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Radio Controlled Aircraft

Started by whoozit, September 19, 2016, 03:25:15 PM

whoozit

I know there are a few here that share my hobby.  I thought I'd start this thread to see if anyone wants to share pictures, ask questions or share their experience.  I have been flying since 2001.  This is a photo of a Top-Flite Cessna 310 I bought at auction last winter.  It has an 81 inch wingspan and is powered by two OS .55 AX engines which came in the airframe.  It also came with Robart pneumatic retracts installed.  I replaced the pneumatic actuators with electric ones.  I paid $300, but it easily came with over $1000 of stuff in it.  I hoped to get it ready to fly this year but will definitely have it ready next year.

whoozit

Here are a few photos of a hotliner I threw together for around $60.  It has a 23 inch wingspan and flies at about 70 mph.  It is fast for its size.  It has a 30A speed control and uses a 3 cell 850mah LiPo battery.  While a 20A speed control works (the plane used 17A at full throttle) I went with the 30A because there was not much of a weight penalty.  The unpainted version has a single aileron servo while the orange version has two so I can use flaperons to slow landing speed.  HobbyKing is a great source for inexpensive speed controllers and electric motors.

ItsOver

I only fly the electrics now, primarily the Horizon UMX's.  With the AS3X, they fly almost as well as the bigger birds and they're just easier to deal with, all around.  I'll be flying the following this morning:





The weather was perfect at twilight last night.  Cloudless sky, in the 70's, no wind.  I thermaled the little Radian for awhile and then, when it got too dark, broke out my Night Vapor.



The little Radian and the Night Vapor are both little jewels and I can't recommend them highly enough.  When the wind is zilch, there's nothing cooler to fly at night than the Night Vapor.  I love flying it low and slow and doing touch-and-goes.  Damn cool to fly it at several mph about 10 feet in the air right in front of you.  It's like flying a brilliantly lit puff of smoke.  ;D

I'm getting ready to build a micro Wright Flyer, looking at converting a glider kit into a umx powered flyer.  It should be a fun project I'll start-up in a month or so.




whoozit

Quote from: ItsOver on September 20, 2016, 06:50:55 AM
I only fly the electrics now, primarily the Horizon UMX's.  With the AS3X, they fly almost as well as the bigger birds and they're just easier to deal with, all around.  I'll be flying the following this morning:

The weather was perfect at twilight last night.  Cloudless sky, in the 70's, no wind.  I thermaled the little Radian for awhile and then, when it got too dark, broke out my Night Vapor.

The little Radian and the Night Vapor are both little jewels and I can't recommend them highly enough.  When the wind is zilch, there's nothing cooler to fly at night than the Night Vapor.  I love flying it low and slow and doing touch-and-goes.  Damn cool to fly it at several mph about 10 feet in the air right in front of you.  It's like flying a brilliantly lit puff of smoke.  ;D

I'm getting ready to build a micro Wright Flyer, looking at converting a glider kit into a umx powered flyer.  It should be a fun project I'll start-up in a month or so.

I have a number of the UMX series too.  T-28 Trojan, Spitfire and a Habu EDF.  I modified the Habu with a larger speed control so I can run a 3 cell battery. 

Happy Landings.

ItsOver

Quote from: whoozit on September 20, 2016, 07:07:34 AM
I have a number of the UMX series too.  T-28 Trojan, Spitfire and a Habu EDF.  I modified the Habu with a larger speed control so I can run a 3 cell battery.
Ha!  I've got those, too.  Horizon loves me. ;)  The T-28 was an early UMX favorite of mine.

Yorkshire pud

Almost finished 1/4 scale Minimoa. 13 and something foot wingspan. 66 inches nose to tail. AUW about 14pounds. Airbrakes top and bottom of wings each side. I made the cockpit too. And the SLR for the pilot.. 9/10 channels. Tow release.

