Finally caught a break with marvelous weather and manageable gusts on a day off. Flew the Stearman several flights, love that it has stabilization, and maidened the Goldberg Falcon and the long awaited Ultrastick! Only a few pics and didn't do any video (forgot the cam).
One curious battery thin I have never seen before. Charged 4 3S 2200 mAh batteries at the same time (parallel? I can never remember). In all 4 batteries, one cell charged to only about 4v, the other full at 4.2v. This happened on all 4 batteries from the same charge. I decided not to fly with them so I didn't undevolt that one cell, ran them down on the bench while checking the voltage. At 3.8v on 2 cells, the third on was around 3.74v on each battery, so the gap narrowed. The IRs were all less than 6. They ran fine. I charged another set of 4, a different band, and they all charged normally. The affected batteries are about a year old. Curious if they won't charge properly again. Would be a bummer as in this eco no my I won't be replacing them anytime soon.
The gang is all here!
Little wheels and short nose make for easy flip over on landing when running into the clumpies at the end of the runway. The PT-19 flew like a charm! So love this plane. It's a shame Eflite moved away from these affordable balsa delights and sells overpriced foamies in their place.
The Falcon has flown, 4 flights. In the air 3-channel proved no problem for me to adjust to, just as John predicted. On the ground I kept trying to steer with the rudder instead of the ailerons. Of course I kept trying to coordinate my turns in the air. The Falcon has one issue that John is going to investigate. It has a constant hard right roll tendency that I had to control with left rudder. Wasn't able to trim it out with rudder in flight. The wing looks straight and not warped as far as I can tell, and the tail is straight. The Irvine 40 runs like a dream, no issues at all and pulled some nice vertical. I tried the 11x5 Scimitar, and it flew great, but losing just that 1/2 inch of ground clearance lead to one prop stall on the lumpy Geotex. It flies so well on the 10x6, may just get some Master Airscrew Scimitars in that size, but I want some more flight time with the 11x5 first. One thing about nitro is that shit coats this wing thick. I have a muffler extender, chose not to fly with it, but I just might. Also need to bring paper towels.
The tail looks good, in this pic the right side of the main wing looks a bit higher, maybe that's it? Maybe I do see a little warp, the ceiling edge on the right shows more underwing. I bet the wing does have a bit of warp and that would roll it right. The engine is rigged classic down and right so P-factor isn't an issue, and this roll tendency is constant. This made for challenging landings. Little dude is fast with both props. Once we get this roll tendency sorted, this will be a fun plane to fly!
I usually have bigger wheels on the Ultrastick, and am probably going back to them. Hit the taller grass and went right head over heels after a nice albeit floaty flaps landing. I am sooo happy with how it handled. Engine ran great, though it has a gravelly sound to combustion. This is the first time I have heard it without ear plugs. It was getting late what with all the waiting, I wanted another flight, but one of the leading edge wing pegs was a tad loose so I called it a day. Overall all, I am very, very happy. I got used to it running a long ways out, though I hope getting my cataracts done improves my clarity of vision. I feel a lot more comfortable flying the 26cc Pulse XT60 and the 30cc Sbach here. I will probably overfly the parking lot at the business next door on landings with the big boys but no one is ever there.... The Evo 10cc ran great, though I did lean out the low needle a bit more. The idle improved (it was a bit untrustworthy today until I learned it) as did acceleration to FOT. Pretty sure a gasser is going with me every trip to the field.
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.
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.
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!
In hopes of solving the sputtering and 4 cycling that has plagued my RCGF-USA 26ccsince last year. Yesterday I pulled the engine, rebuilt it (left the cylinder on the crankcase, those bolts weren't going anywhere), and completely dismantled and cleaned the carb. The parts and gaskets were all fine. On the diaphragm side there was a surprising amount of fine grit in the pump side. I wonder if thats what the main problem was? The enginenisnt running perfectly mbut its so much smoother. Right now the sputtering is softer and only at wide open throttle (WOT).
After yesterday's debacle, I moved forward with getting the rest of my fleet flight ready, today starting with the Pulse XT60.
Took her off the wall and out to the work table. Decided not to lug the wings out just yet. Spent an hour running her and tweaking the needles. She started right up and ran pretty well, but I felt she was running rich still.
After repairing the stripped aileron connector, I attached the wing and ran the engine to see if the ailerons wanted to play the fool and jitter, but nope, all is well. Has only been a problem on the Stik and the Stick.
