Waco RCGF-USA 26cc All Set!

The Phoenix Waco is one of my absolutely favorite planes to fly. For that reason I didn't rush to program her into the Spektrum iX12, which is a good thing considering how it misbehaved recently. It hangs in a special prominent ceiling corner of my basement shop where I can gaze upon it in love and admiration. Since the iX12 is in the shop, and I haven't removed any of the aircraft from my DX8, I decided to go ahead and set up the Waco for the season. Its very late this year... but conditions have not been favorable for flying this summer with remarkably windy days, even for a big girl like the Waco. Today is clam but with frequent gusts to 20-25 mph... typical this year.

Last year

She had an Orange stabilization system that functioned quite well, but since I am moving away from Orange electronics, and have a Hobby Eagle A3-L V2 stabilization system on hand, I decided to replace it and give the A3 a try. Here it is, installed on a platform for it, that also keeps the battery pack and the gas tank in place. The foam covers up a rat's nest of wiring, but the wiring for the A3 is quite simple and basically what it is on all of these. None that I have had do dual ailerons, though the failed Spektrum Alpha6 was supposed to it never did. Now I had planned on using this on the 10cc Spitfire, but the instructions clearly state its not for gas engines. I don't think any of the stabilization are, technically, but they work quite well. She seemed to have no problems during engine run up tests.

The system allows on board button/LED adjustments to all of its settings, and is easy to use. I set up the Flight Mode 3 way switch through AUX1 to allow me to dynamically and remotely switch modes from ON to OFF to 3D (this mode holds the planes last attitude when activated, like a knife edge). I will let you know how it works out, but I have high expectations and plan to put one on the Spitty too.

I pulled the tank to change the clunk line from Tygothane (which was quite supple still) to Vygon, as I am doing with all of my gassers, expecting that to last a few years. The original lines are the yellow Tygon, which if not stiff on the external fuel lines I leave alone. I check them otherwise once a year. The NiMH battery packs for ignition and receiver I replaced with a 2S 2200 mAh LiPO with a dual Futaba plug line off an EC3 on the battery. Nice. I do charge these in the plane, being low voltage and amperage, at 1C, so its kinda buried, alongside the tank, port side under that middle platform. The wheel pants needed a touch up, and I had broken the attachment to the right one when I hung the plane up and almost dropped it last fall. Fixed it, repainted both of the pants, and reinstalled. I peeled all the cote and tape off around the junction of the gear gaiters, redid it much lighter, and painted the exhaust stain area under the fuse.

The dulcet tones of the RCGF-USA 26cc gas engine. This plane is planned for a 15cc, but the 26cc fits nicely and gives her a lot of power. There is a lot of room under that cowl, a 30cc would fit, but would be a lot for this plane.

To fit her in my car, let alone get her out of the basement, I detach the left wing. The plane does not come with supports for the wings, an idea I got from my Eflite Stearman (original). I never take the wings of the Stearman. The supports for it are too small for the Waco. I just made one out of a Amazon box.

Cleaned up, ran up, and coated with an "Armor All" knock-off, ready to go!

Objective Comparison of Orange, Lemon and Spektrum Receivers

The question of how Orange, Lemon and Spektrum receivers function was objectively addressed by information provided by Kurt Heintz to my query on the Facebook Spektrum Support Group. He used software to record Fades (packet losses), Frame Loss (consecutive series of fades), and Holds (consecutive frame losses = signal loss). As of this writing I am not aware of Kurt's background, the software, or the method used other than same distance measured by GPS, but will get back to you if he provides it, so take what I write with a grain of salt. I don't really understand the graphs either, so keep that in mind.

Note that the range on the Y axis vary so visual height of the peaks is not comparable. I don't know what the height or length of the peaks mean (in the Spektrum graph the fade lines don't always zero). Visually you can see a marked difference in density of fades.

My take away is this:

Orange:  Good results. Tons of packet losses, few fades and no holds.

Lemon:  Initially good, but with time rapidly increasing fades, frame loss, and one hold. Frame losses exceeded 100 but a little. Functioned well, with one hold (not acceptable). 

Spektrum: Best. Very low fades, low frame losses, no holds.

Key:  L are the antenna fades (packet losses). F is frame loss (consecutive series of fades; can have around 100 in flight as acceptable) H is hold (complete loss of signal). 

Orange Receiver

Lemon Receiver

Spektrum Receiver

RCGF-USA is the sole legal proprietor of RCGF products

This comes up from time to time, so I share it from time to time. RCGF-USA is the sole legal proprietor of RCGF-USA, and is the only one legally able to designate sellers. Valley View RC is NOT a legal proprietor of RCGF engines, and is committing trademark infringement. Here's the digest of the story.

