evdreamer

Mark,

Glad you got your heli flying well again.

It has been a busy couple of weeks. I sold my house and bought one out in Ohio. My house here should close at the end of the month. Then my new house should close at the beginning of next month. It seems I am always stuck moving in winter. It was in the teens when I was moving our stuff to a PODs. They are going to ship most of our stuff. My parents are going to tow my motorcycle and I am going to pack my tiny car with the rest. Ohio's home prices are much cheaper than here. We were able to get a 4 acre property with an attached two stall garage and a detached 4 stall garage. I am finally going to be able to fly from my back yard. We have lots of plans for the property. We like to garden, so we are going to have a massive one. My wife wants to try and plant a small vineyard. We are going to use the detached garage for a car detailing/mechanic business for me and a soap business for my wife. We both wanted a lot of land and be in the country. It has been difficult trying to buy a house four states away. It seems like I have been on the phone daily with the realtor and the bank. I still will be able to do my job remotely. My boss has been thinking about turning me into a traveling engineer because we have a lot of big customers out there.

My wife has been living out in Ohio for a few weeks now. This is our second long distance stint in our relationship. Luckily we only have a few more weeks apart.

Nick

JPEE

Hello Nick,

Sounds like all is falling into place for you with you selling off the old house and purchasing a gem of a new house with LAND to play and GROW into literally. The ability to work from home is a real asset too under this gasoline problem we are facing. Glad to hear all is going well for you two, congrats.

Best to you both, JPEE

JPEE

Mark,

My T-28 landing gear broke which I may have mentioned. The arm broke off and the part is near impossible to find let alone having a $3.00 shipped out here. So what I did was bought some crazy glue and put the arm back in place. Then I wrapped the arm and around the body of the steering mechanism with sewing thread. After that I painted on Krazy glue all over the thread to bond it to the plastic. The third step was to then go over that with two-part epoxy and let that dry for 24 hours. In the photos you’ll see where I really add a bolt to the weakest part where the arm meets the mechanism. The other fear I had is it at the top and bottom of this part fit inside of a peace on the firewall of the airplane so I could not let any of the Apoxsee get down there and change that diameter which would then let it bind. My intentions are today Monday, March 7 to reinstall it back in the plane and see how it feels and if the weather allows charge a couple of batteries and give it a try, again if weather allows the wind here has been pretty tough to deal with for several weeks. My intentions are today Monday, March 7 to reinstall it back in the plane and see how it feels and if the weather allows charge a couple of batteries and give it a try, again if weather allows the wind here has been pretty tough to deal with for several weeks. As they say on the TV News…….FILM at 11:00 LOL

JPEE

Hello Mark and Nick,


My thumbs and muscle memory is finally coming back. I can now fly my 500 almost like 2.5 years when I had stop flying. Today Tuesday I was settled into loops, pausing inverted at the top, nose overs backwards and forwards and finally my horizontal flight with cork screws rolling the Heli over and over to the right as I moved across the sky. The guy I fly is my + a month LOL we’re both 74 LMAO.
Got some flights in on my OLD T-28 too over the last few days. She a smooth flier too. Took me a day or two to nail her down but then it was flying inverted, vertical stalls, loops etc. It sure feels good to have come back years of not flying.

The guy I was flying with the day he too has a 500 and 600 T- Rex. He was saying the parts are becoming obsolete. T- Rex Align is not popular like it once was. He crashed his 500 today when a bearing and his tail case flew out of the case thus jamming the tail box moving parts and it lock the tail and down she came doing 360s all the way down, it was so sad to see that.

JPEEs back! Just older and slower he he he.

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Hi Gents,

You may have thought I went and jumped off this planet, or perhaps hitched a ride on the latest SpaceX flight to the ISS, but alas no...I am still here on terra firma. lol As is the way around here, if someone is quiet it usually means their up to something. And is that so true...lol

But first - JPEE, I'm glad you were able to get your T28 up and going again with your landing gear fix. And some reconditioning of those 'rusty' thumbs to get back to your heli days. Sorry to hear of your friends heli going down. At one time there were many parts (both genuine and clone) available for the older Trex's but now you have to really look to find them. Plus with all the updates it can be a challenge to find the appropriate part for replacement.

