What goes up

Just a bit of an update on recent flying activity. At the moment am just past halfway in what can only be described as a flying binge which started for me on Thursday morning, with flying everyday til now (Sunday), with flying planned for tomorrow (public holiday in Canberra) and Tuesday.

Been a while since I did a general purpose post so here is some of the stuff that has been going on.

About a week ago DJ coaxed his wife out to the field to get some happy snaps of us flying with a reasonably serious camera (which has done a much better job of capturing planes than I have). Of course, those of you that have read the Immutable Laws of Model Aviation know that when a third party observes models like this all sorts of bad stuff is bound to happen, and unfortunately this day was no exception. The casulaties were pretty light considering what could have been, but certainly the most spectacular was an accident involving DJ's almost virgin SBRC Spitfire.

You'll need to click on this photo at the right to see what has happened. Yes, that green blob in the middle of the tree is DJ's spitfire and no this shot was not manufactured. His wife was tracking the plane, pressed the shutter and this is the shot she got.

Unfortunately it was still doing about 60-70km/hr at this stage, and she didn't pass through the tree cleanly. A branch jumped out and stripped her of the one thing a plane needs the most to stay in the air - her wing, and the fuselage lawn darted into the ground (like there is much hope at that stage).

Crashing your models is no fun at any time. DJ was just starting to get the hang of this girl in the air, but just strayed too close to one of those evil trees.

Whilst far from destroyed the damage to the model was pretty extensive. The fuselage was snapped through at a strong point (but would glue back up with epoxy). The worst damage was to his Align brushless motor which was irrepairably damaged.

Needless to say that did put a bit of dampner on the day, but some good flying was still done, and a number of great photos were taken. We even got in some Delta "combat" - just chasing each other a bit. The moon got in on the action in this shot as well.

K (DJ's wife) also got a great shot of the Zero flying, and some video footage of the Tucano flying, which I might try and splice into another video if I get the chance.

Speaking of the Tucano I went very close to losing her that day. She had two massive glitches on approach for landing (meaning she was closer to the ground than normal). On both occasions I thought I had lost her, but kept on fighting, and just kept her in the air and got her down safely. She hasn't flown since as I haven't been able to isolate the cause, although I am pretty suspicious about a batch of MKS crystals that I am using. I'll try and post some video of the near miss, although the plane is a bit far away from the camera for good footage unfortunately.

K also caught a couple of good shots of the Zero including this one with her getting ready for a straffing run on the camera position.

The Friday just gone Ground Dancer (his choice for a handle - I don't actually know what it means and must ask him), DJ and I threw caution to the wind (and rain it would seem) by flying our models in unfavourable conditions.

I was impressed at how well GD's super cub handled the wind. He runs her with an 11.1v LiPo, and tends to fly her about on 1/2 throttle a whole lot of the time, but has enough punch to get out of trouble in the wind. Of course the Zero and the spitfire both love the wind and flew just fine in the conditions. However, DJ had a bit of a blonde moment with the spitfire and unfortunately stalled a wingtip close to the ground. The wing retaining mount snapped away (as its designed to) but with no glue to repair at the field that was it for the spitfire for the day.

We got some delta flying in when the rain cleared - the elebee can't fly in any rain - her canopy top is cut open in too many places to facilitate airflow.

Saturday was the usual flying at Lyneham, with some unhappy endings for a couple of beginners. At least one had an aircraft that wasn't really appropriate. If you are thinking of buying your first plane remember ease of flying and robustness is more important than looks (besides which, a Hobbyzone Super Cub is a great looking scale model). If you start with a warbird or mid-wing the odds are really high that it will end in tears.

The Zero had a hardish (harder than normal) nose over on Saturday which busted the plywood firewall away from the fuselage - bit of epoxy courtesy of GD saw her back in the air in about 15 minutes.

So, that brings us to Sunday morning which I am just back from. No DJ today, and no Super Cub for GD - he started a brushless conversion overnight (because he has been meaning to for a little while, and because his 480 brushed was starting to get a bit second hand). Unfortunately the project wasn't finished before takeoff time today, so he only had his Stryker and Mini Dragon Fly Helicopter. On launching his Stryker glitch park (our new name for Kambah) struck again, and his Stryker went in at pretty high speed with the nose getting all busted up.

I put in a few solid landings with the Zero on the bitumen, but ended with a nose over (grr) - they really take all your concentration to land and get right, but I think once you can land a warbird you can land just about anything.

The RV4 had a few decent flights and landings, but I am getting some issue where the battery doesn't seem to want to take a full charge. For example, she just finished charging now, and only took 900mAh (1500mAh C) but I got low power cut outs with the RV4 on her last flight today. Maybe the battery is just getting a bit old, but it has only done 60 cycles or so.

Now, lastly - I'm currently putting together some articles designed to help a complete novice get started. They will come in parts, and I'll need to link them all through one central page, but should work out okay I think. Watch this space if you are intrested.