All us newbie pilots, lets share..

[Rocketeer]

RE: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

Greetings GMan,

Wow!! Looking good so far!!

Sorry to hear about your servo issue.... I'm sure MRC will make good on it.

Hey, is "First US RC Flight School" giving you a commission to advertise for them????


Bill L.
In OKla.

[Grossman56]

RE: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

HAR Har!, Naw, I just thought I'd give Dave a surprise!  Can't be anything more complimentary than imitation (sincerest form of flattery)

She's sure a pretty little thing though.
The Spirit of Wisconsin
Grossman56

[Rocketeer]

RE: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

Greetings GMan,

A worthy tribute!!

She's a beauty!!!

Let us know how she flies.......


Bill L.
In Okla.

[Loneflier]

RE: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

HAR Har!, Naw, I just thought I'd give Dave a surprise!  Can't be anything more complimentary than imitation (sincerest form of flattery)

She's sure a pretty little thing though.
The Spirit of Wisconsin
Grossman56

Love the way she turned out! I'm with Rocketeer on wanting to know how she flies! Best of luck to you on the maiden.

[Grossman56]

RE: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

Hey Guys
Yep, as soon as I can get another elevator servo and get the throws dialed in, she should be ready for the air.  I've talked to some of he other guys online who have one and they land at around 20% throttle or less which I found interesting as this is NOT a light bird, well, maybe it is and all the others I have are super light!
The next heaviest is the Freewing Mustang with the sound system and two batteries, I thought she was weighty!!  So it would mean that the wings are generating a heck of a lot of lift!
Stands to reason I guess when I've got two of them!  Its interesting how the pictures don't really give the idea that she's got some size, until you look at the one where I'm carrying it
I was a little leary of the fact that the cabane  is glued to the fuse and the two outer struts are glued into place, but the way its designed is ingenious, like a great big kite and those who have them say the same thing, no one has ever reported losing a wing, which is good!
Got a message from Dave, he thinks its the coolest thing he's ever seen, so mission accomplished!
I put the idea to him of getting some pictures with the two planes, you never know!!

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

RE: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

Hey guys,
Got the CG set and man do you have to get the battery way up front!  The problem, as I see it, is that the ESC has to go in front of the battery, between the motor and the battery in the little bay up front, in order to use its weight as well to balance out, which means that the wires going from the esc to the receiver have to be pretty long.  I've already stuck my receiver down and rather than pulling it back off, I'm just going to use an extension cable. I put a couple of dots under the upper wing where the CG should go and had to throw some lead into the nose, but there she is.  The tie downs are totally out of place as the battery is further forward than the furthest forward strap.  I bought some industrial strength Velcro and man that stuff is incredible, it takes some work to get the battery unstuck, good news for me.  Of course, its a little tricky hovering the battery and moving it forward far enough before she grabs onto the Velcro, but its doable and beats cutting up the inside of the plane.
I've seen it suggested by other guys that the straps could be used to hold a piece of Styrofoam to brace the battery, but I don't see the point.
I would never have believed that she was going to be so tail heavy because whenever you go to lift it by the lower wing, she nose dives, but the CG is so far forward, well, there you have it. Also, I've heard that the CG is better at 100mm.  Mine balances out flat at 90 so 100 is only going to make her slightly nose heavy which I would prefer.

Was up early this morning with the idea of taking Big Beautiful Doll up again, all the batteries are charged she's preflighted and all set, but the wind is up!!
And, in a long line of things, Old Crow has a sound board issue.  It still functions, but its melted and smells, so she's grounded until the new one gets here.  All this before she's taken her first flight.  I put  in a ticket for the broken landing gear retract on Old Crow, but never heard anything back from Motion, so just ordered one and replaced it.
Now with the elevator servo on the Pitts not working, surely they can't ignore me again, its a brand new plane!!
I'll keep you posted, I'm getting real disappointed with them.

Grossman56 

Grossman6  

[Rocketeer]

RE: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

Greetings GMan,

I would be very disappointed at this point!!

Maybe all of the accolades on MRC having the best customer support on the planet has gone a bit to their heads??? 
It is most unusual for them not to respond over such a long period of time on either issue.

