2015 Flight-Log!

[jharkin]

The weather ups and downs are killing me... We have had some beautiful days.... when I'm at work!!

And I have a chance to get out this weekend maybe, but its going to be the start of 7 days of rain!!!

[rcnut]

The weather ups and downs are killing me... We have had some beautiful days.... when I'm at work!!

I hear ya! Yesterday the wins were calm all through work, the sun was shinning, and the temps were on the rise. By the time I got out of work...72 degrees, sunny skies, with gale storm winds! 25-35 mph gusting to 40!

I was great to open the house and let some freaash air in, but...

[rcnut]

Mark and I went to our practice field for some heli action. We got there late as the winds were 25-35 mph and gusting up to 40! Mark said the wind would start decreasing around 3:00. Well, it did some, but not as much as we would have liked.

I brought the Mostro for its maiden flight. I handled very well and had lots of power…in which I had to resist performing aerobatic with it! Ok, ok…I did one roll. Mark's comment; "So much for taking it easy on the motor!" First flight on a new motor…me; "Sorry! I couldn't help it!" Mark; and I didn't get to see it inverted!" Me; "flight 5 Mark, on flight #5."

Mark brought his Whiplash gasser. He transferred that heli into his DX9 radio. However, there are some programming issues that now need to be addressed. So he flew his Raptor G4. The winds gave him a little trouble, but he compensated just fine.

I tried to put up flight #2 on the Mostro, but something happened to the Spartan Vortex controller. It lost it's bind. So I cleaned it up and put it away. Next up…the Synergy N7. Mark and Bill haven't seen this heli fly yet, so this will be a treat for them. The first flight (of the day on the N7) wasn't too bad. The motor acted like it was close to the lean side. The second flight, after I richened both needles, showed it was lean…again! Ok…this time the regulator is coming off!!! So this is telling me the regulator isn't working right, along with the needle valve.

The regulated O.S. motors have this problem at the beginning of their release. There is a fix for it, I haven't received it yet! Time to make another call. I did manage to almost finish the full tank before it acted up…no autos this time…sad…

Mostro = 1
N7 = 2

Total = 44/45? (have to get my flight log!)

[rcnut]

Saturday wasn't too bad for flying. The weatherman said the winds would be around 6 mph…yea right! Add a one (1) in front of the 6. It was more like 10-16 mph and gusting up to 20. However, the sun was out and it felt nice, but needed a jacket.

Mark and I planned for a full day of flying, and we did just that! I brought 4 helis to run through.

The Rave was doing good until the FBL controller started acting up. The factory foam tape was breaking down, so I'll replace it with the 3M gray tape.

The Synergy N7 still suffers with carb problems. I think I have a spare carb for the non-pumped motor. Other than that, the N7 is flying great.

As for the Mostro nitro heli…I managed 4 flights without a single issue with the Spartan controller! But disaster was just around the corner. I plugged in the "data pod" to adjust the programming some. When I was done, I plugged the power wire back, but I didn't know that I had missed plugging it in correctly. There are 4 pins in a row. The bottom (forth) pin is used for a connector plugged in horizontally, below the vertical pins.

This meant the plus and minus pins are now directly shorted! As I was preparing the Mostro for the 5th flight…as I plugged the dean's connector together, the wire instantly started smoking and melting. I quickly unplugged the connector before it got too far involved. However, damage was done to the power plug and wires and also the plus pins on the controller.

I'll have a look at the controller later today and see if I can fix/replace the two pins. If no other damage has occurred, it should be easy. Once fixed, I plan to make up a couple of "dummy" plugs for the bottom 3 pins to insure I never do this again!

Rave = 1
Synergy = 4
Mostro = 4

Total = 54 (this after going over my flight log)

[jharkin]

Today was the pick of the weekend and I finally have a free day. A lot of the regulars are out of town, Ed's down at NEHC, Raja is at some funfly.... so I loaded the truck up with helis and planes and went to the field early (9:30sih) to see whats up.

Decent crowd there, Ru, Joe the train guy, Paul, Ken, and a bunch of other old faces. Ed, who mores the runway came by to check out the field condition. Paul brought everybody bagels. Good time and lots of activity.

