and still in love!

...to sport cars. And I thought helis were an expensive addiction.

Porsche Boxster...paid cash. It's a good thing that I'm not married.

1:1 Scale





...Continue Reading

AUW 690 grams.
Thunder Power 3S 2100 mah lipo.
Turnigy Typhoon 2215 motor with 10 tooth pinion and 30 amp esc.
3 x dsp75 servos on cyclic.
Align Rce600 gyro and futaba 9257 tail servo.
All CNC head and tail.
CF main frame, tail boom, tail blades, and Curtis Youngblood CF main blades.

Headspeed=2700rpm.
Current draw at hover is 8.5 amps.
Drain is 21 amps at WOT and 11* of positive/negative pitch.





...Continue Reading

Original build thread date March 12, 2010.

AUW 540g with 3S 1800mah, 400g without
Just Go Fly 400DH Main Motor
Castle Creations Phoenix 25 esc
Hitec HS55's on cyclic and tail, HS56 on collective
MS 44 HH Gyro
Belt drive
Running Align 325's trimmed down to 295's
Futaba 7CHP Radio

Original build thread date February 20, 2010.

AUW 320g with 1300mah battery, 220g without.
Himax 2015-4100 8 tooth pinion
DD brushed tail
Stock Esky servos
Castle Creations Phoenix 10 main esc
Smartech 3in1 gyro, mixer, esc for tail
Futaba 7CHP Radio
Flat bottom woodies

Original build thread date January 11, 2010.

AUW 17.4 ounces
Mystery 30a BL ESC
Ultrafly D13/32 BL motor
3:1 Gearbox and 8x8 APC Prop
ThunderPower 3S 2100mah
WOT= 18amps= 199.8 watts

I forget my math, but thats something like 30 ounces+ of raw thrust and a pitch speed of 70+. Haven't flown her since the rebuild.

Original build thread date May 28, 2008.
Almost 2 years now and I still have not maidened this plane! Talk about a hangar queen!

Here is the setup;
Himaxx 2025-5200 geared 6:1
APC E 10 x 7 prop with Hyperion spinner
Thunder Power 3S 2100mah
Futaba PCM 8CH RX
3 x All e RC brand 9g servos (soon to be 4 for separate aileron control)
Stock LG for now...though i do have the Hyperion 400 class aluminum LG if needed
Stock wheels...also have 2" wheels if needed
Dubro micro steerable tail wheel

AUW 21 oz.

Original build thread date April 2, 2007.

Hello,

This will be my first build log in a while, so stick with me.

Equipment;
Bare airframe = 40g (1.4 oz)
CDROM outrunner + aluminum mount = 12g
2 X GWS pico servos = 16g total
GWS pico Rx = 4.4g
CC Pheonix 10 = 6g
TP 2S 860mah = 45g

Total = 125 grams(4.4oz)

I'll start with the elevator, as per the instructions(which are very nice, BTW).
I used the supplied torque rod to connect the two elevator halves and added a control horn to the middle of the rod.

All controls will be internal on this model(nothing exposed but the antenna).
I wasn't over impressed by the way the elevators were cut from the stab, but its minor.
I would have preferred to cut them myself for a cleaner look.

Here is a pic of the motor mount.
It is made from 1mm aluminum stock and weighs next to nothing.

I added a carbon spar to the nose which runs from behind the motor mount to over the top of the wing.
May be excessive, but with the 200g's or so of thrust I'm going to put in her, I wanted to be safe.

On to the main wing...

First of all, that crazy dihedral has to go.
There is a lot!

I started by removing the belly pan from the wing very carefully with a sharp pocket knife(I feared that a razor would cause more probs than its worth).
I came off fairly cleanly with little damage to the foam.
I then slit the wing down the middle, leaving a bit of foam uncut at the LE and TE to keep the wing in one piece.

...Continue Reading

Original build date February 4, 2007.

Hello all,

This plane was a christmas present from my brother.
It is my second ARF bird.

As far as I can tell, it is an Asian clone of the ultrafly(or close, anyhow).
It did not come with any belly or nose art/stickers, just the striped wing tips and tail art.
Everything else I did by hand.

