PulseXT Resurrection

Damn I'm good...took me only 2, not 3 days!

For some reason I was loathe to start the build on my replacement Eflite PulseXT 25e, which I purchased after my radio browned out and she died a miserable ignoble death. (I have sinced replaced the NiCd battery, which thereafter wouldn't hold a charge more than a few minutes, with a LiPo. The difference in how my radio functions is clear). I think my tail was dragging on this as I have already done this, and I didn't want to do it again. I think Horizon Hobby knew this, since some nice things about this ARF made this less unpleasant. The wheel assembly was done. All I had to do was grind off the long axles (long in case you planned to use floats), put the pants on, and attach them. The wings had all their hinges done, the tail gear was in place and the horizontal and vertical stabs simply bolted on. The control horns were all attached. Simply put the servos and electronics in, the control rods and the motor, attach the wings and voila, resurrected. Its like she never died!

I don't remember putting the small spacers behind my HURC PowerUp 32 motor last time, but I did this time. (Actually, just found them in my crash box. Apparenly I did use them). It fits in the cowl perfectly. In the first build I had already dealt with the motor mount so was saved having to grind it again.

Much easier this time...

In Memorium...

I fixed the original wing, and hung it on the wall above the door to the workshop.

Get your pants on...

Epoxy the major joints with 30 min epoxy. I decided not to put Gorilla glue in the landing gear box like last time. I really don't think its needed.

Gear and tail feathers on.

Servos, control rods, and receiver in place. Motor on deck.

Made some extensions for the motor wires out of salvaged battery wire and plugs from those red battery clips no one except Notroplanes/Hobbyparts uses. This allowed me to move the ESC to the back of the compartment, out of the battery box.

As seen here, above (under) the receiver. There is very good airflow through here, better now that the back of the battery compartment isn't chock-a-block with equipment.

Now the battery box is clean. The ESC lead is easily accessed, and the opening to the equipment compartment below unfettered for good airflow.

Canopy on.

Wing joined. Like last time I heeded others advice and DID NOT join the wing on the fuse, but separately. The clips and popsicle sticks ensure good alignement. Used 30 min epoxy. My wing never budged last time.

Clean underside joint. I did put a piece of cote over this however.

And there she is, all beautiful. Like she never left...

Put a 2 on her in tribute to the first one, who taught me a lot about flying and never failed me...

Back in her spot, like she never died...

Looking forward to maidening her soon! The skies are clear and beautiful, but the winds horrible. It will be some time before I can. Tonight I think I may start on the Sbach project. By the way, I found out those black square pieces of wood that I couldn't idnetify from the first build are for the float sytem if you install it...

HDX500se Hovered, 450 up!

Well, here's a first I am sure. I have two CCPM helis flight read at the same time!

I soldered the pitch servo wires to a new connector, shrinkwrapped them individually, then as a bundle. Worked fine.

Took her out to the driveway for her first ever flight hover (in my hands... bought her used). Despite a brisk wind she hovered very stably. I guess what they say about larger helis being more stable is true. I knew this about 250 to 450, but even to the much larger 500; nice to see it in action. Looking forward to fully hovering her at BMF soon!

I spent my afternoon on the 500, and then rebuilding the Erazor 450 after yesterday's debacle. The main shaft was not bent at all! The feathering shaft of course was, and I had a bent blade. The antirotation pin broke in the swash. I didn't feel like fighting with it, so changed it out from a scavenged one I had hanging around, the entire swash plate that is. Trued up the CCPM from swash to blade holders, set up for -12 to +12 degrees, and she's flight ready!

I need to spend some more time, lots more time, on my Phoenix sim. I need to get over this psychological obstacle that is keeping me from advancing. I also need to work on recognizing she is getting to far away, keeping her closer. I plan to be flying scale by this time next year, and some 3D within a year after that! We'll see! 

Ugly day

It was a gorgeous, beautiful, "Ugly" day!

We had a very nice crowd at BMF today. A gorgeous day, light winds. Something was in the air the entire afternoon, from foamies, to giant scale to helis of all sorts. Dickie Ober even broke out his AR Drone. We had a couple of new people, and some past members showed up (Hi, Sam!) who haven't flown here for a couple of years.

I flew my Eflite Ultimate 20-300, one of my favorite all time fliers. Have to put some tail weight in and bring the CG aft if I want any 3D out of her. She flew awesome and was a lot of fun!

I also brought out my Hangar 9 Sopwith to try again. I noticed as she waited that her lower left wing had a curve in it. I could see too much of the underside of the wing, and it clearly was twisted, the leading edge lifting up. I don't think the repair I did to the leading edge could have caused this much twist, but I will need to break down the wing end and see if I can straighten it out. I REALLY wanted to fly her, but everyone said it would be suicide. Bill Page took me over when I was whining, and we looked her over. He talked sense into me, and I grounded her... very disappointed. Fixing this wing will be difficult. This photo doesn't show the degree of twist well, but its quite visible. I may be able to get a little push down from the strut, but I have no doubt I will need to refabricate the wind spars and leading edge... I have the PulseXT and the Sbach to build, so once again, the Camel is on the wall for the time being.

