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All Us intermediate pilots, Lets Share

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  • All Us intermediate pilots, Lets Share

    Yeah, you just knew it had to happen didn't you, come on, admit it.
    I had the week off and so, as the weather has been great, I flew and flew and flew!!  Today the Club had its fly in out at Cowley, and what a great turn out, and some beautiful planes were to be seen both in the air and on the ground. 
    Most of the  planes were gas burners, but a few of us foam flyers as well.  Of note was a plane called a Splendor by E flite.  It's a smaller plane, but don't let that stop you.  She flies with anywhere from a 4000 to 5000 6 cell battery!  Two fellows had them and they climb like a home sick angel!!  I'll get my butt in gear and resize some of these so I can post them shortly.  Diane took so many pictures it'll take a bit of sorting out.
    I got a record FOUR planes in the truck as well as assorted gear, food and water and wife.  I had the Pandora with the wings off, the Pitts, Big Beautiful Doll and the Apprentice.  So great to get them all there.  I was doing some looking around the other day, trying to get some ideas as to how to boost the Pandora's speed.  I had tried the FMS Cessna 182 prop on her last winter but didn't really notice a difference, so as a matter of curiosity, I checked out what she ran for a motor.  Turns out its a 3536-850KV.  The Pandora runs a 3536-800KV.  Cool, thinks I, how much?  So I'm checking this out and it turns out that it's the same motor in the Waco!  Faster than you can say who stole my motor? Pandora One is sporting the Waco's motor.  Makes a difference guys and a cheap mod.  Now, in the food for thought section, you can try using the two bladed Waco prop (You have to swap out the prop shaft to fit the Pandora prop assembly) or the three bladed Skytrainer prop which is an 11x9 compared to the Pandora's 11x6.  All this of course is assuming you've swapped out the 30 amp ESC that comes stock, I personally have a 50Amp FMS in both mine.

    Anyway, she flew great.  Then I had BBD up and away.  I recently installed the 580KV in her and put zip ties behind the prop blades, we had a wind of about 12 mph and she plowed through that like nothing,  then I got her in tail wind position and opened her up.  Boy can she move out!  This is a great mod for anyone who is at ten and wants just a little more push to eleven (Spinal Tap) one winter project is to swap out her ESC with the one from the Pitts which is an 85 Amp and get a 100 Amp ESC for the Pitts.
    Anyway, on the final flight with her, she landed fine and taxied over, I always run a post flight check of my control surfaces and lo and behold, the left aileron isn't working.  Yep, dead servo as I found out when I got her home and used the servo tester on her.  Anyone know which servo it is?  I have a message into Motion to get a new one.  I'm wondering, however, if I shouldn't upgrade my servos with Spektrums or a better brand, any thoughts on this?
    The Pitts flew like a dream.  Low rates on take off seems to really help me.  A smile moment happened on the last take off.  I was taking off crosswind and the windward (right) wing decides to lift off before the rest of the plane. "oh no you don't says I and knocks her back on the ground again, the take off was great, up she went.  What  I didn't know Diane was snapping pictures as fast as she could, so I have a sequence of pics showing the whole thing.  I tell you guys, this is such a great plane to fly!! Scoop one up before they're gone, I'm seriously thinking of getting one more. 
       Anyway, I'm hoping that this thread will be as successful as All Us Newbies... was.  I personally picked up a lot of info from everyone who contributed to it.  I got several compliments on my flying today and I'd love to give all of you a tip of the hat and a great big 'Thank you' because you all had a big part of getting me this far,  THANKS!!


    Grossman56 and Mrs. Grossman
    Team Gross!

  • #2
    RE: All Us intermediate pilots, Lets Share

    Sounds like you had a stellar day there! That aileron servo could've really spoiled you day though. Just remember with added speed comes added load on those flight surfaces ! Look forward to some shots!

    Steve
    AMA 95495
    Freewing P-51D Iron Ass
    Freewing F-86 80MM

    Comment


    • #3
      RE: All Us intermediate pilots, Lets Share

      Hey Guys and Gals!
      I just finished publishing one of the videos from our two day Fly In At Cowley, please have a look!

