FERNDALE AIR FORCE

Hi all, I finally got my extra chargers. I think I will be able to charge all three batteries at the same time. If anyone is interested in the spare chargers let me know and I will endeavor to post a link.

Last nights flights(2) were interesting. The pressure was low and there was a shear at about 70'. The first flight launched really wild, but I rode it out and went for some altitude. By the time I got the plane to 100+' and was comfortable flying it around enough to trim I was on the other side of the cemetary, so at least 300yards away, at about 120'. This is the edge of my ability to see the plane at that altitude. I had to sort of weave it back to me and climbed immediately. Any nose on or side on flight and the plane all but disappeared. Any way I got it back and flew around until the timer went off.

The second flight was stranger yet, the sheer was so stron that I had to climb at full throttle to get through it. Half throttle would let me get close and the plane would just dive away. I flew most of that batteryjust trying to figure out what the air was going to do.

Short story is that a storm was rolling in and the pressure was dropping rapidly, causing a "downdraft".

Tim

FERNDALE AIR FORCE

Flight report[>:][], I grabbed the bug and was out the door and decided that it was a pain right now. Maybe a bit more expo. How about I cancelled the expo, so fed in the -20 and went to flying. The wind was sort of gusty at altitude, but I flew the battery for 6 minutes, 8-10 is the bec range. I brought the plane down and landed. No Problem. I did have a twitch in the left servo earlier but that seemed to have subsided.

Second flight, the "new" battery, it had maybe 10 cycles on it. The twitch is nearly gone, but after this flight the hs-55 that runs the rudder will become a secret servo and the hs-55 will replace the twitchy servo. So I do my normal flying, some big loops, nose up rolls etc and then chase a buzzard off my patch of sky. Whilechasing the buzzard I climbed a couple of hundred feet. But I was not in crazy high range, around 400-500'. The one minute chime sounded, I love this radio, and I started to bring the plane down.

I tried to dive down to 200', but the plane rolled on it's back and climbed out of the dive. I reduced power and dove and the planecaught some wind and kited away from me and rolled over. This progression continued, I would dive under power and the plane would roll. When I finally had it down to 300' or so I was 1/4 mile away, but reeling it in. Minimal power, minimal inputs, of course I clipped a tree top with the LG. And though I thought I could fly another 50' the plane only flew another 20'. 20' landed it in the branches 100' up, 50' would be in the cemetary. By the way the left servo did not function when I got to the tree. Wind or servo failure? I do not know, but I have flown back from there this week.

Tim

darticus

Try the 70 expo Tim. Ron

FERNDALE AIR FORCE

Ron, more than likely I will have to buy another bug for that. The 70 expo seemed very mushy to me.

Tim

FERNDALE AIR FORCE

OK, I have pic's and the plane is still in the tree . The pic's will explai why I think climbing and a fishing pole won't work, although I'm considering the latter.

One good thing happened though. A young woman came up and asked if I had seen a cell phone, I said no. As I was leaving, she asked if I had a phone. For whatever reason I had my phone with me, I called her number and about the 5 th ring she found it. They were looking in the wrong area entirely. So I got to do a good deed anyway.

I'll edit when the pics come up to explain.

Tim

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OK, pic 1 is about 50' from where I fly from and includes the ridgeline trees that the plane is in. Pic 2. is a zoom of pic 1, the skinny tree is the culprit. Pic 3 is the plane in the tree. The plane is cetered in the frame and the rudder is at full right, also yellow stripes. Pic 4 is the top 20' of the tree, the plane is only visible with a double zoom. Pic's 5 and six are the tree as it goes down. Not in pic 6 that there is a road down there. Pic 7 is just a view pic. Pic 8 is a perspective shot. I live in the blue house and was flying out front.
Pic 9 is a zoom of the house area. The mail box is about 12' to my left when I fly. The mailbox is under the light pole. Pic 10 is another view shot. Pic's 11 and 12 are 2 headstones near the tree magnet. I thought they would better explain why folks come and visit this cemetary.

Tim


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darticus

Tim
Wheres the Beef!
I don't see any pics! Ron

FERNDALE AIR FORCE

New facts about the bug. I'm sticking to my guesstimate of 1/4 mile out. But I climbed to a spot where I was level with the plane and 0'd my watch altimeter. It's right at 70' up the tree, and overall altitude is approximately ......... 230' , and since the top of the tree is about 20' higher I was at 250' approx., when I went in. And since I had managed to get it halfway down I should have been at about 500' when I started to land. And I had been even higher on that flight.

Tim


Ron, look again, what are you talking about?[)][)] Tim

darticus

Now I see them. Twice today I looked and nothing. OK got it! What altimeter you don't really have one do you? Ron

FERNDALE AIR FORCE

Ron, I'm teasing you. I tried a cut and paste that didn't work. I reloaded the pic's today. I do indeed have a watch that has an altimeter in it. It also has a barometer in it, and reasonably reliable weather forecasting. Here's the link http://www.timex.com/gp/product/B000...imexBrand=core I like complicated watches. Here is my other favorite http://www.citizenwatch.com/COA/Engl...ber=JR3090-58L I did not pay list for the Citizen. But the switch from stainless to titanium is worthy, the watch weighs half as much. I want a titanium Tissot T-Touch, but I doubt I'll buy one as my buddy has that one and matching sux.

Tim

darticus

You live in the cemetery? COOL! Plane is dead! Ron

FERNDALE AIR FORCE

I'll be plane fishing this afternoon, after I fly everything else. I live in the blue house in picture 8. Hopefully, I'll have good news later.

