Maiden crash, you have had two answers to this question, but, I tested the costco batteries versus duracells for a brick of each. The average charge length of a set of batt's is 18. The variation it charges may be due to different charge and flight styles. If you fly the plane way down before you charge it, you'll get a longer life out of the tx batteries, but you'll have poorer performance at the end of the battery cycle. I found that the best results are yeilded by changing the batt's once they drop below 1.35-1.30v. All of this was done with a tx used only for charging. Tim

Hey all, the mono stir stick that landed on the chimney of the carriage house and then fell between it and the roof fell down today. I no longer need a 30+' ladder. I did nearly run it over though. Tim

I am a new pilot and bought my Airhogs Ace jet just a couple weeks ago.. first time out, it took me a while to get hang of it, but noticed it wanted to go nose up big time until I left off the throttle some... so, I added a small metal screw near the cockpit (see first picture) to give it a little more weight on the front to help balance out the COG... it still does want to climb a little on my take off throws, but not near as bad and I can keep it up in the air for a good while, do circles, etc..

But was curious if I could do additional mods to help out?

WannaFly, you could also give it just a tad bit down elevator. The
jets do not have flaps cut into the tail so you might want to add some
to keep the foam from creasing.
This will also allow you to adjust the plane in between flights to try
different flight patterns, maybe even loops.

neurotex,
here's the Skoda. they are indeed (or were?) a car manufacturer, but back in the war days, i think everyone played a part. the plane is called the Skoda-Korba SK V1A, and i've yet to find another picture of it and info seems quite lacking. i've really only searched around on google though so other info might be out there. i also attatched a pic of the ToonRacer version i did of it, just slightly modified! it flew quite well, though it had a funny characteristic of having the tail bob up and down quite rapidly during fast flight. didnt hurt the performance, but it looked awfully weird.

as for that tailless bipe/mono, check out the two other pics i added. they're of a free flight plane called the Twin Wing. the cool thing is, besides that its got no tail feathers also, it will fly in either direction...just put some weight on one side and it'll fly that way, put the weight on the other end, and it'll fly that way too...techincally, its got no nose, and no tail! i've got a .pdf with some info, but i snapped the pics so you could see what i was talking about. let me know if you want the .pdf.

nick

Dave Robelen put Suitcase and I on to the aero ace. Suitcase got the last one the local Walmart had. I found 2 at Covinton,Va walmart,one for me and my son. We are having fun flying this little plane in the yard.

microbuilder

Thanks for the clairification on the wing. Interesting. It was a late night reading session. My laptop is in crash mode. Had to get everything backed up before I reformat it.

A reverse flying wing? Hmmmmm....... genetically altering a sperm whale to fly might be easier. Flying wings have always been touchy in the modeling world and the real one. I've seen a few nice ones even at the AA level. Horten. But a reverse one? I'm sure it can be done, but I bet its a handful to fly at least. 2 channels doesnt leave much room for corrections.

Neurotexs's cananrd comes to mind. A very well designed plane, tried so many unique things to get it going only to find a new characteristic to deal with. If he had 3 channels the stalling could have been compensated for with a single bump of the 3rd channel.

Just my opinion,

Tony
ARS Software & Innovative Solutions
http://www.falcon1.net/~ars/rcmodels.html

One of those things that would make a good long winter project.

Has any one tried out the plantraco gear? Check out their site. Tim

Holy Cow, I just looked at the pricing. Maybe I'll look around some more. Tim

Thanks micro, like the Twin Wing! Basically the same principal but
with this one- no rudder. Well almost, the fuselage acts in this case
as a rudder.
Never before seen the Skoda you made... how many planes do you
have???

That canard I made was the most mind boggl'in plane I ever built.
Never stalled. Just hovered about. Never did find the reason why it
couldn't make turns. somewhatscrapped

Had a brief moment with no wind so I took the foam Strato Streak
plane to the field along with my camera. Despite the heavy wing and
glue glob fuse it flew great. 26.4 grams in all.
So the 1.5mm plate foam works good enough for me.
In less than 30 seconds she climbed to 50 feet.
Made a drive by over the neighboring building.
And then came in for the landing.

WanaFly06:

I have made some nice modifications to my jet. I removed the rear tail wings and placed just one in the center (It gives the jet more turning power). I then took the landing gear off a rubber band wind up balsa wood plane (this landing gear has lots of spring, as the jet lands very hard)and replaced the wheels with a match box car wheels. I then put them in the separation slot at the nose of the jet. Add a rear tab and you will save a lot of wear and tear on your plane.

