That Wireless Trainer thingy really works!

Just as I was having second thoughts about selling my DX8 (nice back up radio), Jon Kimball asked about it and bought it. He lives in Londonderry, so it was a local sale. His FIL is getting him into the hobby, gave him a couple of planes, so this was a perfect first radio. 

Since we were hooking up to deliver it and he lives down the street from the SNHRCC field, we met there. He brought his FIL, Steven Hooski. Since Jon is a newbie, and I have  great trainer, AND I wanted to see if I could do Trainer mode on the iX12, AND because I wanted to fly, AND because I knew he would benefit and love doing it, I brought the Alpha Sport 450 and 11 packs out to the field. The last 4 were sketchy for a couple of reasons... more on that in a second.

We spent some time going over airplanes and flight controls, the radio, receivers, etc. And then set up to fly. A few adjustments, this was pretty easy to program. I thought that the wireless Trainer mode took all the settings from the Master, the iX12, but I had to make a couple of sub trim adjustments on the DX8. This took no time at. all.

On the first couple of packs I took off and let Jon get the feel for the controls, and he was quick to adapt. He was a natural, showed good insight, understanding, so we discussed take off and on the 3rd pack he took off. I landed and he did it again, getting several cycles in. So I offered to land if he set up the approach. He was doing so well that on final I offered a little advice and suggested he continue to land. He aced it. Suggested he turn around on the runway and take off, fly the pattern and do it again. We had him fly the last 3 packs all by himself with my finger on the Trainer button. We chatted, but no advice required nor given, he did it all himself! He seemed pretty excited and really enjoyed it!

I flew one pack when I gave him a break, taking the Hacker MX2 up. After he was done flying, I planned to fly the Eflite Stearman on a few of the 4 Horsemen packs. I had stored these at 4v by accident for over a year, recharging was too fast, I figured they would be weak. I was in a rush to meet Jon, so I just packed them up. At the field I found them under-powered,but one was close. I stupidly took the Stearman up, and she flew weakly, landed a bit roughly (just a bounce), but I decided having gotten away with it I wouldn't fly the other packs. When I got home I ran them down to 3.7 V and will see if they recover.

Jon is supposed to send me a pic since I didn't take any, but he's failing me. He has his AMA and he and Steven joined SNHRCC! It will be wonderful to see them fly!

UPDATE: Jon came through! Pic at the top.

 

450's are UP again!

 Finished up the 450's today, the Flybarred and the Flybarless (FBL) today?

I always take new parts apart, including this flybar assembly. I greasevthe main bearings, and locktite everything. For $17 it pretty darn good. Its a Hausler 450 Sport SE V2 flybarred rotor assembly I bought from 2013-topking on eBay. Curiously it says the part was shipped from NJ, but they are in Taiwan or China. Either way it only took about 10 days or so to arrive. The assembly is solid and tight, but it did have a couple of issues, the flybar paddles were nearly impossible to get on, hence the lighter. I tried melting them on. Eventually a lot of elbow grease I got them on. One of the rocker arm screws tightens but feels stripped.

And this happened. The swash came apart simply moving it. That rotating part that connects to the swash follower arms and the pitch control arms should be firmly ensconced in the swash bearing and rotate freely. The swash ring is held in place by the antirotation elevator contol "ball" that fits into the antirotation support. Yeah, that's a fatal problem. I had to replace it with a swash of my own. The elevator/antiroation "ball" are mine, the installed one was way too short.

My swash and the Hausler flybar assmebly in situ.

Leveling the swash, the assembly is fully installed.

Setting up the swash mechanics old school!

All set! This has the old EXI frames, but everything has been replaced, so, is just an Align clone now with an Align GP760 gyro.

The Flybarred and Flybarless 450's.

Reprogramming the ZYX FBL stablization system. I was using a program called FBL Programmer, but found the later Tarot version, displayed here. This is the original stablization system, since replaced by the ZYX-S, an updated version.

The clone HK 450 FBL is all set up and ready to test!

Tomorrow I will test them.

Daddy's got his Mojo back!

Half day, but a good day. Got a few things done.

My iX12 Mojo came back today from Horizon/Spektrum. Fixed the switch for free and the transmitter got a clean bill of health!

Thanks, Chris N from Horizon Hobby!

Tested two packs on the UMX Tundra. No issues!

I was surprised that I never programmed the Eflite Alpha 450 Sport (another wonderful balsa abandoned by Eflite). So I did that today, made a few minor changes to the electronics, and took her to the local park for some flight time. Got 2 packs in before a pickup soccer game showed up. I don't fly over people, so I called it a day. No issues! Everything worked fine.

The 10mm - 1/4 32 adapter came in today too!  I drilled it out to 8.5 mm as the online guide suggested for a 10mm tap, and using some cutting oil and patient technique got a sweet tap.

The adapter and the new threads.

Now this was curious. The adapter is steel, thank goodness, the cylinder head aluminum. The tap was as vertical as I could get it. But every time I tried to thread the tap it would seat on one side, but lift on the other! This wouldn't start until half way screwed in. After several tries and seeing this edge that was lift make its way around the clock hours, and re-tapping it (clean, no change), I used a percussive technique to level it and then completed a nice tight screw in. I also used some JB Weld to seal the threads, and for good measure filled in the gaps of the hex head and the cylinder head. I will let this cure overnight and tomorrow put the whole thing back together, see if it will run.