Nick, I hope you are now in Ohio with your wife. I bet you are mega busy with all the unpacking and getting used to the new scenery around your new house. Enjoy the rewards of all your hard work!

So now, back to me.

You may or may not know but we live in Lake County, Florida. It is a proper name as we have a few lakes around - a few hundred lakes. lol

My son asked me a few weeks ago if we could go to the boat landing/stream. We haven't been there for years and out of the blue he asks about it. So yeah, we find a few old model boats tucked away in the closet and go there one Saturday. He had a lot of fun that morning.

Of course the boats we took were some old boats we got from Walmart and not all that great. Slow, took on water, more suited for a pool then a lake or stream. So I started looking around and remembered you mentioning Motion started selling boats. So I picked up a beginners speed boat and things took off from there. First was a tunnel hull, next one a deep V, and the most recent a Catamaran. Motion is really liking me!

Our first: a tunnel hull Mad Shark



Mark

JPEE

Hi Mark,

Yes it was nice to fly the old T-28. She’s very docile and yet…..can pull strong up vertical very high before stalling and going over to a hammer and coming down.

Sadly I trashed MY 500. Bothe side frames a broken as is the boom, blades and more. That was a few day before coming home, so she resting for now. I suppose like my buddy the crash tears a couple of days before after telling me how hard parts are to come by but I’ll find the same thing.

I’ve said it before to you, I love seeing you Diversifying in the hobbies, airplanes, and ducted fan jets, now boats, rockets and lastly your train set, you guys are blessed! The snapshots are really nice and I like the tunnel hull big-time!

Nick, lol….what Mark said to you………. me too!

JPEE

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

JPEE,

I am so sorry for your 500 to go down like that. That all happened quite fast and as you said, it had to be on film. But at least with it recorded you can go over what happened rather than trying to remember what caused it. I hope you have had time to recover and get into the damage to see what needs replacing and if parts are readily available.

PS - you do have a nice flying area out there, lots of open space with some nice back drop scenery. Of course my first thought was if it was me, I would have already run into that wind sock smack dab in the middle of the field.

Mark

JPEE

Hello Mark,

I was making the video for a friend to show him a little RC life and to be honest I lost my orientation and did not roll it over he’ll fight it and struggled and lost it. My biggest fear is that it was going to hit one of our cars there was just the other John and me john flying together but the cars were the big concern and you saw how close it came. No time to look for parts right now have a lot of irons in the fire with coming back and things that need to be done around the house and I yet still have to do to go put cables through the wheels on our toy hauler on each side so if there’s an earthquake it won’t roll down the driveway because the cables will keep the two wheels on each side locked. I also have to cover the tires so the sun doesn’t attack the rubber. Last weekend we washed out all the holding tanks and drain the sewers and such and hoses and got everything stowed away that was a big accomplishment in itself. The heart is willing but the body says hey we’re 74 years old, so we just chip away at it.

we are waiting for the Vandenberg launch of SpaceX that was scheduled for yesterday and got canceled due to a mechanical issue. So we were up bright and early this morning at 6 AM to be out in the backyard at 6:30 AM for the launch and I when I checked the launch page it had been scrubbed once again for winds and we were in a total blanket of low I guess you could call it like rain clouds or a marine layer may be. So we’re on schedule with the coffee pot in the toast for tomorrow morning at 6 AM again to see if they’ll get to lunch on Easter Sunday, wouldn’t that be spectacular!

Judy and I wish you and your family a wonderful Easter and the rest of your weekend, God bless!

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Hi JPEE,

And Happy Easter to you too!

Glad you are back and getting things returned to order. I was actually wondering what it took when you got your RV back home. Thanks for the explanation. Never would have thought of cables to hold down the wheels in the event of an earthquake - things you have to deal with in your area. All that washing and cleaning - wow, a lot of work. As you said, have to chip away at it.

I saw you had a launch this morning - did you get a chance to watch it with coffee and toast in hand?

I didn't want to mention it but the heli coming down behind your car was a bit nerve wracking. Glad it cleared it all.

So this morning I was able to take my boat out after work. I really have had a bumpy start with the boats.

