RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Jim,
If you keep uploading such ugliness we may to have to reconsider keeping you around here at RCU!!!!!

BTW, the plane looks great!!!!!

Ken

AMA 74894

My Feedback: (1)

Hey at least my mug didn't break the camera for a change :-)

carl24bpool

Hi guys,

ive flown twice and have one of thereports written up but can't seem to post. I'm on the iPad here so let's see if this posts.

carl24bpool

Okay, iPad works. Report is saved on my laptop but it won't post. I'll rewrite them now since there's sod all on tv.

can any admin please help. Again I've just tried to post on my laptop with no luck as it says I don't have permissions. I also can't logout no matter what I try. I've also deleted all Internet history options but it still automatically logs me In when I come to the forum. Very weird.

i wanted to post on the laptop as I have a pic or two to add.

Flight 6 (I think)

prior to the flight there were three small holes in the top of the wing to film over. 5 minute job.This flight was on the beach again with miles of space and the ability to land anywhere. The wind was blowing about 10mph but no gusts and very consistent direction.

Ive shelved the Magnum engine for now (I will go back to it one day) and fitted the Thunder tiger 42 from my friends written off plane.

Well it was another fun day. Take offs very easy into the wind and the beach was nice and flat but a little soft. I'm still not happy about the way my plane tracks when rolling but I can counter with ruder. I'll look at this later as it always wants to go left and there is no wheel control and its all a bit boggy with the rudder.

Well my confidence is growing and once in the air I can fly it pretty much where I want it. I can make nice sharp banked turns and am now keeping the plane in front of me in squares or other patterns. I did dead stick after 5 mins but it was running too lean. Landing is no problem when you have over 30 square miles of beach to hit.

brought her down and retuned the high end needle before going back up again. Again plenty of loops and rolls. Also trying to make the rudder turns but still struggling to maintain consistent altitude and keep wings level. It's tricky balancing the 3 inputs all at once but I'll keep trying.

i think on this visit I had 3 tanks of fuel and I'd say I now have no worries about landing. Sometimes I may come in a bit hard and bounce but others I touch once and roll out and taxi back. It's all about getting that balance on the elevator and leaking off the speed.

So again to all the people who think self teaching isn't possible without hours of repairs and lots of new trainers I'd have to disagree. My only major crash was on my first take off and after that only film damage from trees and bushes. It just takes a lot of sim training and understanding the theory of flight and understanding how the plane is behaving as it flies.

The TT engine did great and tuned up well. I wish I could of stayed longer but the Mrs wanted my car to go riding her horse.

next report will be right after this.

carl24bpool

Flight 7

Back to the beach in a stronger 15 mph breeze. Slightly gusty but not much. This time the beach was wet and silty so our last landing strip was a no go. Instead we used a hardened part of the silt beach which was fairly runway shaped. Approx 50 x 15 metres so good for practice but also surrounded by holes filled with sea water. I have a pic of one of my emergency landings but still can't post on my laptop.

Today I probably made 6 take offs and 6 landings. 4 landings were dead stick which I can't fathom as it ran fine for last visit. Of the dead stick landings I overshot the runway on two and short on one. The other was a great landing. It got harder when the wind dropped as it seemed to effectively shorten the runway. Which I suppose it does.

I'm going to take the fuel tank out and check the clunk and other pipes for free flow. Then I guess it's back to tuning but I've taken it to peak and dropped a few hundred rpm and still dead sticks. Normally at around 50 - 70% throttle so perhaps I need to look at low end needle.

I was flying even better today with loads of aerobatics. I even did a few stalls high up to get a feel for how to recover them. Again finding it easier and easier to manoeuvre quickly and the way I intend. I'll keep flying the trainer for a while a I need servo screws and I seem to have. Definite fuel issue on my low wing.

I tried to get my friend to video but his phone wouldn't focus on the plane.

due to several heavy landings the rear wheels have both broken free from their fixings an one has broke away from he epoxy too so they need refitting. Again just a few minutes work.

i have a photo of a low pass I made but need access to here on my laptop. I'll try another browser tomorrow and see if that works.

I also have a small cheap video camera due any day so ill treat you to some in flight footage very soon.


At the same time as flying m friend was too. He had a mishap; he was about 300 yards away when he lost all radio control.i advised he walked towards the plane which was circling on its own but getting lower with every circuit. After around two minutes he regained control but was around 500 yards away and you could barely even see his plane as its all white.

Anyway he has 35mhz Sanwa and his aerial was up. We later range checked it and with the aerial down got around 400 yards distance. With aerial up I got bored of walking at 700 yards.

