What did you fly today?

[Elbee]

Hugh Wiedman

SAH-WEET indeed.

Best, LB

[Hugh Wiedman]

Finished Re-Powering my 1700mm FMS P-51 Red Tail. Installed an EFlight Power 60 (same motor in my 60" Beast Bi-Plane). Fit nicely and an 80 amp ESC is supposed to be adequate for it (same as the stock ESC), but I had a spare FW 130 Amp 6S ESC lying around from when I converted my 2 F-18's to 8S, so put that in it just to be safe. The most difficult part was props and spinners. The Stock 4 blade setup was 17" but reports existed that that setup would come apart using anything other than the 360Kv hampster wheel that comes stock. It also weighs a whopping 312 gr, no wonder it flew like a dog! I was able to find 4" 2 blade spinners from Extreme Flight (aluminum back plate and plastic cone) and a 4" 3 blade all aluminum spinner from ZYHobby in China (surprisingly quick shipping). Finding decent props was also difficult. Tried a Master Air Screw 16X7 (Power 60 recommends a 2 blade 15X7 to 17X7) but that prop was also too heavy at 110 gr with a 20mm thick hub (supposed to be for both electric and gas but looks more like for just gas to me). So I contacted my Xoar "go to" Sales manager in China and she made me 2 17X17 two blade beechwood electric props in black with yellow tips and 2 16X7 three blade electric props black with yellow tips. Would have loved to set it up with a 4 blade, but couldn't find the right spinner (although Xoar would have made a 4 blade for me). Of course when it's in the air, no one will notice whether it's a 4, 3 or 2 blade prop as it "screams past them"! I've had Xoar make me many different props (that can't be found in the US) and they always come through, only 4 weeks from order to arrival in Miami! They ain't cheap but IMO are the best electric beechwood props available, each meticulously balanced! The Xoar 3 blade weighs 65 gr, with a metal reinforcement sandwiched around the hub.

On the bench with an SMC 6S HiV 5900 mah fully charged, the 17X7 Xoar 2 blade pulled 96.6 ah and 2453 watts (I'm sure it will be less when flying free), the 16X7 Xoar 3 blade pulled 95.5 ah and 2368 watts, but the 16X7 3 blade Master Air Screw could only muster 77.9 ah and 1721 watts. I could hardly hold the plane down at fully throttle with either Xoar prop, but with the MA Screw there was a noticeable difference. I guess to get full benefit for the Power 60, it needs to turn up to 470 Kv and the MA Screw was just too heavy for it.

I did have to add an additional 3 ounces of lead in the motor compartment to make up for the stock heavy 4 blade to balance around 125-130mm.

Now to get it in the air! I think it will transform this aircraft just like it did when the Britts stuck a Merlin Engine in it!

[paulrkytek]

https://youtu.be/-EDAfE7dQVI?is=X8IlKY_QPvybQjk0 updated with sound system and the full rat tail logo

[xviper]

Using my now discontinued Flex Innovations FV-31 Cypher LE, 6S in trying to set up my headmount camera. The clouds are still too bright and editing "ZOOM" ruins the resolution.

[paladin]

I flew the yak -11 after replacing the elevator servo and its on rails now. though i noticed the left wing landing light was missing prior to flight. also put flights 214-218 on the flightline spit after new retracts and aileron servos. the retracts did not have enough umph to deploy after the winter break, and one of the aileron servos was jittering badly. all the servos have been replaced now for one reason or another, flys great now.

[kallend]

For D-Day I flew a Lancaster, Spitfire, and Me163.

[f4u ausie]

an absolutely beautiful 😍 winters dayin Melbourne kings birthday Monday holiday. Just quietly. 3rd day in a row. Flying Avanti and spit. tday.. first time. No phantom 4 a long time.
Was fun. But felt strange. Needs maintenance. Around 18 degrees C. About 65. F I think.

[Davegeee]

Flew the 10th flight on my Hairless Joe P-47D the other day, and tested the scale rectangular drop tank that was designed by Danger Dan and printed by CraftCloud due to the size being a bit more than my mini Prusa could handle. Came out pretty well, did a lot of sanding, filling, painting, etc. Finished in a neutral Grey USAAF color by Tamiya spray paints, and also weathered it with oil and fuel stains. Came out pretty well, flew well on the airplane, and dropped perfectly when jettisoned to a soft landing in the field with no damage at all.

