WIndy Fun!

Day off today, Memorial Day, so when I finally got out of bed I packed up the Sukhoi RCGF 10cc and yet to be flown Pulse XT60 RCGF 20cc and headed out to SNHRCC in Hudson, NH.  The winds were about 7 mph with some calmer periods, increasing to about 10 mph, which brought my flying day to an end.  I flew her using the 12x8x3 and really thought she lost performance even though she picked up a few hundred RPM. I quickly changed back to the 13x8x3.

She is up. She flew well, and a couple of hard and one off field landing her infamous landing gear stayed on! The new design proved itself.

Saw the antenna starting to come off so ordered a new one, arrived this afternoon when I got home, but for now I am flying ghetto with package and electrical tape.

Louis Rios, heli pilot, rather nice guy!  I think he is going to be very helpful getting my heli skills sharpened.

Clarence White. He is always here, and makes sure the place stays clean and mowed. Ted, don't forget to pay him!

Me flying the Sukhoi in strong 8-10 mph winds for the practice and fun of it. Louis recorded this for me and let out a Jesus! because a wind gusts picked up. You can hear the wind. The winds were down the runway maybe a 45 deg off centerline.

Louis with his 700 Nitro heli.

While short as the winds picked up on Mt Hudson, it was fun flying. I learned to come in higher (thanks, Louis!) and avoid the down draft vortex at the southern end of the runway that pulled the Sukhoi down once despite full power! Landed facing backwards but unfazed otherwise! It was nice to meet and watch Louis fly again, and its always nice to meet Clarence!  I have 4 days off coming up and hope to maiden both the Pulse XT60 and the Spitfire, winds permitting. 

Now, to fix that darn antenna.

Antennae Gain

So I learned a thing today.

I need to replace the antenna on my DX8 Gen 1 for only the second time in its very long life. They like to break at the hinge... and it's breaking there again. Change presents opportunity, so I wondered if there was anything to be "gained" from changing the antenna.  Longer is better, right?  Not so much, unless you are flying long range drones.

The stock antenna on RC transmitters is a 2 dbi antenna. This low gain antenna provides more than adequate range for RC flight, and a nice 360-ish degree sphere of signal. If we increase the gain, which requires a longer antenna, we increase the range, but narrow the beam so that the "sphere" becomes a shallower and shallower "donut". This illustrates too that pointing a high gain antenna at the reciever puts the reciever in the larger null zone resulting in a signal loss crash. With a low gain antenna, like ours, this isn't so much an issue, but since a true isotropic (full sphere zone) antenna is not possible, there is still a bit of a null zone pointing out of the end of our low gain antenna too, even though the pic shows a complete sphere, there really is a tiny wedge of null pointing out both ends). So pointing the end of the antenna directly at the reciever actually decreases signal... The best position of the antenna is more or less perpendicular to the horizon, unless the aircraft is directly overhead. Point is, there is a reason the engineers use a 2 dbi antenna for RC, and why a long range drone pilot might want a more directional higher gain antenna.

So, I bought a plain old replacement 2 dbi antenna for my Dx8.

The standard 2 dbi Spektrum Dx7s and Dx8 antenna

SPektrum Dx8 Gen 1 with stock 2 dbi antenna. Really, it's all we need.

Dx6 with a 5 or 9 dbi long range antenna for long range drone flying. The mod is incredibly easy, and there a several vids on YouTube describing it. For pretty much all of us it's un-necessary and will decrease performance, increase risk of signal loss.

Master Airknives

Removing the 3 blade MA 12x8x3 from the Suhoi when my finger brushed the back of the blade. That MF be sharp...

MX--Bach 30cc Re-conversion

Today I pulled the Turnigy Rotomax 1.40 and the Hobbywing Platinum Pro 100 amp HV and the cooling fan, and the harness, from the MX-Bach. I had foorgotten about the engine mount I had made for it. Pretty nice Mcgyver of what I had, some nice engineering.

