JPEE

Well well, it looks like you cannot go back and edit after an hour or so...........hummmmmmmmmm

Here a few pic's of my plane without the prop. Until I get my batteries and set up the ESC with it 4S, for safety they recommend you "not" put the props. I listen once in a while he he..... makes sense to me.

evdreamer

I didn't realize how long it has been since I posted.

John,
It sounds like your grandson is getting better at flying. I sure enjoy flying my Cub after I converted it to a four channel by adding ailerons.

That is cool Judy enjoyed the B-17 flight.

That is cool you finished your P-51.

Glenn,
That sounded like an interesting experience with the bats.

Mark,
That is cool you are able to do a piro at the top of a loop and come down. Those are sure fun.

It sounds like everyone had a good Fourth of July and has been getting some flights in. I had some good food and watched some cool fireworks at my sister's house. My brother in law got a lot of free fireworks for fixing a co-workers car. There was one scary moment when one of the fireworks tipped over and shot towards us. The garage door was open, so it went in there and exploded. Luckily no one was hurt. I haven't flown at all since the air show a few months ago.

I have added a lot of new things to my program. Multiple users can now use it. I also added open, high, low, close, and volume numbers for the ETF's. I added more stock indicators. One of those indicators shows the difference between the high, low, and close and I noticed some weird spikes. When I looked into it I found that I had bad data. Originally I got all of my data from google and I noticed they had a lot of bad data. So I converted all my data to Yahoo prices and that was a lot better. I also added two tone price lines and volume. The line is black when there is a positive move and red when there is a negative move. I also added average lines to the indicators to smooth them out and see long term trends. I added custom ranges to see how the prices have moved since the existence of the fund instead of current prices. I also added a view of all the funds performance at the same time. An interesting thing that I added was a risk-reward measurement. It quickly showed what funds were good/bad investments. I normally copied and pasted all of the prices for the funds into a batch program that would put it into my database. Now I created a program to go out onto the internet to get all the prices for me. That is pretty cool!

I finally started sleeping in for 12 hours instead of setting my alarm.

Tomorrow I am leaving for Kansas City, MO for vacation with my sister's family. It will be nice to take a break from work.

Nick

evdreamer

John,

That is a nice looking plane.

I thought this was kind of interesting. Ford put their 1L 3 cylinder engine in a Formula Ford and beat the lap time of a Ferrari Enzo on the Nurbugring. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=tmZMwk14r4c

Nick

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

JPEE,

Congrats on finishing your P51! I'm sure that batt will be at your door in no time and then you can get that beauty flying.

To answer your questions: I left the included tube of wacky glue in the box and used epoxy and gorilla glue during the build.

The reason for my replacing the stock struts was b/c the original had plastic trunnions and they were just weaker and not able to do good with my, um 'great' landings. HK had metal replacements and my landings have improved so these should last much longer. I noticed your P51 came stock with metal trunnions and oleo shock absorbing struts, a very nice touch and I'm sure they will make the landings look all the much better.

It is a very large aircraft for sure! Mine just makes it in the trunk of my car and I can put my heli up front, so its nice to get to fly an assortment each time out.

One thing on your HK batts...I never did this before but you are supposed to cycle them 5 times on your charger (charge then back to storage voltage) before first using them. I didn't do this my first flight and doing a static run was very disappointed in that the motor hit LVC after 3.5 minutes of 75% throttle. When putting it on the charger I noticed one cell was slightly lower then the others but not enough to cause that short of a run time. I contacted HK email support (amazingly they responded in a day) and they told me to cycle them first so they can get to their full potential.

Maybe on heli's its a bit different then aircraft motors as I never did that with my heli batts, just took it easy for the first couple flights and everything was fine. Or I just got very lucky, but with this aircraft motor I guess it really does need the lipo to be fully conditioned before using. My flights now are up to 8 minutes and that is at 75% throttle.

That was a great story about you getting to show off your heli skills to your family, telling them is one thing but getting to show (and experience a 700 first hand) is a totally different animal. Your grandson is really getting great exposure and this will be something he keeps with him for a lifetime...flying with his granddad.