I picked up a fresh case of powermaster 15% this winter so for a change of pace I spent most of the morning flying the Ultimate biplane. The Saito 100 picked up a good 400 rpm on the fresh fuel vs. the year old open gallon I was working on last summer and that thing flew beautifully. The A123 RX pack survived all winter of negative digits without a hitch and didn't even need charging! man I love A123s... pity they stopped making the 1100 cells.

My field box is another story... the 12v agm appears shot and didn't have enough juice to drive the dynatron. Time for a new one.

Later in the day I put two flights on the Helix. The last round of changes including loosening up the tank cutouts appear to have finally done the trick and the horrible foaming is gone. Tank is nice and clear now until I get down to about 1/4 then just a little froth. finally

I put on a little show for the airplane guys and shot a bunch of autos. No stunts or anything, just straight in but it was enough to impress.

Now I'm back home... scrubbed out the grill and cleaned off the patio furniture.. Time for a brew and some burgers.


Flights today:
Biplane - 4
Helix G700 -2

total 2015... I dont remember....

[edin508]

Hell yeah, Jeremy! Sounds like a great day.

[rbort]

On my way to Rye Brook, NY to visit my sister, I decided to head to the funfly in CT to spend the day before making the rest of the trip to NY. The field was about 90 miles away, 1/2 way and a good stop to spend this gorgeous blue sky day.

I had never been there and it turns out to be a nice field, lots of open space and you can fly in all directions. The pitt is in the middle so to speak, so you can fly to the east, west or north. The only problem today was that the place was a mud bowl, the grass was all soaked, squishy with a puddle of water forming around you foot when you stepped in it. You had to walk very gingerly, if not the back of your jeans got covered in mud droplets.

Larry decided to come join me from PA, and made the 200 mile trek to the field as well getting there around 2:30pm. We flew in the best spot I could find, least amount of mud, and I got in 8 flights for the day 4 whippy 4 spectra and he got in 4 flights, 2 1005 and 2 on his whippy. He enjoyed it alot, and we went out to dinner at the Outback later that evening for some Filet Mignon and Lobster tails

My sneakers got soaked even though I tried to walk gingerly, and I couldn't wait to get to the house here in NY and take my socks off. I got a picture of them, but the iphone cord is in my car, will upload it later. My feet, being wet all day, looked dead white, not a sign of life them! Some hot water washing was in order.

Ansy called me while at the field as Larry was flying. He said he went to Medfield today and everybody and his brother showed up. He got there at 7:20am and by 7:40 the first guy was already showing up, by 8am the parking lot was full. I told him everyone has been locked out of the field for the past 4 months or more, and the first good weekend day out everyone is going to flock to the field. I'm the only guy who flew all winter long in there, pretty much had the place to myself for the last 4 months or so, not too many cold weather flyers and you can forget about snow flyers - you need the equipment to be able to get in.

At the moment Larry is still on his way home, but happy to report he is in PA now and doesn't have a long ways to go, should be home within the hour.

-=>Raja.

[rcnut]

Yesterday I went to the NIU campus (Northern Illinois University) to test fly a Sig Kadet Sr. Normally, this plane fly's itself, so no real testing of the flight worthiness for this plane other than trimming it out. The engineering students wanted to try their hand at computer controlled flight, flying the aircraft from waypoint to waypoint. And in the middle of the waypoints, a payload drop at a specified location...this project is for a grade.

I looked over the plane for flight readiness, checked the controls and made some linkage adjustments. I had the students (Alex) turn on the flight system with the computer to verify it work and the fact I could take over in case something went wrong. Everything seemed to be working fine.

The take-off was text book. The plane needed some trim adjustments, like most new builds. A few laps around the sky and it was time for the students to take over. Now the equipment they were using provided airspeed, altitude, flight stability, and GPS. As soon as Alex turns on the flight controls, the plan made a hard right hand dive towards the ground! Everyone started yelling turn it off! I tried to gain control, but I didn't have enough control surface or time. It took maybe all of 3 seconds to smack into the ground, totaling the aircraft.

