All us newbie pilots, lets share..

[ryramZ]

RE: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

Same with me.  I haven't lost a plane yet (touch wood), for all the crashing that the Pandoras and Weedwacker took, they still grace the skies over Cody. The crash referred to was the first flight in Pandora One last summer.  As I said, the ESC burned out, but she's back in the air, none the worse for it and she flies great!

Been taking the Waco over to the school parking lot, which is so close I can throw a rock from my front yard and hit it.  Just to try her on paved, even ground when the wind is down.  She's the most challenging of my birds thus far so I figure if I can fly her, I can fly the P51's.

Grossman56

[hr]

Nice video Grossman! Your paintwork looks great. Those Stangs are killing me!

Video tip number 1 through infinity.

When youtube tells you your video might be shaky and asks you if you want them to stabilize it say no.
It worked ok for you but in the air it would be awful...

Regards,
Ryan

Ant thoughts on this ESC Ryan, it came with my 1400 FMS P51B Shangrila.
I had to eliminate the pin board at the end (it just plugged in) and it has an extra output plug as well, its a strange one

Grossman56

Is your Shangrila already together and working fine? It looks like part of the wiring harness for the roc hobby racers or one of the 980 series along with a sequencer. Can you take a better pic with the pieces unplugged from it.

[Grossman56]

RE: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

Yes, she's built and works fine.  Spent most of a night trying to figure out what the heck this was and then the other half trying to figure out a way to make it work.This is as she sits in the P51, note the empty plugIf I remember right, the pin board was plugged into on of the forward plugs on the blue pieceAnd this is the infamous pinboard for lack of a better namethe close ups are of the plugs coming out of the pinboard.  As you can see, I did manage to get it to work on the Mustang but it took some McGyvering!!

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

RE: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

Flying Day!!!!
Took the Waco across the street and flew her three times.  Still my problem child, motor mount is loose again, so epoxy/resin time.
On a much more positive :)  note, P-1 in all her red white and blue glory went into the air for the first time since the paint job!! She flew like a dream as she always does, a little  trim here and there, but WOW what a great day to maiden a new paint job, should have taken the camera.  A perfect blue sky and a bit of wind!
I was flying off the school parking lot and people were driving by giving us the thumbs up, like flying the flag!
Ran 6 batteries through her, first take off was a little hairy (I keep using the right stick to control takeoff, like I did with Weedwacker) from the second one on, I loosened my fingers on the right stick and controlled with the left with half flap and no problems whatsoever. Landings were good for the most part, one was absolutely perfect and one took a little more length than I wanted, but still came home with no damage, one little chip in the paint where the flap folds on the top of the wing, no big deal.
I'm just so thrilled with how she looks and flew!  I'm thinking, "All that wing work up there in the air, just beautiful" 

What a great way to start the season, and now with the time change, more light at night=more flight time.

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

RE: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

Another great day!  No wind and sunny temp 63, perfect.  Took P-2 up to try out her new wings, she flew great with no bad habits.  I seem to do better with the low wing configuration, go figure!
Anyway, batteries at the ready for tomorrow after work, just got to wait for the parking lot to clear.  Sure is handy to have a big paved area, especially now that I can pretty well pick my landing spots.
Anyway, flew two batteries through her then called her quits, dinner time.  Ahh, talk about the great life!!

Grossman56

[Loneflier]

RE: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

Sounds great there Gman! Wish our weather here would cooperate. Winds are really up today, with more wind and rain forecast for all week. Glad to hear that you are getting out and enjoying those planes!

[Flygirl]

RE: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

Another great day!  No wind and sunny temp 63, perfect.  Took P-2 up to try out her new wings, she flew great with no bad habits.  I seem to do better with the low wing configuration, go figure!
Anyway, batteries at the ready for tomorrow after work, just got to wait for the parking lot to clear.  Sure is handy to have a big paved area, especially now that I can pretty well pick my landing spots.
Anyway, flew two batteries through her then called her quits, dinner time.  Ahh, talk about the great life!!

Grossman56

Wind is the problem now here too.... Glad you got up in the air GMan! I've never tried my Pandora as a high wing. I like the low wing too much... Wish you had had the video! Next time!

