Please, somebody stop me...

I am obssessed with Phoenixcubby... so, yes, I am rebuilding her... Fixed the wing, but it did not break apart completely, so no spars. She is a little weak there as a result I think, a bit too much flex. The wing has its droopy negative dihedral again. I debrided the fuse, and glued the forward part back together. I also glued the empennage back on, as it broke cleanly. Yeah, she's a little heavy feeling, and I think her nose turns up a bit too much, so the motor thrust vector is off a tad. Once again I had to fabricate the posterior canopy attachment from styrofoam. It was damaged, but held together pretty well. I had to remove it entirerly and rebuild that part using styrofoam.  I think the cowl has had it, so I don't know if I will put it back on. It secures the canopy to the fuse, and the wing is attached to the canopy, but I have an idea that saves some weight and doesn't use the cowl. I will cote the fuse again, this time in red just because. I plan to balance the wing, to see if that will help her stability issues. I want to have her ready by Wednesday. Here goes nothin'...

I also have all the Erazor parts in, so I plan to finish her repairs too!

BlitzRCWorks Nano P-51 Mustang

With the death of Phoenixcubby I needed a new small inexpensive parkflyer. I will eventualy be getting a larger foamie Mustang (I am eyeing this one), I have another 1 meter foamie Cub, so I have been thnking about this sweet BlitzRCWorks Nano P-51 Mustang from Banana Hobby. This plane is tiny! I suspect, being so small she is going to be challenging for me to fly as a newbie, but I think her smallness will make her more crash resistant.

She haasn't been  released yet, but is expected to ship late May! Fun!

The dog crap was my first sign...

Clearly there comes a point where you just can't fix a plane anymore. Phoenixcubby is there... As I mentioned, she was flying sluggish, like she was under powered, and she went unstable with the slightest change. Yes my skills are still sloppy and developing, but I can usually fly the cubby for several laps before I do something stupid. Since the last major rebuild she just hasn't been the same. Yesterday in Meridian, MS, I took her out to the Northeast Recreation Fields and tried flying her again.

The soccer field there was covered with big dog poop... this was my first sign that things were going to go down the crapper. The second sign was she was requiring looonnng run outs for takeoff, and would tip forward breaking props even though I had full up elevator on high rates. The third sign was that when I got her up there, she waddled unless she was in level flight at full throttle. It was all I could to land her. I changed positions on the field to get the sun out of my eyes, still having flown her for only a minute or so. I again found it difficult to get her to take off, and then finally she did. She seemed okay, full throttle, climbing turn to the right nicely, was heading back. I dumb thumbed her into a right roll when I wanted left, and she was unforgiving. Once she started that right roll, full aileron did not bring her upright, full back stick did not bring up the nose, and she drilled into the ground...

I thnk she was just too heavy for the motor and the wing... Too much glue, too many spars, too much tape, just too heavy, under powered, and too much wing loading. Her fuse is broken in several places, the canopy is broken again, her wing is broken the forward part of the fuse is mushy... I could put her back together again, but not improve her weight characteristics. I think its time to move on, salvage the parts I can, focus on Cubby 2, and my new micro plane!

Good-bye, Phoenixcubby!

Can't catch a break...

Up in Meridian, Mississippi, absolutely gorgeous day. Had to fly, thought about it all night and all morning. First chance I got, I took off for a set of soccer fields I found nearby. Turned out to be a pretty decent size set of fields just north of North Hills on Hiway 39. Took Cubby! But Cubby's receiver wouldn't light up, and I was getting the slow beeps of death. I tried rebinding, no joy. This was the HK Orange receiver from the last big crash, but I had no reason to suspect it. I packed up and headed back to the apartment. I tried the receiver attached to my Sim Stick, and I thought it gave me the same sounds, and wouldn't bind. I suspected the ESC, but that didn't make any sense either. So I took the ESC to the local hobby shop (it moved from the address I found on the internet, so I called and Donald gave me directions. which, being a man, I failed to follow correctly and drove several miles past the left I was supposed to take. Once I figured that out, I found North Hills Hobbies nowhere near North Hills...because it moved...). Donald help me prove the ESC was actually fine, which made me happy because I like this Hobby Wing ESC. So I took it back to the apartment and tried the Sim Stick's Specktrum again (it's the counterfeit one I didn't know I bought counterfeit). This time I let it take a little longer to bind and it did just fine. But this time it did the normal tones, and gave me the slow beeps of death again, even though the receiver was bound. So I Googled it and I saw something I remember seeing before so I tried it. I turned on the transmitter with the throttle full up. I then powered the receiver, and after the 2 beeps dropped the throttle to off. I then turned everything off and powered it up again. Beeps gone, fully bound, ready to fly!