My yellow tunnel hull has a plastic gear box that wound up stripping after I removed the flex cable to grease it. I must have reinserted it only part way and it caused the gear box to strip stranding the boat in the middle of the stream/boat landing I was at. It was a weekday morning so no one around. I had no choice but to go swimming for it. The water was colder than I expected and even though I scuba dive it was very taxing on my body - took me about 30-45 minutes to recover after getting back to the dock (I did recover the boat). And yeah, I did have a thought of gators as I was out there. Not pleasant at all.

So I decided to bring an extra boat to use as a recovery boat in the case of a stranded boat. I also bought a pool noodle as a last resort if I had to ever go swimming again to use as a flotation device.

My new boat, the catamaran I was able to take out a week ago with my son at our local retention pond. We had some heavy rains earlier in the week and it was nice and full. So we took all 3 boats with us. My son had a great time with his and best of all we discovered it won't roll over and stay that way. It always rights itself which is great. My repair on my tunnel was a success as I had 2 runs with no issues. My brand new catamaran did great and is very fast, also turns on a dime. It's supposed to have a self recovery system so that if it flips the prop is supposed to just touch the water so you can slowly get it back to shore. No, didn't work that way. It flipped but the prop didn't touch the water. Oh well, time to try out a recovery boat. We used my son's boat and the first time I accidently ran over my boat with the recovery boat. Oops. Of course I did not realize until I got the boat back to shore but the recovery boats prop cut many nice gashes into the front pontoon of my cat. Ugh, brand new boat. At least the recovery boat works, just have to be careful.

So I did some fiberglass and epoxy repair and water tested it in the bathtub, no leaks. But after a few minutes running at the pond this morning I was getting some water in the hull. So I need to check the repaired pontoon and also the water cooling lines to see if they are the cause of the water leak. But it was fun doing full throttle runs at the lake this morning. I'm looking forward to taking my son out this weekend for some rc boating fun!

Mark

JPEE

Hey Mark,

Yeppers, the RV is back in it’s nest and finally done.

To better explain, the concrete is level, but if the trailer rolled about 5’ then front would be down hill. So I take rubber coated steel cable’s and weave them through the slotted rim and throw a padlock in the cable end loops. I do that on both sides sa as to lock those puppies in place.

LOL, I didn’t want to mention……..yes once it went over my head I got that sick feeling that my buddies SUV and my Truck were in jeopardy, thank Goodness they were spared!

OMG, you had to swim out in the lake to retrieve the boat, HOLY COW! Hope the water was too cool. My goodness as I read further into your post I see it was DANG a old water you had to RECOVER from. We’ll once again that’s what they call a ”teachable” moment and I expect next time you pull that cable drive out it will be spot on when put back in. You might want to buy a third boat as a chase boat to retrieve another boat that is out of commission???? Geeez, I should have read further down, you are taking an extra boat now 👍. So glad you and your son had a great time in the pond with your boats. Dang Mark, this story has the hallmarks of some your stories with your jet stories during a run of bad luck. I am so sorry that the CAT got bunged up and then the repair didn’t hold, what a lot of work and a disappointment that it wasn’t water tight. I hope when you and your son go out again things run much smoother and with no repairs to follow……. just fun and good stories and memories!

JPEE

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Hi JPEE,

The cat isn't as bad as it sounds - the majority of the damage was repaired with the fiberglass and I am happy with the results. The small area that I discovered was just a pinhole size in the side of the hull and I was able to smear some clear gorilla glue over the area and see if that holds. We are planning on stopping by the lake in the morning before school dropoff to test out the boats, just a few laps back and forth to see if any water leaks happen.

A few pictures for you - our lil' fleet and the bathtub leak test.

JPEE

Mark,

The boats are TOTALLY AWSOME, all three of them! The colors, the hull shapes, I just love them and to be honest I’ve never seen RC boats up close before. Good luck tomorrow morning at the Lake and BEFORE school, your the Dad of all dads, your son must tell the other kids, WE went to the Lake this morning early before school to test our RC boats! He will be the envy of other kid the there! Thanks for sharing that you used clear gorilla glue, I didn’t know they had a clear…..I went down the aisle one day at Lowe’s and saw quite a display of all different shapes sizes and flavors of the gorilla glue but I just never gave it a thought they might have clear. The only one I have used is the kinda clear and you wet the surfaces and then put them together and it expands, great for our RC Planes.