Today, I flew my Flightline Cougar on its 56th flight, and my FMS P-47 Penrod and Sam on its 80th flight. Did a tank drop with it using the foam drop tank that comes with the kit. It's now a non-event to do this demonstration. Looks pretty cool and realistic when I punch if off as it passes by my position. Looking forward to receiving my new Flightline 1600mm P-51D later this week!

[Davegeee]

Got my 5th flight in today with my modified FMS 1.5M P-47 razorback, converted to a bubbletop. This one has a powered canopy, droppable centerline stores for drop tank, 3D printed cockpit and pilot, and some other details. Flies as well or better than the original razorback version. This airplane painted in the colors of P-47D-25 Hairless Joe flown by Col. David Schilling, 56th FG in 1944. Some pics taken from this morning. I believe that this modified 1.5M foamie P-47D is the only type in existence at this time.

[xviper]

The weird world of VTOLs ...................................... (go "full screen" and 4K.)

HeeWing T1 Ranger altered into a Pterodactyl ...........................

BlitzRCWorks V-22 Osprey .........................

And I threw the new Roban 470 Super Cobra into the mix ...........................

[davegee]

Scale club day was fuuun.. overall weather looked nasty early but cleared ,, i flew f4 and al37... but mooooorre importantly saw some awsome gas scale stuff a 90 inch p47 taking the cake(just 4 u dave) a nice decathalon,, seafury i think,,, a yak 54 3d plane.. with a 5 cy. 250 cc radial, what a sound and a 1930 s streamliner type not zure.. all large scale some pics

Wow! Sounds like a GREAT time!! Of course, I love the P-47! Glad you guys had a good day for the fly-in as the weather cleared. Nice you guys have grass. We have lots of tumbleweeds, brambles, and sticky sagebrush that loves to eat model airplanes up here in northwestern Wyoming, but we have fun.

Thanks for posting the pics!

Cheers

Davegee

[f4u ausie]

Scale club day was fuuun.. overall weather looked nasty early but cleared ,, i flew f4 and al37... but mooooorre importantly saw some awsome gas scale stuff a 90 inch p47 taking the cake(just 4 u dave) a nice decathalon,, seafury i think,,, a yak 54 3d plane.. with a 5 cy. 250 cc radial, what a sound and a 1930 s streamliner type not zure.. all large scale some pics

[davegee]

IR is but once parameter that comes into play. Certainly, a consistent low IR can be an indicator of how well a battery will accept a charge and how evenly the cells will charge up. However, there's something else that can contribute to what has been talked about here. This has to do with power loss after take off, be it sudden or very early in the flight. I'm talking about "sag", something that I'm not completely well versed in but have noticed myself. I have batteries that have acceptable IR and charge up as they should - even cell voltages. Some are even not very old (a year or 2). I believe this sag is related to the "C" rating of the battery. We all know that C ratings are very often over-exaggerated with almost all brands of batteries. One brand's C rating may say 50C on the label but when loaded, they may only be 20C (as an example) and as they age, this discrepancy gets worse. Another brand's C rating may say the same 50C but when under load, may only 35 or 40C. Guess which one might sag worse. The interesting thing about some of these "high sag" batteries, is that when the power drops off, you land right away. Once down and disconnected for a minute, they can still read 70% or more. At times too, I've noticed these same batteries, after landing, would have very hot connectors. That becomes another tell tale sign of something amiss - haven't quite figured out precisely what that might be - maybe degrading soldering?
Brands that I have that don't seem to exhibit this (early) "sag", even older ones, are high C Admirals, SMC and ChinaHobbyLine.

Good stuff there, XViper! Makes a lot of sense. I usually "baby" my batteries both in storage and flying, and they usually last a long time with faithful service. I'm glad and relieved that my problems the other day with my Cougar were limited to a slightly puffing out battery that was probably on its last legs, anyway. All is well, now.