SredniVashtar

How often do you spend months putting one of these things together, take it for its maiden test flight, and then the bloody thing falls out of the sky and smashes to pieces? I'd be terrified to put it to the test if it was me.

whoozit

Quote from: SredniVashtar on September 20, 2016, 08:11:38 AM
How often do you spend months putting one of these things together, take it for its maiden test flight, and then the bloody thing falls out of the sky and smashes to pieces? I'd be terrified to put it to the test if it was me.
All planes have at least one landing in them.   ;)     It happens, I haven't smashed one on its maiden voyage but have seen others do so.  Building from kits is becoming less the norm, you can buy prebuilt airframes for less than the price of the kit and covering.  Those that build do so because they enjoy it.

whoozit

Here is a photo from my flying field earlier this year.  The field is almost a mile long and 500 yards across.  We fly from the middle of the field.  It used to be a sod farm but we now lease a 500x400 yard plot in the middle.  The left side of the field is alfalfa and there is corn to the right.  It really stinks when you lose one in the corn.


Yorkshire pud

Quote from: SredniVashtar on September 20, 2016, 08:11:38 AM
How often do you spend months putting one of these things together, take it for its maiden test flight, and then the bloody thing falls out of the sky and smashes to pieces? I'd be terrified to put it to the test if it was me.

I started laying the fuselage pieces on the plan in october 2011, with all good intentions of having it ready the following March/April.....my muse ebbs and flows. The ailerons alone contain about 100 pieces of wood each. It isn't a kit build. Its all from scratch. Using photos for the cockpit detail. I made the lot. Including a jack plug for the pilot's head mic to plug into the radio.

whoozit

Quote from: Yorkshire pud on September 20, 2016, 09:33:33 AM
I started laying the fuselage pieces on the plan in october 2011, with all good intentions of having it ready the following March/April.....my muse ebbs and flows. The ailerons alone contain about 100 pieces of wood each. It isn't a kit build. Its all from scratch. Using photos for the cockpit detail. I made the lot. Including a jack plug for the pilot's head mic to plug into the radio.
Scratch build.  That's impressive.  I have never built anything of size from scratch.  I get the ebb and flow of the building muse.  I bought a built and covered (silk) Tiger Moth at an auction las year.  I hope to get it painted and ready to fly by next year.

Yorkshire pud

Quote from: whoozit on September 20, 2016, 10:42:57 AM
Scratch build.  That's impressive.  I have never built anything of size from scratch.  I get the ebb and flow of the building muse.  I bought a built and covered (silk) Tiger Moth at an auction las year.  I hope to get it painted and ready to fly by next year.

My dads favourite aeroplane the Tiggy. I have a couple of plans for one somewhere, and 'The Tiger Moth Story', you can have the lot if you're interested? I don't want anything for them, unless you want to cover the postage?

Scratch building is a labour of love to be honest. The money and time invested is never paid back if the model is sold on later. I honestly don't know how many hours have gone into it so far. But materials used are ; Balsa, ply (various thicknesses), Spruce, Ramin, Aluminium, Brass, Carbon Fibre, Fibre Glass.


The original wing profile was changed and plotted the ribs transferred from paper to wood and cut out individually(!);(I think 70 per wing, progressively smaller to the tip).  its now a HQ3512. The 'crank' in the wing went better than I anticipated, and needed jigging to get both sides the same.




It's much narrower than the original and far more efficient. The cockpit shots show the jack plug I made and the conduit. The joystick and airbrake surrounds in litho plate ali are made to look as they're riveted down by punching an old ball point pen from the other side.

Its very nerdy and I really didn't intend to do a full cockpit like this, but got carried away when I started.


Yorkshire pud

Quote from: SredniVashtar on September 20, 2016, 08:11:38 AM
How often do you spend months putting one of these things together, take it for its maiden test flight, and then the bloody thing falls out of the sky and smashes to pieces? I'd be terrified to put it to the test if it was me.

A professional radio control pilot (British) piled in a £25000 Scale Hawker Hunter on its maiden flight. The only thing left identifiable was the compressor disc and cowl from the turbine.

ItsOver

Quote from: Yorkshire pud on September 20, 2016, 11:19:52 AM

...Scratch building is a labour of love to be honest. The money and time invested is never paid back if the model is sold on later...

This is indeed the case.  I've built a number of models over the years and there was a lot of pleasure just in the creation. 

