critterhunter

You guys have to check out this $36 charger with LCD screen. Also has numerous other features found only on chargers costing $100 or more. It'll do up to 6 cell lipos (or 2 three cell packs at a time) so it's like getting two chargers at $20 a piece. It also does other cell types and so on. I just ordered one.

http://www.hobbycity.com/hobbycity/s...idProduct=7028

saucerguy

Critterhunter, it's hard to explain the difference in how a stick built creation fly's compared to a foamie. There have been some that mention how the foam feels spongy, but there is more to it then that. I agree, it can take a great deal of time to model a good foam airplane, and in fact, at this stage, I don't want to build a new plane overnight so I've been detailing and being creative with the engineering process for more elaborate structures. Also, there is this guy names Spiiiikkk what he's shown on a couple of the boards has been incredable detail wise, that's kind of the direction I want to go now, that and I'm getting back into free flight.

That said, "yes I have another plane to show ", this is a 20" wingspan, Sig 29er kit. Originally it was a parasail, 2 seater, but I felt it would make a fantastic biplane one seater. This is the first SIG kit I've assembled and I enjoy how they put it all together, especially in the cases where I have to custom cut to shape the slots/tabs/etc. which allow for a snug fit.

All I have left is to add the rigging and it's ready to maiden.

critterhunter

Another nice plane there Saucerguy!

Just realized this RCUniverse won't allow the name of the website in the link and so it doesn't work. Just go to H*bby City's (replace the "*" with a "o"' website and look for the Turnigy Accucel 6 $36 charger. Really a nice charger for the money.

I've begun repairing the So last night. Pictures and such sooner or later that I've been promising for a while to complete the build.
I've also started doing more work on the AP plane that I posted the fuse/wing of months ago. The one that looks like a Busy Bee. Pictures/progress on that one too sooner or later.

saucerguy

Thanks critterhunter. Freeflight is a different animal, many of the things we don't really focus upon with RC planes designs are absolutely critical to fine tune perfectly in free flight land. You should try playing around in that area some time as well, it's not only alot of fun, the kids just dig it, especially due to the uncomplex, less intimidating factors involved "seemingly to them" . My next builds will be free flight, but I think I should go a bit larger scale, these little guys simply cannot handle any kind of wind at all and I think it's about time it's interests are rejuvenated more.

That tangent said, I plan upon making a local free flight club, we'll of course have plenty if not most of the people still bringing in their RC stuff, but I think it will be a fun way to go that should in theory include appeal to a wider audience since getting into a simple RC plane, even if we make it out of foam on the cheap still rings in at the $300.00 mark to do it right with just the basics in mainstream gear.

Along the URL"s/Links, just post the company name, if they cannot even Google up in a search engine, they kind of have a serious problem with their web presence, at least we can mention them and tell people to google/yahoo it. I don't know if I would even still be into RC if I was at the mercy of the LHS's prices, I can gaurantee that I would not have nearly as many planes as I do now, all thanks to United Hobbies.

critterhunter

I'm getting kicked off this computer in a few minutes so only time to throw this up...

A 1 gram brushless ESC for under $20. I'm tempted to start building some micro flyers that don't involve me stripping down more Aero Aces or my Piloto. Do they also carry cheap RXs, servos, and accuators? Haven't looked yet.

Again, you'll have to look on H*bby C*ty's website in the new products section to find it. Links on here won't work to it.

critterhunter

Did I tell you guys I graduated from HVAC school last Friday? Top grade and, diploma, academic acheivement and perfect attendance award. Also got my boiler's license (2nd highest score the owner ever saw), Universal refrigerant license, ARI (industry) certification, etc. Yea, I'm bragging a little, but I've never been able to brag about anything before.

Anyway, been taking a breather before looking for work, so I've had plenty of time to do repairs/builds. I've got the AP plane just about done. Should be finished tonight. Repairs from the dual boomer's crash a few months back should be done by the weekend as well. Then it's off to finish the FW42 and build a new body for the never flown SE5a (COG and range problems due to RX location...needs a longer nose...I'll be keeping the wings in one piece and just transplanting them and the tail feathers to a new body so it should be a fast build.). Pictures soon.

