[smuzz]

A couple of weeks ago, Junoir and I went to Hobbies in the Hills "...just to get a roll of solarfilm" - we know how these stories end up. So ...

Date: 5 May 12
Conditions: Light breeze, good visibility, good smooth strip
Aircraft: Eflite PT-19 (1440 mm wingspan, 910 mm length)

I hadn't actually bought and built an EFlite kit before, so this was it. It's slightly unusual in that it can be field modified to fly control-line (if you build in the options, which I didn't bother). Build was easy enough, except that the wing saddle was slightly too small for the wing chord, so I had some trimming to do there. What was really annoying was the recommended setup for the aileron servo pushrods - it came with rods which had a Z-bend in one end, but we're supposed to use those crappy brass retainers at the other end, where you slide the rod into a hole through the retainer and then lock it in place with a screw. The brass retainer is supposed to be held on to the servo arm with a plastic disk which is a friction-fit onto a pin on the brass thing - what a load of rubbish. The disks wouldn't fit and the whole thing is unnecessarily heavy and clunky - I junked them and used a couple of rods with threads and clevises from a downed Parkzone P-51. For power I went with the tried and trusted combination of a Turnigy 3530 with a PZ 9x6 propeller (same setup I've got in our Parkzone F4F).
I got the weight well-forward of the recommended CoG with a 2200 mAh battery and took off. It needed quite a lot of down elevator trim, so it was a good idea to pack the large battery up front. It seemed pretty good in the air - not super fast, but good enough to look alright. I had the throws dumbed-down (as always) and no expo (as always) and it was still happy to loop and roll without problems. Landing was easy and it is actually quite well behaved on the ground for a tail-dragger (I was pleasantly surprised with that aspect of it) - probably where the tail-heaviness was actually helping out.

Not a bad little machine - behaves pretty well. Junior had a fly and I think he thought it was pretty lame, so it's a good match for me.

George was right ... it badly needs a pilot or two, but of course, they're a separate EFlite purchase!

   

[secant0give]

Nice one !!

Looks like a lovely model !!

[johnc]

Not flown at McCoy park (obviously!) but a maiden nevertheless of my BVM Sabre.
Not really succesful as the Wren 44 turbine had JUST enough thrust to take off.

Since re-engined with a Jetcat P-60, thrust increased from about 7 1/2 pounds to 14 pounds and now flying fine. Test flown in primer as I usually do with painted models, final colours to be decided but I like this scheme. - John .

[smuzz]

Interesting - so, see you at Temora later this year with this mate?

[johnc]

Yeah, hopefully. Still a little bit of sorting to do, paint & possibly the drop tanks.
I have applied to become a turbine inspector so if any other club members decide to have a go at jets at least (hopefully) they can be certified at a club level. - John.

[dwils]

looks good as always when you build

[johnc]

Thanks, Darren. BVM kit, the world's best, ask any American. Just like the Caddilac is the world's best car!

Mind you, Craig's Bandit is VERY nice, just don't ask the price. He could do with a new plane after the Wangaratta experience. - John.

[secant0give]

Nice one John,

How much does it weigh?

Doug Owen said to say g'day

[paulj]

Nice one John. Always loved the sabre.
Look forward to seeing it fly at Temora.
So are you keeping the Wren 44?

[johnc]

I haven't seen Doug for quite some time, hope all is ok.

The weight? No one said turbine models are light!... about 6 1/2 KG.
Building from a kit leaves you a little stuck with how much the model will weigh. Keep in mind I did lighten the model a LOT in an attempt to fly it with the Wren 44. The P-60 installation is, however, a much heavier package than a manual start Wren 44.

I can see where you are coming from Paul , sorry but I will be keeping it. I would like to build a turbine twin one day & two little 44 size engines mean I can build one at a sensible size (about 2 metre).

I was thinking about a Learjet & one landed at Wangaratta while Craig & myself were at the jet fly. Not thinking about one now, it's a must build! Am I the only modeller that thinks the Lear is gorgeous? - John.

