Got plenty of battery charging, cleanup and prep for the upcoming indoor season to do. Plus 3 or 4 winter projects to work on.
Looks like Sunday flying will turn into Sunday sho…
Looks like Sunday flying will turn into Sunday shop time. Not to cool but probably to windy this afternoon to really enjoy it.
Planning on getting out to fly on Sunday if at all…
Planning on getting out to fly on Sunday if at all possible.
Indianapolis City Wide Fun Fly
October 5th at the Blue River airfield I participated in the Indianapolis City Wide fun fly competition. It was a nice morning with rain closing us down after a single round of competition but as usual the South Side club was out in force and flying to win. A second round wouldn’t have mattered to the outcome and with rain closing in we called it a day. Below, I am ready to start the competition flying my Freestyle foamy. (Pic by T. Brindle)
I’ve flown in the Citywide competition maybe half of the last 10 years. It’s a competition that consists of 4 “skills” including bomb drop, stick break, limbo and spot landing.
Bomb drop is done first by dropping a bomb (usually a washer or nut with a small piece of ribbon attached) into a set of concentric circles that are painted on the field. Points range from 50 for a center drop (about a 3 foot circle) to 5 for anywhere on the runway.
Usually this is followed by stick break. In this contest a 1/4″ balsa stick is placed in the ground and a styrofoam cup is placed on top. If you can take the cup off the top of the stick without touching the ground you score 50 points on the first attempt or 25 on the second try. The stick is usually 3′ tall but the hosting club can modify the rules to some extent.
Next up is a limbo. The contestant has a choice of 3,4 or 5 foot heights to try to pass under with 50 points for passing under the 3′, 40 for the 4′ height, etc… half points are given for a second try if the first fails but touching the ground during the pass nullifies any award for that skill.
Last is a simple spot landing. Using the same concentric rings as the bomb drop the pilot then lands with the first part to touch typically being the scored part of the landing. Touch and go is not allowed.
I scored a 135 with my foamy in slightly gusty conditions and was happy with that performance.
With only the south side club being in attendance consistently and in force over the last few years this event will likely see some changes or may just fade away if more interest can not be garnered next year.
Thinking of flying tonight if anyone else is inter…
Thinking of flying tonight if anyone else is interested.
Great time at the ADA fly Saturday. Good cause. Fl…
Great time at the ADA fly Saturday. Good cause. Flew glider chase; my glider and dropped the Jumper. Kelly put him on the runway. Good day.
Wildhare Slick 540 30% – Great flying aerobat
This is my Wildhare Slick 540. The basic stats are as follows:
Wing Span 88″
Length ~82″
Weight ~18 lbs
Powered with a DLE-55 and Pro-Flow Cannister and turning a Falcon 23×9 (or sometimes a Xoar 23×8 laminate). Here’s what it looks like at the moment.
Here’s a shot of the inside which has a few interesting features as well. As you can see I’m running one of the water bottle type tanks. This one is manufactured and pre-assembled by B & E Graphix. So far it has been a great tank. It’s significantly lighter than the standard type tank and the (I think felt) clunk does a great job of sucking up every drop available. Moving back behind the wing tube there are two A123 2300mah 2S packs for extremely stable power. On top of them at the top of the photo is my ultra IBEC from Tech-Aero and nearer the bottom is my TM1000 Telemetry module. Hooked to that and velcro’d to the top of the wing tube is the attached GPS sensor (there are other sensors including temp, ignition voltage, and 3 Axis G Force). Further back is my Spektrum 9110 PowerSafe receiver with all 4 remotes scattered about. Behind that you can see the pull-pull system for the rudder which is handled with authority by the Hitec 7955TG
This is without question the best flying plane I own or have ever owned. It’s completely honest with no bad habits and is as close to a “go where you point it” flyer as anything I’ve ever seen. The combo is reasonably quiet and has plenty of power thanks to the engine, prop and canister combo. It will climb straight up forever and fly at least sportsman level IMAC on 100 plus degree heat index Indiana summer days… It may be able to do more but it needs a better pilot for that. 😉
Like every aerobatic airplane I’ve ever seen or heard about, it benefits from a few of the standard mixes to perfect it’s capabilities but unlike some I’ve flown, it can fly quite well without any of them.
