Stinger 64 EDF. Repair Flight.

...back in the air!

It was months ago when, having too much fun with the Stinger, I inadvertently sent it speeding into the swampy paddock grass, where it half its nose and my near-new nanotech battery disappeared into the mud.

Since then I have agonised over how I was to replicate the tapering form of the nose, which also accommodates the canopy magnet and terminates into the join with the nosecone.

Eventually I used rear sections of the original fuselage (funny how you never crash backwards), although this wasn't quite right and had to be cut, and then added onto, and then filled, and sanded, and painted.

However, after this unnecessarily protracted affair, the Stinger was again airworthy and looking pretty good. However, the proof of the pudding if in how well it flies.

Fortunately, in this case, it flew as well as ever, and I was gifted with a good launch as well. So back to enjoying a few run-filled, adrenalin rushing minutes screeching the Stinger around the paddocks...

Stinger 64 EDF. High Speed Crash.

...best of times, worst of times

 A beautiful sunny afternoon with a gentle southerly blowing set the scene for some great flying with the Stinger.

Now, with its third iteration of decals, it sported much improved visibility which boosted confidence in flying at speed. Picking its orientation, primarily roll, had always been a bugbear with me, but now I was able to fly it with much greater authority.

For once the launch was good and the Stinger was soon howling round the paddocks, executing thrilling low passes and high turns.

This was the best I'd ever flown it, by a long way, and the enjoyment of flying the speedy little jet and the beautiful setting was quite intoxicating.

Unfortunately this wasn't to last, with one low pass having me turn into the sun where, like previously, I mistook the orientation and the Stinger skewed into the marshy grass at speed.

Worse still, half of the nose had been blasted into the mud by the battery, with both embedded to the degree that they were lost despite my best efforts to find them...

Stinger Inverted Crash

...and clouds

Of the times I've flown the Stinger I've had a number of bad launches, primarily due to it rolling, and several times where it's ended up inverted half a second after launch. Every time I have managed to successfully extricate it from such precarious positions and gone onto enjoy the flight.

This time, unfortunately, was different. With the Stinger inverted I panicked and killed the power, so that it nosed towards the turn in an inverted swan dive.

Fortunately the damage was very minor to the degree that I was able to straighten the nose sufficiently to give it another go. The second launch was perfect with a lovely flight to follow, against a backdrop of fresh clouds and beautiful blue sky...

Hobbyking Stinger 64 EDF. Sunny Clouds.

...beautiful sunny clouds

Some days flying is really good, especially when the sky is doing something special. This was one of those days, with bright sun, brilliant blue sky and more kinds of interesting clouds than you could wish for.

It was pretty breezy; a moderate southerly which quickly developed, but nothing too much to bother the Stinger. With its augmented stripes I’m more confident with the turns, and having it screeching across the fields and soaring into the sky is always a lovely thing.

Watching the video again, with the beautiful sky and the Stinger having fun, was certainly a tonic for the rather miserable weather of late...

Hobbyking Stinger 64 Mk2. 2200 Nano First Flight

...the big day!

Since the ultimate smash I'd reconstructed the Stinger with a new fuselage and new larger and higher-spec powerpack, all of which I was eager to try out so, with a break in the rather poor run of weather, I headed to the field.

As ever, not having flown the Stinger for a while made me nervous. Additionally, I wasn't sure what the effect would be of the substantially-larger 2200 battery compared to the 1800 I'd previously flown with.

Eager to get the Stinger into the air before the sun disappeared behind clouds, I gave it a quick check before getting it ready to launch. Running the motor up for launch, the reaction felt a little odd. Blipping the throttle again revealed the reason - it was blowing air out of the intakes. I'd wired the motor in reverse.

Dashing back to the car for my toolkit, quite a way as I was flying in the paddocks, I headed back to the plane to remove wings and swap the plugs. Eventually the Stinger was back together, now developing positive thrust, but the sun had unfortunately taken a break behind a small patch of clouds.

Despite the disappointment of losing the beautiful afternoon glow, I hot full throttle and threw the Stinger up. Despite high expectations, this continued the run of miserable launches I've had, the Stinger knife-edging a few metres up. Correcting this and easing off the elevator revealed the next crisis; I hadn't done a good check on the trims and the Stinger was nosediving alarmingly.

Bringing it round I heaved on the elevator; going vertically fifty metres up is a nice safe place to make control adjustments.

