evdreamer

Glenn,

I had fun flying my supercub at a baseball field once last year and I liked the flight times and it is relaxing since it was easier to fly in a big open space compared to a heli. But I haven't been able to fly there for a long time since it is part of a school and I don't know when all the school activities would be using the field.

Yeah I would be a little nervous about crashing a balsa one.

Nick

JPEE

Hey Nick, Jeff
I love my foam T-28. It is big and easy to see. It is white and red and again..easy to see. I do barrel rolls, spirals, loops, inverted and more. But most of all as you mentioned I can fly her easy and slow if I want to chill my thumbs from the heli stress. That was why I got it, to have an easy flyer with no stress. My problem is like yours, an area big enough to fly it. I only have two places to fly a plane. One is 1.5 miles and the other is 5 miles away. Place one is where they were to build a new housing tract and with the economy that will not happen soon so thas good for me and bad for them. Place two, is a huge open Park type setting where they have like 8-10 soccer fields, it is huge but and there is a but..........some guys have been kicked out of there. There are joggers and cyclest around the perimiter so you have to keep your eyes open. I always make it a point wave and say hello to the Park Staff when I can and they have never bothered me to leave.

JPee

J-MICHAEL

Well....... Since ya asked.... How bout a Trex 700 electric conversion going the A123 route ?!


JPEE ~

All this talk of planes made me take my Funtana out of the box for a quick stare... I need to scout out an area big enough for a plane around here. On the weekends I can go to the high school and middle school fields which are a stone throw from my house. Maybe this weekend... But the heli's are priority and I'am really craving to take the 500 up for a flight, and really want to see if I have the jewels to attempt a loop... You should be VERY close to getting your 500 ready for flight I'am betting.... Make us proud when ya do. Oh.... And don't forget the video ! I'am still waiting for Glenn to post one...LOL...


Cheers,

~ Jeff

evdreamer

JPEE,

I have considered the T-28, but I didn't know how well it handled the wind. If the wind is strong enough my supercub will hover in one spot due to the wind. But I like the price of the T-28 and I have also seen an A123 setup with it. I know my 450 will get pushed around by the wind at my flying field, so that is why I got the heavy 600 so I could easily fly it there. And there is hardly any trees to block the wind there, so it can get strong there.

Nick

evdreamer

Jeff,

LOL. If only I had the funds I would love to build a 700. Try and and take some pics of your Funtana build, so I know what is involved.

Nick

JPEE

Nick, I have flown the T-28 in a breeze but never true wind. With a 2,200 pack it is pretty spunky but don't misunderstand spunk for torq so I a really can't say how she would do. I know that when I few it WIDE OPEN once up in the air it ate the pack in short time, I didn't know what to expect. Then a friend who flies told me to fly at half throttle until I am ready to pull a stunt then go flat out. That worked very well and drew the battery time back for longer flights. The hull is limited in certain areas. If you like and snap a few shots for you if the interior, let me know.

JPee

evdreamer

JPEE,

Thanks for the offer. I started a thread on rcgroups and in the electric flight section of RCU to see what the best airframe would be for A123 batteries and I will see where that goes and hopefully make my mind up.

Nick

JPEE

Jeff, leave the Jewels/rocks/stones/cahonies/ in the sack!!!! It is not time to flip the 500 nor to even consider it!

I have not touched the 500 in nearly two weeks now. I have to get the 600 out of the hobby room and somewhere else so I can get back and finish the 500 and fly her. Honestly I feel more thrilled thinking about flying the 500 than the 600, I think because I built her!

JPee....off to bed

evdreamer

JPEE,

You will really like flying the 500 knowing you built it and you will know every part inside and out.

Talk to you guys tomorrow.

Nick

J-MICHAEL

Those A123 batteries are sure interesting to me lately. I just spent the last hour doing some more research on them, and there sure are a lot of gents liking them... I guess any additional weight from the 123's won't be so crucial with the bigger planes in which I'am assuming the Diamante falls into that category. One thing I'am still lost on is when they say "DeWalt" packs are they talking about the batts similiar to the batts in my Dewalt cordless power tools I have ?

Alright guys talk to ya tommorow..... I got some more snoopin' to do still.....

evdreamer

Jeff,

Yeah you are correct that they are talking about the batteries in your power tools. They usually buy them off of ebay and get them for a good price then disassemble the packs to get to just the batteries. If you look on youtube a few people have videos that show the whole process. And I have a great link on building them if you are interested. I didn't want to go through that hassle, so I just buy individual cells at BPHobbies. Most of the planes that I have seen online that use A123's are .40 size and up. The .25 and down are more rare to use A123's and the Diamante is a .25 size.

