Its Official!

Yesterday I became officially an AMA Instructor pilot licensed to fly non-AMA licensed people in intro and training flights! A special thanks to the officers of MCRCC for supporting my instructor status!

The new Intro Pilot tag on my license is my instructor ticket! Nice patches the AMA sent me!

Sabre Update

An update on the SkyAngel Mini F-86 Sabre from Hobby King. She is flying great! I did have to add 1/2 oz of weight under her nose (seen  below in the air intake). The elevator control horns both broke at their attachement to the control rod, so I would just replace these from the get-go. 

Two 1/4 oz weights in the nose.

I chisled out some of the canopy to allow me to use a 1300 mAh battery, just a smidge too thick for the small spot underneath. The included 950 mAh and my 1000 mAh batteries fit fine, but I also have a couple 1300 mAh batteries I want to be able to use.

She is a lot of fun and remains a show stopper!

Kenny blowin' in the wind!

Kenny and I tried videoing with his Sony Handycam, and it was difficult... We couldn't see the screen on the viewfinder and had to guess where the airplane was, and the autofocus had trouble staying focused, so much of the video was not usable. But here's what I edited up of Kenny working his Edge in a very brisk wind at BMF, basically Kenny shooting crosswind approaches while I'm harassing him.

Ultimate bits

A Handycam vid... only what we could use from the long DVD, since the autofocus, invisible viewfinder, wacky zoom and operator wedgie pretty much made most of it unwatchable! So, here are bits and pieces of me flying my Eflite Ultimate!

Now THAT'S what I'm talkin' about!

Oh yeah! What a great day out at BMF! Flew the newly repaired Stearman (everything changed, all the trims were off, flew tail heavy at first), the awesome Pulse (who loves her new 12x8 Xoar wood electric prop), maidened the F-86 Sabre (way tail heavy, 1/2 oz later, flies pretty darn good!), and the much awaited Eflite Ultimate. She flew spotlessly smooth from the get-go! I had to remember a few things about landing a biplane, and added some flaperons (she wanted to tip stall), and now she's sweet! Great day! Flew until I had to go.

My Eflite beauties! Pulse XT 25e on the left, Ultimate 20-300 10 on the right.

Three of my Eflite favorites (the Cornell was at home). All flew great today!

People had issues with the battery compartment. I don't think its a problem at all. The 3S 2200 mAh batteries all fit great and balance her fine. She is sturdy, took a hard landing fine.  Can't wait to fly her again tomorrow!

Dusting off my Helis!

Wow... I haven't flown a heli since I crashed the Erazor 450 back in July! Has it been that long? Today was a blustery day (winds to 20 mph, gusts much higher, but beautiful skies...) so I decided to work on the helis. I went through my dead helis. I ordered the Hitec HS 85MG servo for the HDX 500SE (parts are getting hard to find...) and some EXI D213f digital metal gear servos for my heli backups. Then I started the Erazor rebuild by taking her apart... I scavenged a D213f servo and a really good Hitec HS 5084MG tail servo from the dead 250 (I don't plan to rebuild her anytime soon). I will be installing an Align GP 780 gyro I recently purchased, to replace the Futaba 601. I am going all MEMS from here on out. She still has the Spektrum AR6100 receiver on her, and her ExceedRC Proton 40A ESC. I replaced the Erazor tail tube with an EXI one, but have ordered some Dynam Erazor tubes should I have to replace it again. The Erazor canopy is toast, the replacement way over priced, so I will be using a slightly longer Tacon 450 canopy.

This is how she has looked since the crash in July...

Stripped, rebuilt the tail and tail tube, installed a replacement main gear for the stripped one, rebuilt the rotor head and replaced the feathering and main shaft. Need to replace the bad elevator servo, re-install the ESC, re-install the rotor head, fine tune the tail and secure the boom, then setup the blades and CCPM.

I am pretty excited about getting back into my helis. I plan to spend a lot more time on the Phoenix sim, and this time I hope to see some strong progression in my skills. Hopefully I will fly the Erazor next week. I also purchased a BeastX Flybarless system for my 4 blade EXI 450. Next week I plan to work on it and on the HDX 500 SE. I am excited!

The shiny came of Kenny's Edge

It was bound to happen. Kenny Chandler treated his Seagull edge like a princess. She was always pampered, and he would fly her only when he felt the mojo to make sure she got his best. His hands would shake after a close moment in a flight. It would take him sometime and a couple of cigarettes for his nerves to settle. This from a guy whom it takes a lot to shake. We have all been there.

And anyone who has flown has been here... Yesterday Kenny had a head-wedged moment, and took the shiny right off the Edge. On final he thought, for who knows what reason, that he was upside down, and rolled her over. He pulled back on the stick and planted her firmly in the trees. Yup, one of those, "what the hell was I thinking????" moments we have all had and wished we could get a do-over for.

Kenny sent me these before and after repair pics. Here's after the crash, before the repair.

And here's after the repair...

Kenny did what he could with what he had on hand as he wanted to get her flying again. Looks like he did a pretty good job! He thinks its ugly now (not shown is the canopy which apparently took a hit too), but he'll get the right cote and make it better soon. He took her ot this morning and she flew like nothing had ever happened, the proof in the flying!

Now that the shiny is off I think he will fly her even better, since he's no longer afraid of hurting her shiny!