I'm pretty happy with her and look to take her out tomorrow, weather permitting. I will do a few cosmetic fixes before then.
This is right after starting her having had her on her back repairing the lead. She had to cough up some air first. As I wound the needles to full closed to reset them I stopped counting after about 4 turns... I set them at 2 and 2, finding that's the min to start and run up, probably ended up closer to 2-1/2 for the high, but closer to 3-4 for the low to get a smooth run up. It still stutters a bit with crash to WOT, but its quick and consistent. Last year she ran smoothly on the ground, but 4 cycled in the air at WOT. Will see.
It feels like I got off to a late start this year...
I usually fly almost all year around, but work this past year took so much of my time that I left most of my hobbies behind. Now that I am "on sabbatical" between gigs, I have some time.
I updated the iX12, expecting that to derive any number of nightmares, but it actually went pretty flawlessly. I think. It may have this new trick where it needs to have the battery unplugged and plugged back in to turn on, but we'll see. I charged it up completely having let the batter die over the winter. Update done. Cleaned out the planes I killed last fall, no need to be reminded every time I scroll looking for today's aircraft.
I took the Eflite Alpha Sport 450 out, as the first plane I fly every season. It was my first real plane, the one I learned to fly some 11-12 years ago, and I know it so well that it's comforting to renew my thumbs every season, and settle the "new field jitters" when I fly somewhere I haven't before. I thought I had taken a photo at the field, but alas... I did take a pic of the Cubbie. I flew several packs on the Alpha, and then just one on the Cubbie. It was a bit gusty, so the Cubbie took a beating, but landed fine. The grass at Wason Pond, in Chester, NH, where I went today instead of hauling all the way out to Hudson, was long and clumpy, so I took off from the dirt on the baseball diamond. 8 packs in all, about 40 min of flight. The first flight I overcontrolled a little, but by the end I was hand launching with no issues. It really felt good. A dad with some kids had just finished flying a Blue Angels F-18 Kite, enjoyed the show and I invited them over for some show-and-tell! They loved it, and it was good to see them so happy. The dad has found a new hobby!
Tomorrow I think it's time to get the 10cc Ultra Stick flight ready, see if I can solve the "flickering left aileron" problem. Then the 26cc Hanger 9 Pulse XT going. Think the two 30cc's will follow. I am scared of maidening the 10cc Spitfire... past being prologue, but that too will come.
Brisk winds. Brought out the Stik with its RCGF-USA 10cc, and the Pulse XT60 with its RCGF-USA 26cc. Both worked fine last week. Neither worked fine today. It took some tuning the 10cc, but that wicked un-commanded aileron movement occurred and was pretty constant at high RPM. I just read a story about a plane crash where the prop was out of balance and generated a vibration freq that caused this to happen. Hmm.... will be checking the balance of the props.
I even had my son Luke with me to video... but alas, nothing flying today. The Pulse was not running right since getting her muffler tightened, and part of it was the fuel lines kinking. I knew this might be a problem at some point and it was today. And to boot, the screw that secures the spinner stripped. Grounded.
Got her home, fixed the fuel system redoing all the lines and making it a 3 tube system so that the engine gets its fuel directly. A new spinner screw was all it took to solve that problem. This all took about an hour or so. I was not in the mood for further foolishness so called it a day. Tomorrow will be too windy to fly, so I will once again tune the engine and get the cowl back on.
Same as yesterday, another waste of time.
UPDATE (5/28/2020): I took the plane out to the backyard bench and ran it up. Took about an hour to find decent settings. Still 4-cycles a bit at WOT, but now it has great RPM and Idle. I'll put the cowl back on, and next time I go out taker her with me to be disappointed again. There has to be something I have lost in tuning my engines for this to keep happening.
It began with having to solve a cat problem... Move one, the other two show up.
First flight with the Twinstar and her new nose gear went fine!
Started the Pulse XT60 RCGF-USA 26cc, and noticed the muffler shaking again, loose. Started to remove the engine to fix it, but without my bench tools it was going to be a painful and long process. Screw it, will fix it at home. Put her back in the car.
Second flight landing and the nose gear did not bend, but broke the forward bulkhead off. I saw this coming.
Quite the angle there.
Keith and Jason were tooling about, walked over before I left to say hi!