Perhaps they are spreading out their employee vacations over the summer months like everyone else and they're just a bit behind.
However, if it stretches out too much longer I would surely get on the horn to someone.

Even if they end up denying your claim, it's much better than silence.

I hope your CG is right and your maiden is fun and uneventful.......

Can't wait to hear.


Clear Skies

Bill L.
In Okla.

[Grossman56]

RE: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

You know, I keep hoping that I'm wrong about all this and that there was some kind of glitch.  For as much as I've pushed them to all the people I deal with and the money I've spent and the praise I've given their organization.  Well, we'll see.  Like I said before, they were great up until...And the Freewing Mustang is something else, not in the air yet and I've had to replace a retract mechanism and now the sound module.  Now with the Pitts.  They were  helpful with the flap servo on BBD.  It didn't work right from the box, so they sent me another, but it was different than the original one on the other side.  Ended up ordering one and paid for it, got the excuse that they had changed the type of servo, but I ended up paying for a new one.  They did get me a battery when Weedwacker's ended up being faulty.  Then when Old Crows retract started acting up, which it had from the start, but I thought I had it solved by increasing the throws, turns out it wasn't the answer and she just stopped working again.  So I emailed them off a message and have heard nothing to date.  Now, the sound module has melted, it still works, but there is a smell coming off it and you can see the melted plastic pieces under the plastic cover.  So, I'll drop them a message regarding this as well.

We'll See

Grossman 56
[hr]
Anyway, on a lighter note, My Mustang is scratching at the door and wants to go outside:
DAD!! I want to go outside!!
YOU promised I could FLY today!!!

It's TOO windy, you'll HURT yourself!!


WAAAAA!!!!!

OK Young Lady, TO YOUR ROOM!!

Sniff....

Grossman56

[Rocketeer]

RE: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

Greetings GMan,

You are one crazy guy!!!

I love it!!!! Keep that spirit, my friend.


Bill L.
In Okla.

[Grossman56]

RE: All us newbie pilots, lets share..



Checking the CG

Grossman56

[OV10]

RE: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

Hey Bill,
Think I figured out why Gman is acting so crazy. He drank too much Kool-aid while at school!!!!!
Best Regards,

[Grossman56]

RE: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

Hey guys, just got back from 6 successful flights with BBD!!  Looped her rolled her did Immelmans with her, what a great bird.  All that waiting to fly her and what a payoff, well worth the wait!!
Got a message from Martin Bedding that I thought I'd share with you.  I want to be fair about all this so, you can read verbatim what I sent and received.
 
Hi Dan, 

I have arranged for a replacement servo to be sent to you for your FMS Pitts Special. 

However I don't quite understand the other problems you are having Dan. If you can explain exactly what the issues are I will look into it for you. 

Regards, 

Martin Bedding.