Tim

The plane fishing went OK. I got serious movement out fo the plane, and found where to put the line. Maybe tomorrow, it will come down. I need a few more weights[X(][)]

Tim

darticus

Whats the news? Did you save it?
What do you know about 4D flying? Ron

FERNDALE AIR FORCE

So I went up to the cemetary and couldn't find the plane in the tree[][]. Yep I'm in the correct spot, nope it's not there. I look arond the on the ground, nothing. So I went about 30' down the path, across an old plot, and onto the side of the hill. Hmm, nothing in the vines. But wait, what could that be in that bit of blow down? Why yes it's the rare, highly aerobatic, Ferndale bug!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

It seems that yesterdays downing was successful after all. Dmn those calls of nature. I knew I had it loose, but I did not think it was ready to fall immediately.

Here's a pic of the bird and the truty Airplane retrievel device. It looks like I'll ditch the one servo that is twitching with the rudder servo and use an HXT 900 for the rudder servo.

Tim

FERNDALE AIR FORCE

I know nothing about 4-d flying. I know there is a forum for it on the EAU page.

Tim

darticus

ITS ALIVE! You can take some scrap foam that was in the box that the main body was stamped out of and fix that chop in it perfectly. The servos seem to chatter a lot but don't toss it, its still good.
As for 4D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGWNHzaSGE0

FERNDALE AIR FORCE

Ron, the vid is loading. I just took the bug out. Now I did set the sub trims first, not an option with the flash 5, and then trimmed as I flew. I ended up with -4% or 4 clicks of down. I had been flying with some wild numbers. Anyway, it flew much better. The servo in question had the entire plane flopping like a flounder, so it had to be messing with me. This last flight was vastly superior too my last 2. The battery that camped with the plane is undergoing some charging hijinx. I'll let you know how it works out.

Here are a couple of pics from my outing with the SU-27XXL. This thing sounds like.................................., well it doesn't sound like an electric plane, sort of a roar as it goes. It is similar in abilities to the Bug, but due to it's size and speed it needs a bit more room. I could not get it to fly with the stock 400 motor. I put a 1900kv turnigy motor and turnigy esc and an APC electric 7x5 prop on it. With this set up you can climb truly vertical, I haven't got mine perfect yet, but was able to get 30' of straight up before wimping out. I learned that my motor mount was not ready for the power this morning, the hard way.

Tim

FERNDALE AIR FORCE

Cool vid! I don't think I'm ready for that yet. It looks like a mastery of 3d flight is a prerequisite, and I'm no where near that.

Tim

darticus

Tim and the rest of you Guys
What are the flying tricks people do with their planes. I know they do loops and rolls but what else do they do? Are there names for different stunts?

Flypaper 2

Here's one that works well Dart.
http://www.scootworks.com/rdrc/aerobat.html

FERNDALE AIR FORCE

I got the 3s batteries today. I will endeavor to keep from ordering more for a day or two. Much better performance.

Ron, once I'm comfortable with the bug overall I'll start learning the formal tricks and their names. Inverted flight comes to mind pretty quick.

Tim

darticus

Flypaper 2 Great!
Just what I was looking for, Fantastic!
Tim check it out!

FERNDALE AIR FORCE

Flypaper, great link.[)] It's exactly the same sort of stuff from the 3 d manual. And it seems some of what I do has a name. The turning thing that looks like an otter is not there, nor is the inverted version. It's a sort of harrier.

Ron I will use the how to manual.

Tim

FERNDALE AIR FORCE

Hi all, here's what's up with the bug this week. I went out for my third flight thursday night and during my preflight I noticed that the right servo would not work correctly, no down ele. So I did a complete servo switch out. I had put an hxt-900 on for the rudder on Sunday. I set the subtrims etc and had to make new control arms and reset the length of the pushrods. I alsofound that the tube joint on the right elevon was getting close to breaking and repaired that as well.

On friday I took it out to fly and realized that both servos were reversed, so I switched them. Rolled out climbed about 8' and let the ele come back to center. I pounded the pavement pretty good, actually broke the prop[X(]. Yep I had a couple of clicks of up dialed in and reversing the servos meant that I now had a couple of clicks of down and crashed. I hung a new prop on it and got 4 flights in[)]

Tim

FERNDALE AIR FORCE

The wind died out enough to get a couple of batteries worth of flight. Lot's of fun. I am going to look at the esc instructions, I'm getting a 2 beep signal rather than a 3 beep signal. I don't know if that is normal for a 3s battery with the stock esc. I get a 3 beep signal from my other planes when a 3s battery is installed.

Tim

FERNDALE AIR FORCE

Hi all, I thought I was going let this thread die a slow death, but since some are reading it I will continue writing. Anyway the wind is still going but not as hard as the past couple of days. So, I took the bug out for a flight. The first battery was pretty mellow, I'm retraining myself to fly around 1/2 throttle with the 3s batteries. I had to kepp the plane below 60' and in a fairly tight area. The reason for that is that I'm using the house as a wind break. Any way I was having an absolute blast, practicing new control angles and seeing what the plane will do. I flew out the timer and landed the plane no big deal.

The second flight was a touch different, the wind at ground level was a bit less, but at 40' or so it got squirrely. So now I'm just playing with the wind in my even more circumscribed area. I got about 5 minutes until I got into trouble that full throttle could not get me out of. I got stuck in a wind vortex that was, from what the plane was doing about 20' across and slowly moving west, that direction has serious problems for the plane, power lines, jungle, Me, thing I don't want to hit. Full throttle let me get the plane back in front of me, but I was unable to break out of the circle. So I had an attack of the smarts and reduced power and landed.

I might get a couple more flights tonight.

Tim