...serenity follows Yesterday was another miracle flying day. The morning was dreadful, overcast, drizzly and windy and, as the day progressed, the winds grew more ferocious by the hour. I had packed the buzzies, the Radjet and Rarebear, on the off chance the weather may ease, however by mid day I'd abandoned the idea of getting a late fly. However, by mid afternoon the wind had abated to a steady northerly breeze and, a little later, the sun had slid past the western extent of the clouds and illuminated everything in a rich warm afternoon glow.
Catching sight of the lustrous sunbeams as I pushed open the blinds, I deserted the keyboard mid-sentence and headed for the field. My usual spot was occupied by the advance-guard of afternoon sports practice, so I ended at my back-up field. The afternoon was glorious; clean-blown air, majestic clouds, emerald green fields, and all bathed in lustrous light from the late afternoon sun. The Rarebear got to go first, soaring through the freshly-laundered skies and looping as it does with the agility of a swift. I still only fly it on half throttle, which is comfortably fast, and occasionally at about three-quarters, which is excessively fast. Anyone who can fly this thing at full throttle must be a deity.
I was halfway through the Rarebear's flight routine when I was interrupted by strident calls from behind me, someone calling off their dog. Only looking from the corner of my vision, one does need to pay attention when flying, I saw a large dark-coloured dog bounding across the field heading straight for me. From the desperate sound of the voice behesting the beast to return, the yelled assurances it wouldn't bite me and the glimpse I'd managed to see of it, I presumed it must be something like an out-of-control rottweiler, so was prepared for a vicious greeting at any second. The dog arrived and I glanced down momentarily to know my attacker; it was an elderly dog, well greyed around the muzzle and certainly not ferocious by any description. In fact, as it's owner continued to yell, I was quite sorry that I wasn't able to give this friendly visitor the greeting and attention it deserved...
...low budget video This morning I tried out the Mini DV 480p video camera while flying the Trainstar. I mounted the camera onto a cap so I could film on-the-go, as I've discovered that manually filming while flying isn't a good idea.
I've used a U1 class 10 SD card in the Mini DV, more than sufficient for the task, so the output reflects its true capabilities. The quality isn't great, however, although it only costs about $7 and the light conditions didn't assist, with the morning being overcast and dull.
Unfortunately, with a big cold front on the way, that's how it's going to be for a few days...
...but servo centering still a pain I finished off the assembly of the Stinger 64 EDF today; a very nice quality kit that goes together well. The only piece that doesn't really fit is the pink trim bit that fits between the fuselage spine and the tail.
Something I wasn't sure about was the installation of the EDF, as I suspected the fan, or at least the cowling, would vibrate. So, to be on the safe side, I hot-glued the cowling to the fan housing in a few places, and then glued the cowling into the fuselage before I installed the wing.
The only thing that was a pain, although not unique to the Stinger, was the servo centring. In the past I've had to reinstall the servo arms so that they're centred once the plane has been powered up. I thought I was missing something, but checking a few videos of this subject seemed to confirm this.
The problem is that, in the case of the Stinger and the Walrus, the servos are installed in recesses without access to the servo arm, so I ended having to cut a section of foam out from one tail servo. In the case of the tail there's no option as, like flaps, they both move together and there's no trimming option.
I have read about a servo tester which includes a facility to set your servo to the centre position. I think this lets you set the centre position so as to install servo arms prior to installing the servo on the plane, however it doesn't help with servos already installed on a plane. Perhaps the plane manufacturers should use this instead of just randomly installing the servo arms...
...bobbing in the breeze It was raining heavily this morning as I left, however I packed my two buzzy planes, the Radjet and Rarebear, along with a spare battery for each. Not knowing the weather, I wasn't liking my chances of getting any flying done that afternoon, but I having left home empty handed before, I've regretted it when the weather clears into a gorgeous afternoon.
Having a bootfull of planes was also a bonus as I ended up being very bored this afternoon, eventually abandoning my post and heading for the car park. The rain had cleared, but the sky was still overcast and a strong breeze was blowing from the southeast. In this weather I take my buzzies - smaller wings mean they are less affected by turbulent conditions, and having constant high-speed prop-wash means that the effect of unsettled conditions is factored out.
First up was the Rarebear, giving it it's first test run since its aileron repair, which worked out pretty well with the balsa lining up nice and straight with the aileron. I also taped up both ailerons to avoid future issues. The Rarebear launches very steep, with the motor, prop and high-performance batteries combining to give it flight characteristics that defy gravity. It also possesses remarkable agility, with a jaw-dropping roll rate as it carves perfect curves through the sky, in a quite remarkable manner.