I have some days off coming up and will work on the 130x issue then. But first, got something big coming in the mail tomorrow so really looking forward to that!

Nick,

Wake up man...don't you know life is passing you by as you slumber!!

Seriously though, enjoy your summer as we all know you deserve the break. Enjoy your vacation in KC.

Glenn,

Sorry about the heat...looks like all of us are suffering right now.

Mark

JPEE

Nick,

You should be proud, you have brought your program miles along from where you started. That is really keen that the program will do the analysis for you so you don't have to do the math for profit and loss. Your screens/pages look easy to read and understand too.
12 hours a day! YIKES....................................... I am so jealous!!!! When you get older sleep is hard to come by. Last night I went to bed at 11:00 and got up at 4:00 []


Mark,

Now I understand why you made your changes in the landing gear. For years I have been pre......charged and discharged my batteries. My iCharger can be set to how many times you want the packs to charge and discharge all in one action. This is to say, like my new 4000 packs for the P-51 I will put them on the charger, tell it to run them thought (5) cycles of charging and discharging. It is the discharging that takes so long. Sometimes I will put on the charger in the back yard before I go to bed and it will run all night in the cool air helping the heat sinks throw off the discharging heat. Then it runs the next day too. For instance, to discharge one would like to tell it with both packs loaded to draw off 4 amps each totaling 8 amps. Well 8 amps really gets the charge hot trying to dissipate that amperage so I have to experiment and probably will be be a 2-3 amps. The point is, it is like a "crock pot", set it and forget it....LAMO !
My FMS plane only required glue to glue in two small fuse pieces behind the wing about 3" long and the motor exhaust pipes up front as dressing so to speak! The rest of the entire plane all "screws" together, YES screws together, the wing halves, the rudder and tail fin, the elevator, everything. That way if you crash, you can unscrew the broken pieces and buy new ones and re-screw them into place, it is a great system! http://www.motionrc.com/fms-1450mm-p...p/#spare-parts

ps: back to what i had asked you they did want me to add some of the rubberized glue to the bottom of the rudder to make a hinge if you will.

Take care fellers

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Well JPEE,

Looks like FMS did you 'stang' guys good by providing you with a screw-on tail feather assembly...mine is permenantly attached and so any damage back there will not be an easy fix.

The wing did have the option to use the metal connecting tube and 6 screws to attach each half, and lots of guys have just used that with no problems but my old plane days had me glue the wing halves together for a permanent arrangement so that is the route I went, just for my own piece of mind. I like those steep diving turns too much to chance it!

Still waiting for your battery? Thanks for your lipo conditioning in-sites, I liked the idea of doing them outside overnight. Kinda cool idea - the whole 'crock pot' philosophy. I made an order with Hobbypartz for a new Gens Ace now that they are in stock again. Not to happy with the new prices but I know they are very decent and for now will pay the increase they are charging. At least I got free shipping. And I'll definitely do the cycle conditioning now that I know better.

Nick,

How was your trip to Kansas City? Bet it was very relaxing as you pointed out.

Your stock tracking program is very impressive indeed...well done! To be able to write code for a program to do all yours is able to is serious skill - are you also getting a major in computer programming in addition to electrical?

