PT-19 Flight Ready

With the arrival of the 4 Screws of the Apocalypse, I quickly finished off the PT-19 Cornell for E-flite. A special thanks to the folks at Horizon Hobby fo sending me the screws I found impossible to find locally.

I can't wait to fly her next time I hea out to Bob Miller Field!

Gyros

GilliganSC on Helifreak sent me an old school mechanical gyro. An interesting contrast to the new Assan Hobby King miniMEMS 250 gyro. The miniMEMS $10 gyro purports to contain $150 MEMS micro electronic gyro technology. I bought a couple and hope they work as well as users are saying they are. Hobby King cannot keep them in stock they are so popular.

The case says its a Quest Gyro Systems gyro.

Inside I found a solid brass wheel on one side, and what looks like a wheel on the other covered in metal. Other mechanical stabilization gyros I have seen have a pair of brass wheels, so I wonder if there is a wheel under the cover. The wheel and covered-wheel are on a pivot that can turn only a few degrees each way.

Assan Hobby King miniMEMS 250 gyro kit.

The miniMEMS on my CopterX 250. Foam tape, steel plate, foam tape, Zeal gel tape. This should solve my tail wag! It looks better than it, well, looks....

I will let you know how theses things work out. I have two, another on the way. One on my 250, another  is going on my EXI 450, and another on my Frankenheli 450.

Horizon Hobby Rocks!

Worked wiith Horizon Hobby Customer Service to get 4 screws for the cowl, and they decided to send the 4 screws with a complete new cowl! Now thats taking care of the customer!

Downtime...

Got an itch I can't scratch, need to fly something... Between work and getting to all the honey-do's, I haven't even been able to tinker.

Hate it when life gets in the way of life...

Flying the Syma in Meridian

Brought my Syma S107 up to Meridian with me to fly in the company apartment. Almost brought up my ERazor but didn't want to drag up all my equipment. I had forgotten how much fun this little 3 channel is to fly. Was hard to try to fly and capture a pic at the same time.

Hangar Shuffle

PT-19 is "done", and I want to hang it next to the Stearman, so I shuffled the a/c around a bit, and moved the Alpha Sport 450 over the TV in the media room.  My wife sighs and shakes her head whenever she walks by...

PT-19 Build Day #4

I got a little further than I thought I would tonight and am now held up by 4 missing screws...

Motor and ESC were easy to install, especially now that I am familiar with the "backwards" motor concept. 890kv 450 size motor, and a 40A ESC with 3A BEC. Bound the receiver and checked the ailerons, elevator, rudder and motor. Had to reverse the rudder servo, but the others were fine. Re-centered one of the ailerons and the elevator. Easy, peasey. Realize now I didn't program the ESC. I'll do that tomorrow.

Had to break out the sealing iron for the first time. I guessed that each number on my hangar 9 sealing iron represented 100 degrees F, set it at 250 degrees (220 deg + 10% for the sock). Worked wonderfully after smoke stopped coming out of it... I applied the center blue strip (there were two blue Ultracote strips in the kit, no instructions. I suspected they intended for me to cover the middle joint between the wings on both sides. Fit perfectly suggesting this was in fact their intention.

Here's why I had to learn how to iron Ultracote. The wing walk strip (that black band along the fuse where the pilots can step) peeled back on the port wing. It went back into place easily and looks great. 

The center strip and the repaired walk strip.

I loose fit the cowl in place. E-flite did not include the 4 screws that I need to secure the cowl to the fuse. I have 4 similar screws, but two are the same size, and the other two are shorter, and one of those is shorter than the other. Since I have time here, I am going to ask Horizon to send me the screws. She is beautiful!

So, I may tape the cowl on and hang her up until they send me the screws. This is one spectacular model... wow!