Spinner off, prop off, cowl off, engine off. Used J-B Weld as a gasket sealant and as a Locktite, having read it as a fix for this, and having it on hand. Sucker is snug. I also found a couple of lock washers, for whatever difference they make. I also found the throttle control arm nearly off, it's set screw held there by the choke arm! Jeez, this thing is shaking everything off. Standard blue Locktite, tight as I could make it. Engine back on, cowl back on, prop back on, spinner back on. Check pak charge. Ready to try again tomorrow. Really wasted time at the field.
Put the Twinstar aside in the shop, not in the mood for its foolishness.
Think I need a second plane for tomorrow, since the helis are grounded until Spektrum fixes the software issue with heli DR/Expo. Hmmm... probably the Stik!
I really do love the RCGF Engines. The only engine that really gives me trouble is my Evolution 10cc... Though the 26cc RCGF Engine on the Pulse is acting the fool.
Pulse XT60. Ran fine but like I was running gravel through it... It ran fine last week... I do like the silencers, they do seem to bring the noise down a lot.
The field was pretty busy! A lot of people were there, lots of helis mostly.
The wonderful Eflite PT-17 Stearman.
Flew beautifully! Flew sideways... too windy. Flew one battery.
Once again I spent a lot more time than I should working the Evo 10cc. She started wonderfully, ran fine, took off and flew around, super sensitive elevators, and went to idle, noticed it got very, very quiet... dead stick landing went fine. For some reason she would not idle all of the sudden, no matter what I did... Spent over two hours, finally started idling fine. Brought her in for landing, and I slowed too much, pushed the throttle forward and she took too long to respond and stopped flying a foot off the ground, and, of course, ripped off the gear. No other damage. Resetting the crash clock...
I had a lot of things to get done in the shop today. My last post was about the Mile High RC Silencers I installed on the RCGF 26cc equipped Pulse XT60, but I also installed the replacement RCEXEL CDI from RCGF-USA on the RCGF 10cc engine on the stik, and setup the Eflite Stearman on the iX12.
The dual silencers on the RCGF 26cc
The new ignition on the RCGF 10cc is under the cover. One of the possible causes of the left aileron twitch that lead to the 720-deg/sec snap roll the other day is ignition noise. The wire covering on the original sparky wire was gapped in places, so I replaced the CDI, and I tossed a torrid (ferrous ring) on the ignition power lead to further isolate the receiver from the CDI. We'll see if this makes any difference.
I haven't flown the Eflite PT-19 Stearman in over a year. Not sure I flew it at all last year? I opened the hatch to see what I have for a RCVR, and found an "older" Spectrum AR600, and an Orange 3-axis Stabilizer System. The Gyro wasn't set up... no idea why. So, I set it up. It works fine! I have it setup on the iX12 to allow me to switch it off in flight. The AR600 is nice, two antennae, but no telemetry. With the iX12 and its sweet telemetry skilz, I am all about the telemetry now, so will probably replace it with a new Spektrum AR620.
My Eflite PT-19 Stearman, all set!
I so need to get out and fly something. Overcast and cloudy tomorrow, but light winds!
The RCGF 26cc engine on the Pulse XT60 is of course a bit loud (less loud now that I put the muffler back on... it was falling off and lost a screw, so I think that is one reason it was so loud at RC Aces last week). I decided to buy a pair of silencers from MHRC, having one on the MX-Bach's 36cc RCGF engine with its one big pipe. It took out the high pitched pops and gave the engine nice tuned sound. The larger silencer fits it perfectly. I know the smaller ones are just a touch big for these pipes at 14.4mm (they fit a pipe with a 14.4mm ID), as the OD is 14.4 on these pipes. But I had an idea, and this seems to work. We'll know when I can fire up the engine. I know the tip will fit inside the pipe, and that the outer edge will be flush with the pipes outer edge. it won't go in. I suspected that the silicone attaching tube would fit just right on the pipe, and that the silencer doesn't care if its in the pipe or the silicone. I also needed some guarantee that the silicone tube would not get blown off. This is what I came up with.
A piece of painter's tape to help keep the drill bit from wandering too much.
Drilled an approx 1 mm hole.
Put a M2 short hex screw...
In the hole. Snug, not gorilla-tight. Repeated on the other pipe.
Pushed the silicone tubes onto the pipes, having already used hot water to press the silencers into the silicone tubing and set an electrical tie around them. I then used the supplied ties to put one above and one under the protuberance created by the screw. Snug, doubt they will blow off. Now this will increase the exhaust manifold pressure a little, so I will lose a few RPMs, but this plane is over powered and will tolerate that fine. I won't be surprised if I have to make a few adjustments to the needles or idle end point settings.
