Today’s members: “OFTFDTW”, Old Farts That Fly During The Week.
see Lonnie about joining up.
Today’s pilots: Al Bleyenberg, Lonnie Hagadorn, Don Jerch, AND!, 3
non-flying, um, senior (been involved for a long time) members.
Mark McClellan, Randall Hendrix, and Wayne Huffman. They had nothing better to do.
They “graced” us with their presence and knowledge. We all agreed that today was
the day to fly. The rest of the week looks a little moist.
RULE #1:
I BROKE THIS ONE BIG TIME
RULE #2: CHECK, CHECK, CHECK, broke this one too.
This is because last week, I “messed up” my Dancing Poke. I had “played” around with my transmitter. Then, went to fly the Poke. Went to the runway, “wiggled” the
sticks, and control surfaces, “wiggled”. SO!, Poke started down the run way, got airborne, went about 20’ very scale takeoff, gave up elevator, Poke went straight into
the ground. Postmortem, didn’t check which way the elevator was going, it just “wiggled”.
Today, I started with a new to me Eflite PT-17. Nice “scale” takeoff, a few laps around the field,
a few landings and followed up with more take offs and landings. DIDN’T CRACK IT UP.
Next up was the new to me Avios Grand Tundra, big sucker. Jim Bates, Dick Blackburn, and Billy West each have one.
It’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It’ll do anything you throw at it, and more.
For me, I was a little “nervous” about flying it, so, I “coerced” Dick into setting up the
transmitter. Tundra calls for a 4-6S battery. Not wanting to get into “another” battery series,
I opted for running 2 – 3S 4000mah in series. Two brand new batteries, charged, ready to
go. Dick was gracious enough to make an adapter. It’s an XT-90.
Before coming to the field, I took some time to sort out the control surfaces. I stuffed in a
couple of 3S 1600 batteries that I had laying around. All went well, YEAH.
So, today at the day at the field, put everything together. Power everything up, no
beep, beeps from the motor, hmmm….
I had Dick, Lonnie, Jim putting their combined knowledge together to “make it work”.
45 minutes later, I called “Uncle”. We’re spending too much time doing “bench work”,
instead of flying. Down in the mouth, I left, leaving the boys to have “phun”.
At home, I spent a couple of hours, checking the Tundra setup. I even read the “manual”
AND! “followed” it. No beeps. Quit for the day. Started up the next day. Went thru the
complete setup. Put in some 3S 1600’s to try, easier to get into the battery box.
BEEPING! The next words out of my mouth are not good for the newsletter.
So, today, put the Tundra together, go thru the setup, put in the new batteries, no BEEP.
More non newsletter stuff coming out of my mouth. Wayne and Mark are in the Peanut
Gallery, commenting on “fixes”. Lonnie and I go thru everything again, no BEEP.
UNCLE!
I tell Lonnie and Don to go back flying. Tundra’s going home again. One last time, this time
put in the 3S 1600’s, just for grins and giggles. BEEP,BEEP……
COMMENTS!!!!!!
Mark and Wayne are busting a gut. I’m scrunching my nose and squinting my eyes as to what
just happened. New batteries vs old batteries. Nope. Check the “brand new batteries”,
dumb a…. the “new” batteries are 4S batteries, so the ESC, said, no way am I going to
work with them. So, when I had put in the “test” batteries, the Tundra beeped.
The “error” was obviously my fault for mis-ordering the batteries. Major DUH HUH on my
part.
Jury rigged a couple 3S 3000 batteries into the battery box. BEEPING OUT THE WAZOO.
Simply amazing. Take off was flawless, Tundra did everything is should have the first time
around. I was “prompted” to try using the flaps, I did, shazam, they work.
Thanks, to Lonnie and Dick for their “patience” in helping with the setup. As for
Mark and Wayne, tttttttttthhhhhhhhhhhhhhhwwwwwwwwwwwwwwaaaaaaaapppp
“big ole raspberry”. With that, they “chuckled off into the sunset”.
Don was showing off with his Valiant “ole shoe” plane. Then switched over to his
3D Hummer.
Lonnie had started with a “pristine” Parkzone T-28. For the little that I was paying
attention, he was flying great. Then he goes to his Wargo 3D plane. The thing is an
arrow.
Not wanting to “push” my luck, I headed for home, Lonnie in a close second, with
Don bringing up the rear.
TTFN