Did you fly today?????

SLIM19198 · 07-08-2011 11:17am

Guy on Maci selling a complete pro for 120

http://www.maci.ie/buy-sell/buy-sell.html

Kashkai · 08-08-2011 11:26am

Its very annoying when Horizon Hobby just stop making a plane with no advance warning to customers who may want to stock up on parts. The very least HH could do is guarantee a supply of parts for 12 months after a model is discontinued. Its nothing less than them p1ssing on customers who have parted with a lot of money for a model that could soon be grounded due to lack of essential parts. In my case, following my Radian's crash in April 2010, I bought enough parts to make a whole new Radian and as luck would have it, I haven't needed any of them since. I could make a nice profit on ebay by selling them but then Murphy's law would kick in and I'd probably crash my Rad:rolleyes:

I bought a couple of new planes and a new heli last week. I bought a Parkzone micro Sukhoi XP to try a little 3D flying to see if I want to go down the aerobatic route.

I bought an eflite MSR heli as I've mastered my coax heli. The MSR is a whole new ballgame. Its a hell of a lot faster and more nimble. Its supposed to be an indoor heli but it can shoot down the room very quickly. I had it outside yesterday and it is a mental little chopper and before you know it, it can be 100 feet away:eek:

I also bought a new Stinger EDF jet from Hobbyking. This is my first jet and I'm looking forward to seeing how she flies compared to my prop planes.

Bruthal · 08-08-2011 12:45pm

Was flying the radian fpv on sat, hit a big thermal and up into clouds it went. So we could see nothing except grey screen with OSD info. I had it set up so we were flying from inside the living room, on the tv. So we could navigate around with the on screen info inside the cloud. A hole appeared in the clouds as well so we got a look at the ground for a minute too at one point, amazing looking on the tv.

After a while in the clouds the picture link was lost, due to the camera condensing moisture on it. So i switched on the auto pilot which brought it back to overhead from about 1.5km away. I just seen it appear in a hole in the clouds when looking outside, and disappear into another, but the camera had dried by now and we had the video back. When the camera fails, the OSD display stops as well. So it was auto pilot to the rescue anyway.

civdef · 09-08-2011 4:42pm

What autopilot are you using?

Bruthal · 09-08-2011 6:42pm

Its the return to home setup thats on the eagle tree pro system. I just have it controlling the rudder, although it is connected to the throttle by Y lead as its the throttle failsafe that is senses to know it has lost the radio link.

I set the throttle to -20 manually in the limits menu of the radio when binding, then back to zero once bound, so the only time the eagle tree can see a -20 value is when the receiver loses signal from the radio. The eagle tree asks for the radio to be turned off during return to home setting up, so it sees that -20 then, and so it knows to go into return to home mode when throttle value it senses is -20.

I also mixed another channel in to give -20 throttle when a switch is flicked, so the plane can be put into return to home mode at the flick of a switch. The eagle tree`s own instructions tells you to use the menu system to do this, but return to home is far easier to test with the setup above.

civdef · 10-08-2011 1:01pm

Sounds like a great job, the thought of camera, transmitter and airframe flying happily off into the sunset due to a loss of signal would not be a happy one.

Kashkai · 10-08-2011 3:56pm

civdef wrote: »

Sounds like a great job, the thought of camera, transmitter and airframe flying happily off into the sunset due to a loss of signal would not be a happy one.

Happened to a guy I know in Kent, England. His plane, with £350 worth of fpv equipment flew off on him never to be seen again. I don't know why he didn't spend a few quid more for the peace of mind that a return to base gizmo gives you.

Bruthal · 10-08-2011 4:38pm

Prosperous Dave wrote: »

Happened to a guy I know in Kent, England. His plane, with £350 worth of fpv equipment flew off on him never to be seen again. I don't know why he didn't spend a few quid more for the peace of mind that a return to base gizmo gives you.

I was flying the radian for a fair while without the return to home setup on it, but kept it inside 500 meters. it always had the RTH capability, it was just getting around to setting it up, which can be tricky enough. It was bye bye glider the other day without it, although i wouldnt be going into clouds without it anyway. Still feels strange when contact is lost. It was video link we lost, rather than radio control, but no way of getting it back with no link, and it over a mile away.

poteen · 19-01-2012 11:51am

Its been a long time since I posted on this!
Has anybody been flying of late?

superman123 · 19-01-2012 11:54am

I didn't fly today. I don't have wings...yet.

Bruthal · 19-01-2012 12:34pm

poteen wrote: »

Its been a long time since I posted on this!
Has anybody been flying of late?

I have not flown in 2 months, because of my pre christmas mishap.

Kashkai · 19-01-2012 12:54pm

I stopped flying myself for about 3 months as I wasn't enjoying it anymore. So I parked my planes up and left the hobby alone for a while until I got my mojo for flying back.

I took to the air again last Monday with a cheap and cheerful mini glider I bought from Hobbyking, the Kinetic. All I can say is that I couldn't get enough airtime with this little 800mm wingspan bird as she is a beautiful flyer, very fast and can shoot up from 6 feet to over a hundred feet in seconds due to her high power to weight ratio. She can also glide well and thus with a combination of some high speed aerobatics and some leisurely gliding, I get 15+ minutes out of the little 800mah battery she carries. I've flown everyday since and I'm loving it again.:)

What happened to you Robbie? I haven't been keeping track of this forum for a while so missed what was going on? Hope its nothing too serious.