Cheers

Davegee

[f4u ausie]

As always thanx viper.. I believe HRB 50c r way lower than that.. it did fly well at 50 percent..
I do normally fly older batteries in props. Which makes sense.... Need some more new lipos and planes and just more stuff . B safe thanx again

[xviper]

Good work Dave. Just bit of trivia 4 U.. my (bad battery). Has the same resistance as all my 8s batteries. Except the 2 brand new ones...which r way lower.. the 8s r working flawlessly. There must b other thing at play. Time Will tell. The new battery resistance between 2 and 3. Older ones between 4 and 5

IR is but one parameter that comes into play. Certainly, a consistent low IR can be an indicator of how well a battery will accept a charge and how evenly the cells will charge up. However, there's something else that can contribute to what has been talked about here. This has to do with power loss after take off, be it sudden or very early in the flight. I'm talking about "sag", something that I'm not completely well versed in but have noticed myself. I have batteries that have acceptable IR and charge up as they should - even cell voltages. Some are even not very old (a year or 2). I believe this sag is related to the "C" rating of the battery. We all know that C ratings are very often over-exaggerated with almost all brands of batteries. One brand's C rating may say 50C on the label but when loaded, they may only be 20C (as an example) and as they age, this discrepancy gets worse. Another brand's C rating may say the same 50C but when under load, may only 35 or 40C. Guess which one might sag worse. The interesting thing about some of these "high sag" batteries, is that when the power drops off, you land right away. Once down and disconnected for a minute, they can still read 70% or more. At times too, I've noticed these same batteries, after landing, would have very hot connectors. That becomes another tell tale sign of something amiss - haven't quite figured out precisely what that might be - maybe degrading soldering?
Brands that I have that don't seem to exhibit this (early) "sag", even older ones, are high C Admirals, SMC and ChinaHobbyLine.

[f4u ausie]

Good work Dave. Just bit of trivia 4 U.. my (bad battery). Has the same resistance as all my 8s batteries. Except the 2 brand new ones...which r way lower.. the 8s r working flawlessly. There must b other thing at play. Time Will tell. The new battery resistance between 2 and 3. Older ones between 4 and 5

[davegee]

The wind died down this evening so I went out to the field to test my F9F Cougar to confirm its problems yesterday were with a recalcitrant battery and not something tougher to determine the cause of the sudden power loss after takeoff. Turns out, it looks as I thought; with a new battery, it flew its best, as usual. No problems whatsoever. I did the first test flight with no ordnance, and when I got it back on the ground, I put all the bells and whistles on it to see if that might cause any problems. They didn't, both flights were great. XViper, I appreciate your helpful comments regarding what might have been wrong with my airplane. It was a battery, all right!

Photo taken after the second test flight with all the ordnance and refueling probe installed.


Cheers

Davegee

[xviper]

Thanks for that info, XViper. I hope to improve my knowledge on batteries and power systems, going forward.

Cheers

Davegee

For me, batteries is still a learning in progress kind of thing. It's taken me years just to figure out some of the intricate details on the subject. New information still come to light that squashes old ideas and make me scratch my melon and wonder how I ever thought that to be right. There's still a lot of "magic" and oddness to battery tech in my mind. It's sometimes hard to stop listening to "old wives".

[davegee]

The easiest way to check IR (internal resistance) is to let your LiPo charger do it for you. Of course, this is contingent upon your charger having this feature, which most modern chargers do. Once you get a LiPo started charging (it takes between 15 to 30 seconds for it to measure and display the IR, you should be able to scroll or flip through the various menu items without interfering or interrupting the charging process. (Or you can buy an Internal Resistance meter that will take a reading on its own. These can be purchased in places like Amazon or a hobby shop. They run around 30 US bucks, give or take, depending on how fancy you want to go.)
Here is a photo of my charger in action, showing the IR of one of my 5 year old 3 cell LiPos. The measurement shown tells me that this particular battery has very good IR. When the numbers start to get into double digits, you are looking at a LiPo that may be on it's final legs.

Thanks for that info, XViper. I hope to improve my knowledge on batteries and power systems, going forward.

Cheers

Davegee

[davegee]

Dave I had that Sunday morning with my 90 fms Avanti 6s. I had a flight with an almost new 5000 HRB all good.. second flight. A 5 year old same HRB.. got off ground good but under continued load burbs and hesitation.. so landed... All cells equal... And checks as u would expect.. last flight. An almost new again. Not any trouble at all.
So think battery is capushca. Must learn how to check resistance. I will b honest 5 years is a good go at it... Have fun b safe

Thanks, Craig. It appears to me that my battery is going bad, especially when I tested it and another 6S battery of equal power and the suspect battery duplicated what I saw in the air on two flights when I exercised the flaps. The other new battery did not have any issues doing the same thing. If I had had another charged battery I would have taken it up again for the "acid test" of nailing the suspect battery and pull it out of the rotation.

Too windy today, so I'll try later in the week for the tests. .Everything is waiting in my truck for a good, calm, morning to test this.

Cheers

Davegee