After that things got a lot better; the augmented stripes made visibility so much better I was immediately more confident, and soon I had the Stinger making nicely-controlled low passes at speed, howling past at full throttle...

Stinger Ready to Go

...hopefully it will be good

The Stinger has been reconstructed with its new fuselage and replacement fan unit, fitted with a zen-first R615X receiver  and, just yesterday, received its new Nanotech 2200 4S 45-90 power pack.

Apart from it looking sharp and new with the replacement fuselage, and interest in how the new DSMX receiver will work, it's the performance impact that the big nanotech will make that I'm most intrigued in.



And it is big; in fact it's too wide to fit easily into the fuselage, bulging the foam past the matching form of the canopy. I'm hoping that in due course the foam will compress a little to reduce this distortion but there's no denying that there's a lot of battery there.

My experience with 4S nano's on my Rarebear indicate that they offer substantial performance improvements, although I'm not sure whether, in this case, the additional grunt will be offset by the increase in mass over the 1800 40C Zippy I used previously.

Anyhow, I'm very interested to try out the reborn Stinger. I had, in fact, been hoping to get it out this afternoon for a test run but the weather wasn't cooperating with overcast and windy weather. Lets hope there's a mild and sunny afternoon in the offing soon...

Stinger. The Second Reconstruction.

...going to be better than new

Reconstruction of the Stinger EDF, after its ultimate smash, has begun with the wings and tail being removed from the buckled fuselage in preparation for being transferred onto the smart new fuselage I've got for it.

I have managed to reconstruct the fuselage before but, having been smashed again, I didn't think that I'd be able to get it straight again. The wings were slightly dented in the mid section from the impact, but a little hot water got that straightened out easily enough.

I've also bought a replacement EDF fan, the stock units that comes in the Stinger, but the big news is I've upgraded batteries from the previous Zippy 1800 4S 40C to a 2200 4S 45-90 Nanotech pack. Now I'm not sure exactly what difference this will make, but Nano's I've used previously, especially the 45-90 variety, pack extra punch and the larger capacity should help with slightly longer flight times.

So I'm looking forward to getting the Stinger looking smart, ready for a double-test flight; reconstruction and more power...

Ultimate Stinger Smash

...now I know why I was cautious

Yesterday morning I packed the Stinger for its inaugural outing with its latest colour scheme; the two red stripes supplemented with a third stripe in black, which I hoped would embolden the graphics as well as broaden it.

The morning was beautiful, cool and still with hints of mist on the lower ground. I managed to launch the Stinger a little straighter, although with a minor wobble, and I had it swooping across the field and climbing steeply into the air.

The supplemented graphics seemed to be working better, so I decided I'd be a little more adventurous with the flight manoeuvres. Despite the thrilling sound and dashing looks, I usually fly the Stinger quite conservatively because of the orientation issue; in fact flying on the Radjet turned out to be much more entertaining.

I did a few high-G pulls and then looped the Stinger down for a low pass overhead. However, when it was coming down, I somehow got confused as to which way it was facing. I'm not sure whether it was that I could see the reverse markings through the wing, but the split-second mystery was enough to cause panic, hitting full elevator in a desperate hope for salvation.

I'm really not sure exactly what happened then, however I do know that shortly afterwards the Stinger smote the ground mightily, disintegrating into high-speed debris. I'm thinking it's going to need a new fuselage...

Stinger and Stripes

...sporty stripes

This morning I hauled out the Stinger for its second flight without wing decals, and its first with a new striping pattern on the wings, the graphics consisting of two simple stripes using electrical tape.

The morning was, unfortunately, rather grey, so visibility wasn't all that clear to start off with, so it was perhaps unsurprising that the stripes didn't show up to any significant degree as the Stinger howled over the paddocks.

This was a minor disappointment, however, although the cleaner wings are still a substantial improvement over the original. I have subsequently added to the striping, with an adjacent black stripe, and have give the Stinger another run.

This setup looks pretty good, with better visibility, although I still find I need to be much more careful with the Stinger...

Naked Stinger

...hopefully better visibility

The biggest issue I have with the Stinger, apart from the super-sensitive aileron setup I had on the first flights, is visibility; the Freewing version has classic sport-jet stripes on the white wing whilst Hobbyking, for their Mk2 version, unfortunately decided on a bespoke black-and-lumo full-body decal.

While including a scorpion graphic was kinda groovy, the overall effect is a 21st century take on camouflage. Unsurprisingly, although you could easily see the Stinger in the air, I've found picking the orientation, particularly wing angle change, to be very difficult. Even the tiny Rarebear is much easier to see. And, given that the Stinger is always a little touchy to fly, in combination with the camo decals, it's virtually heart-stopping.