Folks look at my ultra micros, predominantly made of foam, and think they're quite fragile.  The reality is some of my most durable r/c birds have been the dinky ultra micros.  The foam can be comparatively forgiving and the low mass helps out with the inevitable collisions with Mother Earth.  I've flown my UMX Radian hundreds of times, catching thermals and soaring off dams, with some bounces along the way, and the little bird is still quite flight-worthy.  It only weighs an ounce and a half but it's a true joy to thermal and slope soar with the AS3X stabilization.  I've slope soared it in 15-20 mph winds and it's a lot of fun.



The Night Vapor, which is plastic and film, only weighs 0.6 ounces.

area51drone

Quote from: SredniVashtar on September 20, 2016, 08:11:38 AM
How often do you spend months putting one of these things together, take it for its maiden test flight, and then the bloody thing falls out of the sky and smashes to pieces? I'd be terrified to put it to the test if it was me.

When I was in college, a friend of mine and I built his plane, we drove and drove to find a place to fly it.  Went up, was going great, and all the sudden the wings just literally flew off.   The fuselage nosedived, straight down maybe from 150ft and became an obelisk in this farmer's field.    Retrieved the wings from the nearby river and we were back at it the next weekend.   

I have two small drones that I fly usually now, a styrofoam electric P-51 that I haven't flown yet, a styrofoam trainer style,  wood gas powered hobbico trainer and an old wood gas acrobatic flyer that was some kit, and I don't remember the model names of any of them.   You guys are way more into the hobby than I.    I finally moved onto 5 acres, and once my chores are done with this new house I can't wait to use the new lawn as a runway.

I think a podcast featuring nothing but experts on RC Aircraft talk would work.

Similar to The Fret Files, it wouldn't require that the listener be involved with the building and flying of aircraft.

Everyone loves a good crash story, or a construction anecdote,  or an account of the one that got away and flew out of sight and disappeared due to a dead or malfunctioning RC.

"I never saw Free Lord again.  That beautiful Albatros D. III just flew into oblivion.  I sometimes think it's still up there, like some kind of phantom plane, waiting to land for me." 

(pause)

"I'm pretty sure it crashed somewhere up in Mount Pilot."




Yorkshire pud

Quote from: Camazotz Automat on September 21, 2016, 04:06:56 PM
I think a podcast featuring nothing but experts on RC Aircraft talk would work.

Similar to The Fret Files, it wouldn't require that the listener be involved with the building and flying of aircraft.

Everyone loves a good crash story, or a construction anecdote,  or an account of the one that got away and flew out of sight and disappeared due to a dead or malfunctioning RC.

"I never saw Free Lord again.  That beautiful Albatros D. III just flew into oblivion.  I sometimes think it's still up there, like some kind of phantom plane, waiting to land for me." 

(pause)

"I'm pretty sure it crashed somewhere up in Mount Pilot."



It might work; it depends if anyone would like a question/answer podcast, instead of just a few discussing the subject.

Quote from: Yorkshire pud on September 21, 2016, 11:04:27 PM
It might work; it depends if anyone would like a question/answer podcast, instead of just a few discussing the subject.

Or maybe a mixture of a few experts talking around the table with their good info and their stories and humor along with some interesting calls/questions mixed in.  Finding the right ratio would be a challenge.  RCA is so information dense that even a twenty or thirty minute podcast could reveal a lot, be it about RC planes, drones, or the latest products.

jazmunda

You model aircraft kit builders must hate the out of the box rank amateur drone flyers.

whoozit

Quote from: jaz on September 21, 2016, 11:31:39 PM
You model aircraft kit builders must hate the out of the box rank amateur drone flyers.
They are causing issues by flying in unsafe areas.  We were required to get an FAA registration number to display on all of our airplanes this year.  It was $5 to register all of my aircraft for the next three years.  There is talk that the FAA is going to defer this registration program to the state level.  I have heard rumors my state is going to a per aircraft fee, and may require air worthiness certificates.  This sounds expensive and will drive many from the hobby.  They are looking at it as an untapped source of tax revenue.