I will be putting this up for sale as a kit soon. Its new, flown 3 times.

There are some cracks in the base of the equipment tray that I repaired and then added tongue depressor wood to both sides to add strength.

The new 10 oz tank in the Sukhoi.

I took the 14 oz  gas tank out of the 10cc Sukhoi because it really was too big for it, having replaced the orinignal 8 oz tank. I got a new 10 oz tank and put it in the Sukhoi. The Tech-Aero IBEC in the mail today, have a fuel vent and T connector for the fuel system coming.  The electric power switch is in the equipment bay, and I will have to decide if I am going to keep it, or change it to an external switch.  I have an old fuel dot I can install in hand. I am now searching for a used 30cc gas engine, but may end up putting a new one in, likely an RCGF-USA  Stinger.

I am prettty excited about this. She has just sat there since I didn't have the batteries to fly her. This way I have another gasser that I can fly for years!

Pulse XT60 Update

Something about the Pulse XT60 has been bugging me.

The thrust line is a tad south of midline. Can't really tell from these pics...  This is stock at the firewall so maybe it's supposed to be this way? I realized this after having to modify the cowl, and later thought I should have made an adjustment in the engine mount before changing the cowl. You can see the down angle here.

Better here. Not just the low lying shaft, but the angle.

This isn't the best pic, but I put about 1-2mm (2 washers) of washers on the lower mounts to raise the thrust angle a bit. This does that. I fell better, but we'll see.

MX-Bach Revisited

I am rethinking the MX-Bach. She started life as Kenny's 30cc MX2, and he gave me the airframe as he was breaking it up flying like a madman. I turned it into a 1.40 equivalent 10S electric (6S wouldn't fit). I had flown her I think a couple times, and broke her wing when an Ent grabbed her out of the sky. I still had the wings from my 30cc Sbach and thought, " why not?", and the MX-Bach was born. I flew her once. She has always been a bit underpowered, really needed 6S. I toyed with the idea but batteries are waaaay too expensive these days. I am not likely to fly her this way, and did try to sell her, but no takers, likely for the same reason.

I think I need to convert her back to a 30cc gasser.

This setup has 3-4 flights on it... I will be selling it when I remove it.

I'm looking for a used 30cc gas engine. I may end up buying new, but since she is a basher used seems more appropriate.

Pulse XT60 RCGF-USA 20cc Flight Ready

Took the Pulse XT60 out to the garage, put her wing on and checked the controls. Realized the ailerons were on a Y, changed it to separate channels since it has them, and setup flaperons because I could. No mix yet, will see how she behaves first.

First start took forever. She was lean and dry. Tried my 12V starter, and burned it out while melting the plastic on the spinner. Oops... Have another Hangar 9 Pro 12V starter coming from Amazon Prime. This one was over 5 yrs old.

Took a long time to get the carb fuel. This being her break-in tank, i ran her at half throttles and less, occasionally WOT, setting the needles just to get her to run. By half tank (30 min) she wanted more. It was neat seeing her performance improve as time passed bd I ajusted her tuning. She would quit, take forever to restart, but each time less and less quits and shorter restarts with less need for choke. By the end found a decent idle, powerful WOT.  Full tank gave more than an hour! 15x6 Zoar.

Pretty much ready to go. Throttle in 1.2 sec arc speed to allow a nice gentle transition. She shook her pants off, literally... The idle keeps getting better.

  

Got back in the shop, cut the cowl in. The holes were already drilled and were off... In the end decided it was better to try to keep the holes and instead modify the front opening, as the holes were off just enough to mess up the cowl if re-drilled. Ended up modifying two top holes slighlty, still.  Final adjustments and everything clears.

Cut in nicely.

Sweet!

Using a larger cone spinner worked out to cover up the large oblong front  opening.

Actually worked out, not perfect but pretty nice.

Howard.

Will need to check CG again. And then maiden!

Got her wheel pants back on. The screws were wood, needed bolts, replaced in reinstall, will post a pic later.