All us newbie pilots, lets share..

[Rocketeer]

Re: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

Greetings G56,

I now officially dub thee "Sir Minwax Master" lord over the rhealm and ALL MRCtonia polycrylic aircraft!!!!

And his subjects go wild <smiley image="anim_jump.gif"/> in adoration!!!!

Anyway, really nice work and when the misses isn't looking I have to get a Waco in Red and White...
Nah, she'll know.... she always knows..... Come On , Santa!!! or maybe the Great Pumpkin!!!

Clear Skies (and Minwax)

Bill L.
in Okla.

[Grossman56]

Re: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

Yeah, and now if the darned thing would only fly!!!
The Stampede ground has a nice big parking lot and no light poles, so now that the season is over, I think I'll take her up there once the props arrive, and crow hop her a little just to see what she'll do.
One question Bill, when you install you battery, do you have the wire to the front or rear of the airplane?
It would seem as though you could get a little more forward movement of the battery with the wires to the back, just want to get an idea of exactly where you put the battery in yours.
Once I get the prop on, I'll cg it again and post a picture.
Darned thing is a puzzler, the only thing I can think of is the motor mount...........


Grossman56

[Grossman56]

Re: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

YAY!!
Finally got in touch with an old friend of ours who has the most awesome piece of property for flying, right across from where I work. No more 40 miles one way to fly!!!

[Rocketeer]

Re: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

Greetings G56,

I mount the butt end of the battery forward and run the wires along the side to the rear.
Seems to work on the of the usable battery sizes.

I'll take a photo when I get home and send it along if you want.

Great news of the new flying location!!!!! That will be sooooo much better.

Bill L.
in Okla.

[Grossman56]

Re: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

Yeah, its five minutes from home!
Gotta love that!
Please send a picture, I just would like to see

Grossman56

[motorbill66]

Re: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

Grossman56

The Hobbyzone cub is an excellent trainer, but it asks a bit much of the new pilot in one area. It is a taildragger. Both full size airplanes of this configuration and models suffer from the same difficulty you have experienced. It's due to the rotation of the propeller. If the prop turned in the other direction your plane would want to squirrel to the opposite direction as well.

Tricycle landing gear aircraft are pretty much immune to this, though not entirely so, because the nose wheel helps keep things in line. The biggest mistake beginners make (and some experienced pilots too) is to nail the throttle from a standstill and hope to get in the air as quickly as possible to avoid 'torqueing' off to the left. This is just about totally backwards. The more power you suddenly put into acceleration from a standstill, the worse the effect. That's why you see so many guys 'hopping' off the ground with an unrealistic take-off that is frenzied and rushed. Whether you are flying a tricycle plane or a taildragger in particular, advance the throttle slowly. That way you'll find it fairly easy to control the adverse directionality with slow and careful rudder input. As the plane gathers speed and the tail lifts off the ground you can reduce, fairly quickly, that right rudder. It takes less practice than you think!

A realistic take off is quite satisfying. Don't climb like crazy as soon as you break ground. That's a good way to stall the airplane. Wait till you gather some speed before you climb out. Watch full size small aircraft. This is exactly what they do. The physics are the same. Landing is a subject unto itself, and it should be discussed separately. Although, the veering off to the left when touching down is just more of the same.

Taking off and landing are the most important skills to acquire for the RC pilot, obviously! Of the two, landing should be the more difficult. If you'll watch a lot of other RC pilots you'll see that a many seem to stop at the level of "git 'er off the ground as fast as you can, and fly down to a few feet and chop the throttle and wait". Mastering these two skills (especially landing) will give you great confidence and are, to me, the most enjoyable part of flying. Practice, Practice, Practice.

Pilots of full size aircraft have a saying: "Flying is landing". They know what they are talking about!

[Grossman56]

Re: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

Thanks for the advice Motorbill66. I have many hours in on my Piper Cub and have found exactly what you describe. After doing a thorough preflight, I line her up and ease the throttle forward with a bit of right rudder as I know her evil ways. Straight into the wind, she'll be off in no time. I have a bit of back elevator on but as soon as she breaks ground, I go to neutral with about 3/4 throttle, she'll climb out of her own.
All in all, she's been a very faithful and fun airplane. Now that I've progressed to my Pandoras, I'm applying what she has taught me. In the meantime, she's taking on a new roll of training my wife to fly.


Grossman56

[Grossman56]

Re: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

Hi guys, back from Canada, who says you can't drive from Wyoming to Vancouver in one day! 18 hours there and about the same back. The wedding was awesome!!
Now back to (monkey) business!
Found some of the Aluminum finish duct tape, just have to figure out who is going to be the victum!!
BWAHAHAHA!!!

[StarHopper]

Re: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

<i>"...Found some of the Aluminum finish duct tape, just have to figure out who is going to be the victum!! "</i>

You are, first time it blocks your Tx signals.
BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAAAAAAAAAAAAHAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!111one

[Rocketeer]

Re: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

Greetings G56,

See response in Product Requests, Dynam Waco......

