Bad Sparky and great flying, also iX12 bad habit back

 I completed repairs on the Pitts Model 12 landing gear, and programmed the AS3X (watched the videos step by step). Yesterday I took it up and it flew well, but the engine kept detonating. This problem was seen before with the PulseXT 60 with its RCGF-USA 20cc, and it was a bad sparky. It was detonating so bad it shook off the muffler despite JB Weld! I replaced the sparky on the Pitts this morning and it also fixed it. It has more power and runs smoothly. In yesterday's flight I was able to dial in the AS3X gains, and today expect a great day of flying!

I don't like these stock M4F's. They don't fit the ignitions well, and they don't function reliably. This is the second one I have had to replace due to poor consistency and detonations. The first on the PulseXT and now the Pitts.

The RCGF-USA 20cc with the M4F sparky went from this...

To this with an NGK CM-6.

The problem with my Spektrum iX12 not booting from cold and dark without unplugging the battery is back. Last time this started intermittently, and progressed to not turning on at all, and I sent it to Horizon Hobby. After waiting a month to get it back, they found nothing wrong with it...  Neither did I, for about a week. The Tx will turn on the orange light steady for a few seconds, then blink 3 times and go out. Doesn't matter if I hold the on switch. Sometimes it boots the first try, usually not, and intermittently on the second try. Today it turned on the light and it stayed on, but nothing happened, and I pulled the battery after 5 min of  black screen. If I pull the battery plug, it starts fine the next time. 

So I reinstalled the battery switch to save wear and tear on the plug, wires and connector.

When it fails to boot, I cycle the switch and it boots.

Probably will need to send it back to Horizon  this winter...

It was a great day, it was a bad day...

The Ultrastick 10cc flew wonderfully! She is flying heavy, at about 10 lbs. At the field I noticed that the battery pack puffed during charging. Since I wasn't going to get the wing on with it puffed, I decided to poke a hole in the outer casing to see what would happen. A puff of gray smoke, and the case deflated. Nothing else happened. Battery worked fine. I decided to fly, since the draw would be minimal, and it worked fine. I decided to replace it anyway, no matter what the IRs are. This is a new battery and it should not have puffed under 1C charging. I need to shed some weight, so I have already bought a replacement 2S 2200 mAh LiPO. I don't understand why its so heavy. Firm crosswind gusts, so I practiced takeoff and landings. Fun  flying!

Despite the long fast crosswind gusts I decided to proceed with the maiden of the 20cc Pitts Model 12. 

Sounds awesome. I wasn't convinced she was producing max thrust in the air, but it was plenty powerful. She was challenging to fly getting pushed around by the gusts at altitude. And my not being used to it. I am going tomprogram the AS3X before I fly her again

On landing she took a gust from the right side, rolled left, I over corrected and stalled a few inches above the ground. The right landing gear caught as she rolled. Tore right off and flipped he over.

The broken right landing gear and the this "wheel pants penetration" of the right wing. This happens when the collapsing landing gear rolls back and the pointy back end of the wheel pant pierces the wing. This one poked through a designed hole in the wing, so only cote damage. When the right landing gear struck the ground instead of the wheel, it pulled back taking the hard point with it, and the wheel pants poked a hole in the wing as it collapsed. 

Haven't looked at the damage to the attachment point yet, but this should be easy to fix. I didn't like the strength of the stock hardpoint, so wasn't surprised it failed so easily. The cote will be easy to fix. I also have a 2200 mAh battery for this plane, to replace a 5200 mAh one, cut some weight.

Weather and work the next couple of days, no flying planned. Reset the crash clock, please. 

Banner Day of Flying!

Its about time. First several flights I fought to get my Mojo back, hands shaking, having trouble breathing, sweating, anxiety pounding my heart with a sledgehammer, freaking out worse when the ground came up and over correcting. PTSD, literally, from having a run of bad luck and unskilled flying these past few weeks. After about the 3rd 15 min flight I was calm and finally feeling like I was ahead of the aircraft most of the time. There was some gusts that made it a bit challenging for the Ultrastick, as she responds to pushes from the winds, but that became predictable and as my thumbs calmed with confidence, I wasn't bothered by them at all. In the calm air, wow, she flew amazing! I found the sweet spots for the Ultrastick for CG, engine, DR/expos, and prop. At first I thought she flies a bit heavy, as she is about 3 lbs over design weight, but realized that was more the wind and realizing I have to flyall of the control surfaces all the time. She needs that rudder and keen attention to elevator and aileron. She likes that 1 lb of lead up front. It made all the difference. I learned too that the Evo sounds better and seems to run smoother without a muffler extension on it, so that's gone now too. 

