Kenny's "New" Stryker

Kenny had a few Stryker frames, and this last one was painted by our club prez, Dickie Ober. Kenny maidened it today, and it flew great!

A boy and his plane...

Kenny landing his Seagull Edge 540 this afternoon. It was a beautiful but really windy day. We had BMF all to ourselves.

Cosmic Wind

1947, the Goodyear races, a new airplane, the Cosmic Wind.  The Great Planes Cosmic Wind is a remarkable reproduction, and boy, is she sweet. I put mine together last week! I changed the graphics a bit. I will be adding a "435" to the other wing later, and keep the bottom all red. She has a Gens ACE Mars Brushless   98P-Mars-BL3738-1300KVmotor and a Gens Ace Mars-BL45A ESC (a combo from Hobbypartz) for her powerplant, for 350 watts (the stock recommended motor is 330 watts). She has a APC 8x8 prop, as recommended for the stock motor, and will be using 3S 2200 -2650 mAh batteries. She should SCREAM! Using Hitec HSG 82mg micro servos (single aileron, rudder and elevator).

The 435 will appear along the wings outer edge.

Looking forward to a maiden flight!

It was one of those days...

It was one of those days, beautiful conditions, great flying, awesome company at BMF. And it sucked...

This is whats left of my Diamond 2500 Power Glider. This plane has a wing that is a pain in the ass to put together. The servo wire connections snag or come undone, the two halves sandwich together, but never quite meet well. I spent about 20 minutes getting her together, powered her up and checked the servos, walked to the flightline and checked again, and the left aileron wasn't working. Set it down, took it apart and spent another 10 minutes putting it back together. Checked control surfaces, powered her up and launched. She rolled a bit right, climbed level, I input a left roll and she rolled right. I realized the ailerons were reversed and input a right roll to roll left, and she rolled even harder to the right, and slammed HARD into the ground. She shred herself completely. The motor sheared off and landed 10 yards away. Post crash I confirmed the ailerons were reversed. I looked but I did not see...

The nose is gone...

The force of the crash sheared off the ailerons, and warped the flaps. The tail snapped clean off. I have never demolished a plane so thoroughly (heli's yes, example below). She is unrepairable...

My beloved C-47 also crashed on her fourth flight of the day. She was in level flight about 50 feet up, when she did an uncommanded right roll and spun into the ground. She was near the Bermuda triangle of our field where many a plane has mysteriously gone haywire... My DX8 had 4.6V (NiCAD) which should have been fine, but we wonder if there is something over there that interferes with our signals. She was the second plane of the day to do this, both of us accomplished pilots. She should be in bits, but she only smashed her nose, cracked the left wing near tthe root, broke both cowls and damaged both motor shafts. Fixable, but damn...

This is what happens when you try to nose in hover because tail in got too easy... and you lose control. It reminded me why I love-hate helis. She flew awesome, got her perfectly tracking, flew several packs in hover and moved her around with great control. On her fifth pack I decided to turn her nose in, and she started to get away from me... BAM... have to start all over again. At least the servos survived...  Need to replace the tail boom...

and replace the main shaft, feathering shaft, and rebuild and reset up the CCPM, set up a set of new main blades. One mistake, hours of work... Its like golf: one awesome drive makes you forget all the pain and keeps you in the game. Nothing like flying a perfectly tuned heli to make you forget the Groundhog Day feeling of rebuilding her yet again. 

The day didn't completely suck... I flew the Sabre jet, the Ultimate and the Pulse a half dozen times each and had a rockin' time! No more flying until after Turkey Day!

Erazor hovers

In the past couple of days I went through several packs on the Erazor 450. I can't hover her high enough in the garage to get the tracking set, so that will have to wait until I get out to the field. She hovers wonderfully. Not sure there's a big diff with the Align GP 780, but then I haven't flown her per se. I did manage to burn out the Hitec HSG 5084 mg tail servo today. I know the gyro is set for the right digital frame, so that wasn't it. Swapped it out from the one on Frankenheli, since I plan on concentraing on one heli at a time. Looking forward to flying her!

I'll be working on the HDX500 next. I have the replacement servos, and I think I can figure out a replacement for the missing anti-rotation pin. I have never powered her up, but she came with a 4S battery, and I wonder if she would do better with 6S? I can series together a couple 3S batteries... lookig forward to flying her too!

Hovering the Erazor in the garage reminded me how much I enjoy getting the engineering spot on, and seeing the control I have improve with each hover. Exciting stuff!

Erazor Reborn

I finished rebuilding and setting up the CCPM on my Erazor 450 this evening. I had to replace the canopy with a Tacon, but I think it looks much sleeker! New is the Align GP780 gyro, top of the line. A little fine tuning and she will be ready to fly! Need to spend a lot more time on the sim first since I have gotten very rusty!

UPDATE (11/16/11): Practiced hovers in the garage today, flew great! I need to work ln tracking a bit, but otherwise the CCPM setup and gyro functioned perfectly.

Keeping the baby, tossing the bath water.

Following my 60mph landing the other day, one of the JR MN48 aileron servo's (possible two, not sure yet) on my Eflite Pulse XT 25e went bad, partially stripped gear. Its a $25 servo, not too expensive, but seeing that replacement gears were available at Horizon Hobby for a bit less than $5, I decided had nothing to lose by trying a gear replacement, though I did buy a backup servo. It went pretty well!

The bad servo removed from the aircraft.

4 screws, one in each corner, easily removed.

The bottom comes loose... close it.. we want the top.

The top comes off easily.

Take a pic of the gear set. You will need it later.

Especially this view.

The gear set. Can you spot the bad gear? Hint: its the one to the right of the bearing.

I had to remove the gear with the bearing, which was well attached and came off suddenly, taking the second gear and third gears with it as they are interlaced. I replaced the bad gear, and reinstalled the other gears. The gear on the bench is the stripped one. A touch of white lithium grease. Compared with the side view pic taken earlier to make sure I had everyone in the right place. Put the top back on, and replaced the screws. Put the servo on my tester and she ran clear and smoothly, centered perfectly! Reinstalled the servo in the aircraft, and will test it in situ later. Very easy, and from now on a option I will take whenever replacement gears are available. Much better than throwing out an otherwise perfectly good servo. New skills rock!