Flew my Erazor to much delight today! Flew several packs, then decided to try a side on hover, and did pretty well, both ways. Unfortunately she got away from me and I lost control of her, down she went. As hard as she went down I thought for sure I totaled her, but all that happened was damage to the main gear and the entire CCPM mechanism. Easily fixed. Should have her up after about 2 hours of work (repair, resetting the CCPM). I plan to get that servo wire fixed on my HDX500se, so I can start flying her soon. Probably get to that before repairing the Erazor.

Kenny Chandler brought out a new plane today! He got a great deal from Tower Hobbies on a 40 size Ugly Stick with an OS 0.46 AX motor. In addition to the combo price, he saved more with a coupon and his TH membership. We captured the entire maiden on video!

Flight of the Helis

Very windy day at BMF today, a lot of people there, not too many flying. I flew the Alpha Sport with her new nose gear today, practicing some wicked crosswind takeoffs and landings, putting some pretty stern stress on that new nose gear. She flew awesome! At the end of my day I flew the Cosmic Wind, and she handled the wind pretty well!

I also brought the helis out to fly. I had a binding issue with the HDX500se, easily solved, but in doing so discovered a badly frayed pitch servo wire. I grounded her...  I was pretty excited to take her up as I had flown the Erazor 450 several times already (helis are great in the wind) and was ready to maiden my HDX 500.

Flying the Erazor 450 today after she fell out of the sky with her radio loss last time. No issues there today! On one of the flights did a brief hover to capture it on video!

Sturdy Undies

The main landing gear on the Eflite Alpha Sport 450 are pretty sturdy, but the nose gear was prone to flexing. I finally snapped it last week. I ordered a Sullivan Knuckle Nose Gear from Tower Hobbies to replace it. This makes for a pretty sturdy pair of undies! Flew her today and this gear kept her straight and true on the ground, and she turned with authority during taxiing. In the install I had to replace the gear attachment with the Sullivan one, which was a bit large. I cut an inch off the top of the gear wire, and she fits perfectly.

Kibbles and bits

The UPS man cameth, and he leaveth stuff!

The LiPo battery for my Spektrum DX8 arrived, fully charged! Its already in my transmitter. The NiCd was worn out. I think it got short charge memory, and something else was wrong with it (it was always warm). I have little doubt it caused the crash of my PulseXT.

Got tired of hand bending poor z-bends, so bought a Hobbico z-bend plier. Not sure how to use it, but I think I can figure it out.

Why's this upside down???? I flipped it, but there it is... The replacement nose gear for my Alpha 450 Sport Trainer. Its pretty big... but will solve some problems getting through the grass.

AND MY NEW REPLACEMENT PULSEXT 25e ARRIVED! I am not going to enjoy rebuilding it and the stress of the maiden, but she is one of the finest airplanes I own and I can't wait to be flying her again!

HDX 500se and Erazor 450 Ready!

Busy day today! Finished work on the Hanger 9 Sopwith, the Thunder Tiger eHawk 1500, and now announcing I've finally gotten my HDX 500se flight ready! I replaced a bad servo, chekced the Align GP750 gyro setup, checked blade balance, replaced the tail blade with 500 size ones, programmed my Dx8 and set up the CCPM. When I get my new radio battery I hope to maiden her! Both the Erazor 450 and the HDX 500se are ready now.

Canopy off, HDX 500se

Erazor 450 in the foreground, HDX500 in the back.

Thunder Tiger Hawk Completed

My T-pro MG90 servos arrived yesterday, and today I finished building the Thunder Tiger eHawk 1500. Building this thing was a pain in the ass. For such a simple airplane, it was a classic case of "its always something". I have never been a fan of single servo ailerons, though they are working pretty well on my Electrifly Cosmic Wind. On this plane the aileron connecting rod that runs from the control rods to the ailerons has a lot of flexibility in torque, and getting the control rods to connect to the aileron connectors was no fun at all. Some builders put individual aileron servos in the wings, something I may consider. Previous to this step was the attachment of the wing to the pod body (fuse). Builders have had problems with the blind nuts, especially the rearmost ones. I was no exception. I could not get the screws and nuts to join. I ended up using short wood screws. In the end, the surfaces move pretty much to their required limits, the CG is on, and she is beautiful!

Installing the ailerons was standard, CA hinges. The wimpy control rod is seen to the right. I think it would have been better for it to have gone to the middle of the aileron.

Small brass grommets protect the wood of the  wing at the four attachment points of the main wing to the pod. The back two had to come out as part of the bolt-nut fiasco.

