What did you fly today?

[F106DeltaDart]

Redemption! Completed the maiden flight, plus another 2 on the V2 twin 70mm Xfly B-1B. I was surprised at how well it flew. No trim required at all, and was solid with plenty of control margin in both wing positions. Thanks to Jeremy for all the help on the setup and Tom for taking the sticks so I could shoot some photos!

[Hugh Wiedman]

Got my Flightline 1.6m Corsair up for a few flights today. One flight I flew with no ordanance on the belly, and the other flights I added the specially designed Elbee Brewster bomb mount and 500 lb. pound bomb. Most, if not all, of the airplanes in the squadron VMF-215 "The Corsairs" in WWII were air to air sorties and some ground targeting. I'm not sure if they attached a bomb on the plane like this for some missions, but it is possible. At any rate, this scale bomb shackle flies great with no discernible effect on performance on the airplane. Flies beautifullly, as usual.

Also flew my Hun Hunter for 4 flights. Still having some issues with the tailwheel, and the fact that it performs an uncommanded ground loop sometimes when it slows down, scraping a wingtip doing a minor amount of damage to the underneath of the wingtip. I have to do some minor repairs on both wingtips today.

Still was a lot of fun. Both airplanes fly well, although the E Flite Mustangs are tougher for good straight takeoffs and landing rollouts for me. The rest goes great,.

Cheers

Davegee

Hey Dave, Beautiful Birds!

I'm no aerodynamic guru, far from it, but I believe the ground loop on landing appears on several tail dragging warbirds, always counter clockwise when slowing down. It's my opinion this is from either the prop wash circling the plane counter clockwise (similar to that effect on take-off) going around the top of the front of the fuselage, under the mid section and then coming up and around on the left side of the rudder, thus pushing it into a left circling loop. Before slowing down, the rudder still has enough air flow traveling down the centerline keeping it relatively straight, but on slowing that air flow is diminished and the prop wash takes over. Or from the centrifugal force of the prop slowing down, either, both or neither. But then I still believe in Santa! Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it instead of blaming my inferior piloting skills whose had way too many drinks!

[Grossman56]

Good for you Dave, perfect day, I'm envious! See what the weekend brings.

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[davegee]

Got my Flightline 1.6m Corsair up for a few flights today. One flight I flew with no ordanance on the belly, and the other flights I added the specially designed Elbee Brewster bomb mount and 500 lb. pound bomb. Most, if not all, of the airplanes in the squadron VMF-215 "The Corsairs" in WWII were air to air sorties and some ground targeting. I'm not sure if they attached a bomb on the plane like this for some missions, but it is possible. At any rate, this scale bomb shackle flies great with no discernible effect on performance on the airplane. Flies beautifullly, as usual.

Also flew my Hun Hunter for 4 flights. Still having some issues with the tailwheel, and the fact that it performs an uncommanded ground loop sometimes when it slows down, scraping a wingtip doing a minor amount of damage to the underneath of the wingtip. I have to do some minor repairs on both wingtips today.

Still was a lot of fun. Both airplanes fly well, although the E Flite Mustangs are tougher for good straight takeoffs and landing rollouts for me. The rest goes great,.

Cheers

Davegee

[davegee]

Glad to see you got her back in flyable condition! Looks like a sweetheart!

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

A pretty stable airplane especialy for its rather small size (41inches by 41 inches). Just a lot of fun to fly!

davegee

[Grossman56]

Glad to see you got her back in flyable condition! Looks like a sweetheart!

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[davegee]

I was finally able to get out and fly this morning (due to snow, cold, and wind) to fly my F9F 70mm Panther after repairs from the last flight where I lost signal to the airplane or whatever happened. This flight went great, and the Panther was a real "sweetheart" as I checked out all the control inputs and some minor arobatics. It lands well, too, and I think I'll use this plane as my warmup and "weather ship" before flying my bigger jets like the F-22, F-18C, B-2, and F-15C. Also flew my Beech 18, which has I don't know how many flights on it, but it is hanging in there and a pleasure to fly, too.

[Hugh Wiedman]

Finally got out today after 4 weeks of no flying. Our winds have been unusually robust, 20-25, and when not, massive rain storms. I was going through "piloting withdrawal " and definitely not handling it well. My CO had to move me out to a derelict tree house the kids built years ago!

Winds today 90 degree cross but only 5-8mph so no effect. Fronts coming through tomorrow (reason for the calm winds) so next week or longer looks like again.

8S F4, twin 70 SU, 90mm Avanti with TV and my new favorite flyer 90mm F18:

[davegee]

Took my E Flite P-51D Hun Hunter up for 4 flights today. Have some tweaks I need to do to the tailwheel steering, but otherwise some good flights. Also got a practice "bombing" mission with the Flightline B-25J Cactus Kitten. I loaded 5 scale parafragmentary bombs in the bomb bays and dropped them from about 20 feet altitude as it flew past the "target" off to the side of the runway. The "bombs" fell in a line about 10 feet long. Had this been a real plane and bombs, it would have pretty much taken out the target, in most cases aimed at ships and/or runways, airplanes, machinery, and personnel.

