Went flying...

[rgroener]

Andrea, very nice pictures. The Spitfire looks very sharp! It seems to be a stable flyer. The weather with these small clouds is just right for taking photos:-)
The Trim-Oldtimer looks also good. Those older designs have something. It's interesting, that from the design, you could guess the time the plane was designed. It might have been a good decision to add a thermal break to this bird.


Pete, yes, I wand to go to Nijmegen this year. I should be signed in:-)
It would be nice to see you all again in Nijmegen.

Best regards Roman

[malc]

Due to too much work, I was not flying much during the last months
But at the moment I have holidays and found some time for flying. I took 5 planes with me to the field, but three of them were only test flights since I hade to make some adjustments. at the end I only managed to take some pictures of my Nakajima.

Best regards and happy flying Roman

Roman, I love your Ki84, is it the Dave Diels plan?

[rgroener]

Malc, yes it was a short kit from Dave Diels. I am very pleased with it.

[Maxout]

Thought I'd wander back in here yet again...

And leave y'all folks with a video of my wife impressing the R/C crowd with her awesome Maxout: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZ0RFew_kbM

[Balsa-naut]

Went flying with a few planes. I'm still a beginning flyer on a small field, so lots of trim work and just a few nice flights. Sorry, no photos. First up was a catapult glider which is a half-scale Bostonian of my own design built to check the stability of the Bostonian. It was flying OK, but there was some sinking wind passing over a tree line which kept the flights times down. Second was the Boxy-bipe. It was flying on some old 1/16 inch rubber. This old rubber broke while winding and was replaced by some 1/8" rubber. Flights weren't too good. I had replaced the prop-shaft recently and the hook is unfortunately positioned right between the landing gear legs. Motor knots seemed to be getting caught in the narrow space between the legs, so that needs a fix. I noticed the vertical fin was loose after I got home. Third up was the Bostonian which keeps spiraling right. The right wing has too much washout even with a trim tab tacked onto the wing. Some clay on the left wing tip was showing improved but inconsistent flights, so the the excess washout needs fixed. Fourth up was an AMA Dart. It flies OK, but today it was going in left in too small circles on moderate power and tended to climb-stall with more winds. I think it could do with a higher pitch prop and maybe a trim tab on the inside wing, but it sometimes it flies nicely. It did fly into the top of a tree recently, but it was recovered by shaking the tree trunk. Fifth up was the Cloud Tramp which flew well enough, but it wasn't getting much height. Just before packing things in for the day, a small shim was added to the trailing edge. The Cloud Tramp seemed to be happy with that changed and looked a bit more floaty on the glide. A Sig Cub is on the repair bench since it's wing broke at the pylon while being carried to the flying field. A strong gust of wind came up and broke the wing in two. Lesson learned: keep the wings off until on the flying field.

[staubkorb]

Good to see another flyer becoming active here! We have recovered quite a number of people since Dave got this site back up, but participation is still a bit lacking.

As a "beginning" flyer, you have achieved what utterly failed me - getting an AMA Dart to fly! I started out with FF back in the Dark Ages (1952) thru controlline and rc, but came back in 2005 with a "Dime Scale" Rearwin Speedster (that flew, and still flys quite well) followed by that dratted Dart.

Don't stop (flying and posting)!

Pete

[Balsa-naut]

Went out flying again today. The weather was sunny, temperature 37F, and wind about 5 to 15 mph. The catapult glider was first up again. Had a nice flight on the second of four flights when it caught a weak thermal and then landed about 40 feet short of a tree line. The AMA Dart was next. Still had some climb stall even though a bit of right thrust had been added. Amusing to watch it flying at near zero ground speed for a moment just after launch before turning down wind. Noticed a nick in the motor, so the Dart was set aside after about 5 flights as I didn't have a spare motor made up for it. Readied the Cloud Tramp and did two flights with about 150 winds to check the wing location. Flying OK. A flight with 500 winds ended with a sharp landing on the prop after a wind gust forced the CT to the ground about 5 seconds after launch. That bent the prop shaft. After I got home and look more closely, I saw some blueing on the shaft and remembered that I had annealed the shaft to facilitate making the bend for the free wheeler. No annealing for for the next prop shaft. The repaired Sig Cub was up next. Two flights on 180 winds got the wing situated fore and aft. Next flight was with 360 winds and looked OK with the Cub doing 3/4 of a circle before landing. The motor was wound again for the next flight, but the prop mount broke loose before launching while waiting for the wind to ease. The kit fuselage stick is a bit too soft and it split from the end of the stick to the back of the prop mount, more bench work for the Sig Cub. That closed out the session which was a mixed bag, but it was good to get to the field again before winter sets in.

[Balsa-naut]

Out flying again. The weather was sunny, temperature 55F with wind calm to 10 mph. No report on the previous flying session, but here is the latest.

The Delta Dart (18 inch span - Outerzone plan oz7931) was flying better with a 9 inch loop of 3/32 rubber in place of the 1/8 and a left thrust adjustment. A passing jogger stopped to watch what happened to be the best flight of the Dart and commented on the nice flight.

The Cloud Tramp "landed" in a tree and sustained a broken wing saddle and cracked stabilizer during removal from said tree by the weighted line recovery method.

The Sig Cub had a few puttering flights. The kit had a slightly bowed fuselage stick and I built it with the concavity down instead of up. The kit instructions said to put the curved side down. When the motor is wound, the fuselage bow slightly increases, points the nose down, and results in the puttering flights.

The AMA Cub (12 inch span) did it's usual thing and produced a couple of pleasant flights.

I tried to get a bostonian ready by building a new stabilizer yesterday, but when I checked it this morning, the new stab had warped just same as the previous stab. I think I will strip the tissue covering off and cover just one side of the stab with some plastic film. Not legal for competition, but good enough to get some more trimming done.

[kittyfritters]

Last Sunday, I went to the Grassy Knoll (Sepulveda Basin) with several models. The weather was beautiful, clear, mid 70's (F) and no wind. Everything flew and I didn't break anything.

I dug my Old School, A-frame pusher out of my old models bin the night before and decided to bring it along. It is a "square A-frame (18"long and 18" span) and is all balsa. It was originally meant for indoor flying and has a turn pattern built into it by using freewheeling props with one having slightly more pitch than the other. (Multi-motor rubber ships don't like to turn.) Got a couple of decent flights out of it and a lot of attention.

Video was shot with my Sony Action Cam strapped to the side of my head.

https://youtu.be/iHm6Py7jCRM

KF

[Balsa-naut]

Out flying again. The weathe was sunny temperature 60F with near calm and variable wind. I was quite happy to have another good December day for flying.

The Delta Dart and AMA Dart were up an flying for a few flights each. The motor knot on the Delta Dart became loose from the lube. Lost the rubber o-ring.

The Cloud Tramp wing mount was repaired and was flying it's usuall groovey circles.

The bostonian put on it's best performance so far. The stab was single covered with some wrinkled tissue; the plastic film I tried didn't adhere with the glue I had on hand. Some trim clay was added to the tail and a trim tab to the rudder right onto the clay. Wide climbing circles to the right. Bench photo taken after returning from the flying site shows the field applied trim.

Balsa-naut trim.jpg (63 KiB) Viewed 22537 times