The aileron control rod connectors. Not much range of motion, even screwed in a bit.

TheV-tail assembly was very easy and straight forward. Programming it in my Dx8 was easy: normal wing type, V-tail selected and that was it!

VERY tight space and tolerances for the control horns. The  upper one that runs horizontally is the aileron servo, and sits about 1-2 mm over the two elevator/rudder servos on a platform. The yellow tape on the back of the pod covers and levels out the epoxy I had to use to rebuild the back wing attachment. It still didn't work properly. I put tape on the front attachment base so that everything remained level.  I ended up putting a small s-curve in the aileron control rods to attach them to the ailerons without binding. This is wire I  made control rods from as the stock ones were too short. I think that the servo tray needed to be aft by another 3-4 mm (see black mark, should align with the top of the servo tray above the rudder servo), but it cramped up the elevator/rudder servos, which already were tight. In the process of creating the epoxy repair of the aft attachment base, epoxy ran down into the tail cone and bound up one of the elevator servos, which burned out before I figured out what happened. That's the servo I had to wait for...

You can see the s-curve I put in the aileron control rod. Using the stock standard clevis arrangement wasn't going to work unless I got them set perfectly and CA'd them to the control rods (they are not threaded), I had used Great Planes control rod quick connectors. This arrangement worked out pretty well.  I put white cote along the fuse to increase underside discrimination in flight. I also put some on the underside wing tips.

And so she is done! Motor spins, wings stays attached firmly, control surfaces move appropriately, and she really looks beautiful! I hope she flies without any squirrely behaviors!

All 6's and 7's!

With the placing of the prop and nut, the CG is on the designated mark (damn this thing is heavy...), she is ready to fly!

The Right Stuff

My Hobbypartz Adventure has, more or less, finished, and finished satisfactorily. The right part is now in the right place for my Hangar 9 Sopwith. Its adventures continue!  I installed the motor last week, and today the Hobbywing Platinum 100A ESC arrived, and I installed it after soldering the connectors, and bench ran it with the prop using two 3S 3300 batteries in series (6S). She ran smoothly and with power. Here's a pic of the installation.  You can see the ESC to the left (a/c right).

I installed the cowl (no rubbing from the motor), and later painted the prop washer and nut with Rustoleum Hammered Copper paint, which I will let dry overnight. I will install that tomorrow. I will check the CG with the 6S setup, hoping to be a bit nose heavy. And with that, she will be flight ready again! I also spent the morning rebuilding and resetting up the CPM on my Erazor 450, and have started on my HDX 500 rebuild (it had issues when I bought it months ago, and I have never gotten around to setting them to rights).

There should be tears...

Short and simple: I lost my incredible Eflite Pulse XT this afternoon. I think my DX8 burped... my new DX8.

I had noticed over these past several weeks that I wasn't getting a full charge indication on my DX8 with its stock NiCd (4.8V) batteries. Today it alarmed low voltage when it still had 4.8V (it will charge to 5.2V) and turned off. Before this flight I had charged it for almost 45 min and it read 5.1V. It binded to the PulseXT fine, I completed my pre-takeoff checks, and launched. She turned and I climbed to about 200ft, and started a vertical snap roll. It started but then seemed to mush and she tipped nose down and started a roll spin. I realized I had no control, and called out as she spun slowly, straight down to the ground despite my letting go and then trying to ease back on the elevator. She corkscrewed all the way down. The nose and forward fuse were shattered. The wing cracked but did not break all the way through (not pictured). The receiver showed a single blink... lost bind. In the field's Bermuda Quadrant where this sort of radio loss has occurred.

I got home planning to buy a new fuse and cowl, but the fuse was $111, and the cowl $16, or $137. A new plane cost $190, so I saw no point in just getting the fuse... I opted to buy a new replacement kit. I have all the electronics from the original (will ne
ed to replace the gears in the rudder MN48 servo, but I have them), so that will be it. I also need to update the DX8 software... good time to do so.

So I am bummed... but I am lucky enough to be able to get another.

PS: I forgot to mention that the other reason I suspect the battery is that later, still having to keep plugging it in, I flew my heli. Near the end of a long hover the heli suddenly came straight down from 10 feet, fast. No damage. No release of bind, curiously. I checked out the heli, it was fine. Took it up again, and within a few seconds it did it again, unfortunately I could not keep it from tipping on the ground and had a boom strike. No release of bind either. This is when Steve wondered if the radio itself was the problem. Being that I was having battery problems, I wonder if the voltage spiked down enough to decrease the power output allowing for a we signal. With the Pulse which was far away, it resulted in a loss of bind, but with the closer heli, just a brown out?

HobbyPartz Adventures!

