Canadair CL-415 1390mm. Scenic Outing at the Little Lake

...a bit more successful

Following on from my rather unsuccessful previous expedition to the lake, I returned a week later with the Canadair again for another attempt.
I find flying off water to be rather stressful, due mainly to the inconvenience of failure, namely having to the boat out to rescue the plane and then pack it all up again. As a consequence I am much more nervous and therefore tend to fly much worse than otherwise.

The Canadair is easy to fly and I can generally fly it off the grass, not dissimilar in nature to taking off from water, with little issue. The takeoffs on this occasion were, happily, more successful although most were still a little nervy and one, which didn't make it into the video, was absolutely awful.

One contributing factor is that you don't always get to stand near the plane like you do at the field, and as a result you are literally distanced. I probably should've just gone to the large lake where I could have launched from right next to the jetty. However the little lake looked so scenic with the clouds in the afternoon sun..

Raptor Glider D-Box Pro 2000. Afternoon Cruise.

...a pleasant afternoon out

Sunday afternoon turned out sunny and mild, a nice opportunity to take the Raptor for a leisurely cruise around the field. With the local venue busy, I headed for a field at which I'd previously considered flying but never got around to going there.

The field had had the grass cut back for some reason, leaving it with an interesting geometric finish, combined with its contrasting brown colour would make an excellent spot for a first FPV flight; you'd easily be able to find where home was!

Getting the Raptor out, I installed the Mobius atop the fuselage and sent the big glider soaring skywards. There northerly wind was quite mild but choppy, making the flight a little interesting when the Raptor approached ground level and curtailed most low and slow flying, which is can be the most fun.

Nevertheless it was a lovely afternoon to be out, and floating a slow glider around is likewise a suitably relaxing occupation. The most anxious bit was a brief inverted flight towards the end when, pushing the Raptor in an inverted pull-out, I realised there was insufficient charge in battery to execute this power-sapping manoeuvre.

Rolling the Raptor out, I pulled up steeply and came awkwardly close to a flood light pole, hitting which would definitely have ruined a lovely afternoon outing...

747-4 Trainstar Shaft Adapter

...so I got a new motor instead

I ended up terminally bending the shaft adapter on my Trainstar some while a go as the result of colliding with a light pole. While, in the past, I have managed to straighten the adapter by hook or by crook, this time my efforts were in vain.

Now, it must be said, the Volantex (nee Lanyu) prop adapters are rubbish, a conclusion based on my experience of both the Trainstar and Phoenix planes, and I've heard this sentiment echoed by others as well; the adapter material is very soft and prone to both stripping and bending.

I've previously looked at the Volantex store but, despite having the items on display, it seemed impossible to actually buy anything. And I couldn't find anything on the web either. However reading through a thread about Volantex spares yesterday,  the website had apparently become functional.

My optimism at this news was unfortunately was short-lived as, while the prop adapter is there (and on sale!) an error came up when I tried to finalise Paypal payment and, despite repeating the checkout exercise, I still had no success. So I again abandoned Volantex for spares (why is it so hard?) and headed to Hobbyking.

The Volantex motor for the Trainstar is a 4023/850KV and fortunately Hobbyking have an exact equivalent, the D4023-850 Out Runner Motor. This, however, comes fitted with a steel prop shaft instead of the aluminium of the Volantex, and is also only about half the price.

So, while I really didn't want to buy another motor when all I needed was a prop adapter, it all got too hard...

CL-415 Canadair 1390mm. Field Takeoffs & Landings.

...cruising on a beautiful morning

Winter can be a bit challenging when it comes to flying with grey rainy days and dull mornings. However, one bonus it that you do get to see sunrises, when they happen.

Taking the Canadair to the field the other day I was treated to a lovely sunrise, made more enjoyable by having the Canadair to cruise around.

As usual, if there's something worthwhile I get the camera out, and in this case put it on top the Canadair to get an elevated view of the sunrise. And, for a bit of extra fun, included a couple of takeoffs and landings in the flight...

Winter Antidote: Fox Glider Having Fun

...perfect sunny afternoon

Friday was one of those days; the weather so changeable that one could literally not anticipate what the sky was going to do next.

Despite the dull conditions, that afternoon I headed out for a fly as things had settled a little. As happens more than occasionally, I swung the Fox in in order to setup the camera; the low afternoon sun had sunk just enough below the western clouds to that warm rays were beginning to hit the paddocks.



By the time I'd got the Fox back in the air and done a couple of circuits, the whole meadow was flooded with almost tangibly soft and golden afternoon sunlight. The beautiful clouds, a moment before hanging grey and dull, now came to life with luminous white crowns and deep grey shadows.

