ASW CG'd, HDX waits for voltage regulator

This morning realized I hadn't checked CG on the ASW power glider when I had the wings on, so I took care of that this morning.

It took a whole ounce (1/2 on each side) back on the tail to make her just a breath nose heavy. We'll see how this works out in flight. This is during testing. I used acetone soaks to get the old adhesive off, installed them with 3M All-weather double sided tape and covered them with white electrical tape.

All 2.3M wingspan. I hate the wing attachment, and don't think I will like it until I come up with a thumbscrew method of securing them in place.

And there's the HDX 500se, waiting for the 5A voltage regulator I have coming from HeadsUpRC. Still not sure why it would suddenly require more than 3A, or if this is really the problem, but let's hope so. The only other choice is to replace every single piece of electronics.

ASW-28 Power Glider and Updates

A few days ago I started putting the HobbyKing ASW-28 power glider together. It's been sitting on the floor for a couple of months and it was time to just git 'er done. It went together pretty easily, but the joining of the wings to the fuse sucks... I used colored packing tape to cover the underside of the wing for contrast. I don't know if I am fond of her yet.

I had to open up the hole that allows the flap and aileron connectors through the fuse. I also had to trim away the plastic that surrounds the wood support. When joining the wing it would get hung up on it and I could not secure it into place.

The black tape in place. The 2300mm wingspan requires I transport her with the wings detached. The wings slide over an aluminum support rod, and are secured in place with screws through a wooden joiner that is loosely installed across the fuse. This means I will need to manipulate her a lot to get the wings secured, and screw in two screws on each side with every flight. I really liked my last glider's single nylon screw. When the weather improves will take her out. Not as excited as I should be, but hopefully that will change when I see her perform.

HDX UPDATE

Replacement parts are coming in for the HDX 500se heli. Can't narrow down the source of the servo glitches. I plan to replace everything except the ESC, and will change from using the ESC's BEC to a separate voltage regulator I ordered last night from HeadsUp RC. I have basically replaced most of the electronics, including the reciever, but never all at once, and I am hoping the voltage regulator removes spikes. This is a new ESC so I am not optimistic I have solved this. So, all swash servos, the rudder servo, changing the reciever and the voltage regulator. Then maybe the gyro... If the tail twitch doesn't resolve. Annoying.

UPDATE: I think I figured this out. I suspected this before, with the wandering seizures, that it had to be something more general and just realized its amps. I think it wants to draw more than the 3 amps the BEC in the ESC offers. It's only when I put more than 3 servos on the BEC that it twitches. I isolated the swash servos using a servo tester and the glitch is gone. When I add servos back to the reciever it starts twitching when 2 of the four total servos and gyro are on, stops whenever I remove any of the others. I just ordered a 5 amp voltage regulator. More to follow.

Eflite J-3 Cub Project

The Eflite J-3 Cub 450 Project is about to get underway. All the parts, including the skis, are in. I need to fashion a tiny tail ski. Pics to follow.

Helping a friend

Chip Young bought some kind of plane from an estate sale, that needs a wing that seems to be very much like the old Eflite PulseXT 25e wing I have hanging on my wall, so I am giving that to him this afternoon. Will be interesting to see how this works! I love Frankenstein aircraft!

 

 

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Winter's a comin'!

Now that I am not so distracted starting up a new job, I am getting back into the RC Lab and flying again. I've been out a couple of times, but this past Sunday was just beautiful. Its getting colder, and the sun is setting earlier. I got out late since I decided late and had a couple of batteries to charge, but once it was clear that Detroit was embarrassing themselves, I headed just up the road to Joppa Hill fields.

I flew the MX2 uneventfully, going through the two sets of 5S batteries I have (it flies 10S). She flew gracefully, with ease. Also brought out the Eflite Ultimate and flew three packs of crazy aerobatics as the sun set.

I had also brought out the HDX 500SE. She continues to have gyro and electrical problems that I cannot get a handle on. I think they are related, some sort of amp surge. I have changed out the receiver and the ESC without improvement. I suspect a bad servo, but haven't been able to reproduce this problem with the servo tester. I will need to replace them one at a time... something I am not looking to do anytime soon. I still have a Trex 600 to build, and another Trex 600 to rebuild! So she sits on the bench...

Speaking of building...

I still have the FMS 2300mm AWS28 glider I bought, opened in box, which I will put together next.

And look what Mr. Postman brought me today!

Its the General Hobby Skyline MSX-R 30cc I got to replace the 30cc Sbach I crashed back in Gulfport last summer. This is my spring project, moving all the servos and electronics, then the power plant, over to this plane.

I also just bought (yeah, I know... yet another plane) an Eflite J-3 Cub 450 sized. I did get a new receiver to go with this, but have a 480 motor (I think, at least I know I have a couple of 450 Sport motors) and 40amp ESCs on hand, also got some EXI metal gear digital sub-micro servos. The goal is to put her on some DuBro 7" skis and fly her off the snow!