[Flying fisho]

Sorry had to leave abruptly on Saturday, I love chatting to newbies interested in adopting the hobby and lost track of time. Many, many thanks to Gazz for maidening my new Pitts Special & I apologise if I forgot to thank you on the day. Ditto to Frank R for your modifications advice, could not have got the CG right without it.
Gazz got the plane off the ground without touching the elevator, so much lift from the twin wings meant downtrim elevator to the max to fly level at 1/2 throttle. Windy conditions made recognising necessary minor aileron trimming difficult. Gazz made it look easy to fly and commented about an unusually slow role rate for a bipe. Think I may have to find a longer servo arm or increase throws on TX or leave such aerobatics to a better plane after I have acquired the necessary skills.
Would have loved to fly it myself on the day, but a plane without dihedral is a different style of flying & best left for me to learn in calmer conditions.
PS. My son led by 3 after 9 holes of golf but trailed me by 3 after 18. I have better cats eyes than him playing the last hole at last light.

[smuzz]

Date: 19 May 12
Conditions: Couldn't be better - no wind, very smooth strip
Aircraft: Dynam T-28 (1270 mm wingspan)

I once saw Dame Edna telling a woman in the audience that her dress looked "affordable" - this plane is much the same, the fit of the parts and the ludicrous pilots are a testament to that. Assembly was irritating - the carbon fibre rod in the wings was about 70mm too long (never seen that happen before and had me double-checking everything), the screws that hold the tailplane down were very difficult to fit and the ones for the main wing were worse. I looked at the cheap little motor with its spindly 3mm shaft and thought "you and I are not going to be friends, pal" so it went, along with the 30A ESC that it was attached to. In went a Turnigy 3542-1000 and a 40A ESC that will take 4S. Now this is really bizarre - the elevator and rudder servos were connected together with a "Y" lead!!! I decided to remove the elevator servo and relace it with a Turnigy 90S metal-geared analogue unit - a lesson I learned from seeing Gazz's first PC-9 auger the old cross-strip a couple of years ago. The retracts looked solid enough though. Didn't put all the stickers on because I might do a paint-job first.

I wanted to fly it on 4S but didn't pack the correct battery before heading to the field, so a 2200mAh 3S nanotech would have to do. A quick check of the CoG showed it to be about 12mm forward which I was happy to go with for a maiden. Took off and the retracts did their stuff but under full power it was pitching up a lot. I throttled back to about 60% and spent a lot of time hitting trims - rudder, aileron and elevator all got a good nudge. As soon as I powered up again it wanted to wander off course. It's roll rate was low, so I'll probably up the throws there but it looped from level flight easily. Brought it in for a landing and it was happy to glide in very nicely - much smoother than the Durafly T-28B and almost as good as the Parkzone.

I'm going to get some 4S batteries on charge tonight and experiment with a few props, might also look more closely at the thrust-line. It's not a bad plane in spite of it's super-cheap nature and I think with a bit of tweaking it might be good - but I'll be surprised if I ever get it to compete with the Parkzone one on level terms.

UPDATE: Back over to the field today to see how things would turn out with the 4S 2450mAh battery which I was originally planning to use. Noticeably better - the little extra weight didn't show up at all and at full bore it was scooting along quite nicely. I think I'll turn my attention to some adjustments to the thrust-line next because there are still some issues with it pitching up when under a lot of power. Thanks go to Kizza for noticing that there was a screw missing from the wing joiner - that would have made things interesting as I attempted to pull out of a power dive! The retracts are holding up well and appear to be quite solid.

   

[Servo]

Nice report Steve. New planes are aways a hassle until all the trimming is sorted, then they become sweet. What i really want to know is how you get your cats to pose so well in your photos?

[smuzz]

Cheers Kev - the cats were completely coincidental, on both recent occasions.
Now, more to the point ... where is your Fun Cub maiden report, eh?

[gbanger]

Yeh! And where did you get those massive wheeels?