Let me know what you choose for your experiment.

Clear Skies

Bill L.
in Okla.

[Grossman56]

Re: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

yeah, I've heard that, but I'm thinking you have to run your antenna outside?
Besides, if you remember Alpha's Sabre, he was saying he didn't notice any signal degradation, remember, you posted on that page.

Grossman56

[StarHopper]

Re: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

Naaa. I don't remember what I had for supper.
(I <i>think</i> I had supper.)

One thing's for sure tho. It's your plane.

[Rocketeer]

Re: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

Greetings G56,

Agreed..... since you will not be covering the entire plane and that the angle of attack related to planes constant change in position while in the air will typically always provide an "exposed" area to 2.4Ghz signal penetration, it is unlikely you would experience noticable degradation.

That being said, should you still have concern, the best insurance policy would be to simply route the receiver antenna to fly along outside the fuselage.

Looking forward to the finished project.

Clear Skies

Bill L.
in Okla.

[Grossman56]

Re: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

Yeah, I agree, the actual P 51D radio antennae ran out of a hole in the canopy and attached to the tail fin, as just about every WWII plane did, that might be a possiblity

[Rocketeer]

Re: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

Greetings G56,

Sounds like a plan, my man!!!

Keep me posted.


Bill L.
in Okla.

[RonF]

Re: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

Gman,

Sounds like an interesting idea. Is the tape actual aluminum or mylar? My days as a Navy Electronics Tech told me that all radio signals are electro-magnetic and metal will block the incoming wave. I think the Spectrum stuff uses either a 1/4 wave or 1/8 wave antenna (a.k.a short length) so aren't as good as a 1/2 wave or full wave. To be safe, I would be sure to have the receiver in an uncovered area and try to get as much of the antenna exposed to free space as possible.

Be sure to post a few pics of the finished product. On a side note, I've seen some metal paint in the art store that looks to cure out and look very much like polished metal. Have you ever tried such a product? I would think that this would be easier, lighter, and may not be actual metal so no radio interference. Being paint, it would allow all of the rivet and panel line detail to show with no fuss. Just an idea. I might have to buy to see. If it does work, it might tarnish better than tape and be a better match for the small scale stuff. Hmmm. Gives me an idea. Need to go think on it a bit.

Good luck,
Ron

[StarHopper]

Re: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

Gentlemen, I'll make just one comment here, bow out & leave it to those smarter than this ol' country boy to work out.

The point is, it doesn't matter if your antennae are waving in the wind if something blocks the radio signal. An already distance-weakened radio signal, might be more proper to say. I've had a signal block from a reflective leading edge on a glider wing. Consider how long it takes to lose a radio link (an instant), and how long under the best of circumstances it takes to re-link. <i>IF</i> it does. What can happen in that time?
It might help, but the exterior antenna concept is more for the radio-blocking components like metallic spars and carbon fiber fuse pods & wings. If _anything_ 'shadows' that receiver antenna, wherever it is, you're on your own.

BUT - it's your plane.

~Back to the barn. Quietly.

[Grossman56]

Re: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

Now don't get me wrong, I believe Star Hopper brings up a very legitimate point here. Maybe building a box wrapped in this stuff and placing it over a receiver would be an interesting test. Just knock the prop off one of my planes, box the receiver and do a range check. Beats the heck out of losing a plane.

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

Re: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

The paint is a possibility as well. A friend of mine used a Testor product years ago and the results were great, mind you, on a plastic model, so I don't know what the metal factor was in it.
Also, there's the film that Wfrailfan used on his P51B, T 28 and DC 3, oracle chrome polyester film which, if you check out his pics in the Hangar forum are beautiful and there they are flying, so that might be a possiblity as well.

On another subject, namely me vs the beast called Waco, I finally found a ruler in mm (please no Canadian jokes) and measured my control throws. WOW!! my elevator throw was pushing 30mm. Had to correct that and got it into high range, then threw on the dual rates and brought her down again to get it into low range. Maybe that will srtaighten out her 'rails' !!

Grossman56

[RonF]

Re: All us newbie pilots, lets share..

Gman,

I couldn't wait to see if the paint I suggested would be any good so went to the local Michael's and bought some. In trying it out, it appears to be the same paint as used for the silver finish on many foam warbirds. I put a little on my F86 and it seems to match exactly. I covered up some areas and the coverage is good and the color is silver and not polished aluminium as hoped. I did find that this paint also matches the MonoKote Silver (aluminium) so I have a couple of planes I can touch up there as well. It was a good idea but I think this may not be what you are wanting since the planes are already that color. I'll put down a nice test patch and let it cure for a couple of days and see if I can get a better result. Perhaps with a little work, it will polish out to a tarnished aluminium though I doubt it will ever be shiny like the metal tape you have.