Mark

JPEE

Hello Mark,
I cannot say that I don't agree with your choice to glue in your wings and other parts is without merit. Having a plane disintegrate in a steep fall or hard pull out is not something anyone wants to see. My plan for this plane is not to fly like a mad man but to try and develop my scale flying skills just as if that plane was manned in real time. Hopefully the provided design and screws keep this puppy together. I can say my Arizona buddy that I fly with down there has been flying his FMS models for a few years without any failures. I hope I can follow that record!
As I have explained I have been teaching my grandson how to fly and related aspects of this hobby. Just two days we were at the field and on our way home he turned and asked, Grandpa, what is a lipo bag? I went on to explain to him that one of the guys he had met at the field, "John Doe" burned his garage and part of his down!!!! I must add this man had multiple chargers all running at 2-3 C factors and then he went in the house. When he came back out the garage was on fire, which burnt down the ground and the joining house wall. I went on to explain how a battery may not explode like a bomb but rather split and spew fire and gas and shoot around the bench or garage floor like a rat throwing fire everywhere. When I did charge in the garage I used a system I got from a guy back east who charges in his basement. He went to HD and got some block wall cinder blocks and set them on the concrete. Then he would put the charging battery down inside the open cell of the block with both balance and charging extending cords. Next he would either place a large plastic bag full of "dry" sand over that open blocks cell. If the battery got hot or a cell blew the heat would melt the baggie and the sand would smother the fire and contain it! The other version was to also purchase a block wall top cap stone and just slid that over the open cell like you were completing a block wall with the wires sticking of the one side. I can tell you shot of a full explosion that 3-4 pound cap will contain anything that happens because it is vented to a degree where the wires come out. But................. when I got to the 700 double battery trays this got to be difficult as well as giving up floor space in my garage. So my remedy was to get a used all metal expanded wire topped patio and set everything on that. Charger, power supplies and my charging batteries out in the back driveway in a shaded area with an extension cord from the garage. I leave the slider door cracked when I am charging so I can hear the complete charger beep. The new pack break in procedure is the same but depending on the size of the batteries and how many I am doing (my iCharger will do 6 ea 6S packs) the discharging as they cycle can take several hours so I know the process can run all night with the beeper going off.

Yes I am still waiting on my 4000 mAh packs for the P-51 and they could arrive today as I ordered them last Saturday from USA HK. My buddy Jason was over yesterday (old plane guy) and looked at my aileron, rudder, flap throws. E-GODS they were waaaay to far. He explained with these types of wings not much movement is needed as the plane is very reactive. So he took every thing down a few notches. For what it is worth, he also is a Licensed Pilot and he does not believe in the use of "expo" because there are dead spots to a degree. You know you need to really move the sticks to get the movement you want. What he taught me was to dual rate the ails, rudd and such. He showed me how to do that on my radio and when you are walked through it and can the difference it made clear sense to me. I have so much aileron in that he said were I to have taken off that way when I gave aileron to make my first turn the plane would have rolled over do fast I would have not been able to bring it back and save it form going in. I recognized what he said because........................... I have the HH mini $100.00 P-51 and the first time I flew that and I was trying for my banking turn she went in.......... to the ground. It was then I used expo as a fix. But being 100% honest here, I have not flown that little 51 in two years I just forgot about it.
Good luck with your new packs, I know you'll "season them with great results".

He Nick, "We are not in Kansas anymore"! Who made that line famous?? This is your pop quiz!

JPEE

JPEE

WELL THIS SUCKS. AFTER I POSTED MY NOTES I FOUND SOME ERRORS, BUT I COULD NOT GET BACK TO EDIT. SO FORGIVE THE ERRORS.

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Is it working again?

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

The above statement I was referring to RCU...it seems to be working except as JPEE mentioned, you cannot go back and edit a previous post.

Mark

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Hi guys,

Now that RCU is working again I can finally reply to JPEE's earlier post concerning expo and dual rates:

I think you are going to find with the first few flights you are going to have your hands full. There is alot going on with the retracts and flaps, esp when taking off and landing. There have been times where I forget to retract the retracts or I'll be zipping by and notice the flaps are still in the down position. Definitely take that into account when considering doing the dual rate idea...the extra switch to throw after takeoff and when setting up for landings.

Today, for example I forgot to deploy my flaps for my landing and as I was coming in noticed what I did and so had to fiddle with the toggle on the tx to hit the switch...I decided after a nice ballooning to just do a go around and do it right the next time. Heli's are different in planes (in a nice way) in that you can put the heli in a hover at any point really where the plane you don't get that chance...it just keeps chugging forward.

I also have expo in mine and have learned not to go full stick, like in a roll as she will axial roll like a crazy thing up there, so just a bit and she eases over nice and easy. But it is nice to have the full deflection there just in those times where you have little airspeed and still want to get some movement from the plane (like in a stall turn). Another time you may want it is when you have to do a go around (last minute decision) and your clawing for airspeed and altitude - having a bit more elevator at that time is a nice thing.

