I got a successful maiden flight of the Ultrastick 10cc #2 in today! She had a lot of tall grass to deal with from the heavy rains. Combined with high temps, she ran all the way down the runway and I had to turn around, run back up, and try again. Put the flaps down to half and she took off. Once she got airborne she shot up. She is as expected tail heavy, and she flew like it. It made approach a bit challenging. Got two flights in for about 25 min total. Didn't want to risk issues with being tail heavy, so called it a day.
When I got home I went ahead and brought her to CG, but not using the 450 gm lead weight this time. I crammed a lot of small pieces in, and it worked. As part of my efforts I moved the engine forward, and made a platform for the battery allowing me to move it forward. It fits EXACTLY if not a few atoms high under the wing. Had to use hot glue to secure the battery to save space under the wing. This also required I move the aileron and flap leads back so they didn't come out on top of the battery. Charged the battery and looking to head out again tomorrow. Hoping someone cuts the grass!
Brought the Hacker MX2 out, but she wasn't bound to the iX12 anymore, and it would not bind... So she didn't get to fly. Changed the receiver to an 0range 3Axis stabilizer receiver I had sitting around, and it's all set. Will try again tomorrow. She will need the grass to be shorter, small wheels and really light weight.
In fact, using it today, its running better than ever! They basically replaced the Android and Airware software, and put a new battery in it. The software fixed the issue as my original batteries are working fine in the radio! Time to get flying!
I made this unboxing video as I really didn't expect the fix to stick, but it did!
My Spektrum iX12 Transmitter is back, and its time to move forward towards getting back to flying! I bound the Ultra Stick and the Pitts to it and programmed them in. Ran the engine up and made a couple fine tunes.
At the end of my runs the power quit, and with diagnostic testing I isolated it to the "fail-on" power switch. It didn't fail on, and I can see why.
Here's the RadicalRC flag-and-pin switch with the pin OUT (power on). When the pin is pulled, the upper plate (the two wider horizontal tabs in the middle) held up off the lower contacts by the pin (the two smaller vertical tabs on each side of the lower plate) drops down closing the circuit by connecting the upper plate and two small tabs on the lower plate. The connection is in the middle aligned horizontally. Nice and simple! This should fail closed. When the pin is IN (power off) the main circuit is opened because the upper plate is lifted off the tabs opening the circuit, but allowing charging through the Futaba plug on the flag side through a third circuit through the pin. This failed because the upper plate stopped coming down far enough to close on the tabs. Essentially, the U shaped (on its side gap facing us) upper plate didn't spread wide enough anymore to contact the lower plate tabs. The design needs a spring to push it down and hold it down when the pin is out. This spring would go between the sides of the U of the upper plate "holding" the U spread. I wonder if the outside temps and humidity made the metal expand but causing the U to narrow enough lifting the tabs?
Here the pin is in (power off) lifting the upper plate. You can see those horizontal tabs are a smidge up, lifted off the immovable lower side vertical tabs.This is pretty clever for being so simple, and allowing charging through the Futaba connector on the flag pin(not seen)!
The only switch I have on hand to replace it is a dual switch. Singles with a plate and charge lead but nomfuel spot are hard to find. Since I am now using only an electronic remote switch on the reciever for the ignition, I only need one power switch. Since the switch is the most likely failure point, I decided to make it a redundant switch. I soldered the leads in parallel, so if at least one is working the aircraft gets power, but both need to be turned off to cut power. This way if one switch fails the other continues to pass power. I use one 5000 mAh battery pack to power the ignition and the receiver through 6V power regulator.
I plan to replace the flag and pin switch on the Pitts. I am not sure if the hot temps caused the metal of the switch to come off the tabs causing it to fail, but I can't have that happening and no longer trust this switch. I'll make my recommendations to RadicalRC because this switch is otherwise awesome and clever. Its still a great product but needs a fix.
I made this a redundant switch by taking the two "IN" wires that came one from the ignition pack and the other from the reciver pack, and combining them in parallel into one "IN" lead, and the "OUT" wires into one "OUT" lead. The upper pic is the BEFORE though I had already cut the "IN" female Futaba leads off, you can still see the male "OUT" leads before they were combined. The lower pick is after joining the leads. It works great and makes the dual switch useful!
The "new" redundant switch in situ. Takes up more space.
Engine run up. Leaned the low a bit better and was able to get the idle down a bit more. Looking good, hope to maiden soon!
The 2S 5000 mAh battery pack arrived ahead of schedule today. Put an EC3 and a Futaba connector on it, charged it a little and installed it for testing the electronics installation.
All up!
As before the CG is a bit tail heavy, by 2 cm. Based on my last experience I am not chasing it. It required a pound of weight to get it, and I flight it was nose heavy and I removed it, flew fine. So no adjustment this time.
The Pitts Model 12 and the Stick waiting for their maiden. The Waco telling how great a pilot I think I am.
Meanwhile, 14 days at the service enter and my Spektrum iX12 remains unassigned and on the shelf...
