What did you fly today?

[Grossman56]

I'm hoping for a windless Monday as well, time to put BBD back in the air for a salute to the vets. She always does such a great job and she's my reminder of exactly why I got into this hobby in the first place. Don't forget that June 6th is the 80th anniversary of D Day as well!

Grossman56

[Hugh Wiedman]

Here's a pic I took of my B-2 back on its maiden flight 2 years ago. It was "lost" in my computer files and I just found it. I had a friend actually fly this flight while I manned the camera. It has great presence in the air. Up here, it's hard to take inflight pics as I am usually flying the airplane and I don't have a camera man with me.

Davegee

Great Shot Dave! And paulrkytek outstanding looking Panther.

Got out yesterday after a long time not flying due to miserable and windy weather. Had a rather odd bunch of planes to see if I could remember which direction on the TX was up. The Euro/F16 & F4 are all 8S, flown on SMC HiV 8S packs. Still feel the 8S F4 is one of the best flying aircraft in my hangar. The FW 190 is balsa made by Aces High/Extreme Flight and flies incredibly well for 12 minutes on a SMC 6S HiV 5900. I also put 2 speakers and the Model Sound System in it and that sounds great, even has the 13mm guns and 20mm cannon sounds. Unfortunately, he's no longer in business and has closed down like the other sound guys. The SU-30 flies on 2 SMC HiV 4400's for over 5 minutes, which makes it worthy to take out to the field, although it is still not has nice to fly as the FW Mig 29 with TV. Fortunately, no mishaps this time around, but there's always tomorrow.

[davegee]

Great you got out to do some flying with your fleet. You have such a nice field to fly from. I have never done a 8S battery set up yet, and at my field elevation of 5100 feet, not to mention what the density altitude becomes with hot summer weather coming on, I might like to do a test airplane someday on one of my jets to see if it improves performance much for me.

I just got a new Freewing F-15. I had one a long time ago, but forgot how cramped the fuselage is for batteries and electronic stuff. I have electric brakes and afterburner lights set up and, talk about putting 10 pounds of stuff on a 5 pound bag!!! But it did barely fit in. Maiden next week.

cheers

davegee

[Coconut]

Hugh, how do you transport your planes?
How do all of you guys transport your planes?

[Elbee]

Hugh, how do you transport your planes?
How do all of you guys transport your planes?

Easy-Peasy. Best, Elbee

[f4u ausie]

Thats funny lb,,, davegee 8s i like putin a blower on ya big block chevy, best bang for buck upgrade possiblean extra gear

[DCORSAIR]

Another early morning flight, lights looked great before sunrise, 5:45am-6:00am is the best time to fly here in CA., slight breeze down the runway and just the right temps...

[Hugh Wiedman]

Hugh, how do you transport your planes?
How do all of you guys transport your planes?

With wings off, 4 fit in the bed of my truck and the 5th (or 6th if I'm desperate to fly) in the back seat of a crew cab along with wing bags. Easy peasy. Learned long ago to take as many as possible in the event of an early mishap potentially shutting down my flying. This way I can have 5 mishaps before heading home. 🤣

[DCORSAIR]

Once again up early on my day off work so I able to get some flights on the old F-86 and the F-14.

Happy Memorial Day

[Elbee]

Once again up early on my day off work so I able to get some flights on the old F-86 and the F-14.

Happy Memorial Day

DC, and the same to you, Sir. Rreat lookin' pair of fighters. Best, LB

[shortround91]

Love the J-10 and my Mirage, just did a refinish on the J-10 to make easier for me to see. Both sweet flying planes

[davegee]

I did the maiden on my new Freewing F-15C (ARF+) this morning, after doing a warmup flight with my "weathership" T-33. This F-15 has afterburner lights from Chris Wolf, and brakes which are good to have from our fairly short runway at 5,000 feet MSL.