Fisher

Critter,

CONGRADULATIONS ON YOUR GRADUATION!. A real milestone. I hope the job hunt is short.

I have been off messing with other planes so pardon my absence. Here is my most recent build.

By the by I just got drawn for an Archery hunt this winter. I will be chasing moose around with my bow in December and January. I will post pics of the poor beast silly enough to let me walk within 30 yards of it.

Chears,

saucerguy

Nice plane Fisher, I can't wait to hear the flight report, man that thing looks fast!

Critterhunter, awsome job big time man !!! I know the struggles you have been facing with your business, it gets to be rather depressing after a while to toil so hard and have other's lowball their way against you, I know exactly where you are coming from there. I did an informal merger with a local company and they have me doing a few tasks, one of them being their in house web designer, dude, it's a great deal easier to simply be a cog in the machine rather then running the whole show. You are going to like punching a clock again, the interaction at work is also a huge plus.

If you need a reference, look me up, I can always fill in any gaps you need addressed, I think your credentials at current, not to mention the killer grades you received are going to be more then enough regardless. Again, very good job, I'm proud of you, you deserve some bragging rights, that's no small accomplishment!

Fisher

saucerguy,

Oh she flies well that's for sure. Not blazing fast but could be. The real cool thing is that it flies well across a wide speed range from slow high alpha to vertical unlimited. This thing is maneuverable as all get out too. You can make the tail pass the nose in one plane length (flip) or induce a flat spin and easily power out. It is crazy agile, especially considering that it is only a 3 channel setup with Elevon mixing!

Only downside is that the Depron foam is brittle and not nearly as forgiving as EPS or EPP. Lots of folks building this one with Dow Bluecor. Looking at some of the full fuse planes people are making with flat foam you would be able to adapt your balsa and covering skills to make some killer planes. Are you still working with your war birds?

saucerguy

Fisher, I gave my two prototype plane body's away to a neighbor to make room for more planes, I also gave away the so jet version and one of the coroplast nose covered so that I barely flew to another friend to make room for more. I still have the last kit from the last p40 from the last one I'll assemble, but for the moment, the p51 is getting top billing, for it needs some slight revisions to get it to fly best. At current, I'm doing the last little touches on the Sig 29er biplane, ie. rigging and a little stiffening on the wing tips, in particular the one that broke when I took it out in some decent winds.

Along jet land, I'm going to redo the microjet and get some more insane flying with it before I start to stick build one, I'd hate to put in that much work into a plane that I'll turn into a lawn dart trying get it dialed in and getting used to the ridicoules speeds that thing fly's at. It sounds like you have a good design to go with, perhaps I might just bash one together out of depron/crafts board foam just for fun since as what you are telling me, it can handle flying more slowly.

alouette3

Hey guys, sorry havn't been on for a while. Been writing exams and lacking time.
Planes is flying now! Will give more feed back soon.

Fisher

alouette3,

Hope your exams go well but that is a dirty trick telling us your plane is flying and not giving us the gory details to go with it.

Looking forward to a complete performance report after you're done with exams.


saucerguy,

Here is a link to the discussion thread. In the first post the designer has a link to his home page with the plans. Everything you need is right there. Check out the videos on his page. Especailly the ones by Shadegrown.

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=723890

saucerguy

alouette3, I too want to hear the details on how the flights have gone, it's good to have another success with the So. line. To give you guys an update as to mine, it's still flying extremely well, in fact, I let a buddy get some stick time on it, it's the first time he's flown an rc plane in 15 years and he did very well with it. That's the one I gave away the other so's over to.