And I replied

 Dear Martin,
Ok, the first problem I had was with the FMS 1400 P51D  Big Beautiful Doll.  Right out of the box,  one flap servo was dead, so I put in a request. Message ID# 529488 06/14/14.  Got a message from Brad, saying it was warranty and he’ll send me another, the servo was sent, order confirmation #40167 on 06/16/14.  I’m thinking problem solved, but the wrong type servo shows up.  So I send another message #856185 saying that this is the wrong servo and explaining the difference.  The speed and the settings were totally different, I get a reply from Matt?? message #856185.  I appreciated the information but it didn’t help me at all.  Then there was another explanation that I don’t have any more that said, in effect, that FMS had changed the servos and mine must be the old kind.  It was left at that, you’d have thought that this would have been solved right away.  It wasn’t and in frustration, I ordered another one and lo and behold, it was the right one, I paid for it.
I’ve had retract issues with the Freewing P51 Iron Ass right from the beginning, ordered her on 03/19/15 after a go around on Hobbysquawk regarding the two bladed version of Old Crow as the way the advert for her originally read, you would have the option of two or four blade props.  There were several of us who were confused, thinking that both would be in the kit.  Being a big Bud Anderson fan and having conversed with his son through email several times, I was really looking forward to this plane.  When I found out that I would have to pay more for the prop, I was upset.  I and several others were thinking it was all about authenticity, but it was about speed and being able to go unlimited vertical and almost hover.  We had a go around with some of the guys from Motion
 http://www.hobbysquawk.com/thread-1372.html
And I, out of frustration again, just said to heck with this and ordered the Iron Ass version instead.  Got a set of Callie Graphics and built my own Old Crow out of Iron Ass.  Got her assembled and she turned out great, ready for the air right, wrong.
First one of the struts was loose and the gear was crooked, being new to this, I wasn’t sure on what to do, got a message #T 526661 which was helpful, I appreciated that very much.  One side always had trouble retracting, so I adjusted my throw in the radio and it seemed to help.  Let her sit for a bit as I decided to order Eagle A3L Gyros for all my birds and had to upgrade to a 7 channel receiver for two of the three Mustangs I have, The third had the 8 channel receiver that came with the DX8.  Anyway, I got them installed, so now Old Crow has a gyro,  ready for the air right, wrong, one landing gear will not retract, no way shape or form.  Checked the wires, all okay, pulled the gear out of the plane and plugged it into my servo tester, nothing, not even a buzz.  Sent a message to Motion and never heard back about this, not even a buzz, just like the servo. l left a message on the forum where one of the guys from Motion was chatting, but never heard anything back, now its very possible that he was never back on that particular thread.  Again, out of frustration, I ordered two of the things on my own and got one installed and it works perfectly.  Tried taking the old one apart just to see, call it curiosity, the best I could do was to get it to buzz, but I certainly would not want to trust it.  oh yeah, and the sound board melted as well, I smelled something burning and saw the melted little black ports on it, so I ordered another one of those, thinking that if I’m not getting a response to the retract, good luck with this as well.
Anyway, to sum up, I may have pushed the whole Old Crow issue a bit and burned a few people, as you can read in the thread, but all of a sudden, I don’t get replies to messages? 
As I have stated several times in messages and in the forum, especially my thread, “All Us Newbies Lets Share”  which now has 41,608 reads and is the highest read thread on the forum, I love MotionR/C and really don’t care to deal with anyone else.  Case in point, others had the Pitts in stock but I waited for Motion because I prefer to deal with you.  Now, what do I want to see done?  A simple answer.  If the retract and the sound board are not under warranty because of the time since I purchased it, then fine, you run a business, I understand.  But feeling ignored by someone or something that I’ve avidly supported for over a year doesn’t make me feel very valued as a customer.
 
Yours sincerely
Dan Gross
So there you have it so far. The new servo for the Pitts is on the way and I'm interested in What Martin has to say

Grossman56

[Sky Wolf]

RE: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

Checking the CG

Grossman56

Love what you did with the Pitts! I changed mine too, but I have to get it approved from my company first before I can display it. Anxious to do so! 
[hr]

Hey guys, just got back from 6 successful flights with BBD!!  Looped her rolled her did Immelmans with her, what a great bird.  All that waiting to fly her and what a payoff, well worth the wait!!
Got a message from Martin Bedding that I thought I'd share with you.  I want to be fair about all this so, you can read verbatim what I sent and received.
 
Hi Dan, 

I have arranged for a replacement servo to be sent to you for your FMS Pitts Special. 

However I don't quite understand the other problems you are having Dan. If you can explain exactly what the issues are I will look into it for you. 

Regards, 

Martin Bedding.