That was a crazy story about the garage fire...there is another story on HF about a garage fire (not a total loss as the guy caught it in time). Lipo's really need to taken care of and not thought of as just a 'battery'. They do have the potential to do really bad things if not taken care of. Good lessons for your grandson.

Oh, Oh , can I answer Nicks question???!!

Mark

JPEE

Hello Boys, Mark look above in your previous post on this page


Yesterday I had my maiden flight of the 51. Flying a rounded wing plane is totally different than anything I have ever flown before to say the least. My first flight was spent with Jason helping me trim as I flew. One of the major issues with this plane is.......it is way under powered and had to be flown wide open, it was very mushy and felt heavy in the turns. Again, I think because of its weakness of power. I am going to verify the motors timing today. Another problem is, the battery won't come back far enough to give me a correct CG, so I had to fly with a few degrees of up elevator. To correct this issue I will have to cut back some of the lower canopy that fits down into the fuse to let the pack come back and inch or so. I landed the first time and did ok at best and came in safe. The second flight was problematic however. Once I took off and got her stable I tried to retract the gear. After four attempts, one landing gear would not retract at all. So I was left to leave them down for the balance of that flight which really sucked what motor power I had. Then, we had some stiff breeze at that later time of the day which was of no help either. As I came in on my third pass I was a little off angle I used the ailerons to get myself straight and the left wing of course went down a bit and right after that the breeze got under the nose and lifted it and she stalled and rolled over to the left and went in to a cart wheel. I have some work ahead of me in that I need to find out why the landing gear was not retracting, and repair both wing tips and an aileron, and the motors shaft looks bent too, the pictures will show the damage. These war birds do not fly like a T-28 or any other plane I have ever flown; this will be a new adventure and learning curve for this boy.............. I am up for the challenge!

John

JPEE

JPEE

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Hi JPEE,

Sorry for the bittersweet maiden, but at least you got her in the air and see how she performs. Despite everything, I bet she looked fabulous up there!

RCGroups has a mod for the prop which basically inserts a washer into one of the screws for each prop blade, thus increasing the pitch of the overall prop assembly so you can get more umph out of the stock motor. I'll post the link after I find it again...the threads over there are super long as you know. From what I hear this mod really brings the motor (and plane) to life.

Sorry I didn't mention this as its something I do before every flight...after plugging in the bird (ready for flight) flip her upside down and test the retracts. This will let you know if you need to leave them down for the flight. These retracts have a small margain of error to fully sit in the recess, and any twist of the strut or movement of the retract body (say from a bumby landing or even the takeoff) and they wont retract nicely. That is the reason I had to eventually remove some foam from the recess area so I wouldn't have this issue. Trust me it really is a trial and error process that is a bit time-consuming...carve, test, carve some more, test again, dangit, carve again (you get the point). But all the work will pay off in the end.

About your motor, may not be a bent shaft rather the mount that is glued to the foam firewall has come loose and will need to be repositioned and reglued. I don't know how the mustangs cowl is but you may have to removed some pieces to get to the firewall area. On my Zero the black cowl really covers all the firewall area but I still had to remove a puzzle-fit foam section just above the motor mount to get to the affected area and used this as an opportunity to do a decent job using gorilla glue to really secure it in. Hopefully that's all it is.

The wing doesn't look too bad, some epoxy and touchup paint and I think you'll be just fine. If the props took any damage don't forget to replace them too.

These FMS warbirds are an unique experience, I really thought my experience with a smaller warbird would prepare me but no way! But once you get the bugs worked out they really are rewarding, and as you said...your up for the challenge.

Once again, congrats on your maiden as your first flight was cherry.

Mark

JPEE

Mark, Thank you for all of the great information. I do have so much share with you but I am beat. However I did want say how much appreciate your sharing your learning curve. To beat tonight to post the photos of my repairs. THANK GOD you had my buy the paint for the 51, boy did that ever pay off in spades!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Taking Little Joe to the field at 7:00 am. I have the Bixler, 700, 550 Hexa so we should have a little fun. I'll report back after that. Don't eat to much cake now..... ya hear!