So what could of caused such temporary loss of control? Very lucky boy to get it back. The area has no pylons or potential for interference so I'm stumped.

also, anyone else struggling to post on here with a computer?

carl24bpool

Apologies, these should be flights 7 & 8 above.

lopflyers

My Feedback: (12)

We are going to call u captain dead stick. I think you have more dead sticks now than I in 4 yrs.
Of course you don't want to listen to the solution

BobFE

OK, trying to learn this new stuff, we'll see how it goes. Carl, you'll find that if you feed in some backstick (up elevator) when you do a rudder turn you should be able to correct for the altitude loss. After time it will become natural and you'll do do it without thinking. Can't wait to see the pics. Glad to hear you are learning. Keep it up and have fun.

rlipsett

you talked about poor handleing on the ground with lack of rudder authority and wheel authority. A possible explanation is if you have the plane pointing slightly up while it is sitting on the ground you create a positive angle of incidence, which means that as soon as you put any speed on the nose wheel get light because it is trying to lift off a little. Since there is no weight on the wheel it loses effectiveness. at these low speeds the rudder does not have enough airflow yet to be effective. test by applying a little down elevator at the beggining of the takeoff run and see if the handleing is any better. if this is the problem you could adjust the attitude of how the plane sits on the ground or just remeber to press a little down stick on the beggining of the takeoff run

carl24bpool

thanks buddy. That's what I've been trying but it's hard balancing all 3 when it doesn't come naturally and not something I fancy trying on approach yet, lol. I also have to use a lot of rudder to make a noticeable turn so I'm going to add positive expo to save holding stick so far over. The throw won't go much more so that's my best option. It moves 28mm each way so is as the manual. I'll keep at it.

carl24bpool

Lol, I'm great at dead stick landings now anyway.

It was all to do with fuel mixing and I've got it now. Where before I was finding peak then kept going lean until it dropped off then opening quarter. Instead now I go from the rich side to peak and then come back. I was always lean before. What confused me is that there's an area of say around quarter to half turn where peak revs stay the same. I was always on the lean side and even leaner in the air.

its bits like this where a club is better since every guy there could probably of helped me out. Still it's good as flights 9, 10 and 11 had no dead sticks.

carl24bpool

there is no wheel controls from servos so I think weight distribution matters not. I think it's a combination of long grass and my front wheel being a little loose. It won't drop off as its slotted into a well anchored pivot point which does allow control. I just decided to use a fixed wheel.

I find a good way to get rudder control at low speeds is to give a burst of revs and full rudder. The blast of air across the tail plane then pushes the plane around. It works great with my plane to the left but not right. Strange when it taxis quite straight on take off. Perhaps a little left but ill have to look at alignment more. I'm not going to get into it too mush as I have an identical plane I just bought of eBay for peanuts and ill use wheel control.

ill also try my low wing soon when I can have someone video take off.

carl24bpool

Ill post reports of latest flights later tonight but the last two were in 20mph wind which it fine up high but boy does it throw the plane around low down.

carl24bpool

I went out again yesterday. It was blowing 25mph and the plane took off after about ten metres of run, lol. Wow did it move fast down wind.

i also added a parachute man attachment and dropped him at a few hundred feet. I was way too high in the strong wind as my little man was still at 200 feet when he passed right over me and went another half a mile into the river beyond.

mike109

G'day I've been thinking about your dead sticks. A really rare problem that can lead to lots of dead stick landings is a blocked muffler pressure fitting. As your engine was sitting for several years, it is possible that fuel has dried in the muffler fitting and if this is the case, the engine will start and run as you tune it and then gradually run leaner as a vacuum forms in the tank as the fuel is used up. Eventually the engine can't suck fuel anymore and it stops.

Your problem, as Bogbeagle said, is almost certainly a fuel supply problem.

Try this. Fill the tank, disconnect the fuel line at the engine and blow on the end of the muffler. If all is OK, you should blow a stream of fuel out of the fuel line. Watch out that you don't blow too hard or the fuel may blow back into your mouth. It tastes horrible. I suspect that the engine is basically OK.

On a related but different subject, I have recently converted a couple of models to electric power. It is really convenient, no starting, no tuning and just works. I really love my glow engines but I must admit, I am flying the electric models more often, especially when I just want to grab a model and go for a quick fly. My most recent conversion is of a large trainer - a Sig Kadet Senior - which now has a Turnigy Easy Match 46 size 550kV motor, 60 Ampere Speed Controller (it really only needs about 30 Ampere one), a 13 x 8 prop and a 5000 mAh 4 cell battery. It flies very similar to the way it did with a Saito 90R3 3 cylinder radial, but with more power (the radial is not very powerful for its size). I am really enjoying it. This electric setup will work well in just about 40 size model of medium performance.

Cheers

Mike in Oz

lopflyers

My Feedback: (12)

Try this. Fill the tank, disconnect the fuel line at the engine and blow on the end of the muffler. If all is OK, you should blow a stream of fuel out of the fuel line. Watch out that you don't blow too hard or the fuel may blow back into your mouth. It tastes horrible. I suspect that the engine is basically OK.



Cheers

Mike in Oz[/QUOTE]

hey Mike, and how exactly do you now glow fuel taste horrible?

carl24bpool

Thanks Mike - This was my first port of call when I first had the problem and I could blow fuel nice and easy from the tank. I have since removed the tank and replaced all fuel lines but am now using the Thunder Tiger engine instead which seems to not dead stick.