Post inspection suggests the flight controller came loose and flipped on its side causing the hard dive. Alex has an airplane to sacrifice for a second attempt (his late father’s plane). They, as a group, have 3 more weeks before their project is due...finals. This time, the transmitter will have the ability to switch the flight system off in case something goes terribly wrong!

Sig Kadet Sr. = 1 = crashed/totaled

[rbort]

Decided to take out the FPV taylorcraft today, worked on it last night to make sure all was good and was looking for some change from heli flying this whole year so far.

I got to the field and OMG, Diego, Wenys and John were there. Haven't seen the Brazilian airforce crew for months, Diego maybe over a year+. I guess they were hibernating over the winter, and hibernating they did, as those two guys put on some serious weight. Diego blamed it on the new girlfriend, cooks too much for him!

I started out with a flight on the Spectra to let John finish up his flying. Diego as usual was building airplanes on the field, that guy always brings his stuff in pieces to the field and works on making it fly there. He spent most of the afternoon working on a plane with a 30cc gas engine, when I left at 6pm he was charging the batteries to get a flight on it.

After the Spectra flight I assembled Taylorcraft N6115, pulled out all the gear and got her flight ready. Texted Ed when she was taking active runway 13 for departure. A little breeze today but right down the runway, it took off effortlessly even with all the weight and I climbed to cruising altitude before throttling back to somewhere around 5200 rpms. She cruises nicely as those rpms and I get to enjoy the view. Attached are two pictures below from the airplane, one of the airplane after landing engine still running, and one of the GPS after the first 30 minute flight.

Ground speed on the landings was only 25mph into the wind, and I got to enjoy the long approach to the runway from 1/2 mile out. I had to add throttle to keep the decent low, otherwise with all that headwind she wasn't going to make it past all the trees. Ed has a mini recorder, we need to see if we can mount it to my airplane and take a ride with it and see how the video comes out.

The pictures below are not super clear of the TV screen, its hard to take a picture of the TV plus the sun was behind me causing some glare. Anyways, the first shot is of the old hospital, the water tower there, and all the beach work they did on the river. That one is looking out over the left wing through the pan camera. The second picture is of the runway looking down through the right tilt camera. 3rd picture after landing and taxi back to the airport parking, and the last picture is of the GPS. Total today was 41 miles travelled in 1 hour and 6 minutes airborne.

-=>Raja.

[jharkin]

Lookin' good Raja! makes me want to get the Edge out and clean her up.


Weekends are really bad right now, watching the weather and see if I can sneak in a vacation day from the office to get over there... are you guys around generally?


Other problem is we are planning to take the kids camping this summer, so my wife got me a small telescope as a b-day gift to take along... Astronomy was a huge interest of mine as a kid and this has sparked the interest again... taht could be trouble... I recall that people into it seriously could spend $$$$ that makes even gasser helis and giant scale planes look cheap. I have a real weakness for new gadgets... must ... resist.... must....

[rcnut]

Sunday was scheduled for rain all day...however, shortly after I was up, the sun was out! I called Mark, but no response. So I did some house chores, and headed for the shower. I called Mark again and this time he answered. I said "let's go flying!" He came up with some really good excuses...fixing clutch issues, mounting magnets on the G4 canopy versus ripping rubber grommets, etc. You know...fleet maintenance stuff.

Yea, yea, yea...you still have your Goblin gasser! I wasn't planning on letting him weasel out of a partially good day to go flying! So off to the school we go. I brought 3 of my nitro helis that needed wringing out...fixing issues! The first up...my Rave. The last flight, it started displaying loss of control in maneuvers. It was like it had a mind of its own. Turns out it was the foam tape. I replaced it with the 3M gray tape...problem solved!

Mark asked me to go through his Gobby as he moved the setting from his DX8 to the DX9 radio. Everything looked ok, but now to see if it was flight worthy! As it turned out, yes, it fly’s, but not as well as when it was on the DX8. This is ok it’s just radio adjusting/fine tuning. His Gobby flew just fine as I gave it a short workout, just to wring it out some…and to explain how it was going to feel for Mark.

