papajeff

Airflow,

Thanks for the videography last night.....Captain Chaos was a little out of control, but you can fix that with a bit of creative editing. Some day, I would like to watch you do that. Here's some photos of the flight and our "cast of characters!" Gotta love them!!!!!! Our Creative Director (that's
Bob with the camera) has been practicing a lot, but his new camcorder is so small that he has to constantly keep checking just to make sure that he is getting shots of the plane and not just the sky & clouds. Bob is currently editing the footage and we should have the final video of the Predator soon. Oh, our video pilot is Greg "K" who is actually a Jet Pilot (I mean a REAL full size jet) in addition to a fine RC pilot and what do you think of the hat....actually, I like it! It makes Greg look "Distinguished" don't you think???? Greg did some fancy flying with the Predator as you can see; knife edge....inverted......and a loop or two, however he passed on trying a few snap rolls and some hovering like Quique does. Nice!

chrishornby

Papajeff
Here's a few fotos from me to add to the collection.
After some flying I decided to make some changes.
First of all I changed the colour scheme to help me with orientation problems. However by the time the pred was far enough away for me to get confused over orientation, I could no longer see the colours!
Next I decided to make the nosewheel steerable, because I like to have some control over where the plane is heading on the patch and the eventual solution is illustrated below. It was not possible to link the nosewheel to the V tail rudder so I cut a new rudder in the fin, and put the servo where the hatch used to be. At some time in the future I might tidy this up. Maybe put the servo inside and box in the nosewheel mechanism. The full-size pred seems to have lots of bulbous protrusions underneath so this should not be a problem.
The V tail only has elevator function now and 2 servos for this seems to be a bit of overkill!
I also put a nose cam in, you can see it and its little antenna. It seems to work quite well but has not been airborn yet. All I have is footage of it racing round the car park looking at the asphalt. The cam looks forward and down. When I do fly I will post the video on Utube, and I hope there is no crash footage!

Chris

papajeff

Airflow,

EXCELLENT MODS!!!!!!!! Great idea for the nosewheel steering and I really like your link-up to the rudder you made on the lower verticle fin!
I'm sure that your comments regarding the flight characteristics with a functional rudder will be most interesting. We'll enjoy seeing your video,
especially with the onboard camera. Nice work!

"PAPA POWER"

chrishornby

here is a vid of the steerable nosewheel in action. Still too windy to fly:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aIGVd2UQys

The black ribbon is mandatory in the UK for 2.4Ghz (and the stubby antenna)

papajeff

Chris,

Nose wheel stearing works great....can't wait to see your flying video.

chrishornby

I'm off to the USA for a week now (Newburyport Mass) so wont be able to fly till I get back. but its looking good. I flew at the weekend but forgot to press record, damaged the fin onlanding so coudnt go again!
Chris

papajeff

Chris,

Enjoy your vacation to the USA and try to e-mail me when you get here: [email protected]
Take care and have a safe trip!

Papa Jeff

papajeff

*****I'll bet ya that Dan Landis is going to be flying one of these Predators or Reapers very soon, from his console in Nevada. Talk about flying GIANT SCALE RC, right???????

BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq (July 16) - The airplane is the size of a jet fighter, powered by a turboprop engine, able to fly at 300 mph and reach 50,000 feet. It's outfitted with infrared, laser and radar targeting, and with a ton and a half of guided bombs and missiles.


Photo Gallery: 'Hunter-Killer' Drones

Maya Alleruzzo, AP An estimated two-dozen MQ-1 Predators now perform surveillance over Iraq. The Air Force's 432nd Wing, a unit created May 1, will eventually fly 60 Reapers and 160 Predators. Source: AP
The Reaper is loaded, but there's no one on board. Its pilot, as it bombs targets in Iraq, will sit at a video console 7,000 miles away in Nevada.

The arrival of these outsized U.S. "hunter-killer" drones, in aviation history's first robot attack squadron, will be a watershed moment even in an Iraq that has seen too many innovative ways to hunt and kill.

That moment, one the Air Force will likely low-key, is expected "soon," says the regional U.S. air commander. How soon? "We're still working that," Lt. Gen. Gary North said in an interview.

The Reaper's first combat deployment is expected in Afghanistan, and senior Air Force officers estimate it will land in Iraq sometime between this fall and next spring. They look forward to it.

"With more Reapers, I could send manned airplanes home," North said.

The Associated Press has learned that the Air Force is building a 400,000-square-foot expansion of the concrete ramp area now used for Predator drones here at Balad, the biggest U.S. air base in Iraq, 50 miles north of Baghdad. That new staging area could be turned over to Reapers.