[dwils]

Hobbyking B17 1850 wingspan Both Paul and myself spent the best part of saturday building so I could maiden today I was up at 4am to do finishing touches and the C of G. I used 2 3300 3 cell 70c nano batteries and orange 8 channel receiver on a 14mz transmitter after set-up at the field and a range check I eased the throttle in rolling quite easy tail lifted and now air born 3 clicks right rudder trim and perfect flight having been a long time advocate of buy cheap get cheap I to say the least have been very pleasantly surprised by this planes performance it does not have any bad trends and fly s flawlessly on 1/2 throttle. The landing with flap and the gear down didnt cause handling issues and the aircraft settles very nice on 1/4 power floated on the runway perfect touchdown the mains first the the tail by my account a very nice airframe and extremely stable even when the wind turned up still nice to fly I have since ordered the 750w motors and master air screw 9x7x3 blade pusher and normal props as they believe it will make a huge difference to it I also intend to remove the tape hinges on the flaps and replace with robart pin hinges I used lock tight on all metal screws and the one issue I had was on the outboard left hand wing the motor mount kept coming loose however iI have since fixed with some silicone that should stop the problem other than that a perfect model Paul will post the video later

[samste]

Very Nice Darren, Shame i missed the Maiden. Good to Here it Flew Nice.

Steve

[Flying fisho]

Well done Darren, it certainly looked impressive in the air and a credit to your attention to detail when building.

[paulj]

Here is Darren's impressive B17 (The small one).
All I can say is I'm really looking forward to seeing the
Big Bird fly after this.

http://youtu.be/unJfjw8fIZc

http://youtu.be/vuqMvkhXCSE

[gbanger]

Looks very impressive, would not have expected anything less, like the idle mode, well done mate.

[secant0give]

AWSOME !!

Loved that Landing !! I had to watch that approach a couple of times, Very nicely flown and very nicely filmed as well !!

[Stuka]

Watching this aircraft fly yesterday morning was absolutely awesome. Watching this video was just as impressive.
Great handling Darren.
Paul you make a magnificent video operator........great work too!!

[secant0give]

We test flew Wingtippers super and cheaper MX2 on Saturday.
It flew realy well, required only 3 clicks of trim, 1 of right aileron and two of up elevator.
This model certainly wasn't under powered and when the nose was pointed straight up and shortly after the throttle opened wide, it accelerated vertically upwards with impressive rapidity. I'm sure it's more lively to fly than my edge 540, it certainly comes alive when you open it up some!! The roll rate was rather brisk on full rates, tho' the good deal of expo that frank had dialed in on the radio tamed it quite nicely about the center stick position. The next time I pointed it verticle I gave it some aileron and it rolled so axially and tracked so straight, I was super impressed. It really does go where you point it Large loops looked good as the MX2 never waivered, it just grooved around like it was on rails. A couple of stall turns were quite easy to pull of nicely with the help of a massive rudder and a knife edge pass showed it had almost no coupling at all. during inverted flight it desplayed the slightest tendancey to drop the nose, the C of G can go back about 2mm I reckon and it will be perfict
Even the grey sky, that was drizzleing on us from time to time didn't dampen my entheausism for this beautifuly flying model. MATE YOU'VE GOT A KEEPER THERE !! I really enjoyed flying it and I'm sure you'll get heaps of enjoyment out of it !!

[samste]

Sounds Like it was very Nice Flier, Good stuff.

Steve

[wingtipper]

Thanks jason . I was super impressed with the way it flew. It was good to see a maiden in good hands . It flew just how i expected . That spiral verticle tracking was pretty to watch. Thanks for the maiden report too i left the field packed up the planes and went straight to 12 hour night shifts so am at work now also . The setup was great according to the manual it was meant to be just on nose heavy for its 1st flight and that rang true . Seeing it climb verticle on 1/2 throttle was a buzz . I might buy another
Motor for it seeing this one is 700kv swinging a 13x6 prop it is super fast . Nothing wrong with that but i did note your comment on spool up time just a little of about 2 seconds and a screaming sound . Its a thrill . However as the motor was previously in a nose stack one of the bearings is a little noisy . I think ill replace the motor with same spec 5055 580 kv and swing a 15x6 prop as per your suggestion for instant throttle response perhaps not as extremeon full tilt but a more scale prop sound . It os on 6s after all so a bigger prop would be nice on this model

[gbanger]

Always great to here when a maiden goes without a hitch and youve got a smile from ear to ear.
Well done.