I just did one flight with the F-15, especially after it took almost the entire runway to get airborne, which surprised me. I had a brand new Admiral 6S 50C battery and static full power tests at the field prior to the flight I used the first couple laps with the gear down and takeoff flaps set to make sure those flight modes were good. I then retracted the gear and flaps to get a couple laps at a higher speed. Brought it around for a landing which seemed to work out fine, using the brakes late in the landing rollout to make sure it didn't go off the end of the runway.

So, no damage or even a mark from this first flight, but I'm pretty concerned about the powerplant and ESC, which came out of my F-4 that had a landing mishap recently. It had been in that plane for about 3 years.

I think I need to remove the motor and ESC and go with something newer, and more powerful. I think my motor is an outrunner, and although it worked in the F-4 for such a long time, really needs a reboot. I don't think I'll try going with 8S with this airplane, there just isn't the room. I can barely close the cockpit cover with all that stuff jammed inside.

If anyone has any ideas on a replacement fan, (mine is 9 blades) ESC, etc,., I'd be interested to hear what you think. In hindsight, I think I should have just bought the brand new F-15 WITH the new inrunner motor and ESC, instead of trying to pull it out of a crashed airplane.

So, I'll stand down from further flying of the F-15 until I get a replacement of these parts.

I'll attach a couple of pics taken after this morning's maiden flight.

Cheers

Davegee

[paulrkytek]

I did the maiden on my new Freewing F-15C (ARF+) this morning, after doing a warmup flight with my "weathership" T-33. This F-15 has afterburner lights from Chris Wolf, and brakes which are good to have from our fairly short runway at 5,000 feet MSL.

I just did one flight with the F-15, especially after it took almost the entire runway to get airborne, which surprised me. I had a brand new Admiral 6S 50C battery and static full power tests at the field prior to the flight I used the first couple laps with the gear down and takeoff flaps set to make sure those flight modes were good. I then retracted the gear and flaps to get a couple laps at a higher speed. Brought it around for a landing which seemed to work out fine, using the brakes late in the landing rollout to make sure it didn't go off the end of the runway.

So, no damage or even a mark from this first flight, but I'm pretty concerned about the powerplant and ESC, which came out of my F-4 that had a landing mishap recently. It had been in that plane for about 3 years.

I think I need to remove the motor and ESC and go with something newer, and more powerful. I think my motor is an outrunner, and although it worked in the F-4 for such a long time, really needs a reboot. I don't think I'll try going with 8S with this airplane, there just isn't the room. I can barely close the cockpit cover with all that stuff jammed inside.

If anyone has any ideas on a replacement fan, (mine is 9 blades) ESC, etc,., I'd be interested to hear what you think. In hindsight, I think I should have just bought the brand new F-15 WITH the new inrunner motor and ESC, instead of trying to pull it out of a crashed airplane.

So, I'll stand down from further flying of the F-15 until I get a replacement of these parts.

I'll attach a couple of pics taken after this morning's maiden flight.

Cheers

Davegee

Looks like you got away with that one Dave. I suppose you could check up the thrust figures for the old F4 unit against the new F15 in-runner unit to confirm you will get more thrust before you splash the cash. You might have to find that info from someone like R.c. Castle or search Ali express. The model sits well on the runway with a good angle of attack so it looks like it is just a question of more power !!!! . ( I assume you did not want to risk more elevator in case it stalled on take off ). One of our members bought one of the older F15s a few years ago at a swap meet and he only had 5s batteries and was too tight to buy 6s and we fly off grass. The field could have been 3 miles long and cut like a putting green and it still would not have got off the ground.

[davegee]

Looks like you got away with that one Dave. I suppose you could check up the thrust figures for the old F4 unit against the new F15 in-runner unit to confirm you will get more thrust before you splash the cash. You might have to find that info from someone like R.c. Castle or search Ali express. The model sits well on the runway with a good angle of attack so it looks like it is just a question of more power !!!! . ( I assume you did not want to risk more elevator in case it stalled on take off ). One of our members bought one of the older F15s a few years ago at a swap meet and he only had 5s batteries and was too tight to buy 6s and we fly off grass. The field could have been 3 miles long and cut like a putting green and it still would not have got off the ground.