Please post how it goes and good luck to you both! 🤞

JPEE

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Hi JPEE,

We had a great time before school with the boats. The weather was a bit windy and the waves were a bit choppy so we had to limit the speed of the boats as they kept catching air as they jumped the waves. Fun until they flip over, then you have to wait for the waves to bring them back to shore. We went back on Sunday as the weather was a little better. Got to spend more time out also. He had a great time.

Video:

Vimeo

Mark

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Also, here is the gorilla glue that I was talking about. I like it as it doesn't foam and expand like the original formula. It is great for gluing those oopsie moments in our foam airplanes.

JPEE

Hello Mark, Thank you for the post in the video on your boats my goodness do they haul *** in the water! They have plenty of power to take care of any turbulence from the water. Question, can you put expo on your left and right turns so they’re not so sharp that they would be sweeping so they don’t flip and roll over. I know the whole deal is to go as fast as you can and see how good of a driver you are but when you can turn it so fast it just seems like too much. That lake is humongous oh my goodness I thought you guys were at the ocean beach. The other thing I found amazing is that those boats are watertight and that the drive comes out of them and the rest of it sealed up tight it’s just incredible that nothing leaks. But they do zip around for sure. I want to thank you also for the picture of the gorilla glue now I know what to look for I’m interested to read the backside of the bottle to see what surfaces it will adhere.

You guys really have fun together, father and son just doing things together!

John

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Hi JPEE,

Glad you liked the video. We did have a lot of fun both days. I think he may want to leave early again this Friday to do some boating before school, uh oh - what have I started??!

To answer some of your questions: the radio's are very bare bones and so only have adjustments for right/left trimming. No expo capable (would be nice but for the price point, didn't expect a whole lot). I also know that different hull types (deep V vs. tunnel or catamaran) have different handling characteristics. For example, my catamaran will flip and blow over much easier than his V hull, so I have to really slow it down when doing turns.

Yes, the lake is large (sorry, humongous lol). I have 2 different spots that I take the boats to. The first you saw in the video, the beach. The other is on the other side of the lake and is a pier/dock that extends quite a good distance into the open water. Both areas offer some different water conditions - waves and wind.

Leaks...still working on them. My son's boat is pretty water tight with the hatch on. Mine, not by a mile. I first had to find how the water was getting in. I first thought my repairs were the issue, hence the extra layer of gorilla glue. But by accident I discovered the water was coming in through the hatch - even with it secured. So I found out most guys use waterproof tape to seal the hatch for each run. Yes, a bit of an inconvenience taping each time but to keep water out and not mess up the rx or rudder servo - worth it.

Maintenance is more on a boat then for a heli or plane. After several runs you have to undo the flex shaft from the motor, pull it out and clean off all the old grease. You then add new grease (a marine type, light weight so little resistance) and reinstall everything. The grease keeps the water from coming up the shaft (stuffing tube) and flooding the boat. It also lubes the flex shaft so to keep it cool when spinning. My receiver is kept in a rubber balloon to help keep it dry but many recommend an electronics spray (CorrosiveX) to water proof in case it gets wet.

So this past week I have taken my boat out each morning after work. The lake is really calm that early in the morning so a perfect time to see how the boat behaves and how fast it really can go. Tuesday I went to the beach side and had a great time. Was able to do full throttle runs back and forth with slow turns and was very happy with how the boat was reacting. The nose was staying down and no indication of blow overs. Ran the entire battery through. Luckily when LVC is hit, there is enough juice left to blip the throttle to get the boat back to shore. I think I had a smile on my face for a good part of the morning.

This morning, not such a great time. I went to the pier as I wanted to test out a different tape as I was waiting for my water proof tape to come in the mail. I was trying out some blue painters tape this time. The wind was very light and the lake had very small long waves. My first speed run and I saw the nose was bouncing up and down. So I had to adjust and just do short controlled speed runs and the rest of the time up and down throttle to keep the nose from getting out of control. With the pier you can do these large ovals and have the boat get really out there (far away). I was getting near the end of my time and was running the boat away from me to do a turn when she hit some waves from a previous run and I saw her bounce twice then flip over. Dang.