Consequently I've embarked on a degraphic exercise; first of all I removed the decals off the tail-fin, working on the premise that this is the most visible feature on the Radjet. Unfortunately with the Stinger this was unsuccessful, so I've just finished clearing the second wing, making it look rather naked.

While this may not be optimum, I haven't the enthusiasm to stripe it and I'll try it out first to see how it goes; and judging by how easy it is to see change on angle on the Rarebear tiny white wings, I think it will be a big improvement.

Then, at some stage in the future, if I come across a suitable set of stripes, I'll pimp up the Stinger so that it looks a little less bland...

High-Speed Afternoon

...blue skies and beautiful clouds

Today was one of those days when the weather continually surprises you; this morning was heavily overcast and still, giving one the anticipation of a dull day, possibly even rainy. Then, looking out the window a little later, one is surprised with the grey dissolving into little patches of cumulus, feeding off the warming earth. And then, a little later still, the sky is almost clear and a cool afternoon is blowing, a gift from the Southern Ocean.

Although a little breezy, with such lovely weather I decided to make a turn past the field just in case, and happily found a steady and quite flyable breeze, especially as the car had a boot-full of little buzzies.

The recent smash, and possible destruction, of the Phoenix (now there's irony; perhaps I should set it alight as a shortcut to repairing it) has left me a little nervy to fly, especially the high-speed brigade, despite the crash not being pilot-related for once. Anyhow, the opportunity to get out and enjoy the lovely afternoon whilst the planes headed skywards towards the pure white clouds was too good to let go begging.

It was the first outing of the Stinger since its repair, following its three-day stay in the paddocks after it went MIA. While suffering only minor damage, test-flying something that's been repaired has potential to be heart-stopping. Fortunately, apart from a slightly hair-raising launch, largely as a result of me throwing it skew causing the Stinger to hang on knife-edge, it flew perfectly well.

Having not flown it for some while, however, I'd lost a bit of touch with its, well, touchy behaviour, and for most of the flight I felt as if I were courting disaster. Nevertheless, all went well and the Stinger ended up in a long glide in for a safe landing.

The Radjet, flights of which book-ended proceedings, once again enhanced its reputation as a solid high-speed platform, giving relatively effortless performances and outrunning the Stinger in most departments, except the distinctive jet whine and apparently effortless performance. I have, on a number of occasions, especially since I learned how to launch it properly, have considered getting a new Radjet kit, my rough-lived example bearing barely any resemblance to the original.

However, despite appearances, which would be desirable especially during low fast passes when its chequered past becomes more evident as it approaches, as it still flies remarkably well, and fast, trading it in for a replacement would seem like a rather poor deal for a faithful plane which wears the scars of lessons learned discovering how to actually fly it...

Stinger Under Repair

once too often...

Despite the potential for major disaster, the Stinger suffered only minor damage to the front with the fuselage bent a little to one side and the nose snapped off. However, this area being repaired for the third time, it's increasingly difficult to try and get things looking nice again.

However I am endeavouring to be patient and attend to detail to try and get the Stinger nose smooth so that it doesn't suffer from extra drag due to a craggy nose.

The first pass looked reasonable, and I'm now taking time to fill in the dips and grooves as best as possible. Giving the filler and glue time to dry properly, the Stinger should hopefully be in the air within a few days, all going well...

Floater Jet Reconnaissance Mission

...for a bird's eye view

The search and rescue mission for the flown by the Phoenix to try and locate the Stinger EDF unfortunately drew a blank; a few maybe's but nothing definitive, with a subsequent foray through the paddocks on foot found nothing either.

Therefore a second reconnaissance mission was required, this time using the Floater Jet with the Mobius mounted on its nose. The sloping mounting provided look-down capability, something missing from the Phoenix's wing-top placement, and additionally provided an obscured field of view.

The weather was, unfortunately, not conducive to the structured coverage of the field I had hoped for, with the warm and gusty weather making flying the Floater hazardous and doing low passes even more so. As a result the flying was haphazard, battling to keep the Floater flying level while maintaining an even altitude, although desirable, was out of the question. In fact, from the video, it's clearly apparent that the Floater was skimming over fences and brushing the grass tops at stages.

