1. Parramatta Radio Control Aircraft Club
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  Hobby King battery warning!

Posted by: johnc
20-02-2010, 05:04 PM
Forum: General
- No Replies

Hi guys, just noticed this warning on the San Diego Wingmasters website.

http://sdwingmasters.com

LiPo Battery Warning!
by David Peterson
I recently purchased a 4 Cell Rhino LiPo from Hobby King. After hooking everything up I got a direct short. Turned out that the output leads from the battery were crossed (+ red was ground) (- black was hot). This was probably a one time fluke, but you might want to put a notice in the newsletter to check newly purchased battery output leads for correctness. Might save someone a destroyed ESC.

It only takes a couple of seconds to double check. - John C.

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  Kev's Easy Sport 40 Re-Build Thread

Posted by: robair
13-02-2010, 11:32 AM
Forum: General
- Replies (14)

Gday All

Thanks to Kev he has kindly donated the Easy Sport 40 (hereon ES40) to myself as an experimental test bed in regards to build and design techniques.
There are a few things we know about the ES40:
1- It is a great design.
2- Kev did an awesome job of building her.
3- Its flight stability looked very good
4- I weighs a ton or two.
5- Sucked an enormous amount of amps.

Due to the above I had a few options mentally floating around, all involved reducing the weight substantially and removing the need for the massive amount of added noseweight to balance. Ideally I wanted have swags of lift and a fairly low stall speed.

The photo below indicates the direction I have chosen. I had cut out a couple of foam core wings a few months ago to teach myself the technique and also to have a shot at skinning, the wing was destined for the Precedent Hi Boy, as you can see I have found another use for it.

So, the ES40 is going to become a biplane and I am just about to drill out about 40 zillion holes in the structure to drop the weight. Am also toying with the idea of making her a twin with the nacelles mounted midspan inter wing.

Thanks for the opportunity Kev, much appreciated. Look forward to you having a flight when she is done and dusted.

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  emails

Posted by: paulj
04-02-2010, 11:59 AM
Forum: General
- Replies (3)

Hi Kieran,
Has something changed on the website?
I'm not getting any emails advising me of new messages.
Maybe it's my email filter playing up.

Paul

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  F16 Remodel

Posted by: paulj
03-02-2010, 04:02 PM
Forum: General
- Replies (16)

Hi everyone.
In order to prepare myself for the F14 Tomcat build I need to try out
some techniques.
For this I'm going to remodel my F16 pusher prop jet which is badly in need of some TLC.





Things I intend to do.
Using Model Mate superlight filler replace missing foam, fill any imperfections and
generally clean up model.
Sand model to a smooth finish.
Fibreglass entire model.
Repaint in a new colour scheme(still to be decided).
Upgrade motor from small brushless with gearbox to a direct drive brushless.

I am starting today so this thread should be updated each couple of days.

Paul

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  Kieran's Hanger

Posted by: kizza42
30-01-2010, 10:32 PM
Forum: General
- Replies (2)

Ok, getting forgetful in my old age so I'd thought I'd start a log of my past planes and a worklog for the future!

Parkzone F27C Stryker

Year: 2006 - Present
I've had 4 Stryker airframes over the years. Airframe 001 lasted all of 2 flights at Parramatta park, the first flight ended sedately up the top of a tall tree. After knocking it down It went for another flight and ended up going in nose first at full throttle. I just couldn't get used to Mode1 controls and it was all happening too fast for me (I hadn't learned to keep it infront of me and kept letting it go over my shoulder). I gathered the wreckage and did the walk of shame to the car resolving to find a better place and better control system to fly with. Airframe 002 Was a grey Stryker B fuse with the original Strykers motor/esc/rx. I had stripped the servos in the crash and spent $70 on 2xNES 331's which where the cheapest servo's available at the time (No Hobbyking back then!). Before flying again, my Dad and I modified the RTF Mode 1 tx to be Mode3. With this much easier control method I had no trouble flying for about 6 months, getting rogue flights in every couple of weeks (No PRCAC yet) at my mates property in Kemps Ck. Airframe 003 came along when Airframe 002 started feeling old and I'd learnt to fly it. I bought a brand new F27C PnP kit and also decided to invest in a proper charger (Swallow V2) and most importantly, a Mode2 Spektrum DX7. This is the Airframe that everyone has seen me fly since around late 2007, early 2008 I came across an early PRCAC website but could never get in contact with anyone or find a time when anyone was down at the field. I was always too scared to fly on the field without being a member but one afternoon, the urge to fly got the better of me so I had a blat and within 10mins someone was walking towards me! It was the first time I met Darren, he watched me fly and had guessed it was me from the tons of emails I had sent! I think the Stryker impressed him a bit because the next time I saw him, he had one! His Stryker would end up being Airframe 004 for me, it was stock except for a Graupner speed prop. Airframe 004 was famous for its death spiral into Suburbia and the subsequent club wide search with included letter drop.