And I replied

 Dear Martin,
Ok, the first problem I had was with the FMS 1400 P51D  Big Beautiful Doll.  Right out of the box,  one flap servo was dead, so I put in a request. Message ID# 529488 06/14/14.  Got a message from Brad, saying it was warranty and he’ll send me another, the servo was sent, order confirmation #40167 on 06/16/14.  I’m thinking problem solved, but the wrong type servo shows up.  So I send another message #856185 saying that this is the wrong servo and explaining the difference.  The speed and the settings were totally different, I get a reply from Matt?? message #856185.  I appreciated the information but it didn’t help me at all.  Then there was another explanation that I don’t have any more that said, in effect, that FMS had changed the servos and mine must be the old kind.  It was left at that, you’d have thought that this would have been solved right away.  It wasn’t and in frustration, I ordered another one and lo and behold, it was the right one, I paid for it.
I’ve had retract issues with the Freewing P51 Iron Ass right from the beginning, ordered her on 03/19/15 after a go around on Hobbysquawk regarding the two bladed version of Old Crow as the way the advert for her originally read, you would have the option of two or four blade props.  There were several of us who were confused, thinking that both would be in the kit.  Being a big Bud Anderson fan and having conversed with his son through email several times, I was really looking forward to this plane.  When I found out that I would have to pay more for the prop, I was upset.  I and several others were thinking it was all about authenticity, but it was about speed and being able to go unlimited vertical and almost hover.  We had a go around with some of the guys from Motion
 http://www.hobbysquawk.com/thread-1372.html
And I, out of frustration again, just said to heck with this and ordered the Iron Ass version instead.  Got a set of Callie Graphics and built my own Old Crow out of Iron Ass.  Got her assembled and she turned out great, ready for the air right, wrong.
First one of the struts was loose and the gear was crooked, being new to this, I wasn’t sure on what to do, got a message #T 526661 which was helpful, I appreciated that very much.  One side always had trouble retracting, so I adjusted my throw in the radio and it seemed to help.  Let her sit for a bit as I decided to order Eagle A3L Gyros for all my birds and had to upgrade to a 7 channel receiver for two of the three Mustangs I have, The third had the 8 channel receiver that came with the DX8.  Anyway, I got them installed, so now Old Crow has a gyro,  ready for the air right, wrong, one landing gear will not retract, no way shape or form.  Checked the wires, all okay, pulled the gear out of the plane and plugged it into my servo tester, nothing, not even a buzz.  Sent a message to Motion and never heard back about this, not even a buzz, just like the servo. l left a message on the forum where one of the guys from Motion was chatting, but never heard anything back, now its very possible that he was never back on that particular thread.  Again, out of frustration, I ordered two of the things on my own and got one installed and it works perfectly.  Tried taking the old one apart just to see, call it curiosity, the best I could do was to get it to buzz, but I certainly would not want to trust it.  oh yeah, and the sound board melted as well, I smelled something burning and saw the melted little black ports on it, so I ordered another one of those, thinking that if I’m not getting a response to the retract, good luck with this as well.
Anyway, to sum up, I may have pushed the whole Old Crow issue a bit and burned a few people, as you can read in the thread, but all of a sudden, I don’t get replies to messages? 
As I have stated several times in messages and in the forum, especially my thread, “All Us Newbies Lets Share”  which now has 41,608 reads and is the highest read thread on the forum, I love MotionR/C and really don’t care to deal with anyone else.  Case in point, others had the Pitts in stock but I waited for Motion because I prefer to deal with you.  Now, what do I want to see done?  A simple answer.  If the retract and the sound board are not under warranty because of the time since I purchased it, then fine, you run a business, I understand.  But feeling ignored by someone or something that I’ve avidly supported for over a year doesn’t make me feel very valued as a customer.
 
Yours sincerely
Dan Gross
So there you have it so far.  The new servo for the Pitts is on the way and I'm interested in What Martin has to say

Grossman56

Growsman, sorry to hear about the delayed responses. But as we all know, nothing is ever perfect. At Motion though, they really try hard. I too once had a long awaited delayed response that seemed to get out of control, and I grew frustrated. But once I inquired about the frustrating issue directly to them, they really jumped on it, sometimes a long issue can grow even longer if more than one person gets involved. One person thinks the other is handling it, and so on. That's what happened with mine, and it sounds like it may have happened to you as well. 
Those guys work really hard to develop and keep a stellar reputation. 

I hope they get to the bottom of your issue(s) and help you get it resolved soon. We all know what it's like to deal with most other hobby companies customer service...it's not ever fun. With the exception of Horizon in most cases. 

Good luck!

[Grossman56]

RE: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

And continuing right along, this is what I received today.  Sounds great, but I thought I'd been pretty specific in my previous message

Hi Dan, 

I'm sorry you're had so many problems with your models. However I will do my best to help you where I can. What can I do to help you resolve the problems you have now. 

Please be specific and let me know when you bought the model you are having problems with. 

Regards, 

Martin Bedding. 

So, I replied:

Hi Martin:
I appreciate this, the plane is a Freewing P51D Iron Ass.  Purchased on 03/19/2015, order number #89966.  As I stated in the previous message all the problems I have had with the plane, it would be redundant to repeat them.
 