I went back to the field, still gorgeous outside! Checked CG, checked control surfaces. I did a few ground loops, broke a prop, kept adjusting the landing gear to get prop clearance, and finally got her flying. But she was wishy-washy, sluggish... Ran into a ginormous lighting pole, crashed to the ground, just broke a prop and the canopy (damn canopies...). Changed the prop, taped things up, realized the upper motor mount screws were pulled... maybe that's why she flew funny. These were the screws I thought were secured even though they had no nuts.  Wrong...  I used wire ties to secure them, and checked her out, took her up again. This time, she seemed much more responsive, took her down field nice and slow, turned and brought her back. She seemed her self again! I turned, and she started her roll, but began to nose down. Pulled back on the stick, but JUST LIKE THE LAST MAJOR CRASH SHE NOSE DIVED FULL SPEED INTO THE GROUND! I just can't catch a break with her. So I threw her in the car, and went off to Las Fuentes for a chimichanga and a lot of sweet tea. Once I got back home I spent a couple hours putting her back together again. She had once again stove in her nose, this time breaking the motor mount off the fuse, cracking then fuse under the cote. I glued her back together, added packing tape to stabilize her, and she is as good as before. I epoxied the motor mount back in place and its secure. I glued the canopy together, repaired the fuse as well as I could. Once I had everything back together, I threw in a battery, and ran the motor. Now this motor rocks! The prop and motor took a direct hit, but the large shaft could not be bent! Ran true, ESC and motor stayed warm, not hot, and the battery ran her for about 10 minutes at 3/4 throttle. Very nice! I am letting the glue set in overnight. I think the weather is supposed to get squirrelly so I don't know that I will get another chance to fly her. Which is maybe a good thing... since that's not going so well for me.

Looking good! I suppose she is getting a bit heavy with all the repairs... I still love her!

Phoneixcubby Done!

The canopy came in today, so I fitted the foam under the wing and canopy, and screwed it into place. I screwed together the struts, and glued where the plastic bits were missing from the wing. She looks god, but man, she is bent... I shimmed the left wing where it joins the canopy, after I took these pictures, and it evened out a bit. It was difficult to say, but I think the tail empennage is a bit canted too. At least the wing is straight!

Looks good!

Here you can see the right wing is higher than the left wing. I later put shims of firm closed cell foam under the left wing to even it out a little.

Very pretty!

This close up shows the way I secured the landing gear flange inside the body so that it can move, but resists bending backwards by running into the fuse. I used a cut section of the old wing strut that I melted to a more acute angle after cutting it short. I think this will work out pretty well! I may end up securing it to the post with a plastic wire tie.

Looking forward to flying her! It ought to be an adventure. I haven't decided if I am taking any RC up to Meridian with me, but if I do it would be the Cubby. I will take the sim. This week I will order the parts I need for Cubby 2.

SOLO!

Call me Hans, and give me a beer!

Solo'd my Alpha 450 today with Arnold as my spotter/coach. Flew two separate packs for about 5 mins in moderate winds, with excellent take-offs and landings. It felt great as I needed to cut the training cord or else I would be waiting for IPs to be around to fly! I can't wait to fly the PT's.

Enjoyed watching Jim, Dick and Dickie fly their helis. Jim flew his 450 and Dick's 600, Dickie his 500 and then Dick flew his 600. It is really fun watching Jim fly with such precision!

I brought home all my planes, mostly because I only flew the Alpha and quit while I was ahead. It was wierd not bringing anything home in a bag! (I have always solo'd the Cubbies, and we know how that usually ends. I have been afraid to fly the balsa's because when they crash it is not nearly as easy to fix. So, soloing the Alpha was a big step forward in my therapy)!

Two finger Solution: Finally in a pinch!

I have been trying to switch to a pinch rather than a thumb control on my transmitter, but just couldn't get comfortable with pinch. I red a very nice piece in June 2011 Fly RC by Dave Scott where he describes a modified pinch, as I call it, taught by the 1st RC Flight School. I wanted to link to the article, but apparently Fly RC doesn't allow that...  Here's a pic of what my hands look like on the transmitter with this technique:

I don't know if the classic pinch is one finger fore and aft of the stick, or if this is the actual classic pinch, but this is much more comfortable for me. I have been flying the sim with this and I like it much better. Just as his article says, I find I had to reduce my expo to 10-15% when I was using 25% as my control immediately got finer and less jerky. I like a mushroom top on the right stick and a standard top on the left stick. Finally a pinch that works for me!