well in honesty it's a bit hard to do a build log about a plane kit that consisted of 7 flat pieces of epo foam, but it requires a bit of enthusiasm to squeeze the parts together, and some finesse to glue them appropriately square

it takes less effort to burn out the motor using a too large prop for the available amp rating (although it went up like a rocket before the sad demise of the windings)

further details over in the 3d foamies forum when i post it up

i have been guilty of procrastination on building the binary 900

goodness, over a year already...

anyway, i saw this sweet new toy and couldn't resist ! a more detail appraisal is to be found over here

for those interested, the "new" version is presently on backorder at hobbyking, listed as mini DLG composite discus launch glider, but i bought mine (the older version) from stella via aliexpress.com listed as mini DLG glider (or more verbosely "New! Standard Mini DLG glider yellow Balsa Radio controlled RC model airplane 2 servos pre-assembled removable fuselage head ")

it arrived really fast (just over a week) in perfect condition

despite my best efforts at after flight assessment of battery use, i still find i am often very conservative with my predicted air time, and discover once i get home that i have only drained ~60% of the juice from my lipo

i had previously tried the 4s version with two buzzers, and although i was impressed by the piercing alarm, i was less enamoured by the fact that it wouldn't be quiet at peak volts until it dropped off to somewhere under 4.2v

easy to hear, hard to ignore, impossible to shut up early in the flight

so i bought its smaller brother, the 2-3s lipo alarm

works like a charm ! 4.5gm to carry aloft - negligible for the extra time you buy with it

whereas i was landing my pitts epp after 6 (to 7) minutes due to paranoia, i find that the dx8 timer makes my aware that i am getting towards the last few minutes, and the on board beeper tells me "time to land, really" - pulsing to full throttle confirms the voltage under load is getting low-ish

residual charge is at just under 3.7v per cell back at base, using the incredibly handy 6s lipoly cell checker


i could probably go longer, but 8-9 minutes is a very fine flight time and i don't mind a little stretch after that duration of looking up

buy one, and a cell checker - the combination for under $5 total is great value

finally got it all together satisfactorily, and loving it

pitts redux (3 min 3 sec)

here's some gratuitous shots of the tidiness that is my almost complete pitts epp

the build blog documents my thought process and the eventual outcomes of my various decisions

if you have the urge to build one you will find the details simplify your job as the included instructions are a little light on for actual measurements

you can make up your own, sure, but feel free to plagiarise my work to ease your burden

i'll update with some flight reviews once the wind moderates

ah, hobbyking, you've done it again

i killed my spitfire it has a fierce tip stall just like the big one... or more correctly it had one, and too low for me to save it, as i was distracted fiddling with the trim at rather slow speed

still, i did get the opportunity to extract the servos and esc, and that's all that was needed for the pitts epp

so, while i am close to finishing the durafly slick 360 v2 and only need to mount the hardware and hook up the controls in my cuckoo, i have started another plane

i guess i always enjoyed building rather than flying, and foam is ridiculously easy to start

so, presently i am agonising over substituting carbon fibre spars in place of the supplied fibreglass rods, and i have already added carbon fibre tissue with finish-cure epoxy to the struts because i am learning the technique and it weighs ziltch for the strength it gives

i have also dragged out a really ancient hitec hs100 for the paired ailerons; it was my most micro servo way back when i scratch built a thermal glider last century; at 25gm it is a monster compared to my current (largest) 9gm from the spitfire

i've taken some education from here and a huge dose of inspiration from this video

Pitts-EPP from Hobbyking 1/2 (6 min 39 sec)

anyways, there are 3 x 1300mah batteries here without any other appropriate plane now, and i am eyeing off the belated spittie's plastic battery cage and rear wheel steering mount too

pictures as i progess to follow, but here's a teaser of the contents of the well packed (double boxed) contests for starters

please note that this build log will be continued over here in the parkflyers

some further work detailed over here; a brief pic for encouragement

i got miffed at the alligator clip chewing my wires when i tried to do fine (and even less fine) work, and came up with this idea

follow the link for more pics, but basically silicon fuel tubing plus teeth = mouth guard

a picture as always is worth 1k words

a long time ago i crashed my slo-V and broke the motor mount and prop; after a protracted hiatus i ordered in replacement parts, duly fitted them, and then discovered that i had also stripped a servo in the first "return to earth"

the resultant more dramatic return was neither many nor happy

long story short : i discovered that carbon fibre is strong but brittle, and the fuselage was as shattered as my dream of flight

i measured all the proportions of the various parts in relation to the fuselage and stored them for future reference
a little surgery on the remains, and all the fittings were retrieved, although the control rod guide was reluctant to come away from the fuselage, and was simply amputated fore and aft with the fuselage still inside it

meantime i had started on my frenzy of procurement from hobbyking, and thought that i could source a piece of square section 8mm tubing; i couldn't, but then i decided why not go for the 8mm diameter carbon tube, and (bad pun alert) "wing it" from there

the two major obstacles were the round section of the fuselage, and the slightly short stock available

i overcame that by gluing the tail mount almost as far as physically possible, and reinforcing the overhang with a balsa splint into the tail tube, then reinforced it with epoxy and microballoons

using that as the reference, i threaded on the wing mounts and tightened the front mount with a zip tie, then used cyanoacrylate on the wing...Continue Reading

because i can

bonsai 1 (3 min 42 sec)

over here to view another current project

i meant to get started on the canary, and then the binary 900, but a confluence of circumstances and i'm presently building a variation of this

bonsai (4 min 25 sec)

just a brief entry to direct people back over to my thread on the bonsai, and my experiences with 3s

enough to note here that success is the result - but read the details here

woo hoo !