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Hey guys,

I got something better then cake...

(although I did get some cake too!)

JPEE

Hello Mark,

No worries on the landing gear, I did test them a few times while there at the field on the table before I took off. They worked perfectly several times, however....... my first landing was a bumpy one so that might have had something to do with it? I will pay close attention to my wheel wells to make sure I don't have any foam rubs or tight areas, but remember this would not go up! Thanks for the tips, I am all ears. My wing repairs are completed and dried so tomorrow I will remount and get the electrics hooked back up and go from there. Yes I will be doing the prop mod for sure. My AZ buddy told me last night that when he got his P-51 that trainers were passing him by at his field lol. So he did the mod and now can cruse at mid stick rather than wide open like where i am right now. Another thing I am going to do is this; When I could not get my ESC to connect and beep I called the HS that sold the me the plane and with my Airtronics radio they said I had to pull down my throttle exterior trim lever from the middle to the bottom! After doing so then moving the stick top to bottom "calibrating it" she hit right on. But........... I am wondering if I might have not been getting full throttle. So I went into my radio and took my -100% at closed throttle with the trim in the middle like it was and I decreased my neg to -120 to see if that will light up the ESC. Of course I will have to do a re-calibration as well. we shall see. Props, I sanded them where they were ground into the asphalt, but I will take them off and weight them each and round them near the same for my third fight, I don't want to wast my other props that came as a bonus in my kit just yet. I will check as you pointed out my motor mount just in case. My motor shaft is gold, no problems, it was my spinner that got knock off center. I loosened it screws and she went back into place. Thanks for your support. Here are some picks of the repairs and then completed. I took a 450 heli boom strut and sharpened it like a pencil and shoved it in the foam about up to the star. Then I pulled it out and dipped it in CA and shoved her back, that really helped hold the wing in shape. You will see me pointed at that wing tip, it came out perfect, cosmetically 80%

TOP ROW IS WORK IN PROGRESS..... BOTTOM COMPLETED

JPEE

Congrats all over the place.................................. Are we having fun yet Mark? You bet!!

evdreamer

Mark,

I tried posting earlier, so happy belated birthday. It looks like you got a nice present.

I enjoyed my vacation until everyone got really sunburned. I got the worst sunburn I have ever had and my skin is still peeling. I put on sun screen throughout the day, but I don’t think I waited long enough before getting into the water.

I thought about getting a double major in computer engineering, but I would have to go 1 year longer and spend another $8k on tuition. I tried to take as many programing classes as I could that would count towards my electrical degree. The rest of the programming classes use a lot of code analysis for efficiency and that isn’t very fun and easy for me. I would also miss out on a lot of electrical electives to get done sooner. My last programming classes taught me how to learn to program on my own through reading code documents online and going through code forums. So I probably will just keep doing it as a hobby.

John,

“He Nick, "We are not in Kansas anymore"! Who made that line famous?? This is your pop quiz!”, Dorothy said that from the original Wizard of Oz.

Sorry about your tip over on the landing of your maiden.

I planned on flying a lot during my summer break and I have only been out a couple times. Now I only have a couple of weeks left before school starts up again. Oh, well it was too hot out this summer anyways.

Nick

rotarydoc

Hey guys, I see we have a new format for the forums now....been awhile since I logged on to see how you guys are doing....looks like there are some bugs here as well, as I can't seem to start a new line after typing this one? I guess this will just be one long entry, unless anyone has some info that I don't know about.... Haven't done any flying since the bat dilemma, not because of the bats....just been too darn hot, and when it's not hot, it' raining...more rain than I can remember in July and August, usually the lawns here go dormant, grass turns brown, and more or less stops growing...not this year, I have had to mow every week so far! Just wanted to check in, I'll try to do a longer post shortly...so far, I'm NOT LIKING this new format at all! Take care, Glenn

rotarydoc

I just posted my issue with the forum in the bug fix area...we'll see how that goes... It may be because I'm using Windows 8 and Internet Explorer 10...which is not that common yet...Still, no excuse, it should work!! Take care guys... Glenn