Nick

JPEE

Hi Guys,

Yes I cant wait to finish the 500 for those reasons, I built her.

Now the story of the day.

Well guys as I said, today was to be a fly day and it was. I took both 401-402. The last time I took 402 out it was a short flight because the boom slipped in and the tail was skipping teeth thus it was an unstable flight. I marked it this morning so I would be able see if there were any changes. Last time out too I had to adjust the tail sub trim to 100% to counter the CC wise tail motion last time out. So today I adjusted the tail servos linkage twice with a short hover each time to verify my adjustments. Wa-la, she was tight and held at zero sub or surface box trim. Took her out for easy spin and she did very well, in fact better than ever since the major overhaul from that catastrophic dart incident. I have been keenly watching and learning from Jeff on how to lighten your heli to get more time out of the battery, so this morning I made some adjustments to that end. I took one half of one skid frame and broke it off and I took the blades and shaved them down to 50% their normal size. She is much lighter now Jeff!
So there I was coming in to set down 402 and then………. (I have not mentioned this before but I have had some issues with my right eye and it is a bit blurry now) I was coming in to land and the sun hit my eyes and I could not focus and started to loose the orientation and I lost my depth perception of the heli and there were high tension wire very close. Well she went way off but my G4 practice paid off. I actually started talking out loud to myself saying…come on you can do this, no worries you have had the practice and calmly brought her back upright and pretty stable. I had just got her back and righted but was 180 off from where I should be in my landing area and the blades had an incursion with a telephone pole some 30 feet away, down she came. Part of the blades fell with in 5 feet of where I was standing, that’s a 25 foot throw! Glenn, as the blades hit the pole I hit the hold and let her fall and again now for the third time that has minimized my damage and loss, what a thing to brag about…how to crash LOL. As I walked up on the heli the blade debris was everywhere! Damage, I picked her up and at a cursory review just blades and a “cracked a little more fly canopy� I use and one of my “unbreakable� skids broke!
Now at home and after just removing the blades the main shaft is just far enough off it shall be replaced there is small vibration. Did I mention that for me “The Cali Kid� it was a grueling 47 degrees!!!!! I don’t know how you guys do it but I actually felt my thumbs cramping up. So that’s my story and 401 did not fly but came home to the safety and heat of home which we both wanted!
So there you have it, another legendry heli story.
The End

Carljw

I see E-Flite has a new CX3 MD 520N heli.

evdreamer

JPEE,

Sorry about the crash. Do you get some money from the company of the "unbreakable skids" since you broke one?

My eyes also become blurry sometimes. It was really bad when I used to wear contacts. Then when it happens I just have to hover and wait for everything to become clear again.

Nick

J-MICHAEL

JPEE ~


Sorry about the crash... Its sounds like you still did very well considering the circumstances that you were in on trying to get her on the ground safely. I hope your eye is doing o.k. and is nothing to serious, it makes me a little worried when you said you were having issues with your one eye... No laughing matter there. What also caught my attention was how far the broken blade bits scattered like little daggers..... YIKES huh ?! Take care of yourself mister......


Nick ~


Thanks for the Dewalt battery info... Last night while you were roaming around the RC plane forums (I was spying on ya...LMAO..) I was watching some videos of the A123 batteries and even watched one of a guy dissassembling a 36v Dewalt battery... Pretty interesting indeed. I also came across guys (with pics) that were using the A123's in smaller planes than the Diamante... I should have saved those pics, but I bet I could find them again however... Some guys were showing pics of the A123's in there fuselages and such... I'am going to do more research later on tonight.


Carl ~


Good find on the new heli ! That's a new one that I've seen....


Cheers,

~ Jeff

evdreamer

Jeff,

I have seen an A123 setup in a E-Flite mini ultra stick. I think it was Everydayflyer's airplane. He knows a lot about A123 batteries and airplanes. I think I also saw a few other planes that size on rcgroups under planes and A123 or something like that. I am starting to like the Diamante. It got 4 stars in the RCU reviews and I like how easy it is to get to the batteries. I have also been looking at the E-Flite AT-6 Texan since it also has easy access to the battery and it got good reviews too.