Thanks, Paul: They say a couple of the most useless things in aviation are the runway behind you, and the air above you! Our runway is a bit short, bumpy and full of cracks, and also at 5000 feet MSL. Probably what I SHOULD have done this morning was walk the plane all the way to the very beginning of our runway, instead of where I put it, maybe having 3/4 of the runway available for use. Having said that, the entire flight the motor seemed to be lagging for power, and that was an uncomfortable feeling. It wasn't so bad that I discontinued the flight and brought it down right away, but enough to where I was thinking "if I get this plane down safely, we're making some changes in the power system/ESC!"

This plane is lighter than my F-4 and the F-4 did ok on this power system. I believe this drivetrain came out of another F-4 from several years ago. I tested it statically many times and it seemed to have enough power, but it was lagging more than I care to see today.

I did go ahead and buy a new 3680-1960 12-blade inrunner motor and 120 amp ESC today from MRC. It is the fastest and best way I think at the moment to get this plane back on track to its potential. We'll see.

Cheers

Davegee

[f4u ausie]

Late to the party,,,, considered the 1960 kv 6s for my f4 ,,as the upgrade,, but went 8s,, looks like 1960 is also very good,, let us no dave

[shortround91]

Think you made a good call there Motion has stepped there game up on EDF and ESC choices. I’m for now staying 6s after talking to a club member with the 8s Zeus he said his 6s much easier to have fun with rather than 2 batteries the charge time involved. Nice thing with the J-10 is if I change my mind it’s just a simple EDF change to go 8s or I could throw my JetFan in for crazy stuff

[davegee]

Late to the party,,,, considered the 1960 kv 6s for my f4 ,,as the upgrade,, but went 8s,, looks like 1960 is also very good,, let us no dave

Thanks, Craig. That is the standard issue for the F-15 models from Motion these days. My old 9 blade outrunner motor just wasn't up to the task, especially at this elevation (5000 feet) so I hope to get a good flight report on its next time I take it up. I'm hoping the parts will be here in my hands within a week. It should be a pretty quick remove and replace operation to have it ready for further flight testing. I think in the future, I"ll probably spring for the extra $$$ and just buy a complete and ready to go airplane, versus the ARF+ that I bought. It was worth a try, I guess.

Cheers

davegee

[davegee]

Think you made a good call there Motion has stepped there game up on EDF and ESC choices. I’m for now staying 6s after talking to a club member with the 8s Zeus he said his 6s much easier to have fun with rather than 2 batteries the charge time involved. Nice thing with the J-10 is if I change my mind it’s just a simple EDF change to go 8s or I could throw my JetFan in for crazy stuff

Thanks for your input, shortround91. I have zero experience with 8S, although with this F-15 with its TINY battery compartment, 8S would be a No Go trying to get all that stuff crammed in there. I'm hoping the new hardware and 6S battery will do the trick for the type of flying that I do these days.

Cheers

davegee

[davegee]

Flew my oldest FMS P-47D razorback this morning. Pretty crappy weather, but I decided to put it up in a pretty mean crosswind and turbulence. Took off great, flew great, but had one of the gear mounts pull out on landing. I had glued it in some time ago with some Hysol, but I either didn't use enough back then or it just wasn't up to the task today. I've got the mount gluing up with some more conventional epoxy, and it will be ready to fly again soon.

This plane is a replica of a real aircraft that flew on D-Day almost 80 years ago now, on June 6,1944. It has the full invasion stripes on wings and fuse. It had a couple of names: "I Wanted Wings" from a famous song, book, and movie of the time and another one on the fuse "Button Nose." From the few pics I have of it from 1944, I've tried to get it to look as much as it did then.

If the weather is good on June 6, I'll try to take it and another P-51 up in the invasion stripes as a tribute to this momentous day in history, 80 years ago.

I'll include some pics from this morning, and the real thing, around the time of D-Day.

Cheers

Davegee

[jetfool]

Beautiful Dave. Watch those high winds, would hate to see damage Rex