[STOOPIDMONKEY]

RE: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

Yes, she's built and works fine.  Spent most of a night trying to figure out what the heck this was and then the other half trying to figure out a way to make it work.This is as she sits in the P51, note the empty plugIf I remember right, the pin board was plugged into on of the forward plugs on the blue pieceAnd this is the infamous pinboard for lack of a better namethe close ups are of the plugs coming out of the pinboard.  As you can see, I did manage to get it to work on the Mustang but it took some McGyvering!!

Grossman56

I found that Pin board Gman!!!

[desertdrifter7]

RE: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

The Freewing Pandora arrived today and I'm jacked!
I'm hoping that the old addage "If she looks great she'll fly great" is true, cause she's sure beautiful.  I went the red paint scheme thinking it may be easier to see against the blue sky.  Well, I'm off to assemble her and I can't wait to try her out.  I'm going to use the Spectrum DX6i, if anyone has any suggestions on the settings, I'd appreciate it.
Stay tuned for more (mis)adventures

I have a Pandora and I set her up with the taildragger, high wing version. I did install an Eagle A3 Super gyro in it along with a Spectrum 6-channel receiver. I also had a veteran flyer help me learn to fly her. That saved me a lot of heart and grief. The plane flies beautifully and handles like a dream. One of the first things my instructor taught me was to check your control surfaces before EVERY flight. I just recently moved the wings to the low position and enjoy flying the Pandora with this configuration. I am now looking for a warbird to continue practicing on.
[hr]

Crash and Burn, literally!
I'm really having trouble with my Pandora.  This time I had to give her full throttle just to get airborne, then she wallowed and stalled, just not enough power.  Crashed from about three feet in the air and started smoking. I immediately unplugged the battery, but the ESC was completely fried
So, I'm trying to figure this one out (CSI Cody). I'm thinking that maybe after the last mishap with the reversed ailerons, I may have damaged the esc in a not-too-pretty landing.  When I watch pilot Ryan fly his, she just launches into the air.  Fortunately, most of the fuselage damage seems to be soot, a bit of melting, but doesn't appear to be serious.  MotionRC shows the Pandora ESC as out of stock, has anyone tried a different ESC with the stock motor?

Lose your ESC and you lose control of your plane. I have a Freewing P-51 1400mm with Merlin sound that my instructor has flown, I flew it momentarily with a trainer switch. He had me install a separate BEC "y'ed" off the battery so that I would still have flight controls in the event of an ESC burnout. Haven't installed one in my Pandora but I am considering it.

[Grossman56]

RE: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

Yes, she's built and works fine.  Spent most of a night trying to figure out what the heck this was and then the other half trying to figure out a way to make it work.This is as she sits in the P51, note the empty plugIf I remember right, the pin board was plugged into on of the forward plugs on the blue pieceAnd this is the infamous pinboard for lack of a better namethe close ups are of the plugs coming out of the pinboard.  As you can see, I did manage to get it to work on the Mustang but it took some McGyvering!!

Grossman56

I found that Pin board Gman!!!

Oh too cool Sean, what's it out of??

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

RE: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

Hey guys, here we go!
Went to Billings today and got a few things at Central Hobbies.  The wife suggested a buddy cord, so we picked one up, so guess what that means?
Yep, she wants to try, so there should be some interesting times ahead!
Seriously, I think she can do it, its more a fear of wrecking a plane.  It's going to be cool when both of us have separate planes in the air, something to look forward to

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

RE: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

Hey, welcome Desert Drifter!
Yes that was back last year and I've learned quite a bit since then.  Both Pandoras are rigged in tail dragger low wing configuration with flaps.  Both have an A6L gyro in them and they are superb fliers.  Had one up in a fairly stiff wind and that gyro is amazing! Did a cross wind landing with no mishaps.  Had to really concentrate but she came home with no damage!

On the Waco front, I put Dave Brown 2" tires on her last night and now its telling me that the CG is fine without any extra weight in the cowl.  Go figure!
I had a real challenge trying to figure out what to use to CG this thing as the Great Planes CG machine just doesn't get in there far enough, the lower wing gets in the way.  Anyway, I happened to notice an old cheapo wire coat hanger in the basement.  You know the type, just a wire frame with like five pegs coming out on an angle, the kind you mount to the wall with a couple of screws.  The light went on and turns out that you can get a good CG with this, going in from the back of the wing and letting it rest on the rubber tips.  Works great from what I can see.
Now if the wind would just die down enough to see what happens............