I got 4 10-15 min flights in with the Ultrastick, became very comfortable with her. Several touch and goes and landing to stop and turn around. Love how she responds to the flaps now that I have the elevator mix dialed in. It was a LOT of fun to fly in the end, and is back to being my go to! She is FAST and snappy. A couple of times a gust lifted the tail from behind killing the engine, but no ill effect, though the prop blades are not tracking perfectly. She developed a nice buzz from something, but couldn't find a source or problem.

The 30cc Breitling went up a couple of times. Gust don't bother it. Also a lot of fun, but my focus was on the Utrastick today.

Called it a day when I started getting those "just one more ski run" doubts.

Evolution 10cc with Master Airscrew 12x6x3.  She idles a bit high, and winds down to stall, as she does here. This is a sign the HI needle is rich, but I can't lean it out further without losing high end RPMs. In flight she doesn't stall out, so it's not an issue. 

Joe Nadeau was there with his Tundra (I think) and his racing drone. It was great having a conversation with him!

Next week I intend to maiden the 20cc Pitts Model 12, and if time permits,  the 10cc Spitfire. Need to overcome some powerplant issues with the Spitty first. 

Ultrastick Repairs Completed

Got a lot of work done on repairing the Ultrastick 10cc after its fly-in with the tree. The fuse snapped in half, in a relatively clean break, and there are two crush wounds to the right leading edge of the wing. All repairable. All repaired!

Before Fiberglassing Fuse

Patchwork. VERY strong. Clean re-joining along the break on the starboard side.

Nice clean re-joinng on the port side.

Closer view of the patchwork on the underside. This has more to do with my wanting to keep as much of the original sheet balsa in place for continuity strength, and not having anymore sheet on hand at the time. Besides, this is all under epoxy and a sheet of fiberglass. The fiberglass cloth is fine and when applied is invisible, even under a couple of layers. I didn't take pics as it looks pretty much the same.

With the cote applied there is no sign of the repair!

Wing Repair

The outer break on the 

Eating edge of the right wing is the larger of the two, and also took out a stringer.

The smaller medial one.

Pulled the bits into position a bit. I ended up cutting out the leading edge of the outer break and rebuilding it completely, not pictured.

Her you can see the glue stain from the lost stringer, and the piece of balsa I was shaping to replace it.

It was easier to build the stringer as a top and bottom, allowing easy placement and a better fit. The backmof the stringer Ubuntu the main spar aft, and the leading edge forward.

This is an example of how I build upmthennsand down to shape. The patch of the upper surface over the stringer is in place as well. This is overlaid on the rebuilt leading edge.

Nice straight leading edge. Underside view.

Top view, repaired.

Cote work and trim done! Looks new!

Sweet!

I did end up having to jam that one pound (437gms) of lead up front to get the CG. Decided to get is spot on as she was still flying tail heavy.

Legs back on, and on her feet.

Looking good with that Master Airscrew 12x6x3 prop that I think is going tombe the sweet spot. She is heavy. The Evolution isn't a powerhouse, but I think she can handle it. She would definitely fly better with a 15cc up front, was eying the RCGF-USA version at my local hobby shop today... Time to fly!

So... there's this tree...

... all by itself. My depth perception at a quarter mile isn't good enough to avoid the only tree that's right there, all by itself.

In my defense, its a pretty big tree. I don't know how that changes anything either.  Every time I fly that way I remind myself to watch out for the tree. I had just deployed my flaps and was watching how the plane responded with her adjusted CG, so I was focused on the plane and not watching the tree. So of course, I hit it. I struck the top and the plane turned, then rolled down to the ground. It was a quarter mile walk out, then another back, with a deep drainage ditch and marsh in between. Definitely stress tested my already stressed heart.

As I walked up to it, I thought I had completely destroyed it. I just have been a lousy pilot lately. 

Super distracted and unfocused.

Turns out there are two easily fixable dents on the right wing leading edge, and it broke clean in half.