JPEE

Hey Guys,

How goes it? I have been extremely busy spending time with my grandson teaching him how to fly. He has been flying the Bixler I got him and has done fairly well. He has a problem and over flies and corrects everything to fast and to hard. I thought it was the wind at the new field, but it is I found as you will read further down it was not.Thinking it was the wind I sought to get him a better plane with power to deal with the breeze and to power through them. I bought him a T-28 Parkzone of which I have had three of in the past. I picked him up at 7:30 am. and we came here to my home and built it together. He can fly, but it is time he learned there is more than just going with grandpa who has done all of the work, so we built as a team. He loved it and had a great day doing it...... me too. Then I started him on chargers and batteries and everything in that part of the hobby. He charged and watched the mAh rise on the charger and found it all very interesting. After we completed all of that we took the T-28 to my field. I took off to get the plane trimmed out and ready for him. After 3 min up he connected his radio to mine so we could buddy-box as we do. Every time I held the trainer switch the plane ran away, so we had to re trim his radio (exterior sliders) for this plane (his radio is my old CX2 DSM 2.4) and I have that tied to my old DX6i. Once I got his radio trimmed I handed him the plane and it took a nose dive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Using my old lessons which are altitude, I had time to grabber back into a safe position. Once horizontal again I told him to just tip the wings a bit, he did ok. Then when he hit the elevator the plane did another suicide dive and once again I caught her. I landed the plane and did some radio checking. In short, the set up for the Bixler and for the T-28 have some servos that "need" to be reversed. I flipped one toggle rocker switch and then performed a complete mark for mark, aileron, elev, rudder, and everything was moving the right way. So we tried another flight and he was doing fine except that he was overflying it again. After that pack I came in and turned down all servos throws and put in some expo to boot. We took our third flight and he again was over flying the plane. I mean he was doing horizontal fig 8s but jerky. So today I put the Bixler and the T-28 on the floor and got the radios. Long story short............ my trims and expo DO NOT CARRY OVER to his radio. The poor kid has been trying to learn how to fly with all settings at 100%. I was just sick, I had to call him today and explain in a simple way Grandpa was to blame for his poor flying. I have to get another DX6i or the HK Orange clone T-6 I think they call it because after reading (something I generally don't do) I found that both radios have to have their settings "identically" the same inside and on the exterior trim too. My old old fly buddy from 5 years ago still has a radio DX6i or DX 7 and his T-28 stashed in his garage. I reached out today and asked if he wanted to sell and which radio did he still have, lol..... neither one of us could remember. He started with a DX6i but then got DX7 so even he is not sure which one he sold with his Trex 500. After the kids bath time tonight he will call and let me know what he has. Perhaps his older and dinged T-28 would better for Joe to learn with than a brand new plane trying to land!!!!! Oh, I forgot to say, I ordered a new computer GLENN!! with a new 250GB solid state drive with 8GB or more of RAM. When my buddy finishes building it, then I'll give Joe my Dell 500 GB with 4GB RAM. The point here is..... it still runs my Great Planes SIM and that is what Joe needs, SIM time...... you guys remember those days?
Sorry for being "wordy" but I have been busy with RC stuff. It has been wonderful fun reliving my start now through my Joe.

Nick, I hear you on the extra 8K that would put me into some thought too. So so sorry to read about the sunburn, you probably came close to going to the ER as it sounds. I cannot imagine that kind of a burn.

Glenn, wear that rain coat in August? Who-da thought..... be safe.

Mark, sent you some stuff via email

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Hi guys,

Wanted to give you all a quick update...spent the day at Kennedy Space Center yesterday - to see the newly opened Atlantis exhibit and to see the Delta IV night launch.

NASA did a terrific job in the display of Atlantis...it actually has the doors open so you can see the entire cargo area plus the robotic arm. The room (you might as well call it a warehouse b/c of the size) has this low lighting and even though it will echo it was complete silent as everyone was just in awe as they entered...complete silence. It really does demand a sense of respect...to be so close to something that not only has made history but has been in a place non of us can go. And be close is an understatement...you could almost reach out and touch the surface at places, so you can really see a lot of detail. Like the burn marks near the maneuvering thruster ports, and the markings on the individual tiles. There's so many of them, and not all of them are the same size and shape. Its mind blowing the level of engineering it must have taken to keep her flying safely. It was a privilege to experience.