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXQi0r_BMmU

      A great time was had by all.  I'll do some more that will focus on the flying end of it, but a great turn out and a lot of fun. 

      Grossman56
      Team Gross!

      Comment


      • #4
        RE: All Us intermediate pilots, Lets Share

        Really nice work on the video there Gman! Lots of wide open space to fly in too. Looks like a great place to have a field. Keep up the good work!

        Comment


        • #5
          RE: All Us intermediate pilots, Lets Share

          Thanks LoneFlyer, we tried something a little bit different as Diane discovered the multiple exposure setting on the camera! 
          She gets better as the vid goes on, check out this one of the flying!
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OSlBGtgU44
          About mid stream of this one, you can see my Pitts decide to raise her right wing, I promptly put it back down, its just about as fast as it really happened.  I had the P51B out today, and she's a different beast than the P51D.  Its actually every bit as fast as BBD is and BBD has a 580 in her, Shangri la still has a stock 540.  Try to get her to slow down is always a challenge, but with a big field like this one, I just let her coast.  Of course she had to act up a bit on the only landing we got pictures of, but isn't that always the way.  All planes flew great so I'm not complaining.
          I ordered in some 17g metal servos for BBD.  I had two Freewing ones already ones a reverse servo, so I'm covered for the ailerons.

          Grossman56
          Team Gross!

          Comment


          • #6
            RE: All Us intermediate pilots, Lets Share

            Better Servo brand? How are you measuring what makes a brand better than another? I've had very bad performance and life from Futaba servos yet they have a great reputation. Off the top of my head I've had the these failures with Futaba. The S128 the 1/4 turn case bolts fall out allowing the amp to hang by the wires. No foam to keep the amp from vibrating allowing the wires to fracture. The S132 had inadequate axial support of the motor armature. Allowing the armature to bind on the brushes. The S133 had too small a boss for a gear axel. That caused the gear train to skip, fail. The S135 would fail an output transistor. True these are older analog servos and subsequent production runs addressed most of these issues. Now these were just off the top of my head. But I've yet to have a properly selected JR or Multiplex (Even the rebranded GWS. I've had some red Hitter servos fail) servos fail on me.

            What I'd like to learn is what is the failure mode of the FMS and Freewing servos. Is it the motors, the output transistors, the amp, gear train etc.? I know FMS and Freewing have changed OEMs as of late (within the last year or so). I'd like to learn why the change in OEMs? What was this based on, cost or a performance/reliability issue? I'd like to learn who the OEMs are and how to identify the servos from each OEM. (Not all Freewing servo arms are interchangeable. This can be a problem with the steering servo arm [yoke]).

            Love the Splendor, I have 3 of them (I lost one)! Too bad E-Flite discontinued them. Here is a quick over view of the model. I think they fly best on the lighter (500 to 520 gram) batteries like 3300 mAh.
            http://rctruth.com/index.php?topic=1858.0

            MotionRC has a great model in the same class the Olympus
            http://www.motionrc.com/fms-f3a-olympus-1400mm-55-wingspan-pnp/

            All the best,
            Konrad

            Comment


            • #7
              RE: All Us intermediate pilots, Lets Share

              Maybe I need to rephrase that.  I need to know more about servos.  I decided to go 17 gram metal servos all around on BBD as I have a set (one normal one reversed) for the ailerons, which, being an old guy, I forgot about!  So I was putting together on order anyway and bought a couple of more.  Next time I'm heading for Billings, I want to check out the ball link connectors, any thoughts on these?
              BTW, I was very impressed with the Splendor and was thinking it would be a great bird, but, oh well.

              Grossman56
              Team Gross!

              Comment


              • #8
                RE: All Us intermediate pilots, Lets Share

                What ball link connectors? If they are integral with the horn like Robart or FMS/ROC they do reduce slop (a lot). If they stand above the surface like Dubro and some helicopter application they can add a lot of twist (flex) to the horn or servo wheel.