Fisher, I see now why that thing is so nimble, the thrust vector elevon's combined with the mid wing pusher style really aids to that one's flight characteristics, it looks like I'll likely be building one soon.

critterhunter

Fisher/Saucerguy, thanks for the congrats. I'm pretty proud of myself for once. I just checked the results online of the last licensing exam I took called the ICE Test. It's the industry standard/whole ball of wax to prove you know the field. Sort'a like the one the auto industry has for mechanics so they can wear that fancy patch on their arm. You only got two hours to take this thing as it's official and all that jazz. I would have liked to have had more time to go back and check the math and the logic of a few schematics on certain questions but I just didn't have enough time, so I could have probably kicked my score up a bit on it. Either way, you need 60% to pass and I got either a 74 or 76 (forget). They also listed the state average and it was only 57%, and the national average at only 60%! That means that most people in the state have failed the thing and the national average is just passing. Was shocked to see that. Well, more money for me.

I've still been just doing odds and ends around the house and taking care of a few other mattters before I start kicking out my resume and job hunting. Been getting a lot of build time in. Happy to say the AP plane flies well! Update with pictures soon. Dual boomer repairs/mods are just about complete and should be done in a day or two. Pictures there as well. Then it's off to finish up the FW42 that has been sitting about 80% done for several months. I'll then make some corrections to try to get the bird of prey flying right and then it's off to my TA-183 body that has also been waiting for electronics. So many projects...

Fisher, very nice jet.

Alouette3, can't wait to hear the details.

saucerguy

I know what you are saying along state/national averages, it seems academics within technical fields are lacking due to poor math and science skills with the newer generations. These kids cannot even count change much less anything more sophisticated, you are a bright person, I hope your employer rewards you for it.

I too have been doing some odds and ends. It's flying season so have scaled down my build time not wanting, nor needing to build yet another plane when I have others that I've been quite happy with in the air so I simply cannot justify degearing any of them to place into another airframe.

A couple of tangents I've been dealing with on the side here. Building onto my own forum that I started last December, doing some recording of my guitar with a digital mixer I recently acquired from Guitar Center, and finally getting this darn gas crisis addressed with a new type of engine/motor that's been pinging around my brain for the past couple of years. I'll let you guys in on the latter once I file for the patent, I just had enough with the cost of gas and even more so with what it's doing to our infrastructure, mainly in the business world so I gave in and decided it's time to pursue it.

Fisher

Not sure everyone knows Foamflyer moved his wed site.


http://grosj.tripod.com/radiocontrol/plane.html

alouette3

Ok, this has taken time... sorry about it taking so long.

SO no.1. My first fixed wing RC plane and WOW.
She flys amazingly.
I took the foamy to the local dunes, the only area large enough and safe enough. A slight breeze blowing but not much.
Threw it with throttle off, let it glide down the hill a little and then throttled up and took it high. The design looks very fast, which it is when you want it to be, having lots of power available, seeing I could climb at 50% throttle! But at the same time I slowly reduced the trottle and it was able to just hung in the air at 25% throttle, and then I cut the throttle and was able to slowly glide, I throttled up again to bring it round and onto the ground.
Its a little tricky getting used to the aileron and elevator mixing while flying, especially as I have such a big elevator surface, being extremely responsive. It seems like a good training aircraft for sure.
It's a fun flyer and very responsive. I now need to get it hooked up to my new transmitter, with dual-rates etc. ...

I have since pranged the SO, braking the nose of at the battery slot, as this was a weak spot of the plane since the beginning, having a heavy battery and a slot that was slightly to big.
Easy fix tho, cut the nose flat and epoxy a new section on!

I'm running a TP 2408-21T brushless motor, 7*6 prop, 30A ESC and 1800mAh 20C LiPo pack.

Fisher

alouette3,

Great to hear that your first flights went well. This is a great bird. Sorry for not replying sooner I have been staying with my mother as she starts Chemo therapy for cancer. Puts a bit of a cramp in things when you have to be right there all the time and do not have access to the internet or flying. Your next bird needs to be the 6mm Deron F-22 I posted on earlier in this thread. It is wild stuff. Or just a home built Stryker from Park Zone the entire fuse only costs ~$18. Ask Critter about that one.

Haveing radio with hi and lo rates or better still Exponential programming really helps tame down the elevator response and makes flight a lot smoother. Your right on track.