Next up for me…the Synergy N7. I was having carb issues with the O.S.105HZ-R, the pumped motor. Well I removed the carb and use a spare O.S.91HZ carb to see if it would work. If the 105 needed more fuel, this wasn’t a problem I can open the needle valves a lot more versus closing them. As it turned out, the carb worked just fine! I had to open the idle needle a lot! But it idles very nicely. The mid is close to 1 turn out (about 1-1/8 to 1-1/4), and the high is now 1-5/8 turns out. The motor is on the warm side, about 7 seconds before needing to remove your finger! So I’ll leave it there for a while, I’ll let the motor get used to this setting. As for the N7, it is now one rockin heli! I only got two flights on it due to the rain…and ran out of fuel both times!

Mark managed another flight on his Gobby and that pretty much ended our day. The rain started with light sprinkles…and became progressively bigger. It was fun to get out and do some flying with Mark!

Rave = 1
N7 = 2

Total = 57

[edin508]

Looking good Raja! And yes, the Mobius cam needs to take a ride on the FPV plane. Either yours or mine, or both! Just not at the same time, haha.
I've got a party all day this Sat, a beach feast. I get to stuff my face with random sea food all day and finish it off with a lobster for desert. But maybe Sunday if I am up to it, might have to roll me off the couch after eating so much the day before.
And I am weak, I need to stop thinking of things I "need/want". I just got home from Norfolk Power Equipment with a new Honda EU2000i generator. Now I can keep the electric toys going all day.
Hope to see you out there soon, Jeremy! Maybe some flowers and dinner will help you get a day pass with the wife.

[jharkin]

Its not so much getting a day pass from the wife... shes ok with it as long as everything else is taken care of... its just all the other stuff that needs to get done around here.

Yesterday we where down to my sisters for a dinner party... This sat my wife has an event to go to, weekend after that is my niece first communion so we'll be in CT all weekend, then after that its mothers day weekend already!

In between Im trying to resuscitate the yard from all the road salt damage, I need to get to working on the roof and attic and fix the venting, patch the dining room ceiling that leaked, and repaint that entire room. And we have a giant double trunk maple thats been rotten for 20+ years that's finally on the verge of falling, close to the house and also tied to a phone pole (illegal im told) and Ive got the town tree warden trying to get the power company to take it down because if it ends up on my dime its gonna be 3k+. Lots of other miscellaneous yard work, and my wife's car is coming due for the big 100k service and timing belt.

Just lots to try and get done....

[edin508]

Yikes! You sure do have one hell of a to do list.

[jharkin]

Today the weather was not nearly as bad as its been all week (windy and rain.. thunderstorms one night) so I just decided to use up a vacation day to get in some flying.

But not as bad is relative, we had a snow flurry this morning and the temps barely made it to the 50s with winds something like 15 gusting 25 all day. I met Raja and we got a lot of good flights in.

Helix is flying great... and that tank lasts forever. At one point I did 2 flights on a single tank (10 min and 14 min) - see picture of the tank remnants after both flights, I think 30 min is possible if you fly mild.

Then we had a big surpise as Im flying and Raja tells me a car with a woman and young kids is pulling up.. turned out to be my wife and kids! She was driving back from the kids bookshop and decided to surprise me. So they hung out for a while and Raja put on a show for the kids which had them oooing and ahhing... My daughter was the most mesmerized.

Later, Raja threw down the challenge and put out the flag for spot autos. I never tried that before but decided to give it a go. Took a couple dozen tries but I got one half decent

Flights today:
Helix: 3
Whiplash: 2

[rbort]

Its one of those "in between" kind of days, not warm, not cold, but freezing you when the sun is not out. Its that time of season when you're not well dressed for it, and that's the big part of the issue.

We had to use heated glove to keep the wind off our hands, my weather station clocked gusts to 21mph. Temps were about 52+/- 2 degrees, and right now its back down to 39F. I heard the lady bitching at the big-Y this evening about snow she saw this morning, I told her too bad I missed it!