[ConcreteTurtle]

Date: 12 July 12
Conditions: Steady breeze and some gusts
Aircraft: E-Flite MiG-15 Ultra Micro DF

A few days ago, I got a great birthday present from my mates, the brand new E-Flite MiG-15 UM. Today was the first opportunity to give her a maiden and see what she can do. The weather was a bit rough for micro flying, however the temptation of first flight was too much and 3 of us headed out with ultra micros. After getting my eye in with my UM Mossie it was time to give her a go.

Claudio kindly buddied with me for the maiden, but the takeoff was really smooth if a bit longer than I'm used to. In the air, the AS3X was amazing, the little MiG punched into the wind and behaved great. The gyros make a world of difference in the wind, where the mossie was really tricky to get back into the upwind, the little MiG was pulling off really crisp circuits (with pretty quick downwind legs of course).
I was running at about 50% throttle most of the time, but low and high speed handling was excellent as well. I handed over for the landing, but it seemed really easy and floaty on approach.

Overall, this is a great little plane. The scale detail is really nice, and the paint scheme looks good too. Batteries are good for about 4mins, so I've got some more on the way for the next time I head to the field.

In short, it's rapidly becoming my favourite plane.

Angus.

[secant0give]

Nice One Angus !!
I've never seen an AS3X equipped model fly tho' I've watched a few videos online
Looks like it's a good system and it was a little gusty yesterday I was down at McCoy field and the was getting sturred up a bit at times, blowing right over the willows from the western end.

[secant0give]

I did some test flying of my own on tuesday afternoon and Wendsday.
I got this little "Thunder tiger" Yak 54 from Hobbies in the hills a few days ago. Mine came with a motor so all I had to do was add an RX, servos and an ESC and I was away. There was the usual few hours taken to assemble it but no nasty suprises here, all was very nicely straight airframe wise and the hardware supplied was of good quality. Attaching the canopy to it's frame was about the most time consuming part of the build.
I didn't make many modifications other than add a canopy hatch as I could see my self searching for it in the swamp after it ejected, if I didn't. The only other deveation from the original recipee was the use of an 1800 mah 4s pack instead of the 2200 3S recomended by the manufacturer.
I tested the motor using an 11 X 5.5 plastic electric prop and happily noted that it drew 32A static and had a healty amount of thrust as well.

So off to McCoy field on tuesday afternoon, I put a little extra dubbin on my leather boots to help keep my socks dry but it wasn't realy needed the field was quite flyable.

This is a light model with generious controll surfaces so I expected it to be a lively one to fly. It took off in a very short distance, I reckon about 10 ft on around 3/4 throttle. It seemed perfictly trimmed in pitch and needed just a couple of clicks for the ailerons. I gave it two flights that afternoon as the light was faiding. The factory sugested C of G was pretty much where you'd want it.
Four flights on Wednesday, tho' it was a bit gusty the little Yak54 handeled the conditions with no problems at all.

It's a light stiff built up balsa model with a very healthy power to weight ratio, it's not extreemly fast with the prop I was using but it can move smartly if you ask her too. She will go vertical indefinatly and Knife edge with very little coupling. It flies like a much bigger model, realy nicely in fact. It's just what I want, an easy model to carry down to the field when the road is too when to drive in and one that is a lot of fun to fly as well!!

   

[Raptorfly]

Sounds and looks like a nice little plane.
You can almost spot land it without the need for a long runway so it is perfect after the field gets wet.

Well done.