Coming back to glow
03-11-2006, 12:55 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Boca Raton,
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Coming back to glow
I had wrecked all my glow planes, my knife and my Fun Tiger extra, about a year ago. I bought a few new plnes (ARFs) but they just sat. I really don't like to build at all. I have a wrecked back, so even simple assembly is a bain in the, well, back. I bought a Yak55 foam plane and assembled it. Didn't really do anything for me. I only flew it once. It too just sat. A month or two ago I bought a Parkzone Stryker B and lipo battery. It is tons of fun. The only problem is taking the huge time to charge batteries. I usually end up flying it once and going home. I may set up some more packs and buy that 4 at once charger and a power supply to drive it.
Last weekend I finally put together a glow plane. I had bought a Fun Tiger G202 a long time ago, and I dug it out. These are real unpopular (I believe mainly because they were an early ARF and therefore caught a lot of smack talk). I have had several, with power from 40ST to 61OS. I have always really like them. I find the tail needs reinforced. On this one I strengthened the elevator. The ele has a crosspiece (where it crosses the rudder) that is simply a single piece of about 1/4 by 1/8 balsa. This has broken on every one I have owned. I have *****ed holes in and dripped in CA before. This time I made up a c shaped brace. I cut a control rod to length, made two 90% bends, drilled holes in the solid part of the ele, sliced out a channel for the rod across the crosspiece, and epoxied it in. Added brace : |______| of control rod.
I went flying Sunday and had a blast. My fuel was bad from sitting, and I couldn't get it running right. Some regulars came over and helped. I ended up going out and buying new fuel. It ran pretty good after that, though the high end never seems to do anything but immediatly die when I pinch the line- until it is insanely rich... We put a fuel tube over the needle and I am going to get a new carb o ring and see... *a GMS 47.
The plane flew fantastic, though I did deadstick many times- mostly for runnung out of fuel after we got the engine going better. I usually go to a big tank to get fly time, but this time I didn't. Flight time was about 7.5 minutes. I set my timer to seven and actually got to land the plane under power and taxi to me instead of those nice nature walks. Of course, I forgot to start the time the last flight and got some exercise.
The field was pretty empty, comparatively lots of jets and big planes. It looks like the electrics have taken a huge bite out of field use.
Markham has a small electric area. I walked that way to get one of my deadsticks and saw a guy with a yak 55 -which I know has a FM radio... I walked up and they were adjusting the radio system. They had NOT used the trans freq board!! They were on 47 and said they forgot. I walked over to impound and saw a couple of jets and big scale planes on all the surounding freq, but amazingly 47 was open. Can you imagine a jet or large scale smashing into the freeway from this??? Yikes! I'm going to suggest the park put a big sign in front of the electric parking (these guys were around their suv rearend) before we are closed down.
Glow was a lot more exciting than electric, plus lots of cool planes and flying to watch, plus great guys always ready to help. I had started flying my glow planes, and later the electrics, in remote areas all alone. I think that is why it got boring. The field was way exciting.
Last weekend I finally put together a glow plane. I had bought a Fun Tiger G202 a long time ago, and I dug it out. These are real unpopular (I believe mainly because they were an early ARF and therefore caught a lot of smack talk). I have had several, with power from 40ST to 61OS. I have always really like them. I find the tail needs reinforced. On this one I strengthened the elevator. The ele has a crosspiece (where it crosses the rudder) that is simply a single piece of about 1/4 by 1/8 balsa. This has broken on every one I have owned. I have *****ed holes in and dripped in CA before. This time I made up a c shaped brace. I cut a control rod to length, made two 90% bends, drilled holes in the solid part of the ele, sliced out a channel for the rod across the crosspiece, and epoxied it in. Added brace : |______| of control rod.
I went flying Sunday and had a blast. My fuel was bad from sitting, and I couldn't get it running right. Some regulars came over and helped. I ended up going out and buying new fuel. It ran pretty good after that, though the high end never seems to do anything but immediatly die when I pinch the line- until it is insanely rich... We put a fuel tube over the needle and I am going to get a new carb o ring and see... *a GMS 47.
The plane flew fantastic, though I did deadstick many times- mostly for runnung out of fuel after we got the engine going better. I usually go to a big tank to get fly time, but this time I didn't. Flight time was about 7.5 minutes. I set my timer to seven and actually got to land the plane under power and taxi to me instead of those nice nature walks. Of course, I forgot to start the time the last flight and got some exercise.
The field was pretty empty, comparatively lots of jets and big planes. It looks like the electrics have taken a huge bite out of field use.
Markham has a small electric area. I walked that way to get one of my deadsticks and saw a guy with a yak 55 -which I know has a FM radio... I walked up and they were adjusting the radio system. They had NOT used the trans freq board!! They were on 47 and said they forgot. I walked over to impound and saw a couple of jets and big scale planes on all the surounding freq, but amazingly 47 was open. Can you imagine a jet or large scale smashing into the freeway from this??? Yikes! I'm going to suggest the park put a big sign in front of the electric parking (these guys were around their suv rearend) before we are closed down.
Glow was a lot more exciting than electric, plus lots of cool planes and flying to watch, plus great guys always ready to help. I had started flying my glow planes, and later the electrics, in remote areas all alone. I think that is why it got boring. The field was way exciting.