Redmon

Hi all, first off, I mentioned a while ago that the stir stick mods transfer enough energy to the wing to cause it to separate from the fuse. I also said a quick fix was a bit of tape. I am reiterating that warning and updating the fix. I was flying the plane just now and to fly straight I had to put a lot of rudder into it before launch. I brought it in puzzled. I then took a good look at wing alignment. The fuse is canted, ergo, flies in circles. I'm going to pop the supports out and re center the wing. I would recommend installing the tape PRIOR to putting the stir sticks on. I also recommend the gift tape over regular tape, it seems to hold better.

Now I have a question for you, all of you, When flying in wind do you want a plane that is: Heavier but slower, Lighter and faster, or lighter and faster, but more maneuverable. I ask because I'll pick a mod or a stock bipe, then mutter to myself I need a _______ airplane. Any thoughts? Tim

redmoon, nice mod! Looks sleek too, not to mention saving the
props from getting scuffed.

Ferndale, the plane I just flew above is the heaviest I've flown so
far and to me the extra weight made no difference at all as far
as climbing. This is because the airfoil is a fat 9mm at its thickest
point. The plane is faster also because of the added weight which
increases the air over the airfoil. The extra drag is not even an
issue at that point except for increasing lift.
A lighter plane is slower and has to battle the wind and usually
porpoises. Even with the slight breeze that kicked up the plane
stood steadfast and was easy to control.
I have no doubt the plane would still fly and climb nice
even at 30 grams given the correct airfoil and wing design.

hi all, I'm going to buy a tach for these buggers. It will give me a starting point on some of my conundrums. The double stir stick is better but I can't decide whether the wind conditions are funky or if the board is letting go. The same for my helis, do they need aero massaging, or do they not have the rpm. There are many worse problems to have. Tim

For me in a mixed wind the single stir stick mono is the best. Flying at low throttle I can manuever easily, and if I think I'm getting caught in the wind I can goose it and cause a flip turn or turn out of the wind and glide down. So my answer would have been lighter, faster, more manueverable. But I think manueverability is really the key. Earlier this year I was putting silk ribbons on the planes. They caused the planes to turn into the wind, and then you could use the motors to manuever. Tim

Tony,
yeah, i've never had much success with flying wings, closest was the plank style wing or the stryker, but neither of those are true wings. 3 channels would certainly help, in probably any given situation, but especially here, or on the canard. bummer about your laptop, i dont even have my own computer set up yet so i dont have any of my files or links. its kinda frustrating, but probably not as much as a formatting job, every time i format, i seem to forget to save at least one important thing. last time i did it, i forgot to make a hard copy of the 1200+ guitar tabs i'd compiled over the years...i lost every single one of them![:@]

neurotex,
yeah the twin wing is an usual design, the anihedral on the bottom wing tips is very odd as well. nice flying pics of the strato streak, i like the tail feathers on it, looks kind of star wars-esque! as for how many planes i have? i dont even know, when i was moving out of my house this past week, i realized i had WAY more boxes of RC stuff compared to normal house hold boxes. i think i had at least two medium size boxes full of empty airframes and one with planes that actually had equipment installed. i really need to thin it out some! fortunately, i'm pretty rough with my planes, so a lot of them dont survive very long. if they did, i'd be drowning in balsa thats one
of the benifits of doing the micro thing, i can fit a bunch of planes in just one box. i dont know how the large-scale guys do it.

Tim,
usually, heavy means faster, and more wind penitration, however with extra weight comes extra inertia which would cut down on manuverability. this isnt always the case though, of course. as neurotex mentioned, the lighter they are, the easier the wind can take it away. the way around this would be to remove some of the incidence in the wing so it just doesnt have quite the same amount of lift, but a strong gust of wind can still send a light plane tumbling. just to complicate it a bit more, if its lighter, its usually more manuverable, which can help get you out of sticky situations, but again, the wind will still cause more havoc to a lighter plane than a heavier one - usually (lots of variables that could change that, especially incidence angles, thrust angles, and as neurotex also mentioned, wing design).

nick

micro, I'll betcha more care was given pack'n up that plane stuff
than anything else- just a guess.
But you're right. I need a little more space to fly this foamie. The backyard
is out but a soccer field is just right. More of a park flyer, but with a swept
back wing and a 12" or 13" wing span (and dump the glue glob fuse) I could
get some of that manuvering back.

I found that the Strato tail was designed for one center prop. 2 props caused
some wash out over the 2 rudders and caused it to roll about in turns. Bending
the rudders in solved the problem and gave the tail some lift.

yes indeed, i put each plane in the boxes with care, making sure that nothing smooshes a wing or anything. it was a pain in the butt, but its worth it...no point in boxing up all the planes if they look like a balsa grave yard when you take them out. the rest of the home stuff pretty much just got tossed like a basketball!

next time you're near a TRU, you should pick up one of the new silverlit SingleWing planes. despite it being NiMH powered, its got loads of potential for home built planes. i picked up a 2nd one yesterday and have gutted it already, and am now trying to figure out what to put it in. considering the fact that the gearbox will give me 20+ grams of thrust, a lightweight airframe with the stock parts and a lipo could allow me a micro prop-hanger!

nick

It must be new since I can't find a listing on it anywhere. The TRU site
has no listing and the Silverlit site has nothing about it either.
Does it have a single motor with rudder actuator? Because I've been
looking for a really solid inexpensive plane of this type to work with.