David

Bruthal · 19-01-2012 12:57pm

Slipped on my stairs and snapped the tib and fib of right leg. Had a nice view of the action as wel as it wentl:eek::D.

Kashkai · 19-01-2012 1:02pm

Ouch. Sorry to hear that. Hope you're well on the mend:)

Just get a deckchair out onto that green near your house and sit there while you fly your planes overhead. This hobby of ours doesn't require any running around, except of course for that time I decided to have a quick fly in a field while down the country and I didn't see the cows charging towards me until they were almost on top of me and I had to leg it and jump over a fence. Luckily my Rad kept aloft all by herself while I was saving my a$$:D

Bruthal · 19-01-2012 1:14pm

Had the christmas dinner in the hospital and all.

Yea i have thought about bringing a chair out, but would need someone there to pick the cularis up after landing it. And for bringing all the gear around to the green.

Probably want a nice day as well. Id fly in gales no bother, but wouldnt fancy it while sitting in a chair. Its always much nicer flying in still air anyway.

poteen · 19-01-2012 4:39pm

well im back again too because i managed to source a new fuselage for my radian . Im expecting it the post soon and then ill just need a bit of calm weather again. I aint flown in a few months and becasue i wasnt about as much and also because i couldnt get the part. Even at the last time of flying i ws just about getting comfortable flying the radian and im hoping i wont have forgotten too much again when i get going!

Kashkai · 19-01-2012 5:07pm

I was grounded for 3 months and only took to the air again last Monday. I was a little apprehensive but it was like riding a bike. Once you learn, you never forget.

Having a break away from flying only renewed my enthusiasm for this hobby and I'm loving throwing a plane around the sky again. Of course, its now making me late for work again as I have to have just "another 10 minutes" of flight time, i.e. an hour+:D

Bruthal · 19-01-2012 5:11pm

I took a break from it a few times. Often over a year.

civdef · 11-02-2012 7:11pm

Ok, flew my first build today, well it was a conversion rather than a scratch build - got a Multiplex Fox and added motor, elevators & ailerons.

The Fox is a chuckglider made of EPP I bought for €12 on ebay.
http://www.multiplex-rc.de/en/products/categories/products/details/productgroup/rc-accessories/productcategory/elapor-models-1/product/fox-12-pcs-1.html?tx_lwshopitems_pi1%5Baction%5D=show&tx_lwshopitems_pi1%5Bcontroller%5D=Product&cHash=2093f86af1677d48c177d47fdfb80d5f&type=333

It flew really well, and by keeping a close attention to weight as I went along, I kept the weight at 102g all up, even with a 450mah 2s battery. If you go much heavier the handling can get tricky apparently.
(one change I made was to use one servo for both ailerons.)

I took inspiration for the conversion from this article:
http://www.swef.co.uk/resources/Converting+the+Multiplex+Fox+to+Electric.doc

and also got lots of ideas from the monster rcgroups thread on converting the fox
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=807898

I had the 4ch RX and TX available from my Hobbyking Bixler rtf since I changed that over to Futaba 9c with a Frsky module, they can be bought very cheaply separately there or on giantcod.co.uk anyway.

I got the motor, prop, esc, servos and lipo from giantcod.co.uk, total cost around €40 shipped. (Much quicker than from Hobbyking but still decent prices).

Motor
http://www.giantcod.co.uk/x1304n-ultra-light-outrunner-2100kv-p-403269.html

Prop
http://www.giantcod.co.uk/propeller-style-p-402394.html

ESC
http://www.giantcod.co.uk/hobbywing-pentium-speed-controller-p-403184.html

Servos x 2
http://www.giantcod.co.uk/dys0201-micro-servo-torque-p-402575.html

Battery (bought a few of these at the price)
http://www.giantcod.co.uk/gens-2s1p-lipo-battery-p-406443.html

civdef · 11-03-2012 5:50pm

Great day for flying today, no significant winds or glaring sunlight.

Converted Multiplex Fox - 4 flights, trying different batteries to see which suits best in terms of duration vs performance.
HK Kinetic 800 - 1 flight.
Art-tech J3 - 1 flight.
HK Bixler - 6 flights.

Fox needs a touch of the hot glue gun to tidy up engine mount, but otherwise unscathed.

Kashkai · 11-03-2012 6:51pm

I've got the Kinetic too and its a great plane. I fly her on a 3 cell 850mah battery for "flat field" flying and this gives her almost unlimited vertical and fast level flying speed. For the hills, I plan on using a 2 cell 450mah basically to power the rx and rely on the wind for lift, i.e. no motor running.

I'm taking Tuesday off work to go fly as the weather is forecast to be calm winds and no rain for a few days.

civdef · 11-03-2012 7:06pm

Yeah, it's a cracker of a plane, great value too. I've flown it in silly winds and it handles it no bother.

I've tried 3S 800mah, 2S 1000mah and 2S 450mah so far in it. Would definitely agree on the performance with the 3s, but I like the way it stays going for ages on the 2s 1000mah. Thinking of rigging a small camera and 5.8ghx transmitter on it for close range fpv.

Did you fly today?????

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