It was pretty far out, but I had the rescue boat so not to worry. Just had to run back to the car and grab it. Got it in the water and run it out to my flipped boat...and started losing radio signal to it. I forgot to mention the rescue boat (for now) is a simple wally world toy boat, and doesn't have a very long radio range. I'm holding the radio above my head to get signal connect and at times it works, others not. I also discovered I really need some kind of grappling apparatus as just trying to push was turning out to be impossible.

By now, both boats are slowly drifting further and further away, and I no longer have signal connect with the rescue boat. I didn't have my pool noodle with me so going after it is out of the question. Not repeating that mistake. I watch with dismal desperation that I may have lost my boat. I'm trying to come to terms with the decision to walk away without my boat - my $240 boat. In a last ditch effort I give it full throttle (my boat still had radio signal) and watched in amazement as my boat slowly began moving. The propeller, even though not touching the water was able to move the boat by pushing air, like a tiny airplane prop. You can't imagine how relieved I was as I was able to get my boat back to the pier. It was so agonizingly slow, but it worked! I think I was in a state of shock for a good part of the morning over almost leaving my boat stranded in the lake.

So today I took the flex shaft out and regreased it. I also adjusted the strut so the prop sits lower in the water so hopefully that will keep the front of the boat down and prevent flip overs. At least I now know that my boat does have a recovery system as the prop can move it when it capsizes. I did lose the rescue boat as it kept drifting away until I could no longer see it. As a result of this event, I put my name and number on the inside of the hatch just in case the worst happens. I also need to figure out a rescue boat that can hold some kind of grappler device, and has a decent range.

So those are my stories on the water...

Mark

PS - I will reply to your email later tonight.

anan21

I do agree with you here!

JPEE

jpee

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Hi JPEE,

Its been quite a month.

I heard you had an earthquake a few days ago, hope all is well with you.

Nothing much to report over here. Just checking in.

Mark

JPEE

Hello my friend Mark!

Our Fly Club had it’s annul meeting for dues renewal a week ago. I attended and it was good to the guys after being away for nearly two years dealing with illnesses.

A week later I charged up my scale MD500 Heli’s I keep in the house behind the couch. Then I did a thorough preflight let me tell ya LOL. Only having flown three TRex 500 flights in AZ I was very uncomfortable and as you know I crashed on that third flight so….. I took my 230 Heli’s and worked my muscle memory for three flights here out back in prepping as well relearning my transmitter and what all the switches would do.
Then that day I went to the field and I took the 230 with me to see if I would do a little bit more practice before I took up the Indy 500 and the breeze was a bit much for that little booger so I didn’t try it, I just went right in the big red. Not gonna lie, the adrenaline was pumping and I got the Heli up and just hovered for a bit and then slowly crept out and around and by the end of that pack I had gone out and made horizontal level circles and closed with some horizontal figure eights. By the second pack I was back home with the feel and control. And only taken two batteries with me and my buddy flew three flights and was stick banging a 500 tea Rex up down around inverted just wailing and all of a sudden it goes crazy while he’s inverted something mechanical and the helicopter started to wag while inverted the tail back-and-forth 3 to 5 inches and grew worse as he was trying to get it down he finally rolled it over just before the ground and got it skids down and it hit the ground and bounced and came in without damage. We looked at his V bar because he had just gotten his helicopter from a guy that had it in a car for a couple of years so we thought maybe the adhesive had come loose on the rebar throwing off the Gyro and that’s why it went out of control all by itself. With a quick observation we could see that was not the issue so I went home to the bench I don’t know what the outcome has been since.

A day or two ago I took out my 600 which I have extensions from the base of the helicopter down to the landing gear of an inch so the tail fin and the tail blades don’t ever bump the concrete, it’s a long story why it’s built that way. I got it all up and the way it should be and then went in my battery box and found the 3500 2S RX pack battery was bloated! So I’ve sent away and ordered a couple of those and they should be here next week. Gave her a thorough going over and then strapped on another 2S battery I had not meant for the helicopter just to see if it would spoon up with a success battery that it was in storage mode. And I hooked everything up I got a beeping from the helicopter telling me it’s lost it’s bind…….I think, don’t know what else it could be. So I figured it was good Lord telling me put it away wait for the right battery rebind it another day. More to come soon when the batteries arrive.