[davegee]

Had another chilly but sunny morning without too much wind for another couple of flights today. I took my EFlite P-51D LOU IV and my Freewing F/A-18C up for some flights. Went well, although with a little quartering headwind, I overcontrolled the elevator on both airplanes slightly in the flare but made safe landings, nonetheless. Always good to leave the field with no extra, missing, or loose parts!

Cheers

Davegee

[davegee]

Weather much better this morning for the maiden on my 70mm Panther jet. Again, I got a few flights in with my "weather ship" E Flite Beech 18 first, and all looked good for a flight or two.

No problems with the aircraft, in general. I did have the low rate on the ailerons dialed down some from book values, but it was still too much for my tastes, so after the first flight I dialed the low aileron rate to 50 percent, which was much more scale and comfortable, for me. I can always use higher rates later, if I want.

Landings, as others have reported are relatively easy and comfortable. I used the reverse thrust but probably didn't need to do that, it would have easily stopped on its own well before the end of our rough runway.

So, very happy with yet another great plane from MRC. I would have preferred the bigger size as their Cougar, but I understand MRC's decision on this. Hopefully a bigger, more detailed Panther will come around someday. But for now, this is good. A very solid performer.

Cheers

davegee

[Elbee]

How silly of me, of course it is. LOL

[f4u ausie]

Yep the hatch is hanging up already

[Elbee]

f4u ausie, stranger things have happened I am certain.

It is good to take some of the mystery out of the mishap.

If you're like me, I always kept a small piece from a total loss for memory's sake.

Glad you found her.

Best, LB

[f4u ausie]

Hey guys im goin to take a loto... long weekend here,, so went fishing with a budy(so what u say) i found the crash site.. and i swear on my childrens life this is true... our path to the water goes roughly where i fly, so me being me googly eyes out the window i may find it,, as my fishing buddy said r u lookin 4 the plane.. isaid there it is. 25 meters off the highway,,, around 4 ks 3 miles from where i fly.. its been almost a week.. one in a million...... im just happy no damage to property or cars .. people.... it was bottom of a tree,, not lookin good.. so i took the gear and edf s.... for spares... i no it sounds like..???shi??.. it is not.. what did suprise me.. the gear was up.. so within that first 100 yards. It had a good connection.... anyway get rid of the dynam and go forward with my newer spectrum,,, credit to dynam,, thats first failure in around 5 years

[tab28682]

Did not get to fly anything today, but got to put the first flight on my new Freewing 70mm F9F-5 Panther yesterday.

Another winner from Freewing and MRC!

[Elbee]

RC Geek was noticeably anguished to say the least. I really felt for the guy both aircraft were outstanding. The "Hustler" loss broke my heart. That airframe is a childhood fave of mine. I build the Plastic model, though eventually blew it up with fireworks. (LOL) What was I thinking, obviously NOT.

[f4u ausie]

Thanx hugh dave steve,, 4 ya time,, glad to c (sort of) im not the only one,, hugh ye cant imagine how rc geek would of felt,, lota time n money

[davegee]

Sorry to see that, but not uncommon. Since you already have a DX7, suggest you use the Spektrum RX as well. The new AR637T/8370T/10360T Plus recievers have served me well. Not a huge fan of Horizon Hobby aircraft anymore (Freewing/FlightLine/FMS Fan Boy), but their RX's IMO are great, but a little expensive (not as expensive as losing an aircraft and battery though).

Since I converted everything to one of those RX's with Plus, my signal reception has been nothing short of spectacular. 0 frame losses (unheard off) and of course 0 holds (the demon of signal loss). Use their satellite RX's as well in all EDF's so I have 4 antennae's oriented in every possible directional plane (forward and backward of an antennae is it's blind spot). And the Plus upgrade has made landings incredibly easy. On prop planes I don't add a satellite, as it seems RX interference is greater with the EDF's and the prop motor and ESC are usually up front allowing the 2 antennae from the RX to go back and be clear of the battery (another big RX signal interferer) and ESC. I used to battle with frame losses and holds (even with Spektrum's older RX's) and lost a couple where I had the antennae too close to either the battery, carbon fiber tubes or ESC and it's cables. No issues anymore.

Every plane you have will have a slightly different issue with RX reception, based upon antennae placement, carbon fiber tubes, ESC and cable interference and battery placement. So you cannot compare one to another, which will only tell you if you have a problem with the TX signal. Hey, look at Chris Wolfes (RC Geek) loss of his new huge gasser T-28 he's been building, an IX 20 TX and using the wrong older "park flyer" RX from spektrum he had laying around. Saving a hundred bucks on a RX he destroyed thousands in an aircraft he spent 4 months building, all in a matter of seconds. If it can happen to him, we have no chance! In the past I had a hell of a time getting a decent signal with an older AR636 Spektrum gyro RX in my B-24's, getting more than 150 frame losses per flight and sometimes several holds . Since going to a newer AR637T with a satellite, problems solved. One of my first EDF's was a Stinger 90. At that time, I had no knowledge of "signal Interference" and placed the RX (an AR636) in the easiest place I could find and ran the single antennae along the fuse over a carbon fiber tube next to the battery. My older TX had no call outs on frame losses or holds, so completely unaware of impending disaster even after doing a range check. After maybe 40 successful flights, on the downwind leg getting read to land, it just kept going, never to be seen by me again. Ended up out in the Everglades eaten by gators and pythons (that's a long story on how I know). After, got another and sat with a knowledgeable RC guy and he showed me that my antennae placement was the worse possible solution I could have come up. Since then, I've found that your RX location and especially the antennae orientation is the single biggest issue on building out a new aircraft. Do it right, you're OK, wrong and it's gone!

