Don't Tell Maria...

But, my wife doesn't need to know I decided to replace the dead Sbach 70... Though, really, she'll know soon enough.

I finally bought the Sukhoi SU-26 I have wanted for a very long time. I will use the electronics and motor from the Sbach 70 I lost last week. I really didn't like the way any of my Sbachs fly, but this beauty is a classic airframe and I expect good things from her.

I expect to start the build after I get back from vacay!

PS: I couldn't bear it... I told her. I married up!

Now I'm starting to worry...

Flew for over an hour today. And ran into what is becoming a recurrent problem that is making me nervous. I was flying the Alpha Sport and she suddenly would not turn left and she required hard left aileron and rudder to keep wings level. I did the UPS Delivery "Right Turns Only" thing by easing off aileron to let her fall right. It took some major skills but I landed her.

Here's the scary thing... The right aileron thought its center was full up. It barely moved down. Sound familiar? This happened with the MX-Bach, and the Alpha's rudder, now it was happening to the Alpha's aileron. This time though the small plastic control horn was stripped. I had to replace the entire servo, which failed, and the horn.

This is really weird. Did this kill the Sbach and the Sopwith? I haven't done the post crash yet. I need to get on the website and see if anyone has seen this before. The only common is my Spektrum DX8.

I met a neighbor who stopped by, Brock. Took him up in the Alpha (of course, its always something, so that's when the Alpha went wacky). I took him up on a buddy box with the Pulse, and he noted being a pilot of full scale, this was really weird for him. I have heard that from a couple of pilots of full scale: orientation is harder to sort out.

Took the MX-B up, and the tall grass (it has been way too long for too long) grabbed the main gear and they cracked.

It's always something.

I. Can't. Even.

UPDATE (7/3/15 @ 0930hrs): Ok.. I was so pissed yesterday. The words that came to mind were pretty ugly. This is my Skyline 70 SBach. I had flown her, she flew pretty well actually (never really enjoy flying SBachs, except my 30cc) and landed fine. New battery, took her up, toodled around and made an approach. It was long, so I went around, 20 deg flaps. Stayed inside the field (surrounded by trees). On the downwind at about 20', crossed the sun and she didn't come out. I noticed I wasn't controlling her, cried out, "Oh, no!" (point being there was time...), thinking she was stalling I applied power slowly but deliberately, and she drilled in hard. She is literally tooth picks.

Dead Plane Flying

Yesterday I had a moment of calm wx and decided to try the A-10 jet and the Sopwith.

The A-10 was hand launched, which I hate doing. The first attempt nosed in right away. The second took to the sky but was twitchy! She seems a bit tail heavy one moment and nose heavy the next. I trimmed her out and she settled down. Belly landed in the thick grass. She flew nicely and will be a frequent flier. I set her DR and Expos to softer numbers for next time.

Now the Sopwith has always been a dead.plane flying, and she met her doom. She took off, at about 5ft veered hard left into a 180 deg turn and spiraled to her death. My new phone camera and I couldn't get along so I didn't get pics until this morning. Sadly I am not sad.

MS-Bach Topped!

The new spinner bolt came in, and so did the muffler connectors I am using as extensions on the Pitts to make sure they get below the cowl.

I put that spinner on, and now she is fully ready to be balanced and flown!

 

Awesome!

Posted with Blogsy

Southern NH Flying Eagles

Last year I checked out a couple of fields and clubs, joined a couple, but never made it out. Yesterday I renewed my membership with the Southern New Hampshire Flying Eagles, AMA Clube 2417, in Merrimack, NH. No electricity, but they have a great geotex runway!

Flying there today was a small crowd, which allowed me to fly a couple of times. I met Carl, who greeted me right after I arrived, friendly and welcoming! Then Tom, a 17 yo with "the touch", and his dad, Bob. Tom is an intro pilot instructor. Chris showed up later. I really felt welcomed, and comfortable flying. Some kids showed up with their dad and Tom took them up on a buddy box. A touch breezy but not bad at all.

 

The stations are well designed and made. I love the transmitter holders, and that they designed in a fold-away foam support for putting the airplane in upside down!

 

Trees at the North end of the geotex runway.

 

 

Runway 18 (looking south). Once you cross the low end trees on the north end there's a long approach to the threshold. The planes seem to eat it up in a hurry though. Yes, those trees at the south end are very, very tall, and very, very close.

 

 

Looking across the runway to the stations which are on the west side of the field.

 

 

Runway 36, looking north. Those are the low trees, and they are further back than they look. Getting used to where they are is a challenge. You can see the grass landing strip to the right.

 

 

Looking at the stations from the south end of the field.

I flew several packs, flying the Alpha Sport 450, the first plane I always fly at any new field. I mentioned in a previous post that the MX-Bach had its rudder go over hard and stay. Nothing mechanical, leaving only some programming issue. I had to remove the control arms and reset it. It had not stripped. Well, today the Alpha Sport did the same thing. Hard landing, and all of the sudden the rudder was over hard and I had to climb out over the pits and it was all I could do to control her. Back in the pattern and brought her down successfully. When I got home I had to remove and reset the control horn, and on again, it was not stripped and the programming had not changed. This is wierding me out... Is there something wrong with my DX8?

Fortunately I also brought the Ultimate and the Pulse, which flew perfectly. Set up differential ailerons on the Ultimate and the worked pretty well! Will try them on all my planes.

I like this club so far. These guys were good ambassadors. It will take some time for me to get used to flying out of the bowl the trees create, and landing on the geotex runway. It requires a bit more precision, and I am excited about that. Not that there is a good place to crash, but here, there is no good place to crash. It's nice to have some skilled people to watch and learn from. I look forward to coming back!

 

Posted with Blogsy

Busy Day

So, a day off, and it was beautiful. The winds were gusty. They'd be fine on the ground and howling 30' up. Then just gusting. I took three planes out, but just flew the Alpha Sport. After 3 flights I gave up, but it was fun!

The new Turnigy 7V 2300 mAh reciever and ignition packs arrived, so I replaced the old 4.8V ignition and the old reciever packs, in the 30cc MXS-R.

I put together my own dual charger after my new Traxxas Onyx dual output charger had one display crap out. I like to charge the reciever and ignition batteries at the same time. I don't have the receipt, let alone know where I bought it... It's almost a year old. All of the dual chargers out there are well over $100. Instead I bought two simple chargers, a $10 Stanley toolbox, soldered the two separate AC powercords together, and made my own for about $50. I used the box one came in to make a shelf so both could fit side by side, and hide the cord Y point. It works perfectly!

Soldered, capped, and then tied together.

 

Testing the power cord.

 

 

The other day I put an extra 7.4V 2S Lipo I had into the Alpha Sport, just to power the lights, because I could, and I knew it would make them brighter. And it did! I flew her this morning, but at dusk I took her back out and flew her 3 times. I have to say it was very cool seeing them as she flew. Did I get pictures at the field? No. Did I get video at the field? No. But I did think of it as I was unloading, so...

 

 

Posted with Blogsy