Even my 230 didn’t fly like it used too? I went through the book as if it was new and reprogrammed the transmitter and FOUND some of the settings were off from the book. Because of the time lapse since I last flew it I don’t know if it’s some point I detuned it to make it a little easier to handle or that stuff just fell out of tweak I don’t know but she flies fine now.

That’s my story and I am sticking to it! I hope you and yours are well and that you might get out to fly yourself……..soon! 🚁

JPEE

PS: We did not feel that earthquake and it was not that far away.

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Hi JPEE,

I am happy to hear you are doing well, no items falling off the shelves!

That is great news that your flying club is continuing from the mishap you told me about - I was worried that some unpleasantness would result from it. I bet you had a nice time getting reacquainted and seeing familiar faces.

Sorry to hear about not getting the 600 in the air, but as you said best to listen to the hints telling you to wait rather than forcing something prematurely. At least you had some air time with your big red. Sounds like you began getting comfortable by the second pack. Nice you got your 230 back to stock flying so you can get some backyard practicing in. Hope this summer works out for some quality flying time.

As strange as it sounds I have been looking forward to summer coming. No, not the heat - humidity - bugs - sweating - sunburns - no, for me I have been looking forward to school being out for my son and l-o-n-g-e-r days. 2 years ago I discovered how nice it was that it was getting light at 5:30am and I could get some flights in and be home by 7:30, well before anyone woke up. I forgot that I used to do that many years ago but for some reason forgot all about those precious mornings. I guess life's requests took precedence.

So now that my son is out of school I am looking forward to getting my Goblin and Trex ready for some early morning flying time. Its been a few months so I need to go over them, as you did for your 500. I too need to get used to my transmitter again (switch and button location feel). My son was asking this past weekend if we were going to start going flying again and I told him that we can, but need to balance flying time with boating time. Can only do one per day/morning. He understood that. My plans are for my early morning flights to get me comfortable with flying again and practice routine (and boring) orientations so when my son and I do those periodic flying days I won't be too rusty. I don't want to waste our time out doing endless slow piroette hovers you know.

Our 'fleet' of boats has slowly increased. We now have a tunnel hull, a catamaran, and 2 V-hulls. The V hulls are the most stable in wavy conditions so are getting the most usage as they don't tend to flip over easily. The one draw back I will give is you need a separate remote for each boat, so you wind up with a surplus of remotes and you need to keep track of which one is for which boat. So when your busy loading up everything I have to stop and double check to make sure I have the correct remotes for the boats we are taking.

I am also working on finishing up an F-35 kit that I had bought 4 years ago and just never got around to building. Its a smaller 50mm plane but they are fun as you can keep them in the trunk and just fly them anytime. BTW, who keeps a kit for 4 years and never works on it??? Yeah, this guy! lol

Mark

JPEE

Hello Mark,Hi JPEE,
I am happy to hear you are doing well, no items falling off the shelves! We were lucky, it was in the scheme of things a very mild shake for others.

That is great news that your flying club is continuing from the mishap you told me about - I was worried that some unpleasantness would result from it. I bet you had a nice time getting reacquainted and seeing familiar faces. Sorry to hear about not getting the 600 in the air, but as you said best to listen to the hints telling you to wait rather than forcing something prematurely. At least you had some air time with your big red. Sounds like you began getting comfortable by the second pack. Nice you got your 230 back to stock flying so you can get some backyard practicing in. Hope this summer works out for some quality flying time.Yeppers, still waiting on the battery but alls good. I’ll tell you the 230 is a life saver for bring back muscle memory. Yes indeed, this will be MY Summer! According to what we heard at the meeting the house that was hit is “all good” with the AMA paying them for their damage and were very understanding. The man that lost an arm was not mentioned.