Later in the day we went to Jetti Park to see the Delta rocket launch, it was a evening launch at 8:39. There were so many cars all lined up on the river bank, it was nice there is still much interest after the shuttle retirement. Many of the people looked like they were tailgating, coolers and some were grilling on portable grills. It was funny to watch.

The rocket lifted off right on schedule and it was amazing, lit up the night sky and blazed out over the Atlantic. Because it was a night flight you could see the booster rockets separate and the rocket enter space, all the way to the separation of the protective fairing covering the satellite. It created a huge 'ejection-like' spray that covered half the sky. Then shortly after you could see the main engine shut down, all the way from space. Wow is all I could say!

It was an incredible day! Will get some pictures loaded in the morning and continue working on the video of the launch (the night launch was amazing to see that close). Still recovering as the whole day out in the Florida sun in August takes its toll.


BTW JPEE, I did get your emails and will respond with some idea's later on.

Mark

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Still messing around with the new settings in RCU and trying to get used to the new look.

JPEE,

Looks like your going full force with your grandson...terrific for the both of you!

I first thought of the sims that Xheli sells, at least for doing the basics of flight, but saw you are giving your computer after you get the new one assembled, so at least he gets to use a nice sim. I bet he had a time with the settings having no expo!

Nick,

Thanks for the B-day wishes. Sorry about your bad sunburn, but it sounded like you still had fun.

I agree with you on the heat and not wanting to fly, really takes the fun out of it. I'm realizing that during the summer I would rather do a build rather then go out flying.

Another 8K for a double major...no thanks. I'm finally below 8 on my student loans and I've been re-paying since 2006, not much fun there.

Glenn,

Have you been getting any time on your 130X? I did get mine in the air and have been enjoying it since. Seemed it needed full trim to even out the swash upon startup, rather a wierd thing to do on a flybarless system - input trim. But it works and that's all I care about.

It is a totally different bird then the mcpx. More stable, more powerful, and no tail blow-outs anymore. I still get hesitant on some moves that would blow out the mcpx tail but am getting more comfortable with it. I did hold on to the mcpx but may sell later this year as I'm really not flying it anymore.

I have been working on my new 550 build, a bit slowly now as other family things came first (like the Kennedy trip). It is interesting to see the changes Align did to this bird since I had version one 2 years ago. I'm looking to try and finish sometime next week.

Mark

JPEE

Hello Mark,

We have not gone to see our Shuttle since it was placed in our Air Museum..... yet, but hopefully soon I hope. I completely understand what your expressing about the breath taking moments you described when you stand there up close and personal, it becomes real to you.......... this really happened? I won't lie, when it flew over on the mountain top here where we were at our Observatory is it drew cheers and tears from myself and dang near everyone around me. With a spectacle of that magnitude it has to be heart moving. Your feelings are rushing because it is breath taking, it is SO LOUD, it is the USA in the air and in action, and as you said.... it is the extreme engineering that took place, a bunch of brainyacks all working together for a single goal and doing it! I am so happy you got your opportunity to see the Delta IV take off, man oh man seeing the separations of the stages, how cool is that!
We have both of the grandsons here today. I disconnected my CPU Tower and brought it out to the garage and hooked it up to my 42" TV. Then Joe took advantage of the SIM. He has done well today, taking off and landing. He can't wait to get it home to practice more and more.
Joke of the day. I asked him: do you want to try and helicopter? He said ok. Crash after crash he did and then he turned and said, these are hard to fly !!!!! I had to laugh. I explained they are very hard to fly and require lots and lots of practice and SIM time. Then I took a light broom out on the front lawn and took him with me. I balanced the broom on my first finger, constantly moving around of course to keep that broom balanced and upright. Then I had him do it. Oh he held the broom pretty well and I told him, that's what flying a helicopter is like, it wants to run away every second your flying it, you don't even want to blink your eyes lol.

Take care Guys and a good weekend to ya