So yeah, we're sitting on my truck, Jeremy is flying and I notice this SUV coming in. I said someone is here, looks like a woman not sure who it is, then next thing you know she steps out and I said hey wait a minute, its your woman with the kids! What a nice surprise, they stopped by to check out the action and Joey got to see me fly as well as Jeremy after and then the train was coming I said Joey you gotta wave to the conductor as he goes by and he will toot the horn for you, and he did! That was awesome

After they left I started cracking the whip on Jeremy and I put out the flag for him to auto down to. I said I need to paint circles around it, 1 foot, 3 foot, 6 foot. See how close you can land and we'll score it. Mainshaft on the flag its a 10, tail rotor its a 9, and goes down from there. Well he took the challenge well and even with the gusty winds (which really helped with the landings actually making the heli float longer) he was able to fine tune his skills the last flight of the day we were both cheering when he landed one within inches of the flag, woo hoo nice job Jeremy!

I got in 3 flights, watched Jeremy fly more he hasn't been out and next week I'll be flying almost all week in VA so I got plenty of flight time coming to me.

-=>Raja.

[rcnut]

I was able to get out yesterday (Sunday) with Mark after working 10 hours. The weatherman lied about the day! They said 0-6 mph winds...but it was more like 15-25 winds with gusting! Even though it was 60*, it was chilly!

I brought the 3 nitros (Rave, N7, & Mostro) and Mark had his Gobby gasser and G4.The G4 never made it out of the truck, he was busy burning up gasoline...or Colman fuel before I arrived. Mark made a comment about gassers, as I was arriving that, "Gassers rule!" And to mess with him, I said "yea, yea, yea...in your dreams!"

First up was the Rave. I've been wanting to "jam" on this heli for some time now and now was my chance! I ripped on it for a good 10 minutes while Mark was ooh'ing and aah'ing! I was al over the sky...big air...high speed passes, in front, I used up evey inch of the field we had. And boy did that feel good!

The second flight was very tame. I started showing Mark some of the orientation practice that "we" are going to do together. I also showed him how the back and forward filps are broke down and how "we" are going to practice them. He will get a lot of basic practice, some intermediate practice, and a touch of advance practice. I don't want to bore him with all beginner stuff. By mixing in middle and upper levels, this will show him the importance of learning and perfecting the basics...if not, then he will crash a lot!

I decided to break out the Mostro for a few flights. I need to get this motor broke-in so I can tell how this heli is going to perform. The first think I'm noticing, it dosen't like 716mm blades too much. They seem to be too much blade. And maybe its me, my skill levels are getting to the point that I can tell how a set of blades affect the performance of the heli...then again, maby not!

However, I shot some autos and tried to auto as slowly as I could. This dang heli (the Mostro) is a floater! I came in sooo slow, we could almost count the blades going around! I didn't have too much collective left at touch down, just enough to gently land. Mark was throughly impressed! Now to compare this to the N7. Watchout Raja...I may have a new auto weapon! LoL!

I put up one more flight after adjusting the needles a bit. This time I did some high speed passes, WOW!!! It sounded like a NASCAR flying by. And it is quiet. The black MP7 muffler really makes a difference in sound! I wonder where I can get some really high temp paint for our mufflers?

Rave = 2
Mostro = 2

Total = 61

[Mr.HillBilly]

I got together with some of the IRCHA gang at AMA headquarters for the weekend. Got up there Fri. about 3PM and got in a few tanks on the G30, Sat. was rain all day and Sun. we had nice sky but lots of wind 20+ so about noon I asked my buddy if we wanted to work on autos. So went out and burned 7 tanks shooting lots of autos. It got too late to start the 5 hour drive back so stayed till Mon. morning and drove home again.

I must say I am not sure why I have not flown for 7 months (other than the 130 a couple of times) I guess I just needed a break from them. I had a blast and I think I am ready to start flying again. I did not get to try out the new 450 Dominator 6S since the wind was so high, about 7PM on Sun. the wind was down to about 10MPH most of the time and I got her ready and then I had a bad battery connector so save that one for after I get some new connectors.

It felt good to be turning some rotors again.

[rcnut]

Welcome back Mr.HillBilly!

[rbort]

Nice to see you here John and greetings from Fredericksburg, VA, just pulled in here tonight ready for this:

https://www.rcflightdeck.com/event_d...?event_id=3965

Click on "Pilots" near the top left and you can see all the registered guys there.

-=>Raja.