a while ago now i bought this beauty from the australian warehouse

all up with 3 of the 1300mah turnigy 20-30c delivered to my door for $120

all that is required is to fit the tail surfaces with the supplied epoxy, connect the servos to your choice of receiver and do up the tail linkages, and attach the wheels by plugging them in

oh, and fit the propeller

the supplied one is a 3 blade 11x6 (inch), but after a bit of reading i discovered that there is more joy in a 2 blade 11x7 or 12x6, and i am presently using the 11x7, which pulls approximately 14.5 amps at peak and 140w, using the battery as above and the supplied 20amp (called a "10+10")

the use of a 2 blade prop means i had to add my own spinner, which suited me fine because the supplied spinner is black, and everyone knows that real spitfires have red spinners - i settled for a "Nylon Spinner with Alloy Backplate 57mm Red" although the packaging states "Thin (sic) Gas engines (- i presume meaning small). Not for electric".... but thus far it has survived both the revs and a few nose down "arrivals"
the very nose of the spinner seems to be marginally off centre, a problem i have yet to solve as there is no thrust plate on the prop shaft to square up the backing plate for the spinner - i'll work on that when i get a prop adapter for it if my paranoia requires

all up weight having included the original spektrum 8 receiver and satellite, plus a capacitor as brownout insurance (...Continue Reading

for the price i couldn't resist the canary - really, for just over $40 it's a steal - i couldn't source the wood here for that price, let alone build and cover it without a wrinkle

well, actually i could build it and cover it, but my time is worth enough that we are talking a stupid trade-off of time versus money

but i already have a better sized glider for bungee (hi-start to you americans) - "big red" as per the very first post in my blog

and so i think this is destined for the first conversion to electric glider

so time for yet another build thread

i reckon i am avoiding the binary because i am wimping out on the commitment required to make it perfect, or maybe i am just practising for the job

anyway, can't have too many projects to do - the dx8 reckons it can manage 30 models in the memory, and i am barely nearing double figures yet

i finally taught myself how to solder reasonably adequately

the upshot of this is of course i have begun to solder more frequently as there are a zillion connections pending for my ever expanding crop of electrical gear

and as a consequence i have been subjected to ever increasing toxicity of lead solder - not a clever idea

utilising my new found skills and a spare from my previous incarnation as a builder / overclocker of computer gear, i set to work

conveniently the fans in a computer case run at 5-12v, and connect (in some cases) via a molex connector that is exactly the right dimensions to accept a 2mm banana plug, and a 2-3s lipo, or a 4aa (or aaa) battery pack can offer similar power supply

all that remained was joining the jst connector and the bananas in line, and away we go

the antec 3 speed fan allows some finesse in airspeed, and the on/off switch is as simple as pulling out one banana as required, because you can't short the circuit while the other one is safely plugged in

you can use an appropriately sized screwdriver to stabilise the fan and keep the wiring out of your work area

works a treat, and the expense is minimal, but the benefit lifelong - the pics explain it all - but best to have an open window (and a calm day), and aim the exhaust out of your work area - if you work in a basement then i would suggest you move upstairs near a window, somewhere as lovely as my study

go build your own, feel free to use my idea and tell others so their health can benefit too

not a great piece of cinema, but beggars can't be choosers

more about my outing over at the longstanding catalyst build thread

catalyst 2.wmv (0 min 50 sec)

thanks to djo for straightening me out on how to embed

long story short, i've received all the bits i needed to pull my finger out and finally start to construct the binary 900 from peak hobby

most relevant are the battery and servos i intend to use, but i've also put the receiver on a crash weight loss program

pics below; more details over at my build log

okay, so the plane is often a speck in the distance, and i have never edited video before, *and* i was using m$ live movie maker as my only tool, which i only downloaded last night

when all that is taken into account, what you see is what you get

May 10, 2012 (1 min 41 sec)

woo hoo! embedding at last

out today for its first flight - ended up with 6 flights in all after i failed to get the mini-stick to work having accidentally un-bound (un-binded ?) it setting up the bonsai the other night, and lacking the binding plug or enthusiasm to pull out the guts on field

the bonsai was a complete bargain !
essentially the $20 kit from hobbyking which required the following to complete :
460mah turnigy nano-tech battery - fits like a glove
orangeRx r410 receiver - great, but i keep peeling the plastic sleeve off the aerials; have learnt that spraying them with polyurethane after twisting them is a good repair, but should simply use a dot of hot glue at the base to secure it
2x arrow 4.3gm servos - bought a batch for the binary but decided to go with the recommendations of the designer and get the dymond d4.7's for that project; any micro servo ~4gm should do the trick for the bonsai- these certainly manage the task well so far
hobbyking 12amp blueseries brushless speed controller - vast overkill i suspect, but i have one here, whereas the 6amp turnigy plush is still in transit
18-11 2000kV micro brushless outrunner - awesome for the $8 it cost
to round it off, a 5x3 cheap arse propeller - which is surprisingly resilient and effective, because i am too lazy to reclaim the tornado 5x3 off my mini-stick, although i may try the tornado 5x4 i have here at a later time
a pair of wing skids to protect the entrails of the power train and underside of the wing

building was...Continue Reading