As strange as it sounds I have been looking forward to summer coming. No, not the heat - humidity - bugs - sweating - sunburns - no, for me I have been looking forward to school being out for my son and l-o-n-g-e-r days. 2 years ago I discovered how nice it was that it was getting light at 5:30am and I could get some flights in and be home by 7:30, well before anyone woke up. I forgot that I used to do that many years ago but for some reason forgot all about those precious mornings. I guess life's requests took precedence. Many would complain if they had your schedule, but for you, it’s spectacular and is asset to be sure. And……..it’s a two-fer, you get to fly when you come home and crash and go to bed and secondarily you get to do it with your son that’s the big win right there. You’re right who doesn’t like longer days to do more fun things.

So now that my son is out of school I am looking forward to getting my Goblin and Trex ready for some early morning flying time. Its been a few months so I need to go over them, as you did for your 500. I too need to get used to my transmitter again (switch and button location feel). My son was asking this past weekend if we were going to start going flying again and I told him that we can, but need to balance flying time with boating time. Can only do one per day/morning. He understood that. My plans are for my early morning flights to get me comfortable with flying again and practice routine (and boring) orientations so when my son and I do those periodic flying days I won't be too rusty. I don't want to waste our time out doing endless slow piroette hovers you know. I think you’ve got a great plan, heli’s OR boats. Trying both and loading for both would be arduous, And to be sure you’d wind up forgetting something for one hobby or the other. A morning with each is the way to go and you can focus on your thumbs to get your muscle memory back much faster than splitting the morning between the two planes and boats.

Our 'fleet' of boats has slowly increased. We now have a tunnel hull, a catamaran, and 2 V-hulls. The V hulls are the most stable in wavy conditions so are getting the most usage as they don't tend to flip over easily. The one draw back I will give is you need a separate remote for each boat, so you wind up with a surplus of remotes and you need to keep track of which one is for which boat. So when your busy loading up everything I have to stop and double check to make sure I have the correct remotes for the boats we are taking. When you get tired of it just mail me out the big red one on the right oh my goodness that thing is “gorgeous” and HUGE!
I have enough trouble when I take just my fly machines out and I have to take two transmitters and I’m still having trouble remembering what’s on each one. I kind of simplified it I think little helicopters are on the AirTronics transmitter (except the 230) and the planes are on the Spectrum Dx 9
Is there no way to change the receiver in the boats so one transmitter could be used? Do they all have wires a plug-in just like a helicopter to go to the ESC? Might cost a couple of bucks but might almost be easier?

I am also working on finishing up an F-35 kit that I had bought 4 years ago and just never got around to building. Its a smaller 50mm plane but they are fun as you can keep them in the trunk and just fly them anytime. BTW, who keeps a kit for 4 years and never works on it??? Yeah, this guy! lol YOU DO…..LOL….. it will be nice to finish the jet and see how she shakes out on your maiden. Your photos JUSTICE to you fleet of racing boats. I hope I have something to report soon when my battery arrives.

JPEE
On this Memorial Day remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice for us.

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Hi JPEE,

I got your email and to let you know, we did not get all that much from the storm that hit. We were a bit too far north and so just got a bit of rain. Unfortunately, those south of us got the brunt of it.

Thank you for the well wishes.

I have gotten out a few mornings to get some flights in with the Goblin, the 500, and 2 of my jets (the stinger and the raptor). I also took my son and got a few flights in the early evening - was actually out this past weekend in-between the rain storms. Was ok with the heli's, nothing too serious but with my raptor - landing was fun. Had to do a few practice approaches before the battery was getting close. Luckily everything came home in one piece. My son even got to take his plane with him and got some air time. He may want to take the skysurfer out next weekend.

Have you had the chance to see the planet alignment in the early AM? Supposed to be 5 of them: Saturn, Mars, Venus, Jupiter, and Mercury. Wake up and go look outside, around 4am!!

Mark

JPEE

Mark,
Thats good news that the storm was minimal in your area and you suffered no damages or flooding.

Almost better news that you got out the have been flying. Glad the Goblin did well for you and as you pointed out, take it easy to start out. Then 3D will come next. Indeed land your Raptor and any of your jets is difficult when you fly on the narrow street with the curb poles and other obstacles, we’ve seen those results. Overall it sounds pretty good for you and George. I’m sure he loved the stick time he got it too. I have to assume the sky surfer is a light flier, motor as a pusher? Need to reply, I’ll look it up when I am done here. Good deal for you both and good to hear from you.