                When upgrading aileron servos I like to go with as fast a servo as I can afford. It really helps make me look like a smoother pilot (less PIO). Other than the rudder servo I don't like metal gears. They historically wear way too fast. If I need stronger servos I go up in size for more contact area on the "plastic" gear teeth. On the rudder I use metal gears as the rudder servo often sees a huge shock load when landing and or ground looping. Any wear can be taken up with the pull pull set up I usually use.

                All the best,
                Konrad

                Comment


                • #9
                  RE: All Us intermediate pilots, Lets Share

                  Originally posted by Grossman56
                  Maybe I need to rephrase that.  I need to know more about servos.  I decided to go 17 gram metal servos all around on BBD as I have a set (one normal one reversed) for the ailerons, which, being an old guy, I forgot about!  So I was putting together on order anyway and bought a couple of more.  Next time I'm heading for Billings, I want to check out the ball link connectors, any thoughts on these?
                  BTW, I was very impressed with the Splendor and was thinking it would be a great bird, but, oh well.

                  Grossman56
                  Gman, How do you like the ball link connectors on your Freewing Old Crow?
                  Lon

                  EFlite F-16 80mm, EFite DRACO, EFlite Night Radian, E-Flite P51 1.5m
                  Freewing A-10 80mm, F-86 80mm, F-15 90mm, Avanti. FMS DHC-2 Beaver, Fliteline P-38L ,HSD HME-262, HSD F86.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    RE: All Us intermediate pilots, Lets Share

                    Love the Splendors but the Olympus is a better pattern plane. I like the swept LE it adds effective dihedral both upright and inverted. The cantilizer (wing behind the canopy) does aid in knife edge flight as the Olympus doesn't need as much rudder deflection and as a result doesn't need as much mixing to take care of any pulls. 

                    The Splendor does 3D better, but only a little better, it is not great so why bother trying to make an F3A ship into a 3D pig!. 

                    You can't go wrong with the Olympus as a high performance pattern plane.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      RE: All Us intermediate pilots, Lets Share

                      Hey Lon and Konrad, I think they're great, might be the route to go on BBD.
                      Don't know whether I just lucked out or what, but  Big Beautiful Doll is the smoothest flying plane of the stable.  The P51B is good an fast, but for sheer joy, the D model FMS is great.
                      I have had Old Crow up several times as well and she can fly fine, but I had a weird take off the other day, or should I say non take off.  She ended up popping off one of the struts, which is not a big deal, unless you're fifty miles from home without any glue!
                      Anyway, she's patched together again and ready to go.
                      All three have the zip tie mod and the D has the 580 kv in her (same as the Freewing)  The extra weight of the sound system slows Old Crow down a bit, I'm sure but she's still a great flyer.
                      After a week of solid flying, its hard to get to sleep at night, all I do is fly!!!
                      So, the servos are all going and being replaced with 17g metal servos, and I think the Freewing P51 ball link  connectors are the way to go.
                      Thats good to know Konrad, as they don't seem to be talked about very much around here.

                      Grossman56
                      Team Gross!

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        RE: All Us intermediate pilots, Lets Share

                        Originally posted by Grossman56
                        Hey Lon and Konrad, I think they're great, might be the route to go on BBD.
                        Don't know whether I just lucked out or what, but  Big Beautiful Doll is the smoothest flying plane of the stable.  The P51B is good an fast, but for sheer joy, the D model FMS is great.
                        I have had Old Crow up several times as well and she can fly fine, but I had a weird take off the other day, or should I say non take off.  She ended up popping off one of the struts, which is not a big deal, unless you're fifty miles from home without any glue!
                        Anyway, she's patched together again and ready to go.
                        All three have the zip tie mod and the D has the 580 kv in her (same as the Freewing)  The extra weight of the sound system slows Old Crow down a bit, I'm sure but she's still a great flyer.
                        After a week of solid flying, its hard to get to sleep at night, all I do is fly!!!
                        So, the servos are all going and being replaced with 17g metal servos, and I think the Freewing P51 ball link  connectors are the way to go.
                        Thats good to know Konrad, as they don't seem to be talked about very much around here.

