Well, yeah, it ended differently in my head.

Beautiful day, no wind. Took the MX2 (which while beautiful, I confess now was not my favorite plane). And the new Eflite Cub out to the Joppa Hill Field.

A well meaning Lacorsse coach pulled up and got all controlly about my being on the field, but he came to realize he was being a bit dickish when I pointed out he wasn't going to be coaching for several hours and I am sure those big burly boys can move a few lacrosse goals without me. He made nice.

I took off and flew a few laps getting a feel for her, and put her through some pretty nice aerobatics, a few low passes. Now let me preface this by saying I have always thought I have depth perception issues and that 3D stuff only works for me for a few minutes, and that the other day I couldn't see the 3D stuff on a depth perception test at work... I came around to land, and crossed over the tree line, dipped for final and ran into the tops of the tree line. one branch reaching up was all it took. Crack, she spun, off came the right wing, which trickled down through the tree (Yay, proof trickle down works, Yay!), the fuse crashing unceremoniously onto the ground below.

 

 

Yay, new project, yay. Landing gear and prop, wings, but the fuse is good. Now I want to see if the Sbach wings will fit?

I flew the Cubby on her memorial flight. a touch nose heavy, with that extra weight, I can remove some, but she flew exactly as advertised. Perfect in the air, sweet landing. One pack, and I was pretty much done with flying for the day...

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First Flights of 2015!

The weather has finally been warm enough that there has been no fresh snow, and the 4 feet of snow that covered the Joppa Hill sports fields in Bedford, NH, melted down enough to allow us into the parking lot, and to fly off the ground. Aidan and I went out with my Eflite Alpha Sport 450 today and flew 6 packs in very variable winds.

It was a blast!

 

 

Aidan shot this video on his iPhone for me! This wasn't technically the real first flight of the day...

 

 

 

After a fine landing, taxing off, stuck in the melting snow.

 

 

Looking forward to warmer weather, more sun, drier fields, and a chance to start flying my other aircraft and helis this summer, and seeing the Joppa Hill Gang and their Amazing Flying Machines!

 

 

 

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Align Trex 600e Pro Ready!

Finally! I have completed the rebuild of my Align Trex 600e! Followers will recall the exciting, albeit devastating crash that ended up totaling her on my last day flying at MCRCC last summer, which I entitled, Trash Day.

I noted my progress in previous posts, and today spent about half an hour fine tuning the CCPM programming, and checking her tail vibration (none). I put the cowl on and have set her aside for spring and her first flight after the rebuild.

This spring will be busy with new airplanes. I have the Eflite Cub I had planned on putting skis on, but there is no place to fly her (snow several feet deep in the parking lot of the flying field prevents access...), the rebuilt Hanger 9 Sopwith, the powered glider, and a 500 and 600 sized heli. I will be starting work on the 30cc MXS-R that replaces my failed 30cc Sbach, sometime soon. Looking forward to it!

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Align Trex 600e Rebuild Progress Report

 

The tail assembly, from the power take-off assembly on the left to the tail rotor assembly on the right. The torque tube and those two bearings with their housings are inside the tube. I like this arrangement as it is easy to remove the entire assembly from the frame to make repairs.

 

Tail assembly installed into the massive frame. This thing is well over a meter long, I think.

 

The other side.

 

 

Main gear/auto-rotation gear and the reciever battery pack, main shaft and the entire CCPM assembly installed. It took some time to adjust the control rods, since I had to replace two and wanted to get somewhere close to zero pitch. All the servos are functioning and the swash was essentially still flat.

 

Blades on. tough to balance since I don't have a balancer bit enough (will get one). These more expensive blades are always balanced, but I still like to check. All that is left is to check zero pitch and make sure the CCPM a pitches are still good, and to balance and install the tail blades. I will first remove the blades after setting up the CCPM to make sure everything spins clean without vibration.

This was a lot of expense and time, all for missing a loose elevator control ball snap.

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Hangar 9 Sopwith Rebuild Complete

With the arrival today of the new prop shaft from HeadsUp RC (the fastest shippers I have ever frickin' ordered from!), I was able to adjust the motor for centerline (no offset), install the prop, check CG and call her done! She is looking really good, and I can't wait for first flight.

 

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Chip's Frankenplank

Chip Young got a fuse from an estate sale, that needed a wing. The chord was a perfect fit for my old Eflite PulseXT 25e wing, so I gave it to him and he's installed it. It looks marvelous! Th margins and the tail shape make me think this is a model of an MX2 (UPDATE: Turns out Chip says its a SIG 4 Star, a 0.40 glow model). Will be fun to see it fly! Well done, Chip!

 

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Warping the Sopwith Wing

Worked a little on the Sopwith today. The more I thought about it the more I realized I really need to unwarp those wings. It's sloppy, non-aerodynamic, and adds too many lift variables and drag.

This is the pre photo, where you can see the bottom of the top left wing (on the right) and the top of the lower right wing (on the left). That top wing is really wacky.

 

 

I needed to twist the wings in opposite directions, brining the back of the left wing up and the bottom right wing down. I made a set of guide wires to induce and hold the wing twist. This is the guide wire I installed under tension on the left wing outer strut. It pulls the top wing leading edge down, and pulls the bottom left wing up a touch.

 

This is the wire on the right wing, pulling the front edge of the right wing up and the back of the top one down. You will notice that the right and left wing wires run in opposite directions.

 

The top wing is straight all the way across!

 

And the post pic. Both wings are straight. We'll see if the wires hold in flight, they are under a little tension. I suspect the tension will lessen as the wood begins to shift to the new stresses.

She does, by the way, lean a little to her right. This is the way the landing gear, which are flexible, settle. There are rubber bands acting as shock absorbers on each wheel, and the landing struts are mobile, able to flex side-to-side. She likes to lean right. I may work on this, not really sure what I can do.

Waiting for the prop adapter. I also wanted to do the guide wires, but some of them snap under load, so I thought some high test fishing wire? I may just start using the wires I have (a set of replacements I bought long ago).

 

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