All good! Tomorrow I will see if the returned 10cc engine will run in the Spitty. Once that's assured, I want to fly a few more times on the iX12, though I confident with it, before maidening the Spitfire. Given my past history with Spitfires I want no doubts.

Brain said "ABORT!", thumbs said, "WE GOT THIS!"

And that folks, is why we should not fly with our thumbs, but rather with our brains. This happened a couple of days ago, and I didn't want to revisit it...

Big 18x10 prop on an 26cc, its got some kinda torque roll. She had a bit of torque roll with the 17x8 I had on her, so no surprise this would be worse. Started the take off roll and she needed left rudder, then a little left aileron, then she needed more, than started to fly and rolled left, backed off power, Brain said, "ABORT!", but the Thumbs said, "WE GOT THIS! POWER!", she lifted more and rolled more, off the runway at 1 foot AGL and her right wing struck the high weeds, she tumbled in on to her nose.  I was stunned and mad at myself! So pissed I forgot to take a photo of the crime scene, so the first pic is after pulling her out of the weeds and setting her on the runway.

The wings are okay, but the fuse where the lower wings attached has been twisted out and broken up.

Both front wing cabanes are yanked out, an both sets are twisted. The energy went there instead of into the wing. The rest of the fuse is fine. The damage is limited to the lower wing-fuse. But its pretty bad at first glance.

This is the part that worries me. The damage is bad on the starboard side, the balsa sheet is torn up to the switch. This is shaped. My skill set doesn't go there...

Port side not so bad.

I pulled the wing tube parts out of the wreckage, which is scary, so I haven't  examined the insi

But before that fun, I plugged in a battery on the Cornell, and the reciever flashed, and would not come on again. Then I realized the battery lead had parted, and that was the end of that. Stiff as a rod where the heat and solder had soaked into the wire, I guess.  Snapped like a twig. 

Had to pull the ESC harness, only to realize I had the wrong sex EC5 connector installed, pictured here. I had to cut those and put the correct one on. Done. Its always something. I think I was still mad about the Waco. 

Wasn't at the field for more than 45 min... Still haven't looked at the Waco, worried I have done small but complex damage. No doubt I will have to pull all the electronics and tail servos to get to the broken bits, and that curved balsa section is going to provide me with an opportunity to learn a skill I would rathe not have to learn.

Damn thumbs...

My Workshop 8/25/2020

 

Waco Adjustments

 Last flights with the Phoenix Waco RCGF-USA 26cc, I noticed the need for a LOT of right up aileron to correct a left roll.  Back in the workshop it was apparent that the left wing, which is the one I remove for transport, had a small neg deflection in the leading edge of the upper wing. I corrected this with a shim and a re-drill of the alignment peg hole inboard and installed a small shim on the outboard side. This gave her a good incidence which I think will alleviate the problem. We'll see next time I take her out.

Outboard shim.

Inboard peg hole adjustment.

I had taken off the 17x8 APC prop to clean and paint it, and since I had an 18x10 and the RCGF-USA 26cc engine is rated for it, I threw it on. It looks amazing. Its much beefier than the APC. I think with the reduced throttle curve at the low end, this will be sweet, and she will try to rip the wings off at WOT.  I had planned just to repaint the tips of the APC prop, but since I was painting it I decided to paint it silver (allegedly chrome. Is there a real chrome rattle can paint out there?), with white warning tips. Came out pretty nice. 

The paint is "chrome", more of a shinier metallic silver. 

Waco is all set for our next outing!

Soft RCGF (Original) Threads...

One of the few problems with the original version RCGF 10cc engine is the soft threading of the spark plug site at the top of the cylinder  (this engine is now "obsolete", and this is not a problem with RCGF-USA 10cc Stinger engines).  As of today I have stripped 3 of these in 9 years. Today was removing a spark plug wire from one of the oldest engines I have, probably 9 yrs old now, and the whole sparky came out still attached to the ignition plug adapter, stripped clean from the cylinder! 

All excited, the replacement muffler arrived from Joe Nelson at RCGF-USA! 

A little JB Weld gasketing and done!

Engine looks good, finished trim of the cowl for a nice fit (not shown).

All ready for testing. I noticed some fraying of the shrink wrap around the plug adapter so turned her over and pulled the plug. Resisted a bit then came out. ALL of it, sparky and all!

Clean stripped the cylinder head spark plug opening! The past two times I did this I "over tightened" the plug, so I've learned to have a soft touch.

Tried to re--tap it...

But there just wasn't enough left...

Just a peak at the inside holding the plug in, for giggles. I had wiped some of the carbon build up out, will give it a nice clean with some steel wool. I need a fix, surely this might happen again with the old cylinder heads.

So, instead of buying another cylinder head for $56, I decided to try this nifty adapter thingy! This is a 10mm-to-1/4 32 spark plug adapter from CH Ignitions, made of steel. I found myself thinking once again if anyone had a fix for this sort of thing. Surely this is not a unique problem. I hadn't searched for the right thing in the past, but today wondered if there was an adapter, and voila! So that's on its way, through eBay. Challenges remain: I have a 1.5 and a 1.75 modulus 10mm tap, not sure which this is, but have an inquiry in. Now this is really designed for a 10mm opening to allow a smaller spark, like down from a CM6 to a 1/4-32, not so much a retapped hole, so we'll see.

I will be pulling this motor and setting it aside. Joe has sent me a replacement engine for the Stik's RCGF 10cc, also about 9 years old. I did a number on it and he called it "kaput". Once that's in we can get this engine tested and get her up in the air! Hopefully that will be here in the next few days!