Take Care,

Fisher

critterhunter

Well, after having two wireless setups and my pocket camcorder sitting around for a couple years waiting to do AP, I finally built a plane that works perfect for it. The only aerial video I've tried in the past was a 1.2ghz CMOS setup that I got a few short flights on my Stryker with. Later I also picked up a 2.4ghz CCD camera setup with more wattage that I hadn't used either, and I've also got an Aiptek 5100M pocket camcorder that can do 5MP still shots and record live video on board.

About a year ago I built a pusher for AP that didn't fly well so I never tried a camera on it. I put more thought into the design and ended up with something that looks sort'a like a Busy Bee, though I wasn't shooting for that. I just knew I wanted a pusher that's prop could clear the ground, a large enough fuse to fully house and protect my pocket camcorder, and dihedral and rudder/elevator for stability and nice flat turns while recording.

Speed is useless in AP but I did want plenty of torque with a large prop to haul my equipment into the air and also to get me out of bad situations should I need it. I opted for the 2409-18T 1100 k/v motor swinging a 10x5 APC E prop. This motor is fairly efficient for a Tower Pro, draws in the range of 12 to 18 amps or so, and has monster torque.

I made the rudder/elevator surfaces very large in order to insure good control at very low speeds and am happy to say it's got great control even at almost a dead stop stall with the motor off. As a side benefit the plane will stunt very well, although it was never intended for this. It'll do outside loops, snappy rolls, and even a fairly decent "flat spin".

After three or four outtings with the bird I was very happy with it's stability and performance so it was time to carve out the camera chamber and give my pocket camcorder a try last night. The camera is using a 3V voltage regulator fed directly from the plane's 3 cell lipo so I could ditch the two AA batteries it runs on, which weigh about two thirds the weight of the camera it's self. It does get rather hot so I've exposed it's heat sink to airflow on the plane's camera door.

When not using this setup my two wireless units will feed directly from the 12V plane battery without a regulator as they can handle 12V easily. They will transmit to a ground receiver hitched up to a portable TV/VCR so I can watch live video and record as well.

I haven't flown these in it yet but I did do some range testing at home to insure the transmitters weren't interfering with the plane's RX. A lockout wouldn't be fun. I'm happy to say there are no issues and the video remains interference free even at WOT.

A few pictures of the plane and then some of last night's AP shots. The sun was going down so the lighting was pretty bad. I'm sure some mid-day photos will turn out even better.

The plane is hotwired from a EPS foam which is really dense and strong. I've got two carbon tubes in the wing joined via an aluminum tube for added strength. The bottom of the fuse is sheeted with balsa to strengthen it. I drilled some large holes in the fuse width wise to lighten it up a bit and lost over half an ounce. The tail feathers and rudder have flat carbon in them. The tail boom is a piece of really strong hollow plastic I had laying around the garage for a pressure washer. It's lighter than PVC so I figured I'd opt for it rather than a carbon tube. If I had a large carbon tube laying around, such as a golf club shaft, I would have opted for that.

Servos are HXT900s. I was worried the huge tail and the hefty AUW (without camera) of 34.5 ounces would be a bit too much for them but they are holding up well. They have been attached via shoe goo glue and then a zip tie around them for added insurance. The tail threads into the boom via 1/4" nylon bolts tapped into basswood but I also glued it on with more shoe goo for added protection. The wing bolts on via nylon bolts as well that are tapped into thick dowl rods in the fuse.

You can see from the picture of the fuse without the wing on that the RX (GWS) and speed control (Suppo 40 Amp) are very easy to get at and the ESC gets good airflow. When doing still shots with the pocket camcorder I'm using a HXT500 servo attached to the top of the camera via double sided tape to fire the shutter via plugging it into the gear channel.

I've still got an issue with the plane wanting to turn right with the motor on. I cancelled it out with some left trim in the rudder but of course when I kill the motor the plane then starts drifting left. After checking numerous things I'm now back to believing it's a motor thrust issue and will adjust it. Luckily the motor mount is removable via nylon bolts threaded into dowl rods glued into the fuse for easy removal.