I'm sure there are other excellent RX's out there, but I can vouch for the new Spektrum Plus RX's. The gyro capabilities are incredible and the included telemetry of in-flight pack voltage callouts/warnings have unfortunately exposed the only flaw left-My poor flying skills!

Bummer! But I know you'll make the corrections you feel necessary and be up and flying again in no time!!

Hang in there!

Davegee

[Hugh Wiedman]

A woopsy sorta morn.. took 2 thismorning.. u may notice only one above in the pic mmm ,u say.. well put up my al37 first.. beautiful take off,, turn right with ailerons,, na nothing tried up down , back off throttle nothing.. oh boy here we go.. at this point it was getting small.. the trim was perfect, it was slowly climbing,, and straight level wings.... only thing i could think, off and on tx.. didnot help... so needless to say after about 1and a half minuts,, it was in the low cloud all i could c was a black dot heading east,, that was it gone ,never to b seen again,, by me anyway.. expected that it woul roll and then fall.. it did not.. so after my Exteme dissapointment.. and hopeing no damage done.... i looked at the pitts do i dont i... i did after lotsa checking... flew well,, go figure...... i tried to replicate what i did.. to no avail... after preflighting the al 37 i unpluged batt and turnd off trans 4 couple adjustment.. pluged in and turnd on trans ,hit full throttle all good,, then turned to so at the end, no idea really.. mayb my dynam detrum finally let me, down need to replace, all rx in remaing planes,, i fly my f4 phantom on dx7,, but hav only 1 rx, 4 that.. all ln all it can b tuff b safe hav fun

Sorry to see that, but not uncommon. Since you already have a DX7, suggest you use the Spektrum RX as well. The new AR637T/8370T/10360T Plus recievers have served me well. Not a huge fan of Horizon Hobby aircraft anymore (Freewing/FlightLine/FMS Fan Boy), but their RX's IMO are great, but a little expensive (not as expensive as losing an aircraft and battery though).

Since I converted everything to one of those RX's with Plus, my signal reception has been nothing short of spectacular. 0 frame losses (unheard off) and of course 0 holds (the demon of signal loss). Use their satellite RX's as well in all EDF's so I have 4 antennae's oriented in every possible directional plane (forward and backward of an antennae is it's blind spot). And the Plus upgrade has made landings incredibly easy. On prop planes I don't add a satellite, as it seems RX interference is greater with the EDF's and the prop motor and ESC are usually up front allowing the 2 antennae from the RX to go back and be clear of the battery (another big RX signal interferer) and ESC. I used to battle with frame losses and holds (even with Spektrum's older RX's) and lost a couple where I had the antennae too close to either the battery, carbon fiber tubes or ESC and it's cables. No issues anymore.

Every plane you have will have a slightly different issue with RX reception, based upon antennae placement, carbon fiber tubes, ESC and cable interference and battery placement. So you cannot compare one to another, which will only tell you if you have a problem with the TX signal. Hey, look at Chris Wolfes (RC Geek) loss of his new huge gasser T-28 he's been building, an IX 20 TX and using the wrong older "park flyer" RX from spektrum he had laying around. Saving a hundred bucks on a RX he destroyed thousands in an aircraft he spent 4 months building, all in a matter of seconds. If it can happen to him, we have no chance! In the past I had a hell of a time getting a decent signal with an older AR636 Spektrum gyro RX in my B-24's, getting more than 150 frame losses per flight and sometimes several holds . Since going to a newer AR637T with a satellite, problems solved. One of my first EDF's was a Stinger 90. At that time, I had no knowledge of "signal Interference" and placed the RX (an AR636) in the easiest place I could find and ran the single antennae along the fuse over a carbon fiber tube next to the battery. My older TX had no call outs on frame losses or holds, so completely unaware of impending disaster even after doing a range check. After maybe 40 successful flights, on the downwind leg getting read to land, it just kept going, never to be seen by me again. Ended up out in the Everglades eaten by gators and pythons (that's a long story on how I know). After, got another and sat with a knowledgeable RC guy and he showed me that my antennae placement was the worse possible solution I could have come up. Since then, I've found that your RX location and especially the antennae orientation is the single biggest issue on building out a new aircraft. Do it right, you're OK, wrong and it's gone!

I'm sure there are other excellent RX's out there, but I can vouch for the new Spektrum Plus RX's. The gyro capabilities are incredible and the included telemetry of in-flight pack voltage callouts/warnings have unfortunately exposed the only flaw left-My poor flying skills!