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

RE: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

Hey guys, just pulled the trigger on Iron Ass with the merlin sound.  After a lot of soul searching, I decided to pass on Old Crow and get the plane I wanted.  I was really drawn to Old Crow, but just hated that prop.  Tried everything I could to get the proper prop with Old Crow, but MRC just wouldn't give.  The only route left to me was to buy the Prop and Spinner separately, which seemed ridiculous to me.  So, I'm going to get the Callie Graphics decal sheet for Old Crow and do it myself.  Anyway, it'll be a fun project and I'll get what I paid for.
I wish Motion RC the best with Old Crow, but to me its not authentic, mine will be.  By the way, if you're interested in Bud Anderson's book, you can get an autographed copy at his website, which has a link on the Old Crow page on the Motion RC website, great book for anyone's collection.  Bud just lost his wife in January, its a nice tip of the hat, so maybe think about it.

Grossman56

[retiredflyer]

RE: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

Hey Retired, before you think of the Freewing B17, let yourself drool over this one.
Shades of 12 o'clock High.
http://hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__17203__B_17_Memphis_Belle_EPO_1875mm_PNF_.html
Enough to make Robert Lansing drool!!

Grossman56

Hey guys, just pulled the trigger on Iron Ass with the merlin sound.  After a lot of soul searching, I decided to pass on Old Crow and get the plane I wanted.  I was really drawn to Old Crow, but just hated that prop.  Tried everything I could to get the proper prop with Old Crow, but MRC just wouldn't give.  The only route left to me was to buy the Prop and Spinner separately, which seemed ridiculous to me.  So, I'm going to get the Callie Graphics decal sheet for Old Crow and do it myself.  Anyway, it'll be a fun project and I'll get what I paid for.
I wish Motion RC the best with Old Crow, but to me its not authentic, mine will be.  By the way, if you're interested in Bud Anderson's book, you can get an autographed copy at his website, which has a link on the Old Crow page on the Motion RC website, great book for anyone's collection.  Bud just lost his wife in January, its a nice tip of the hat, so maybe think about it.

Grossman56

Hey Gman, I just replied to your other post under my build with sound thread. I just sent for some Callie decals for my Tiger Moth which is arriving today. Have you ever used Callie stuff before and did you like it? Are they sticky decals, or water release type like our plastic models use?
[hr]
Just had this sinking thought...during the winter I've bought 5 different planes that require different size lipos. Initially, to somewhat make the costs a bit less painful ( and more reasonable to my beloved ), I've only purchased 1 battery each when I got the planes for testing and proper CG. WELL, flying season for me in Maine is approaching and I will need to get upwards of $200+ worth of batteries now. Wonder how I can slip this by easily. It will be a small UPS package so maybe she won't see it on the porch and I can intercept it before she realizes it!

[Grossman56]

RE: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

Hi retired, I haven't tried them, but Pilot Ryan uses them so that's good enough for me.  They also have a page called nomenclature and that's all the little detail decals as well, so well worth getting.  I'll order them as well.
I plan to strip all the old decals off and totally repaint the plane, panel by panel, using different shades of silver paint (you know, German silver chrome regular silver, there's quite the variety) she should look great. A real tribute to a great pilot.

Grossman56

[Lon]

RE: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

Hey Retired,

I've used the Callie...they are sticky. Here's a picture of them.

[Grossman56]

RE: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

Looks great Lon, did you get the nomenclature set as well?

Grossman56

[Lon]

RE: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

Looks great Lon, did you get the nomenclature set as well?

Grossman56

Yes, Everything on the "Passion Wagon" is from Callie Graphics.

[Grossman56]

RE: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

Great!  Just order my set for Old Crow!
The more I think about it, the better I feel about going this route.  I just know it was going to drive me crazy to look at the FW Old Crow with that two bladed prop and not like it at all.
I don't really care about going unlimited vertical or hovering or blasting in air in 10 feet and going balls to the wall for five minutes, then slapping her on the ground thinking that was awesome.  If I wanted that, I'd have gone into jets.

Looking forward to seeing what you guys are all excited about!!

Grossman56

[Lon]

RE: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

Looks great Lon, did you get the nomenclature set as well?

Grossman56

Here's a better pic....

[Grossman56]

RE: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

looks great Lon, by the way, how do the decals on Iron Ass look?  Think they'll peel off easily?  When I removed the Pandora ones, I just had to put some packing tape on them and they peeled right off

Grossman56