Oops... my bad.

I described earlier the issues I had with my Spektrum AR600X reciever, how I thought the reciever was the problem and sent it to Spektrum for evaluation. They kindly sent me a new one. I installed it in the Sbach today with a new ESC/BEC, and the problem remained. Oh... now I don't think its the receiver at all. I should have swapped out the receiver before when I thought it was the problem, before sending it off to Spektrum. My bad. But something is shorting the system out. I unplugged everything from the receiver and removed the ferrite ring extension from the ESC/BEC, plugging the ESC/BEC directly, eliminating the ferrite and its extension as the source of the issue. No problem! Stayed on. I replaced the ferrite ring extension, still good. I plugged in each channel one by one, everything was fine, even under input load. Then I plugged in the right aileron, and the failure returned immediately. I unplugged that lead, and finished the last ones, no problems. I put a new servo on the right aileron channel, no problem, worked fine. Put the old one back in, failure. Eureka... it was a bad servo all along. Sorry, Spekturm, this problem isn't yours! But I am still wondering about the bind loss that cost me two planes...

Here's what the bad servo looks like on the servo tester. It should light up in one mode and sit there until I do something, instead it has a disco seizure. Its providing really bad feedback. It is now living in the circular file under my workbench.

 

ERCMAC Rocks!

Travelling a lot lately, and whenever I can I'd like to stop by local RC clubs for a visit. I have never been to a club that was not welcoming and fun, even before they know I'm a pilot. Its a fun part of our hobby!

Today I stopped in Evansville, Indiana, and checked out ERCMAC. What a great visit! Its an awesome facility. You are greeted by a beautifully done sign announcing the airfield. A nicely graveled lot brings you to the clubhouse, and adjoining covered pits. The metal flight gates line conrcrete taxi ways that lead to a concrete RC runway, and an adjacent grass strip. The surrounding grounds are well cared for, with well maintained pits. There's plenty of electricity for us e-fliers. The field is off the highway (but you can't get here from there...), and abuts a ginormous farm field with plenty of flight area. A very nice field as is, and I'm told they are getting plumbing for a restroom soon! They were setting up for their Heli invasion, which starts tomorrow (alas, I will be returning to Biloxi, tomorrow...) and were busy with preparations.

Several members spent time with me and my friend Ken Hermann during our visit. We really appreciated it! Thanks, guys, for taking the time to share our wonderful hobby with my friend Ken, and hopefully biting him with the RC flight bug!

 

Klaus Kracke and his Gentle Lady power glider. So well built he took her to altitude, put down his transmitter and she flew herself rising on thermals, turning gently on their edges, climbing, crusing, all on her own for 15 minutes! A class guy, a pleasure to chat with. Klaus let me fly his glider, a three channel rudder/elevator/power setup which I always have trouble flying as my three channel is a jet without rudder, so I was all dumb thumbs. It was still a great time! Thanks Klaus!

Jeff Knight and his Hangar 9 Frenzy. Friendly and engaging, I enjoyed chatting with Jeff about RC flight. We discovered we have had similar bind loss issues with Spektrum that our Futuaba friends don't experience. The issues he described sound a lot like the ones we have seen at MCRCC. Makes me think that Spektrum has problems they are not talking about? Maybe I need to become a Futaba guy...

 

Mike Zaborowski, a skilled scale heli and RC speedboat driver for Team Futaba was visiting from Champaign, IL, with several of his helis for ERCMAC Heli Invasion. He shared some tips with us, and flew his Bell for us. Beautiful flying skills! Thanks for sharing, Mike!

Thanks to all the other folks at ERCMAC who stepped up to welcome us, especially Jamie Dumanksi, who showed us some beautiful heli's. Only sorry we didn't get a chance to see his 6yo son Mason fly. Yup, he's a 6yo 3D phenom with a half dozen pro sponors!

The folks at ECRMAC are wonderful ambassadors for our hobby with an awesome field and a friendly attitude! Thanks, guys, and have a great time with your fly-in!

Spoilers!

Monday found Kenny Chandler and me alone at Bob Miller Field on a beautiful afternoon burning holes in the sky flight after flight after flight. Kenny had his foamy Edge and his Ugly Stick, I had my A-10, Eflite PulseXT, and Eflite Ultimate, along with my EXI 450 BeastX FBL heli. We flew for over 5 hours non-stop! The field was perfect, low cut and dried out, the winds light and variable with not a cloud in the sky. It was wierd... only Al showed up to visit, and Vinsen stopped by to toss his big Yak in the air between clients. A gorgeous afternoon and no crowd? Especialy since winds and weather have kept us grounded for many, many days.