She broke right aft of the bulkhead that secured the aft part of the wing. 

Front half looking forward.

Back half looking aft.

I need to super strengthen the joint so it will hold in the stresses the elevator, rudder and tail wheel deliver. I took thin plywood and created surfaces that were secured to that bulkhead and would extend across the joint adding stiffness and strength to the fuse over the break. .

It fit together precisely. Once it dries I will sand it down, fill in any gaps, and then apply a single layer of fiberglass to cover about 1/2" past the fracture line for and aft. 

More to follow. Resetting the crash clock, again.

REPAIRS COMPLETED!

Cloudy day at SNHRCC

After the rains passed, and before tomorrow's storm, I got out to SNHRCC to put the Hacker MX2 and the Ultrastick 10cc up in the air. Calm winds, dry cut grass (Thanks, grass cutting guys!). Excellent flying day. The race cars at Hudson Motor Speedway were much louder than the video shows. Video is just a pan around the field from my bench.

This plane, the Hacker MX2, is magnificent.  It flies on 3S like its on rails, crisp repsonses, power. These ultralight foamies are aerobatic monsters! Things I would never do with a plane that has inertia I can do with this plane with confidence. I get 5 min on 2200 mAh. Its the one I put the Orange 6 ch 3Axis stabilized reciever on, and it works splendidly. I like flying it with and without stabilization on. The plane really doesn't need it, and when I am doing hardcore aerobatics I disable it remotely. Its a really a nice reciever, shame Hobby King doesn't make them anymore.

The Evolution 10cc engine is not as powerful as the RCGF-USA 10cc. I run 13x7x3 props on the RCGF-USA engine, but I'm thinking its too much prop for this Evo, which may be contributing to the challenges getting the needles right. I tried a 12x6 twin and this 13x6 twin, and it really liked them. I may stay with this one, but I just bought a 12x6x3, as I really like the extra thrust and okay, the static look. I thought hard about dropping all the way to 11x8x3, but decided to try the 12x6x3. I'll let you know how it goes. I did end before ai wanted to. Landed kinda hard for who knows what reason, and broke the sparky. Twisted the heavy duty landing gear just a bit. Already fixed both. The landing gear hard point looks OK.

Its time to program the Spektrum AR637T's AS3X Stabilization and enable it. This plane also doesn't really need it, but it has it, so...  I am finding getting the elevator dual rates and expos  right a bit challenging. Very responsive, I think a bit tail heavy still, so threw in another bag of nuts up front to add to the ones already packed in around the gas tank to move the CG forward. The already forward adjusted CG made a big difference today.  Got the approach (50%) flaps elevator mix right, landing (full) flaps I am still working on finding its elevator mix. These will change a tad as the CG moves forward.

Rough weather coming this next week, from local stuff and then Ida, so not expecting to get much flying in. Itching to maiden the Pitts Model 12 with its RCGF-USA 20CC!

Swapped out Pitts Main Power Switch

Waiting for the rains to pass, hoping the field has been mowed since I was there earlier this past week, thinking about heading out to fly the Ultrastick again  now that her CG has been addressed. All the rain lately has likely made the weeds sprout up all over again even if it has been mowed. The replacement switch for the Pitts came in, so I decided to take the time to install it. I described earlier that my hopes for the Flag-Pin fail-on switch were crushed.

The flag-pin switch I replaced.

This is a great membrane power switch I purchased from Hobby King. I have a couple of them installed. Its reliable, light, and probably fails in the last position being a membrane switch. Its about 2cm x 4cm and about 0.5 cm thick. The fuse underside of the switch could use a bit more smoothing work, but at the time I didn't know I had some matching silver material so was trying not to damage it. Someday I'll go back and work it.

I put it in the same spot as I had the flag-pin switch.

The inside.

She's all set to maiden, and I am really looking forward to it. This is going to be a favorite. Once I get the Ultrastick all squared away, she'll be next. I keep putting off the maiden of the RCGF-USA 10cc Spitfire for a couple of reasons. One, superstition, since the first two were lost for different reasons on their maiden, and second because I replaced the engine after rebuilding it and haven't gone back to test it. Would have sworn I had posted about the rebuild of the engine, but can't find one. I rebuilt the carb and replaced the cylinder head, so she'll need breaking in. More on that when I get around to it.