Joe Nelson and Zhejiang RCGF Model & Engine Co., Ltd., created RCGF about 12-15 years ago now. They made affordable, fairly good quality engines. As the years and their experience grew they learned of flaws in design, materials and manufacturing, and worked to make these changes.They own those designs, molds and the trademark RCGF. Many of these changes were refused by their contracted factory, so after a time they took their designs and molds and changed factories. The original factory stole the original molds, and continued to manufacture them under the name RCGF, to which they were not entitled. Joe et al updated their designs, corrected the material and manufacturing flaws and made better engines, under the name RCGF which they own.

Tom the owner at Valley View RC had been a drop shipper for Joe, and knew this whole turn of events. Instead of following the legitimate RCGF team, Tom decided to sell the engines from the stolen molds and to use the trademark RCGF, acting as a seller for the factory that stole the designs and molds. Joe et al had to sue and won an injunction against the use of the trademark. (I am not sure if they won an injunction against the theft of their designs and molds, just never asked). Tom continued to sell the engines under RCGF, later changing the name of his engines to VVRC-RCGF. He represents himself as the sole legal proprietor of RCGF, when he is actually quite not. The failures of these engines were damaging Joe and RCGF's reputation...

Joe had to undergo expense to change the name of his company and engines to RCGF-USA, and added the moniker Stinger to separate his engines from the those sold by Tom. Joe, being an upstanding guy, repairs the old RCGF engines, and I have a few he has helped me with, AND he will repair VVRC-RCGF engines that get sent to him all the time, with the same old flaws. He doesn't tell you that he didn't make it, he just takes the hit and fixes them.

So, yeah, Tom may be a nice guy, and run a great RC shop, but he's selling engines he doesn't own under a name he doesn't own, despite being legally challenged and told to stop.

You decide. I will stand up for Joe at every turn. I confess I am a fanboy, has he makes great products at great prices and stands behind them without question. Tom, not so much when it comes to these engines.Stick with genuine RCGF-USA engines. Stick with Joe.

iX12 is on its way back to Horizon/Spektrum for a checkup

Sent it Priority Mail for insurance and tracking, should be there in 2-3 days, unless it gets "Dejoyed". Turn-around is advertised as 4-5 days. I hope to have it back in a week to 10 days. I am holding off transferring anything to the DX8, but the Waco is still on it and needs setting up and flying, so that will keep me from the withdrawals!

 

I don't even know where to start...

About to begin the salvage...

UPDATE TODAY: Well, I just started on the wings and the aft fuse so I could get them in the trash before the trash man came around, an dust went from there.

Some of the dirt shaken off the engine after removing it. This here is the throttle control rod. Needless to say the throttle servo is toast.

The muffler pipe broke off. Ordered a new one from RCGF-USA. The spark p,ug is undamaged, thought is was broken off.

All done. Cost was the fuseand the throttle servo. When the muffler comes in I will test it on the engine test rig, and if it runs good will put it on the Spitfire which is waiting on the other RCGF-USA 10cc engine to return from the RCGF-USA shop. This one runs perfectly, or did. I expect it to. Despite landing on its prop so precisely the crash site was one foot square  the prop and soinner survived. The Spinner will need a paint job, but thats it. Took me a lot of time to clean all the dirt off the engine, between the fins and in all the nooks and crannies, but she cleaned up nicely. Everything rotates clean and smoothly with good compression. These original RCGF cylinder heads do strip the spark plug easily, so I hope its tight enough to hold compressiona and not get  low out. Ine3moved it and cleaned it. Not eager to tighten it much at all, made it as snug as I dared. Stripping it is a $55 mistake I can't afford right now,

A Pattern of Destruction: Spektrum iX12 Doubts...

We begin with the acknowledgement that I am and always will be a total Spektrum Fanboy. No company has been more progressive in developing technology, and until this debacle I have never had any issues attributable to the radio system. Its just hard when you get scared of using a radio, but I am reassured this is not an unfixable problem and that Horizon Hobby will make this good. There.

Prelude: Two days ago, final flight of the day, lost controllability of my Trex 450 using my iX12. I simply had no control authority in the final several seconds of flight. No telemetry on this Orange receiver, and the receiver was ejected from the ESC wire, so no blinking "holds" clues. The battery had 3.89 V per cell still. I was simply flying straight, slight down attitude, and she stopped responding. Since I had nothing else to attribute it to, I checked it off as that once in 10 years signal loss. Pretzeled the heli, already rebuilt it. This was the last flight on my iX12. Everything worked fine afterwards... 

What happened today made me very doubtful about my new Spektrum  iX12 radio, it being the most likely cause. Spurious reports on the webs suggest that this isn't common, but also isn't an isolated problem. The 450 accident (and to think of it, the loss of the Ugly Stik back in June might be related), then this, causing a loss of confidence. I love my iX12, just need to be able to trust it.