Status:
Airframe 001: I pull this out every now and then, Even with the experience I have gathered, I would never be able to repair to to flyable such was the damage to the frame. I use it for testing glues and alternate coverings every now and then.
Airframe 002: Still actually in pretty good nick shape wise but the paint job was destroyed when I tried to sand it off. One day I'll clean it up and paint it.
Airframe 003: On the verge of old age retirement. Old faithful has seen many hours of fun and its taken its toll with an nasty compression curve in the wings. The motor was seen to spew smoke one arvo but is still going strong.
Airframe 004: Lightly damaged from its Death spiral, unlikely to repair as it exhibited the same nasty curve characteristics as 003.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nygcxd954Y[/youtube]
The first 15 seconds of this video sold it to me, I knew I had to have one!

ST Model MX2

Year: Early 2009 (6 Weeks!)
The MX2 was one of my favourite planes for the short time that I had it. It was an impulse by from Kelletts (Mick made me a deal I couldn't refuse). It allowed me to learn rolling take offs and landings and more advanced aerobatics. Due to the huge prop it had, I used to able to take off straight into a hammerhead and land in the opposite direction!The MX2 was lost when I was flying too close to the power lines, It sheared one wing clean off! In the subsequent milliseconds I was confident I would pull off a heroic one wing knife edge landing but those delusions of grandeur evaporated when the very expensive Flightpower 3S 2200 ($95!!!) ejected moments later. The battery disappeared into another dimension never to be found again whilst the fuselage spiraled very messily into the ground and broke a few key areas in the airframe. It had very fragile landing gear and motor mount but if I ever come across a spare $200 I'd pick one up in a flash.

Status: Garbage Bin!


ST Model Cessna 182

Year: Early 2009 - Present
The ST Cessna was the dawn of the HobbyKing era. These planes were cheaper after being shipped from HongKong than actually buying in Australia which was a pretty big deal when first discovered. From the onset, It's scale landing gear was unusable on the grass field but through some heavy modifications courtesy of engineer Darren we got it to the point that I was happily shooting repeated touch n go's, It really helped me learn how to land a plane properly and although slightly underpowered out of the box, the later powerplant transplant from a T28 gave it a brand new life.

Status: I got fed up with the fragile nose gear and did a quick changeover to Taildragger. A rough landing tore the gear off and it is now awaiting repair.

HobbyKing Decathlon EP

Year: Mid 2009 - Present
My first ever Balsa model, A huge learning curve after only building foamies and RTF's. After a lengthy build I made the mistake of trying to rush into the sky: A much too short runway (The pit area) and trying to pull up too early resulted in a very nasty tip stall that required a total rebuild forward of the firewall. Once that bug was sorted out, I made the mistake of drawing 90+ amps through a motor rated for 40. Those who saw it will attest to a spectacular vertical takeoff followed by smoke and a hairy deadstick landing! Once that hiccup was solved the Decathlon brought some very nice flying experiences.

Status: Currently close to being retired after serving its original purpose (Learning to build). It suffered some nasty damage after the last Australia day static display and I am tempted to move the hardware over to a slightly more aerobatic airframe.

Still to add T28, Siren, P51 and future projects
More to come...

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  Model Builder Extrorinaire

Posted by: dingy
29-01-2010, 03:06 PM
Forum: General
- Replies (3)




Hi Guys,

This was given to me I thought I'd share it with you all as it is quite facinating - If only we all could......


For those of you who do not have "Word" i have also a PDF file version attached

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  F14 Tomcat Build Project

Posted by: paulj
27-01-2010, 04:57 PM
Forum: General
- Replies (54)

I've just received my next plane kit today.
This is going to be a build progress thread were I will post photos of various
stages of construction.
The aircraft is a F14 Tomcat (TopGun) swing wing fighter. It will be a pusher prop model
and at this stage I am still deciding on power plant to use.
Main building material is Depron and the swing wing mechanism is ply.
This is very much a kit model there is nothing ARF or RTF about it.
Here are some photos.







Just need to finish off a couple of small details on my Tucano then I'll make a start on this baby.

Paul

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  Soap Box Time! Internet Censorship

Posted by: kizza42
25-01-2010, 11:35 PM
Forum: General
- Replies (1)

You've already seen the popup, The way they want things done is very wrong, You may not be informed fully on the issues that are about to destroy some of our freedoms in Australia.

See here: http://www.internetblackout.com.au for more info.

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  Kev's Reef

Posted by: ~KevJ~
20-01-2010, 08:37 PM
Forum: General
- Replies (7)

hey guys , ive not had much time flyin since mid december, things have been hectic.
I thought id post a pic of alittle post xmas side project ive been spending time and money :? on...

she is all set and waiting for fish and coral now, needs a few weeks to stabilise but now that its at this stage im back to my planes and ready to start building my next project.. Biggrin

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  Simple Plastic Airplane Design, or S.P.A.D.

Posted by: dingy
20-01-2010, 07:53 AM
Forum: General
- No Replies

Hi guys for all you modellers or wanta bees, check this out it is very interesting.

Friend @ work put me onto this - should interest both Kev's.


Simple Plastic Airplane Design, or S.P.A.D. is a concept of R/C plane construction that took off in the late 90's. It focuses on using inexpensive materials found at hardware stores and sign shops in conjunction with simple construction methods to get you in the air quickly!
Oh yeah, and the plans are FREE!


http://www.spadtothebone.com


There are some great planes, plans & videos - quite remarkable!!!!!

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  1. Parramatta Radio Control Aircraft Club