Next I sent up the Radjet, still launching beautifully which is an absolute blessing, skimming low across the paddock, it's wings being constantly jostled by the breeze. I flew the Radjet until it's battery was depleted, bringing it round into the strong southeaster and easing it down for an almost vertical descent to landing. By this time the breeze had cleared the sky into a fresh blue expanse, with just a few clouds dotted around, the sparkling white cumulus on the southern horizon looking like snow covered peaks out of the corner of the eye as I watched the planes streak across the sky. With the field still clear of Friday footballers, I loaded the Radjet and Rarebear with fresh batteries and sent them up for another rounds of high-speed, full-throttle fun...
...the pocket rocket is fixed I have resolved the issue of the missing Rarebear aileron using good old balsa, a material I haven't used for years. The issue was getting something that was light, easily workable and could be attached to the EPO. With EPO sheet not available, as far as I know, balsa was the best option, readily available in a range of sizes.
For the repair I selected for 4mm sheet, which required just a bit of filing to match the profile of the aileron edge. I used a plastic hinge to attach it, as well as taping up the edges of the repaired and original to avoid repeat problems. I also pinned the balsa prosthetic to the EPO aileron using, well, sections of steel pins (ie large sewing needle) which are stiff and thin. Hitting this lot with a bit of appliance white spray will have the podgy speedster good as new...
...battered but still kicking butt The Radjet has had a tough life; crashed twice before I could get it in the air, then crashed on the first flight, and crashed numerous times after.
However, the Radjet's still a great little plane to fly, fast tough and with a sound to match it's flight attitude; low fly-past at high speed with the reverberating crackle of it's propellor shattering the still of the morning air...
...having fun learning to fly radio control Welcome to Zen Flying. Join us having fun flying a variety of radio controlled planes; gliders, pushers, mini-fighters, quadcopters, taildraggers, floatplanes and EDF jets.
Watch the videos on the Zen Flying YouTube channel or follow what's happening on our blog.
...getting the taildragger airborne Launching the Trainstar is always entertaining; it's such a characterful aircraft that it's always fun to fly. It does, however, does take a little experience to get it right, and I still can't get it to launch perfectly straight. The battery location is excellent, housed under a clip-off cover under the nose. The battery is held in place, inverted, by the provided velcro as well as a velcro strap. So connecting power is easy, although you do have to flip the old girl for a second!
I fly with the 3S 2200mAh battery; being a big heavy plane I certainly wouldn't recommend anything less, and I think a few people fly with larger power packs than this. Having said that, the 2200mAh will drag the Trainstar out of most awkward spots and gives reasonable flight times.
The Trainstar will launch off grass fields, as long as the growth is not too thick. If you're picturing launching from a wildflower meadow, it's not going to happen. The best advice is to have full elevator during the takeoff run. This keeps the tail planted on the ground until the wings are airborne, preventing ungainly, and potentially disastrous, nose-plants into the ground. I find, for whatever reason, the Trainstar tends first to the right then, after it builds up some speed, to go veering off to the left. Anyway, I'd recommend getting it off the ground sooner rather than later; you can always hit max power if necessary to drag it up. That way you've got less chance of running into anything, or running off the runway, or disappearing down a rabbit hole...
...don't film while you fly I was flying the Phoenix 1600 over the paddock and, with the glider coming in nice and slowly, I decided to grab the camera and do a little action filming. This, unsurprisingly, turned out to be a bad idea because, as the Phoenix floated lower, I couldn't hit power and add with my spare hand. The upshot was the Phoenix ploughed through a barbed wire fence. While it was flying slowly, the effect of the barbs on the EPO wing was not pretty, with chunks torn out the leading edge, and ugly scrapes underneath the wing.
Trying to repair this was a puzzle, as I'd actually lost foam, and trying to fill holes and match the leading edge profile was not easy. Having dug through the cupboards, I eventually came across some exterior gap filler. This stuff is waterproof, sandable and doesn't shrink. I've used this to fill the holes, and have then used a file to sand it flush and copied the shape of the wing. Now I just need to sand it and give it a paint, and the Phoenix should be good to go...
...very cool The seaplane floats finally arrived, packaged in a demure cardboard box. However lifting the lid revealed two beautifully moulded and carefully painted floats, crafted from thin fibreglass. Despite their impressive size they weigh only 150g each, although I am a little concerned at how the Trainstar will fly with this additional weight and drag.