This was the next flight, and the first since I lost the 450, and first flight of the day. Took my RCGF-USA 10cc Sukhoi SU-26 up, engine running great, flew touchy as it does, quick landing and hot adjusted the Expo up a little to 40% all around, and took off. Again flew fine. She has been in the air for about 15 min. Flying along the treeline just above the tops about 1/4 mile away and she seemed not to respond to elevator as I tried to move away from the trees. Thought maybe I wasn't flying her, just thinking I was, but she responded late and cleared. Decided to do a low speed low pass and turned to final. Dropped the throttle to idle to slow her down a bit... but nothing happened. Wiggled it, no response. Tried to pull her up out of an increasingly steep dive, no response. She is WOT with a slight nose down attitude, then suddenly straight down into the ground. I mean straight. From the wreckage pattern you can see she is tightly packed all in one spot.

Again, level-ish flight, nothing going on, just stopped responding to inputs. The Spektrum AR 7010 receiver light was steady, no signal loss, and all the controls/servos worked, except the totally crushed throttle servo (crash even stripped off the servo's stickers), so no signs of actual signal loss. Just loss of controllability. Now remember, this makes two consecutive flights on the same transmitter. That's not good. So setting up a service ticket and sending it to Horizon Hobby for a look-see. They have ALWAYS done good by me, which is one reason I prefer Spektrum.

Oh, and by the way, yesterday I bumped the G switch lever with my hand going for the H switch while bench working a heli, and damned if the thing didn't snap right off! Must have banged it on something before that loosened but didn't detach it. Have them fix that too. I can fix the ones on the DX's, but I am told that this one has the switches "on the board" and they are a bit more involved. Besides, I don't want to open the back until HH/Spektrum takes a look at it.

Next iX12 gripe: I have tried a couple of times to export the aircraft files to the SD Card, but all I get is a set of empty folders. Maybe the files are not in a format a PC can see? This happens every time I try to back up the files. Formatted in FAT32. Have a query out to the Facebook iX12 group.

UPDATE: Found a YouTube Video on how to do it, not intuitive at all, but once learned easy to do.

So for now I am grounded. I can program a couple of planes into my trusty Spektrum DX8, but I have to do that for everyone of them... and the helis are not easy to manually transfer over. I may put one of the 600's, the 500 and the Pulse XT60 on it. I think the Waco is still bound to the DX8 as I hadn't moved that one yet.  I suspect it will be well over a month before I get the iX12 back.

Once I get around to it, maybe tomorrow, I will tally up the butcher's bill on the Sukhoi. The spinner and prop on the engine look undamaged but I think the sparky is cracked, and the muffler pipe snapped off. The fuse, of course, is matchboxed, but the servos, receiver and battery survived.

Not good at all. In our hobby you have to trust the radio system, a lot of time, money and effort are banking on it. Grateful it wasn't one of my irreplaceable planes like the Pulse XT60, or the original Eflite Stearman, or an expensive one, like a 600 heli. That would have put me off my feed for a week.

COMMENTARY:  Reading the responses on Facebook I always am annoyed by commentaries by people who bash clone recievers like the Orange one on the 450, failing to recognize there is no data to support they are inferior, and that this one has been on this heli for years without problems. Its on that aircraft because it was what I could afford, and has worked fine. I enjoy hearing ideas from others, but think about the data and circumstances described, and reason it out. If you don't have the technical knowledge to back you up, keep silent; for example antenna length doesn't increase range, its a requirement of frequency, and the helimwas 10 feet away with the reciever antenna facing me without obstruction, and has a satellite 90 deg offset. If you then have something to add, share, but if its just to bash, or without thought, its just embarrassing. Orange recievers are fine. Now that I can afford them, I use only Spektrum, but that is no guarantee of reliability over an Orange reciever. Thousands have used them without a problems for thens of thousands of flights reliably. Don't be a hater.critically. Learn how to think critically.

The 450's

I have recently fallen in  love with my 450s, traditionally a challenging heli to fly due to their small size. They require skill and patience, and are very intolerant of any deficits in build and piloting. Only recently have I been able to fly them with confidence.

This is my Trex 450 FBL. It has a Tarot XYZ stabilization system that I program using a dongle and FBL Programmer. I crashed her a long time ago, or was having some technical problem. Too long ago I have forgotten. It was blameless and the tail was just the shaft. I want to replace all of the servos including the tail servo, but thats going to have to wait. I replaced it, put a new tail rotor set on it, and changed out the main shaft. I just found out that the cheapo 450 shafts I bought off eBay all test fine, but are not straight. I had one last pack, and the one I pulled is not great either, but its really close. It has a smal vibration only on lower throttle at start up, none in flight speed. I have ordered some new Align shafts.

The naked 450 FB. I don't know which version of the Trex 450 this frame is, but its different than the Sport. 

There is some slop in this flyabar cage I can't fix, whicu is why I abandoned it i  the first place for the tight plastic HK one that flew so well. I am grounding it for the next few weeks waiting for the new ones to come from China (no one is selling them in the US). I hope the shaft that comes with them are true. Once that's done she will be sweet!

So the 450s are grounded for now. Looking forward to having all of my helis flight ready!