                        Grossman56
                        Hey Gman,

                        I've put the Freewing ball links on all my planes. Very pleased with them.
                        Lon

                        EFlite F-16 80mm, EFite DRACO, EFlite Night Radian, E-Flite P51 1.5m
                        Freewing A-10 80mm, F-86 80mm, F-15 90mm, Avanti. FMS DHC-2 Beaver, Fliteline P-38L ,HSD HME-262, HSD F86.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          RE: All Us intermediate pilots, Lets Share

                          Have you all got a link to these?

                          If these are them? How do ypu know if they are 1.2mm or 1.5mm when ordering?
                          http://www.motionrc.com/freewing-metal-ball-link-stops-8-pack/
                          http://www.motionrc.com/freewing-1-5mm-ball-head-buckle-8-pack/

                          Please be aware that since they put the push rod on another plane they add a twisting component to the arm or horn. I like to use heavy duty servo arms and or wheels when using this style of ball link.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            RE: All Us intermediate pilots, Lets Share

                            Originally posted by Konrad
                            Have you all got a link to these?

                            If these are them? How do ypu know if they are 1.2mm or 1.5mm when ordering?
                            http://www.motionrc.com/freewing-metal-ball-link-stops-8-pack/
                            http://www.motionrc.com/freewing-1-5mm-ball-head-buckle-8-pack/

                            Please be aware that since they put the push rod on another plane they add a twisting component to the arm or horn. I like to use heavy duty servo arms and or wheels when using this style of ball link.
                            The metal-ball-link-stops work with either 1.2 or 1.5 buckles/diameter rods........
                            Lon

                            EFlite F-16 80mm, EFite DRACO, EFlite Night Radian, E-Flite P51 1.5m
                            Freewing A-10 80mm, F-86 80mm, F-15 90mm, Avanti. FMS DHC-2 Beaver, Fliteline P-38L ,HSD HME-262, HSD F86.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              RE: All Us intermediate pilots, Lets Share

                              Greetings GMan,


                              Really!?


                              Old habits die hard........  :)


                              Bill L.
                              In Okla.

                              Comment


                              • #16
                                RE: All Us intermediate pilots, Lets Share

                                Originally posted by Lon



                                The metal-ball-link-stops work with either 1.2 or 1.5 buckles/diameter rods........
                                Thanks, I see that now. The 1.2 mm and 1.5 mm refer to the push rod diameter. I guess as of late, I'm spent too much time with the ultra micros.

                                Comment


                                • #17
                                  RE: All Us intermediate pilots, Lets Share

                                  Hey Bill, yes they do, but I look at it as building on success!
                                  Hope you check out the videos!

                                  Grossman56
                                  Team Gross!

                                  Comment


                                  • #18
                                    RE: All Us intermediate pilots, Lets Share

                                    Greetings,

                                    OK, thanks.


                                    Bill L.
                                    In Okla.

                                    Comment


                                    • #19
                                      RE: All Us intermediate pilots, Lets Share

                                      Hey guys and gals, here's a video you just have to see , who would have figured you could combine WWI giant scale and 3D ?
                                      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnbJC36d2jo
                                      I got a kick out of this!

                                      Grossman56
                                      Team Gross!

                                      Comment


                                      • #20
                                        RE: All Us intermediate pilots, Lets Share

                                        Gman,
                                        Just freakn awsome, thanx for bringing that to us. Can you imagine the FAA allowing that to happen in the USA? Or better yet, imagine having a dumbthumb moment with that beast.
                                        Warbird Charlie
                                        HSD Skyraider FlightLine OV-10 FMS 1400: P-40B, P-51, F4U, F6F, T-28, P-40E, Pitts, 1700 F4U & F7F, FOX glider Freewing A-6, T-33, P-51 Dynam ME-262, Waco TF Giant P-47; ESM F7F-3 LX PBJ-1 EFL CZ T-28, C-150, 1500 P-51 & FW-190

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