Sit back and read on, this is a long one.
CVRC Dec 18, 2018
Well, after a couple weeks of no flying because of the weather, Lonnie Hagadorn ,Bill Holder, Don Jerch, Dick Blackburn, and I showed up to have “fun”. Dick brought out one of his sailplanes. It amazes me what you can do with a sailplane and Dick knows how to fly.
On one of the low speed fly bys, we could hear some noise. Dick brings it in and turns out the motor mount had worked itself away from the fuselage. NOT TOO GOOD. So, Dick retired it for the day and helped us “newbies”. Glad he was there.
I was on a mission to get my problem child Corsair flyable. With Dick’s capable knowledge, he got it up and flying like it use to. Comma but, when he handed the controls over to me, things didn’t go as planned. Once again, into the rhubarb. Only slight damage, but enough for me to cry “uncle”.
So, I’m positive Dick sabotaged the transmitter when he handed it over. It has nothing to do with my “skills”. After all, I’m a Yankee, and know it all.
As for the other “boys”, Bill flew his Apprentice, flawlessly as usual. Slime bucket.
Lonnie brought out a “paper/carboard” plane and flew rather respectably considering it was the “maiden” flight. Plus, the fact that Lonnie doesn’t usually fly without the AS3X system in his planes.
All in all, did really well, came down a little hard a couple of times, but the plane survived to fly another day.
Don took out his T-28 and really flew it well. Had a couple of too close to the ground for comfort misses. Didn’t hit, but, cut some grass. A couple belly landings (no landing gear) and he was happy.
Then Bill brings out his new to him Variant. Look it up on the web, real purty. Got a really good first flight.
THEN, Lonnie and Bill made a couple of changes. Lonnie went to take off, and the plane tried to take off going backwards at full tilt. Now, how he accomplished that is a mystery to me. Went fast enough and hard enough, that when he hit the plane test stand, sorta kinda left the tail assembly on a 45 degree angle.
With some perseverance and C/A, all back to normal and in the air again. Gotta love foam.
By now Dick had other engagements and said his farewells. Lonnie brought out his Slow Poke (he has a little Ford ranger and kept pulling out planes). Must have them in shrink mode.
Slow poke flew well and really is a nice plane to see in the air.
Lonnie wasn’t satisfied with the speed of the plane, so he made a prop change. Went the wrong way on size and ended up going slower. Back to the drawing boards.
Now it was Don’s turn to head off into the wilderness (home). By now, it’s getting cooler, and we’d all have out own share of fun.
Al “new guy”
Al – great stuff, but here’s an edit:
Bill’s “new” plane is a Horizon Hobby (Parkzone) Visionaire, not a “Variant”. The “flying backward” feature is super simple! All ya gotta do is hook up the ESC wrong so that the prop turns clockwise instead of CCW. THEN, to solve that problem (without going to the bother of pulling off the engine cowl and reversing any two ESC leads) is to reverse the throttle in the transmitter. The result will be FULL THROTTLE in reverse immediately, even without any throttle input at all. REALLY EXCITING!!! The only way to stop the engine after that (besides disconnecting the battery) is to reverse it in the transmitter again, which is what we did. Unfortunately, by then, the plane had traveled quite a ways on the ground, out-of-control and in reverse. Kinda cool, actually, except for the slightly bent tail feathers! It only took about twenty minutes to fix everything, and after that, Bill had several really fine flights. The original Visionaire is no longer being sold, and has been superseded by the Night Visionaire. Same plane, but with lotsa LEDs.
By the way, we scored a new first today. Dick said he’s never seen a plane travel backwards like that before. I’m so proud!
As for me, AS3X is nice to have, but it’s the Spektrum SAFE system that usually saves my butt from disaster. However, the “Flite Test Simple Cub” kit-build I brought to the field today has none of that. The initial problems I was having were due to a rubber band-fastened wing being slightly out of alignment, and after an initial rough landing, one wingtip got a little bent out of shape so the plane kept wanting to roll to the right in subsequent flights. It was controllable, but a handful at my skill level. Things should be fine after I take the bend out of the wingtip.
The problem with my Slowpoke is that I had replaced the motor (after a crash a few weeks back) and the replacement is too weak. I tried to fix that issue with a slow flight prop, but it just wouldn’t provide enough oomph for reliable control. The Slowpoke is sold by Hobby King, and they don’t offer any phone support, and there was no direct motor replacement listed on their site. RC Group had it covered though, and I found and ordered a recommended replacement motor nearer the proper size. Maybe in a few weeks I’ll get that back in the air?
Lonnie
I STAND CORRECTED ON MY LAST UPDATE: