The Blink riseth..
After a monumentally taxing clean up job in the shop over a long-won two week break over the New Year, I have started to dust off some neglected projects and ask myself why they aren't out there flying like they should be, you lazy sod?
The Blink needs to get back in action. I flew it a handful of times, and while it was a riot, I had a few bad hand launches using small high pitch props. It bounced fine, nothing worse than a few scuffs. Had some good flights. The bubble-free film can tank works perfectly. Engine is pretty peppy, that's a VA MKII RC.
But I think the main reason it fell dormant is my spiteful relationship with small NiMH packs. I found them untrustworthy, and finicky to charge. After all, all the battery how-to stuff I ever read stressed the importance of form charging NiMH batteries at C/10 for a few cycles for the best longetivity. Problem is, 22mA or 30mA charge rates require tinkering to achieve, any charger I've ever owned charges down to a lower limit of 100mA. They're probably fine at 100mA charge rate but whatever, I had a few small packs go flat on me despite the best care I knew how to give them, and I never trusted them after that.
But fast forward, and I gave up my stubborn resolve to fly 72mHz for the rest of my life and bought into the modern age with a DX-8 transmitter.. and immediately discovered the joy of little tiny affordable receivers with tiny antennae. And now little LiFe batteries like this. And oodles of affordable micro servos. It really is a hey day for 1/2A radio gear right now.
So what used to be a cramped radio install is now quite spacious. The Rx slips between the spars behind the radio compartment. I'll rewire the tiny shorting plug switch I had in before. 200mAh LiFE replaces 220mAh NiMh and 2.4 micro receiver replaces Berg 4channel - which is a tiny receiver but you still have the antenna to contend with. This model predates my oath not to use HS-55's anymore on half-A's. They do work, as does the HS-50 on throttle. For how long we'll see. Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...
Oh yeah, forgot I posted this a while ago.. bench running the VA before flying the Blink: [link=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fj4EJE61aI]VA ,049 bench run[/link]
Peak 25,300 with a 4.2-4. Not like a combat engine but pretty decent and it's muffled and has pressure and it throttles.
I think I'll fly it a few more times with the VA, then if all is well swap in a Profi and get some speed happening. It was pretty quick with the VA though.. you can sometimes see it here: [link=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KESA58aHZcA]Blink first flight[/link]
Then the VA can go in the little jobbie behind it, another similarly ignored project and one that needs a throttle. I used a Sure Start for the first couple of flights, but had balky runs. When the engine quit it glided great. One ACE constant chord wing panel, a bit on the stubby side.