Unfortunately Wildhare like others in the market, quit ordering and stocking the big planes due to the slow economy in the past few years. That downturn appears to be reversing, so hopefully they will get back in the market soon before the market moves on to other folks who are already shipping new competing products.
Did my Spektrum PowerSafe receiver just save my airplane?
Had a nice day flying at our Annual Toys for Tot’s charity fundraiser yesterday and today did the recharge on the flight packs on the plane I flew. This particular plane has a pair of A123 2300mah batteries that plug directly into my Spektrum PowerSafe 9110 receiver. This thing is a $200 item but it’s main feature is the ability to plug two batteries directly into the receiver via high current EC3 type connectors. With this method the power supplied to the servos is shared between the packs and does not have to go through any switches. A soft switch is used, which means if the switch fails the airplane is on and the current to run the servos does not pass through the switch so it is not a limiting factor in supplying power to the high torque digitals that are used on all flight surfaces of this aircraft.
When I went to recharge the batteries I started with the port side pack (just because) and charged them up to full… they took about 850mah. That seemed high as I flew maybe 3 or 4 times and none were much over 7-8 minutes. As I moved to the starboard pack something even more interesting occurred. The charger said no battery was present!! Double checking the leads quickly lead to the discovery that the negative lead ended in a nice solder ball that was no longer attached to the battery! At some point it had become disconnected… I don’t know if it was vibration, poor solder joints (from the manufacturer… I didn’t have a hand in this connection) or some combination of the two.
I have no way to know if this happened before the flight or during but I can tell by the fact that the second battery took only 100mah or so to charge that I made several flights without it! If the connection was dead before I took off the first time… then it really would have only meant I wouldn’t have flown that plane on that day if I hadn’t had this system. If it broke at some point during the first flight it likely means my airplane is only here today due to having the redundancy in the system. Glad I had this system.
Of course, this receiver is not the only way to get this level of redundancy and reliability. There are other power distribution systems out there but for this size and type of airplane I think its a very nice option and one I will probably continue to deploy. I will have to look at my pre-flight and assembly routine to see if there is a way I can check for this failure mode in the future. In the meantime its nice to know its there protecting me and my airplane from disasters.
Toys for Tots is Saturday!
Looking forward to a great day Saturday 8/24 with a casual day of flying but with the added bonus of contributing to a great cause. I’ve heard pulled pork and tenderloins are on the menu and the list of prizes and some silent auction items sounds impressive. Weather says ~85 and light east wind with lots of sunshine… sounds like about the best you are going to get for August in Indiana!
I think official start time is 11 (maybe 10 so don’t quote me). Landing fee is $10 or a toy for the kids (unwrapped). We are looking to give more than ever to the Marines for the kids so if you can, stop by and support us!
Gene has done a great job setting this up and procuring prizes. This one is becoming a local favorite.
I plan on getting in some flights on the 50cc WH Slick, of course the T28 and maybe even get out and do a skydive or two!
Updated throttle servo linkage on the P51
Spent a few minutes last night to make a few changes to the throttle linkage that caused me issues on the P51. Here is the updated version.
As you see I swapped arms to a fixed heavy duty Hitec arm as well as shortening the 2-56 rod and soldering on a coupler that takes me to a 2-56 threaded end. Then put a clevis with jam nut and retaining clip on to minimize chances of another disconnect. After getting the jam nut tight I coated it with a bit of clear finger nail polish to further eliminate any vibration induced loosening. I then coated the threads on the screw going into the servo (which are all metal) to help on that side as well. I could use some thread lock but need to make sure I can move it one more time when I adjust the throttle throws (if necessary) whenever I run it next.
I am open to suggestions but I think this will eliminate a re-occurrence of the issue that has me ordering a new wing! At least I hope so. The throttle end is held on with a 4-40 bolt through type ball link connector with a nylon insert nut so I don’t expect issues on that end. I cleaned up any other issues under the cowl and will reassemble that tonight and then the Mustang will get parked safely in a corner of the shop until the wing gets rebuilt. Probably will become a hangar queen for the winter and look forward to maiden day next year!