Airfoil made from the 1.5mm plate foam designed to find thermal lifts.

Wing I designed with two differing airfoils.

Nick,

Is the actuator a 2 wire in the Single wing plane?
Was wondering if it was the same Rx as the AA.

Tony
ARS Software & Innovative Solutions
http://www.falcon1.net/~ars/rcmodels.html

Neurotex, Tony,
the SingleWing is indeed brand new (or at least it is in the US), and is a single motor+actuator plane. the actuator is a normal one, with two leads. the RX is differant than the AAs, a bit larger and has some beefy components on it (two electrolytic caps, M7 diode, oversized resister, switch, ect). the gearbox is two teeth away from the almost 25 dollar BSD 7mm SS 4:1 gearbox, and has the equivilent of a 7mm Red SS motor (could estimate thrust to be around 20-25g for a 0.8 - 1 amp draw). despite the fact that its powered with 3 70mah NiMH AAA cells, i usually get 8-10 minutes of flying. for 20 bucks, its a better deal than the AA! if you get one, take a good close look at the rudder while its still in the box - if its deflected to the left or right at all, try to find a differant one, otherwise its a bear to trim. here's some threads on it:

RCUs thread: http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_4888425/tm.htm
RCG thread: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=584863
RCG mod thread: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=587535

today i gutted the 2nd one i have, stripped the gearbox of some weight and have started installing it into my Micro Ultimate, the AUW should be almost identical to stock weight (which is around 24 grams), but will have double the wing area, should be a nice flyer.

nick

Hi, Micro does it fly within the general confines as an aa. Is it yard flyer? I'm looking for them either way Maybe hobbytron or hobby people.

I have a theory on why the aa burns transistors. As far as my planes are concerned all of the 06's get interferance from the bottom wing. Mega-byte mentioned a while back that interference with the prop can cause a surge in the transistor. As I understand it, the transistor is allowing max flow, but the prop is unable to spin at max, and the electrons "back up" in the transistor because they can't flow. This would cause heat, from resistance, and burn the transistor up.
If this theory is correct, there would be few options to solve the problem. Cut the lower wing where the prop hits, remove the lower wing entirely soon after purchase, and replace the transtors. Does this sound rational, or am I just overthinking? Has anyone burnt a rx on the jet?

Tim

Tim,
its faster than the AA, but it can turn just as sharp, if not more so. i flew it in the front yard today and it was more of a handfull than the AAs, but it was managable, it just seems overly sensitive to rudder inputs since the rudder deflects so much (almost 90 degrees!) and its not proportional. there was a 5-10mph wind and it handles it ok, but in dead calm wind its a real nice flyer. i took it out to the field to stretch its legs a bit, and i got it to do some nice looking manuvers, high speed banking turns (and i do mean high speed - i could see quite a bit of wing flex - some CF might be added), a few loops and rolls, and if there's enough altitude and speed, turning right always creates some unusual moves as well. like the AA, it will fly on the lowest throttle setting, but there's only 4 throttle steps so its not as smooth, still works pleanty well though - i'm really starting to like it quite a bit.

as for the AA RXs burning out, i have no idea, Tony might have more insite on that. to me, it just seems like they just go ka-put whenever they get the urge. fortunately, i've only killed a few over the time.

nick

I see the SingleWing already cracked open and being put to work.
I'll have to look for one tomorrow.

Thanks micro, for the heads up on the SingleWings. Went over
to TRU on my lunch and picked up two, one red, one blue.
There's still 5 left on the shelf as of now, 11 & Telegraph, Toys r Us.

Nick,

Thanks for the details on the SWP. Doesnt dound to bad. Wonder why the NiMH instead of a lipo? Anyway, it seem well worth it for parts. Post a pic of the Bipe one its in. 2x the lift..........Yummmmmmm........................... ...

Neurotex

A leadfeather & jerbear were looking for thin light foam from plates and such. One found WalMart plates. 40 for $1.17 that were an actual 1.13mm and the weight is the killer.
4gm sq/ft! Thats 1/3 the weight of my 1.5mm from RCFoam. Like to find a roll or some sheets of that stuff.

Tony
ARS Software & Innovative Solutions
http://www.falcon1.net/~ars/rcmodels.html