First Flight SNHRCC Hudson, New Hampshire 3/25/2020

Heading out to check out our club field with the Big Stik RCGF 10cc, and the Pulse XT60 RCGF 26cc. First flight at the field for me this season.

SNHRCC is on the city of Hudson's closed trash mountain, I fondly call Mt Hudson. We have to drive thought the city dump. That's it, up there on top of the that hill.

Winds are common here. 

The Electruc side winsock needs replacing.

Hot footing it out! Wonder what they were up  to?

Waaah! The Tx Case arrived, but the Fx hasn't. I expect it tomorrow! 

Waiting to fly...

Pocket RC Flight Sims, Tablet and Phone Flying

Sitting around socially isolating, flying my RF8 and Phoenix RC Flight Sims on the Bat Cave computer, but sometimes I find myself elsewhere. I have a couple of "pocket", or tablet/phone flight sims. There are a lot out there, only two worth really using.

ABSOLUTE FLIGHT SIMULATOR SERIES

By Happy Bytes, LLC

This is simply the best pocket flight sim out there. Steve has done a magnificent job with this product, in terms of functionality, graphics quality, flight simulation realism, and variety of aircraft. He has several, but I have the heli sim and there are planks in there too. The download is free and provides a heli and an airplane to try out, additional aircraft are available for purchase at about $2. 

I think Steve was the maker of Clear View RC flight sim, the very first RC flight sim I ever used.

You can get Absolute at Google Play Store, and the Apple Store, as well as see more on his website.

Start up page, heli.

Planes

Game start screen.

Flight screen start up. The help disappears.

In flight. Look at those graphics!

REAL FLIGHT MOBILE    

By Hobbico (Horizon Hobby)

Also available at Google and Apple.

This is a nicely designed sim, but needs a little tune up. The flight sim is good, the graphics sweet, and it provides airplanes and drones, but no helis. There are 4 fields, the Green Hills RC field being the default that comes with the download which is free and comes with two planes, a Stearman and a NextSTAR trainer, and one field.

4 fields.

Planks and drones.

A $12.95 bundle gives you them all.

The stock Stearman at Green Hills.

Thesexsims are very good, fun, affordable, and easy to use! Get one!

The RC Pilot's Lament

Low winds, comfortable temps, and this white crap all over the place. Sitting here, eating my Captain Crunch with one of my cats (who, incidentally, just stunk up the Bat Cave litter box with a funky turd), after snow blowing this heavy white crap off the driveway wondering why Nature chose to tease me with acceptable flying conditions covered in show stopping white crap.

(Man, Zaphy... If I am going to stay down here I have to do something about your stinker...).

RCGF 10cc and 26cc Engines Up, Pulse XT60Ready!

After breaking the sparky on the Stik's RCGF 10cc engine, I replaced it, and she started right up, runs sweet! Ready to take her back out again!

Next order of business was getting the Hangar 9 Pulse XT60 out and get the engine started. After a bit I sprayed some gas into the carb air inlet, and she started right up! Yes, that's snow on the table. 

Checked out the engine, fuel system and battery. After the engine run I discharged the receiver-ignition pack and am recharging it. I am hoping to get a break in the weather tomorrow and get a flight in at SNHRCC.

All back together!

My favorite aircraft!

Running the engine up. The idle is tuned a bit better. She runs perfectly! I had to keep my foot on the back rung of the table to keep the engine from  pulling it off the ground and dragging it off! Power baby.

Day after tomorrow the Spektrum iX12 arrives!

Spektrum iX12 On It's Way!

My Spektrum DX8 gen 1 is now over 8 years old, and it still works great. I have replaced the frickin' antenna at least 3 times and am about to again, and the flap switch once. Other than that, despite drops and knocks, she has functioned perfectly. But I have been looking at the pretty young things Spektrum is producing, liking the new technology, and the pretty red dress on the Spektrum iX12 for over a year now (that red dress costs $60 more than the plain pretty black dressed one, which is NIS right now). The bugs seem to be worked out, she is a reliable and go-to platform, and Gary Hoffman pushed me over to it with his kind advice, biased though he be as a Horizon Hobby brand pilot rep who flies an iX20. So today, with a little coin approved by the wife, I ordered one, two-day shipping, baby! I am excited!

Sweet. I really like the red, so paying the extra for it was worth it. I don't know that I will ever need 12 channels, but I see this one lasting me 10 years at least, so no telling what the future may hold.

For the life of me I don't know why such an expensive radio doesn't come in a case, but it certainly needs one, better than the Harbor Freight aluminum one I have been carrying my radios around in for the past 10 years, and will likely continue to use for the DX8. I may try to sell the DX8 for about $150? I can't really use it as a buddy box, the software is too outdated, and the DX7s on the flight sim is more than it needs.

Hitting the YouTube Instructional Vids!

Excited! 2 days to the unboxing, likley 3 because of Sunday. Psych!

It was still an awesome day!

52 deg  up from 35 this am. After spending some time this morning re-tuning the engine I took her out to Wason Pond field after my nap (2 hrs, if you must know, I ain't no slacker).  Of course it was now 20 deg warmer so she ran for crap. Re-tuned. I then flew a good 30 min! The idle is still a bit fast so landings were hot and floaty. But man, she flew perfectly, and with much agility! Happy me! Honestly the field is a little tight for a gasser, but I wanted to get her in the air.

Bounced one and broke the sparky.  Guess that counts as a crash. Resetting the Crash Clock!

Got home and wanted to fly the Pitts. Flew around with no wind she was fast. Took the sun to the eyes, damn fool, and when I could see she was heading for an Ent. And there she is. She was fine, but coming out of the tree trashed her up a bit...

Need new wing struts, that's about it. Could make some out of egg carton foam, if I had any. I'll call the LHS tomorrow, see if they have any, else will order some.

All in all it was an awesome day!