The thunderbird emblem I designed myself...I got tired of looking at that boring blue bird on my stryker.
I have 10-15 flights on it without a single hiccup(crosses fingers ).
It has a very "scale" look in the sky and is beautiful to watch!

Here are the stats;

Aileron and elevator
23 in. wingspan
235 grams AUW (8.3 oz)
CDROM-12t, 26g, delta.
5030 prop, direct drive
CC Pheonix 10 BL ESC
860 mah, 2S Thunder Power
2 X GWS Pico servos
GWS Pico RX

The motor produces 260 grams of static thrust at 8.5 amps (or about 64 watts) for better than 1:1 thrust.
Goes straight vertical with ease!
I did not get a pic of the radar gun,so you'll just have take my word for it when I say that this thing pushes 60+mph


I added some dihedral "swoop" and a fiberglass spar that runs from wingtip to wingtip for added stability and rigidity.
She is rock solid and on rails in the air,yet wont hesitate to snap 2 rolls per second at full throw.

BTW, it has a green blinker under the nose and a red one at the base of the tail.

Cant wait to see her on 3S and a Castle TB18!

Hello all!

It's been a while since I've posted here,but I couldnt resist showing off my new toy.
About 2 months ago,I found this stryker in the back of my LHS with a thick layer of dust and a clearance sticker on the box($119).
It is a 1st gen stryker and I am flying it stock(with the exception of the 8 cell packs).

It was my first ARF,RTF,or otherwise. All of my previous models were scratchbuilt and mediocre at best.
This plane opened up a whole new world for me! Even with the stock gear,I am still impressed 2 months later.
I can now fly full aerobatics with ease and little palm sweat ; something I never accomplished in my years flying mico helis.

I hope to go brushless soon,and will start with a spankin new,unpainted fuse for a better look and lighter weight.
With this one,I just stripped off the stock paint with duct tape and put down a thin coat of white to cover up the remaining grey paint flecks.
Weight with paint is 21.76 oz,compared to 21 oz stock,so I didnt do too bad.

I left out fine details like the stars on the verts and the outline on the thunderbird to save time,but it still looks totally awesome in the air!

I know the stryker is old news,but it's new to me so you will have to excuse my enthusiasm .
I will post some aerobatics vid/pics this weekend.
too windy today ......

btw, I have hollowed out the "air intakes" to provive extra cooling to the electronics compartent and put a small heatsink on the FET.


Pics and video

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here are some pics from todays flight session .
The weather was beautiful, though a bit gusty.
The Stryker was rock solid all day and I think I was hitting 50+ in the dives, but hard to tell.

Here is the video

Can't wait to drop a brushless/Lipo system in her!

micronut

Original build thread date May 11, 2006.

This will be my first totally scratch built foamie project.
I hope someone finds it interesting.
I'll start off by apologizing...all of the pictures are low-res.
You might not even want to click on them...they don't get much larger .

This idea started when my brother brought me some foam scraps he picked up from work.
They are all 1 inch thick and vary in size from 2-3 ft square. I dont have plans for this build,but I did include the rough sketch I drew before starting construction.

First,I made a hot wire cutter using scrap wood for the bow,a 2ft steel fishing leader for the wire,and the 12v end of my pc power supply for juice.
Tension is maintained via a spring,and power supplied through gator clips.
Crude,but it works really well

here's my Traxxas Nitro stampede with new Proline crowd pleaser(rustler) body.
Not a bad paint job for spray cans,eh?

notice anything missing?
Body posts!

Stampede has stock Pro .15(w/ ports bored out for the .15 turbo mod ) with tuned alu pipe and header,and dropped suspension for racing.
also has a composite rear shock tower.

btw,sorry bout the low-res

mods-
The basics(bearings,coil over oil shocks,7 cell 1800mah NiCad,modified 370),
aluminum A arms(eboyztoyz),diy aluminum front skid and rear motor guard,Trinity monster off-road chrome and rubber,and Baja Herbie body(paint is still wet) .

does it still qualify as a truck?