The floats come with a pair of aluminium mounting struts and braces, as well as mounting hardware. There is also a nice rudder, although only for one side, and sleeved cables for actuation via the planes rudder control horn. There are also brackets provided for securing the cables on the float and to the plane. A very nice set of floats which I look forward to assembling and installing to my Trainstar in the near future...
...looks good The Stinger 64 looks like a very good quality package, nicely moulded and with remarkably thin decals which appear almost as if they're sprayed on. However, they are somewhat garish, and I'm not sure that they will be helpful for orienting the speedy jet as I suspect they may work as camouflage. Anyway, we'll find that out soon enough. The wings are very small compared to the body, in fact I mistook them for the horizontal stabilisers when I saw them first. Which makes me think you'll have to fly this particular plane pretty fast to keep it in the air. And launch it with lots of power!
I've chosen to go with a Zippy 1800mAh 4S 40C battery, instead of a 2200mAh, as I want to give it the best chance of a good first launch - you can always upgrade to a bigger battery later, but it's much harder to make a crashed plane look like new! The other good feature of the Stinger is that it features plastic hinges for the control surfaces. This may seem unremarkable until you have control surfaces peeled off at high speed, both startling and time consuming to repair, especially if you can'f find the bits that flew off...
...fun with the taildragger I've done a few sessions flying touch and go's with the Trainstar, and I must say it's quite entertaining. The aluminium undercarriage, just a 3mm strip, does a remarkably good job of soaking up bumps on touchdown and the wheels are sufficiently large to allow flying off grass fields, as long as they are reasonably well trimmed. However trying to land, or take off, from a field with a generously thick covering will see the Trainstar on it's nose.
Flying like this, on about three-quarter throttle and then gliding in for landings, you'll do about a quarter of an hour's entertaining flying on a 2200mAh battery, which is also packs enough grunt to pull the Trainstar out of awkward situations. Just don't expect it to do vertical climbs or you'll be disappointed...
...working this out The landing floats for the Trainstar are really good however, not being specifically intended for the Trainstar, I need to figure out how best to install them. So far I have decided to use the two undercarriage mounts on the Trainstar, the forward mount which is used as the main undercarriage mount in taildragger configuration, and the rear mount in tricycle format.
This seems to be logical, however it does require a custom float strut, as the rear mount is about 25mm higher than the front mount. Nevertheless, this shouldn't be too difficult to achieve (just getting some 2mm aluminium sheet and putting a few bends in it). I have assembled the rudder, which just needed some cleaning of the mounting shaft to allow smooth movement, and the looped elastic-band works well to pull the pivoting rudder down.
At the moment I'm thinking that I'll use the provided cables to actuate the rudder, which connect to the rudder control horn on the plane. While I like the idea a direct-acting servo, this would require cutting a hole in the float which I'm not so keen to do...
...tape up those controls I had been flying the Rarebear at about half power until I got used to the diminutive craft's behaviour, and also until I was sufficiently used to identifying its orientation, something I'd found difficult in the low-light conditions when I typically fly. As such, I headed out to the field one sunny afternoon after work, to give the Rarebeara workout over the wide spaces of the paddock. In the sunlight the Rarebearis much easier to make out, and soon I had the little plane buzzing on three-quarter throttle, marvelling at it's agility and ability to make astonishingly sharp turns. Suddenly I heard an intense fluttering which ended in an abrupt noise, and then silence. Not knowing what had happened, I cut power and coasted the Rarebearinto a big bank bringing it back to the field.
Getting back to the plane the cause of the noise was immediately apparent, or rather it was conspicuous by its absence; about a third of the right aileron had been completely sheared off. The aileron foam hinge must've developed a crack at the end and, with the high-G maneuvers, resulted in a section of the control peeling up. Exposed to the airstream, this had fluttered violently and eventually ripped off. Unfortunately, having been flying over the high grass of the the paddocks, the piece of foam was lost...
...well two actually A post office card on the doorstep advised that my parcel was ready to collect at the local. This was big news, heralding the dawn of new eras in flight; jets and seaplanes.
The package should contain one highly sought-after Stinger 64 electric ducted fan (EDF) jet. These planes seem very popular, hardly staying in stock at all before they're sold out again, attesting to their apparently good flying characteristics and high-speed fun.