I did cut out in teh high winds the other day but I think it was due to a lack of fuel.

Question: How little fuel should you land with? I know the clunk helps but there nust be a point where the fuel is getting thrown around too much and air enters the fuel line which eventually, especially at full throttle, will cause the engine to cut.

Should I be landing with say a sixth of a tank left to be safe?

I'm going to keep enjoying flying with the Thunder Tiger but will revert back to the magnum at some point as I hate knowing I paid for something and have had no use out of it. I'll also try and check the muffler and give it a good clean. I didn;t think there was much inside those things though really and the exit pipe seems clear. I've also fitted an Enya 3 glow plug to the TT which I beleive are the Gucci of the glow plug world and give added reliability. I have another spare which I may put in the Magnum to see how it helps.

As for electric I totally understand the convenience. You don't even need a glow starter of bug 12v battery with you (although I do now normally start the TT engine just with a pocket glow starter and a chicken stick). I just have a draw towards petrol engines though. I don;t know why but I have a petrol mower, strimmer and love anything powered by fuel. It carries no benefits apart from you can fly all day without havng to have a lot of moneys worth of Lipos on hand. I just love the sound and I even like the tinkering and setting them up. Engines are such a great invention and make your plane sound great when it whizzes past whilst in a dive.

I'm going to get some more video on my next outing. I've got some aerial video from my last few flights but it doesn;t really give you an idea of the skills I have learnt so will wait until I can get a friend to video from the side. I do have a photo of one of my deadstick landings the other week which I will add now under this.

Hope all you guys are okay and thanks again for the comments and tips. Please keep things coming as this thread could prove useful for other solo bandits like myself.

carl24bpool

This has to be my luckiest landing to date. I touched further back and then bounced and stopped on this little gem of a field smallest field ever!)

AMA 74894

My Feedback: (1)

there are those who HAVE tasted glow fuel and those who WILL.
(Oh, yeah, there are electric guys too )

AMA 74894

My Feedback: (1)

Carl, that looks like the front 9 at the old course at St Andrew's
that's one heckuva short field landing!

carl24bpool

Ha ha. I'm not sure the grounds keeper would agree with you mate

mike109

G'day

How do I know glow fuel tastes terrible? I think I was trying to empty a tank by blowing in the breather and I blew too hard and was not quick enough in getting the tube out of my mouth and some blew back.

Back in my youth when fuel was 1 part castor oil and 3 parts methanol, I got a mouth full and it actually tasted OK. But nitro and synthetic oils have changed all that.

My mate (he was 14 and I was about 11) who got me into control line, used to routinely empty his tanks by sucking the fuel into his mouth and spitting it out! I was never that game.

The worst example of "fuel drinking" that I have seen was an English diamond driller who primed the fuel pump on a Lister diesel by sucking diesel into his mouth with a plastic tube on the pump breather. Not once, but several times! Yuck.

Cheers

Mike in Oz

mike109

G'day Carl. In reply to your question as to how much fuel should be left -

I generally put one size larger tank in models than is called for. If I can't then I just live with it. Most planes will give about 15 to 20 minutes if built as designed AND not flown at full power all the time. I generally find that my planes have at least half a tank after flying for 8 to 10 minutes. I don't use a timer most of the time.

Dead stick landings are not the disaster many people think. As you recent "landing" shows, you can land just about anywhere. The trick is to make it a landing and not crash. As someone said here somewhere - "A bad landing is always better than a good crash."

I would try to leave about 20% of the tank. That will give you a couple of missed approaches at least and then if the engine does stop, you should not be too far from the strip and a dead stick is not going to be too much problem. Mind you, if it is really windy, then a bit more reserve is probably a good idea.

As for the cluck and not much fuel - the clunk follows the fuel no matter what the plane does so you have to be pretty violent to get the clunk to leave the fuel even if there is not much left. The trick here is to not make the clunk tube too long. The clunk should sit about 1cm (3/8 inch) clear of the back of the tank (a bit more in really large tanks) so that it cannot ever touch the back of the tank and restrict the flow. I don't use the light tube provided in some ARF kits. It is too light and splits easily. I generally use Dubro clear light blue tube as it is easy to get and good quality.

Cheers

Mike in Oz

carl24bpool

Thanks Mike.
I think the clunk is closer ot the end than that but I'll check before next flight.

I'm getting pretty good at deadsticks and to be honest I have probably landed more of them than under idle. lol.

As for the taste of fuel, well the initial taste is pretty bad but hte after taste that creeps in is terrible. The number of times I've gone flying without a drink and I have to endure that taste for an hour. I'd rather have a pair of sweaty socks in my mouth.

carl24bpool

I flew another two tanks of fuel tonight and wind was back down to around 10mph.

I practiced flying circuits and keeping level. I also managed to fly inverted but it took a lot of elevator to keep it in place. That much that there wasn't much left to climb.

It was a bit of a rush job tonight so no dived again but I will defenitely get some on the next flight. I've even cleared some storage on the camcorder which has 30x zoom.