Dan Gross

Strange?
So, I resent the message from above in its entirety, copied and pasted it into the message and sent it to him again.

Grossman56

[Sky Wolf]

RE: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

And continuing right along, this is what I received today.  Sounds great, but I thought I'd been pretty specific in my previous message

Hi Dan, 

I'm sorry you're had so many problems with your models. However I will do my best to help you where I can. What can I do to help you resolve the problems you have now. 

Please be specific and let me know when you bought the model you are having problems with. 

Regards, 

Martin Bedding. 

So, I replied:

Hi Martin:
I appreciate this, the plane is a Freewing P51D Iron Ass.  Purchased on 03/19/2015, order number #89966.  As I stated in the previous message all the problems I have had with the plane, it would be redundant to repeat them.
 
Dan Gross

Strange?
So, I resent the message from above in its entirety, copied and pasted it into the message and sent it to him again.

Grossman56

And that's what I mean by, "this is what happens when more than one person gets involved". It tends to get moved around, but from one desktop to another, with no one actually stopping to resolve it. Sorry you're in the mysterious black hole. They'll help get it right. 

I don't think Motion has reached a level of not caring, even though at this frustrating point for you, it may seem so. 

Again, good luck!

[Grossman56]

RE: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

received a phone call from Martin while I was at work.  Unfortunately, this is Hell Week at work, long long hours, so it may be a while before I can get back to him.  Good of him to call though

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

RE: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

Well, the weather here in Cody has finally smartened up, the sun is out and its warming up, the only drag is that the 'Cody Breeze' has picked up, last night it was a challenge to get the truck door open.
Still blowing a  bit (10-15 mph) here at home so it will be stronger at the field as its on an open plain.
In the meantime, I received the new servo for the Pitts, Thanks MotionR/C!  Also got the sound module for the F/W Mustang and got that plugged in as well, waiting to talk to Martin and see where I stand on that, tried phoning but he had the day off yesterday.  Always fun calibrating one of those, the whole house if not the neighborhood knows what your up to.

Hope its a great weekend for everyone, I'm hoping for a calmer day later on or possibly early evening.

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

RE: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

Hey guys, I keep forgetting to ask, but I'm sure its not a big deal.  What about buzzing servos?  Is this something some do when they're new?  If not, how do you fix that?  I've removed the push rods and polished them with a rag, removed any paint or minwax or general debris off them, the spread some WD 40 on them in an attempt to eliminate any chance that they're binding.  What everyone's thoughts on this??

Grossman56

[Hippie 64]

RE: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

Gman check to make sure the holes in your servo arms are big enough but not too much or you get slop . I've had that give me a small issue before . Not saying that's what it is but a shot in the dark .


Bryan

[Grossman56]

RE: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

Good thought Bryan, I had that all apart, the Pitts has two control arms for the elevator, sliding into one of those brass lock things that screw onto the control arm.  I took the brass piece right out of the control arm and moved it into another hole, closer to the pivot point.  The top of shaft that goes into the hole is smooth, so that when threaded on, there is no thread within the control arm.  I put some grease on that and worked it, making sure that the piece could freely pivot.  The control rods slide into the brass thing and lock down.  The trick to this would seem to be that the rods need to be bent at certain points in order to line up with the control horns.  Don't know exactly what was the point of having individual rods running to either side of the elevator?  Great care had to be taken to make sure both sides are lined up with each other.
I'll play around with it a little more and see what happens, its a bit better than it was, I just remember some of the servos on the Pandoras doing the same thing until they were used a few times.
Good news is, other than this, the fleet is now ready to go!  Old Crow is set, but the weather isn't cooperating here, the wind is up, probably 25 to 30 mph, nothing unusual for Cody, WE are the Windy City!!

Oh hey, before I forget, I found a great tip on RC Informer regarding the FMS P51 landing gear. Sean lost a wheel at one point and so have I. I was fortunate enough to hold the wing up until it stalled, but by that time, I had it over the grass on the side of the runway (Holy Bob Hoover Batman!). The problem is that they're only held on by a little 'E' clip. I got a replacement clip and all is well. Anyway, the tip was to apply some contact cement to the clip to give it even more grip. Better than losing a wheel!!

Grossman56