There should also be a pair of 83cm landing floats, which will hopefully fit my Trainstar. They are the perfect size for a fuselage just over a meter long. I'm just hoping that the mounting points match up, but we'll make a plan if necessary. As soon as I saw that you could get floats I realised that I had to get some; floats planes are just so cool. Now I just need to find a suitable lake where I can fly it...
I have, on several occasions in the past, sworn I wouldn't fly the Radjetagain after suffering another abject failure. Yet, a few days later, I'd glued and taped the tough jet back into flying shape and was trying again. And again. And again.
So, having finally mastered the art of getting this flighty craft into the air, this is an opportunity to share the experiences I've had in the hope that I save other aspirantRadjetpilots some of the anguish I've experienced. So I've done another video on launching a Radjetso you could see the launch trajectory a bit better. This was something of a masterclass, a celebration of long-overdue success with the often-exasperating little plane...
...a cute little package I took the Rarebear Funfighter for its first flight on a breezy afternoon. I went into the paddock to take advantage of it's tussocky grass in case anything should go awry which, from reports of this little plane's performance were anything to go by, was a distinct possibility. The aileron setup had ended up with both slightly down, so acting as flaps as well. The amount of down trim was very small, so I decided just to try it like this. I reasoned it would help get the little Rarebear launched easier which made me feel a little more at ease.
I was going to launch it underhand, as I'd seen in a few of the videos as you can't hold it from underneath at the CG. However, at the last second, I decided to do a standard throw, holding it just behind the wings. For launch I decided on half power which actually worked really well, with the chubby little plane rising into the sky like it was on an escalator.
It looks ridiculously cute in the air, especially as it was bobbing around on the breeze, looking like a giant bumble bee. Being quite cautious I only tried out full throttle when it was climbing. The performance is ridiculous - it climbs as though unaffected by gravity and spins like it's stuck on the end of a drill ala-Grommet. The Rarebear is a tiny but packs a huge punch, especially using the recommended 850mAh 4S 45-90 battery, which gives truly insane performance. Actually, having flown it, I think the 3S setup might be sufficient as I have difficulty seeing how you could actually run this flat-out on 4S and not lose it or smash it within seconds, literally...
...a new experience in a diminutive package The X-Dart is my first experience with multi-rotor aircraft and, I must say, I'm impressed with the tiny craft's abilities. The first flight of the X-Dart quadcopter was a bit of a laugh, with the diminutive quad proving difficult to master at first. They also pack surprisingly good performance into a tiny package, powered by a 300mAh battery which slots into the body.
The amount of flight time the 300mAh battery is able to deliver also speaks volumes of the efficiency of the package, running four motors as it does. Despite the modest power pack, thelittle quadcan stay in the air for several minutes, defying one's expectations; long enough to have a few good laughs at the buzzing little crafts leap into the air unexpectedly quickly or flips ignominiously whilst trying to land. And it's nice that the X-Dart comes with a replacement prop set which, if you decide to fly inside the house, you'll be needing sooner or later...
...I think I've finally got it The last half-dozen launches I've had with the Radjethave been virtually flawless, so I think I've finally succeeded in developing a robust technique that will get the touchy buzz-jet launched consistently.
Tip 1 - Opposite Aileron I've been launching at about two-thirds throttle and about the same right aileron. This keeps the Radjetalmost perfectly straight on the launch and with sufficient power to maintain its trajectory. Don't worry about putting in a little too much right aileron as, if this is the case, all you need to do is back off a little and the plane will follow, as it wants to roll to the left. Tip 2 - Trajectory You need to launch it upwards at about thirty to forty degrees, so that you'll be well clear of the ground - no more snapped props or crumpled nose cones. In conjunction with power as above, this will have the Radjetclimbing smoothly. Tip 3 - Power Transition Once the Radjetis stable and flying, perhaps a second or so after launch, all you need to do is ease up to full power and back off the aileron correction. If this transition is a little ugly is doesn't matter, as the plane will be high enough off the ground to give you plenty of space to correct orientation or direction...
...after the torrid weekend weather The rain had stopped and the wind abated this morning, although there was still a strong breeze was blowing. However not so windy that you couldn't fly, so I scooped up the TrainstarandRadjetand, along with radio box and camera bag, just managed to get out the front door. The breeze had picked up by the time I arrived at the field, but I decided to fly the Trainstaranyway, it not being too gusty, so I set up the camera to film some touch-and-go attempts and general fly-by's. The only downside, as I discovered arriving at work, was that I'd forgotten my lunch when I left home with an armful of planes...