GravitySucks

Quote from: whoozit on September 21, 2016, 11:37:56 PM
They are causing issues by flying in unsafe areas.  We were required to get an FAA registration number to display on all of our airplanes this year.  It was $5 to register all of my aircraft for the next three years.  There is talk that the FAA is going to defer this registration program to the state level.  I have heard rumors my state is going to a per aircraft fee, and may require air worthiness certificates.  This sounds expensive and will drive many from the hobby.  They are looking at it as an untapped source of tax revenue.

This might be a good website to follow

https://dronelawtoday.com/

whoozit

Quote from: GravitySucks on September 21, 2016, 11:40:43 PM
This might be a good website to follow

https://dronelawtoday.com/
Thanks I'll look at it.  All the info I have heard has come from folks in my state that went to hearings when the state wanted to regulate this.  It was pointed out that the FAA was in control of all of this.

jazmunda

I mentioned on thejazcast that I will be getting a phantom 4 for my birthday. I'm looking forward to taking it for a spin but I always get nervous with the more pricey drones that they will get lost/damaged and I'm unable to retrieve them.

Yorkshire pud

Quote from: GravitySucks on September 21, 2016, 11:40:43 PM
This might be a good website to follow

https://dronelawtoday.com/


I'm on my phone so this is a potted opinion/state of affairs: People who are 'traditional' modellers exercise a sort of self policing of our hobby. We have in the UK the BMFA (British model flying association), who issue guidelines, rules (basically common sense), and support for affiliated clubs and individuals in the hobby. Everyone in the BMFA is issued these guidelines in printed form, including how the ANO (Air Navigation Order-essentially sky traffic laws for full size aircraft) relates to model aircraft. We are goverened by the same laws, and they can be and are enforced by the CAA (Civil aviation authority).

The advent of 'drones'; (strictly multi copters, but 'drone' has been misused and now accepted,) has been phenominal, as a consequence, the rule book has been ignored because a great deal of retailers and users don't know/care it exists. As a consequence, idiotic users have done idiotic stunts, brought the whole hobby into question and now we all suffer because we can't have nice things. Don't get me started on FPV.

ItsOver

Quote from: Yorkshire pud on September 22, 2016, 12:16:17 AM

I'm on my phone so this is a potted opinion/state of affairs: People who are 'traditional' modellers exercise a sort of self policing of our hobby. We have in the UK the BMFA (British model flying association), who issue guidelines, rules (basically common sense), and support for affiliated clubs and individuals in the hobby. Everyone in the BMFA is issued these guidelines in printed form, including how the ANO (Air Navigation Order-essentially sky traffic laws for full size aircraft) relates to model aircraft. We are goverened by the same laws, and they can be and are enforced by the CAA (Civil aviation authority).

The advent of 'drones'; (strictly multi copters, but 'drone' has been misused and now accepted,) has been phenominal, as a consequence, the rule book has been ignored because a great deal of retailers and users don't know/care it exists. As a consequence, idiotic users have done idiotic stunts, brought the whole hobby into question and now we all suffer because we can't have nice things. Don't get me started on FPV.
Good summary, YP.  Of course, in The States we have the AMA.  Again, it was mostly common sense rules with few if any problems for regular aircraft R/C.  Apparently, common sense can be an issue with the quads, with any Joe Six Pack at the controls.  The media over here hasn't always helped, either, by creating a fearful "drone" meme.  Now everything that flies can be a terrifying drone.


whoozit

Fun fly at my club's field tomorrow.  I'm flying and old, beat up SIG LT-40 with OS .46 AX.  I can fly that plane backwards in a 10 mph wind.

whoozit

It was a windy day at the field yesterday.  Steady 13-17 mph winds down the runway.  Managed my first backwards takeoff.  Put the spurs to my trainer and it immediately leapt into the air and travelled backwards with the wind for a few seconds before it began clawing itself through the air.  I wish I had a video.

Yorkshire pud

Quote from: whoozit on September 25, 2016, 07:51:55 AM
It was a windy day at the field yesterday.  Steady 13-17 mph winds down the runway.  Managed my first backwards takeoff.  Put the spurs to my trainer and it immediately leapt into the air and travelled backwards with the wind for a few seconds before it began clawing itself through the air.  I wish I had a video.

More ballast; pitch down and push on.. But more ballast.


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