Kenny programmed some spoilers into his Stick, about 35% and 50%. The performance on landing at 35% was pretty remarkable. She sank smooth and sharp, down at the tail, very controllable and perfect 3 point touchdowns without a bounce. I had been toying with the idea and decided to put spoilers into my DX8 on the PulseXT, 45% and 80%. It was impressive! So much better than flaps! I thought for sure it would stall the wing and create havok, which is why I had been reluctant to try it, but the spoilers did exactly what they should do. She settled quickly, cleanly and much more stably with the spoilers. Cean landings, tail down, no bounce on roll out, very stable and predictable on final with stable charateristisc spoilers deployed in flight. Spoilers... the future for all my dual aileron planes!

The Ultimate finally had a flight mishap after nearly a hundred flights. Coming around with a nice crosswind, I realized too late she was on high rates and I over controlled on final when a gust lifted her wing. Having done some stunning aerobatics on high rates I failed to drop down to low rates on approach. She caught a wing and her prop struck. She looked undamaged, surfaces worked, motor ran fine, so I took her around again. I could hear something wrong as the sound changed when I leveld out of climb. Landed her clean and saw the motor drop down. The motor was free in the cowl! Surprised she had flown at all. This wasn't evident at takeoff, so I think it was cracked and this last flight broke it free. The cowl is chipped and cracked, so I have some minor Bondo work ahead of me, and will need to rebuild the firewall. Toying with the idea of making more room to put a 3300mAh in there, but honestly she flies so awesome as built, and the added couple of minutes of flight probably aren't worth to trouble and changes in flight characteristics. Pics with the repairs to follow.

The EXI flew well, but I think there are some issues with the setup of the heli, and balance. On startup she wobbles a little like she is trying to find her balance. Once airborne she needs some right rudder (I have her set up with the tail rotor with Finless Bob's Trailing Edge control so this definitely should not be happening, let alone the gyro should not allow it). I flew her a bit, did not crash her, but she tipped over after a nice sideways landing and I input the wrong aileron having stopped paying attention as I was hitting Hold, pushing her to the right and suffered a blade strike. Stripped the elevator servo, no other damage. I am not sure I like the EXI D213f servos on her, for no particular reason than I wonder about centering and persistent movement since the BeastX and the heli are setup well. I ordered some Solar digital MG servos from Hobbypartz, 11g instead of 9g as they measure the same size, with about 1.7 kg torque, 0.11 sec at 4.6V. The EXI are frequently NIS, so I think they want to move people to the Solar. They are being sold by Hobbypartz with the point the recenter very precisely suggesting they also move precisely. More on that when I change them out.

Speaking of changing them out... I have had the Hitec HS-82MG servos for my 500 heli for a couple of weeks, but have been very distracted of late and haven't swapped them on to the 500. I need to do that... she is my favorite heli (though the Align 600 FBL I have NIB is likely going to be my go to heli when I build her). The EXI is my fun trainer, easy to crash, easy to fix, stable fun flier. I can't love her or I would never advance my skills...

As I noted in the previous post, the AR600x for the Sbach is here, having been sent a new one. The tech said there was nothing wrong with my original, but to keep me happy they were sending me a new one. Really? I am pretty sure the original one had issues as you can see in the vid... I have replaced the ESC/BEC with a 40A from HeadsUPRC. I wonder if its enough? I really need to get an inline wattmeter... I will get the ESC and receiver installed and get her up as soon as the weather and my schedule allows. The SBach is easily one of my favorite planes!

Closing this post with my pirateyness! Had my pirate sandals and one of my piratey T-shirts on! Get your inner pirate on!

 

Well... that's nice.

Earlier today I shared my Sbach's Spektrum AR600x issue. If it could be the cheap part I have, or the expensive part I need to return for service exchange, which do you think it will be?

Yup...

 

Mailing it to Horizon Hobby tomorrow...

UPDATE 4/30/12: Well, Horizon Hobby says my reciever was fine... but kindly sent me a new one. No comment on why it was doing this, but they also kindly gave me the email address and a note from the tech, so I am asking. LOVE Horizon Hobby's always exceptional Customer Service! (And the email address is not valid... oh well).

UPDATE 5/12/12: Oops... it isn't the receiver after all... here's what it is.

No fun at all...

Okay, maybe a little.