I'm pretty excited about this platform and plan to use it to do fly overs of areas I hunt to find bottle knecks and other squeeze points for deer hunting. It also makes deer trails stand out where they are trickier to located on the ground. I'm also planning to locate ponds to fish/jump shoot for waterfowl.

Later on I'll be throwing up pictures for a build thread on this plane. Even if your not interested in doing AP work it's still a joy to fly and stunt with. Enough yapping for now, here's some photos. Video will have to wait until I figure out how to upload it.

critterhunter

And my first AP Shots!

critterhunter

Fisher, sorry to hear about your mother and I hope she gets well real soon. I'll say a prayer for you both, man.

alouette3, nice job! It is a joy to fly and can handle "easy" for "wicked" very well, from floating around on thermals to gunning and stunting. I finally got mine back into the air after repairs from the crash a few months back and she's flying real nice. The bird is rock solid with no flexing in flight. Heavy, but a rock that can take some punishment. Details/photos soon.

Fisher's suggestion of the Stryker is a good one. It's the only store body I'll buy these days as I prefer all my other planes to be scratch built from EPS. $20 for a Stryker body can't be beat, though. Look in the Park Flyers forum for a thread called "Build A Bullet Proof Stryker (Brushless Or Stock)" by me. I go into painful detail with photos on building that bird from the ground up.

NvMike

Critterhunter
Great looking AP plane and great pictures, I am looking forward to your building thread.
Mike

NvMike

Fisher
Thanks for the new link to FoamFlyers "How to build a foam plane", I can get to the plans for his SO11 but can not find the rest of his pages like his building tips, other planes etc.
Does anyone know the links to these other pages?
Thanks, Mike

critterhunter

Thanks, I'm pretty excited about the success of this AP plane (so far). I'll be throwing up the build steps soon for it. It's a great/fun plane to fly that can ride thermals or stunt pretty well, so even if you're not into AP it's a nice build.

This is what's been on my workbench for a couple days and finished it today. I pulled the power supply out of a junk computer and converted it to power my chargers when at home. I had been using a trolling motor battery for this that I was storing for a friend but brought it back to him today.

After a little research I figured out that of the three types of computer power supplies this one was an ATX type. Unfortunately, it didn't use the industry standard color codes for all the wires, which made for a nightmare of wire knots I had to trace through and identify with a multimeter.

This unit also had "Power OK" and "PC ON" sensing lines that had to be addressed in order to trick it into believing a computer was attached so it would power up. I also found that it needed a load on the 5V line in order to put out full capacity on the 12V source. Some people use resistors for that but I opted for an automotive light bulb with the correct amount of resistance. Resistors would get hot while the light bulb is designed to handle the heat generated, not to mention it's an easy way to see if the unit is on.

Rather than doing the standard 12V/ground conversion, I also brought out the 3.3V and 5V lines for further flexability. I can also use those in various combinations to produce custom voltages. For example, using the +5V line as a ground for the +12V, thus producing +7V. All the other unneeded lines were cut off at the circuit board and shrink wrapped to clean up the inside of the unit.

It's compact, the quiet fan keeps it nice and cool, and it only cost me about $7 in parts, so I couldn't be happier. A nice benefit to these computer power supplies is that they put out a much cleaner voltage than many of the expensive units that are just designed for being a workbench power supply. PC supplies have to do a good job of cleaning up the noise in the voltage or risk crashing the computer.

The +12V line can handle up to 7 amps, more than enough to run one or two lipo chargers. +3.3 and +5.5V can handle like 15 to 25 amps. Wrote the various voltage/amp ability combinations on the unit for easy reference.

Fisher

NvMike,

I will try to post another link to Foamflier's site but some of his links are busted. I will let you know soon.

Critter,

Thanks for the kind words reguarding my mother. She is more scared than anything right now but hanging in there.

Very nice photos from your AP build. They are clearer than the closeups you take of your planes etc in your garage. Maybe you should put whatever you want to photograph in your driveway and use your AP setup to take the photo.