the crap going on. Today took  me away from all of that, and reminded me why I fly! Need to get the MXS-R and the Waco in the air, and get back to the 600's while I wait for parts for the 500.

It's all good.

MX-Bach RCGF-USA 35cc Update

Pre-flight checks after changing the prop. Sweet engine. 

Gotta love RCGF-USA for excellent pricing, quality engines and great personal service!

This is a good video of her sound, power and nice transitions. There are 3 idles, Flight, Approach and Landing, to prevent stalling out at lowest idle. I do this on my engines that run for about 30-60 secs and may quit at low idle. This guarantees a safe flight idle, and an effective approach and landing idle. Each are heard distinctly here. I also have a 2 sec up throttle speed, and a 1 second back throttle speed, both give a smooth transition over the throttle range when sudden changes are made with no noticeable effect.

Time to fly!

Looks worse than it really was.

Took the MX-Bach RCGF-USA 35cc on it, and she flew marvelously!

She is a pleasure to fly!

Her idle got a bit higher with each flight so that on the last one she was flying too fast to get her down on the ground. After several passes I tried a procedure I have failed at because for some reason I am unable to hit the kill switch and fly the plane at the same time... well, she landed but tipped forward as I hit the kill and broke her prop. That was all that happened fortunately. But, that ended the day. She was very touchy, and I flew her on low rates. I lowered the rate even further and she is still touchy, despite 40% expo. I may have to bump that up too. Her engine ran fantastically other than the idle shift. Even with my 3 idles, the landing one was still too fast in the end. That will need some tuning,

 

I flew the HK500 FBL a few times, and ended up losing control and pretzeled her after I had a "WHOA..." moment.

Enjoyed a couple of flights on the Align Trex 600e Pro. There is such a huge difference between flying a 450, 500 and the 600, each getting more and more stable. I really enjoy flying the 600 sized helis, and will someday get a 700 just because I can.

So it looked like it went worse than it really did. Ir was a great day of flying!

Death and Reincarnation HK 500 FBL

I took the HK 500 FBL out, with a Trex 600 and my MX-Bach (more in that later), and she flew very well!

At the end of the second pack I had a close "Whoa..." moment tail out, and recovered , but she was flying off to my left, and I kept compensating in the wrong direction, still a bit shocked by the close encounter, and I rolled her into the ground. Pretzeled. Broke one blade, cracked the canopy thrown by the battery, and bent the tube. A swash control arm bent. Haven't gotten to the main or feathering shafts. The battery took a hit, so I have since recycled it.

I immediately started planning the rebirth, and I could replace the swash control arm, or, I can turn her back to her previous 4-blade head with the Align 4-blade head I have had for years. I use 450 sized blades with it, I have four similar blades and a new 500 size tube. I am considering using 500 blades, especially if I am going to 6S.

So that is the plan, I will make her a 4-blade heli, and probably fly her 6S! 

Ahhh... when everything goes as planned.

Straight out 90 deg crosswind gusts. Winds aloft were brisk and tossed the smaller Sukhoi around a little, made some maneuvers with the bigger 30cc MXS-R a little snappy and unpredictable so kept her high. I hate landing from the south over those trees. A down burble in front of the trees and an up burble at the crest of the hill at the end of the runway. As you approach from the east in front of the trees the winds try to drop the plane and roll her into them, then you turn and as you approach the southern end of the runway there is a lift that pushes up up. Have to fly it all the way down. I try to take off a lot of speed on the downwind with flaps 50% if the plane has them, then turn "downwind" which is actually a head wind in the crosswinds, full flaps and make the turn to final which is short. If I come in shorter there isn't enough runway so that's harder still. It's fun, but puckery.

A bit faster with the 2 blade, still not a lot of vertical but better, and she held her own in some strong winds aloft (even flew backwards at WOT briefly). She will keep the 2 blade.

Not a thing to have to tinker with! Worked exactly like she is supposed to!

Beautiful... in every way! Perfect controlled takeoff, flight maneuvers and aerobatics, then textbook approach and landing, after a few rougher approaches, a couple missed and a couple hard planted (no damage).  Big plane, fun flier!

A few seconds after the last flight, sweet landing (variable crosswinds), and then shutdown. 

Perfect flight.

Happy everyone is going home intact! Loving the 1:40-1:45 oil mix, the planes are coming home clean!

In my continued efforts to stop using NiMH batteries, I took them out of the Sukhoi, and used their Futaba J-connector leads to make a harness with an EC3 again. These too are ancient.

This 2S 7.4V LiPO battery is really a bit big at 4000 mAh, but it's replacing two 2300 mAh NiMH batteries which are heavier. I made a tray to allow the Velcro to pass as the tray under it that held the NiMH had a wire tie, and the Velcro would not pass. This is aft of the CG so I may have to compensate for it, You can see the connectors. The leads hanging off at the top of the pic are the aileron connectors.

Hung the Breitling MXS-R next to its buddy, the MX-Bach.

The only planks that are not in the iX12 and haven't been preflighted for the season are the Cub,  Hacker MX2, and the Waco RCGF-USA 26cc. I am not sure, actually, if that Alpha 450 is in it either.  Tomorrow I plan to start programming the helis into the iX12.

Twinstar Tail Fix, 30cc MXS-R Prepped

The other day pulling the Twinstar out of the car I somehow caught the tail just right and she snapped clean off. I removed it, held on by the edge of cote, and cleaned the surfaces, sanded where it was needed. the used 30 min epoxy over the middle where the tab used to be, and CA along the flush edges.

Gave it a couple of hours, and it's set nicely.

I will add a small line of wood along the bottom of the stab to add a little base support, then cover it all in cote. May even try to match the swoops. I will also be changing out the nose gear. The small twin wheels looks great, functions poorly, and the thinner wire that came stock was constantly bent and wobbly, so I will also be replacing that with the hardier wire, which necessitates replacing all of the mounting hard/plastic ware as well. I will bulk up the bulkhead a bit too, to handle the stress.

I brought the DLE 30cc Breitling MXS-R down from the ceiling for cleaning and inspection, replaced the Tygon fuel line/clunk with Viton, and replaced some of the other lines with Tygothane, using the Viton for internal clunk lines' stuff at cheap. I had a bit of charge in the NiMH batteries that I accidentally left from last fall, but topped them off, need to deep cycle them... and tomorrow I will program her into the iX12, and do some run ups on the engine. 

I also finished up a few things on the MX-Bach, fixed the wheels which were a tad wobbly on their axles. Put the cowl back on and she is done, ready to fly!

I spent the better part of the day cleaning the shop, and found a way to hang the helis off the floor. I also didn't like having the big 30cc planes hanging from the ceiling upside down, so found a way to hang them, moved a few of the others around to accommodate the new plan. Once they are all on the wall I'll take a pic.