For those of you in warmer climes, a couple of pics from my drive out to the recycle center this morning as the season's first snow fell. 

The road to my house in Bedford, NH.

Aidan and me at the Recycle Transfer Station.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The New Bat Cave Flying Lab

I guess I can call the new rc flight lab, my Bat Cave, done!

 

The hallway in the basement, leading into the Batcave. The C-47 graces the wall, but I don't have an outlet to put the under lighting.

 

As you enter, the TV bay.

 

And to the right, my desk and The Lab.

 

 

 

Battery charging station. The gas can will be in the garage, but right now it's empty since my 30cc was attached to my crashed Sbach....

 

 

I usually leave the lights down, but they turn up nicely. Same spot lighting over the benches, planes on all the walls, some on the floor, the Sopwith and A-10 are still deconstructed. It's naturally cool, and the dehumidifier works wonders, straight easy access to the garage. Best cave ever! I wanted one of the couches, but Maria knew that she wouldn't ever see me expect to eat and pee...

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Flying Joppa Hill

A beautiful day for flying! Headed out to the Joppa Hill fields at around 11:30 this morning to find Joe and Chip flying. They had come out around 8:30!

 

Joe flying his Wildcat. I need to get pics of his scratch built foam planes, especially this Wildcat and his C-130. These are really talent filled builds! Can't believe I failed to get a pic.

My Eflite Ultimate and my Pulse in the foreground. I flew the Ultimate for the first time in over two years, and she flew amazingly well making me look good! Always a fun one this one. She is so light and well powered she can do almost anything. I had put some weights in her tail, which I need to remove, back when I was trying to get her to hover (she never will), but she still flew well. I put several packs through her and the Pulse in the near perfect conditions.

 

The highlight was getting to watch Joe fly his FPV drone! What kinda skills does this take, eh? From the science to the application to the flying.

 

Chip and Joe working on Joe's FPV.

 

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Flying Local

I've joined two flying clubs here in New Hampshire, Southern NH RC club in Hudson, NH, and the Merrimack Flying Eagles. I visited the Flying Eagles field as a guest of John Hayes, a spectacular representative for the club, and met Clarence White, also a wonderful ambassador. I look forward to flying my larger planes there, including getting a gasser up again soon. I had planned to fly that day but had a preflight inspection failure with what seemed to be a bad servo on the PulseXT 25e (but on diagnostics turned out to be a bad Spektrum AR600). Jist being I have yet to fly at either field.

I live down the road from a nice wide set of unencumbered soccer fields in Bedford, less than a mile from my house. I just had to fly there. I had the Alpha Sport 450 and the Pulse up, so took them for a spin today.

 

 

I don't know the numbers, but it was really gusty and the wind direction was variable. Tomorrow will have sustained high winds with gusts to 22mph, I think much like today. The 450 flew okay for 3 batteries, but it was all bob and weave, and landings were at rather high speeds for stability. I then decided to throw caution to the wind, often the harbinger of regret, and took the Pulse up. She got thrown around quite a bit and after a couple of minutes of hard work, I decided to bring her in, uneventfully. I didn't feel like pushing my luck and called it a day.

But the real news is a rather nice gent named Joe L, who stopped by during my first flight seeing my Alpha aloft. He's a pilot too, and we struck up a conversation. He noted that several guys fly on these fields and that they just started dabbling in FPV. He shared a remarkable pic of a scratch built foam C-130 I can't wait to see in person. They get together sometimes on purpose and fly together, or can be found out there randomly. Sadly none of them fly helis... Yet.

Good day. Broke my dry stretch, got my flying fingers back under challenging conditions, brought all my babies home, and found there's a secret cadre of pilots nearby!

 

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SNHRCC and Southern NH Flying Eagles

I had an excellent visit with John Hayes and Clarence White, Prez and V-prez of SNHRCC, and got to tour their field. I had brought out the Pulse, but yeah, its always something: the left aileron servo had a seizure and failed, so I didn't get to fly. Bummer as the filed is about 24 miles away and took me 40 min to get to.

What an interesting field! Its literally on top of a landfill dome with a moat of sorts all the way around. It would be a lot of fun. The flyers there were all really wonderfully friendly, and quite skilled. It was really interesting to see a SAB Goblin 550 and 700 fly in expert hands. What an incredible machine, incredibly silent. In my short hour there I was amazed by the talent. Most cool was a solar powered electric power station being upgraded this weekend from 12V to 24V.

In my conversation with John he mentioned that there is a club in Merrimack, the Southern New Hampshire Flying Eagles. Somehow I missed them on the AMA website. Turns out they are about 20 min from my house, and have a Geotex runway. It doesn't seem to have electric power, so I may have to learn how to run a power inverter off the Lexus Hybrid...

I decided to join the Flying Eagles, since the drive has always been an issue (26 miles, 35 min to MCRCC, 40 min to the field in Hudson, NH).  I hate to do that as I really liked everyone I met at SNHRCC. I thought about dual citizenship, but really it all boils down to how easy it is to get from the couch to the field.