A Brief Distraction

"Hang on a second - that's not a plane. This blog is about RC Flying, not general RC" I hear the readers thinking.

The truth is I just had to share this. I got this little electric powered RC buggy from ebay pretty cheapily (well under $100 including shipping) and it is just an absolute riot.

As you can see next to my thong (thank goodness it's not a photo of me wearing the other type of thong right) the thing is tiny and yet it must be capable of around 30-40km/hr on the bitument out the front of the house. It's got full suspension and AWD. Across the gravel in front of my place (and the river stones for the neighbours next store) you have to use the throttle very cautiously - opening up the throttle will leave stones flying, all four wheels spining and a huge stupid grin on your face. Even after only two full runs through the battery I am actually worried about the amount of stones the thing kicks onto the road.

Few more details - runs an 7.2v 1100mAh NiMH - the charger that came with it was a complete joke - was just a 7.2v 250mAh DC power source with a big warning in the manual saying "make sure you disconnect it after 5 hours or you might damage your battery". Anyway, cut those leads of and adapted them to the swallow so I can now give it a proper peak charge.

I get around 20-30 minutes running time out of it in front of the house. It's not as good as flying, but I don't need to go anywhere for it, which means I can take a 20 minute break from writing documents that no one will ever read (let alone act on) out the front and come back in feeling happy. Unfortunately, going for a fly takes about 1 hr minimum, and is highly dependant on the wind.

In other news the Ultrafly P51 is coming along. Glued on the tail assembly last night, and all control surfaces are hinged. Getting to the stage of finishing servo installation and linkages - it is starting to get close to being finished.