My 600 rx and servo battery arrived and I hope to slip that is and try a re-bind and see if that stops the fault chirp. With that battery my screw multipack to tear down my 500 to do an autopsy to see if it’s worth trying to repair it. I have a box of parts so I just have to take a total dismantlement of the aircraft and then look and see what I have on hand. Jason wants me to buy a used 552 PACLA or a 650 dual pack instead of this old 600 single pack that just doesn’t have enough guts to barely get inverted because it’s very very old. There’s only so big of a motor and ESC and upgrades that I could put in there I’m on an aircraft at all it’s just not worth it. I turned it down a 650 with batteries flown four times and the guy is afraid of it not too far from me maybe 30 miles for 900 bucks bind and fly. That’s a steal, however if I had that I’d almost have to sell the old 600 because it’s so disappointing and powerless. But I am finding keeping it is a good practice healing for me because I’m finding that as age is passing me by it has affected my eyes as I knock on the door 75 years old. I’ve noticed the 500 gets away from me already. But I have partiality to her because she was my first big Heli back in the day. We shall see!

I wish you a wonderful week for you and your family and glad that you’re safe from the storms. I’ll give you a diagnosis of the 500 once I get it apart.

it’s been crazy here with theft and criminal actions even though we live in a very nice neighborhood we fit the bill of being a block off of a main street and then a freeway block away. So walk out my front door and look up and see three houses on the cross street all three have been hit next-door to each other in the last six months and one house three times. The other day the alarm went off on the cameras and my neighbor was in his shorts and T-shirt getting ready to brush his teeth at 6 AM in the morning and he looks on the camera and sees a guy out in the frontYard trying to break into his new Dodge diesel pick up truck. They before yesterday a house under reconstruction two doors to the east of him they went up in the front yard hooked onto a commercial contractors open trailer for hauling off debris you know we’re bringing materials and just hooked onto it and install it. The three houses up the street are all break-ins. So I am upgrading from a standalone alarm and this next Monday they’ll be coming out to put in the service with ADT alarm company so if the house gets violated in 45 seconds if I don’t call in, they call the police it’s just terrible with the world’s getting to.

Take care JPEE

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Hi JPEE,

I'm sorry to hear that your neighborhood is having break in problems.

The other evening when my son and I were out riding our bikes I took notice of some of the houses we were passing and how brightly lit some were. I'm talking flood light type lighting. Not all the houses were so brightly lit but you could definitely tell a difference between those lit up and those not. Some of the more brightly lit ones had dual flood lights, set at 90 degrees to each other and placed at the corner, that way you had light on both sides of the house. And they were at all 4 corners of the house. Another one had a pole for both the front and back yards, each one having flood lights but on motion detection mode with the sensitivity on high as they went off as we rode on the side walk. Got me thinking that with all the lights making the house and yard very detectable one would think a thief would move on to a less intimidating target? Maybe something to consider along with your security system upgrade? Be safe out there...

On the flip side, I do believe the heli gods gave me a reprieve the other day...I had an incident that did not result in a crash.

I had my Goblin out and was doing some easy flying and settled into doing some big flat horizontal circles. I have been practicing these and well, still need practice to clean them up. One thing I have discovered with them is I have to be close to full collective to keep them going. I had just entered into the circle and was increasing the collective when suddenly I saw the entire tail boom oscillate up and down rapidly, must have done it 5 or 6 times and made this awful sound. If you've ever heard an airplane tail flutter, that was this sound. I thought the heli was going to go down at this point. I immediately stopped the maneuver, brought the collective to midstick and was able to gently bring the heli back to a landing. I was so counting my lucky stars!

I need to mention at this point that the boom on this heli had a boom strike on my last crash - the one where it started slow uncontrolled piro's and I pulled the throttle stick all the way back because I had been flying planes too long and not heli's enough. I repaired the boom with some lightweight fiberglass cloth and resin and it seemed to be holding well. I was able to do most of my usual moves - flips, rolls, inverted, loops, stall turns with piroettes. All with no issues. But this one seemed to indicate a flaw in the repair so I'll be replacing it with a new boom. No need for a crash for a $70 part. I'm still walking around with a smile knowing how bad it could have turned out.

Mark