What did you fly today?

[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

[davegee]

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

Thanks,Rex. Yeah, these foamies are a real problem in the winds, especially the gear which is easily damaged and takes $$$ and time to get replacements. Most of the time, I'd "wave off" flying when I get to the field with weather like that, but this time I just decided to give it a go. After this one flew, I decided not to risk taking my E Flite LOU IV up. I'll wait for better weather in the future, which I usually do. In my old airline days, we used to have a joke that "why check the weather? We're going, anyway!" That was somewhat true, but we always had a backup plan to divert if it stayed as bad as they were forecasting. At least with RC, I can just put the plane back in my car and make the short drive home it I don't like the weather at the field.

Cheers

Dave

[jetfool]

Understand completely. Went to field today with four planes. 2 nitro, 2 electric. Nitro wouldn't stay running ,new plugs last fall but wouldn't stay running today. just about ready to give up on nitro.
I got one flight on my electric then realized I hadn't charged my other batteries since last outing. Good thing field is only about 15 min. from home. A beautiful day so I either got in a hurry or old age creeping up. I want to believe I just got in a hurry.
Seems to me glow plugs lasted longer 15-20 years ago..They start right up but quit after removing glow lighter and running 20-30 seconds. They ran fine last year.

Up and away Rex

[davegee]

Understand completely. Went to field today with four planes. 2 nitro, 2 electric. Nitro wouldn't stay running ,new plugs last fall but wouldn't stay running today. just about ready to give up on nitro.
I got one flight on my electric then realized I hadn't charged my other batteries since last outing. Good thing field is only about 15 min. from home. A beautiful day so I either got in a hurry or old age creeping up. I want to believe I just got in a hurry.
Seems to me glow plugs lasted longer 15-20 years ago..They start right up but quit after removing glow lighter and running 20-30 seconds. They ran fine last year.

Up and away Rex

I hear ya, Rex! I flew glo and gas for about 13 years before I started dipping a toe in the then- new foamie warbirds. The first ones were almost pathetic, by my standards, and I waited until much better offerings came out, especially ones I could personally modify to my likes. You can probably tell I am all about history and accuracy, and that pretty much summarizes my getting into rc airplanes back in 2000. Eventually I left the glo and gas world, but I still appreciate all those who still do it with such amazing results. But I'll stick with the foamies, jets and props as long as I am still able to safely fly them and enjoy doing it.

I flew, or was going to fly two airplanes this morning, my "Ol' Cock" P-47D and my LOU IV P-51D. The Jug flew great after a few minor adjustments to the tailwheel steering, and when I tried to get my LOU IV up and running, it would bind, but I couldn't get the ESC to boot up, no matter what I tried at the field. Never had this issue before. Of course, when I put it on the bench at home to try and suss out what the heck was going on with the ESC, OF COURSE, it started up just fine!! I couldn't even get it to malfunction putting different batteries in it, including the new ones at the field that didn't work somehow.

Oh, well. I did get 4 great flights with Ol' Cock, and landings were much better. I got into a bad habit when I couldn't do much flying due to the weather, of taking off too much power on the flare. Now, I keep some power in as I used to, and all is good now.

Speaking of Ol'Cock, I am looking into the possibility of asking the USAF Academy if they might like to have the model as a hanging display for the cadets. My main motivation is that the pilot of that airplane in WWII, Lt. Gen. Donavan Smith, had a stellar career in the Air Force during WWII and 30 years afterwards. Unfortunately, he suffered from a brain tumor and passed away at the age of 51 in the 1970s. I'd like to honor General Smith's life in some way, as he is buried with other notables in AF history like Gen. Curtis LeMay, and Brig. Gen. Robin Olds in the Academy cemetery.

We'll see if they have any interest. That's fine if they don't, but I'll keep looking for a proper fit for this airplane. I have several planes around the country that I have donated after completing the flying career I had in store for them. So, we'll see.

Good luck with flying season this year!!