About halfway through it's search, a pale speck showed on the extreme edge of the the video image. Having checked numerous specks already without success I was doubtful this would amount to anything, particularly being out of the search zone. Zooming in on the speck it took some form and appeared to have a vertical black stripe. Looking closer it also seemed to have faint hints of something horizontal on either side.

Zooming again the appearance of a circle in between seemed to cement the realisation that I'd actually managed to locate the Stinger. The next day, after twenty minutes of wandering around the paddock trying to match the video clip orientation, I finally found it...

Stinger 64 MIA

search and rescue underway...

The perfect afternoon begged to get the planes out, so I headed to the field on the way home planning to give the Stinger and Radjet a quick run in the gorgeously sunny conditions with a cool southerly blowing.

As I've mentioned before, the Stinger is a bit twitchy in turns, so I've turned my low rates right down making it much less sensitive, and have subsequently become accustomed to it's moderated behaviour with recent flights. Unfortunately something must have flicked the aileron rate switch to high as I found the Stinger alarmingly sensitive to these inputs.

I managed to level the Stinger up and bring it round in a turn as I frantically sought to get the switch reset without crashing the jet and, when this was finally accomplished, I hit the elevators to get the now low-flying Stinger some air. The effect of this, however, was not the expected leap into the sky but rather an abrupt disappearance into the grass of the paddock.

I can only surmise that, having been distracted by resetting the switch, the Stinger had adjusted orientation and that the elevator had sent it spearing sideways into the shrubbery. Alarmed and disappointed, I climbed the fence and headed through the marshy flats to where I'd last seen it go down.

Emerging from the tall reed grass onto the plain I expected to see the brightly-coloured Stinger lying about conspicuously, but instead saw nothing. Having not made an exact reference as to where it had gone down due to my expectation of finding it immediately, I commenced a somewhat random series of traverses across the paddocks, inspecting thorn bushes and grass clumps for any sign of the downed speedster.

Finally, baffled as to the mysterious disappearance of the jet, I hauled out the Phoenix with camera on board for a search and rescue mission. An FPV setup would've been perfect for this situation, however I'll have to make do with a video analysis later...

Taming the Sting

...still a blast to fly

The Stinger got another run today, on a beautifully clear afternoon with a fresh southerly blowing. However, despite having flown it many times, I still feel that flying it is always a risk. 

It's fast, twitchy and relatively small, and I don't think the multi-colour scheme helps, to the degree that I'm contemplating stripping the techno-camouflage off the wings to make it more visible.

The launch is also often a bit of a heart stopper, with the throw usually leaving the Stinger alarming half-inverted, although its jetstream somehow allows it to hang in the air long enough to get it corrected without ever having any problems.

While not being over-powerful it's still pretty fast, with the best view of it being coming in low and fast with its sharp nose pointed straight at you and the swoop of its canopy giving a menacing look.

And, of course, being a jet, it's sleek shape and addictive howl compensate for the edge-of-your-seat experience you have when flying it...

Stinger Launch Good Again

...no more inverted launches

After a frustrating few days, this morning finally turned out to be a decent flying opportunity; almost still, the low cloud created an inverted mist and shadowed the just-risen sun to a ghostly orb. The benefit of this was that it abated the sunshine enough to risk flying the Stinger without losing it it the sun, but still allowing enough light through to be able to track the fast planes.

Breaking with tradition, I decided to go with the Stinger first up, usually giving the gliders a go before the breeze has a chance to pick up. Having finally had the courage to fly it again, I have been enjoying getting it out, although one can never take success for granted with something this twitchy. The last few launches have been OK, however the Stinger has been three-quarters inverted at the top of the launch. While the jet thrust makes it quite stable during launch, giving enough time to correct it, this was something that needed to be resolved before becoming a problem.

Happily, this was fixed by simply adjusting my throw, I must have been dragging it over a little, and with a straighter throw it went up nice and evenly. I launched with high rates by mistake, changing to more sedate settings in time. However, trying the high-travel ailerons while in a climb amazed me at just how fast the Stinger can roll...

Stinger Reconstruction Test Flight

...the jet's back in the air

After a very long recuperation period, the Stinger 64 is back and flying. It had suffered severe damage after it had refused to pull up coming down from a loop, leaving the nose crumpled and twisted as it plummeted into the ground at full throttle. Ironically, despite all the close shaves I'd had when first flying it, it had crashed when I everything appeared to be well under control.

Despite the massive impact, the Stinger was not completely wrecked, with everything from the wings back having been protected from the impact by the crumpling of the nose section. The only exception was the actual fan unit itself which had shattered, however a direct replacement was fortunately available for a modest sum.