It's another sign that the Air Force is planning for an extended stay in Iraq, supporting Iraqi government forces in any continuing conflict, even if U.S. ground troops are drawn down in the coming years.

The estimated two dozen or more unmanned MQ-1 Predators now doing surveillance over Iraq, as the 46th Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron, have become mainstays of the U.S. war effort, offering round-the-clock airborne "eyes" watching over road convoys, tracking nighttime insurgent movements via infrared sensors, and occasionally unleashing one of their two Hellfire missiles on a target

chrishornby

Here is a pic of the Reaper. Look familiar??
Chris (back in the UK wet and windy)

papajeff

Chris,

The Predator and the Reaper do look very similar and I believe that the Reaper is a more current version of the original UAV design. The newest UAV is jet powered and called the Global Hawk. I would really like to see an RC Mfg. create a version of the Global Hawk and power it with an EDF.
Now that would be a popular plane.

chrishornby

Thanks for the photos. I have some aerial photography from my pred, taken at our "fun fly-in" at our patch. (Nothing up to your Joe Nall!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbMuNOgibQE

I am working on an A-10 now but my next project is to scale up the predator to 1/5 scale to make a more stable platform and add auto pilot and gps nav. I will let youknow how I get on. This is a longer term project you understand!

papajeff

Chris,

I sure enjoyed your Predator "eye in the sky" video! What beautiful landscape your Country has. By the way, what a nice flying field too! The video was certainly clear and in focus so, what type of camera did you use and who makes it? I'm sure that other flyers would like to know.

chrishornby

Hi Papajeff, sorry I missed you in the States, but it is a big country!! The camera I am using is a flycamone. It takes SD cards and only wieghs less than 1 oz so can be put in any plane. See http://www.hobby-lobby.com/video-camera.htm picture attached. When you get the shot it is upside down and mirrored, but that is easily fixed in an editor including the one in windows. You could probably hide it inside yourpredator and have the mirror in that interesting pod like thing on the front underside of your plane. I have put some of my other stuff on a website http://sky-cam.tv and you or anyone is welcome to contribute aerial shots to that. I have only just started it so not much there at present.
I want to make plans from the nitromodels predator and scale it up to twice size. Any ideas of how I might do that? I am sure it is okay to do providing you dont try to sell anything. If I could find larger plans that would be great, but cannot find anything.

CHeers from the green fields of England

Chris

chrishornby

There is a twin edf global hawk here http://www.rchobby.co.uk/27.html

not very scale though!!

Chris

papajeff

"I enjoyed your Predator build. I purchased one myself and am starting to build it. The question I have is where do you attach the main and front landing gear? Are there blind nuts that you can use already installed?"
Thanks - Dave David Adams

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks for the interest in the Predator and I'm pleased that you are starting your build. It would be interesting to know where you purchased your
Predator, since they have been "out of stock" for a few months. The attachment of the main landing gear and the nose gear are actually under the covering which must be removed with a sharp hobby knife to expose the pre-installed and reinforced gear slots. The main gear attachment already has the "T" nuts installed and the nose gear has two surface mounted plastic straps included in the parts bag.

brownlab

im having a predator delivered next week. id post pics but i dont know how[], can sum 1 tell me how

brownlab

and how to start a forum[X(][X(][X(]

papajeff

brownlab,

It would be interesting to find out where you got your Predator from, as Nitro has been "out of stock" for the past two months.

brownlab

raidentech.COM $100 [link=http://raidentech.com]raidentech.com[/link]

brownlab

but this one is different, its white smaller and its a rtf. again, its only $100 [sm=spinnyeyes.gif]

brownlab

papajeff

Brownlab,

The Predator that you ordered is the white one, right? It's basically similar to the Camo Predator that Nitro Models should have available again in a week or so, at least that's what they have told me. You could tell us a little about your Predator and I think that would be most interesting.

By the way, all those empty "quote" boxes from your last post can be erased by you if you click on the "EDIT" symbol which is just above that particular post of yours, and then DELEAT all of the boxes.

brownlab

it hasnt come yet, when it comes ill post pics and start a thread, ill even teellyou how it flies. its gonna come thursday or friday.
some one please tell me how to start a thread

papajeff

Brownlab,

Here is the link for all info on posting and starting a build thread or review. I just found it and guess that I need a refresher course, too!

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/faq.asp



To get there from the "Home" screen for RCUniverse......on the upper left, from the list in red, click on RC University.
then click on "Forums" under the heading USING RCU and you will get all the info you need. Let me know how it goes.

brownlab

thanks for the info.my pred is coming tomorrow. the name of the thread will be, "new raidentech predator uav"