I decided to take advantage of this gorgeous day and took some time off fom the job search to fly. It sort of felt like mandatory fun... my heart wasn't in it.

I flew the PulseXT first, and as always, she performed awesomely. I haven't had my hands on the sticks for a while, but she made me feel like I had never left. I only flew her twice today, but both so pleasant.

I then took the ill mannered, ill fated Green RC Super Cub up. It took about 8 tries to get her off the ground, and we only managed when Jerry held her on the ground at full throttle. She waffled up, I got her steady, then pulled back hard to clear the fence. She was wobbly, but I got her trimmed out and started to enjoy flying her in basic maneuvers for several minutes. I had had an 8x8 prop on her, and I think it was too much pitch. I changed to an 8x4 that Ron Johnson gave me, and she finally had good thrust, and that's when she got off the ground. I took her to altitude and throttled back for stall, she settled with a good sink rate but remained stable. At about 30', still in control, I powered up, she rolled hard right and spiraled into the ground. Just like she has done on every single flight. POS. I picked up the pieces, her broken fuse and crushed undercarriage, walked her back to the pits, and did what any good friend would do. I gave her to Ron. The curse is now upon him...

I also brought out the Sbach. Powered her up, she bound, and I started out to the flightline. In the 10 seconds it took me to get there she hard rebound 3 times. She would continue to do it evey few seconds. Crap. Took her back to the pits, tried another battery, checked for loose connections, etc. I think its the BEC on this HobbyWing ESC. Didn't I just have this problem? Wasn't it this ESC, on another plane? I need to look back through my blog. I have a HeadsUpRC 40A ESC that I will replace it with. So, I did't get to fly her, and I hope its not my new AR6000.

 

I did get to fly the EXI 450 BeastX Heli, and she was fun. It has been some time since I flew heli, and my initial flights were very over controlled. Got a couple of flights in, nothing much since I was not in the mood to rebuild a heli. Flew the PulseXT again and called it a day...

If it wasn't for the good company it would have been a bust. I got a hung from Sandra Gollot, spent some time chatting with Harold, Jerry and Steve, and Tony even dropped by.

Maybe tomorrow. Maybe if I can get Kenny to show up...

 

Gettin' it done.

I redid the Sbach cowl after its meltdown. I really wasn't interested in spending hours sanding it all down, so just concentrated on the melted spots. It came out pretty darn good!

 

I didn't mention the flight of the haunted Super Cub... I maidened her the day before yesterday, and she took off okay, needed a lot of trimming out, but once I got her settled in she flew pretty darn good and was becoming fun. Until on approach she tip stalled... Broke the firewall, and that was it. Rebuilt it a bit better, and in an hour she was back up to flight ready. I also put some 2-1/2 inch wheels on her. I have programmed a little flaperon into her which should calm that nasty tip stall. This was the same experience Kenny had when he could get her to fly: any airflow loss and she tip stalls irrecoverably to death... I also went from a 10x7 prop to an 8x8, which seems to increase her thrust.

 

 

I decided with the Eflite Stearman to go back to 3S as she was designed to fly, and stick with the 12x6 prop. She flies just fine that way, I went to 4S for the power and it really didn't change her performance much. I think all it did was make her heavier.

Tomorrow is going to be way too windy, and I have some work to do anyway, but perhaps Sunday or Monday? I really, really want to get the Sbach back in the air! Stay tuned!

 

Melting Enamel... And Stearman Burn Out

Yesterday landing the Sbach, she illustrated her tendency to roll when at stall and a brisk gust catches her a foot off the ground, tipping over her nose. Have to land her hot... This chipped and cracked her cowl, and as before, broke loose the motor box. Very fragile. It separated clean, so it was easy to CA it back in place, then epoxy in some more support. Today I epoxied the chips and cracks in the cowl and painted her back to fine form. She dried for about 6 hours. I then applied a thin coat of clear enamel. And the red paint melted... crap,

I will let her dry overnight, then resand the melted parts and try again. I am learning I prefer lacquer to enamels. Enamels take way too long to dry, and do this kinda crap.

STEARMAN: I also had an inflight emergency with the Stearman yesterday. At about 200 ft her motor stopped while at full throttle. I landed her and she wouldn't do more than chatter. Wasn't sure if it was the ESC or the motor. The motor seemed sticky... I put a new motor on the existing ESC and worked fine. It appears I burned out the motor. I think when I went to 4S I should have propped down. I will pick up an 11x5 and see how that works out!