 |
Martin's Blog journal of Electric R/C planes and related projects. |
| This website is maintained by Martin from PLMS Developments | |||
|
INTRODUCTION I did fly glow fuel R/C models briefly back in about 1982, but I found it all very hard with travel to a distant club field well away from where I then lived. I also found that balsa aircraft tended to explode on impact, one of which ended my training time early. I then switched over to electric and gas model cars for some years, as well as a decade or so of competitive Kart racing. 21 years later I'm keen to fly models again, and foamies and electrics have open the door to much easier flying, no exploding balsa is required....... Well, maybe just a little bit or small piece here and there. (2006 - Actually whole balsa planes too now :-) The latest text blog entry is now just below, at the TOP of the page. My earliest entry at the bottom.The model blog list on the left is more or less a chronological order of building from top down. LINK: Current Adelaide wind directions and speed LAST BLOG ENTRY August 2008 I've spent most of the build time in the last few months fitting the ARF Spitfire kit with retracts. It was quite a long job to do properly but the result is quite rewarding. There is a some updates in the build blog for it, with pictures of it full assembled now. Just waiting for good weather for a maiden flight now. I also spent some time fixing the Formosa again, it had a mishap while a friend was flying it. One wing was torn off, but a few hour of work with PU glue and Red Devil filler and it was fine again. T-rex still going OK. Changed the tail servo to a MKS P-03 digital now and reset the gyro gains etc. Flys well thus far. No loops yet, I'll give the new airframe a chance for some use first. Oh yes, I've bought a 64mm EDF unit from HC. To make Cameron a ducted fan jet. His flying is good enough these days. May 2008 Haikong Spitfire - Arrived. Late May. No work on the Spitfire other than the retracts arrived from HobbyCity.com. T-rex - Just when I was getting into looping it now, a monumental crash occured. Not my fault, other than lack of machine maintenance. The ball link on the Elevator rocker on the fuselage had got very stiff, then the servo failed in flight. Big damage. Photos in the T-rex blog. Now many $ later I have a 450S fuselage with 450SE style alloy head and tail plus the long tail boom. Katana S - The glow driver I scratch built using a PIC microproccesor has cured the rotten idle reliability of the old OS MAX FS-61. Works by linearly increasing glow drive as the throttle drops. Idle is full glow, via a single NiCd. WOT has no glow. The driver has a bright Red LED and a piezo on it to tell me whats going on while starting etc. The engine now works fine with very low Nitro fuel. When I get time I'll make the glow driver another free DIY PIC project. April 2008 It's been a fair while since an update, mainly because I've had too much to do, and little time. The highlights I put together a new model, but for my five year old son. He was given a Hyperflea kit by a Canadian pal who thought he deserved something more interesting to fly than an Electrafun or a Zagi. The Hyperflea - is basically a small EPP delta pusher design, with the motor and prop mid mounted. The props arc goes through a slot across the model, so the prop wash blows across the elevons. This gives the model a very wide speed range and it can do a fair harrier type 3D manoeuvre. Some photos of it. That brings me to my son Cameron. I started to teach him back in November, on an Electrafun. Well he took three flights to go solo, that is three battery packs.... He then flew the Electrafun XP about six times at the local park and also at Skyhawks club. At that point I thought I'd take a chance with the old Zagi 400 and give him a chance to fly that. Bugger me he took to it right off, no problem with handling a 'bank & yank' model. He's decked it a few times since, but only when going beyond his limits (like trying inverted loops at grass height). He's now doing a bit of inverted flight and confidently doing rolls and loops. He's had a go at Combat too. The Hyperflea was a breeze for him consequently but will be a good safe way for him to push his limits. The Zagi is a bit scary if it comes too close. Maybe we should find him a sponsor to start flying in IMAC or Pattern comps :-) I look forwards to day I can go slope soaring with him. It won't be far away I think..... Here is a link to his outing with the Hyperflea on Youtube. Slope soaring - A big highlight of this year so far. We did another Yorke Peninsular slope soaring expedition. A very small crowd, only four of us Adelaide boys. The weather look like it was going to be unsuitable, but as fate would have it we ended up with the right wind conditions at just the right moments. We had 15 knots from the SE on Saturday, and after consulting Mark (back in Adelaide) we headed out to Edithburgh. Well after stuffing ourselves for lunch at a great local take-away they have in town, we then flew our butts off on the cliffs out south. It was a great day. My Javelin flew great, Brians new sloper did too. My Gulp SR-T came out for the last flight, and again showed it's the performance bird in the flock.. Sunday night we had a dead calm, so we did a heap of fun night flying. During the day we had flown electrics off the beach, another highlight... Here is a link to the latest slope soaring video from that trip. Katana S - The 2kg beast got a few outings at Skyhawks lately but I've never had much joy with the OS MAX .61 FS (four stroke), and last outing it cut dead during a hover about 5 meters off the deck. The model then found the deck, but I did manage to get it to land flat, not pointy end first. Minor fus damage (since repaired). It has got me thinking of either selling the .61 FS (make me an offer) and going electric, OR building my own onboard glow driver as I think that will solve the flame-out issues. The driver will be another PIC microprocessor based design and use a single NiCd cell to warm the plug when the throttle is low. It will also have a 'start' button so you can get the model going without another glow driver attached. Formosa - Going as well as ever but has had some wear and tare lately. Cameron bounced it off tree when I let him use it briefly (he flew it fine, but then just had to scratch an itch, kids... !). Then one week later Mark and I had a proper mid-air over Kings. Much foam tumbled down, as his model was a GWS AT-6. The Formosa did an emergency plop on to the ground and broke it's back cleanly, it suffered a destroyed servo, prop and landing gear in the actual crash. One aileron servo was kaput, but the one remaining working one was enough to plonk it down upright. Marks AT-6 is a bit of a mess, but it is rebuildable. I expect it will be out in a week or two as well. T-rex - Going great, but I've still not looped it yet. Doing ever faster circuits, flybys and stall turns etc. I've been pulling it straight up in the start of a loop, then pushing it back down again just fine, so pulling a full loop should be no problem I hope. Late Nov 2007 I've added a project page for our 'PLMS LVA' or LiPo Alarm LED. This is a matured shed project I began about a year ago. It's been great on my T-rex 450, I just do a fly-by and check the LED colour to see how the LiPo pack is going. The project page on the left, has links to the schematic and PIC files. Enjoy, but don't ask for help to make one. It's DIY not DIFY :-) PROGRAM CODE DOWNLOAD November 2007 I've been the brunt of a couple of I think misdirected complaints from two local people in the last few months (both possibly from the one residence), that somebody is flying models at Kings Community Oval making annoying noise with their models, mainly on weekends. I know the problem is NOT the informal group of Sunday enthusiasts because we are well aware of the situation and limit the models we fly to very quiet types. I have checked the relevant laws on the EPA, Council and Police websites. I believe we are actually very well within the guidelines, with our electric only flyers. I wish the complainer would check this info too ! It's a community oval we fly at, and we're a living part of the community....... At other times than we are there, some modelers must be flying glow powered machines, Heli's or fixed wing too perhaps. There may also be some very loud Stryker type models or ducted fans being used too. If it's you, be aware that you are causing some trouble. Limited though it is, it's still trouble for us and I'm asking you to NOT fly glow or loud models at this site anymore before the problem may get escalated. The problem seems to be only over the Eastern side (which has the best parking unfortunately) so DON'T be overflying that section with ANYTHING if possible. On a lighter note, I've been at it again in the building shed. A 45" span, O.S. FS-61 glow powered Katana-S, 2kg fun fly model has emerged. This one ain't a park flyer, so I've been flying it at an Adelaide club (I finally found a club that wasn't full of stiff spined near geriatrics with a dim view of park flyer types, so I joined it). The glow powered model sort of fell into my lap, because the great little four stroke OS engine was given to me (brand new too), so I only needed to buy the airframe. Some more Katana-S info later, but let me tell you it's a real FUN fly. Like a big 2kg Ikurus shocky ! It will fly all the 3D stuff great, even in 10kts of wind. My T-rex 450X flying is coming along well, I've made a big confidence jump into doing proper fast circuits now. I been practicing to fly smooth figure eights, with stall turns and nose in/out hovering in between as well. I've now started to teach my five year old lad to fly RC too (Electrafun only). He's got take-offs and circuits worked out, and done a couple of landings. Maybe he'll be the world IMAC champ of 2017..... (I know I won't be). AUGUST 2007 Formosa getting a lot of air time. The Javelin project is slowly becoming a slope soarer. As a small distraction I built a depron 3D kit model. It's a Great Planes Reflection. It flies well but is as fragile as eggs. June 2007 I've put up some new slope soaring footage on YouTube. Here is the link, some info is on my slope soaring page. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpDVE82-wIc Also put up on Youtube a very destructive LiPo battery over-charging test, it was done during our last slope soaring trip away from town. Some people toast marshmallows, we toast batteries..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWoVxjBZhyo In the meantime I'm working on the Javelin slope soarer project, and thinking about the Yak 55 SP still in it's box. The GWS Formosa is getting the bulk of the flying time now that it's finished. Flys great too, I've been practicing my 'Park Pattern' routines for the next local friendly F3A competition. May 2007 I got an offer for the unbuilt GWS A-10 kit, so it's been sold. It's gone to a shed in Perth much like my own by what I heard. The Gulp SR-T is completed and flown. It is a hell of great slope soarer. We had our annual York Peninsular trip last weekend, and three Gulps got maidened at the same time in huge winds. As they are a hard to get USA sourced kit (no PayPal, only expensive money orders) local flyers Peter, Jeff and myself pooled money and bought three and shared the freight and money order costs. The Corny weekend happened to have three days of fantastic on-shore wind at the cliffs, the new Gulps were in their element from the first flights. Some of the mates who were there have created web pages with photos and video. http://fitlinkoz.dyndns.org/trip3/page.html I've started a Gulp ST-T blog for the details of the Gulp build. On our weekend there was also maiden flights for a Wow-wings Skua and a Canterbury Sailplanes P-51. All are EPP based slope soarers. We did some in flight video recording with a 2M Glider on the slope during the trip too. GWS Formosa I - Nearing completion. I've modified the standard build by fitting the 'Jeff Boyd Hyperion landing gear mod' and also doing my now standard mod to hollow out the battery bay to fit odd shaped LiPo's better and moving the tail servos out of the cockpit as well. The T-rex is going well but not being flown much. I think it's the cost of any crashes that holds me back from regular use of it. Catch 22 in a way. I use the FMS Sim and a great free T-rex FMS model to stay in practice. March 2007 Flying has got a little better in the last week or so, the wind is dropping in the late evenings, but now we are running out of daylight hours ! The Gulp SR-T is nearing completion. I only have to finish the lamifilm surface covering and fit the ailerons. I'm using 30uM low temperature laminating film to cover the tape, prior to spray painting with Tamiya PS colours. This is a bit of an experiment, covering models with laminating film is little known locally. This stuff is way cheaper than any commercial model film and is spray-able. Sticks to EPP and balsa. I have another model in a box in my shed (that makes three). I bought a Hyperion Yak-55SP 10e. It will be my Sunday best park model and complement the Formosa for park aerobatics. I mainly bought this model because they look fantastic, the construction has to be seen to be believed. A set of SG-90 servos and a KDA22-15M brushless motor are going to be fitted to it. February 2007 Flying has been sparse of late due to many windy days. (same damn weather for 3 months). I'm also three months into a slow build up of a Gulp SR-T 60" wingspan slope racer. This is a high performance slope soarer and DS'ing model. I guess I should blog it too. Just this week the Hotpoint blog finished, as did the model. Any of you out there with one be warned that at 270W power input my Hotpoints horizontal stabilizers tore off in the middle of a dive. The model is totaled, most of the flight gear too. HOTPOINT EP The T-rex is well sorted out now. I fitted late model parts to the tail assembly to eliminate free play and the Gyro now works wag free. I also fitted a Z-power 450TH motor now. Nothing has moved on my GWS A-10 project. In fact if anyone wants to buy the kit and updated fans from me drop me an email. I've lost interest in it since I now need to replace the Hotpoint, most likely with a GWS Formosa. NOVEMBER 2006 Flying has been sparse of late due to many windy days, this did however make the slope soaring over on the Yorke Peninsular great late last month. This was our second group slope soaring weekend. The next one should be even better as we 'found' a few top spots including one we think is a near perfect DS (google on Dynamic Soaring) site to see if we can do it. Faster slope soaring models are being built by a few of the group for the next trip over. The T-rex is going well, although I've had some mishaps due to glitches and BEC failures. See the T-rex blog for more details. SEPTEMBER 2006 Been very windy here the last two months, too much for regular park flying except on the odd occasion. A few of us tried out a well known slope site called Bald Hill South of the city a few weeks back during a period of Northerly wind. Very good lift and some great flights, but the end was marred by three mishaps while trying to land. Three gliders got damaged. My Turmeric got snapped in two behind the wing saddle. Some fairly major fiber glassing was required to rejoin the two fuz pieces. I took the opportunity modify my Turmeric, it now has a four servo wing with 90 degree flaps. Details are in the Turmeric Blog. T-rex - I'm now flying circuits and doing basic low stress aerobatics like stall turns (is that the right name for a heli turn ?). Still all using flight mode 1 (hover mode) but about time to go to the next mode. One tip for anyone learning Heli, use a SIM like FMS till you can hover tail in and then nose in for 5 minutes at a time. Then go try the model ! One model gone and another arrives. I have given away the EPP Bipe to a work friend and in it's place I bought an A-10 Thunderbolt GWS ducted fan model. The A-10 will be another budget build up, brushless though. I managed to buy two 18Amp ESC's for about $15AU each for it already, plus some SG-90 servos for about $9AU each. Cheap thus far. Two DIY brushless motors and a Feigao RX should round it all off for very little more than the kit cost ! JULY 2006 Oh no, I seem to have bought a T-rex Heli. My plane flying friends have all left me. My planes just seem so dull now. Ha ha, just kidding, but I do have aT-rex now and have passed the smaller DF 22E on to a worthy friend to have a go with. I just want one heli, that's big enough for outdoor use on a good day. I built up the T-rex using all the cheapest (but well tested) parts I could find, and spare bits from other model projects. Here's the Blog about it. T-rex Combat flying is going well too, we've been at it most weekends lately. I've added to the Electrafun Mods blog with information about using the newer 4ch type TX they come with, to it use with FMS flight sim like the original TX. MAY 2006 The combat has been going great, maximum fun for all. We've had two or three crashes and two decent mid air collisions. All models have been glued back together afterwards and joined in the next weeks battle. Most guy's have had a ribbon cut 'kill' or two and been cut up themselves. Check out my El Bandito model here. April 2006 Heaps has been happening, too fast for me to get time to blog it. Trying to catch up now... The Hotpoint is going great, my pal in crime Peter also has one now. Got given a mini heli, a Dragonfly 22E. That's where a lot of my play time has gone, trying to keep it going so I can learn a bit about them. Soon found two things about heli's, fun to fly and expensive to fix. The biggest story lately has been a decision by seven of us local guys to build some park size RC combat models. Eventually we settled on a one make restricted class, using Hacker Reno Racer EPP foam models from ACW and cheap brushless motor/esc & servo sets from Ebay. All up weight is about 350g, their speed is on the low end of the scale. Ready to fly cost is BELOW $200 !. Seven of these things dragging paper ribbons around the sky in combat should be quite a scene. Can't wait to go 'punish' a few pals down at the park ! Added a small page about my favourite RC products now. March 2006 Quite a bit has been going on from last month to this one. I did a little aerial photography for a competition on Wattflyer.com forums. Didn't win, but did get some great shots of my local flying area as seen from my Zagi. A domestic Sony Cybershot was taped down to the battery cover with strapping tape. Used the self timer, worked well. I've flown the Hotpoint EP now. Bloody good model. I enjoy flying it as I've discovered I can do knife-edge and good hovering IF I have the right model. I'm running it different from most guy's, I've opted for a large slow-fly prop and geared motor. I have 160Watts of power and find it's fine. Most others seem to set them up as faster heavier pattern models. You should see it coming in to land, it's a real smooth floater. The big event for March has been a weekends trip away, with six local electric flyers and one from Sydney. We drove over to Yorke Penninsular to go slope soaring and thermaling. What a blast, the weather was good, most guys only stopped flying each day because they ran out of transmitter batteries. Yorkes is good because there are cliffs around it facing nearly any possible wind direction. We filled the sky with Zagi's, E-slope gliders and Stryker park flyers where ever we found the lift. I have some photos a bit of video to put up. Feb
2006 This year I mainly dabbled in building foam kits and also an ARF electric assisted slope glider. Highlights were the GWS ME-109 and the Turmeric. I have been doing some interesting tinkering with other peoples models, mainly helping setup and optimising electric power systems, plus some test flying and trimming on some others. I added a spiel to the page that may help a new flyer get a successful first flight experience, it assumes the reader is a rank beginner and has no experienced flyer to teach them. It's stuff I learned the hard way myself. March 2005 I seem to be moving away from the raw S.P.A.D. (Simple Plastic Airplane Designs) concept now, only because nice looking foam kits are getting so CHEAP. My first kit foamy was the Align F-16 Super 400. My favorite scratch building material is EPP at the moment, although I went and bought an EPP biplane kit to save some time re inventing the wheel. June 2004 Peter bought a Zagi XS from the US. Before he built it up we made wing templates and we cut a pair of identicle wings for me. Cheeky, but way cheaper than importing one. Corex, EPP and Blue foam material is king now, on my Mugi's and the new Zagi and S.P.A.D. March
2004 I can fly for a whole battery charge now, most of the time :-) The first Mugi has done well even though it's been smashed into the ground and trees at every conceivable angle and speed. The model is bent out of shape but still flies OK. I've damaged a servo gear set twice. November 2003 After the violent demise and trashing of the PA-12 twice (not just crash damage!) I looked around for something more crash friendly. Peter found a DIY model called a Mugi on the WWW and I liked the look of it. It is dead easy to make, BUT it took about 20 launches to get even a 10 second flight out of it, mainly due to my lack of any flying skills. October
2003- My FIRST BLOG ENTRY (before the word blog was popular) I chose to buy a Hitec Flash5 radio set and a LEE PA-12 Cub electric foam model. The Hitec radio has been great and served me well. The PA-12, well it served me fairly badly. Click the link to see the detailed blog. Local Flying Some of the local electric fliers are meeting up regularly for a laid back disorganised social electric fun fly at Golden Grove or Wynn Vale, on most Sunday mornings when the wind is down. I'm out flying by 9:30AM usually. We're all happy to help new fliers with model setup. See you there one day perhaps... There are two locations we use depending on what's being flown. Foamy Warbirds and 3D's are best flown off the grass oval at Wynn Vale near the Lions Club Lookout. Mostly this is where we go on Sundays now. It's a large and perfect site for electrics. Anything with wheels or a bit larger size works well at the Golden Grove Skate Park paddock. You may need to drive by both locations to find us. I prefer the grassed oval currently as I like to keep the underneath of my warbird tidy with belly landings. The King's cut grass oval is at Wynn Vale. Adjacent to the corner of Endeavour Drive and Westminster Street. It's east of King's Baptist Grammar School, but owned by the school. Look for the Lions Park Lookout in the street directory, it's the oval it overlooks. Due to a problem resident, please DON'T fly any loud or glow powered models there to keep the peace !!! The Skate Park paddock is down the hill behind the Golden Grove District Netball grounds (behind the white clock tower) at Golden Grove, Golden Way. Access is easiest from Atlantis Drive. NOTE: We've not been there for some time in lieu of the greener King's Oval site. A hobby for everyone Over time the number of local people interested in flying here has increased, there have been many people living near the parks that have come out to see how they can get involved with models themselves. People of all ages seem to love these small aircraft and come out to watch. Many a time a stranger will come over and tell me stories about their own aviation adventures, some from in the air force and elsewhere. I enjoy to hear it all. When we part, they are not a stranger anymore :-) Lately a few older retired gentlemen seem to be interested in having a dabble in the flying, what a great pastime for someone who lives nearby. ( I can see a day in the future when we sit around the field drinking coffee listening to war stories while electric model Spitfires and ME-109's fly mock battles above) Whether your young or old, we are happy to see you on the field and lend our scant knowledge to help you get in the air too, or just to say hello. Park Etiquette In this age we live in the scope of recreational activities we can all enjoy seems to dwindle every day, mainly from over-regulation. To keep enjoying our favorite flying spots some etiquette is needed to ensure we remain a welcome sight at a park. We should endeavor to avoid encroaching on anyone else's use of these public places, so we follow some unwritten rules. We avoid flying directly over any person, and avoid flying low to the ground near any person not involved in the flying (we all know they are small light foam electric models, but not everyone else does). We choose to use light weight models, preferably well under 1000g. We discourage using noisy models, most electric aircraft can nearly silent if they have the right motor and prop for the job. A good model can barely be heard from 50m away. Most park models are only 300g or so, this means we are no more a risk than the average flying cricket ball or football, and probably much less because WE have control of OUR models flight path. Instead I've bought a small cheap secondhand DV camera of Ebay that is light enough to fit on models like a Zagi. It takes 640x480 video with sound, it works well. We should be able to get some nice in flight video done soon. Made myself a miniature DIY 'Three colour LED LiPo battery monitor' for my Dragonfly Heli. It's fitted to the ESC side of the power input so I know when the Lipo is down to 9V (3S packs). I will post the circuit and PIC micro hex code so anyone can build one if they feel like a quick project. I wrote the micro code in PIC Basic Pro, the PIC is a 12F675. It glows green above 10V, Blue between 10 and 9V, Red below that. Research Continues......
Last modified : 02-Aug-08 Report any HTML errors to my email if you want too. |
|||
Copyright © 2005 PLMS Developments