On 12/19/11 I ordered a Hobbywing Platinum 100A V1 Brushless ESC from Hobbypartz.com. They didn't ship in in their promised 1-2 days so it ran inot the holidays before I was able to get them to ship it after contacting customer support. It arrived, or I should day, the package arrived today, 1/4/12. The mailer shipping label shows it to be a Platinum 100A ESC, but its a Platinum 70A HV Opto (I need the BEC). And the packer even initialed it... Okay, no problem, really, it happens, but its annoying when it's their business and I have had to work with their CS more than any other shop's.

It took 15 tries to get in the CS queue, after several busy, and several disconnects after 20 or so rings. I've been waiting going on 25 minutes on hold for CS, and I'm still waiting. I am going to ask them to ship the right one now, rather than waiting for this one to get back to them. I'll cough up the $5 for Priority Shipping to get this one back, but honestly, I wish the right one could have come as its the only thing keeping me from flying the  Sopwith.

I post this because I have found that even well before the holidays shipping from Hobbypartz takes about a week to leave the warehouse in LA, and another week to get to my house in Mississippi. I usually plan on 2 weeks at least for parts to get from them, which would be okay if they didn't promise 1-2 days to ship... Now going on 30 minutes on hold... I'll update this later and let you know how it goes. UPDATE: After 40 minutes I gave up, and decided to send a post on RCDiscuss, which will take a couple of days and a few exchanges to solve...


UPDATE (12/5/12): Got an RMA number from Eric at Hobbypartz,, and t pay for the shipping.He didn't say if they would ship the correct part. Replied asking him if they were planning on it. I'll be shipping the wrong part out tomorrow Priority mail.

UPDATE UPDATE(12/5/12): Yup! I send him the tracking number and he'll send the part right away. Excellent!

UPDATE (12/6/12): Mailed mine out today, and sent the del conf number to Eric at Hobbypartz. He quickly sent me the shipping number of the part he's shipping.

UPDATE (12/7/12): Curious. The correct part arrived today, with the Delivery Confirmation number Eric gave me yesterday. It had to have been shipped earlier. Hmm... if another one arrives, I'll return it.

Hobby King Sbach 342 v2

A while back I saw my first Sbach 342, and I really liked its sleek lines and agressive tightly wound packaging. That was a foamy, from Parkzone or the like. I thought it would be really great if there was a small balsa version. I found a 1400mm one at Hobby King, but thought something smaller would be nice, around 1000mm, as space is getting to be a premium in my hangar, and the tails were snapping off the 1400mm Sbachs. Unfortunately no one had a single good thing to say about the 1000mm HK SBach as it was way tail heavy and had such high wing loading that you couldn't add any effective nose weight. Then v2 came out and addressed this problem, and more positive reviews are rolling out. Curiously the v1 is still on their website, so do be careful.

Today I decided to get the Hobby King Sbach 1000mm v2 with a Turnigy Park 480 850kv (275 watts), giving me a roughly 1.8:1 power to weight ratio. I have an Art Tech 40A ESC recovered from my ArtTech Diamond 2500 glider, and will swing a 10x7 APC prop to start with. I have some T-Pro MG90 metal gear analog servos and some Fusonic MG-D-9g digital metal gear servos coming... will need to decide which to use. I would like to use the 3S 2200mAh batteries, but not sure they may be too big. I'm pretty excited. She's a wicked nice plane, and I suspect there will be a few things to sort out, but hopefully she will prove a fun sport aerobat!

Re-wiring the Sopwith

I have yet to successfully fly my beloved Hangar 9 Sopwith... my second attempted takeoff ended in a broken plane. I rebuilt the wing last week, and today rewired the wing guide wires, and installed the new HURC 5065-04 motor, a 60 sized motor I should have started with. I am still waiting for the Hobbywing Platinum 100A ESC from Hobbypartz.( I ordered it almost 3 weeks ago, and it took 10 days before they shipped it, and yet it still hasn't arrived. I have stopped buying from Hobbypartz if I can avoid it as they never ship in 1-2 days and nothing takes less than 10 days to get from California to Mississippi). Its the last piece I need to fly!

The guide wires snap on this plane with any torque, even if they are loose. I saw someone who used light springs to allow for some give. I secured the springs with a piece of dental floss so if it comes unhooked it isn't lost. Worked great!

I shortened every line. Since some were snapped from the crash I was going to have to replace the wires anyway. Here's one of the small springs in place. I bought a pack of 10 Kleinschmidt Extension Helical Springs on eBay from mjs-depot (great price, quick shipping, gonna order some more).

Passed the floss through the spring and through the eyelet connected to the stanchion. Left slack to allow the spring to extend. The hemostat keeps the floss from slipping out while I manipulate it.

Tied a loose knot.

Clipped the bitter ends and voila!

All 8 are sprung.

And they look great!

The new motor awaits its ESC.

It will go on the left (airplane's right) in this motor box.

More to follow!