My skill in EPO repair had also improved and, along with an investment in some good super glue and accelerator, I was able to coax the Stinger back into shape. The final piece was the nose cone, so deeply embedded into the ground that I couldn't find it, although fortunately happened to have one on my shelf.



So, with the Stinger literally back in shape, it was just a matter of getting it out to the field. Which took a while, quite a while in fact, as I pondered whether I was ready to handle this speedster in the air, with it's twitchy nature and tendency to drop in turns.

Having given some thought to the latter, I decided that it couldn't be flown like a Radjet or even Rarebear, which will happily sit in steep turns losing little or no height, but that the Stinger needed a positive bank and yank approach, or "turn like you mean it".

So, on a beautifully sunny afternoon with a moderate southerly coming through, I finally summonsed the courage to fly it again . Fortunately I hadn't lost the feel for the Stinger, although you do need to be careful and super-observant, and the launch and flight went well, with the screecher finally running out of battery and gliding in to land...

In the Interim

while the weather is wild...

The extreme tranquility of last week has, unfortunately, been replaced by gusty winds forecast to last for the rest of the week. As such, I haven't ventured out to fly anything, least of all the floatplane.

The larger batteries for the latter are on there way, and I'm looking forward to familiarising myself with the Trainstar floatplane characteristics a bit better. The new batteries should provide significantly longer flight times, but I also think that a more considered flying regime will help keep the chubby floater in the air for longer as well.

Finally in the process of reconstruction, now that I've received the replacement ducted fan, adhesive accelerator and the urge to do it, the Stinger is resuming shape. The pace of the reconstruction is slow as I'm making sure that each rip and crack is properly bonded before proceeding to the next, but also the warnings on the accelerator pack have me evacuating the room after each burst of strawberry-scented aerosol.

The foam should go back into shape reasonably well, and I think I'll smooth out the joins with a bit of filler. The only question marks are against the motor and the servos as to whether those survived the massive impact unscathed. Anyhow, we'll know that when the body has been restored and I get the electrics connected up again...

Stinger Jet Crash

...just when you thought it was safe

After a weekend of torrid weather, this afternoon cleared and calmed enough to get into the air. In fact, on arrival the wind had dropped enough even to get the Phoenix up for a quarter of an hour's entertaining flying.

Almost on cue, as I swapped planes, the breeze got up a little and the sun dropped into a gap in the clouds, so that by the time the Stinger howled into the air, the fields were flooded with a warm glow of afternoon sun, picking up white flashes from the Stinger against dark storm clouds framing the horizon.

I had the Stinger nicely set up and did a few fast flyovers, the jet wobbling a little in the breeze. The conditions, in terms of light, were probably the best I'd flown in and I was enjoying the spectacle of the Stinger in the golden afternoon light against the gorgeous backdrop of the clouds.

I looped the Stinger and then pulled it up for a low sweeping turn, except it didn't pull up, at all. Unfortunately I was standing a little back from the paddock fence, where I usually stand for a good view over the paddock, out of deference to the ducks enjoying return of the ephemeral pond.

As a result, I have no idea why the Stinger didn't pull up. It didn't go into a spin, so I can only surmise that perhaps I hit the elevator too soon and stalled the wings, although I didn't think so.

At any rate, there's no mistaking that the Stinger went straight down at speed, a small flurry of parts and the flight of a couple of birds  marking it's arrival on the ground...

More of the Stinger 64

...and still haven't crashed!

I have successfully flown the Stinger 64 twice more since it's first flight, although I'm still getting used to how it flies. I have reduced the aileron travel by ten percent which has helped, although it's still touchy so have subsequently turned it down by another five. 

I've also set the ailerons down by a turn of the clevis; the ailerons have been warped, apparently when the decals were applied, so the edges are lower than the centre. As a result, setting the edges flush with the wing effectively reflexes the aileron, which I think is why I had to fly it with a bit of elevator.

On one occasion, however, it did come agonisingly close to crashing. I can't actually recall the lead-up to the incident, but the Stinger ended up low to the ground, heading straight for the raised field and surrounding trees. I cut power and hit full elevator, hoping at best this might mitigate the impact.

Miraculously, the Stinger swooped up silently, having managed somehow to find a clear passage between the trees. Seeing it flying free and unharmed, I turned on the power and carried on flying, feeling extremely grateful to whomever had provided assisted in skirting disaster...