UPDATE: They actually do make a noise difference, with no noticeable performance loss!
My Hangar 9 Pulse XT60 is overpowered a bit with its RCGF 26cc gas engine. This makes it fast and powerful, especially with the thrust produced by its 3 blade prop. Even at idle she produces thrust. At low idle she can be unreliable, bog down, and die. Endpoints above that run well, but produce too much thrust. I need a way to have a reliable but slow flight idle, and a stable even if briefly, landing idle. After asking on the Facebook iX12 Users Group, I decided the best option was using throttle curves with different idle settings, set to a switch. This has so far turned out to be a great option.
I set up the iX12 three position Switch B (traditionally the heli Flight Mode Switch) with a Flight Idle 6% above true idle, an Approach Idle set at 3% of true idle, and a Landing Idle set at actual idle. The Landing Idle is low enough to produce little to no thrust, tries to bog down, but usually will not stop despite threatening to. I chose 6% as this was a reliable slow RPM position that allowed an acceptable in-flight idle speed. 3% is simply 50% of the Flight Idle and is there to allow a step-down transition, and the Landing Idle that is slow, boggy, but will usually keep running. Using the Flight Mode Setup panel I was able to change the Call-Outs to reflect these new settings.
My Pulse XT60 26cc gasser that has a tad high idle, and gets variably unstable if we try to end point it down. Gary Hoffman, a Horizon Hobby Rep and poweruser (iX20) noted he has a THR<THR mix set on Swith A that when he flips it on final it decreases his throttle 5%. His plane, like mine, will tolerate that at idle, for a minute or so. This allows a slower touchdown. If he needs power, it's there, just 5% less, until he returns the switch to flight position.
We looked at my iX12 and were able to assign a THR<THR to Switch A in Mix1, but nothing we set on either of the available end points (or TRIM, for that matter), resulted in a drop in RPM.
Went out to RC Aces field in North Hampton, NH, home field for my flying friend, Gary Hoffman. This would be my first real flights (I don't count thr UMX Debacle) on the iX12. I was going put to SNHRCC at Hudson, but when Gary told me he was going out, I invited myself.
Baby's First Trip in her carrier!
The Stik flew well! The RCGF 10cc ran fine, lots of power. The twitch in the left aileron came back. In flight she did an un-commanded aileron roll at about 720 degrees a second! Snap, over as quick as it started, level to level. That quickly ended that flight. Inspection revealed that with the engine running the LA twitch was back, subtle.
The very old AR610 that was in there died during preflight before I left, but I had the new antenna-less AR620, still in it's box. Like all of us, I was a bit worried about how this would behave, but I have faith in Spektrum. At the field we range tested it, and as hard as I tried, never more than -70 db loss, no holds, and in flight only 1 fade. Love the telemetry on the iX12! The snap roll was not a radio issue. The new radio and new reciever worked fine!
Is this gap in the webbing the cause of the twitch?? The wire covering is gapped and frayed, not just here, so the ignition does need to be replaced. Ordering one tonight from RCGF-USA. I checked the servo and wires, and they are fine. Hope this is it.
I had set up the Pulse XT60 in the iX12, and set the throttle end points the same as they were on the DX8. A small adjustment to the low end and she was set! The idle is still high a touch. Gary suggested a THR<THR Mix set at 5% to a switch. He has it set up on one of his. This would allow me to hit the switch a foot above ground, dropping the idle 5%, which she can sustain for almost a minute before stopping, if she does, allowing power up if needed, or a slower touchdown. We couldn't figure out why it wouldn't work, so I'll be seeing what the folks at Spektrum come up with. Hit about 40 min over three flights!
This 26cc engine is LOUD. The twin exhausts produce a lot of noise. On my RCGF 30cc on the MX-Bach, I have a DLE Muffler Silencer from Mile High RC. It really softens the sound. I measured the external diameter of the pipes at 14.4 mm, and these fit an internal diameter of 14.4 mm, so, we'll see. It really needs some silencing.
I did get to watch Gary fly the crap out of the 6S Edge made with a carbon laminate frame that was so thin a sneeze should break it. I think it was far less than a pound. Man got skillz. It was beautifully built, expertly flown.
I forgot how wet the field can be, as it is on the edge of a wetland. Wet, cold feet... Called it a day. 45 deg, breezy, wet... bad combo.