That would be so cool if that new CX3 had a real NOTAR system.

Nick

J-MICHAEL

Nick ~


On your post in the "Electric Training" section you might also want to post it maybe in the "Park Flyers & Backyard Flyers" section : http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/forumid_148/tt.htm

Its pretty active there, and usually where I will hang out gaining info there. There's lots of knowledgable gents there and you may be able to get an answer there, since most have a variety of aircraft from various sizes like we are with are heli's....


~ Jeff

J-MICHAEL

Nick ~


I think I saw the same picture of that E-Flite Mini Ultra Stick ! I can't remember the gents handle, but he did have the A123 batt resting by the cockpit area on the outside of the plane from the picture I saw... Yeah the Diamante from what I read so far looks great !


~ Jeff

evdreamer

Jeff,

Thanks for the tip on posting in that park flyers and backyard flyers. Here is the pic that I saw.

Nick

J-MICHAEL

Nick ~


Ok then I saw a different one then... I couldn't find where I did as I went through my "history" but if you saw my history its probably like yours and is quite impressive... LMAO... Thanks for posting the picture. Its so darn windy right now, and I'am bummed because I was stoking myself all last night and this morning to try a loop in the 500... I think I'll like my 500 more once I get the first crash over with... I may have to bust out the RC cars perhaps...


~ Jeff

evdreamer

Jeff,

Yeah my history can be pretty long too. It was kind of cold this morning(I could see my breath) Do you still have any snow on the ground from all that snow you got awhile back? I was hoping my V2 frame would come today, but most likely it will come tomorrow. So my only working helicopter is the 600. Don't crash the 500 that is what the 450 is for.

Nick

J-MICHAEL

Nick ~


Our snow has melted already just recently, and all that snow which was anywhere from 10"-19" which has melted, and the hard rains we just had yesterday (up to 10"-15") in places is creating massive flooding in the majority of Western Washington..... We have a lot of rivers and mountains, and so the water has to go somewhere... LOL... They even had to close of a major Interstate (I-5) that goes from Washington all the way down to JPEE's and further ! Its all underwater about 15' under and will supposively be closed for 4-5 days... Record flooding since 1917... Sequim is safe as we have the most mild weather out of the whole state, and are rainfall is only 14"-16" a year, which is similiar to JPEE's rainfall by L.A... We live in the rainshadow of the northwest, and actually the sun is out right now even, and 52 degrees but strong winds. An 1 1/2 hours away the rainfall can average 165" a year and where one of the world's rainforest's is located..... It will be raining in Seattle (1 1/2 away) but sunny here, which is why they call it "sunny Sequim" A lot of Californian's have property here.

I'am hoping it will be nice here tomorrow as I'll be doing a landscape job at a residence and there is a good flying area there... It's actually the property of our former legend "John Wayne" but is his son's house Ethan Wayne. Its usually windy there though...


~ Jeff

evdreamer

Jeff,

Wow I didn't realize that much flooding has occured there!!! Hope you get the good weather you want to fly tomorrow.

Nick

JPEE

Nick,

I have my attorneys speaking with them now on the unbreakable skids. I think they want to settle for 1.2 mill.

I have some type of an infection for 40 days now in one eye. I have seen two doctors, taken two antibiotics all no help. Tuesday an Opthamologist (spelling) saw me and he has me soaking the eye 4 times a day which afterwards things are a bit blurry for an hours or so. I do this now for another 30 days and then if the eye (lid) does not come back then he will do some type standard surgery, but again not on the eyes itself so I feeling good about that..............thanks you guys for asking. I think I am out of warranty?? DUH

JPee

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

Nick,

Looks like you are narrowing down your decision on a plane...sounds cool! Hope you find one that works out well for ya...

Jeff,

I heard about the flooding in Washington, and the snow in Spokane, but I had no idea it was that bad...wow, you are lucky to not be in that mess! But, I was thinking about you, and was wondering if you had any R/C BOATS....LMAO!

Glad you are OK...

JPEE,

Nice online flight journal/diary! It makes for interesting reading, glad the damage was minimal!

The wooden blades, when they impact something solid, are quite impressive to watch, eh?

My last crash left a debris field at least 25 feet in all directions...LMAO!

I don't get too much in the way of blurriness, except when it's really cold and windy...but I do suffer some serious eye strain after a long session...my vision takes a while to adjust back for driving the car home...LOL[X(]


Glenn