This is the perfect sort of occasion for flying...

Canadair Flips on Takeoff...and Survives!

bad and good...

The other day, after a long hiatus, I finally got the Canadair back to the big lake to have a bit of a fly. The big lake is good for its large expanse of water, meaning less issues with dodging trees or having to constantly turn.

Being a large expanse of water does however mean that it does pick up more of a breeze though, due to the large expanse of open water. Nevertheless, on the afternoon, there was a moderate westerly blowing in, noticeable but not sufficient to unduly affect the water.

So I got the Canadair ready to fly and, at the last minute, decided to shift the battery back a little to help with the landings, where I kept on finding I didn't have enough elevator to float it in for gentle touch-downs.

All ready then, and I hit power with full elevator to get the Canadair on the plane. Unfortunately, the combination of the fresh westerly and th enow nose-light Canadair meant that, as soon as it begun to rotate it just kept on lifting and, quickly reaching a stall, the left wing dropped and dipped into the lake.

So, within a second of hitting the throttle, the Canadair was floating upside down, both motors immersed in the water. I didn't feel like getting the inflatable out, so I waited for the breeze to transport the Canadair to the far side of the lake.

Finally fishing it out of the lake a leisurely quarter of an hour later, the Canadair had shipped just a smidgen of water, and the receiver and ESC's were all dry and safe, ready to go again...

Fox Glider with Walrus Props

...seems to work well

Ever since the Fox started using its designated battery, the 1800 Nanotech, it has suffered from a buzz. Initially I thought this was because the motor mount wasn't tight enough, and then I thought that perhaps it was because the firewall wasn't sturdy enough, gluing in a second mount in tandem to beef things up.

And so the imbalance persisted since I'm not sure how to balance folding props. However the other day I found a spare set of Walrus props and decided to install them on the Fox.

This works surprisingly well and they seem to provide quite sufficient thrust for the Fox, which is much sleeker than its portly donor plane.

So, the Fox now has white props to match its colour scheme, and is flying quite happily with cheap plastic instead of swishy carbon fibre...

R2Hobbies Raptor D-Box Pro 2000 Glider in the Hills.

...a lovely flight in beautiful surroundings

Having an opportunity to get into the hills I decided to pack the Raptor in the hope that I might be able to find a good spot to have a go at slope soaring, a sadly outstanding item on the RC list of things I want to do.

As it worked out I wasn't able yo find a suitable slope, however I did manage to get the Raptor out for a fly.

Having finished an enjoyable walk to a hilltop with a beautiful scenic lookout, I found a spot flat enough to get the Raptor landed. It was a beautiful afternoon with clear skies and barely a breath of wind. And, with hills in the background and rows of brilliant green pine saplings in the foreground, it was a beautiful setting.

Flying the Raptor here was actually great fun, with the thinner air meaning it flew flatter and faster, and enjoying the sun glinting off its long wings as it soared and turned in the cool afternoon air.

The awkward bit was the landing; the field wasn't all that flat and I was without flaps as the switch on my radio was broken. Also, the fluffy little saplings turned out to be much more solid than I thought, knocking one of the Raptor's tailplanes loose on landing...

Stormclouds and Rarebear

...lovely contrast

The weather this morning wasn't great, with imminent drizzle threatening to cut short any attempt at flying and overnight rain meaning wet shoes would be guaranteed for my efforts.

The afternoon was, however, somewhat better so I headed to the field with the DC-3 and the Rarebear. I punted the docile Dakota around for a while and then, feeling like something a little more energetic, brought it in and got the little buzzy ready.

By this time heavy storm clouds had rolled in, providing a lovely contrast to the few adjacent patches of blue and, of course, the little white form of the Rarebear. Being quite picturesque, I landed it and dashed off to the car to get the Mobius.

Now, low light conditions aren't the Mobius' strong point, but I hope that the footage will at least capture a little of the lovely variety of cloud textures and colours...

Hobbyking Radjet 800. Sunrise.

...high-speed fun

The other morning I took the Radjet along with me. I hadn't flown it for a while so the launch is always a slightly tense affair, but my launch technique is still solid, with the Radjet launching into the growing sunrise. 

It's still pretty quick, although slightly off the pace when it was flying the little 850mAh nanotech, however it's quick, and stable enough that you can bring it over on super-low flypasts with confidence.

It was a most enjoyable flight and, as the battery died off, I turned the Radjet around for finals. The Radjet is surprisingly easy to land; with power off it is pretty floaty, and it glides in surprisingly easily.

Except this time when I had it headed into the tree behind me...